Search Results for: writing

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Why Writing Matters for Business

Relevance: 100% Posted on: April 13, 2016

With the shift to social media as a key platform for building customer relationships, many organizations, from small "solopreneurships" to large-scale corporations, are struggling to communicate effectively across channels. This is as much a technological problem as it is a strategic one: many organizations fail to present effective written communication to all their audiences on a consistent basis. Now more than ever: writing matters for business and a business's ability to write effectively may greatly affect its position in a given market. Below we explain exactly why writing matters for businesses of all shapes and sizes, and also provide 3…

How to Find the Right Editor: 5 Questions to Ask

Relevance: 75% Posted on: February 13, 2019

It's not easy to find the right editor for your website content, internal documents, or ebook. And at the same time, it can be difficult to be pitch perfect in every respect of running your business or non-profit. So what if you have a few spelling errors and misplaced commas on your website? It’s the message that matters… right? Unfortunately, potential clients will judge you on the quality of your writing, even if writing isn't your specialty. Fortunately, you don’t have to do everything by yourself. Before your work with an editor, however, be sure you vet them by asking…

5 Blogging Tips and Tricks for Small Businesses and Non-Profits

Relevance: 72% Posted on: January 30, 2019

Writing a blog is a great way to advertise your business or non-profit. Industry-specific blog posts increase your chances of your website being found by consumers through search engines and social media. If well-written, blog posts can also enhance your credibility among customers, donors, and even competitors. To create quality blog posts that can generate a following for your business, try these blogging tips and tricks we use with our clients and on our own blog. Blogging Tip #1: Target Your Audience Your primary audience for your blog should be potential customers or donors. Remember that your goal in writing…

How to Start a Peer Review Circle to Improve Your Content

Relevance: 70% Posted on: October 3, 2018

Peer review circles may sound like something that only full-time writers need. Regardless of what industry you are in, however, you are expected to engage in some kind of writing. Even if you aren't a small business owner or don't do marketing or promotion as your main work activities, you still need to know how to write effectively in order to communicate with a variety of audiences. Being technically correct in your use of spelling and grammar is important and there are many tools available to help in this regard. It is far more important, however, to be correct in…

When You Shouldn’t Write Your Own Website Content

Relevance: 60% Posted on: October 17, 2018

If you're a small business owner or non-profit manager, you may be looking to write your own website content. As a client-centered business, we encourage clients who want to write their own website content. But before you start toiling away, however, keep in mind that it is not always a good idea to write your own website content. Don't Write Customer Testimonials You should encourage customers to write their own testimonials with minimal direction. When customers are happy with the products or services that you’ve provided for them, it’s natural to ask them if they would be interested in sharing a…

When You Should Hire a Copy Editor for Your Content

Relevance: 52% Posted on: November 14, 2018

If you're not sure when you should hire a copy editor for your content versus trying to rework it yourself, our answer is always: it depends on a lot of factors. You should ask yourself if you can produce error-free writing on your own, for instance. Or if you have the time, energy, and know-how to go through all of your content systematically. In short, if you're not a copy editor, you just might need one. Below are some of the situations we see most often when people need a copy editor. Situation 1: When Dealing With a Document That…

5 Elements of an Effective Email Newsletter for a Small Business

Relevance: 45% Posted on: November 20, 2019

Are you working for a small business that is looking to build an effective email newsletter? It’s important to understand what elements to include in an email newsletter, and how it can impact your small business. We’ve researched the most effective and impactful elements of email newsletters and compiled some of our favorites below. https://www.contentgarden.org/email-newsletter-tools-for-small-businesses/ Email Newsletter Element #1: Writing in an Informal Tone The first element of an effective email newsletter has to do with the way that you write your content for it. The Balance Small Business suggests that writing more casually to your customers can have a…

3 Tips for Creating a Winning Small Business Blog

Relevance: 44% Posted on: April 10, 2019

If you've ever tried to create a small business blog, you might have struggled to develop content. What should you write about? Who should you write to? Do blogs really help advertise your business? If you have questions like these, below we've gathered a few of our favorite small business blog tips for you to check out for yourself. Small Business Blog Tip #1: Research Your Competitor’s Blogs Before starting your small business blog, it’s important to research what kind of content is out there, and who’s posting it. Start by researching competitors in your industry that are creating blogs of…

4 Tips for Creating a Winning Non-Profit Blog

Relevance: 35% Posted on: January 16, 2019

If you work for a non-profit and are looking for ways to create traffic to your website, you might have considered creating a blog. In fact, you may have checked out some of our own blog posts to get ideas. To help you feel more confident in your blogging efforts we've gathered a few non-profit blog tips to get you started. Non-Profit Blog Tip #1: Understand How Your Blog Supports Your Organization Before launching a blog for your non-profit, it’s important to have a clear vision for what your blog is going to do to help your organization. How will it…

Content Marketing Strategies Now and in the Future: An Interview With Scott Abel, The Content Wrangler

Relevance: 30% Posted on: July 19, 2017

We sat down with Scott Abel to talk content marketing strategies. Scott is Founder and CEO of The Content Wrangler, a San Francisco-based international content strategy consultancy. CONTENT GARDEN: We work a lot with small businesses and non-profits who don’t have a content strategist or content marketer on staff. Can you speak to why the ability to develop and deploy effective content is important for smaller organizations' content marketing strategies? Scott: “Effective” is the operative word here. In order to develop effective content—content that achieves a desired goal or intended result—we must put a plan in place that helps measure whether our efforts…

The Complete Guide to Content Marketing for Small Business, Part 3: Improving Over Time

Relevance: 27% Posted on: September 14, 2016

Welcome to Part 3 of our series, "The Complete Guide to Content Marketing for Small Business." To help small business owners learn how to employ content marketing, one of the best methods for attracting new customers online, we've decided to create a complete guide for small business owners. In Part 1 of the series, we discussed how to find your "content niche" as a small business or how to find a focus for your content marketing efforts that distinguishes your business as unique and valuable to target customers. In Part 2, we discussed how to create a sustainable plan for developing, publishing,…

25+ Common SEO Mistakes Small Businesses Make

Relevance: 26% Posted on: May 16, 2018

If you're a small business owner, you may know that optimizing your website for search engines is a proven method through which you can improve your site's ranking in search engine results. Implementing the best SEO practices on your website can help increase brand visibility and improve organic traffic to your website. However, the reverse of this is also true: if you have implemented redundant SEO practices then it could result in issues like a higher bounce rate, low click-through-rate, and decrease in ranking. Avoid these common SEO mistakes if you want to improve the search presence of your website. Redundant SEO…

The Most Common Content Marketing Issues and How to Avoid Them (Infographic)

Relevance: 26% Posted on: September 25, 2019

The first recorded mention of content marketing as the best method to promote and advertise a specific product or service to the public dates as far back as the 19th century. However, if you have ever tried it, you might find that content marketing issues like not knowing how to run a campaign or measuring your campaign results. That is because this specific type of marketing is different. Not only does it allow businesses to engage with the public, but it enables them to gather feedback and improve the quality of the content that they use online as well. It…

Small Businesses and the Power of Social Media Customer Care

Relevance: 26% Posted on: December 20, 2017

The internet marketplace is booming with small businesses and non-profits taking advantage of the amazing accessibility to communities that social media offers. One cannot deny that the era of social media is a blessing and opportunity for the smaller businesses in our community, but with more and more of them getting online, it can be hard to truly stand out above the noise. That’s why all the smart digital marketers are turning their attention to social media customer care (SMCC), a little area of social media marketing that has often been overlooked by even the biggest of companies, as websitebuilder.org.uk…

Why Your Content Marketing Plan Is Your Most Valuable Business Asset

Relevance: 25% Posted on: September 6, 2017

A content marketing plan can help you create content that consumers want and marketing they can't ignore. But what does a content marketing plan look like? What should it contain? How do you put your plan into action? If you've come up against questions like these, you may be ready to create your first content marketing plan and to learn why it's your most valuable business asset. Really? A Content Marketing Plan Is Your Most Valuable Business Asset? Absolutely. Think about what marketing looks like now. If you own a business, run a non-profit, or work with any other type…

Website Redesigns: What to Do if You’re Not Happy With Your Website

Relevance: 24% Posted on: August 2, 2017

If you're unhappy with your current website, chances are you're considering a website redesign. You may have really liked your website when it was launched, but now it feels dated. Maybe you never really got the design you were looking for. Or maybe you're having a hard time maintaining your website because the technology it runs on is confusing or not very usable. Before you launch a website redesign process, however, there are several things you should consider. When to Consider a Website Redesign In general, you should seriously consider a website redesign if any of the following is true:…

A Free Digital Marketing Strategy Template for Small Businesses and Non-Profits

Relevance: 23% Posted on: November 8, 2017

If you run a non-profit or small business, you might be on the lookout for a good digital marketing strategy template that can help make your life easier. You may struggle in your marketing efforts to keep up with goals, to enact those goals over multiple channels, and to stay on top of daily tasks like posting, responding to messages, and developing new content for your website. What Is a Digital Marketing Strategy Template? Digital marketing is a subset of content strategy and is focused on developing marketing content for common online channels, such as: Social media: Platforms like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and…

3 Common Social Media Marketing Challenges and How to Solve Them

Relevance: 23% Posted on: August 10, 2016

Social media offers businesses ways to interact with their customers like never before. Problems arise when the platform changes, and what was once a great way to share content with your followers no longer works. As social media evolves, businesses using social media will have to change, too. Common social media marketing challenges include truly connecting with your audience on a personal level, building a solid marketing strategy, providing consistently strong content, and getting others to share your content. Connecting with Your Audience on Social Media As a business using social media to connect with your audience, you have to…

What Features Should You Have on a Non-Profit Website?

Relevance: 22% Posted on: November 2, 2016

Being a non-profit organization brings with it some special circumstances that are different from those of commercial businesses. The same goes for designing a website for a non-profit. In particular, there are four features any good non-profit website needs: A Donate Button A News Section or Blog A Description of Programs A Description of Volunteer Opportunities Why These Four? More often than not, users accessing a non-profit website will want to help the organization. Through donations, keeping up with the organization’s recent news, reading about programs that the non-profit runs, and considering volunteer opportunities, visitors to the site can immediately see…

The Anatomy of Effective Facebook Ads

Relevance: 22% Posted on: September 18, 2019

If you work for a small business or nonprofit and are looking for new ways to create more traffic to your website, you might have thought about paying for a Facebook Ad. You might have immediately wondered, however: what makes for effective Facebook ads? Before committing yourself, there are a few things you might want to think about, especially if you’ve never created an ad on Facebook before. Below, we’ve broken down some of the key elements of an effective Facebook Ad in order to help you get started. Part #1 of Effective Facebook Ads: Compelling Ad Copy You find…

Why You Should do a Website Audit at Least Once Per Year

Relevance: 21% Posted on: September 27, 2017

If you own a website, chances are you've replaced outdated content. But how often do you do a systematic website audit to ensure that all of your content is current, reliable, and authoritative? How often do you check all the links on your website to make sure they still lead somewhere? How often do you assess each piece of content for its effectiveness in light of your organizational goals and your target consumer base? If your answer to questions like these is: "Errr," you might want to consider instituting a yearly website audit to make sure your content is ship-shape and…

Top 3 Ways to Optimize WordPress for SEO

Relevance: 21% Posted on: July 20, 2016

So, you've taken our advice and built a WordPress website for your business, and your website is performing pretty well in search results. You Google keywords associated with your business, and it pops right up. This is because WordPress is naturally pretty great for SEO. As the months roll by, however, you notice it starting to slip down the page of search results. Then, pretty soon, it doesn't even appear on the first page of Google anymore. What happened? If you aren't actively optimizing your WordPress website for SEO, eventually it will stop performing well in search. Below are 3 of…

3 Great Email Newsletter Tools for Small Businesses

Relevance: 20% Posted on: September 26, 2018

Email newsletter tools for small businesses seem to be a dime a dozen these days. Everywhere you look there's a new one. If you're a small business owner or work at a small business, you might be considering sending newsletters out to your current or potential customers and clients, but how do you get started? You may have even checked out our previous blog post that discussed how MailChimp's services could help you with your email marketing efforts. To help you get going with your email marketing efforts, below we review 3 email newsletter tools for small businesses: MailChimp, Venngage,…

3 Awesome and Cheap Content Marketing Tools for Small Businesses and Non-Profits

Relevance: 19% Posted on: January 4, 2017

If you're looking for content marketing tools to help you promote your content online, you may find there aren't a lot available. Content marketing is relatively new in the world of marketing, and software developers are just now beginning to create packages that help people develop and deploy killer content. Many of these packages are incredibly expensive, however, and include thousands of dollars in miscellaneous "set-up fees," putting them out of reach for the average small business owner or non-profit manager. To help you get started with some of the tools we love, below we give our personal picks for…

Top 5 Digital Marketing Myths: Smaller Organizations Beware

Relevance: 19% Posted on: January 9, 2019

In an age when digital ad spending is overtaking traditional advertising, digital marketing myths are everywhere. Whether you are a small business owner, a non-profit manager, or even the head of a large company, you have probably been promised amazing returns for your investment in your website, social media, or online advertising. You may have encountered companies who guarantee such seemingly impossible feats as making you the #1 search result on Google for a low, low price. Like most things in life, it can be difficult to separate the truth from the hype when it comes to digital marketing, a…

How to Create SEO-Friendly Product Pages for Your Website

Relevance: 18% Posted on: August 16, 2017

Other than the home page, a website’s most important content is product pages. For lead or revenue generation, the products — the things you actually sell — must attract a lot of website traffic. By putting care into how you set up your product pages, you’ll improve their organic visibility on Google, and take full advantage of your SEO opportunity to drive more leads and revenue. Keyword Selection and Page Organization The first thing to do, of course, is select the right keywords for which to optimize your various product pages. At Straight North, we often talk to companies whose…

Complete Guide to Launching a WordPress Site: Part 2 (Pre-launch)

Relevance: 18% Posted on: March 9, 2016

In Part 1 of our 3-part series on launching a WordPress site, we discussed hosting, basic setup, and design. In Part 2, we tell you how to tune up your website for optimal SEO and overall functionality before launching it. There are several elements you want in place before launching a WordPress site, including some plug-ins that will help ensure your site performs well in search rankings and doesn't drive you crazy with spam. What's a "Plugin"? If you're new to launching a WordPress site you may not realize that the basic installation of the software only comes with a…

Being the Top Search Result on Google: Local vs National SEO

Relevance: 17% Posted on: July 27, 2016

In a previous post, we mentioned that being the top search result on Google is today valued at about $1,000,000. To back up this claim, we mentioned that all the research we've conducted, plus all the research of the smart people we follow, points to the fact that there's no magic bullet for SEO anymore. Gone are the days when you could just keyword stuff to trick Google into thinking you have the best content. Google has gotten better and better at delivering optimized content to its users, which means it's harder and harder to achieve real results in Google…

The Complete Guide to Content Marketing for Small Business, Part 1: Finding Your Niche

Relevance: 16% Posted on: August 31, 2016

If you're interested in content marketing for small business, you may be curious how it's different than content marketing for larger organizations. Content marketing is all the rage these days, and for good reason. As Joe Pulizzi, founder of the Content Marketing Institute, puts it: Consumers have shut off the traditional world of marketing. They own a DVR to skip television advertising, often ignore magazine advertising, and now have become so adept at online “surfing” that they can take in online information without a care for banners or buttons (making them irrelevant). Smart marketers understand that traditional marketing is becoming less and less effective…

Top UX Tools of the Trade: Prototyping, Usability, and Content Management

Relevance: 15% Posted on: January 20, 2016

In a previous post, I described why UX is essential to think about for any business who has a web presence. In this follow-up post, I'll talk about some of the best, and most affordable, UX tools of the trade for helping you assess and grow that web presence. What UX Tools of the Trade Look Like for the Average Business: Prototyping, Usability, and Content Management If you're reading this and you're not sure what UX is, read my previous post where I define it. Essentially, the average business needs to think about three regular activities that involve UX: prototyping, usability,…

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