Blog Content By and For the Unquenchably Curious

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This week’s Say It For You blog posts are based on the book What Makes Flamingos Pink, by Bill McLain, “a colorful collection of Q & A’s for the unquenchably curious”…

One thing it’s always a good idea to include, I tell content marketers, is interesting information on topics related to their business or professional practice. If you can provide information most readers wouldn’t be likely to know, we explain at Say It For You, all the better. So long as there’s a real “back story” demonstrating valuable lessons learned and why that information should matter to the web visitor, tidbits can prove to be enormously useful tools….

The color of most birds is a matter of genetics, McClain explains in the book. Bluebirds are blue by nature, cardinals red for the same reason – their inherited genes. Famingos are different – they are pink because their diet is heavy in natural pigments called carotenoids. Wisely, the author is quick to show readers the relevance of that information – “When we eat carrots or beets, we are also eating carotenoids,” he explains. ” But no matter how many beets and carrots we eat, the only way we can turn pink is to blush or get a sunburn,” he adds.

One big goal of the writing we do for our business owner and professional practitioner clients is positioning them as experts in the eyes of both their existing clients and their web visitors. While good blog post content can and should be entertaining, it’s important to remember that most online searchers are not pursuing a recreational activity, but instead are on a fact-finding mission. You can hook them, we teach at Say It For You, with humorous and fascinating trivia tidbits, but the material you serve up needs to be meaningful to that audience and – actionable.

The factoid about flamingos’ pink coloring is an example of how trivia can be used in content marketing to accomplish a variety of initiatives: defining basic industry terminology, sparking curiosity about the subject, putting modern-day practices and beliefs into perspective, and explaining why the business owner or practitioner chooses to operate in a certain way.

Always remember, though – they may be “unquenchably curious”, but online visitors are rarely unquenchably patient. Structure the content so as to address the two questions “So what?” (why it might matter) and “Now what?” directing them to the next step.

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Give your Brain and Theirs a Workout in Your Blog

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“Most of us have lived with the belief that we lean left brain or right brain in all capacities – from our hobbies to career to the movies we love,” Hope Clark explains in the latest issue of Writer’s Digest. In reality, Clark points out, there isn’t a defined spot for many tasks we do, and, it takes both right and left hemispheres of the brain’s cerebellum to write. Our left brain chooses words and phrases, constructing sentences, and calculating the “plot”. The right brain, meanwhile, is the “impulsive” side, putting imagination to work in the “story”.

Reading for the left brain
Strong writers are voracious readers, Clark says. First of all, reading takes reasoning and analysis, drawing on your left lobe. Since word choice is left-side behavior, reading diverse sources increases your vocabulary.

One of the principles I stress at Say It For You is that, in order to create a valuable ongoing blog for your business, it’s going to take equal parts reading and writing At least half the time that goes into creating a blog post is reading/research/thinking time!  Business content writing in blogs is the result of a lot of reading and listening on the part of the blogger.

Feeling and sensing for the right brain
Unexpected twists in books, plays, and art “feed” the right side of our brains. Writers can “lock themselves” into their usual ways of using words and the words can become stale, Clark explains. In blog marketing’s race, as Jeremy Porter Communications teaches, “those who make the most emotionally persuasive argument win.”  While blog posts can be informative, filled with myth-busting proof, it’s the emotional impact that keeps readers engaged.

Why change?
If you have a dominant style that’s worked for you, why change? Going against the current strengthens you and gives depth to your writing, Clark is convinced. Maybe your story seems dull or too predictable. Maybe you have lots of ideas but have trouble meshing them into a tale. Don’t be satisfied with “who you are” – be who you can become, she urges her readers.

Combine right brain and left brain in blog marketing
Clark’s message to writers is one all content marketers need to hear. Remember, online searchers arrive at a blog on a fact-finding mission, looking for information about what the owners do, sell, and know about. Posting fresh content that relates directly to the purpose of the reader’s search is exactly how to reassure search engines – and ultimately searchers – they’ve come to the right place to get the facts. But data itself may not be the best way to persuade and to overcome skepticism. The marketing message needs to be emotionally persuasive as well.

Blog to put both sides of your brain – and theirs – to work!

 

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Speaking English in Content Marketing

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“This big fat notebook makes all the stuff you learn in school sink in,” the editors of The Complete Middle School Study Guide to English Language Arts promise. “Words don’t exist in a vacuum out in space, the authors explain. Sometimes we can only understand what they mean because of the other words around them..”As a content writer, I found the author’s list of word relationships might serve as a checklist of ideas for different ways of presenting information in blog posts (adapting the sophistication level, of course, to the target audience)

Cause/effect
“I wanted a new bike because I saw the one Carlos had.”‘

A small business owner’s or a professional practitioner’s business blog marketing can have a disproportionately positive effect on results – IF those efforts are kept up. On the other hand, spelling and grammar errors in emails and blog posts will have a negative effect on readers’ perception of your company.

Compare/contrast
“You’re about to introduce your brother to a new friend. To give him an idea of what that friend might be like, you might say either ‘He’s just like Chris’ or ‘He’s nothing like Chris'”.

A unique selling proposition (USP) is a succinct, memorable message that identifies the unique benefits that are derived from using your product or service as opposed to a competitor’s, business coach Andrew Valley emphasizes.

Analogy
“A student is to a new topic like a detective is to a case.” “A tree is to a forest like a boat is to an ocean.”

As you set about explaining yourself, your business philosophy, your products and processes , to make the information you’re presenting in blog posts easy for readers to understand by comparing the unfamiliar with the familiar and the timely.

Contrasting characters in books and plays
“One way a writer develops characters is to contrast them so the reader can see their differences”

There’s something of a moral dilemma in content marketing . We want to clarify the ways we stand out from the competition, but “Golden Rule” ethics dictate that we say only those kinds of things about specific competitors that we’d want them saying about us. The solution: accentuate the positive, explaining why you have chosen to do things the way you do,

The Little Fat Notebook is a good reminder to “Speak English” in your content marketing!

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Painting a Blog Post in Two Lines

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One way to bring a character to life in your story is to paint that character “in two lines”, Writer’s Digest Editor-in-Chief Jessica Strawser suggests to authors of stories and novels. You can reveal a character as seen through another character’s eyes or through dialogue, and even through “voices” or thoughts going through a character’s mind, Strawser adds.

What we’ve found at Say It For You is that a big, big part of providing content marketing is helping business owners formulate and then tell their “stories”. Certainly, online visitors to a company’s or a practice’s blog want to feel that the owners or practitioners understand them. But those prospects want to understand who those service and product providers are as well, and it is through character-revealing stories that an emotional connection can form between provider and the buyer.

While blog marketing can be designed to “win search”, once the searchers have arrived, what needs winning is their hearts, and that is precisely what content writers can achieve best through “painting” the character of the business or practice, showing why the owners are passionate about delivering your service or products to customers and clients.

As seen through another character’s eyes…
The history of the company and the values important to its leaders are story elements that create ties with blog readers. The best content writing client testimonial I ever received reads as follows: “Say It For You helped me, a numbers guy, put into words what I knew in my heart but couldn’t verbalize…”

As seen through dialogue…
We all love to eavesdrop just a little and any good narrative should contain some dialogue, including character-revealing quotes from the business owners. Anecdotes and customer testimonials help readers sense “character” through dialogue.

As seen through thoughts going through a character’s mind…
At Say It For You, we recognize what I’ve dubbed the “training benefit” of blog content creating. In the process of verbalizing positive aspects of a business or practice in a way that people can understand, leaders are constantly providing themselves with training about how to tell their business story!

Blog content writing is a way of “painting” the character of a business and its owners.

 

 

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Best Content Marketing – Both Empathetic and Authoritative

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“To position yourself as the guide for your customer needs,” says Donald Miller in Marketing Made Simple, ” you need to express empathy and demonstrate authority. Together, empathy and authority make a powerful one-two punch, while, Miller cautions, “empathy without authority falls flat, as does authority without empathy.”

On a website, Miller suggests, there are three ways to communicate authority:

  1. testimonials
  2. logos of companies you’ve worked with
  3. statistics: years you’ve been in business, how many clients have worked with you

Meanwhile, to communicate empathy, he suggests, use “we know what it feels like to…” statements in the content.

Interestingly, the three “soundbites” Miller suggests looking for when collecting testimonials are element that, at Say It For You, we suggest are “soundbites” on which to base blog posts:

  • Overcoming objections: “I worried that the course was going to be a waste of time. I was wrong…”
    In creating content for marketing blogs, we need to keep in mind that people are online searching for for solutions for dilemmas they’re facing. But, since searchers haven’t always formulated their questions, what I suggest is that we do that for them, anticipating blog readers’ negative assumption questions.
  • Solving problems: “I’m on my feet all day, and my lower back used to ache. Now, with my new XYZ shoes….
    As you’re describing how your product or service solved clients’ problems, the reaction you’d like to elicit in blog readers is sighs of relief that they’ve found you.
  • Adding value: “I was skeptical of the price, but I’m so glad I used…”
    A small business owner in a retail or services field cannot hope to compete in purchasing ads and needs to rely on organic search to attract eyeballs. With blog marketing, using consistency and commitment, they have a chance a winning the customer acquisition game.

One way content writers can project empathy is with history-of-our-company background stories.  Those personal anecdotes can have a humanizing effect, engaging readers and creating feelings of empathy and admiration for the business owners or professional practitioners who overcame adversity.

At the same time, “authority” is an important term in marketing blog writing. For one, Google’s algorithms are sensitive to authority when selecting which content to match with a reader’s query. Perhaps even more important, readers visit your blog for answers and for information they can trust. The success of your blog marketing efforts will be very closely aligned with your being perceived as a SME (subject matter expert) in your field.

Content marketing needs to be both – empathetic and authoritative!

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