Good content that is permanently maintained is an important quality feature for online shops. Those who frequently contribute good posts receive more customer pronouncements are shown more often in search engines and pay to Advertise on Google (Part 2) lower click rates for their Google advertising. But writing product descriptions or blog articles takes time – as well as talent and know-how. Buying texts is therefore often a sensible alternative. We’ll tell you what to look for when buying content.
What is “good content”?
On the Web, reading habits are different from, say, a printed booklet. Capturing the readers with a few well-placed words and then encouraging them to read on is the high art of professional web copywriters. Short paragraphs and subheadings that catch the eye are important stylistic devices here. But also the observance of the requirements of the search engines is important.
Quality has its price
Good quality lyrics have their price and you should be suspicious if some providers are well below the price average. Even offers that are calculated according to “price per word”, rather indicate a lack of quality. This is obviously just about mass – and that’s not in the sense of Google (which attaches great importance to text quality after the recent updates), but also hardly the right thing for the readers.
The preparation: set requirements
What kind of content do you want to buy? Product descriptions, blog articles, user stories, stories about your assortment – much can be helpful to make your online shop more attractive.
Set priorities, because “once everything pleases” might overwhelm your budget. Also, specify the scope of the texts. Also, consider which texts appear cyclical and how long the intervals between the publications should be.
With this quantity framework and the description of the type of texts, you can now start looking for a suitable provider.
How do I find the right provider?
The offers are numerous and range from large agencies with hundreds of copywriters to individual freelancers. If you need a lot of texts right at the beginning, or even if you plan to supply multilingual shops with suitable texts, we recommend a larger provider.
On the other hand, the smaller the content agency, the closer the personal contact to the authors and you can be sure that the style remains the same and the writers are more and more attuned to their needs.
Here it is important to find the right balance between appropriate size and individual care.
Request non-binding offers – and get to know the providers
Of course, the price is an important factor in the Sauce for the appropriate content server. But if you ask for more than one offer, you will also notice that some people only talk about the price of words or lines, while others are happy to advise and provide service. Especially at the beginning, good advice is definitely worth the money.
Again, it is important to find the golden middle ground between the low-cost “text factory” and the probably more expensive “marketing advice”. The latter can often be found quite cheaply for freelance copywriters, who usually also like to talk to you about the price in the case of longer-term cooperation because they receive “secure” orders and save themselves time to acquire them.
Text samples should be readily available from the suppliers. Some will not write texts for you, but refer to reference articles. These should be related to your requirements. Basically, it is advantageous if the providers already serve customers in your industry, because then they already know many of your requirements. However, the authors should not be active for you and your direct competitor at the same time!
And as I said: If an offer is priced significantly below the other, you have to ask yourself if the necessary quality for this price can be delivered. Incidentally, this is especially true for translations!
If we read texts in bumpy, wrong German (“equal buy now!”), The acceptance for the foreign online shop is rather low. And that’s the way your customers abroad if they are not well addressed in their native language.
Very important: because of correct briefing
If the contract is with your service provider, it goes to article writing. For the copywriters, it is very important that they get a clear picture of their task. Who is the target audience? In what context is the text on the website? Which goal should be achieved? How long should the article be?
Here, the trick is to make enough specifications on the one hand, so that the text meets your requirements in the end. On the other hand, the copywriters should not be too much restricted – and you do not want to write the content yourself. The scope of the briefing must be clearly discussed in advance – quality writers prefer to receive more material than necessary, as they can better move into the customer and the target group.
Especially at the beginning, your service provider can support you during the briefing. Once the specifications are up, they can be used again and again for other articles of the same kind in a slightly modified form. And it applies: who declines on a good/extensive briefing, must pay for research time – that is, the articles are more expensive.
Sustainable planning for long-term quality improvement
Search engines love variety. If a website is always the same, its quality index drops – and so it is less frequently displayed. Building quality through content is an ongoing task. For example, buying good product descriptions will surely take your store a big step forward. However, nothing will change in this area soon.
So what can a concept look like in which new content flows into the online shop? For example, you could have recent news about your assortment and blog articles about your products used.
Also, category pages offer a good chance to bring content to your pages, and they have the advantage of persisting as your assortment changes.
And of course, special promotions placed on the home page or certain landing pages fulfill a dual purpose: they attract customers on the one hand on the price, but also provide an opportunity to place good content – and thus the quality of your online store in the long term increase.
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