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Tomorrow, The University of Chicago will be changing how their students will be doing their research papers. The Joe and Rika Mansueto Library will use a massive automated retrieval system, turning the whole library experience on it’s head.More »
Some web design and web development agencies have it all. They provide their clients with a complete site solution from beginning to end, from site planning and information architecture to web design, web hosting, and SEO. It’s tough for a smaller web design company or the solo freelancer to compete.
Or is it?
It may be easier than you think to broaden your competitiveness by adding web content writing services to your web design company.
By adding content writing services, you will be better able to adapt to the needs of potential clients. Some clients prefer to deal with one-stop shops. They don’t want to track down specialists for each component of their website project. If you can offer both site-building and content-writing expertise, you too can appeal to the one-stop shoppers.
In addition to landing more clients, adding professional content-writing services brings many other benefits. Here are a few of them.
Fewer iterations and revisions: If you have authority over all aspects of a site build — design, development and content — your work will be more efficient. There will be less need to go back and make changes because you can synchronize design and content from the outset.
Better content: Clients receive error-free, professional content. They can have web content that complements and works well with the web design.
Better branding: Clients benefit from web content that positions their brand well, along with a style and voice that engages their users.
Fewer headaches and project delays: By incorporating content writing into your services, you eliminate the headache that stems from clients delivering web copy that’s weak or late (who needs another delay?).
Optimized content: Quality content is optimized for search engines. Google and other search engines will rank your clients’ sites higher and more people will visit if the content produced keeps good SEO practices in mind.
Better conversion rates: Professional web content writers can increase conversion rates by optimizing calls to action and by writing compelling web content, making more money for clients to invest back into website development. You might get more work (and referrals) as a result.
Assistance with other website project components: Some content writers — especially those that focus on web content — can help with sitemaps, information architecture, wireframes, unique value propositions, calls to action, taglines and more.
Stronger client relationships: Content-writing services often extend beyond website launch. If you can maintain client relationships by updating or adding new content on their site, they are more likely to call you when their site needs a redesign.
So how do you incorporate content-writing into your web design company? You have a few options, and you don’t have to pick just one.
In a referral arrangement, you refer clients to your preferred content-writing company. Your preferred content-writing company, in turn, refers clients to you. Obviously, you need to vet the content-writing company thoroughly and make sure they are capable and reliable.
The greatest advantage of referrals is that they create new revenue streams. With just a phone call or email, you can set clients up with your recommended company and receive a referral fee. You don’t have to manage the content-writing process, freeing you to focus on website design.
This approach also sidesteps possible cash flow issues. You don’t need to pay contractors out of your own pocket while waiting for the client to pay.
Similarly, you could work out a referral arrangement with a web content writer or web content-writing company, without paying fees. You will still help each other by generating more business.
Another approach is to post an ad on job boards like Authentic Jobs, Smashing Jobs, etc. and then see if you can hire a few content writers. In this scenario, you manage the writers directly.
The biggest advantage of this approach is its low cost. You pay the writers directly, with no infrastructure to support. You pay only when you require the writer’s services, so you have a great deal of flexibility in how you use them.
If you find a good freelance writer, then you have the benefit of possibly grooming him or her to work for you in-house should you have enough work to justify it.
But there’s a downside to hiring a freelancer. Your content-writing services will be limited by the ability and availability of your freelance content writer. Not all freelancers are versatile, or experts in usability, SEO, or conversion tactics.
You also run the risk of the freelancer not delivering. If the freelancer fails to deliver on time or delivers poor quality web content, then you are responsible and your professional reputation will be at stake. You can’t just go back to the client and say, "my writer got sick," or "my writer’s computer crashed" or "my writer disappeared." The client will not distinguish between your company’s performance and the performance of your freelance web content writer. They’ll hold you accountable.
In a subcontracting arrangement, clients hire you to provide content-writing services, and you subcontract the work to a web content-writing company. (Full disclosure: as a web copywriter with a professional content-writing company, I have some bias here.)
Professional web content-writing agencies typically have a stable of writers working for them in-house, under contract, or both. These companies can often accommodate short deadlines because they can free up a writer to meet the deadline or divide the work among writers.
Having a bevy of writers and communications specialists also allows professional content-writing companies to offer a wider scope of related services, i.e. keyword analyses or meta data development, video script writing, etc., and match writers to clients. If a writer has a particular area of industry expertise or subject knowledge, the content-writing company can assign him or her to clients who will benefit from this expertise.
Many professional content-writing companies also have the advantage of additional copy review. Copy is often routed through other writers and editors for feedback or to catch errors. For instance, at my company, Webcopyplus, a senior copywriter reviews all copy before it’s released to clients.
There are some disadvantages to hiring a professional web content-writing company. Prices may be higher as there is more infrastructure to support. Also, it may be difficult to get adequate attention if your project is small and the web content-writing company has bigger projects on the go.
Your most integrated solution is to employ a part-time or full-time content strategist. As an employer, you have direct control over your employee’s project priorities and performance. As a result, you may have quick turnaround times as your writer is dedicated solely to your projects.
By having the web content writer in your staff, you also get to know the writer’s strengths and you will be less hesitant to invest in his or her professional development.
The risk is, at some point, you may not have enough content-writing work to keep your writer busy and cover his or her salary. But you don’t need to hire a full-time staff writer, and in some cases, you can make flexible arrangements.
There are also added training and costs, not to mention administrative demands. You will have to manage payroll deductions, vacation pay, medical plans, insurance and performance appraisals.
Finally, it can be very challenging to find talented, reliable content writers. At my company, we reviewed more than 400 portfolios before we filled our last position.
Don’t limit your ability to win projects by taking a one-size-fits-all approach. Consider the client’s preferences: if you want to appeal to one-stop shoppers, consider adding content-writing to your web services arsenal.
Rick Sloboda is a Senior Web Copywriter at Webcopyplus. Their company’s client list includes AT&T and Scotia Bank. He advocates clear, concise and objective website content that promotes readability and usability, and conducts web content studies with organizations in Europe and the U.S., including Yale University. Follow him on Twitter @Webcopyplus.
While Facebook gets a lot of the attention when it comes to ‘sexy’ marketing campaigns by brands, there are some great examples from Twitter, that show how brands are using the platform to their advantage, to engage with followers in new ways. We’ve put together a list of some of our favourite Twitter marketing campaigns, to provide you with some inspiration and great case studies for reference :
A great example of a live and interactive Twitter campaign from Volkswagen in February this year, to promote their sponsorship of the Planeta Terra Festival. They hid tickets to the festival all over the city, and shared the location with users via a map. The trick was however, that the map (using Google Maps) would only zoom in to reveal the locations based on how many people shared the hashtag #foxatplanetaterra on Twitter :
The campaign was a huge success for Volkswagen, as within 2 hours the hashtag was a trending topic in Brazil – not an easy feat. This campaign also worked because it was incredibly targeted to the right audience. They wanted to promote the festival to local people, and this was achieved by integrating the online element with the real-world treasure hunt. The great thing about this campaign is that it’s a relatively simple mechanic, just done really really well. There was no investment in an expensive app, just a creative an engaging campaign that got people hunting all over the city and engaging with the Volkswagen brand.
An excellent , live campaign from Ben and Jerry’s that was recently launched to raise awareness of World Fair Trade Day. The application is run via a microsite that puts all your unused Twitter characters to good use, by filling them out with messages that promote the cause :
The site is incredibly easy to use. You simply type out your tweet as you normally would, and Ben & Jerry’s do the rest for you, populating your tweet with their messages, which decrease the more you write. The good thing about this campaign is that it requires very little from the user. Often you see campaigns that require you to connect with an app, perform a task and then auto-tweet it to promote a good cause, but this is simply fun, quick and quirky and a great way to spread awareness. The concept also resonates with Twitter users because it has such careful consideration of the platform as well. If you’re not going to use the characters yourself, why not virtually donate them to a good cause?
A brilliant example here of a company using Twitter’s new Promoted Tweets product to create an engaging and personalised Twitter experience for people. Radioshack ran their sponsored tweet, asking people to upload a picture of themselves with their hand stretched out, accompanied by the hashtag #ifihadsuperpowers , for the chance to win a prize. At the time of the promotion, users weren’t really aware of why they were doing this, but given the chance to win a prize, people will surely give it a go! What came next was a surprise, as the team behind Radioshack spent the day transforming the photos to individually add a mask and a cape, and tweet the new photo back to the user :
The combination of an interactive campaign and the Promoted Tweets product clearly works for Radioshack, as it’s not the first time they’ve experimented with this. At a conference to discuss their previous Twitter ad campaign, CMO Lee Applbaum claims that the ROI was ‘stratospheric’, with a sponsored tweet receiving 65 million impressions within 24 hours. Though of course a tweet from Lance Armstrong helped as well.
A brave campaign from Nestle here, coming as an early example of a brand integrating Twitter into their ad campaign. In 2009, Nestle launched an innovative ad format that served up realtime tweets all across the web. They launched the ad units on different sites, and asked questions related to parenting such as ‘How do you stimulate your child’s mind?’. Users that were logged into Twitter could then fill out these ads directly with their answer. The comments then appeared in the online ads, as well as going into Nestle’s Twitter feed. All the comments were premoderated by Nestle, a fairly crucial part in the success of this campaign. This is one of the only Twitter examples I’ve seen of this kind, with a brand putting it’s ad messaging firmly into the hands of the user. It’s a great example of a company relinquishing control of their brand and deciding to let the their community do the talking. This was also a good example of a fully integrated social media campaign, as users who clicked on the ads instead of populating them with a tweet, were taken to a Youtube channel containing promotional videos, tips and advice on parenting courtesy of Nestle. They can get it right sometimes!
An adventurous campaign from Jeep here, courtesy of Leo Burnett Iberia, to promote their latest model. They created the online puzzle using new Twitter profiles, which users had to follow in order to unlock clues. Each Twitter profile was following a further 12 Twitter profiles, that contained a picture clue. Each profile picture was a piece in the puzzle. This was brought back strongly to the Jeep brand, as the images were pictures of scenery only accessible with a Jeep. It might sound a little complex, so check it out in action below :
Now for some this might seem like quite a convoluted campaign, but what I like about this is that it shows a real understanding of the Twitter platform, taking an aspect we would all be familiar with (the layout of profile pictures of who you’re following) and bringing it to life in a new way. As with other examples as well, it shows what’s possible when you get creative and use the Twitter platform functions available to you, in a completely new way to entice your users into engaging with your brand.
Samsung demoed some fascinating AMOLEDs at this year’s CES, including 4.5-inch flexible and 19-inch transparent displays — neither of which, sadly, will reach the market any time soon. But the innovation train keeps on rolling, and Sammy’s Advanced Institute of Technology now has a prototype foldable display, which may or may not be the same reference design spotted at FPD 2008. Its two panels have a closing radius of only 1mm, meaning they practically touch when closed, yet show no visible crease when opened. In fact, the developers performed 100,000 folding-unfolding cycles to test the junction; the negligible 6% decrease in brightness was invisible to the human eye. They used commercially-available silicone rubber to achieve that seamless look, and the prototype featured a protective glass cover which could also function as a touchscreen. Obviously there’s a market for touchscreens you can fold up and put in your pocket; here’s hoping Samsung can make them available sooner rather than later.
Samsung’s foldable AMOLED display: no creases, even after 100,000 tries originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 15 May 2011 08:08:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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The iPhone 4's screen looks delicious—pixels, away with ye! But Ortus Technology's got an even dreamier looking display, packing a 1920×1080 resolution into a scant 4.8 inches. That's 458 pixels per inch, as opposed to the iPhone's 326.More »