Don’t Just Make It Work – Make It Happen!

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On a recent episode of Project Runway (one of my very favorite TV shows), designer Isaac Mizrachi offered the following gem of a statement (meant as a take-off on mentor Tim Gunn’s encouraging “Make it work!”).  To be an all-star, Mizrachi insists, it’s not enough to “make things work” – you need to make things happen!

“By developing a unique and recognizable brand identity…you can ensure that your brand stands out from the competition and is remembered by customers,” Brittany Bettini of the Forbes Business Council writes. Just as, on the fashion runway, designers strive to stand out (rather than blending in), business owners and professional practitioners need to establish a “brand” that stands out in the marketplace. Your brand identity:

  1. differentiates you from competitors
  2. creates a lasting impression on potential customers

It’s going to take more than offering exceptional customer service, JP Van Steertgeghem cautions in a LinkedIn piece. There are no shortcuts to greatness, but it’s important to create and share engaging, interesting, and valuable content.

Just as Mizrachi was stressing to the fashion design contestants, Kasey Murphy tells entrepreneurs in the the wesayhowhigh.com blog to “be bold” in their marketing campaigns. In a crowded marketplace, Murphy stresses, it’s essential to make your brand stand out through bold marketing campaigns that “shine brighter”.

“The one that stands out is in essence the one that is not like the rest,” onsightapp.com agrees. “When people cannot distinguish brands from each other, they cannot form reliable relationships with those brands.” Not only does an effective brand have a well-outlined target audience, it may even offer a service or product exclusively to that target audience.

As a frequent viewer of the show, I couldn’t help noticing a recurring theme in the conversations among the designers and the judges of project runway challenges about designers “staying true to their own aesthetic in developing runway-worthy garments. In marketing content, we understand at Say It For You, it’s crucial to let the personality of the owners and providers “shine through”. 

In my 2020 post “Don’t keep yourself a secret in your blog,” I was alluding to showcasing  the “aesthetic” of the people behind the brand, revealing not only what they have, what they do, and what they know how to teach others to do, but offering a glimpse into their  personalities..

In content marketing, in short, it’s important to do more than just “make it work”.  We have to make it happen!

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Blog It Again, Sam – But Different

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Out of new ideas? Rewrite the same piece using another POV (point of view), advises Mariah Richard in Writer’s Digest. Richards suggests a variety of same-but-different approaches, including:

  • If you told the story in first person, try telling it in third person.
  • Start with what was the conclusion in your first piece, follow with the “back story”.
  • Relate the same set of events, but from the perspective of a different character.

“Writing is rewriting”, MasterClass warns, and mastering the art of the rewrite is essential for novice writers and professionals alike. “If you put real work into your rewrite, a good piece of writing can become great.”

Both these concepts – generating new content by reworking old content and updating already published content – apply to content marketing, we know at Say It For You.

Using existing content as inspiration for content now
When our Indiana freelance blog content writers are sitting down with business owners or professional practitioners who are preparing to launch a blog, one important step in that launch is to select recurring themes that will appear and reappear over time in their blog posts. But, to add variety and maintain interest (on the part of both writers and readers!), the “templates” can be varied, including list posts,, review posts, OpEd opinion pieces, and interview posts. In addition to varying the format or template, I teach, you can offer different kinds of information in different blog posts.

Updating old blog posts
“Refreshing and rewriting blog posts can be pivotal to the success of your blog,” nectafy.com explains. “Aim for an update at least every 15 months.” The changes can reflect progress and changes in the industry as well as changes in the products and services offered by the business or practice owner.

Out of “new” blog post ideas? Re-new the “core” concepts using a different point of view. Blog it again, Sam, but different!

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What is Your Reader’s Deal?

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“What’s the deal here?”

Amy Collins, who represents both publishers and authors, says writers need to know “the deal”.  Writing a plot summary involves figuring out the goals and motives of both hero(ine) and antagonist.

  • What situation do we find the character in at the beginning of the story?
  • What do they perceive as their biggest enemy or problem?
  • Who or what is actually their biggest enemy or problem?
  • What is the biggest thing in the story that changes the situation?

The message for marketing content writers? Even if your (or your blogging client’s) products and services are highly differentiated from the general market, that’s not enough to keep content fresh and make conversions happen. It’s knowledge of the target audience that must influence every aspect of your content. “Great business stories are rarely aimed at everyone,” marketing guru Seth Godin stresses.“Your opportunity,” he tells marketers, “lies in finding a neglected worldview, framing your story in a way that this audience will focus on.”

Learning about your target customers includes gathering intelligence, not only about

  • their gender
  • their average age
  • their marital status
  • their educational level
  • their employment
  • their outlook on life
  • where they get their news

but also, just as Amy Collins explains to authors, about what that group of individuals perceives as their biggest enemy or problem. (Is that, in your perception, the biggest problem?) How can your insights, along with your products and/or services, help solve the “real” challenges they face?

There are two sides to the coin: content writers need to understand their clients’ own “deals”, too. Business and practice owners cannot be positioned within the marketplace without studying their surroundings, formulating their own position statements, then making their “deals” clear to readers. Each “visit” to the blog should conclude with readers understanding exactly what the owner’s unique philosophy or mission is, and why that approach can be beneficial to them.

One concern business owners have expressed to me is they don’t want to come across as self-serving or boastful in their blog posts. I explain that it’s crucial for prospects to find real reason to work with you rather than with your competition.

They’ve arrived at your blog site, in large part, because you’ve nade clear you understood their “deal”‘. Now that they’re here, help them understand yours!.

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Examining, Not Eating, Our Words

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“Every day, we eat our words,” Richard Lederer writes in the San Diego Union-Tribune. “Both our food and our language are peppered with salt,” he adds as an example. Before artificial refrigeration was invented, salt was the only way to preserve meat. Therefore: A portion of the wages paid to Roman soldiers was “salt money” with which to buy salt. The term was “salarium” (today we say “salary”). Other words derived from salt include salad, salsa, sausage, and salami. Good, plain people are called “salt of the earth”; a good worker is “worth his salt”.

Many of our words have to do with bread, Lederer explains. The term “companion” is derived from the Latin “com” (together) and “panis” (bread). We “break bread” with company. Wage earners are breadwinners. Cake is also an important root word, with the cakewalk being a 19th century dance meant to make fun of the rigidly stiff formal dancing of White plantation owners. Winners of dance contests were awarded a cake, possibly the origin of the expression to “take the cake”.

When it comes to language choices in blogging for business, I often recall the 1998 memorandum from President Bill Clinton: “The Federal Government’s writing must be in plain language. By using plan language, we send a clear message about what the government is doing, what it requires, and what services it offers. Plain language saves the Government and the private sector time, effort, and money.” Four specific characteristics of logically organized, easy-to-read documents,, Clinton said, include common, everyday words, “you” and other personal pronouns, the active voice, and short sentences. With “easy-to-read” a quality much to be desired in blog marketing, all four of these recommendations apply to blog posts.

“Examining” the terminology relating to your business or profession is a very good idea for business blogs. But, while helping readers “examine” the background of terms is a great way to stimulate interest, what we would not like to have to do is “eat our words”. Just how can content writers communicate an owner’s strong opinions without offending? “When you communicate a strong opinion, you automatically divide the audience into three parts: those who agree, those who disagree, and those who haven’t yet decided, crystalclearcomms.com admits. In a KRC Research survey asking whether CEOs have the responsibility to speak up about issues that are important to society, only 38% said yes..

At Say It For You, what I’ve learned over the years of creating blog content for dozens and dozens of clients in different industries and professions is that, in order to turn clients and customers “on”, we must incorporate one important ingredient – opinion. Taking a stance, I’ve found, clarified what differentiates that business, that professional practice, or that organization from its peers.

The trick is to examine words, express our own opinions in words, but avoid using words to mock others. After all, we want to enjoy reading words, hearing words, and using words, not “eating” them!

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The First Blog Post Shows the Palette

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There’s an exercise artists can do to break through their equivalent of “writer’s block,” my friend Phil read in an urban sketching book about using watercolor. Deciding what to put on the first page of your sketchbook is the hardest, the author understood. A new artist might experience inhibitions about opening the paint wrappers. But if the first page is used to give the artist a better idea of what the colors will look like on paper, the rest will follow naturally.

Beginnings are hard in any field. The first day of class, for example, gets a lot of attention from pedagogues, because what happens on that day shows students what to expect from your instruction, Alicia Alexander and Elizabeth Natalle explain in a text on interpersonal communication.

A second friend, book writing coach Myra Levine, says that each author’s first question should be “whose eyes do we see through?” Point of View, Levine says, determines every word you write. In Levine’s webinar offers writing “prompts” to help writers envision the “palette”.

Business owners and professional practitioners launching their blog often experience the same feel of “opening the paint wrappers” or putting the first words to web page. At Say It For You, we explain that the opening post will set the tone for the ongoing blog series, letting readers know:

  • They’ve come to the right place – this blog promises to be a good source for the type of information I want and need?
  • They can tell the author/company/practice is likeable, resonating with their own belief system.
  • They understand there’s a reason you’ve decided to use a blog as an ongoing communication tool.

Fear of flying is an anxiety disorder, and some of the elements of that fear have nothing to do with the actually risks associated with flight. In Fear of Blogging, David Meerman Scott says many business owners fear:

  • looking silly
  • not having important things to say
  • lack of computer savvy
  • blogging “won’t work” for their industry

Of course, from a business standpoint, fear of blogging can be a fearsome business mistake, since, in the time it’s taken you to read this far into my blog post, thousands and thousands of new blog posts have been introduced, some by your competitors!

So, go ahead – open up that new sketchbook. Peel the plastic off the paint tubes. Try writing the answer to this question:

If you had only 10 words to describe just how you ended up in – and why you’re
still in- your present industry or profession, what would those words be?

There’s your business blog “palette”!

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