In my current job, I am in charge of managing the day-to-day tasks in our firm. One of the tasks includes overseeing our website content. Previously we had contracted with a company who used an outsourced third party company to draft blog content. The content was shoddy at best, and we spent more time revising the articles than we would to draft our own. To make it worse, in order to affect any changes for even the slightest grammatical errors, we had to wait at least 48 hours due to the difference in time zones and the review process. We quickly learned the benefits of having our content drafted by educated writers.
Content matters. Consistently posting new, original content keeps your readership engaged. There are many benefits to writing your own content. You know your own services better than anyone else does. You can explain why someone should hire you or read your material over your competitors. Whether or not you believe you’re a salesperson, you’re the one with the first-hand knowledge about your business. Readers will appreciate your first-hand knowledge. Readers will appreciate the truth and detail of your content.
If you’re not the best writer, or don’t have time to write your own content, however, you should still make sure you have a competent party producing your content. Content helps your search engine optimization (SEO). Search engines are constantly searching and ranking websites based upon their content. So, if you can’t write your own content on a consistent basis, you can find a writer or company that will draft it for you. Though SEO is important, it is not the only goal of new content. Don’t make the mistake my company made, which is allowing a third-party to contract out our content drafting. When people search for your blog online, they read your content. Your website is the first impression many clients, customers, or readers have of you and your business. If your content is written in broken English, or if it misstates your business goals or services, then you’re not converting that client—you’re losing a sale.
The same advice rings true for your writing platform. Most writers choose to develop their own blog or online platform for their book. Most authors take days, weeks, months, years editing their books. They hire professional editors and revise, revise, revise, to make sure the work is readable, marketable, and relatable to their readership. Of course, it would be unrealistic to take the same care with each post on his or her social media pages or each article on his or her blog. At the same time, making sure the writer edits his or her posts and takes some care when writing will go a long way to establishing credibility among his or her potential readership.
The point is: content matters. Arguably, well-written, educated content is as important as the content itself.
