Harness Opinion Power When There’s No Single Right Answer

/0 Comments/in , , , /by

 

My granddaughter is getting married in a few months.  I heard from her mother that what she would really appreciate is cash, but I don’t think cash is a good gift since it doesn’t show any thought.  Is it OK to give her a physical gift, or should I respect her wishes and give her money? How much cash should I give?

Lizzie Post (great-great-granddaughter of Emily Post), replying in AARP Magazine, begins by acknowledging common differences of opinion on the subject of cash vs. tangible gifts: “Some people think cash gifts are crass; others think they are impersonal.” Post then offers a practical solution: “The true test is how you give it. Cash tucked inside a thoughtful handwritten card can make for a meaningful gift.”

The columnist then goes on to debunk a myth about cash gifts for a wedding: There’s no hard-and-fast rule. “You don’t have to ‘pay for your plate’ – an outdated notion that your gift should at least cover the cost of your meal. Let your budget guide the amount.”

“Advice columns have not gone anywhere.  They have dispersed everywhere and in every type of media,” mediaupdate explains.  “The appeal stems from the fact that, though we all feel unique, our problems tend to be shared, at least to some degree,” psychotherapist Lori Gottlieb suggests.

Instead of pitching products and services, a strategic content-driven approach provides information to prospects and customers to help them solve issues in their work or personal lives, the Content Marketing Institute explains. “Wouldn’t it be great if your customers looked forward to receiving your marketing? What if when they received it, they spent time engaging with it? “Help first”, not “sell first” is the principle that makes advice-column content marketing work.

When online readers find an article or blog post, one question they need answered is “Who lives here?” Providing information about products and services may be the popular way to create marketing content, but in terms of achieving Influencer status – it takes opinion, we’ve learned at Say It For You. What’s more, myth-debunking is one great use for content marketing. Many misunderstandings about a product or service present themselves in the natural order of business, in the form of questions and comments from readers and customers. Shining the light of day on that misinformation shines light on your own expertise.  If your content is well written, perhaps with a bit of tongue in cheek, it can offer enlightenment in a way that engages searchers and keeps them coming back.

I like three things about the Lizzie Post piece about the wedding gift. The author:

  1. acknowledges (rather than disparages) different opinions on the subject
  2. offers a compromise (thoughtful note accompanying a gift of cash)
  3. debunks a myth (one has to “pay for one’s plate”) 

When there’s simply no one right answer, harness opinion power!

Facebooktwitterredditlinkedintumblrmail

Staying in Sync Without Stirring up Sting

/0 Comments/in , , , /by

 

“Content must solve problems, answer questions, or entertain. You are not selling with content, you are building relationships,” the Core dna team advises. “Think about what your audience needs to figure out or decide, then build a tool around it.”

Yet, with such a culturally divided society, “advertisers may be asking themselves how they should show up in a society that’s culturally divided,” the current.com says.  While it’s important to stay relevant, recognizing community, national, and even worldwide events and trends that are at the forefront of readers’ minds, the question is how to create content that “connects with reality” without being “political”.

While marketers might choose to offer a respite from politics by promoting feel-good stories and product updates, as Okeeffe PR suggests, one of the most common – and most effective – ways to get consistent hits on your blog is to tie your content to current events,” Ray Access points out. In fact, the practical SEO-related suggestion Access offers to us content writers is to get in the habit of scanning headlines of a daily news site so as to use “newsworthy keywords” in our own content.

Aside from SEO tactics, at Say it For You, what we’ve learned over the years is that a huge part of engaging readers is reflecting and even directly alluding to current happenings and concerns in the community. People tend to be comfortable associating with professionals and business owners who “give back” and who actively participate in home town events and activities.

Consumers do want to buy from brands whose values match their own, Clare McKinley admits in basis.com, but this alignment does not have to be political, she points out. Values such as diversity, ambition, or work-life balance serve as a connecting factor. Hyper-personalization is the key in the long run, McKinley concludes. The population of eligible voters  in content marketing (think “eligible buyers“), is made up of many smaller groups, each of which creates specific opportunities for messaging”.

Of course, no piece of content, no campaign, can be all things to all people. Each post or article must be targeted towards the specific type of customers you want and who are most likely to want to do business with you. And, as our world appears to be come ever more “political” and polarized, we content writers must work on “staying in sync” without “stirring up sting”!

Facebooktwitterredditlinkedintumblrmail

Content That Gets Gestalt

/0 Comments/in , , , /by

 

In a post last week, I’d explored factors that make content more memorable, citing a study done at Cornell University suggesting that, while lines in a movie might become popular because of an unusually effective delivery by an actor, there are specific qualities that make quotes “stick in our minds”:  Memorable lines, for example, tend to be short, using simple syntax but distinctive words. 

This week, an Indy’s Child article about autistic kids caught my attention, because in essence it was describing an approach to language and learning that is quite the opposite of using “distinctive” individual words and phrases to get our point across…

 “Most people assume language develops in a linear, word-by-word fashion,” Jessica Willitz explains.  That’s not the case for the majority of autistic children, researchers found. 84% of autistic individuals are GLPs, gestalt language processors, learning in chunks and scripts – phrases they’ve heard from songs, shows, and the people around them. (The term “gestalt” is derived from a German word that means “whole” or “put together”. Gestalt therapy was developed in the 1940s as an alternative to traditional, verbally-focused psychoanalysis.)

A “gestalt” approach can be applied in creating marketing content, a WordPress article suggests. “The perception of stimuli as groups or chunks of information, rather than as discrete bits, facilitates memory and recall.”  When creating written content, we’ve found at Say It For You, consistent use of bolding and font size for key terms helps readers subconsciously group those together, as does white space surrounding a set of related statements. The object – making our copy more readable – and more memorable.

Going back to the tendency of autistic children to repeat “scripts” from songs and shows,  in content marketing, we’ve seen that threesomes can make content more  memorable (“the good, the bad, and the ugly”, “stop, look, and listen”). In articles and blog posts, while there can be a razor-sharp focus on just one story, one idea, one aspect of a business or practice,  one call for a single action, that focus can be supported by three points.

In creating marketing content, get gestalt!

 

 

Facebooktwitterredditlinkedintumblrmail

Creating Customer-Friendly Content

/0 Comments/in , , /by

 

 

I always enjoy Todd Hunt’s wry observations in Hunt’s Headlines.  This month’s issue featured a photo of a sign posted on a vending machine: “Price levels on this machine reflect the cash price, which is 10¢ lower than the retail price….Credit card purchases will reflect the full retail price.” Hunt’s comment: “Rather than admit there is a “10-cent surcharge for credit cards”, they say you get a 10-cent discount for cash…”

 Price increases tend to be unpopular, and you always run the risk of customers deciding that they don’t find enough value in your services to justify the higher cost, Spring Insight authors admit.  In their case, in order to soften the blow, they made sure to highlight the additional services their clients could look forward to receiving with the higher prices. “After reading the email and seeing a clear list of the additional value accompanying the higher prices, all our clients elected to continue utilizing our services,” the owners now report.

“Breaking bad news to customers is not an easy task,” Susan Berkley admits in zenbusiness.com. To do this in a compassionate and professional manner, she advises, “Give as much information as you can about the who, what, when, where, and why,” Take charge, outlining a specific plan of action that you and your company will take, and what actions you recommend customers take.

As is true of newspapers, business blog content writing can balance feature stories with news. In general, the word “news”, when it comes to blog marketing, can mean two entirely different things.  The first type centers around you and your company or practice, with the second type of news relating to your community, your city, your country, even worldwide events. If, as blog writers, we can go right to the heart of any possible customer fears or concerns, addressing negative assumption questions (before they’ve been asked!)  we have the potential to breed understanding and trust.

Todd Hunt’s vending machine story is a perfect example of breeding misunderstanding and distrust. Sure, as a business or professional practice grows and changes, there are probably going to be negative publicity and  instances of customer dissatisfaction. As content marketers, our job is to help our clients get “out in front” of those negatives — and quickly. “A swift response demonstrates your brand’s commitment and shows you value stakeholder concerns and feedback,” SmartComment.com advises.

One very important function corporate blog posts can serve is damage control. When customers’ complaints and concerns are recognized and dealt with “in front of other people” (in blog posts), it gives the “apology” more weight.  Creating customer-friendly content may involve “letting the client tell his story,” which then gives you the chance to offer useful information to other readers and to explain any changes in policy that resulted from a negative situation.

Facebooktwitterredditlinkedintumblrmail

The How-I-Did-It Content Marketing Model

/0 Comments/in , , , /by

 

“Why don’t you introduce your business and tell us what’s so great about it?” The editor of Start Your Own Business 2025 suggests to the founder of London-based ‘Go Car Shine’, posing three specific questions to guide the entrepreneur’s response:

  1. What made your business perfect for crowd funding?
  2. How was the experience?
  3. What advice would you give somebody with a great idea and a need for funding?

Score.org’s Rieva Lesonsky offers entrepreneurs some dos and don’ts about crowdfunding:

Don’ts include overpromising, launching a campaign before forming an actual entity, and forgetting to pay taxes on monies raised. Must-dos, on the other hand, include:

  • storytelling, sharing why you created your product or service
  • knowing your audience
  • setting realistic goals and timetables

Storytelling is an essential element in content marketing. However, as Seth Godin points out in his book All Marketers Tell Stories, not all stories succeed. The ones that do, he reminds us, are never aimed at everyone, only at an audience that already wants to believe. At Say it For You, we realize, knowing our target audience is the key to marketing success. The “Go Car Shine” story becomes the jumping-off point for offering advice to cash-strapped entrepreneurs, along with advice about marketing auto care services.

Whether recalling the start of your own business or professional practice or creating content for a client, it’s important to remember that recalling past failures can often turn out to be an indispensable tactic. Here’s why:

  • True stories about mistakes and struggles are very humanizing, adding to connection readers feel with the people behind the business who overcame tremendous odds on the road to success.
  • By sharing tales of their own struggles, owners and practitioners demonstrate they understand the obstacles their readers are facing.
  • As Jamie Gutfreund once suggested in Forbes, “Gen Zs consider taking risks an important part of life and mistakes as badges of honor.”

The How-I-Did-It content marketing model is all about past failures ultimately leading to success.

Facebooktwitterredditlinkedintumblrmail