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National Blog Marketing Appreciation Day?

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“Jumping in on the ‘National Days’ hype can be a great way for your business to spread awareness about a cause, as well as being a great tool for marketing and really boosting those engagement rates.” Polly Oakes advises in Remarkable Commerce.

So right. At Say It For You, we teach, tying blog content to current community happenings and currents events is a winning strategy. Leveraging your community is really nothing more than “meeting” strangers and helping to turn those strangers into friends.  Using National Days simply expands the “reach”.

So how have all these national days come to be? Individuals who wish to promote a cause, go through their legislators, who in turn request of the President of the United States to issue a proclamation, which then must be approved by congressional vote.

This very month of August, 2023, for example, started out marking World Lung Cancer Day, International Mahjong Day, Respect for Parents Day, and National Raspberry Cream Pie Day, all on August 1st! Today, August 10, is a content marketing bonanza:

  • National S’mores Day Use to market cooking classes, groceries, for cooking classes, camping outfitters?

  • National Skyscraper Appreciation Day (marks the anniversary of the birth of William Van Alen, designer of the Chrysler Building) Use for architectural and design firms, travel agencies, art deco interior design, jewelry?

  • National Spoil Your Dog Day Use in marketing dog food, pet care, trainers, obedience school?

  • World Lion Day (founded ten years ago by Dereck and Beverly Doubert in partnership with National Geographic to raise awareness about lions being an endangered species due to hunting and poaching). Use in marketing content for the zoo? For veterinary practices? Pet shops?

In addition to using national days, when we enter conversations that are trending at the time, tying the blog content to current events, and to conversations that are trending at the time, that serves the dual purpose of “playing off” already existing popular interest while possibly earning search engine “Brownie points” as well. Did we attend a performance or rally? How does what we heard and saw tie in with our own work in the community?

Mahjong with s’mores, anyone?

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So What’s My State’s Insect?

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Imagine – up until five years ago, Indiana was one of only three states with no state insect! Chronicled by the Indiana Department of Natural Resources, legislation was signed by Gov. Eric Holcomb rectifying the situation, naming the Say’s Firefly our insect of choice after students in several Posey County and West Lafayette schools wrote proposals and collected signatures while learning about the legislative process. As things turned out, not only is the Angled Candle Firefly native to Indiana, it’s named after Hoosier Thomas Say, father of American Zoology.

Ever on the search for fascinating factoids to spice up marketing content, I found mention of Firefly in the book What Makes Flamingos Pink by Bill McClain. (The cover describes the tome as “a colorful collection of Q & A’s for the unquenchably curious”, which is precisely the trait we treasure at Say It For You ).Fascinating tidbits of information lend variety to blog posts, and can be used to spark interest, to help describe the products and services offered by the business or practice, and even to clarify owners’ point of view.

The thing about tidbits, though, is they need to matter to the reader. Plus, I’ve learned over the years, there needs to be a back story. Skimming through the McClain book, my eye was caught by the statement “Every state in the United States has a state insect.” So, what’s my state’s insect? I immediately wanted to know. Still, absent the wonderful back story about students gathering signatures to support their choice of a name to propose to the legislature, I would have lost further interest in the subject of state insects.

I often recommend including interesting information on topics related to your business (or, if you’re a freelance blog content writer, related to your client’s business). If you can provide information most readers wouldn’t be likely to know, we teach at Say It For You, so much the better. But there has to be a “back story” showing a) why the information matters to the owner or to the history of the business and b) showing how the information might matter to the reader..

Tie In Tidbits and “So What’s” in Blogging for Business

So what’s MY state insect? And, what was “the deal” with MY state finally getting on board?

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More Farm-Grown Content Marketing Insights

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This week, my Say It For You blog posts were inspired by the 2024 Farmer’s Almanac…

“Harvesting” tidbits of information will always prove useful to content writers, and this issue of Farmer’s Almanac contains some wonderful examples of information that readers either never knew or which they’ve likely forgotten. In content marketing, these very tidbits can lend variety to blog posts while reinforcing information we want to convey to prospects.

The Farmer’s Almanac piece “Why the LEAP in Leap Year” is a perfect example: (Everyone knows that in a leap year, an extra day is tacked onto February. But what is it that “leaps”?) The calendar organizes each year into 365 days, but it actually takes our Earth 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, and 46 seconds to orbit the sun. To correct this calendar “inaccuracy”, Julius Caesar added a day to the calendar every four years. (Back then, February was considered the last month of the year, so that’s where they added the day.) The adjustment meant that what was Monday on the first non-leap year would be Tuesday on the next year, and Wednesday on the year after that. It’s the day of the week that does the “leaping”!

While the “tidbit” about leap year would certainly add interest to a blog offered by any business or practice, what is needed to make it work is a tie-in or “trigger” relating that information to the business or practice being marketed to online readers. For example, air conditioning companies or appliance venders might use the Mental Floss Magazine story about how, when President Garfield was shot and lay dying in the White House, inventors rushed forward with devices they hoped would help, using a contraption to blow air over a box of ice into a series of tin pipes, eventually using a half-million pounds of ice.

At Say It For You, we remind content writers that, however fascinating the tidbit or story may be, in content marketing the information needs to make a difference to the target readers. Meanwhile, keep “harvesting” those valuable “Did You Know?” facts and anecdotes!

 

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Will Your Post Persuade – or Convince?

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This week, my Say It For You blog posts were inspired by speaker and humorist Todd Hunt…

When your message changes someone’s actions,  Hunt’s video explains, what you’ve done is PERSUADE, Todd Hunt explains. On a deeper level, when you’ve CONVINCED the recipients of your message, you’ve actually changed their beliefs.

Unfortunately, it seems that a great deal of marketing content is devoted to persuading prospects by describing “what we do”,  what the services and products the company or organization offers. Too often, little effort appears focused on “what we believe”- type “convincing” visitors, giving them a sense that “kindred spirits” are to be found at this web address.

The idea of changing beliefs through content is hardly new. The LASSI (Learning and Study Strategies Inventory developed at the University of Texas) is an 80-item assessment based on the theory that success in learning relies on thoughts, behaviors, attitudes, and beliefs.  Researchers at the University of Bath, meanwhile, created a measurement for ads called the Emotive Power Score to gauge if the ad is going to change feelings about the brand.

The best posts, we emphasize at Say It For You, give online readers a feel for the company culture and for the core beliefs owners wish to share. While content marketing uses Calls to Action, aiming to persuade lookers to become buyers, content that convinces through “we believe” statements can result in long term customer loyalty. Although the marketing content might relate to a for-profit business, a core-beliefs-over-core-products-and-services emphasis can prove surprising effective in making the cash register ring.

Will your next blog post be designed to persuade readers to take action – or will it convince, changing or reinforcing their beliefs?

 

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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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