Yesterday we discussed outsourced blogging.
Today, we’re reviewing the 2012 Digital Content Marketing Survey for the third and final time. If you haven’t already, please click on the link and view the original post. There is even more great insight than we can cover. If you’re new to business blogging, it’s a great place to start to see what other marketers are thinking in terms of digital content strategy including blogging, video, social and more.
The topic for today is what you should expect from your outsourced blogging or content partners. Really, this is great insight into what you should expect from your outsourced and in-house partners. I’ll try to add some additional insight and tips on what to expect from blogging providers.
Outsourced Blogging Provider Expectations
According to the survey, the top three expected deliverables from outsourced written content providers were:
- Engaging and Creative Storytelling
- Crafted Custom Content
- Professional Level Writing
These top three items are no suprise. I think it’s actually great to see that businesses expect quality ahead of anything else when it comes to their content. Fast content at a cheap price was way at the bottom of the response list. That’s impressive. SEO also came in the middle to lower part of the responses. This is good too because Google and the search engines are unpredictable especially if you write content focused on what they want. Focus instead on writing for readers. Search is certainly part of acquiring new readers, but so are article referrals and social sharing activities. The responders in this survey are aware of this fact.
Storytelling is a great way to capture the attention of new readers. People relate better to stories than to simple facts. It should always be the expectation that writers include stories of some kind. If you are outsourcing the content then the stories will most likely be about other people. These people could be folks in your industry that are doing good things. Your writer could research this person and tell their story with a blog post.
Crafted Custom Content is an interesting answer. Most, if not all content, should be custom for your blog. Two common ways to create the content would be to create completely original pieces. You can use your customer feedback to come up with topic ideas. You can also use inspiration from other posts, give the blog credit, and provide additional insight and thoughts to make your post something that adds to the overall value of the topic. These are both great ways to add value for your targeted readers while maintaining custom content on your site.
Professional writing is important. There is no question that people expect to read quality articles. The other point to remember is that you need to infuse some of your personality into the blog posts. There is a balance between offering facts and having a storytelling approach with your blogging. You want people to feel comfortable with your business. Don’t be afraid to include some personality in the posts, but follow the basic rules or writing. Disregard for the basics makes people frustrated.