Give Content the “Silent” Power of Repeated Sound

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From nursery rhymes to content marketing, alliteration packs a punch — word power punch. From Peter Piper’s pickled peppers to the title of the novel The Great Gatsby, a series of words, each beginning with the same consonant sound,  tends to stick in readers’ memory…

“Alliteration is one of the most beloved tools in a writer’s figurative language toolkit,” Millie Dinsdale, content manager for Fictionay.co, calls alliteration “one of the most beloved tools in a writer’s figurative language toolkit,” enhancing the musicality of a phrase or sentence and amplifying its effect.

Alliterative headlines, because they’re memorable and engaging, can enhance SEO, increasing clickthrough rates, digital strategist Deepanjana ChakrabortyI observes on Linked In. However, she cautions, while a travel blog might use a title like “Marvelous Mediterranean Moments” to arouse interest, creativity must be balanced with relevance so that the headline accurately reflects the content of the blog post or article.

Alliterative company names like Best Buy, PayPal, Bed Bath & Beyond, and Coca Cola stick in our minds, conjuring up images of their logos, Lindsay Kramer observes in grammarly.com.  The effect of alliteration is heard, rather than read, she explains –even if the reader only “hears” it in their mind as they read silently. In everyday speech, alliteration is quite common, she points out – think “quick question”, “pizza party”, and “big business”.

Something I’ve been teaching for years now at Say It For You is using both consonant and vowel repetition with an eye to making blog post titles more “catchy”. After all, I remind content marketers, it’s one thing to write great content, and quite another to get readers to click on it. A couple of weeks ago, at a networking meeting, I was reminded that alliteration can have multiple applications as we create content. In introducing his work to the group, a financial planner cited five “triggering events”, instances when financial decisions assume enormous urgency and importance:

  • Death
  • Divorce
  • Disability
  • Departure
  • Disagreement

Elaborating on each of these five Ds lent structure to his presentation and helped it “stick in our minds” (it’s obvious the “Ds” stuck in mine!).

Give content the “silent” power of repeated sound!

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Mythbusting Marketing Memes

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After hearing so many recent reports of floods and fires in different regions of our country, I was curious to read the article ” 5 Myths About Natural Disasters” in .this month’s issue of Prevention magazine …

 At Say It For You, we’re always talking about what a good idea it is to use marketing content for busting myths.  Myth-busting makes for engaging content, offering the chance to showcase a business owner’s or a professional practitioner’s expertise while providing important information that can improve readers’ lives.

Myth:  You should stand in a doorway during an earthquake.

Truth: That may have been true when homes were made of adobe brick.                 Nowadays, best to hide under a sturdy table or desk.

Myth: Before a storm, tape windows to prevent them from shattering.

Truth: Taping windows can cause larger deadlier shards of glass to form.                Instead of tape, tack plywood over the panes.

Myth: During a tornado, take cover under a bridge or overpass.

Truth: Those areas become wind tunnels for debris. Lie down in a ditch.

This kind of super-helpful myth-debunking brings value, even as it “showcases” providers’ knowledge and skill (as opposed to “showing up” readers’ lack of knowledge).  At the same time, one use of mythbusting content is correcting misinformation reflected in customers’ questions and comments without directly embarrassing them.

In the normal course of doing business, you’ve undoubtedly found, misunderstandings about your product or service might surface in the form of customer questions and comments. By myth-busting, content marketing can “clear the air”, replacing factoids with facts, so that buyers can see their way to making decisions.

While mythbusting has the benefit of sharing business owners or professionals’ expertise, it also provides readers a road map for using that information in their own lives. 

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The Case for the Colon in Your Content

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“If punctuation marks were performers, the colon would be the master of ceremonies,” Ryan Van Cleave observes in Writer’s Digest. (This week I’m featuring content writing clues based on Digest pieces .)… There are  specific ways writers can make good use of the colon, Van Cleave points out, reminding us that what comes before the colon must be a complete sentence:

In content marketing, the most common use of the colon is to introduce a bullet-pointed list.

By most accounts, search engines like bullet points. Even more important, what we’ve found over the years at Say It For You is that bullet points keep everyone on track, including our content writers themselves. It’s a good rule to begin each bullet pointed statement with the same part of speech.  Also, as writers.stockexchange.com reminds us, we need to use bullet pointed lists sparingly to avoid having the lists lose their impact.

There’s more to using colons than just to introduce lists, Ryan Van Cleave reminds us. Colons can be used to “introduce what matters”, setting the stage for dramatic reveals or punchlines.  In a novel, for example, the sentence might read: “He realized the truth too late; she was gone.”  In content marketing, of course, one of the big challenges is the dramatic decrease in the average attention span of online readers, meaning that, as content creators, we are not granted a whole lot of time for “stage-setting”.  In both the title and the opening statement, we need to capture attention and stimulate interest.

In all the “reading around” I like to do for both business and pleasure, I’ve found that book publishers often use two part titles divided by a colon. I’ve nicknamed those “Huh?; Oh!” titles. The “Huh?s”  catch attention; the “Oh!’s” explain what the book is really about. Seeing Around Corners: How to Spot Inflection Points in Business Before They Happen is a good example.

As content marketers, such two part titles divided by a colon can serve to satisfy search engines and readers’ “what???” curiosity.

Consider allowing the colon to serve as “master of ceremonies” in your marketing content!

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Joining the Jargon Between Academics and Practitioners

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Earlier this weeJoiningk in our Say It For You blog, we talked about comparisons that have been used so often by writers that they’ve become lifeless and hackneyed , serving as barriers to, rather than helping communication… Then, in my Journal of Financial Planning, I found a discussion of another way in which the language choices by content writers can become a barrier rather than a help…

“Advisers and academics inhabit two different communities with differing jargon, incentives, and metrics for success,” authors of a piece in April’s issue of the Journal of Financial Planning observed. That’s not good, they pointed out, since only a strong partnership between the two communities will allow planners to give evidence-based advice to their clients.  “Reach out to a practitioner and invite them to lunch,” the authors advised academics.

As a content writer, I found two “customs” the authors believe should become commonplace relevant to the creation of content marketing pieces:

  1. Academics should produce research that practitioners will deem relevant.

“Listen to the marketplace to find content,” Jon Rutenberg, owner of CCC solutions, advised in a guest post on this blog. Asking clients questions about their business (asking planners about their practice) is a great way to touch base. Look at their websites and social media posts – What are they talking about?

2. practitioners should consume financial planning research.

At Say It For You, as we work with the owners professional practices, we know that, even as we’re helping them connect with prospects through posting valuable information, they are always themselves seeking to stay abreast of information – especially new information – related to their field. Yet, although there are more complete and authoritative sources they could turn to, often busy practitioners need condensed “bulletins” to maintain “proximity” to the latest research and development.

After all, I’ve come to realize, all content marketing is about “joining the jargon”, providing an exchange of information among providers, researchers, and consumers.

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Don’t Let the Marketing Dose Make the Poison

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Earlier this week our Say It For You blog highlighted nuggets of marketing wisdom contained in well-known proverbs. A classic maxim in the field of toxicology is “The dose makes the poison.”, meaning that often, a substance is toxic to the body only if it is administered  in too high a dosage…

“If urgency becomes the sole focus of marketing efforts, it can overshadow the brand’s core values and identity,” shopcreatify.com points out. “While scarcity can be a motivator, the primary focus should be on the benefits and features that truly resonate with your target audience.”

What’s more, Timothy Hodges of HonorAging, says, “Marketing too much can send mixed messages to existing and potential clients. For potential clients, you can be perceived as desperate, struggling, and/or not sending a clear enough message regarding your product or services”.

Interesting…At Say It For You, I use the word “marketing” in a very specialized sense.  That’s because, in today’s world, whatever your business or profession, there’s almost no end to the information available to consumers on the Internet.  Our job then, as content writers, isn’t really to “sell” anything, but rather to help readers absorb, and put to use, all that information.

Marketing, I believe, is about differentiating what you think about what you do and why you think the way you do. Taking a stance on issues relevant to your business or profession puts you in the role of subject matter expert and opinion leader.

I remember reading a piece by Sophia Bernazzani Barron of Hubspot in which she discussed “after-the-fact” selling, accomplished by describing an “extra” benefit added to things online prospects have already demonstrated is important to them. Blog marketing is, in fact, a tool for that “extra benefit” type of selling; because blogs are relational and conversational, they can be persuasive in a low-key manner.

Content marketing, remember, is a positive – it’s only when offered in too high a dose, that the marketing has the potential to “poison” the selling process.

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