Content writing for your site can take a wrong turn when your posts read more like advertisements than an
informative article written with your customer’s needs in mind. The advertorials hurt your company by making
your brand seem less dependent, less credible, and less focused on the clients. Leads will be able to see
the difference, and your company can take the hit for your senseless “blog” posts.
Here are some ways to steer your brand away from advertorials and make sure you stay on task with your
blogposts:
Don’t Write For Money
First off, to make sure your blog doesn’t seem like a series of advertorials, make sure that it actually
doesn’t include paid advertisements. With popular blogs, companies will begin to offer financial stipends
with mentions and promotions of their product. If you are name-dropping other brands and getting paid for it,
I hate to break it to you, but guess what: you are writing an advertorial. You may think you can just sneak
in the brand in a seamless way that the reader will not notice, but in the end they always do and they will
not appreciate the sneakiness.
Focus On Your Readers
Newsflash: it’s not all about you. In fact, it’s actually all about them. When writing your blogposts,
your goal should be to inform and maybe even entertain or enlighten the reader. You have to do whatever it
takes to make the reader feel like you are servicing them. Therefore, this should not be a testimonial to get
people to see how great your business is and show off everything you offer. No one likes to listen to, or
read, someone bragging about themselves and dragging on about their own needs. Keep the focus on the
customer and their needs. Your reputation will be much better with this approach.
Keep It Consistent
Blogging is not a one and done deal. If you are trying to generate leads and sales through content
marketing, you have to continue to write and inform your followers. If you solely write blog posts when you
have a new product or service to promote, this technique can be very transparent. Your site’s visitors can
tell when you are being sincere, or when you are simply writing to promote yourself in a timely manner,
especially when your posts only occur around the time of a new sales offer. Be genuine and consistently post
about a variety of informative, not persuasive, topics to engage readers and turn them into paying
customers.
Keep Your Eye On The Prize
The purpose of content writing is to write articles and blogposts that pose as a catchy and informative
way to attract customers to your site. By writing advertorials, you are hurting your site by only thinking of
short term profits. With advertorials, you may get paid upfront by the source of the advertisement, or get
paid based on the number of clicks or readers of the post, but these pointed articles don’t go very far on
social media. These are easily spotted and rarely, if ever, go viral. Informative blogposts, on the other
hand, can be extremely fun, unique and impressive to the reader, and will likely get more shares by readers
who are not skeptical of your intentions. These are the articles that potential lead want to read and that
will attract more business to your site and will pay off in sales in the long run.
Your Title Should Be Cohesive With Your Writing
If your title brags about all the impressive information that your article is supposed to include, yet
your writing simply promotes your company without getting to the point, then readers will begin to question
its purpose. There is nothing more frustrating to potential customers than clicking on something only to find
that the link was misleading and that the information they were seeking out was only a sneaky hidden ad
disguised as an informative article. Don’t disappoint your prospects with this devious tactic. Be sincere and
truthful, and gain sustainable leads by keeping your writing on task.