B2C Content Marketing Strategies – SEO Content Writer or Subject Expert, Who Do You Need?

B2C Content Marketing Strategies - Which Writer to Hire

B2C content marketing strategies (also frequently searched for as ‘b to c marketing‘ and ‘business to consumer marketing‘) require that you communicate with your ideal prospect in simple language. A B2C prospect would ideally ask for information, not research (which is the domain of B2B).

That said, it does enhance your credibility when you link to authentic research material or your company’s data sheets, but that isn’t normally your prospects’ priority.

Who is the ideal writer for B2C content marketing?

Businesses looking for targeted organic traffic understand the value of SEO in content writing. Still, wouldn’t you rather have a subject matter expert get the job done instead of an SEO content writer?

Perhaps, you can get it optimized later by someone well-versed in SEO?

At this point, we are assuming that a writer who specializes in, say, eco-friendly housing, is NOT an expert in search engine optimized content as well.

One might wonder at the logic of that, but if you search online, you will find people and agencies advertising themselves as SEO Content specialists.

It would appear that this is a qualification that, unless specifically stated, need not be assumed to exist as part of a writer’s repertoire.

Personally, I have found otherwise good writers clueless about how to create a backlink (when guest posting on behalf of a client) that provides value to the reader yet passes link juice to a sales page. Or about the value of internal linking in general.

SEO is interesting, and it is also a vast and dynamic subject. Without a genuine interest in its minutiae, you are not likely to keep digging for more for very long.

If you’ve found yourself a subject expert who is also an excellent SEO content writer, feel free to stop reading now.

But you need authority content for Business to Consumer Marketing

Thanks to Google, if you are going to rank yourself, you need authority content for practically everything. And if you are into inbound marketing, obviously, you will want to have content that provides real value to your prospects.

But what are you aiming to write in your B2C blog? Peer-reviewed articles? Or posts that explain the benefits of your product or service to a layperson that you want to convert?

In all likelihood, your ideal reader persona is one that knows a bit about your product and wants to know if you’re the one they’ve been looking for.

Of course, your long tail keywords will also target more knowledgeable prospects who know all about what you are selling and may have further questions.

It is difficult to figure out what might prompt an already knowledgeable person to ask you a question. It will likely be technical in nature (because you will have covered everything else in your ‘About Us’ or ‘Services’ Page). For that, it is probably best to rely upon your support team.

Who do you trust? Spotting fake authority content : Case Studies

Do subject experts make the best writers for B2C marketing strategies?

On the face of it, the answer seems to be an unequivocal ‘Yes’.

But think about it …

When was the last time an expert faced a difficulty that ordinarily plagues the novice? When was the last time an expert was in your average prospect’s shoes?

Are you sure your expert can anticipate problems that a layperson might experience? Can they write in a language that makes sense to the reader who is learning about your service for the first time?

A valid question at this point would be:

Is an SEO Content Writer capable of doing all of that?

Well, if they understand how content ought to be structured for SEO, they know how to

talk to both the reader and the search engine spider to make the topic extremely clear in the first 100 words or so,
address every single aspect of the topic that lies within the purview of the given keyword(s),
format the content with appropriate sub-heads so that the reader can grasp it easily and the search engines know that the content is structured well (and, therefore, deserving of a higher ranking),
link out so that the reader has enough relevant material for further reading and yet, may never reach a competitor’s site, and so that the search spiders understand that your content is well-referenced (and ought to rank),
add resources through appropriate multimedia so that both readers and search bots find your content comprehensive enough to be valuable and,
structure the content so that it does not read like copy but is convincing enough to make you look like the authority that you really must be.

(There’s more, but I was getting kind of tired and figured my readers would be, too).

No writer can achieve all of this without a firm grasp on the subject.

With enough research, unless the subject is highly technical (molecular biology comes to mind) or something that requires real life experience (assembling your own custom PC or tending to pets, for example), our writer would know exactly what you’d want your visitors to understand about your service or product.

And being someone who is proficient in all the ‘How to’ listed above, the writer should be able to put together an article that addresses everything in the common person’s language and from the common person’s point of view. Having learned the subject, perhaps, for the first time, the writer would also know what difficulties the average reader is likely to face.

Wait, any good writer would do all of this, anyway!

Yup. A good content writer would. Because a good content writer is also well-versed in SEO, and will anticipate the readers’ problems and address them adequately.

And a good content writer would never agree to write on a subject that they are not able to grasp well enough to explain in plain language.

So, B2C content strategies ought to prefer SEO content writers and reject subject experts?

Far from it.

The point, on the contrary, is that if you are selling to consumers and not businesses, you should look at your prospective writer’s style of writing instead of at their résumé.

Do they have a lucid, readable style? Are they aware that almost 90% of visitors will want to skim through the content instead of actually reading it – unless the content is structured specifically to compel them to read?

Is the language grammatically correct without being pedantic? Is it also conversational?

Do you see keywords combined with LSI key-phrases in a natural flow of language? And do you also see proper anchor texts?

Your consumers want information, not a lecture. They want to learn about what you are selling, not get a degree reading your blog posts. They want value without having to strain to receive it.

In other words, if you are not selling to businesses, if you are into Business to Consumer content marketing, all you need is a Good Writer.

And once you do, it will not matter if your writer majored in physics or in visual art, if they have worked with businesses in your line of work or no, or if they’ve ever heard of the product you’re selling.

A good writer will look at your project, get some preliminary research done to understand if they are capable of writing compelling content on the subject and let you know – fast.

They will not waste your time with half-baked, ill-informed attempts. They will not waste their own time trying to force themselves to write for you because they will usually have more work than they can handle.

Concluding remarks on the ideal B2C content writer

To summarize, if you are B2C, stop fretting about subject experts. Take a good look at the writer’s portfolio, instead, or at their blog. If you find a voice you like, don’t hesitate to communicate.

I just couldn’t resist elaborating on that point – good writers love to write, and no matter how busy they are, they will usually write for themselves. They will frequently have a blog – maybe even two blogs, one personal and one for their business.

Remember that this is where they are being themselves. This is where you find them in their writer persona when they are not writing for money. So, if I were to choose someone to outsource work (which I don’t), I would definitely prefer to assess them by their blog posts than by their portfolio.

So, if I were to choose someone to outsource work to (which I don’t), I would definitely prefer to assess them by their own blog posts than by their portfolio items. In any case, they are probably also ghostwriting, in which case, their best work might well NOT be a part of the portfolio.

Go for the business blog, and you have your writer in work clothes and still being themselves. A personal blog is where you could find them in their pajamas, and that’s probably not what you’re looking for 😉

How frequently have you succeeded in getting just the writer you wanted without paying them to write for you, first?

1 thought on “B2C Content Marketing Strategies – SEO Content Writer or Subject Expert, Who Do You Need?”

Richa Gangwani says:

December 15, 2016 at 08:30

Good one! Thank you for sharing such an interesting content. B2C strategies are important to be designed by the businesses for the purpose of growing.