Just mention content writing to them, almost every online marketer will be quick to say ‘Content is King’. Some marketers would throw big fluffy words like ‘Content Strategy’ and ‘Content Roadmap’ at you, to impress you. After all, you are the potential client.
Try to Google or YouTube the word “Content”, you would really know how the internet marketers are going over the top to prove that content development is almost the end of the world.
However, such terms are more like buzzwords to a lot of entrepreneurs, especially to those who have had a bad experience with content writers. As a result, some of them are hard to talk to now. It is also true that many business owners still don’t appreciate the importance of content creation, for branding. Maybe some are not aware of it.
On the other hand, there are business owners or managers who are ok with filling a few pages with whatever content. For them, the website is just their new business card, rather a fashionable one.
In the worst case, you have someone across the table who knows about content creation but would like you to work for them for free as the rates are so pathetic.
If you are pitching this type of prospect(a potential client), you risk losing your time and resources as he/she does not appreciate your service. The best course of action is to stay away from such clients.
The situation is particularly difficult in Dubai when it comes to content creation or content marketing.
Why Quality Content Writing Services are difficult to sell in Dubai
As I mentioned before, the business owners or managers who do not understand the importance of content would present you with an interesting challenge. It is a matter of trade-off between customer acquisition and profitability.
First, if you have to educate them, it is a lot of work and also you are not sure if they would sign up for your service.
Second, once they understand it they would most probably snub you by cutting your quotation by 50-80 %. You know why they are likely to do that. Actually, they go online and find that they can get a freelancer to write an article for $5 on Fiverr 🙂
They can also directly connect with freelancers or content service providers in the countries known for cheap outsourcing.
The problem with cheap content writing services
Cheap outsourcing can be a great strategy and can offer you a somewhat competitive advantage, but it does not work well for content marketing or content development.
Here is why. You can easily outsource a hardcore IT service that is highly structured. For example, fixing bugs regularly on a website or writing a basic level code.
However, developing a great piece of content is really the opposite. First of all, there is an issue of originality. Creating authentic content takes time and also some talent. Further, it requires at least two different sets of skills. For example, I can write but I need a good editor to proofread and edit my work.
{I do both myself and you see it for yourself in my writing when I have delayed proofreading. I just hate proofreading my own writing 🙂 Proofreading your own writing is a challenge because you are so involved in the topic that you add more ideas each time you try to proofread it. Thus, you create more mess each time you touch it.}
Second, the content has to add to your brand story or sell or communicate what your business offers, therefore, it should not be taken lightly.
Let’s say you get cheap freelancers or services to create content for your blog, social media, or web pages, do you really think the freelancer is going to care?
Of course not, you would get mostly plagiarized or average content. Nothing is truer than this cliched line here:
“You get what you pay for” is the real story of content creation.
Tell me if you have used the services of freelance portals and you have not got burnt. Did you not get plagiarized or bad quality? Did the cheap content writers waste your time and resources?
You see, content development is a part of the overall content marketing strategy of a brand. OK, It sounds pompous but content strategy is how you can tell your brand story. The content could be a part of the great copy in your ad campaign, on your website, and on your blog.
The Marriage of Content and SEO
It is not just writing content on your website or on your blog particularly but you need to rank your pages in the search engines. It means content writing is basically for the purpose of optimization of your website or generally known as search engine optimization(SEO).
How search engine optimization works depend on the technologies used by search engines such as Google & Bing etc. There are some specific SEO techniques that make your pages readable and discoverable by search engine bots.
Have you been trying to do SEO yourself using Yoast plugins? Or you are completely new to this field?
Let’s say, you know how to do research and find the right keywords. You can go ahead and optimize your site in the back end utilizing the services of a developer. In fact, using Yoast SEO plugins, all this would be done for you automatically except the keywords research.
The search engine bots are looking at the quality of content on your page by assessing how much time a user spends on the page. In other words, time is one of the most important metrics to determine if you have quality content or not.
It does not end there, the bots also want to know if people are engaging with the content by linking to it (that is the backlink).
Can you motivate me to link to your article that someone wrote for you on Fiverr for $5. Trust me, doing no content development is better than doing such bad stuff.
Once, a client called me over to a very fancy hotel in Dubai. I had the impression from our conversation on the phone that they knew the worth and importance of quality content. Besides, they insisted that they had already seen and liked some of my work. Of course, I was excited to go into the meeting.
Man, it was unbelievable! The guy had the audacity to take out a calculator and price each article @ $10 and arrived at $250 for the total of 25 articles. It doesn’t end there. He wanted the articles to be optimized (SEO) and had to be 500 words each.
Now, this was like a Fiverrmania that had come to life at a luxurious hotel in Dubai. I could hardly compose myself at the revelation. It was a complete waste of time. My mistake! The incident deserves a separate article. I think I should write it soon.
