Updates - Express Writers

New in Our Content Shop This Month: Sales Copywriting & Social Media Video Production

September 5, 2022December 15, 2020 by Julia McCoy

In my team here at Express Writers, we never slow down. For one, we interview hundreds of writers every month to find our 1-2%, the writers we put a lot of trust in to handle our clients’ projects. Since our clients rely on us to produce content that won’t add to the noise, and isn’t crappy… we need the best. Fulfilling that is our mission, no matter how tough that commitment gets. But we don’t stop just there. In fact, every few months we sit down and review, audit, fine-tune, and add to our existing services. (For example — this spring, we doubled what we pay our industry expert writers, which was a direct pivot to match the market. We couldn’t hire qualified legal writers anymore at the rate we were charging our clients, so we changed up our process and pay rate.) We believe in improving, evolving, and growing our own services, processes, and team. It’s a tall order, but one we’ll never drop. Growth and evolution is a part of success. Without change, a brand gets stagnant and behind the times. That’s why we’re here sharing two new services we’re now offering as of today in the Content Shop. ? ? Sales copywriting Social media video production When it comes to video, in 2020 and going forward, stats show that 54% of consumers actively want to see more video content, 87% of brands are using it, and — ready for it? in social media, video is THE favorite content format for consumers to watch. I’ve been playing with video myself for four years, and serious about producing video on our channels for two. I can say that video has added more direct clients and revenue to our bottom line. To be able to launch this as a service today, I convinced my talented producer to become a full-time contracted member of my team! ? We’ve been hard at work training the rest of the team on how to get ready for a whole new pipeline and format delivery. Sales copywriting is an answer to the rising need established brands have for persuasive copywriting. Now at Express Writers, your sales copywriting will be crafted by a Copyhackers-trained writer. A few of our top writers have stepped up to take on a Copyhackers certification and grow their skills. They’re working directly under me to get ready for your sales copywriting orders. Good copy can make the biggest difference between the conversion or not of a sales offer you are putting out. Wondering how much sales copy can do? It can be as much as 90% difference in conversions. Just this year, a marketing firm (VWO) published a study on what happened when they tweaked copy for a client of theirs, CityCliq. Their A/B Test of four versions of a single headline revealed that a single winning headline earned a whopping 90% increase in conversion rate over the original. If targeted sales copy, which is a skill and an art, could earn you a 90% conversion increase — what would that do for your business? Both video and sales copywriting are top content formats we couldn’t ignore any more. Social media video — you need it. Sales copywriting — you need it. We now do both. Keep reading for the full story behind our new services. It’s Here: Launching Two New Content Shop Services, Sales Copywriting & Social Media Video Packages In Q4 of 2020, we asked ourselves, “How can we continue to make Express Writers stand out as a provider that matches the times?” Besides sales copywriting, video was a format we couldn’t ignore any longer, along with persuasive, sales-focused copywriting that helps your landing pages earn that ROI you’re hoping for. Here’s the backstory. Social Media Videos & The Importance of Consistently Publishing Brand Video on Social When it came to video, I’ve heard this question for years — “Julia, why don’t you offer video at Express Writers?” Many of the people that asked were outsiders looking in. Peers, friends in my network. They were right — video is hot. But they weren’t right on the suggestion that we should just willy-nilly add it because it’s a “hot service.” I didn’t take those outsiders’ advice. (And you shouldn’t either.) If I did, it would have broken us. We were busy getting our core services right. The reason I didn’t was because of two big, giant P’s we couldn’t answer well when it came to video. People and process. You need both before you can even consider offering a DFY (done-for-you) service that your clients will love. [bctt tweet=”People and process. ? You need both before you can even consider offering a done-for-you service that your clients will love. @JuliaEMcCoy on launching new #contentmarketing and #videoproduction services at @ExpWriters ” username=””] You need a smart team of people ready to provide the team service you’re selling, and you need a great process for creation and production. I didn’t have either for video. We spent years getting our process for content writing together. It was only when I met and partnered with the video producer behind all my own videos that I began to dream again about offering video services from Express Writers. Here’s the gorgeous video our producer made to announce today’s launch of video production #meta. He’s mega talented. ⭐️ At Express Writers, we never slow down. We’re continually optimizing our services (track record: 9 years/30,000 projects ✅) for our clients’ best results. Today, we’re thrilled to announce TWO new services: #VideoMarketing and #SalesCopywriting. ? ➡️ https://t.co/2mQMyo1iJl pic.twitter.com/r3XGSrHNyQ — Express Writers | Your Content Writing Partner (@ExpWriters) December 15, 2020 Over the months, we nailed down our process for our own marketing videos. And it wasn’t easy. My team or I would write and script (we’d spend a day or two just in the writing alone), and then my producer (now our on-staff video producer here at EW!) would spend another few days in the creation stage. Then, we’d review, and there would be at least a few revisions for accuracy. Days, hours, over a … Read more

Introducing Express Writers 2.0: A Story of Hard Work, Passion, and Perseverance Despite the Odds

January 1, 2021October 13, 2020 by Julia McCoy

I can’t believe we’re here, announcing our new ecommerce platform launch! Specifically, our 3-in-1 launch just happened: a brand new, faster website with new design and UX implemented; a new ecommerce order platform that we’ve built; and finally, a new internal project management teamroom system for our writers and team. Everything you see has been built by our company — led by Josh, our CTO, and his team of developers. We had some consulting help in design along the way, and a great developer. The migration began on Saturday (10/9) and as of today, Express Writers is officially on our new site, a new ecommerce shop, and a new internal writers’ teamroom. ? We began this journey of investing massively into developing a new system more than three years ago. Over time, one of the biggest and only complaints we have had through time is the lackluster UX in our client account area. However, in my entrepreneurial journey I’ve learned the hard way that people come before platforms — and that’s why we focused first on building a team of the right people. We know there are some hiccups right now… and don’t worry, our development team led by Josh, our CTO, is hard at work on all of them. We’re confident we’ll have the kinks figured out by end of week. (Input forms was one hiccup that didn’t work correctly on launch, and as of this morning, they do! ? ) You could say we truly started on the trajectory nine years ago, when we began from scratch. Read a summary of what’s new, and the short story of arriving at today’s launchpad below. Our Brand-New Site, System and Content Shop at Express Writers We’re so proud to announce the launch of our new site, system, and ecommerce Content Shop! It’s taken years — almost a full decade to build this system. This is our #1 goal with this launch: Finally having an all-in-one system that talks to each side: the client side, the management side, and the team side. This has been a dream of YEARS! We’re also in a place where our clients have a better dashboard, with more accessible communication and project status updates. (After launch hiccups are smoothed out.) Important: We plan to continue to develop the client account area, and teamroom, based on feedback we receive over the course of the next month or two. Today’s version is called “MVP,” which you know if you’re in development at all. MVP: “a minimum viable product is a version of a product with just enough features to satisfy early customers and provide feedback for future product development.” We had to strip away other features to focus on building the systems, inner workings, code, and functionality of the core features we launched with today. In the new Content Shop, it’s much easier for you as a client user to: Configure, see, and add the service you need to cart & checkout from the new ecommerce Content Shop. Our “industry services” are gone–you now simply choose the format or service, and then tell us your industry in the input form! ? This removes about 15 “products” and an entire category from our Shop, making it simpler to choose and buy. This doesn’t mean our industry expert writers are gone; on the contrary, we’ve hired more this month! It means you simply tell us after you choose the format first (blog, web page, etc.) what your industry is. Know and see more detailed statuses about your project. (Assigned vs. Working, etc.) Respond to and communicate back with us in easier ways in your dashboard. Manage input forms easier. Watch our client walkthrough video for our new system below: FAQs for the New System I don’t see my old orders. Where do I go?! This is by far the biggest question. To access your orders from Friday, October 9th and backwards, from shop.expresswriters.com, go to Legacy Account Access in the menu. You can also save this link directly: http://legacy.expresswriters.com/ You’ll need to go there to access old orders from Friday, October 9th and going backwards. We weren’t able to import 20,000 projects into the new system — it simply wasn’t feasible. However, after the bumps in the road are over, we promise the new system will be much better. (It should take hours of error-prone manual work out of our workflow.) Our Team is a Story of Hard Work, Passion, and Perseverance Despite the Odds Many of you already know the story, so, I’ll keep today’s campfire tale short. ⛺️ In 2011, Express Writers was born. In 2012, my partner Josh joined my team, and the tech enhancements began. He asked why I was still sending PayPal invoices, and shortly after we began to build our own client platform. The first version of our ecommerce Content Shop launched in 2014, built from scratch in WordPress for a little less than $12k. Unfortunately, we had to have separate systems; the one we built in WordPress was for our clients, and for our team, we settled on a modified version of a CMS called Active Collab. These two systems didn’t speak to each other, but we had to figure out something to get off of email and miscellaneous invoicing — so we did. Today, our new system is quite the massive endeavor. It’s taken over three years, and truth be told, more than $200k to develop. All of which came directly from our business revenue — we’ve never taken a penny in outside funding. It’s been my scrappy little team, all along. We’ve built everything. After testing out 50+ CMS systems, and realizing none of them would ever fit the content creation pathway we’ve built internally nor would it ever seamlessly talk to the teamroom and management side unless it was all one, we decided to build our own all-in-one writer teamroom. And, of course, that meant building a brand new and improved Content Shop platform, too. Which naturally led to “hey, let’s build a new site … Read more

We’re Doubling What We Pay Expert Writers… & More: Spring 2020 Updates at Express Writers

April 8, 2021March 13, 2020 by Adam Oakley

Did you know March 19 is the first day of spring? …As of today, we are just six days away from that! Crazy to think that, as it seems the beginning of 2020 just rolled around. Over here at Express Writers, it’s the beginning of a new season. And it’s time to share the details of this ‘new season’ with all of you. For a while now, we’ve been listening to our clients who have brands in high-level, advanced niches; watching the hiring industry change for expert writers; and testing what works. About three months ago, we launched a higher-priced industry writing service called Legal Copywriting, and we’ve found that it was an absolute no-brainer for our law industry clients to invest in $120/500w and get a practicing or retired attorney-turned-copywriter on their work. (We headhunt and do all the hard work of finding that expert for them, and then train them on modern content writing using my elite, Express-Writers-only training.) Our test with high-level writing experts for the legal industry was a success. It made sense — we’ve had clients leave over not receiving a true depth of expertise in their industry content, but we’ve found we simply can’t hire deep industry experts at the same pay rate we pay general experts. So, here’s what just went down today in a short TL;DR (too long, don’t read) summary: Our Industry Expert Blogs are now called Blogs, and feature a basic industry expert writer. This is the same price you’ve already gotten familiar with, if you’re an existing client: $90/500w. We aren’t axing that at all — yes, you can still get this price and service — and we still have phenomenal writers for that category. However, if you are looking for a more tenured industry expert writer that will craft authoritative writing to satisfy a very high-level niche industry, that is now $120/500w, and you can pick your industry from the revamped Content Shop. The writers we hire for these industries must have a degree in the industry, 10 years of experience, and industry accomplishments under their belt. (It takes some serious HR time. And then we continue to train them once we hire them.) Here’s our list of industry-specific expert content creation services, available at $120/500w: Medical and Healthcare Health, Fitness, and Wellness Finance Real Estate Insurance Tech and Engineering Legal Marketing Sports Keep reading for all the details. [bctt tweet=”Did we just decide to pay our expert writers… double? ? We did. Learn all about our Spring 2020 changes in this Write Blog post by founder @JuliaEMcCoy.” username=”ExpWriters”] We’re Doubling What We Pay Expert Writers… & More: Spring 2020 Updates at Express Writers As already mentioned above, our former Industry Expert Blogs are now called Blogs, and feature a basic industry expert writer. You can still receive $90/500w expert content; it will feature a basic, high-quality expert writer. Our writers for this category are rockstars. You’re getting beautiful content. What you’re not getting at $90/500w is a tenured industry expert writer that will craft authoritative writing to satisfy a very high-level niche industry. Specifically, these industries: Medical and Healthcare Health, Fitness, and Wellness Finance Real Estate Insurance Tech and Engineering Legal Marketing Sports The reason we had to go up to $120/500w for these industries, and pay double, is because we simply cannot hire industry experts (true experts) and train them into expert industry writers at the $90/500w price. Storytime: How We Found Ourselves Up Against a Pay Wall Last December, I spent an entire month trying to hire for one specific expert category we needed to fill at the “old” rates (the non-doubled pay rates). Guess what happened? After going through 1,500+ applicants and spending hours testing and interviewing, I didn’t find a single person. ? I remember even working on vacation in the terminal during our Christmas family trip to Boulder, Colorado. If I had a photo to document the stress, I’d share it, but you can imagine in your head: my five-year-old was running around the terminal, the hubby right behind her, juice and snacks in hand. There I was, typing away furiously on what should have been a family vacation — spending every spare moment I had like a madwoman to hire for the open vacancy. We went through so many resumes and did not find anyone to stick in our team for the industry I was hiring for. At the time, we weren’t ready to raise rates yet because we weren’t sure it was the right decision. Well, after not finding a single expert available to put in their talent for us at that pay rate, we decided it was time to implement a simple campaign we called Pay-Our-Experts-Double. Our Content Manager, Korilynn, suggested it — good thing she did. To put it bluntly, there was no other choice. I couldn’t find an expert available at our old pay rate. We began by hiring in the Legal industry at the new pay rate/client bill rate, and I worked closely with Korilynn to hire actual J.D.s who had passed the bar and practiced as attorneys. We found a former patent attorney with 20 years of experience who was ready to transition and work from home. We hired him full-time, and he has written some phenomenal content for our law clients. Our new team of high-level legal writers, hired with a J.D. as the basic requirement and then trained by us in content writing, not only worked happily at the new pay rate (so important to a great work culture!), but also made every client that hired us for the $120/500w legal expert content writing service incredibly happy. ? Win, win. So, we’ve decided to apply this to 9+ more industries, and that’s what just happened today. At $120 per 500w, we are paying double to hire expert writers that fulfill our new “deep expertise” requirements. These are the requirements we’ve learned work best for our industry-expert clients (especially brands in tech, finance, medical, insurance, real estate industries, etc.): Have a minimum … Read more

My Third Book, Woman Rising: A True Story, Is Out Today! (Video)

January 1, 2021February 10, 2020 by Adam Oakley

It’s launch day!! My new nonfiction narrative memoir, Woman Rising: A True Story, is out right now. You can find it on Amazon in whatever format suits your fancy: Kindle, paperback, or Audible audiobook (narrated by me)! I’ve been jittery with excitement for this day to finally arrive so I can share my story with you. The thing is, this book is totally different from everything I’ve written in the past. It’s been a long time coming: 2.5 years, to be exact. That’s the time it took to make this book a reality, to corral my memories and experiences and explain how I became the person I am today. Needless to say, I’m downright thrilled it’s finally launch day. Just in case you missed my first announcement about the book, or aren’t sure what the story entails, I’ve got you. Today we’re also debuting a new, short film that showcases the book’s major themes. Find out more (and watch the film!) below. [bctt tweet=”@JuliaEMcCoy’s new nonfiction memoir, Woman Rising, is out TODAY. Check out the short film about the book and find out where you can grab your copy! ” username=”ExpWriters”] What Is Woman Rising About? Why I Needed to Write and Share This Story This is the true story of my life growing up in a religious cult under the thumb of my controlling, abusive father, the cult leader. It’s the story of how I kept my hope and passions alive despite the odds. It’s the tale of how Express Writers was born, and how it eventually became the means I used to enable my escape. This book also charts the road I traveled to healing, and how I grew my tiny business into a bonafide brand (missteps and all). Watch the short film about Woman Rising: If you follow the Write Blog or any of my social media accounts, you know my other books and projects have all been centered on content marketing strategy and writing. Woman Rising represents a departure from that realm, but it also fits right in. [bctt tweet=”If you follow the Write Blog, you know my other books and projects have all been centered on content marketing strategy and writing. Woman Rising represents a departure from that realm, but it also fits right in. ❤ – @JuliaEMcCoy ⚡” username=”ExpWriters”] I can’t tell the full story of how I got into this industry without including my formative years, when my strength and hope were tested daily in an environment of abuse and control. Many parts of my story seem, in fact, hopeless. However, I wouldn’t be where I am today if I hadn’t managed to find the light and escape my father’s household. Since then, I have built a thriving business, created a loving family, and emerged from the ashes of my upbringing stronger than ever. “This is the story with the kind of hope that starts small, like a single ray of sunshine on a dark floor, building over time to become a blazing, all-encompassing orb that radiates through every pore, every cell.” [bctt tweet=”This is the story with the kind of hope that starts small, like a single ray of sunshine on a dark floor ⛅, building over time to become a blazing, all-encompassing orb that radiates through every pore, every cell. – @JuliaEMcCoy” username=”ExpWriters”] Woman Rising: A True Story – Get Your Copy on Amazon TODAY I am BEYOND excited to finally share this story with you. My hope is it inspires you to follow your dreams and passions. No matter what stands in your way. Despite the obstacles, and despite all odds. Grab your copy today on Amazon. To your happiness, Julia

What’s New in the Content Shop for 2020: Price Increase (& Why), New Features in Blogging Plans, New Products & More!

June 19, 2024January 14, 2020 by Adam Oakley

Last week, we rolled out several exciting changes to the Content Shop for 2020! ? These changes included: More word count ranges on most of our services in the Content Shop A new content plan just for marketers launching new websites, brands, or software Updated social media plans Legal blog packages added Rate increases on our expert blogs and packages to continue to help us source and retain the best talent Read on to learn all about the improvements we rolled out that went live last week. Plus: a few words from yours truly on the state of content creation and hiring great content creators in 2020. What’s New in the Content Shop for 2020: Price Increase (& Why), New Features in Blogging Plans, New Products & More [bctt tweet=”Get to see what’s changed in our Content Shop for 2020 in this post by @JuliaEMcCoy. ?️Launching a new killer website? Need expertly-written legal blogs? We can totally help you right now! See what’s new. ?” username=”ExpWriters”] Here’s the lowdown on the changes in our Content Shop for 2020. 1. Our content rates increased for 2020. Not by a ton — by about $5-10 on our industry expert blogs, and $100+ on our blog packages and social media plans. We also added more word count ranges to our Content Shop offerings, which means you don’t need to get boxed in for large ranges. We noticed a need for customizing our ranges more. We also added some new services and refined our packages! (See a shortlist of updated prices and offerings on our Pricing page.) Why did we increase our rates? Well, that brings me to what it takes to hire a great content creator. Facts: Every year, recruiting content writing talent increases both in price and time. This is especially true for 2020. The bar for great content has risen, seriously, in the past few years. Just click to read more about my prediction for 2020 (and I’m not the only one predicting this): 1. Amazing, Niche, Expert Content Which Meets or Exceeds Google’s E-A-T Standards. TL;DR — Content is a powerful tool today for online marketers. Over 70% of ALL web traffic originates from a Google search, according to Backlinko/SparkToro. Your users are Googling for your content! Publishing content generates 67% more leads than NOT publishing content, says a HubSpot study. 71% of B2B buyers read blog content during their buying journeys (3-5 blogs is the norm). [bctt tweet=”Our content rates increased for 2020: about $5-10 on our industry expert blogs and $100+ on blog packages and social media plans. ? With this, you’re paying for the work, time, and training required to deliver you high-quality content. ?” username=”ExpWriters”] But content is only powerful if you’re building amazing content. More people, brands, and marketers in your industry are getting wise to how well it works, and so you’ll continue to have to hit a high bar to succeed in 2020. With the sea of content rising, the place to put your focus on is “amazing.” In 2020, it’s not just bad content that will fall flat. It’s mediocre content, the “not bad,” and the “good enough” content. To rank with Google and readers today, your content must go far into the “exceptional,” “amazing,” and “wow” territory. When it comes to content you publish on your website today, Google actually defines what “quality” looks like. Hit Google’s definition of quality. In their Webmaster Guidelines, Google references helping, being information-rich (comprehensive), and including the right words (optimization) in content. Source: Steps to a Google-friendly site Source: Webmaster Guidelines Not only that, but Google says you must — Prove you’re an expert in your industry and topic area. Google talks about the importance of expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness (E-A-T) in its Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines. Google itself called these guidelines a good indicator of how they define high-quality (and low-quality) content, in an article from August 2019 on the Webmaster Central Blog. Create & publish amazing-quality content consistently. Inconsistency in content is a recipe for catastrophe. Failing to update your content regularly (whether that means tweaking older articles or pages or posting new ones), as well as failing to maintain your quality standards, will ultimately hurt your search visibility. When it comes to hiring writers for great web content, all of these guidelines — which is a big component of our values at Express Writers to uphold and adhere to (why else would you buy content from us?) — are very difficult to hire, train, and retain writers for. I’ve found this true since the beginning. One other barrier here is that people that we hire — freelancers, content writers — think that they can graduate college with these skills. Writing skills that earn rankings in Google, engagement with online readers, and ROI from the business who hired you. A growing number of entrants to the content creation industry are disillusioned. Sadly, this only grows the more the years go by and college doesn’t get reinvented on this point. I have to un-teach many academically trained writers on how to be content creators. It’s one reason I launched an SEO writing course a few years ago. Back in 2011, when I started out, because of the way content was (less competition, less intelligence in Google’s ranking AI), you could get away with an Upwork writer to write a darn good blog for the price of a takeout meal or two. But not anymore. The writers you need to find today must have these six characteristics to be successful at creating your online content: Know the industry they’re writing for (now a requirement with Google’s E-A-T standards) Know how to optimize for Google Know how to write to engage online readers Know how to skip the fluff (because that doesn’t get read) Know how to find, source, and include the right statistics and competitor-free links Be open to ongoing critique and mentorship [bctt tweet=”.@JuliaEMcCoy says it takes these six skillsets for an online writer to succeed: 1. Know the Industry 2. Know SEO Optimization 3. Write to Engage 4. Skip the Fluff 5. Source and Cite 6. Be Open to Critique ? ” username=”ExpWriters”] I spend hours every week finding and retaining the right writing talent. … Read more

Annual Content Creation Report: A Year in the Life of A 500,000+ Word/Month Content Production Team

February 15, 2021December 31, 2019 by Adam Oakley

In this report, we’re giving our Write Blog readers one of the most intensive insights we’ve ever put together on our internal content production. This report is a real look at the content creation our team undertook for our clients for one year. We’ve never done a transparent income report before on the Write Blog, so this is the first one. The data below comes from our e-commerce Content Shop, and the month-by-month data is generated from inside our own platform as over 50-60 monthly clients order from us. Two years ago, our consistent top selling service was general blogs, and our team was producing over a million words per month. This year, our top seller was industry expert blogs. We saw a major transition in demand from general writers into expert writers this year, comparatively from 2018 to 2019. We believe this will only continue, as content marketers realize the level they need to hit to perform well with readers and Google. Across even our highest-volume client accounts, industry expert writers are now becoming a “must-have” over a more generalized, non-expert voice. This is a necessary evolution, as Google continues to enforce E-A-T (Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness) and Y-M-Y-L (an even higher level of quality needed for Your Money or Your Life industries) in ranking content in search results. Expert authors and creators are absolutely a must for brands and publishers today. Without further ado, let’s get into our year-to-date content creation recap. New here? Read the story of how Express Writers was founded. 2019 Content Creation Report: A Year in the Life of A 500,000+ Word/Month Content Production Team Our Top 6 Hottest Content Creation Service Offerings for the Year Expert Blogs Custom-Quoted Projects Expert Web Pages Custom Images Product Descriptions Blogging Plans [bctt tweet=”500,000+ words written per month? ✍️ It’s true, for an agency with 90 writers on staff! Read @JuliaEMcCoy’s first-ever income and production report for @ExpWriters in this Write Blog.” username=”ExpWriters”] 3 Content Creation Insights from Our Year of Content Production in 2019 I founded Express Writers back in 2011, eight years ago. Read my story here, and if you want the FULL, unabridged story (including how I escaped a cult!), sign up for my memoir on my entrepreneurial journey launching in February of 2020. I’m thrilled to see our company continue to stand and grow in the industry, and 2019 was another great year for Express Writers. We had the opportunity to partner with and collaborate on some incredible content projects, serving clients all around the world with fabulous written content for their blog, site, PR, social media, advertising, and other copy needs. 1. Quality Over Quantity in Team Size Jeff Bezos said it best: “Every internal team should be small enough that it can be fed with two pizzas.” (He continues to apply this rule in Amazon’s upper management.) After surviving eight years of HR trenches, I’ve found that my leadership runs best when it’s a small, productive team of people. We don’t have crossovers, we avoid ‘too many cooks in the kitchen,’ and everyone works together incredibly well. [bctt tweet=”.@JuliaEMcCoy says a small team is best. ‘You don’t need a massive team to produce amazing content. After surviving eight years of HR trenches, I’ve found that my leadership runs best when it’s a small, productive team of people.’ ” username=”ExpWriters”] You also don’t need a massive team to produce amazing content. We have 90 writers on staff, and 30-40 are always busy full-time—several of whom work and train directly under me. The others remain on-call for various niche project. One writer only writes content for a luxury yachting brand; another only writes content on outdoor sports, fly-fishing and hunting. One is a retired J.D. that writes copy for legal websites and blogs. Those are just some examples of the niche writers we’ve head-hunted to add to the team. While our writing and editing team stays around ninety people consistently, our leadership team has stayed small this year. Our management and leadership team is less than six people. Korilynn (writing/editorial team management), myself (marketing/HR), Josh (our CTO), Lorien (client onboarding and assistance), Kira (scheduled for calls by appointment, on-staff Content Strategist), and Danielle (our content and editorial specialist, as well as support for my courses). 2. Higher Word Count Doesn’t Always Mean More Revenue High revenue doesn’t always correlate to a high volume of words and production, as you’ll see from the statistics below. In fact, many times, it’s quite the opposite for our team. For example, a general blog can cost $45; a single 500-word page of a case study by one of our top-tier marketing writers can cost $150. Typically, the higher the quality desired, the higher the price; and less words can end up being involved in a project like that as opposed to a lower-quality, higher-word count project. So, this has pushed me towards ways we can work smarter, not just harder. [bctt tweet=”Higher ‘production’ doesn’t always equal more revenue. Work smarter, not harder. This and other lessons from @JuliaEMcCoy’s year-end report for @ExpWriters 6 MILLION word/year: ” username=”ExpWriters”] Our lowest-revenue month was a month where we were completing a big general content project for a client, and our content creation was ridiculously high-volume. But our income was low. Since general content is one of our lowest-priced services, that was a low-revenue month. 3. Evergreen Business Growth is the Best Growth The biggest catalyst for our growth continues to be our own Express Writers’ Write Blog, which is a “slow and steady” race—reminiscent of a turtle plodding forward, day after day. We haven’t taken a vacation from blogging in eight years. I’m three months ahead with the content schedule, and we publish a blog once every Tuesday. I also publish a YouTube video every third Monday. After eight years, our blog is now at 100,000 visitors/month. [bctt tweet=”Slow and steady growth is the best growth, @JuliaEMcCoy says. It’s taken them eight years to grow the Write Blog to the presence it has today … Read more

Explaining Our Content Strategy Services at Express Writers (4 Ways We Can Strategize & Save You Time)

January 5, 2021October 17, 2019 by Adam Oakley

This blog was updated in October 2019. This will hardly come as a surprise, but we love content. ❤ Our entire business is built on content, but it goes beyond that – it’s in our blood. We know that great content is one of the most powerful ways to grow your business, find new leads, and stand out among your competitors. You don’t have to take our word for it, either, the numbers speak for themselves: 71% of all B2B buyers read (multiple) blogs when making decisions. B2B companies with a smart content strategy generate 67% more leads than their competitors. Websites that blog regularly have (on average) 434% more indexed pages in Google. Great content gives your business the attention it deserves, but just publishing without a plan is hardly what we’d call a solid strategy. What you need is a sustainable, data-driven process, that can help you grow your business and keep giving you positive results over the long term. You need a content strategy, and that’s where we come in with our expert content strategy services. 4 Highly Recommended Content Strategy Services to Help You Create Winning Content 1. A custom editorial calendar 2. In-depth keyword research 3. Topic planning for your blog and website 4. Expert content strategy consultations We didn’t select any of these services at random. These are many of the same processes that we used to grow Express Writers to the point where it is today (I’ll talk more about this in a second!). Now that we know what works and why, we’re ready to share these services with you to grow your own business. [bctt tweet=”To have a working and winning content strategy, you need 4 components: a custom editorial calendar, keywords researched, topics planned, and expert guidance. Get these essentials with the help of @ExpWriters. ? ” username=”JuliaEMcCoy”] Developing the Right Content Strategy Helped Us Grow — and It Should Help You Too Here’s how I know just how effective a well-planned content strategy can be: it’s how we grew Express Writers to the point where it is today. It took years to figure out and, more importantly, perfect the entire process, and I didn’t want to settle for anything less than perfection. Within 2 years of implementing our content strategy, Express Writers boomed to 6 figures and then 7 in annual recurring revenue (ARR). We weren’t doing all that bad before, but the growth was insane, and I can boil that down to two things: 1. Our content strategy. We’re not really into creating content for content’s sake. Instead, I developed a content strategy process that focuses on high-quality, authority-level content, guided by in-depth SEO research. Once I got clear on the six areas of content strategy we needed to clarify and implement, our real content success began to happen. (My first foray into content strategy was when I built a simple team-only inner training on content strategy, as far back as 2015. Today, I’ve taken these cores and developed them into a $1,000 course with over 100 enrolled students, and a book that tops the charts on Amazon.) 2. The amazing team we have in place. FACTS: If you want to execute a winning strategy, you need expert, talented help in your corner. ? At Express Writers, we’re content experts first, a team secondly — not the other way around. We love what we do, and that has always come first. We didn’t scramble for our expert hats and then market ourselves. We earned a real status by building real skills, and THEN sold services to our clients in our agency. Read about our standards here. I’ve talked extensively about the content strategy we implemented to grow Express Writers. However, if I had to sum it up in a few words, it would be these. Stop wasting time with low-effort content. Instead, put real effort into high-quality pieces and SEO. It sounds pretty simple when you put it like that. However, the amount of research, planning, and work that goes into executing a solid content strategy is mindboggling, particularly as your website starts to grow. Remember how I mentioned it took us years to perfect the process? And that’s coming from people that do this for a living! [bctt tweet=”We have succeeded mostly because of the content strategy we’ve implemented throughout the years. The lesson: Stop wasting time with low-effort content. Instead, put real effort into high-quality and your #strategy. ? ” username=”ExpWriters”] 4 Ways We Save You Some Serious Time and Trouble with Our Expert Content Strategy Services You already understand the sheer power of content when it comes to growing an online business, so let’s talk about how we can help you. 1. We Put Together a Custom Editorial Calendar that Fits Your Goals (?It’s a Must-Have!) You want your website to rank for as many keywords as possible, which means you need content. A lot of websites focus on putting out as much content as possible at a breakneck pace, but that’s not a winning strategy. What you need is a plan and, as simple as it may sound, a calendar. That means a week-by-week plan that outlines the content you’re going to publish. That way, you have a bird’s-eye view of what topics you’re going to target and when. Here’s how it works: You tell us what your niche is, what your business is about, and what sets you apart. Our crack content strategists do their research, and here’s what you get: A two-month editorial calendar, including perfect-fit keywords and topics your audience will love. Tentative schedule dates designed to maximize the returns on your content. An easy-to-understand report using an Excel template. Those are the basics, but all our services also include plenty of extras. Our editorial calendars also include lists of influencers we recommend you engage within your niche, BuzzSumo content analysis reports, and an evergreen guide on the metrics we use. Every single editorial calendar we send is put together by our … Read more

Spring 2019 Updates at Express Writers: Team Additions, Social Media Copy & Image Updates & More

March 23, 2022April 11, 2019 by Adam Oakley

Content marketing is not an industry you can stand as an expert in without evolution, progress, and continual growth. I’m happy to say that this is in our line of vision at Express Writers: continual progress. It is a part of our mission at Express Writers to continually refine our services and offer the best in content creation. This spring, we’ve made some changes at Express Writers to upgrade and increase the quality and uniqueness of the content services we provide for our clients. In today’s blog, I’ve written a recap of these changes to keep you up-to-date with our changes and progress. Let’s dive in! [bctt tweet=”Check out @JuliaEMcCoy’s recap of our Spring 2019 updates at Express Writers ?” username=”ExpWriters”] Product Changes at Express Writers: Resurrecting Social Media Services: What’s New Today, & What’s on the Horizon I’m really excited to share that our social media copy and plans got a major facelift in the Content Shop. Both internally, and externally. Instead of the confusing buy-5-posts-with-variations, and Level 1, 2, and 3 pre-built without customization options, here are the changes that have applied to the social media services we offer at Express Writers. Standalone social media posts: pick the platform, quantity, and optionally, images: we simply write the copy and create images. See standalone posts. Social media plans have become build-your-own, instead of preset Levels: much more customizable! Just package up all the posts you need for a monthly total per-platform, per-piece quantity and price. See social media plans. Social media images got a major re-haul: our designer will use your candid selfies or photographs and design them inside a 1:1 design (super hot these days on Facebook and Instagram), hand-made in Adobe Illustrator. (Examples below!) Our social media experts will now include and suggest hashtags, the right amount and the right type per platforms, with the copy. It’s a “buy one, get one now” for posts, clearly worded in the service. Or, you can package up into a monthly plan. No more confusing variations and choices. Here’s the before and after of our Social Media Posts page. You can experience the revamped page right here. And, here’s the new look for Social Media Plans: The quality and what you get in our written and designed social posts has changed for the better. As mentioned, we’ll research and suggest the best hashtags to use in your Instagram posts, as well as on other platforms. Plus, our social media image design got a full-on major facelift. We no longer work with stock images (unless absolutely necessary on behalf of the client). Instead, we’re asking that you provide images for us in the input forms, and our designer will take that image and inspiration from our social media copywriter to design a hot graphic for your social media profile inside our popular, researched and strategic 1:1 sized square graphic. For this fairly massive service change, I did some beta testing. Chris Strub was our beta client for the new services, as well as my own social media profiles. I worked with our designer and social media experts as we went through changing the internal process. Here’s what our new social media posts and image deliverables actually look like (content written by our social media specialist and designed by our in-house designer): Example social media post #1 Copy: Social media tip: The front-facing camera is the perfect metaphor for putting yourself out there on social media. Tap the little icon for turning your camera into selfie mode, and hit ‘record’ or snap a photo and make that the next piece of content you post on social media. ? Your audience loves seeing the authentic YOU shine through! For more social media tips, follow me on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chrisstrub/ Example social media post #2 Copy: Are you writing emails and sending them regularly to your list? If not, you SHOULD be! It’s one of the most effective ways to grow and nurture your audience. Hand-in-hand with email marketing is great content: a little secret I’m going to let you in on is that email content gets SO much easier if you have comprehensive blogs hitting your site on the regular. If you need copy support, my content agency Express Writers can help. Our hand-picked email marketing copywriters have helped hundreds of B2Bs and B2Cs craft their message (and even helped me write the ones we send you!). Chat with us today to see how we can help you create great content! Link: https://staging.expresswriters.com/content/email-copy/ Example social media post #3 Copy: FAMILY TIME. One of my favorite things about being an entrepreneur and content marketer is that I can, if I want to, take off a random Tuesday to hang out with my little. Or, get her early out of daycare for a special treat and some playground time on a beautiful, sunny day. Do you get to break away for family time? It’s so important! These improved social media offerings will definitely bring more ROI to our clients and what they get out of social media. We’re so excited about these improvements! Also, we’ve added a new service to our social media copy. New: YouTube descriptions! I’ve found after optimizing and publishing consistent videos on my own YouTube channel, that the copy inside your YouTube description is extremely important to rankings and click-throughs from your videos to your site. What’s On the Horizon: Improved Experience Coming for Our Clients at Express Writers Also, PSA for our clients: We know our systems are somewhat messy, and we’re hard at work on a total solution to fix everything. Navigation in the Content Shop, simply put, can sometimes be a bear. The products are too many, and confusing. The Client Account section needs more details, dates, and an easy reorder button. We’ve got all these changes at heart, and for the past several years, we’ve been hard at work on what we call internally, EW 2.0: The Beast. This is our brand new e-commerce system that is 100% customized and built from scratch, built for massive project management, speed, and seamless use by … Read more

Why Content Maintenance Has Become Just as Important as the Strategy Itself (New Product Announcement)

June 19, 2024September 24, 2018 by John G.

This is a guest blog by John G., Authority Writer and Content Strategist at Express Writers. Most people understand that successful content marketing requires high-quality content. Without this essential ingredient, your “marketing” won’t move the needle one bit. Unfortunately, many marketers stop at creating high-quality content. They hit “publish” and move on to the next project. At Express Writers, we are constantly updating our published content because we know that keeping it relevant and competitive is just as important as creating it in the first place. That’s why we’ve recently begun doing the same thing for clients with our new Content Maintenance Strategy service, which ensures their content never goes stale. Check out our new Content Strategy Maintenance service here (click the Options to see it). Introducing Our New Service: Content Strategy Maintenance Subscribe to a monthly fee (no contract, cancel anytime) to have our Content Strategist set up ongoing tracking and keyword research every month, and check in on your rankings. We’ll build a report, look at your keywords, and discuss how you can improve your content strategy. Our new service includes a short call every month to discuss potential SEO and content opportunities with our lead Content Strategist, and we’ll use SEMrush to build and track monthly reports on your content rankings. Cancel anytime: we’ll send you a bill every month at the same time to order. To find the new service, go to Content Strategy, then click on the menu under Options, and look for the second option: The second option is our new service, Content Strategy Maintenance. You might be asking, why should I care about maintaining my content? Good question. Why Ongoing Content Maintenance Is Essential to Successful Marketing: 6 Critical Reasons While there’s no substitute for well-written content about relevant topics that helps readers take action toward achieving their goals, maintaining that content has become just as important. Here are six reasons why you must regularly review your content with an eye for how it can be improved if you want to see a consistent ROI. 1. You’ve Received Helpful Feedback from Your Customers Successful content isn’t just about attracting people to your site. It should also start them on the path toward becoming actual customers. Once your content begins delivering those leads, you’ll gain helpful insights from many of them about how your content could be improved. Look at the questions you receive most often. Think about the pain points you constantly need to overcome. This is easy to do if you have on-site chat or if you get contact forms. Here’s one question we received from a repeat customer that sparked an idea for an upcoming blog topic from Julia: Do you have popular posts where you can address these? That will make it much easier to convert more leads without doing more work. 2. Google Wants to Offer Its Users Fresh Content Google only wants to show its users search results for content that is fresh and relevant. If your post contains advice that has become outdated or fails to reflect new information on the topic, Google knows users will quickly look elsewhere for help. Google’s fondness for freshness goes back almost a decade, yet the vast majority of companies still misinterpret this requirement to mean that they must regularly produce completely new content. While new posts deserve a spot in your strategy, updating old ones is usually the more cost-effective way of keeping Google happy. 3. Competitors Are Catching Up to You The joy I felt the first time I put a client’s site on the first page of Google was eventually overtaken by a sense of dread when, months later, their main competitor joined us. It felt like in the movies, when the captain of a ship looks through his telescope to see a pirate flag coming over the horizon. No! On the high seas of SEO, there are going to be times when enemy ships begin catching up with you. That’s when you should immediately update your content to create a comfortable amount of distance. Aside from the obvious benefits of doing this, feel free to take some pleasure in the fact that your competitor has clearly spent a lot of time and money creating content to close the gap and, now, because of your vigilance, all of that effort will not go to waste. 4. Improved Domain Authority Means Greater Opportunities for Keywords “Domain authority” remains a controversial topic, but it does seem as though Google “trusts” established sites more than new ones and, thus, makes it easier for those trustworthy sites to rank for high-traffic keywords. That’s why, over time, you can get more ambitious about the keywords you target. When beginners start with content marketing, one of the biggest rookie mistakes they make is to go after keywords that see massive amounts of traffic but also attract lots of competition. At the beginning, ranking for those competitive keywords just isn’t possible. However, as your rankings begin to climb for less-competitive keywords, it makes sense to look at those that were previously out-of-reach. That’s because you’ve built a certain amount of “trust” with Google and now have more opportunities to rank. Don’t stick with the same set of keywords you originally identified. Ongoing research will show you when it’s possible to post content aimed at greater and/or more qualified traffic. 5. High-Ranking Webpages Are Good for Internal Links In my experience, the most overlooked opportunity to improve your SEO is with internal linking. Literally, all you have to do is include a link from one of your pages to another. It couldn’t be easier to do, yet it will help increase exposure across your entire site. Better still, if you have a post on the first SERP of Google, it’s also an effortless way to pass along some of that “link juice” to other pages. When I look over a client’s content and see that one of their posts is performing well, I immediately think about how I … Read more