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What Is the Role of a Content Writer in eCommerce

CopySmiths July 8, 2022

A content writer writes authoritative content for your target audience. They do this to increase site traffic, boost customer engagement, and improve your site’s reputation and authority.

While you can do this yourself, it can be challenging to represent your brand with quality writing that speaks to your industry expertise. The last thing you want is for your content strategy to fall flat—you risk losing potential customers to your competitors.

eCommerce blogging should be done by a content writer who’s well-versed in the best SEO practices. They can curate content to create awareness, spark user interest, keep readers engaged, and convert leads to sales.

This type of content can give you a competitive edge when published at any point of the customer journey. Content writers can produce content for your:

Home pages
Landing pages
Social media platforms
Category and product pages
Calls-to-action (CTA)

Hiring a professional content writer ensures every piece of content you create is not only a go-to source of credible information, but it’s also revenue-focused for a greater return on investment (ROI).

“Our niche is a bit more technical than most and I was skeptical about outsourcing content creation, but CopySmiths proved me wrong. Not only was the content well researched and written, but the entire process from initial specification to the edits was smooth and professional. The number of edits required was minimal, and the turn around for the edits was quick. If you’re looking for content creation at scale, I’d recommend CopySmiths.” — Todd Ariss, GoDarkBags.com

Who Is a Content Writer and What's Their Role in eCommerce?

A content writer wears many hats.

However, their most prominent hat allows them to conduct in-depth research on industry-related topics to write articles that accurately highlight and promote a company’s products or service offerings.

Professional content writers master different writing styles and integrate online sources, statistics, and case studies to write and produce relevant and authoritative content for:

Personal blogs
White papers
Print marketing material
Social media platforms
eCommerce store sites

A skilled content writer will implement tried and tested content marketing strategies in every piece they write to ensure you get a good ROI.

Some common writing strategies include:

Researching Industry-Specific Topics

To ensure web content is tailored and beneficial to your potential customers
To help with organic traffic and click-through rates for better search engine rankings and sales
To encourage shareability on social platforms and attract your intended customers

Carrying Out Keyword Research

To target quality traffic
To create relevant content that satisfies search-intent
To help in understanding your eCommerce niche and identifying your competitors
To optimize web pages with long-tail search terms, which translates to increased traffic

Publishing High-Quality, Long-Form Content

Such as pillar pages, whitepapers, reports, or listicles. These are considered excellent for SEO authority as they require expert-level knowledge and in-depth research to curate.
To increase the value your customers gain by providing them with valuable tips and guides on how to get the most out of your products and services
Because search engine algorithms value high-quality, long-form content as they fulfill the users’ search-intent
To get backlink opportunities that boost site authority, leading to increased site visibility and revenue streams

Liaising With Professional Quality Checkers and Editors

To produce refined work before approving the final copy
To proofread and ensure each article is error-free before it’s ready for publishing
To make sure the copy contains factual information and follows editorial guidelines

Promoting Content Across Relevant Social Platforms

To help reach millions of customers worldwide and boost traffic
To get your eCommerce site in front of potential buyers
To help increase brand visibility and recognition for networking opportunities
To build customer communication, engagement, and brand loyalty

Above is a glimpse of what a content writer can do for your eCommerce business. As your collaboration grows, a writer can recommend new article topics based on your customer’s needs or gaps in your eCommerce sites’ content.

A content writer will also use the right style, tone, fonts, images, and include video content that meshes well with your brand to ensure all-around content consistency. Whenever needed, they’ll update your site content to maintain a competitive domain authority.

Pro Tip: To ensure a symbiotic partnership and success in future projects, get your content writer up to speed on your goals and expectations right from the start. This will mitigate constant back-and-forths or rounds of revisions that delay publishing.

Ensure your writer has the following:

All relevant information about your products, services, and company background
How your editorial processes and article outline work while agreeing on expected turnaround times and revisions for each article
The tone, word length, voice, and structure you need to address specific buyer personas

What Should an eCommerce Store Look For in a Content Writer?

Now that you know the role of a content writer for your eCommerce business, let’s look at the skill sets that any good writer needs to possess to meet and exceed your content needs.

At the core, a skilled writer should:

Have an understanding of your niche industry and be able to readily adapt to your content tone and writing style.
Have excellent research skills to find trustworthy and valuable information from credible sources.
Keep up with Google’s latest algorithms to help with crafting SEO-friendly articles.

This table highlights the dos and don’ts to consider when hiring a writer.

Do’s	Don’ts
Look for excellent writing and editing skills and a keen eye for details	Hire a content writer who can’t create quality, engaging, and grammatically correct content
Ensure they can meet tight deadlines and are willing to take on new writing challenges	Hire a writer who can’t meet deadlines. Delivering high-quality content on time will demonstrate your professionalism and reliability
Look for proven work experience as a content writer or related field An applicant with a BSc or degree in Marketing, English Literature, Communication, and Journalism is a great advantage	Hire anyone who promises overnight website traffic success or fast eCommerce site ranking on SERPs A skilled content writer will use proven SEO strategies and data-backed content to grow sustained organic traffic over time
Look for experience with content management systems (CMS) such as WordPress, Magento, Squarespace, or Ghost	Hire a content writer who has zero experience with CMS tools such as WordPress
Hire a content marketing agency as it comes equipped with numerous resources that can help you hit the agreed key performance indicators (KPIs)	Hire the very first content marketing agency you come across Check their reviews and ask for a company portfolio

We at CopySmiths are committed to publishing well-structured, content-rich, and authoritative articles at scale so that you can enjoy several benefits, such as:

Improved SEO ranking, better customer engagement, and improved brand reputation
Increased site relevancy through regular content audits and updates, which translate to revenue generation opportunities
Earning the trust of your site visitors and staying ahead of your competitors with premium content that establishes you as a thought-leader in your niche

“CopySmiths is highly capable at defining the content buckets for our brand, and then rolling out a highly competent execution strategy with thoughtful iteration, supportive graphics, and metadata that helped our team go from 1-100 on our SEO strategy without having to pull our attention from other high-priority marketing projects! It was especially a pleasure getting to learn from Katrina, who is A-Level SEO talent; anyone who has the opportunity to learn from her should.” – Tom Worcester, Balls.co

Frequently Asked Questions

What’s the process of hiring a content writer?

You can either use:

An outbound approach and check online platforms such as LinkedIn, Fiverr, Upwork, or a content marketing company like CopySmiths.
An inbound strategy and post an ad for a content writer on your company’s website. Always ask for a trial article before onboarding a writer to ensure their writing style suits your brand’s voice and content needs.

In-house vs. freelancers vs. a content marketing agency: Who should I hire?

In-house: If you have the budget for healthcare and other employment benefits, you can afford to hire a salaried employee full-time writer.
Freelancers: They’re paid per-job or per-task, which is ideal for start-ups that don’t have a budget for employee salary, insurance, or training.
Content marketing agency: You’ll get the best bang for your buck with a content marketing agency. You get professional talent minus the inconsistency of hiring different freelancers every time, and the overhead costs of training an in-house employee.With a content marketing agency, you’ll always have skilled writers readily available to you to discuss content strategies, changes, and edits to ensure the consistency of your overall published content.

How much do blogging services cost?

In-house content writer: Pay is based on the company’s policy.
Freelance content writer: Standard writing fees vary depending on the nature of the work, timeframe, and assignment. A quotation can also be on a per hour, word, or article basis.
Content marketing agency: Contact us at CopySmiths to get high-quality articles at scale for your eCommerce site at competitive prices.

Source: CopySmiths

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I'm Katrina McKinnon, founder of CopySmiths and Small Revolution. In my 20 years of experience, I have helped online businesses create high-performing content specifically on an eCommerce store's blog. Find me on LinkedIn and Twitter.