Elevating Content with Semi-Colons

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In content marketing, the most common use of the colon is to introduce a bullet-pointed list, and, back in July, this Say It For You blog discussed this and two other ways writers can make use of the colon, including in two-part titles and to set the stage for dramatic reveals or punch lines.Today’s focus in on the semi-colon….

In the “Unsung Punctuation” section of Writer’s Digest, Ryan Van Cleave comes out “in support of the semicolon”. Which is “stronger than a comma, but less final than a period, offering a middle ground that creates balance and nuance.”. The semi-colon, he claims can:

  • connect ideas
  • untangle complexity
  • elevate your prose

But “mastering the balance” isn’t all that easy, Van Cleave cautions; the key is to use the semi-colon only when clauses are closely related in meaning. Don’t force the issue, but use the semi-colon sparingly to preserve its effectiveness, he advises. “Overuse can make writing feel formal or stilted.” Important to remember is that semicolons don’t pair with conjunction like “and” or “but”.

But, wait! Aren’t blog posts supposed to be easy to read and informal in tone? Do content marketers need to go back to high school English class?  Perhaps. According to author Joanne Adams, pay attention to proper spelling and grammar, and “people who read your writing will know, without a sliver of doubt, that you are somebody who really knows their $h*t”. Point of fact, Laura Mondragon writes, the semicolon does a job no other punctuation can do, and is often more “polite” than a period or exclamation point. “I got your email; I haven’t finished the project yet.” gets the point across simply and effectively.

 

I like Caitlin Berve‘s example of the way content “flow” is enhanced with a semi-colon: “He not only worries he will never return to the castle in the mist; he worries he won’t even remember the palace exists.” Yes, the clauses before and after the semi-color could be separate sentences, but a period would take away from the way the two halves fit together, she explains.

At Say It For You, while we aim for different levels of content readability depending on the target audience for each client’s business or professional practice, we believe that using proper grammar and punctuation, without “dumbing down” the material, shows respect for readers’ intellect – and for their time.

And, if the semi-colon can help “elevate” our content by connecting ideas and untangling complexity, bring it on!

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In Creating Content, Have What She’s Having

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As I was greeting former colleagues and friends at the summer meeting of our Financial Planning Association, I couldn’t help but notice the T-shirt one of the chapter officers had on under his sports coat — “You had me at EBTDA”,  the caption read.  

(Knowing that the topic of the day was going to be preparing one’s business or professional practice for sale, I recognized the acronym – Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization – a financial term measuring a company’s performance and ability to pay back debt).

From the vantage point of my present occupation in content marketing, I was fascinated by how easily that acronym called to mind the Rene Zellweger line from the movie “Jerry McGuire”.  Interestingly, there’s a study about that, done at Cornell University, suggesting that the memorability of quotes can be explained by science. Although lines in a movie might become popular because of an unusually effective delivery by an actor, the scientists identified six qualities that make quotes “stick in our minds:

  • distinctive words
  • simple syntax
  • shortness
  • generality (so many people can relate to the words)
  • present tense
  • labial sounds – M, P, B,V

(While “You had me at hello” is short, simple, and “general”, the quote is in past, not present, tense, and uses no labials. It does use alliteration – “had” and “hello” both begin with the H sound, and Tom Cruise’s delivery was tear-jerkingly romantic.)

Other quotes flagged in the Cornell study include:

  • “Nobody puts Baby in a corner.”
  • “Here’s looking at you, kid.”
  • “Toto, I have a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore.”
  • “I’ll have what she’s having.”

In terms of creating online content, Wix.com names six title structures that have proven highly effective:

  • Using numbers (“12 things that….)
  • Using superlatives (Greatest….. Ultimate guide to….)
  • Questions (Why does…..)
  • How-tos
  • The big reveal (Secrets I learned…..)
  • Bracketed descriptors (Tips for Planning Content [FreeTemplates])

The quote “I’ll have what she’s having” (from “When Harry Met Sally” is one we often cite when training business blog content writers: link the products and services offered by your client to prevalent trends. Consumers want to do what “everyone is doing” and to “have what she’s having”.

In creating marketing content, show ’em how to “have what she’s having”!

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Yes, I Do Want to Hop on a Call — After You’ve Read My Blog Post

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Your colleague asks you a reasonable question.  You could take five minutes to write a cogent reply, but instead you say “Let’s hop on a call”.  What you’re really saying, Wes Kao opines in Entrepreneur Magazine, is that “I don’t want to do the work of clarifying my own thinking”. (It’ll be easier, you reason, to think out loud.) The problem isn’t calls, Kao explains; it’s defaulting to calls. When you draft a written reply and your audience takes time to read it and consider the content, everyone is in a better position to move forward, he emphasizes. By writing, Sarah K. Peck agrees,” you’re giving information that is helpful, documented, repeatable, and shareable”. In Rob’s Notes, the reviewer’s “take” is that Kao “encourages readers to invest in thinking and in crafting responses.”

As head of a content marketing team, I found this discussion in Entrepreneur especially interesting. At Say It For You, I’m always talking about the “training benefit” of blogging and content creation in general. While our business purpose is to present our clients as subject matter experts, a “side effect” for the business owners and practitioners themselves comes about in the process of conversing with us!  In essence, a blog is about giving readers information that is “helpful, documented, repeatable, and shareable”. The planning and exploratory conversations between owner and writer are, in effect, “training” entrepreneurs to better understand their own core business principles and practices

One very practical aspect of that “training” benefit accruing to entrepreneurs as they engage with their ghost writers has to do with the competition. Although one aspect of creating content about a business is comparing their products and services to others’, we “coach” our clients to emphasize the positive rather than “knocking” their competitor.  Rather than creating content about what the competition is doing “wrong”, we teach, the content needs to demonstrate what you value and the way you like to deliver your services.

And, for the very reason that Wes Kao encourages thoughtful written responses to workplace questions that arise, the process of creating content that will be “documented” and shareable, the process of owner/”ghost” collaboration results in productive self-examination and “training”.

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The Hero-With-Setting-With-Problem Content Marketing Model

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This week, our Say It For You blog is focused on different content marketing approaches, or “models”. In our last post we discussed the “I-Did-It” model, in which past failures are recounted as a jumping-off point for advice to readers on avoiding problems and overcoming obstacles. Today’s post presents a different content marketing approach….

 The default template for novels, Michael La Ronn explains, is very simple: – hero with setting with problem. Bestsellers “hook readers and never let go,” he explains, using the three parts of that template:

  • Hero – Readers must relate to the protagonist as a fellow human being and care about what happens to him or her.
  • Setting – In instructional nonfiction, La Ronn says, setting the scene ensures readers know why the information matters.
  • Problem – As a science fiction and fantasy author, La Ronn loves to tell stories about characters whose odds are stacked against them.

Each of the elements in the “hero, setting, problem” template is directly applicable to content marketing, we realize at Say It For You.  

Hero:
As Corey Wainwright of hubspot.com explains, “When your audience is reminded there are real life humans behind the scenes,” he says, “it becomes easier for them to trust your product or service.”  Two specific tactics he suggests are infusing a sense of humor into the content, and publishing photos of your team “being themselves”. Readers may be connecting with your content digitally, but it’s up to you to foster the human connection. 

Setting:

In content writing, the opening lines need to establish that readers have come to the right place to find the information they were seeking. Those opening lines establish the general “setting” for the specific focus of that day’s post. Establishing the setting includes clarifying the “slant” of the post – will readers find “how to” information? A list of sources for products? Some cautions and “don’ts? General definitions and categories?

Problem:
Friend and sales training expert Tim Roberts encourages finding before solving. While a salesperson needs to develop good problem-solving skills, finding a problem that the customer hasn’t considered is what makes a salesperson truly valuable, he teaches. What if, rather than simply answering online searchers’ queries, your content were to raise important questions? When content marketing really works, readers feel part of the process of solving, not only “asking”.

The hero-with-setting-with-problem model can be a very good fit for content marketing.

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Post How the Pros Do It

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You wouldn’t imagine consulting Golf Digest for tips on content marketing, but ideas are everywhere, as I constantly assure readers of this blog. This week, both our Say It For You posts relate to articles in the March/April issue of Golf Digest. In this second piece,  Mark Blackburn writes about what the game’s best players are looking for when they see a green for the first time….

“A PGA Tour course is like a riddle: It has an optimal way for a given player to make his way around — and it ends with diagnosing the challenges of each green complex,” Blackburn explains, listing things important to notice about a course’s topography:

  • where pins have been during previous events
  • amount of landing area and available run-out
  • grass thickness
  • contours – “banks” and “bowls”

Mark Blackburn is careful to explain why these details could prove important to the reader – “Your scouting report will influence club selection and aim…  Good golf is a compounding of positive, sensible micro-decisions… Just being a tiny bit better in where you leave your approach shots, and a touch closer to the hole with your wedge game, is how you save a stroke here or there.”

In fact, I believe, this article is a near-perfect model of what I call “advice column” content, because the tips Blackburn offers readers are not only highly specific, but practical and do-able. With  no direct tie to any product or services “pitches”, the author is firmly establishing himself as a SME (Subject Matter Expert).

At Say It For You, we sometimes encounter resistance from business or practice owners when it comes to posting content. Owners of personal service businesses, in particular, voice fears of giving away valuable information “for free”. (What happens in the real world, we’ve seen over the years, is that readers don’t want to do it all themselves and turn to the source of the advice they’ve been offered.)

This concept of “soft marketing” is one I keep coming back to: business writing needs to be conversational and informational, not sales-y. Readers understand you’re writing for business purposes. The very reason they have made their way to your site in the first place is that what you sell or what you do is a good match for their needs. It is not necessary – in fact, often it will defeat your purpose as a content marketer – to punctuate the text with Calls to Action – either overt or disguised.

Posting “how the pros do it” (whatever your “it” is), turns out to be a great way to establish trust.

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