What-to-Wear Pre-Holiday Blogging

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“Planning ahead is always better, especially when it comes to the holidays,” planoly.com suggests. “What you choose depends on your blog focus and niche, but tutorials attract high search traffic,” the authors explain, using How-to-Dress-For-an-Office-Christmas-Party as a tutorial “model”, with possible posts on creating the perfect casual look, finding the best sales, which boots are favorites for the holidays, and which are the best winter workout clothes.

One point I’ve consistently stressed in these Say It For You blog posts is how important it is to provide valuable information to readers, while avoiding any hint of “hard sell”. The theme of getting ready for the holidays can be used as a jumping-off point for a wide variety of blog posts for different businesses – and for different professional practices.

  • Psychologists can write about holiday-time stress management.
  • Carpet cleaning companies can list reasons it’s best to have carpets cleaned before the holidays.
  • Hair salons can describe festive “dos” for party goers.
  • Appliance vendors can offer safety tips for using heaters in guest rooms.
  • Trip advisors can remind travelers of things to take care of before leaving their homes.
  • Financial advisors can offer tips for managing debt while still celebrating the holidays.

In the Grammarly blog, Lindsay Kramer explains that tutorial blog posts may take different forms: In a how-to post, the blogger explains the steps readers must take to complete a task. In an interview post, the interviewee may talk about techniques or items that work well for them. “Explainer” blog posts are similar to how-tos, but aren’t necessarily present in a linear, step–by-step format.

General rules for what-to-wear/do/say blog posts might include:

  1. Make all content as free of professional jargon and specialized lingo as possible.
  2. Break technical information into bite-sized pieces.
  3. Project warmth, showing your “human side”.
  4. Use clear typeface, bullet points and bolding to draw attention to important points.
  5. Suggest questions readers can ask themselves while choosing among options.

Providing valuable, usable, information to your blog visitors is a great idea year-round!

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In Blogging, Use Numbered Lists; Don’t Forget the Subscript

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A subscript is a character that is set slightly below the normal line of type, respectively. It is usually smaller than the rest of the text. The National Geographic’ magazine issue “100 Places That will Change Your Life” is a great example of the way content writers can use subscripts in the titles of blog posts..

Under the name of each place the National Geographic authors recommend you visit, they’ve described a specific experience you can enjoy:

  • In Qutu, China, you can learn Shaolin kug fu, the martial art developed by monks in the 15th century.
  • In Oaxaca, Mexico, you can learn to prepare tamales using chocolate, grasshoppers, and corn fungus.
  • In Jamaica, make sure to meet the Maroons, descendants of enslaved Africans who fought for freedom from the British.
  • At Ellis Island, you can discover parts of your own family history.
  • In Vietnam, you can wander the spice forests.
  • In Bali, Indonesia, look for stunning penjor, bamboo poles adorned with frit, flowers, ad coconut leaves that display Hindu offerings during the festival of Galungan.

The way this wonderful magazine issue is set out serves as a reminder of several blog writing tactics we emphasize at Say it For You:

  1. Present information in numbered lists – Lists spatially organize information, helping create an easy reading experience, working well for scanning and skimming online searchers.
  2. Use “huh-oh” titles – “Huh?s” arouse curiosity; the “ohs” make clear what the article is about and use the keyword phrases.
  3. Offer specific advice and tips, thereby demonstrating that we understand our target readers’ needs.
  4. Include startling statistics – “Only an estimated one in 1,000 to 10,000 survives to adulthood” (describing why readers might be interested in rescuing sea turtles in Costa Rica). Opening your post with a startling statistic can be a way to grab visitors’ attention. If there’s some false impression people seem to have relating to your industry, or to a product or service you provide, statistics can serve as myth-busters.

In blogging, use numbered lists, and don’t forget the subscripts!

 

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Lists Are a Good Fit for Blogs – Once in a While

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Of all the types of list-style blog posts you could write, the “curated list’ is probably the easiest, Virtasktic.com explains, because “it is more about researching and trying to find content from others than about writing your content from scratch”. Still, curated lists require thought and care, and need to be structured in a way that makes it easy for your readers to consume.

That lists in general are a good fit for blogs is actually something I stress in corporate blogging training sessions.  By most accounts, search engines like lists and bullet points.  Even more important, I’ve found over the years at Say It For You, lists help keep readers – and writers – on track.

Interestingly, I came across two different lists, both listing resource programs available to Indiana residents.

  1. The first of these is on the state’s website, Indiana.gov, and offers a comprehensive list of assistance programs including food and clothing, mental health & addiction, health care, housing & utility assistance, children and family, tax assistance and education, employment.
  2. The second list, also abut resources, appeared in the Indianapolis Business Journal‘s promotional supplement “IN Career Ready. This list is focused on assistance programs in only the area of education. However the title does not make that clear (it’s titled “Free Money from the State of Indiana”.

Each of these two lists would be highly useful for readers searching for information about Indiana assistance programs. There is no attempt to editorialize, advise, or even organize the information in a new way. Each list is simply an organized collection of information.

In marketing a business or practice, organizing relevant and useful information in list form, geared towards the needs of your target audience can be very useful to readers. As in the two examples I found, the lists might be of resources for further information, tactics to try, or alternatives for solving a particular problem. Unlike the case with the IBJ supplement, the title must make very clear precisely what readers will find in the list. “Listicles help present a large amount of information in small, easy-to-scan, numbered sections,” explains Neil Patel.

Are list blogs meant to be an “instead of”? Of course not! For instance, listicles cannot…

  • allow your audience to know, like, and trust you
  • offer soft sales messages in value-added content
  • build community
  • highlight the specific needs fears, and wants of your target audience
  • offer opinion and thought leadership

But, when it comes to sheer utility and convenience – list blogs just can’t be beat!

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Listicles Make Life Simple for Blog Content Writers and Blog Readers

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The AAA Crossroads Magazine knows a good listicle when they see one. In “How to Make Travel Count”, TV host Samantha Brown lists five tips plus one “bonus tip” for getting the most out of even the shortest travel experience.

  • Tip #1: Take a walk.
  • Tip #2: Explore the side streets.
  • Tip #3: Create a ritual.
  • Tip #4 Talk to people.
  • Tip #5: Identify the emotional value.
  • Bonus tip: Put the map away, put down the phone, and just go down street because you think they look good.

Each one of these titles heads up a paragraph explaining how to use that tip. Not only does that visually organize the page in an attractive way, it makes the information easy to digest.

Still, in the online world, Caroline Forsey writes in hubspot.com, the list post (otherwise known as a listicle) commonly gets a bad name. In fact, she admits, “you can easily drown in a sea of particularly low-quality low-value listicles”. Nevertheless, Forsey explains, readers love listicles – for a number of reasons:

  • They are easy to scan.
  • They outline specifically what the reader will learn in the post.
  • Complex content is broker into bite-sized pieces.
  • Readers can skip to sections most applicable t them.

Listicles feed into our brain’s drive to categorize information and give us a sense of satisfaction when we correctly predict patterns, Neil Patel points out, citing a study out of Ohio State University showing how humans try to detect patterns in their environment.

To avoid adding to the “bad name” side of listicles, Toman of checkflow.io advises, don’t add more points just to fill up your list. Add interesting details to each item (Samantha Brown’s article is the perfect example). In order to make your angle unique, read what the competition is saying on the subject, then write from a personal perspective. “Going for a walk is the very first thing that I do at any destination,” Samantha writes.

I noticed that, even though it’s a listicle, Samantha Brown writes in first and second person, using the pronouns “I” and “we” and “you” throughout her piece. “I know what you’re thinking – Enjoy the mundane?” “I feel that talking to people is something that has been slowly going missing from our daily lives.” In blog marketing, I stress first person writing because of its one enormous advantage – it shows the people behind the posts, revealing the personality of the person or the team standing ready to serve customers.

At Say It For You, our content writers are always seeking to vary the ways we present information on a single topic in many different ways. Not only are we on the lookout for different “templates” in terms of platform graphics, but different formats for presenting information about any business or professional practice.

Listicles, when done well, make life simpler for both blog content writers and their readers.

 

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Analogies Help Information Resonate With Readers

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Matching our writing to our intended audience is part of the challenge we business blog content writers face. After all, we’re not in this to entertain ourselves – we’re out to retain the clients and customers we serve and bring in new ones, so we try to use words and sentences to which our target readers can relate.

There are four ways to make information resonate with an audience, advises climate scientist Lissa Ocko (who often addresses non-scientists on scientific topics):

  1. strip down to the essentials
  2. craft a story
  3. provide context
  4. use analogies

Using an analogy to link an unfamiliar concept to something that is familiar can help the reader better comprehend what you’re trying to say. It’s also a catchy and clever way to help get a point across, MasterClass.com points out.

At Say It For You, our content writers often use analogies as teaching tools in business blog posts:

Analogy: Parhelions and blogs posts
A parhelion is an atmospheric optical illusion consisting of “halos” of light around the sun. Just as parhelions showcase, rather than obliterate the sun, blogging allows content writers to approach the same topic in different ways to appeal to different audiences, still highlighting the central message.

Analogy: Suitcases and blog posts
Packing light has always been one of the better tips for savvy travelers. Pack your blog post with just enough materials to show searchers they’re on track to find the services or information they need.

Analogy: Cows being milked at night and blog posts
Cows were often milked in their barns at night, making that task one of the last ones on a farmer’s list. The expression “Till the cows come home” could be used in a message about a provider’s prompt service.

In blogging for business, using an analogy to link an unfamiliar concept to something familiar can help the reader better comprehend what you’re trying to say.

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