Category: Writing Services

Writing Services

What is a White Paper?

patriciahughes@writer

Using White Papers in Marketing

 

A white paper is an in-depth report that is informative and authoritative. White papers are often used to provide information and propose a solution to a problem. Increasingly, companies are using this as a tool to sell information or new products as solutions to a specific need. They often hire a white paper writer to research and create informative white papers.

While white papers are often used in marketing, they are not sales-y in nature. A white paper is written in professional, academic, thoughtful language, not sales letter type of writing. Because the white paper is written for people seeking a solution to a need or problem, it should contain useful information.

Effective Marketing with White Papers

When using a white paper as part of your overall marketing strategy, consider how to best utilize it. Because a good deal of time goes in to the research and writing process, it is not something that you are going to just give away. In exchange for the white paper, invite people to sign up for your email newsletter. People love getting something for free, so this can really help build your email list. However, people need to see value to get them to act. Continue reading “What is a White Paper?” →

Writing Services

Effective Communication with Your Freelance Writer

patriciahughes@writer

Clear Communication Ensures a Successful Working Relationship

 

Communication is essential for a productive relationship. This is true in personal relationships, business relationships, and the freelance writer-client relationship. Effective communication ensures that your wishes are properly conveyed and understood by your writer. Taking the time to clarify your goals and clearly communicate your expectations reduces the need for rewrites.

Be sure to clearly convey your expectations and requirements. Don’t assume that the writer knows what you need. Each client has unique requirements, even when the projects or type of content are very similar. Provide details about the information you want included, the approach, tone, voice, and any other requirements or expectations you have for your project.

Good communication in the early stage often prevents the need for revisions. Before the work begins, state your specific requirements, how you want the information conveyed, the details you want included, and any other pertinent information to help the writer understand what you need. Clear communication is the best way to ensure a successful project.

Everyone has preferences for how they like to communicate. Some like the phone. Others prefer email. This often works well for communication with a freelance writer, since your notes and thoughts are in writing and easy for the writer to refer to when working on your project. It also creates a record of what was discussed and reviewing the emails may show where information is left out or more detail is needed. Continue reading “Effective Communication with Your Freelance Writer” →

Writing Services

Why You Should Have Case Studies on Your Website

patriciahughes@writer

Using Case Studies as a Marketing Tool

Case studies are a written account of an activity, problem, or designed to show the application of a concept or theory to a real life situation. Depending on the specific situation and purpose of the case study, a real or hypothetical situation can be used. Traditionally, case studies have been used as teaching tools in the studies of diverse subjects, such as business, medicine, education, law, and the social sciences. The use of case studies has moved to the business world as an innovative marketing strategy.

Adding case studies to your website can be valuable for educating consumers and increasing conversions. One reason case studies are so effective is that people are naturally drawn to stories. A well written story evokes emotion and a good story is memorable. Businesses in a broad range of industries have found using case studies is an effective way to connect with customers and potential customers.

When using this method in your marketing efforts, it is often best to use a data backed case study that is targeted and specific to your niche in business. These studies are not vague or general, but have a specific goal that is related to a product or service. They are fact driven and may offer multiple solutions to a problem, depending on the subject of the case study and purpose.

Benefits of Case Studies

Telling the story of your product, brand, or service using case studies will resonate better with your target audience than sales copy. A case study can be used to demonstrate how problems are solved. You can show your potential customers why or how your product or service solves their problem. People want to know that something works before they invest their money and a case study can do that. Continue reading “Why You Should Have Case Studies on Your Website” →

Uncategorized, Writing Services

Reasons to Hire a Writer for Your Business

patriciahughes@writer

Quality, Well-Researched Writing on Demand

 

When you need a specific type of work done for your business, you consider hiring someone. However, when you need help with writing, hiring a full time person is not always feasible or necessary. It is expensive to pay a full time employee, particularly when you only need the services of a writer intermittently or for short periods of time.

A freelance writer can be a cost effective solution to hiring a full time business writer, grant writer, blogger, or web content writer. Freelance writers are professional writers who choose not to work for an employer or agency, preferring to work directly with clients.

You have the option of hiring a big agency or working directly with an individual freelancer. A large agency often has many writers and there is frequent staff turnover, so you may not always get the same writer. Turnover is high because agency work is often low paying. Only a fraction of what you are paying the agency for the work is going to the writer. The rest is going to the company. You can get good quality content from a large agency, but you won’t have the personal and ongoing relationship that you will have when you hire a freelance writer directly.

Diverse Knowledge and Varied Expertise

Over the course of many years, freelance writers work on a large number of different projects, providing work for a wide variety of clients. This provides the writer with diverse knowledge and experience in many areas and types of writing. The acquired skills and expertise are used to benefit all future clients.

You may be thinking that you know your business better than anyone, so you can just do it yourself. Maybe you can, if you have the writing skill, time, and patience. However, for many business owners it makes better sense to let a professional handle the writing, while the owner handles the business.

Depending on the type of content you need to create, the process requires time. A freelance writer will conduct the necessary research for the project, conduct keyword research for SEO purposes, look for gaps in the information that presently exists, and provide you with structured content that is edited, formatted, polished, readable, and cites credible sources, when appropriate. Many business owners simply do not have the time, even if they do have the skill.

A freelance writer often offers a range of writing services to help you with many different projects. For example, you may build a relationship with the writer and come to that person when you need someone to optimize your web content for search engines, write blog posts, find grant funding for your organization, or create a case study or white paper for your business.

A professional writer does this job for a living. They are not rushing to get it done in between a million other responsibilities, as can happen when you are busy running a business. The professional writer will take the time to create content that is compelling, engaging, grammatically correct, well-researched, and edited.

Freelance writers are able to target writing to your intended audience, create original content, or take your ideas and further develop them. An experienced freelancer can help you develop ideas for content marketing, blog posts, newsletters, or a fresh and unique slant for another writing project. As you collaborate on projects, the writer will get to know you, your business, future goals, and target audience.