Thought Leadership Content Archives

The Power of Great Content: Write Your Way to Superior Brand Awareness

Posted on November 15, 2022November 15, 2022 by The Writers For Hire, Inc.

Excellent brand awareness is essential for business growth, and the key to driving high levels of brand awareness is implementing a robust content marketing strategy. As the title of the research paper by Müller and Christandl 2019 suggests, “Content is king, but who is the king of kings?”

Different businesses have different marketing requirements. With a whole spectrum of content options available, it can be tricky to decide which medium is the most appropriate for growing visibility in your target audience. You may even find a hybrid content strategy to be the perfect impetus for achieving your visibility goals.

Let’s look at the concept of brand awareness and how it can be molded and transformed with the main content mediums, respectively.

What is brand awareness?

Brand awareness is a fairly straightforward concept. According to Oxford Languages it simply means:

The extent to which consumers are familiar with the qualities or image of a particular brand of goods or services.

The simplicity of this concept, however, should by no means overshadow the possibly detrimental consequences of not getting it right. Most markets in the U.S. today are mature, which is forcing businesses to compete at levels never seen before and to create unique business identities and personas in order to stand out from the crowd.

When asked how important brand awareness is, Etienne de Jager, Managing Director of University College Roosevelt (UCR) in the Netherlands, said, “Not being visible or having a brand identity is much like being a library book without an index number. You may have the best book cover, but what does that help if no one can find it to read? Simply put, without brand awareness you are invisible.”

Apart from the occasional impulse buy, most customers are far more likely to buy your products or use your services if they are familiar with your brand. Customers usually look first at your website, social media, and any online reviews to give them an idea of your consumer reach and the quality of your products or services.

There are two ways to assess brand awareness.

Unaided Brand Awareness

This method measures how many people in a segment of the population express knowledge of your brand without a direct prompt. This is also referred to as ‘brand recall’ because you are measuring how many people recall your brand without an explicit prompt, i.e., not giving any indication of your company name. For instance, If your business sells business cards, you may formulate a question such as: “What company will you use to print your business cards?” If you pose this question to 100 people and 25 people mention or recall your company as one of their preferred printers, then you have a 25% brand awareness.

Aided Brand Awareness

This method measures brand recognition by using a direct prompt such as a list of companies, including yours, to see how many people recognize your brand from the list. A typical aided brand awareness question may be: “Which of the following printing companies are you familiar with?”

Both aided and unaided brand awareness initiatives can be conducted through a mix of open-ended and closed-question surveys.

GET YOUR CONTENT WRITTEN TODAY

HIRE A PROFESSIONAL WRITER

What is content marketing?

Content marketing is a component of inbound marketing and is arguably one of the most effective methods to drive traffic to your platforms, increase your brand awareness, and generate meaningful leads. The Content Marketing Institute suggests:

“Content marketing is a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly defined audience — and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action.”

The institute asserts that traditional marketing techniques are becoming less effective, and a more forward-thinking approach is now more critical than ever. Whereas traditional marketing focuses on explicit ads describing your products or services, content marketing provides your customers with relevant, interesting, and useful information which indirectly relates to your business.

For instance, in addition to creating an ad for a specific kind of business card paper quality, you may also want to publish an article on your website blog about all the different kinds of paper used in business card printing, pointing out the advantages and disadvantages of each. This article will engage your audience, ensure they spend more time on your platforms, and ideally get a couple of items in their shopping carts.

Holding a bachelor’s degree in marketing, and two master’s degrees, de Jager has a strong professional and academic marketing background and has held multiple senior marketing roles in London and the Netherlands. He adds, “Blogs allow businesses to make relevant connections with products, services or any topical discussions, and it still remains one of the most effective tools to optimize the value of your SEO.”

Below are seven steps put forward by the Content Marketing Institute to consider when you start planning your content strategy.

Let’s look at the main content mediums in more detail.

1 – Blog Posts and Articles

The blog can be traced back to 1994 when Justin Hall posted the first blog ever on links.net, which he referred to as his home page because the term “blog” had not yet been coined. Traditional blogs were personal online collections of thoughts, information, and opinions published on various platforms.

Today, almost every business imaginable is also blogging because of the unique way this medium provides to promulgate information to their customers in a more informal and relaxed tone, not to mention the various other marketing and financial benefits.

According to medium.com, blogging is the most effective type of content marketing because its main objective is to increase brand awareness by providing accurate information and optimizing your website through brand-relevant content that also supports SEO (Search Engine Optimization). So, what else is blogging good for?

Website Traffic

Most business marketers agree that blogging is the best medium for generating web traffic and, according to a Hubspot study, it can lead to a 55% increase in traffic. In addition, companies that blog on a regular basis grow their inbound links and indexed pages exponentially.

Whenever you publish a new blog article, you create a new web page, which is then indexed by various search engines. This means that you literally grow your online presence with each new page and therefore increase opportunities for customers to find you. In addition, frequent blogging shows the likes of Google and other search engines that your website is active and updated regularly.

Lead Generation

If your main blogging goal is lead generation, then every blog post you publish should give your site visitor the opportunity to interact. This is called a call-to-action and comes in many shapes and sizes. You may add a “sign up to mailing list” button for special offers, or perhaps offer a free webinar or other content assets. Call-to-action lead generation is one of the most effective ways to build a client contact database and is the most ethical way to build your direct email list.

Link Building

Link building or “backlinks” is one of the most crucial factors for Search Engine Optimization. That said, link building is extremely challenging. Backlinks are essentially other businesses that link a page on your website to their website. This means that some of the traffic from that business’s website can be diverted to your website, and, if that business ranks high on Google and they have associated with your business by sharing your link to their site, your site ranking will also increase by default.

Your best chance to grow your backlink presence is by ensuring your content is factually accurate, unique, and of the highest quality. Reputable businesses have online authority, so they are cautious about whom they associate with and what content they publish or share.

Other Benefits

As opposed to Google or any other online ads, a blog post or article is more cost-effective because there is no time limit for how long it remains published. Whereas you might buy and run an ad for one week, your blog post stays published online and works 24/7, attracting visitors at all hours of the day. Ads can also be a nuisance as opposed to informative blog posts that people search for and actually want to read.

2 – White Papers and E-books

The white paper has become a well-known term in recent years, and there are many different types of white papers used in both the public and the private sectors. We will focus on the latter. According to Investopedia:

“A white paper is an informational document issued by a company or not-for-profit organization to promote or highlight the features of a solution, product, or service that it offers or plans to offer.”

In business, white papers are used as sales and marketing documents to describe in considerable detail any new products, technologies or methodologies, and services. One of the most well-known, influential, and popular white papers published in recent years is the Bitcoin white paper by Satoshi Nakamoto, which instantly attracted global attention.

White papers are usually at least 2500 words in length and written in a more formal academic style. A white paper must be written by an authority on the subject and should aim to educate readers about the topic, with the ultimate goal of generating sales. A white paper is a sales pitch but not in the traditional sense, as it is much more formal and includes the following:

Introduction

Regardless of the topic, all whitepapers must have an engaging introduction that sets the tone for the rest of the paper. This is your opportunity to convince the reader to read the entire document.

Problem

Here you should articulate the particular problem your product or service can resolve. You will need to demonstrate that you have a comprehensive grasp of this problem and describe in detail how this problem can affect the reader negatively. The more convincing and relatable this section is, the more likely you will generate sales.

Solution

This section must describe how or why your product or service is the best solution to the above problem. The more detail you provide in this section, the more convincing your white paper will be. Just be careful not to oversell as you may lose the reader’s interest.

Conclusion

The conclusion section gives you the opportunity to summarize the main points of the problem and solution sections and is your final chance to motivate the reader to buy into your business and your products or services. An effective conclusion will also contain a call-to-action that tells the reader what to do if they are interested in your products or services.

White papers are a great public relations tool to help you generate interest in your business, establish credibility, generate sales, and increase engagement.

Similar but less formal than white papers are e-books, a type of long-form content medium businesses can publish and offer to their customers as either free-of-charge or paid downloadable media. E-books have gained a lot of momentum and are a great marketing tool businesses can use to accomplish the following:

Translate complex information into a simple, easy-to-understand medium for customers
Establish themselves as an authority on the products or services they offer
Grow brand awareness and drive traffic to their websites
Generate leads
Build trust and brand loyalty
Educate customers on their products or services, and wider issues relating to their industry
Organically grow email lists

3 – Email

Unbelievably, email marketing is celebrating its 44th birthday this year, tracing back to 1978 when Gary Thuerk sent out the very first mass email to around 400 recipients in the days before the term junk mail had been coined. According to Thuerk, this first mass email generated an astronomical $13 million in sales revenue. Needless to say, email marketing has come a long way since 1978. Most notable are the legal and data protection measures authorities have implemented to protect everyone from nuisance and scam emails.

Nonetheless, ethical email marketing still remains one of the most effective tools when executed professionally. With an estimated 306.4 billion emails sent daily across the globe, it would be foolish for any business not to invest in an email marketing campaign. As the graph below by marketinginsidergroup.com illustrates and compares, email marketing’s return on investment is quite lucrative:

What else do the stats say?

According to HubSpot, email is listed as one of the top three most effective marketing mediums by 79% of marketers. Eighty-seven percent of e-commerce marketers primarily use email marketing to increase brand awareness, and email visitors are the most likely to convert on forms. Thirty-one percent of B2B marketers is convinced that regular email newsletters are most effective at nurturing leads. Lastly, about 60% of e-commerce, retailers, and consumer goods businesses personalize emails to their customers based on previous purchases.

Build your email list and set goals.

Before you embark on an email marketing campaign, first ensure that you have a decent-sized mailing list made up of customers who voluntarily signed up on your platforms. Depending on the size of the business, most e-commerce brands have between 1,000 and 10,000 email contacts. Bear in mind that buying email lists is not only illegal, but it is also unethical and frowned upon. There are thousands of online sources which can help you build an email list ethically.

Once you have your mailing list, you should define what you want to achieve with your campaign. Some goals could be:

Increasing brand awareness
More web traffic
Lead generation and sales
Feedback or surveys
Referrals
Promoting your blog, e-books, or whitepapers
Informing customers of special offers such as newsletters

Target your campaign.

Here it’s all about working smarter, not harder. An effective email campaign should be tailored to the individuals it is being sent to, based on their geographics, demographics, psychographics, and behavior. As illustrated by the www.superoffice.com graph below, a good approach is to use data and analytics from past campaigns to help inform your segmentation process:

Persuasive Content Creation

Your content will determine how effective your campaign will be, so keep the following in mind:

The headline makes the first impression; keep it catchy and enticing.
Create attractive and inviting content with lots of white space.
Humor is great for grabbing someone’s attention.
Add the customer’s first name in the subject line or greeting.
Convey a clear and to-the-point message; don’t waste the reader’s time.
Personalize the email as much as possible.
Ensure the email is mobile friendly.
Don’t send too many emails, as you may get unsubscribed.

4 – Infographics

Infographics, as the name suggests, are visual representations of data and information with the aim of informing, educating, and building brand awareness through a data-rich visualization of a story.

The infographic to the left, by Business 2 Community, provides a brief overview of the history of the infographic, and is a great example of one.

So, why have infographics become so popular?

The real question should be: Why aren't they popular? The list will be much shorter.

According to Martech.zone, the visual aspect plays a key role in the rise in popularity of infographics, as 90% of the information our brains retain is visual, and studies have found that humans only retain between 10-20% of written or spoken information as opposed to 65% of visual information.

Infographics are also great for generating backlinks, as businesses are more likely to share visual aids on their websites.

In addition, humans process visual information much faster.

A well-designed infographic can simplify complex information into easily digestible visual aids. For instance, we follow directions such as road signs around 323% better with visual aids than without.

Infographics usually include company logos and branding, which is a great tool to build brand awareness. People also tend to spend more time reading visual content than just plain text. With the right call-to-action incorporated, infographics can increase lead generation greatly.

What to Consider When Designing a Good Infographic

As the image below by infogram.com illustrates, there are broadly four areas you should pay close attention to: data, design, story, and shareability.

The most imperative aspect when designing an infographic is to make it informative but keep it simple at the same time. Forbes lists the following 12 ways to use infographics effectively in marketing:

Keep it simple and to the point.
Amplify true customer stories.
Explain complex concepts.
Showcase the strength behind numbers.
Start from scratch.
Focus on transmitting intelligence.
Make complicated topics more digestible.
Include precise messaging.
Visually represent trends.
Weave smaller ones into blog posts.
Turn data into a visual story.
Optimize your image data for search engines.

5 – Video and Social Media

According to guinnessworldrecord.com, the very first TV ad by Bulova Watches aired on July 1, 1941, on the U.S. channel NBC just before a baseball game. It was an instant success:

Bulova: world’s first television advertisement.

Today, video marketing still remains the backbone of terrestrial TV and has infiltrated all corners of the internet. In fact, more than half of Twitter’s ad revenue is generated through video ads. Marketers in all industries love video, as it is undoubtedly the king of all kings, with around 86% of all businesses using it, according to Wyzowl.com. As the graph by Wyzowl’s State of Video Marketing Survey illustrates, the use of video as a marketing intervention by all businesses has increased by 25% since 2016.

So, why do marketers love video?

People love to watch videos,which is evidenced by the approximately one billion videos watched on Youtube each day. Video as a medium has the ability to give us the information we want quickly and easily. Dreamgrow.com lists eight reasons why video marketing is so effective. It’s really quite simple:

Video boosts conversions and sales.
Video offers a great return on investment.
Videos can build trust.
Google loves videos.
Mobile users love videos.
Video marketing can explain everything easily.
Video engages customers who don’t like to read.
Videos are more likely to be shared on social media.

When it comes to video marketing, de Jager says:

For us at UCR, it is inconceivable to appear in front of, appeal to, and ultimately attract a single prospective student from Generation Alpha without the use of video. There is however another side to this coin. Quality video marketing is the most expensive medium with the highest upfront cost, and video is very difficult to adjust if your campaign is underperforming. Data protection also makes video a nightmare because you need the consent of all parties in the video. In addition, video always has to be produced in multiple formats to accommodate the various platforms. Lastly, because marketing videos are very personalized, you may connect with one person with your video and alienate another at the same time.

How to Create Great Content for Social Media

Having a strong social media profile is critical for all businesses in 2022 because it allows the business to grow its visibility and to communicate and interact with its consumers. With around 2.3 billion active Facebook users, the direction of travel for marketing intervention is crystal clear: The number one most effective way to connect with your audience on social media is through quality content in a variety of media.

Grin.co has a few suggestions, starting with the idea that sharing positive news and statistics may be the key to building trust with your audience, as this can lead to a positive association with your brand. Partnering with social influencers can also be a great way to create authentic and engaging content; they have millions of followers you can reach instantly.

Doing something good for the community and sharing your philanthropic endeavors on social media makes for quality content, is a great way to get your audience’s attention, and may get you a few shares and re-shares. Content that is too in-your-face “salesy” does not go down well on social media. Keep it fun, personalized, relatable, and interesting.

People love getting free stuff and a freebies campaign on social media can’t go wrong. The opposite is true, however, for posts with controversial topics, so be very careful. Lastly, it is definitely worth doing some research on what makes content sharable.

I’m too busy to create my own content. What do I do?

The simple answer is to hire a writing agency. Although most people have the ability to create fantastic marketing content for their own businesses, the reality is that the content creation process is not only extremely time-consuming but is also very labor-intensive. Other benefits of hiring a writing agency include the expertise, knowledge, and speed with which the agency can develop your campaign. Finally, as the client, you have a lot of scope in working with the agency to mold the final product.

De Jager insists: “As a business, you have to invest heavily in your content creation. In most cases, companies do utilize external experts to take on the heavy burden of content creation, giving them more time to focus on the bottom line.”

5 Ways Writing a Nonfiction Book Can Help You Grow Your Business

Posted on October 28, 2022October 25, 2022 by The Writers For Hire, Inc.

“Your business and results are a reflection of you. Your business and results will grow in direct proportion to your own growth.”— James Arthur Ray

Growing your business is no easy task. It takes time and dedication to build a business from the ground up. Of course, thanks to your full commitment to your brand, you are up to the task.

But there are times when you might not be sure about the next step.

Believe it or not, writing a nonfiction book can be just the tool you need to help grow your business.

In this article, we will discuss five ways writing a nonfiction book can help you grow your business. Moreover, we will explore how you can spur organic growth to ensure your business’s longevity.

So, stay tuned because we have lots coming your way!

What is a nonfiction book?

In essence, a nonfiction book refers to a publication that does not deal in creative writing. By “creative” writing, we mean novels, short stories, or poetry.

We are talking about books based on real-life topics that provide information. This information relates to people, objects, and events depicted as accurately as possible.

Merriam-Webster offers this succinct definition: Nonfiction pertains to “writing or cinema that is about facts and real events.” Thus, we are talking about real situations, topics, or people. This definition, however, does not mean that nonfiction writing has to be boring. It can be quite creative and imaginative.

A nonfiction book can touch on any number of subjects.

But when it comes to growing your business, nonfiction material must always deliver value to your target audience.

In doing so, your audience will see the relevance of your material. Your material will, in turn, generate further growth.

Ultimately, the key to organic growth is to ensure your material consistently delivers value. Please remember that organic growth may be slow but highly sustainable. Sustainability is what ensures your brand’s longevity.

What are examples of nonfiction books?

There is a wide array of nonfiction books. Here is a list for your consideration:

Autobiographies
Blog compilations
Company history books
How-to guides
Memoirs
Product guides
Research reports
Technical specifications
Whitepapers

As you can see, there is no shortage of materials you can produce. So, the question is: What nonfiction materials will help you position your company and brand in your customers’ minds?

How to Choose the Right Nonfiction Content

Choosing the right nonfiction content depends on your target audience. For instance, a younger audience might prefer lighter and shorter materials. In contrast, an older target audience might choose more comprehensive and lengthier discussions.

Please keep this rule in mind: Your content must deliver value at all times. Therefore, choosing the right nonfiction content boils down to delivering as much value as possible.

Producing irrelevant content will not help position you, your brand, or your company in your customers’ minds.

So, what is valuable content?

Valuable content addresses your customers’ pain points. You provide relevant information your customers can use to satisfy their needs or deal with an issue.

Consider this example:

A shoe brand has been a successful force in the fashion industry for decades. Now, the brand wants to celebrate its success by telling its story. So, the brand produces a company history book to chronicle its rags-to-riches tale. This project delivers value as it helps customers understand the people and ideas behind one of their favorite brands.

Generally speaking, any type of nonfiction content can help position your brand. Nevertheless, here are five key elements to consider when choosing the right nonfiction content for your brand:

Always focus on your target audience’s demographics. Savvy brands take the time to ask their customers what content type they want. You can use surveys to gain useful insight into what content your customers want to see.
Look around to see what other successful brands are doing. This approach is not about copying another brand’s strategy. Instead, this tactic is about finding inspiration so you can build your strategy to suit your strengths.
Think about what you do not like. Reflect on the content that does not resonate with you. Consider why it does not work for you. Then, strive to use those reflections to avoid similar mistakes in your content.
Avoid “selling” your products as much as possible. Producing content for the sake of “selling” products is not going to cut it. You must focus on delivering content your customers appreciate. Of course, there is always room for plugging your products. However, it is crucial to avoid making nonfiction content all about why customers should buy your products. It is always best to focus on the benefits that customers get from your products. Try your best to build your argument with credible information and sources. That approach is what sells your brand!
Choose the format that works for your company. The right format depends largely on your brand’s image. For example, a sophisticated brand may choose glossy, hardcover print books as their main content form. A hip and edgy brand may choose e-books and audiobooks for their target audience. Please remember that your content format should always represent your brand’s image and spirit.

Ultimately, it is always useful to experiment. Take chances, and most important, ask for your customers’ feedback.

Your customers will tell you when they like something. They will also tell you when they do not.

You never know what content type can strike a chord with your customer base.

5 Ways Writing a Nonfiction Book Can Help You Grow Your Business

A nonfiction book can greatly boost your business’s growth by providing valuable information. So, let’s look at five key ways a nonfiction book can help you grow your business to the next level.

1. Positioning Yourself (Or Your Company) As a Thought Leader

Thought leadership is the gold standard in positioning yourself and your company in your respective market. Thought leadership involves showcasing your expertise so that others see you as the reference point in your field.

How can you establish yourself or your company as a thought leader?

A nonfiction book is a great place to start. Writing a book signals to the world that you know what you’re doing. You are not messing around pretending to know something. You know what you are talking about and are willing to share that knowledge with the world.

Please remember that the most influential thought leaders are those willing to share their knowledge, experience, insights, and expertise with the world. But there is one catch: Becoming a thought leader requires consistency. In addition to producing a nonfiction book, you may need further material such as a blog, newsletter, or research papers. By maintaining a consistent presence, you can bolster your book’s message so you can truly position yourself as an influential leader.

2. Chronicling Company History

Some companies have been in the market for a long time. However, customers know little about their story, origins, and founders. A company history book can become a wonderful way to chronicle your company’s history while generating buzz around your company and brand.

Think about it.

How much do you know about the story behind your favorite brands?

Chances are, you are relatively unfamiliar with your favorite brands’ stories. As a result, a company history book can help address your target audience with a clear message. Your company’s history must be about communicating your company’s core values. These core values are what has made your company successful. Highlighting the people who built your company tells customers there’s an ethos behind everything you do. Customers will be able to see the true driving force behind your company’s success— and it’s not ambition or greed.

CAPTURE YOUR STORY, TODAY

Preserve your legacy

HIRE A GHOSTWRITER

3. Offering Valuable Industry Insights

Customers get very little access to industry insights and secrets. In fact, most people know very little about what happens behind the scenes. They only see products on the shelves or deliveries at their front door.

A nonfiction book can help lift the veil on your industry so that customers get exclusive access. For instance, writing a memoir or journal can give your target audience your unique perspective. Also, writing about a specific episode in your professional career or company history can deliver immense value to your target audience.

After all, would you like to read about the story behind the iPhone’s creation? Would reading about the invention of the internet sound appealing? Would you be interested in learning about Coca-Cola’s history?

Indeed, these stories would be very interesting to read if they come straight from the source. These insights are exclusively yours. The public would be hard-pressed to find this type of insider information elsewhere. As a result, you have a unique opportunity to take your target audience on a journey no one else can provide.

4. Raising Awareness on a Key Issue

There are cases where your company may be deeply concerned about a situation affecting your customers or industry. As a result, you intend to shed light on this situation by providing information and insights into causes and solutions.

Publishing a nonfiction book is a great way to raise awareness of an issue. In particular, research papers such as whitepapers offer a great deal of insight into what you want your target audience to know. For instance, climate change might significantly threaten your company’s future sustainability. Therefore, your book aims to raise awareness while discussing climate change’s impact on your company, customers, and industry.

5. Showing Your Commitment (Or Your Company’s) to a Cause

Companies often devote resources to worthy causes. After all, corporate social responsibility is one of the most important areas companies engage in outside of their core business functions. Consequently, your nonfiction book can focus specifically on a cause your company is committed to supporting while discussing your efforts.

Showing your company’s commitment to specific causes helps your target audience see more of your company’s ethos. Moreover, it communicates to customers that your company is after more than just profits. You aim to communicate how your company gives back to the local community. Also, adding a call to action can be a great way to pursue further involvement. Asking your customers and followers to support your company as part of a greater cause can deepen your company’s bond with your target audience.

How can hiring a ghostwriter help your company publish a nonfiction book?

Suppose your company is serious about publishing a nonfiction book—or any nonfiction material for that matter. In that case, you might want to consider hiring a ghostwriter to help.

So, why hire a ghostwriter?

A ghostwriter is a professional scribe who can assist your company in producing any content type it plans.

Moreover, a professional ghostwriter is an experienced professional who can deliver the right content in your company’s voice.

The aim is to portray your company’s core ethos so that your target audience can see the corporation behind the brand. It’s about removing the faceless enterprise persona from your brand by allowing your target audience to see the real people running the show. In doing so, your target audience can identify with your brand for what it truly is: a collection of people just like them.

The best part of hiring a ghostwriter is that doing so saves time and effort. There is no need to tap existing staff to produce a nonfiction book in addition to their usual tasks. Also, you do not have to put needless pressure on yourself to write a book. A professional ghostwriter can walk with you every step of the way. Ultimately, your chosen ghostwriter will take care of the heavy lifting, ensuring that your creative vision leaps out at readers.

One Final Thought

The decision to write a nonfiction book can be confusing. After all, you may not know how to get started. And you may not have the time or experience needed to bring your creative vision to fruition.

Hiring a ghostwriter can help you make your vision become a reality. So, take the time to reach out to professional ghostwriters. Take the time to research and interview potential candidates.

Finding the right ghostwriter for your project is worth investing effort in finding the right one.

In the end, bringing your vision to life is a combination of love and hard work. Hiring the right ghostwriter can make the entire journey much easier than you ever expected. Employing a trusted ghostwriter may be one of the best business decisions you’ll ever make!

How Great Content Can Improve Customer Retention

Posted on September 9, 2022September 9, 2022 by The Writers For Hire, Inc.

How can all your created content serve the goal of retaining customers? That’s an important question because your current customers are valuable; they are the ones who have already bought into your product or service.

And consider the potential impact the customers you keep will make on your bottom line:

80% of your future profits will come from 20% of your existing customers.

Repeat customers spend 33% more than new customers.

Given this kind of data, it would be a miscalculation to spend all your company’s strategic content efforts on getting and selling new customers—as important as they are! Using your created content to also keep your current customers happy and on board is a tactical must.

Retain customers with customer-serving content.

Creating content that is intentionally focused on serving your customers makes a lot of sense from a customer retention perspective. Research in this area finds that a “commitment to customer experience results in up to 25% more customer retention and revenue than sales or marketing initiatives.”

Actively working to retain customers through consistent customer-serving content requires a comprehensive plan.

Some vital elements to incorporate into a plan that builds your long-term relationship with each customer are:

Your website.

Most of today’s customers meet you first when they land on your website’s homepage. Besides playing the critical role in gaining customers, your website also plays an important part in keeping them. When your customers come to your site for a quick answer, do they find it easy to navigate? Intuitive? Visually engaging? Does it project empathy with customer challenges and an eagerness to help?

New customer greetings.

The time to start retaining customers is the moment they become customers!

Make your welcoming emails warm, enjoyable, and even entertaining where appropriate.

Show that you want each customer’s experience with your product or service to be everything they hoped for and more.

This is a good place for a coupon or other special offers, sign-ups for your newsletter and emails, and links to your Help Center, FAQ, and contact info.

Help center with FAQ and contact info.

If your customers can quickly find answers about a product or service in your website’s help center, they will be happier customers. And if their specific question isn’t addressed there, they will be pleased you have provided a quick way to speak to a helpful human being, either by phone, chat, or a well-monitored email address.

Emails.

The ones you send to your customers on a regular basis should be personalized and designed to create dialogue. “No reply” emails are frustrating; instead, let your customers ask questions and make comments about the thought-provoking information you send them. And always respond to them, showing that you are listening and concerned with both positive and negative comments.

Newsletters.

A periodic newsletter—either digital or print—is a good way to stay on each client’s radar. Yours is not just another company among competitors for their business. Instead, through a newsletter, you can show authority in your field—and who doesn’t want to stay with a company that knows its stuff? A newsletter can alert customers to trends and help them stay abreast of developments on the horizon. It can share other clients’ experiences, and, above all, let each customer know how much you appreciate their business.

Blogs.

Use blogs to build a friendship with each client. Retention—endurance over time— happens in this relationship much as it does in other relationships you want to keep—through conversation.

A blog is your personal conversation with your client. Which questions can you anticipate and answer via your blog? Which of your new products or services might be just what they need right now?

Have other clients shared successful outcomes that you can pass on?

Customer engagement surveys.

There are times when you really want or need to know what your customers are thinking. And who doesn’t like to be asked politely for their opinions? Customer surveys—usually via email—serve a dual purpose: They help you gather information on customer preferences while also showing that you care enough to ask. Customers who know you care about their priorities make good prospects for long-haul (retained) customers.

Follow-ups.

Whether a customer is new or established, effective follow-up communications are customer-retention tools you can’t do without. In its most basic form, a follow-up is a personal “thank you for your business.” Follow-ups can also provide links to tutorials and online manuals, helpful blogs, email and newsletter sign-ups, coupons, rewards, and special offers. Let your customers know they are appreciated, and that you are ready to help with any questions that arise.

This is a continuous process. As Colin Boylan of the customer engagement platform Intercom notes: “Support isn’t just about resolving a customer’s first question and moving on…You need to make sure the customer is happy with the resolution, so consistent, thoughtful follow-ups are key…they have a profound impact on the customer experience.”

Hire a writing agency for unlimited content creation.

Photo by fauxels: https://www.pexels.com/photo/photo-of-people-doing-handshakes-3184416/

Creating a customer retention plan and the volume of consistent, quality content that ensures your clients are well-served takes time. It also takes skill—in big-picture strategy, in research, in writing for your brand, and more. And it requires qualified people to do the work of continually creating each form of content.

If all of that seems like a big “ask,” that’s because it is. Especially when you are asking otherwise-occupied employees to shoulder these tasks.

Enter a qualified writing agency to take on all your content creation/customer retention initiatives. A seasoned agency has the necessary scope of expertise across industries and types of content to do the job. Its staff knows how to work tactfully and efficiently with your staff to develop and execute a content-centered customer retention plan.

Hire a writing agency to create the following:

1) A Content-focused Customer Retention Plan

A talented writing agency is practiced in creating each type of content you need to make outstanding customer service and customer retention a top priority.

Its writers and editors also have the skills to create a big-picture plan that encompasses all your customer-keeping content. Having an overall, cohesive customer retention plan in place ensures no element is left out or done randomly, and that the elements work together in harmony.

GET YOUR CONTENT WRITTEN TODAY

HIRE A PROFESSIONAL WRITER

2) Website Content

When you hire a writing agency, there are no limits to the professional-caliber, customer-friendly content its staff will produce for your website.

Attractive, detailed product and services pages are vital to your sales and your distinctive brand—and, ultimately, to customer retention. A diverse agency’s staff has the know-how to create those pages, whatever your industry. Consulting with your sales and marketing teams, they’ll bring your offerings to life in each category, with engaging images and professional-quality copy.

Creating your help center and FAQ is no problem for an adept writing agency, either. Its writers and editors are expert organizers of information. They will efficiently research and compile your help procedures and contacts and frequent customer questions and answers, verifying each with your department heads and experts before the pages go live.

Your blog pages—your frequent online conversations with your clients—need to be compelling, be easy to scan, and bring value. Savvy agency writers understand that you only have a few moments to capture customers’ attention before they move on. The agency’s team writes the headlines, subheads, bullets, and more that serve as magnets to your blog’s content.

If information-gathering interviews are needed, agency writers will make efficient use of your experts’ time.

Your site’s online manuals and handbooks should be easy to find, complete, read, and use. A smart agency knows how to achieve all of that, no matter the high- or low-tech nature of the material covered. As objective writers and editors, agency staff can help ensure that your manuals and handbooks are written in language that truly serves your readers, rather than soaring over their heads.

3) Other Customer-reaching Content

Customer greetings, follow-ups, and customer engagement surveys are all designed to show your clients that you appreciate them and don’t take them for granted.

To accomplish its mission, this content needs to be done consistently. (Periodically, in the case of surveys.)

Hire a seasoned writing agency to help create a calendar for this content, and then to deliver each piece on time, every time.

An experienced writing agency coordinates with your marketing or other departments to garner ideas for topics and survey questions.

Customer appreciation newsletters and emails. A competent writing agency’s staff includes journalists as well as writers from the corporate world. It can provide a team to write compelling copy on the industry-related topics and people you want to feature, at the level of your typical reader’s knowledge of the industry.

Take the intensive work involved in producing frequent, eye-catching, enlightening newsletters and emails off your own full plate. Hire a writing agency to provide professionally written content for these important pieces of your customer retention plan.

All About Content Creation: How Content Creation Helps Businesses Grow

Posted on September 2, 2022September 2, 2022 by The Writers For Hire, Inc.

In today’s uber-competitive business environment, content is king.

Brands that produce fresh, engaging, and relevant content stand out among their competitors.

According to data by HubSpot, 90% of brands plan to continue focusing on content creation in 2022 and beyond. This figure underscores the importance of relevant content in the current and future business landscape.

So, how important is effective content creation?

Content creation has proven to be an incredibly successful option for marketers. Given the significance relevant content has for consumers, brands must use content creation to reach their target audience.

This article will discuss content creation and its role in business growth. Moreover, this article will explore how content creation has gained a foothold in today’s business landscape.

What is content creation?

Content marketing has increasingly become to go-to format brands use to communicate with their target audience. In particular, content creation effectively delivers consistent value to consumers without “selling.”

Best-selling author and entrepreneur Jay Baer offers this thought: “Content is the emotional and informational bridge between commerce and consumer.”

This quote illustrates the significant relationship brands create with their consumers. Building this relationship is possible when brands successfully bridge the gap between themselves and consumers.

Please bear in mind that content creation is not about “selling” anything.

Effective content is not about getting consumers to buy products. Effective content creation is about eliciting an emotional response in consumers.

Think about the ads that brands such as Coca-Cola or Pepsi produce.

These brands focus on the emotional response their products elicit from consumers.

For instance, people who drink Coca-Cola or Pepsi have fun, are happy, and find themselves surrounded by loved ones.

A brand evokes a personal connection when content strikes a chord with consumers. This connection fosters trust.

As brands consistently deliver value, they position themselves in their consumers’ minds. Ultimately, brands may create bonds with consumers that can last a lifetime.

Why is content creation important?

Undoubtedly, successful content can take a brand to the next level. Specifically, there are three key reasons why effective content creation is critical to successful business growth:

1. Promoting Brand Awareness

Brands seek to position themselves in consumers’ minds. However, using catchy slogans and jingles does not always translate into sales. As a result, promoting brand awareness becomes a top priority.

Please remember that brand awareness is not necessarily about placing billboards all over town or hoarding ad space on television. Brand awareness is about creating a positive association between brands and consumers.

Marketing guru Seth Godin offers this thought: “A brand is the set of expectations, memories, stories, and relationships that, taken together, account for a consumer’s decision to choose one product or service over another.”

Indeed, Godin’s contribution underscores the importance of brand awareness: compelling consumers to choose one brand over another.

Successful brands know how to compel consumers to choose them over another. This effect does not require mind control or deceit. It requires communicating the brand’s unique value proposition.

Effective content creation helps communicate value in a way that resonates with the target audience’s specific expectations.

2. Increasing Engagement

Traditional marketing (television, radio, and print) focuses on a one-sided conversation. Consequently, consumers have little to no say in anything the brand does to meet their expectations. This type of advertising leaves plenty of room for brands to get it wrong.

How so?

One-sided marketing does not allow consumers to voice their opinions about the product or the brand itself. As a result, the brand must directly approach consumers to find out their expectations, wants, and needs.

This situation changes dramatically with engaging content creation.

New channels such as social media enable brands to maintain two-way communication with their consumers.

Consequently, brands receive direct input from consumers.

Brands now have the opportunity to make quick adjustments to meet their target audience’s needs and expectations.

This ongoing dialog is possible thanks to engaging content.

3. Boosting Sales

Indeed, the ultimate goal is to boost sales. But please note this is not merely about making money. It is about delivering value while turning a profit.

Without profits, brands and their unique value propositions would cease to exist.

Engaging content creation facilitates consumers’ purchasing decisions. Amid the sea of alternatives, creative and effective content creation allows them to separate the wheat from the chaff.

In other words, sales climb as consumers’ brand perception reflects a specific set of values and a vision.

Brand expert Simon Mainwaring offers this highly interesting contribution: “Define what your brand stands for, its core values, and tone of voice, and then communicate consistently in those terms.”

Boosting sales hinges on consistently communicating a brand’s message throughout its interaction with consumers.

Consistency builds trust in consumers’ minds. And trust is the treasured commodity that ultimately sways consumers’ purchasing decisions in favor of one brand or another.

What kind of content do growing businesses need?

Businesses focused on growth need content. However, it must not be content for the sake of content.

Producing irrelevant content can do far more harm than good.

Content that fails to resonate with consumers can lead to a disconnect between brand and consumer. Moreover, consumers may be unclear about the brand’s values and vision.

Brands must, therefore, strive to produce content that is relevant, useful, and delivers value at all times.

Here are three key content types that brands must consider to foster engagement and drive revenue:

Blogs

On the surface, blogs may seem old-fashioned. This perception stems from social media’s predominance, particularly among younger demographics.

Nevertheless, blogging holds a significant foothold among relevant content across the board.

Consider the following figures:

77% of online users read some type of blog.
77.2% of long-form blogging produces more links than short-form ones.
74% of companies report that content creation has increased the volume and quality of their sales leads.
65% of business-to-business customers report that their vendors’ websites are the most influential source of information.
73% of marketers indicate that effective content creation allows them to nurture their leads. In comparison, 64% indicate that content creation enables them to generate increased sales and revenue.

Based on these data, it is evident that blogs represent a powerful means for brands to maintain close communication with their consumers. An informative and relevant blog can increase traffic, drive sales, and boost overall revenue.

Videos

Videos are a particularly effective means of engaging younger audiences.

Attractive visuals are often a great way in which brands can interact with their consumers.

For instance, YouTube is a highly engaging video streaming platform that enables two-way communication.

Consumers can leave their comments, suggestions, and opinions about any number of issues.

Is video content truly that effective? Consider these figures:

According to Statista, over three billion online users were consuming some type of video content in 2020.
Video content has an overall reach of 92% of users worldwide.
47% of global brands produce how-to videos, while 41% develop social ads.

These figures make video content hard to ignore.

Nevertheless, the biggest challenge facing brands is compelling content that engages and reaches audiences effectively. There is, consequently, growing demand for adept content creators that can tailor content to suit consumers’ needs.

Infographics

Infographics are predominantly visually based content creation strategies. They allow consumers to digest a large amount of information in a condensed format. As a result, consumers can easily get large data sets without having to go through extensive research and reading.

Here are some interesting points on infographics:

A study revealed that 82% of test participants’ attention spans increased due to the use of infographics.
In general, people are 39% likelier to remember information when using a colorful and visually attractive format.
Readers are 80% likelier to remember information in documents using color than black-and-white ones.

Indeed, colorful and visually appealing graphics are incredibly effective in engaging consumers.

Nevertheless, infographics are useless if the information they contain does not resonate with the target audience.

Consequently, brands must present compelling and useful information with attractive visuals. This combination makes infographics a highly successful communication device between brands and consumers.

How can a ghostwriting agency help brands boost their content creation strategies?

Producing high-quality content requires compelling prose, systematic research, and speaking the target audience’s language.

Without these elements, producing content that truly resonates with audiences can be difficult.

Brands face a considerable challenge as they may not always have a dedicated content creation team on staff.

Moreover, they may lack expert writers able to produce top-notch content within a short turnaround time.

So, what can brands do to ensure producing high-level content in a short timeframe?

Brands can employ a ghostwriting agency to tackle writing engaging content. Here is a list of what a ghostwriting agency can do for brands looking to produce top-quality content:

Short and long-form blog posts
Articles and whitepapers on various topics
How-to guides
E-books and handbooks
User manuals and technical documentation
Research and text for infographics
Video scripts
General marketing copy
Website materials
Product information
FAQ and data sheets

These materials are a sample of what a ghostwriting agency can do for any brand’s content creation strategies. As a result, a professional ghostwriting agency produces content that allows brands to provide worthwhile content, leading to a personal connection between brands and consumers.

What are the benefits of employing a ghostwriting agency?

There are three key benefits brands can expect when employing a ghostwriting agency to produce their content:

1. Hiring a ghostwriting agency saves time.

Even when companies have a dedicated marketing staff, producing high-quality content can become a time-consuming proposition.

There are research, writing, editing, and publishing tasks that often intersect simultaneously. As such, marketing professionals often need a helping hand to produce high-quality content in a timely manner.

A ghostwriting agency can step in at any time to help take the burden off overworked marketing staff.

Some brands may look to avoid overwhelming their marketing staff with content creation tasks. As a result, these brands may look to a trusted ghostwriting agency to help them produce high-level content in a fraction of the time.

Please remember that professional ghostwriting agencies employ experienced and vetted writers. These writers have backgrounds and expertise that enable brands to meet their marketing objectives.

2. Hiring a ghostwriting agency saves money.

A common misconception is that hiring a ghostwriting agency is more expensive than employing full-time marketing staff. This idea could not be farther from the truth.

In the long run, employing a professional ghostwriting agency is much more cost-effective.

The savings in hiring full-time staff (salary, benefits, insurance, and taxes) outweighs the expense incurred in employing a ghostwriting agency.

Additionally, the cost-benefit relationship between a ghostwriting agency and the content it produces easily tilts the scales in favor of hiring a ghostwriting agency.

3. Hiring a ghostwriting agency provides maximum flexibility.

A ghostwriting agency is a team of writers. Therefore, a professional cadre of content creators offers maximum flexibility.

Brands can opt for an overarching content creation strategy encompassing several media such as books, ads, videos, blogs, podcasts, and so on when they employ a ghostwriting agency.

Employing a ghostwriting agency allows brands to shift strategies as needed.

When customer perceptions and priorities change, brands can easily request their chosen ghostwriting agency to produce the content consumers demand. With a full-time, in-house marketing staff, these shifts are quite complicated.

One Last Thought

Hiring a ghostwriting agency might not be the first thing that comes to marketing experts’ minds. In fact, some marketers may feel threatened by the idea of hiring a ghostwriting agency.

However, there is no need to feel apprehensive about it. A professional ghostwriting agency strives to become a trusted partner in a brand’s overall marketing strategy.

A trusted ghostwriting agency is like any other valued member and contributor. Ultimately, choosing to work with a trusted ghostwriting agency may become one of the savviest business decisions any brand can make.

Your Thought Leadership Book: Why Hire a Writing Agency?

Posted on July 18, 2022July 19, 2022 by The Writers For Hire, Inc.

You are a seasoned expert in your industry, and you’ve always wanted to write a thought leadership book. But a book is a big project. Where do you start? How do you organize your knowledge? How do you know your writing is any good?

You aren’t alone. Many new authors struggle to start and finish a book. After all, you’re an expert in your expertise, not in writing, editing, publishing, researching, or proofreading.

Getting Help to Write Your Book

“There are two main reasons authors hire a writing agency for help with a thought leadership book – skill and time,” says Wintress Odom, owner and senior editor at The Writers For Hire, Inc. (TWFH), a Houston-based writing agency.

“Writing a book can take hundreds of hours; it’s quite an endeavor. To add that type of workload on top of what is already a 40-, 50-, 60-hour-per-week schedule—it’s just not going to get done. And others feel that their skillsets lay elsewhere. Who has time to be an expert at everything?”

Flori Meeks, a TWFH ghostwriter, agrees it can be difficult for clients to see a thought leadership book through to completion.

Their attempts to write a book can stall for any number of reasons.

Some are stuck at the idea stage, she says.

“Some bring an outline and others bring nearly-completed manuscripts and hire a writing agency to create a smoother finished product that appeals to its intended readers.”

Wherever you are in the process, a good writing agency’s ghostwriters and editors will pick up your project from there—whether it’s brainstorming your book’s concept, organizing its structure, writing your manuscript, or proofreading and editing your finished work.

Hire a writing agency and get a team on your side.

An undisputed thought leader himself, inventor Thomas Edison used the principle of teamwork across all his enterprises. In an article for the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), Sarah Miller Caldicott explains Edison’s thinking:

Because he believed that a diverse group of individuals offered the best chance for collaborative success, Edison consistently created teams that had members from several disciplines. The famous group that drove the breakthrough thinking behind the incandescent electric light consisted of a glassblower, a machinist, a chemist, a mathematician, an instrument maker, and a textile worker, along with Edison himself.

You, too, have probably enlisted teams to accomplish large professional goals. When you hire a writing agency, you recruit a team of writing experts to help you achieve another significant goal—finishing your book.

The Writers for Hire is a Houston-based writing agency with a history of effectively filling the writing needs of clients using teamwork.

Odom outlined two team-centered scenarios her agency uses in producing thought leadership books.

The team collaborates with the author (usually remotely) throughout the writing process. If additional help is needed with research, the agency provides it.

When a manuscript is completed, Odom says, an objective proofreader and a previously uninvolved editor are assigned to the project to bring outside perspective:

Basically, [it is] having enough hands to really perfect the book—it’s not something a single person can do. It’s not physically possible. I don’t care how good a writer you are—trying to write in a vacuum without any sort of editing or QA (quality assurance) process, you’re just not going to get the same level of refinement that we can by adding those extra people in the process.

In the second scenario, a more rushed project is produced by the agency on a three-to-four-month timeline. Some projects, the owner recalls, have involved “really intense research [on] tough subjects where they really wanted to show an expertise, but it was a time-sensitive subject for them, and they really wanted [the book] out quickly.”

The company assigns teams of four to five writers to the book in this scenario to finish it on schedule. An editor “smooths out” chapters as they are completed, ensuring that each chapter is written in the same style and voice.

Odom’s teams have put in 600 work hours within three months, something she says is “not physically possible for a single person.” But with multiple team members, the writing and editing are finished on a compressed schedule with continual quality control.

“You can write a book with one person in three months. It’s just not going to be very good,” she adds. With a lone writer, the objective viewpoints of others are missing from what becomes a more hurried process.

Meeks affirms that when the team approach is used, “you’re more likely to have multiple sets of eyes on your manuscript, which is going to produce something that is very clean, polished, and likely to resonate well with the readers.”

CAPTURE YOUR STORY, TODAY

Preserve your legacy

HIRE A GHOSTWRITER

Hire a writing agency for its scope of experience.

Just as your expertise has been broadened and deepened over time while communicating and working with your customers or clients, the same is true of a reputable writing agency. Its writers have built their skillsets in crafting thought leadership books through years of conversations and collaboration with leaders in many industries.

Meeks notes: “Our writers have experience writing for many specific industries, and we try to match clients with writers who understand their industry and know to ask the right questions to get the best stories and really flesh those out and get, not just an interview, but a conversation.”

She recalls working with an author who was an entrepreneur in a wide range of industries. With Meeks’ understanding of business and entrepreneurship, she was prepared to ask good questions. The result was “a book that really showcased his expertise.”

Meeks also recounts helping leaders in the oil and gas industry, including one based in Africa, another who ran home foundation and horse-breeding businesses, a female executive in the energy industry, and an author involved in finances and investing.

A ghostwriting team with experience in your own or related industries will offer an informed sense of what your target reader wants to learn from your thought leadership book. The team will help ensure that your readers’ most likely and crucial questions get answered.

A good agency understands thought leadership books.

As you consider writers and editors for your book, look at their published projects. Have their efforts resulted in complete, cohesive, and polished thought leadership books? A respected writing agency has a portfolio of well-organized, well-written expert books to its credit.

One reason an agency completes these books successfully is its ability to oversee the entire process—something usually lacking with independent freelancers.

Odom explains: “A lot of individual freelancers may be familiar with one part of the process—they may be an excellent writer or editor. They may be very good at marketing the book, but it can be difficult to find someone who has a specialty in making all of these connections to walk you through the entire process.”

When a manuscript is completed, her company also advises authors on a range of options for getting it into print.

This could include anything from using a smaller independent publishing house to self-publication or other options in between.

Most important to you as an author, an agency will work to ensure that your own voice, personality, vision, and objectives for your book are reflected when it goes to publication.

Agency ghostwriters will take as much time as needed to learn all about you, your business, your expertise, and your style of communication.

Meeks explains how a skilled ghostwriter listens to an author:

It’s letting them tell stories about their experiences and reflect on their significance or lessons learned or changes they made as a result; share advice for others in their industry based on what they’ve gone through; and maybe reflect on what they’ve observed among colleagues and other companies. They’re given a chance to show what they know and understand.

Thought leadership authors are glad they hired a writing agency.

Here are a few samples of author feedback received by TWFH:

“I had previously sent you an email stating how very much pleased with the book…but, I am not sure whether I fully expressed it. Frankly, the writing of the book is simply outstanding! You and your team have done a wonderful job of creating a very readable and interesting book! I just can’t believe how it is all coming together.” — Norm B.

“You guys have been AWESOME throughout this process, and we can’t thank you enough for how quickly you knocked out a whole book insuch a short time. Wecould not have been more satisfied with the work you did!” — Tommasina D.

“Wanted you to know that the book finally arrived on Wed. I would love for you to have a copy. You spent so much time with it you should see the printed version. Thanks for help once again. You may never get rid of me!” — Danny K.

Calling All Thought Leaders: Why Hire a Ghostwriting Team?

Posted on July 8, 2022July 8, 2022 by The Writers For Hire, Inc.

You’re an expert in your industry. So why should you enlist a team of professional writers, proofreaders, and editors to help with your written communications?

The answers could transform the quality and quantity of your messaging—from blogs to speeches, whitepapers to books, and more.

Thought Leadership Involves Thought Sharing

You know that consistent thought sharing is key to thought leadership, but you are busy. So are your department heads and SMEs—and writing thought leadership pieces probably isn’t something any of you trained for.

Yet, you understand that frequent, effective communications are vital to your authority and your brand in an age of non-stop messaging.

As Blyth Campbell of PRSA Alaska writes:

Customers, employees, and other stakeholders want authentic communication from leaders, brands, and organizations. Executives and thought leaders want to communicate better—and more often— but don’t have the time to create compelling, creative content across multiple platforms. Modern ghostwriting can bridge the gap.

If ghostwriting is a practical solution to this dilemma, should you start searching for a ghostwriter? Or should you hire a ghostwriting agency that can provide a comprehensive team approach to producing your written communications?

Why an Expert Employs a Ghostwriting Agency

Much like other savvy companies, a well-structured ghostwriting agency uses the dynamics of teamwork to benefit its customers and clients.

There is synergy at work within a team that just cannot happen with a single ghostwriter. There are several other powerful factors on an agency’s side, too.

Project Management

The first factor is project management. An adept agency will assign a ghostwriting team of a project manager/editor and one or more writers for each project. Whether you need a single, defining thought-leadership book or many pieces of authoritative, informative content for a website, project management keeps all the essential parts of the process moving and on schedule.

Process

Another motive for choosing an agency is process. In a first-rate ghostwriting agency, objective review of each piece of writing is built into the team’s method. After a piece is drafted, a so-far uninvolved proofreader and editor scrutinize it. This offers a level of refinement not possible with a single ghostwriter—and confirms the writing is done in your voice and style.

Deadlines

Deadlines present another compelling reason to hire a ghostwriting team. All businesses have deadlines of sorts, and writing projects are especially prone to be deadline-driven. With multiple writers, a ghostwriting agency can meet a due date impossible for a single ghostwriter on a rush project that needs timely publication.

Volume

If you need a volume of material ghostwritten, an agency is a natural choice. You will become a much more productive author with a team assigned to write in your name. And, not to worry, the same editor will hone each piece of writing to be sure it retains your unique, branded style and voice.

Similar Projects

A ghostwriting agency of depth and breadth will equip you with a team that has completed projects similar to yours. An independent ghostwriter cannot be expected to have an agency’s diversity of writing experience. An agency hires ghostwriting team members from a variety of backgrounds, and your team will either be familiar with your industry’s language or pick it up quickly.

Security

Lastly, but not the least reason to choose a ghostwriting agency is thatyour project’s timeline is secure. You never have to worry about your writing project getting stalled because there is always more than one person assigned to it. If a writer or editor must be absent for any reason, it continues uninterrupted.

Thought leadership requires copious amounts of creative communications.

A ghostwriting team helps you produce a quantity of creative, timely communications that become part of your distinct brand of thought leadership. You may want to include others in your organization as authors of some pieces as well.

In her blog titled, “How to Win the Thought Leadership Arms Race in 2022,” Brook Zimmatore suggests in Entrepreneur that experts who want to optimize their messaging “roll out a structured calendar of thought leadership.” She advises:

Once you have identified your purpose, pillars, and spokespeople, you need to plan out a structured thought leadership content calendar. A calendar will allow you and your team to be more strategic in your thought leadership. Schedule your content so that each piece ties into the other, creating a complete picture that takes your audience along a path of continual growth.

If creating such a calendar sounds like more than you have time for, a seasoned ghostwriting agency can create one for you.

Here are some other types of content a nimble agency can help you compose.

Blog content.

An adept ghostwriting agency has produced blogs for many industries. Its experience means that you will likely be matched with a ghostwriting team that has written on yours or similar industries, enabling it to work with your SMEs gracefully and knowledgeably.

Team members will research and absorb your subject matter quickly. Cross-checks between members help ensure your blog is interesting, flows, ranks on search engines without keyword stuffing, and sounds like you every time.

Books.

A reputable agency has the resources to complete your thought leadership book or memoir from any stage of the process—conception through research, writing, and editing. The agency will add members to your ghostwriting team if needed to finish and polish your book more quickly when time is of the essence.

In an example familiar to most Americans, the hugely popular Nancy Drew book series was written by a ghostwriting team, not the mythical Carolyn Keene. The team dynamic, exodusbooks.com explains, was the reason “Keene” wrote so many books:

Nancy Drew is that kind of series, each book ostensibly written by Carolyn Keene but really the work of a team of ghostwriters and editors churning out novel after novel about the exploits of a smart, brave and attractive adolescent girl named Nancy Drew who solves mysteries as an amateur sleuth.

Your thought leadership book will presumably target a different audience, but the principle holds: Hiring a ghostwriting team means books can be published more quickly while staying faithful to their author’s voice.

CAPTURE YOUR STORY, TODAY

Preserve your legacy

HIRE A GHOSTWRITER

Speeches and Presentations.

You may need to give the keynote address at a conference or awards ceremony, a PowerPoint presentation to interested investors or desired clients, or a motivational talk to employees.

You won’t have to sweat through writing these or other presentations yourself when you hire a ghostwriting agency. Instead, you can put your energy into a memorable delivery.

Whitepapers.

Whitepapers are now a vital element of showing thought leadership. The documents that explain your products or services and what they do for your clients need to be accurate and authoritative. But do your SMEs have the time or inclination to write them?

An agency well-versed in writing for a variety of technical industries fills this need. Team members know how to converse with your SMEs intelligently and tactfully to get the information they need to write convincing whitepapers.

Press Releases.

Today’s thought leaders know the value of compelling, well-timed press releases. A media-savvy ghostwriting agency knows how to write them, with teams composed of professionals trained and skillful in journalism. Getting their heads around your business and goals quickly is their business, and collaboration among team members fuels creativity.

Your team will deliver press releases with eye-catching headlines and lead paragraphs that show leadership on topics of real interest to audiences. These are designed to trigger the media attention you want, then find their way swiftly into the echo chambers of social media.

Magazine Articles.

Thought leadership becomes highly visible when you author articles for an inside-the-company magazine or for industry- and audience-specific magazines. A ghostwriting agency of size and scope offers writer/editor ghostwriting teams with magazine skills under their belts, ready to work with you and/or your marketing department and SMEs.

Case Studies.

When you hire a team to write your customers’ or clients’ success stories, a tedious process becomes a rewarding joint venture. Your ghostwriting team helps pinpoint a case, formulate an approach, and write copy that tells future customers you have answers for their issues, too. The agency manages the project throughout, even seeking approval for the final product from your legal department.

Authorship is assured when you hire a ghostwriting team.

Whichever types of content an agency helps you create, as a thought leader and author you can be assured that:

A professional ghostwriting team understands confidentiality in all executive communications: Its writers and editors appreciate confidential sources, your proprietary processes, and “off-the-record” elements of your conversations. Your team also understands what to leave in your written product—and what to leave out—for its intended audience and purpose.

A capable agency prioritizes your preferences and lets your voice shine through in all the work it does for you. It is your blog, your book, your speech, and your press release the team creates. Each says what you want it to say, is error-free, professionally polished, and appeals to its readers.

The “checks and balances” of the team approach ensure that both of the above are true, for every project. Objective proofreaders and editors maintain consistency in these vital areas.

You as the authority in your field are the author of all work done by your team on your behalf, and all credit goes to you. This is a top priority for every member of your ghostwriting team.

What Makes a Thought Leader?

Posted on February 11, 2022February 11, 2022 by The Writers For Hire, Inc.

What do you do when you need a solution to managing your money? You jump on your computer and begin searching for innovative ideas. On the first page of your Google results, you will come across an article from Ramsey Solutions – founded by best-selling author Dave Ramsey.

Dave Ramsey is a Thought Leader.

Thought Leaders like Ramsey are experts in their fields. The public considers them the most trusted individuals in their profession, and they are the go-to people when consumers need solutions.

What Exactly is a Thought Leader?

Thought leadership is not something you go to school for. And there are no degrees for thought leaders.

A thought leader is an experienced, trustworthy professional who consumers look to for answers to their most pressing questions.

As a professional, your goal is to win your clients' trust. Winning trust is how you gain an excellent reputation. A solid reputation leads people to search for the answers you provide and heed your recommendations.

Dave Ramsey…Seth Godin…Oprah Winfrey

What do all these people have in common? They are all thought leaders.

But how did they become recognized industry leaders?

While their journeys to thought leadership were all vastly different, there does seem to be one common thread among them. They all used a variety of mediums such as radio programs, blogs, television shows, and books, to position themselves as experts in their perspective fields.

In building such a robust platform, these well-known figures have not only achieved great financial and business success, but they have also become household names.

So, what makes them different from the rest of us? And what can we learn by examining their successes and failures?

Industry Thought Leaders

Dave Ramsey

Dave Ramsey took the real estate exam at age 18, immediately diving into the industry while attending The University of Tennessee and earning a Bachelor of Science in Finance and Real Estate. By age 26, Ramsey had accumulated a weighty portfolio worth over $4 million in real estate.

Unfortunately, by age 30, when the Competitive Equality Banking Act of 1987 went into effect, leaving several banks with a change of ownership, over one million dollars of Ramsey's mortgage loans were recalled because he was over-leveraged.

Unable to pay the loans back, Ramsey filed for bankruptcy in 1988.

After several years of rebuilding his financial life, Ramsey began providing financial advice to parishioners at his church. He founded the Lampo Group (renamed Ramsey Solutions in 2014), offering financial counseling services.

Shortly after finding success in the Lampo Group, Ramsey and fellow entrepreneur Roy Matlock began hosting the finance-based radio show, The Money Game. Eventually, the show became The Ramsey Show which today reaches an audience of over 18 million weekly listeners. In 1992, Ramsey wrote his first book, Financial Peace.

In Financial Peace, Ramsey uses practical and easy-to-follow methods teaching readers how to get out of debt and stay out, how the flow of money can transform relationships, and how to make sound financial decisions.

Today, Ramsey is a best-selling author with over 5 million copies sold of his 28 books.

Seth Godin

You may know Seth Godin from his thought-provoking quotes or reading one of his several best-selling books.

In addition to establishing one of the most recognized blogs globally, the originator of 'permission marketing' has authored 20 best-selling books, including his 2003 smash hit Purple Cow.

Godin is considered the ultimate entrepreneur, a marketer, businessman, public speaker, and author.

While earning his MBA in Marketing from the Stanford Graduate School of Business from 1983 to 1986, Godin began working for Spinnaker Software. After leaving Spinnaker in 1986, he emptied his savings and started his own company – Seth Godin Productions.

In 1998 he established Yoyodyne, a company that later was acquired by Yahoo! It was during his time at Yoyodyne where Godin promoted the concept of permission marketing.

In 2000 after releasing his first e-book, Unleashing the Ideavirus, now available for free in 10 languages, Godin wrote and published his most famous book, Purple Cow; Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable. In Purple Cow, Godin describes his vision of creative advertising in our world of the abundance of products.

Today Godin is in the Direct Marketing Hall of Fame, Marketing Hall of Fame, and Guerrilla Marketing Hall of Fame.

In addition to 20 best-selling books and a renowned blog, Godin creates life-changing workshops, makes appearances on podcasts, and has hosted TED talks. However, he still considers himself a professional writer first.

Oprah Winfrey

There isn’t a better example of an industry leader than Oprah. Oprah is so well-respected and trusted we usually don’t even use her last name when referring to her.

From an abusive childhood and pregnancy at 14 to America’s first Black female multi-billionaire, Oprah has experienced it all.

Born in rural Mississippi into poverty, Oprah spent most of her teen years living with the man she considered her father in Nashville, Tennessee, after her premature-born son died.

While still in high school, Oprah was hired at a local radio station. By 2019, the rising star was co-anchor for the local news.

And in 1986, her self-titled daytime talk show debuted; The Oprah Winfrey Show aired for 25 seasons.

Today it remains the highest-rated daytime talk show in the country. That same year, Oprah launched her production company Harpo Productions.

In 1998, Oprah wrote her first book, Journey to Beloved. She went on to publish five more best-sellers; The Path Made Clear is Oprah’s guide on taking steps to live your best life. Known for overcoming adversity and promoting self-help ideas, Oprah’s 2005 number one best-seller, Make the Connection: Ten Steps to a Better Body and Better Life, received one of the world’s highest advance fees.

Why You Should Write Consider a Thought Leadership Book

As you can see from the examples above, thought leadership is about sharing your experiences and know-how to influence, educate, and motivate your audience.

And what better way to share your expertise than through a thought leadership book?

Content for a thought leadership book, like the ones written by Ramsey, Godin, and Oprah, is born entirely from your unique knowledge and perspective.

If you have authority on a topic in a niche industry, then you have a valuable insight to share with the world.

And sharing your expertise through a thought leadership book is a great way to show the world that you are a leader in your trade.

However, as a busy professional, you may be thinking that there’s no way you’ll find the time needed to write a book. You are not alone in this dilemma. Many industry leaders have a lot to say, but no time to write. And many of them turn to ghostwriters to get their books complete.

If you consider hiring a ghostwriter to author your thought leadership book, it is essential to know that working with a ghostwriter doesn’t mean you consent to the control of your book. You work with the ghostwriter to ensure your thoughts are the final result. The thought leadership ghostwriter is there to help you produce your book while saving you time.

The Bottom Line

Working one’s way up from a first-time publisher to a recognized industry thought leader doesn’t happen instantly, but if you stick to your guns (and hire a ghostwriter, if needed), becoming a thought leader brings countless benefits.

Elevate your brand and reputation, strengthen your industry visibility, and receive top dollar for your service!

Thought Leadership: Creating Compelling Content to Position a Brand and Improve Visibility

Posted on October 16, 2021October 15, 2021 by The Writers For Hire, Inc.

Leadership is one of the most sought-after traits in the business world. After all, leadership is what makes the difference between a good organization and a great one.

Jim Collins, author of Good to Great, described the ultimate “level 5 leader” as someone humble but willing to do anything in the company’s best interest.

However, the term “thought leadership” has now become a catchphrase thrown around aimlessly.

So, what exactly is thought leadership and how can you use it to improve brand visibility and increase conversions in the long-term?

Thought Leadership Basics

Photo by **Towfiqu barbhuiya** from **Pexels**

In general, leadership is the ability to lead, that is, to guide people, individually and collectively, toward a goal or objective.

For most observers, leadership is a quality exhibited by exceptionally charismatic people. Nevertheless, a good leader isn’t always in the limelight. Leadership is about adding value to people’s lives. Therefore, good leaders improve the lives of those around them.

The emergence of the term “thought leadership” places a different spin on conventional leadership. After all, leadership isn’t just about meeting objectives. Leadership is also about possessing exceptional capabilities. Likewise, a person or organization is a thought leader if others in their chosen field consider them an authority in a specific area. Consequently, individuals and organizations seek the thought leader’s knowledge to solve a problem or improve upon a situation.

Thought leadership is a vital part of content marketing. In this type of marketing, thought leaders can offer their knowledge and experience to their followers. In turn, followers can find solutions to their problems while expanding their understanding of a specific topic.

By regularly providing this valuable content, thought leaders position themselves and their brands prominently in their readers’ minds, and sales ultimately follow.

Using Thought Leadership

Content marketing provides useful and actionable information that followers can use. And through content marketing, brands can use thought leadership to assert their expertise. Thus, thought leadership is successful when an individual or organization has the depth of knowledge needed to position themselves as a go-to expert in their chosen industry or field.

It’s also important to note that thought leadership is not about selling.

Thought leadership is about providing value that can eventually convert interested parties into paying clients.

Thus, it’s a question of positioning your brand as the go-to choice when the time comes to spend money.

It’s worth noting that thought leadership isn’t for everyone. Additionally, it isn’t the answer to every problem. Instead, thought leadership is ideal for individuals and companies that seek to position themselves as go-to experts in their respective fields.

As thought leadership is about building credibility, regurgitating common knowledge does not improve credibility. Meaningful content that can add value is what drives thought leadership.

Circa Interactive’s George Bradley offers this insight:

“There are times where it may be best for a business not to position itself as a thought leader. When making this decision, a company should always look at its customer base. Is making a particular stance going to divide your customer base? Could this lose you more clients or customers than it is likely to gain? If the answer is yes, then sometimes the bottom line has to come first, and it may be best to position yourself where the company will thrive.”

Often, thought leadership implies sharing knowledge freely. There is one caveat, however: Thought leadership does not mean self-promotion. Great content can get quickly overshadowed by self-promotion. Thus, focusing on the topic is always the best course of action.

Sherrilynne Starkey of Thornley Fallis Communications poignantly sums up this point:

“Start with from a paradigm of generosity. Freely give news and information to assist and support the people in your target audiences. Give them real value in terms of ‘how-to,’ ‘why you need to know,’ ‘here’s how to do it’ type stories and content. By being generous and focusing on giving value, you’ll reach more people, build loyalty, and gain market share.”

Valuable thought leadership can emerge from practically anywhere. Individuals can derive contributions from their personal and professional experience, formal training, and academic study. And organizations can pool the talents of their members into a compilation of knowledge and experience.

Generally speaking, there is a potentially infinite number of sources for thought leadership within an organization. These sources enable individuals and organizations to build their point of view and distinguish one authority from another by contributing their unique talents and skills.

After all, it would be impossible to stand out without having a unique point of view. There are no “right” or “wrong” answers. It is a question of offering value at all times. A unique perspective can deliver value consistently.

Benefits of Using Thought Leadership

Photo by **Ivan Samkov** from **Pexels**

Using thought leadership as part of a content marketing strategy can yield significant benefits. On the whole, these benefits help individuals and organizations stand out above their competition. In particular, five benefits often prove to be the most meaningful.

1. Positioning the Brand

The most immediate benefit of thought leadership is personal or professional brand positioning. For example, professionals such as lawyers, doctors, and consultants can position themselves as experts in their field by using thought leadership. As for corporations, they can use their members’ collective skills and experience to provide their clients value.

It’s important to note that brand positioning is also not about selling. Instead, it is about becoming the go-to source in a specific area.

According to Lily Ray of Lilyray.nyc, a widely acknowledged thought leader in the content marketing space:

“Thought leadership is extremely important when it comes to establishing and building your brand. While it’s important to provide commentary and share your thoughts about industry trends or research others have done, what can really set you apart is to conduct your own research or develop your own fresh set of ideas to contribute to the community. Sometimes this can prove to be challenging; others may not always be receptive to your ideas, and it can often be uncomfortable to push the dialogue forward. But adding a fresh perspective, new data, or new ideas – and remaining consistent with this process over time – is what can build a solid brand and set a leader apart from the rest.”

Indeed, brand positioning is about being generous with knowledge. Therefore, a fresh spin on an existing situation can make a significant difference.

2. Improving Credibility

Clients seek professionals and companies they can trust. As such, thought leadership can improve credibility by showcasing both individuals’ and teams’ skills and experience.

As followers see the value a brand has to offer; they will come to trust that brand. Ultimately, credibility helps communicate a brand’s value proposition without openly pitching a product or service.

As Saxton and Stump’s Anthony Gaenzle explains:

“Your team is a critical part of your brand; this is especially true in fields like healthcare, marketing, legal and other areas that require true experts. Your clients or customers want to know that they’re hiring or purchasing from knowledgeable individuals with a lot of experience in their respective fields, so being able to convey that message in your marketing and PR is important for success and growth.”

This quote highlights the importance of expertise in building credibility. As such, the aim is to convey a message through content.

3. Shortening the Sales Cycle

A product or service’s sales cycle begins with leads first coming into contact with the brand and ends with a successful purchase.

While sales cycles differ significantly from product to product, thought leadership can substantially shorten the sales cycle by maintaining constant communication between clients and brands. Once clients are ready to approach the brand, they are already focused on purchasing. In the words of Jimmy Daly of Animalz, “high volume, top of the funnel content works best.” Indeed, top-notch content is the best way to shorten the sales cycle.

4. Generating Greater Visibility

An essential aim in marketing is generating greater visibility for a brand’s products and services. Unfortunately, traditional marketing is often unsuccessful because it pitches products directly to potential clients. Furthermore, traditional marketing rarely establishes two-way communication.

This is where thought leadership shines.

Effective thought leadership enables clients and brands to communicate back and forth. Consequently, clients feel the brand hears their voice.

5. Reaching Decision-makers

In a B2B context, content marketing reaches decision-makers directly. Quality content does not need filtering from an assistant or secretary.

Excellent thought leadership can even reach top-level executives directly. In fact, 43 percent of top-level executives indicate that thought leadership helps them research an issue, while 39 percent indicate it helps them find a solution to a situation.

This is why it is so crucial for thought leadership to be relevant at all times.

Creating Thought Leadership Content

By definition, content marketing is only as effective as its content. Luckily, thought leadership can take content marketing to the next level.

The following is a breakdown of guidelines and best practices that will ensure your thought leadership content does the trick.

Cite reputable sources.

When it comes to creating effective thought leadership content, using plenty of citations from reputable sources is a great way to show the reader that your arguments are well-reasoned while also showing how well-read you are.

According to Grist, 53 percent of executives want to hear information from industry experts, while 44 percent indicate they seek information from professional services firms. Thus, citing information from leading sources is a must for compelling content.

Consult subject matter experts.

Subject matter experts are thought leaders in their own right. Considering that 53 percent of executives look to industry experts, it makes sense to consult them.

Effective content marketers know that consulting subject matter experts will enhance their material. Whenever possible, arranging exclusive interviews or getting written opinions can boost visibility.

Additionally, opinions found in blogs, YouTube videos, or webinars make good secondary sources.

Create a consistent narrative.

A consistent narrative means that all materials produced have a common voice and tone.

Creating a consistent narrative gives followers a reason to identify with the brand and is crucial for building long-term conversions.

In contrast, disjointed content may appear scattered and random. Planning multiple pieces of content in advance is an easy way to ensure everything you create has a clear narrative through-line.

Do extensive research into the topic and target audience.

Influential thought leaders know how powerful creating targeted content can be.

However, doing so successfully requires careful research into the topic and a clear understanding of who the target audience will be.

Thus, getting started is a question of getting to know the target audience well.

Demographic information such as age, gender, occupation, and educational level all help produce relevant content.

Moreover, 84 percent of executives value content that enhances their role, while 79 percent want to stay ahead of the game. Thus, knowing audiences is key to successful thought leadership.

Provide as many real-life examples as possible.

Ideas and concepts don’t exist in a vacuum; real world application is key. This is why it’s crucial to provide as many real-life examples as possible, as doing so will enable audiences to see the practical application of the knowledge you share.

Since 47 percent of executives consider thought leadership that is too conceptual ineffective, and 63 percent consider thought leadership that is too generic ineffective, it makes sense to include as many real-life examples as possible.

Highlight the role of a thought leader.

It’s important to highlight a thought leader’s role by referencing any relevant significant achievements and experience. After all, audiences expect to get information from an experienced source.

However, it’s equally important to avoid self-promotion; this is not the time to exalt the brand.

According to research, 53 percent of executives feel that thought leadership based on self-promotion is ineffective. Thus, when highlighting your experience and industry achievements, it is best to remain humble.

Testing Thought Leadership Content

Once the content is ready for publication, it’s worth testing its effectiveness before launch. Savvy marketers understand that conducting test runs can help them refine the content to meet their target audience’s needs and expectations specifically.

Here are three handy ways to test content before final publication.

Pitch to clients.

Testing content on real-life clients is an excellent way of measuring its impact. The use of focus groups is the most common way marketers can test their content.

In some instances, companies can contact their clients directly to ask them to participate in surveys, provide feedback, or suggest ideas for improvement. Pitching content to clients is crucial as 66 percent of top-level executives believe that thought leadership provides them with insight into emerging trends.

Pitch to peers.

When looking for feedback, other thought leaders in the same space are a great resource.

After all, receiving honest criticism can help fine-tune any marketer’s efforts. And, as an added bonus, it might make a new industry contact.

Generally speaking, feedback from peers can provide useful insights into why content is not hitting the mark.

In a recent survey revealing the most common complaints among top-level executives regarding thought leadership, 63 percent of executives indicated that the content was not relevant, 58 percent indicated that it lacked original ideas, and 38 percent said it was boring.

Gauge public reaction.

Once content hits audiences, gauging their reaction is crucial to ensuring its eventual success.

According to research, 47 percent of executives believe that a majority of thought leadership content is too theoretical or offered no practical advice. Likewise, 40 percent indicate that they ignored thought leadership content that did not contain any substantiated opinions, while 38 percent found this type of thought leadership content too bland to be of much use.

Gauging these reactions can help marketers tweak their content to reach their target audience much more effectively.

Hitting the Mark with Thought Leadership

Nowadays, business is all about providing clients and followers as much value as possible, which is why thought leadership content is so popular. In the end, doing so helps position brands and the trusted, go-to source in their respective fields.

When done right, thought leadership can provide ample opportunities for making sales. It’s just a matter of identifying the right moment for sharing content and the right moment for selling.