Quick Guide To The Content Process

The most exciting part of being a content creator in a rapidly growing business is getting to research into, and work on, a variety of clients from a range of industries. In the past 6 months, we’ve had a franchising business, a catering company, a conference centre, a cleaning business, a hair stylist and an accountancy firm – among others – come onboard, giving the content team the opportunity to delve into their worlds, learn their language and provide them with content strategies that integrate the right mix of keywords, competitor research and creativity. As I regularly get asked what the content process involves at Embryo and how we ensure it always goes smoothly, I thought this would make a good blog, so here we go….

The Kick Off Meeting

When a client has been onboarded, the first thing we do (‘we’ being all relevant departments) is sit down together and discuss the client. We’ll talk company background. We’ll talk industry. We’ll talk aims. We’ll talk goals. We’ll discuss potential strategies that could prove effective, and consider ways to provide them with a better service than the previous digital marketing agency they worked with. Everyone has their say, and together we make action points on areas or topics to research into.

Examples of Action Points:

The SEO Team:

Conduct a full website audit identifying areas for concern, areas for improvement and recommendations. Areas they look into include:

• Content Factors: Pages Indexed; Page Length; Content Quality; Duplicate Content.
• Page Speed.
• Keyword Reach.
• Backlinks.
• Metadata.

The Content Team:

Create a ‘Content Audit and Competitor Content Analysis’ document, which includes:

• A Brief.
• Key Client Information.
• Competitor Research (looking at 4 competitors and discussing their positives and negatives).
• Website Content Audit (deep-diving into the website and discussing positives and areas for improvement).
• Suggestions for new content.

The Client Meeting

We love inviting our clients in, because it gives us a chance to get to know them, their goals and learn first-hand about their background, why they set the business up and what they hope it will achieve in the long run. This is especially important for the content team, because it allows us to infuse their personality, values and ethos into the work, creating a more personable tone of voice that their audience can relate to. Not only do we come prepared with our documents, but we also bring a set of pre-prepared questions that helps to guide the meetings.

The questions we bring does vary from meeting to meeting, but examples of questions we ask include:

• What year were you established?
• How many combined years’ of experience would you say your team has?
• What would you say your key USPs are?
• What skills/offering do you/other team members have that sets you apart from other businesses?
• What can you offer clients that other businesses can’t?
• What product/service would you recommend for A, B and C?
• Who are your ideal clients?
• What benefits does your location bring?

With this information, we have the foundations for a solid strategy.

The Strategy Doc

Based on specific targeting and page recommendations from the always-helpful SEO team, the content team will then create an in-depth strategy document that outlines the plan for the month. We’ll detail the page/s we’ll be writing, and under each section heading, we’ll include ‘information requests’. We’ll then send this along to the client, and either go through it with them on the phone or in person, dependent on what’s easier for them.

The continued communication is something that I’ve always been proud of at Embryo – ensuring that clients feel supported and see the value that we place on all of them.

The Content

Then, we write! Incorporating all of the information from the previous steps, we create content that gets to the heart of who our clients are, showcasing their offering, emphasising their benefits and highlighting the values that make that business who they are. There’s no greater joy to a content writer than putting their heart and soul into a piece of work and being happy with the finished piece.

What Makes A Piece Of Content Great In Our Eyes?

• Incorporates the T.O.V. so that it really sounds like the brand is talking.
• Balances audience pain points with the solutions the business can provide.
• Emphasises the client’s USPs.
• Facilitates the needs of the business (e.g. with the use of CTAs).
• Includes a lot of great keywords that will help it rank and appear for all the right terms.
• Incorporates lots of links to help Google understand more about the business/website and to build credibility with other sites.

We then send our work off to our clients and await their feedback, making changes where necessary.

Uploading The Content

When the blog post, website page, infographic content or article has been approved, we’ll then upload the content to the relevant page or section on the client’s website, integrating eye-catching imagery with alt-text that enhances its reach. We’ll also add meta titles and descriptions that will engage potential website visitors.

That’s pretty much the process! We catch up regularly with clients to discuss the month’s strategy and their content, discussing new aims and goals should they arise.

Looking for some new content for your website? Want your blogs to be the best out there? Give us a call today on 0161 327 2635 to discover what we could do for you. We’d love to invite you in for a meeting!