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To Be Original, Be Well-Versed

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“Originality is important for publication, and to be as original as possible, you have to be well versed in what has already been done,” Ran Walker, author of 28 books, tells writers in a Writer’s Digest piece. With millions of people working in the horror novel genre, for example, “it’s easy to go for the easy scares or gross-outs. It’s good to be inspired by other writers, he admits, but that inspiration needs to guide you into new and uncharted territory.

When it comes to online content marketing, Camille Allegrucci has a slightly divergent view, citing “the myth of originality”. Your voice, Allegrucci says, is more important than new ideas, and no “original” idea is truly original, anyway. (Would anyone seriously contend that Anna Karenina lacks originality or is not worth reading because of the plot points it shares with Madame Bovary?) The question to ask yourself is not “How can I say something that has never been said before?” but rather “How can I express myself in the best way that my voice allows?”

It helps to bring in less well-known facts about familiar things and processes, and even more when you suggest new ways of thinking about things readers already know. New ideas may not be “a thing”, but new insights and opinions can be. At Say It For You, our advice to business owners and their content writers is that you must offer an opinion, a slant, on the information you’re serving up to readers. No, it’s not “new information”, and you’re not re-inventing the proverbial wheel. What’s “new is the clarity of your views on the subject.

There may, in fact, be “millions of people” working in the horror novel genre, as Ran Walker points out, but there are 4.4 million new blog posts being published every DAY! So, as Allegrucci claims, it may not be about “originality” after all, but more about “un-packaging” information already out there, proactively interpreting content in ways that are not only understandable, but usable by readers.

The other “piece” of being well-versed to be original involves the research into emotive power responsiveness. Researchers at the University of Bath, working with Nielson, came up with two ways to score ads.

1. Information Power Score – measures what the consumer perceives as the value of the message
2. Emotive Power Score – measures if the emotion is going to change feelings about the brand

The “originality” of effective blog posts, I teach at Say It For You, consists of offering the business owner’s (or the professional’s, or the organizational executive’s) unique perspective on issues related to the search topic and their unique experiences and insights gained.

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Behind Each Marketing Content Piece Lies at Least 1 of 5 Key Interview Questions

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“Interviews are a vital aspect of nonfiction writing,” Don Vaughn explains in Writer’s Digest. He’s discovered five questions that “help add detail, color, and heft to our work”. At Say It For You, we’ve learned, these same questions inspire content marketing, as business and practice owners “introduce” themselves to their potential buyers.

1. What was your inspiration?
Almost always, there’s an important incident or insight that give birth to the birth of an enterprise. The insight can come from a negative experience or a positive one, and sharing that with readers serves to humanize and personalize the post, adding power to the value proposition.

2. Why is this important?
Someone who has accomplished something remarkable inherently understands why that accomplishment is important, Vaughn reasons, but readers may not.. Often blog visitors don’t know how to “digest” the claims you’ve “served up”.  They simply don’t have any basis for comparison, not being as expert as you are in your field. Spend time providing that “context” that clarifies why what you’ve done – and what you’re doing – is important.

3. What were the greatest challenges you faced, and how did you overcome them?
“Asking sources how they dealt with overwhelming challenges in pursuit of success can often form the heart of an article,” Vaughn teaches. Passion and personality give blog posts a big advantage as compared to brochures, ads, or even the website, and owners’ recalling the obstacles they’d needed to overcome lends power to the marketing narrative.

4. What do you get personally from your work?
Using first person (the pronouns “I” and “we”) allows the marketing content to come across as intimate, unique, and conversational. And while no one likes people who speak of nothing but theselves, It’s important to show the person behind the posts, revealing the personality of the business owner or practitioner standing ready to serve the customers.

5. Who else would you suggest I talk to?
Quoting others to support your points and show you’re in touch with trends in your field is a good idea. Aggregating different sources of information on a topic is a way to add value to content readers.

Behind every content marketing piece is at least one of those five key interview questions!

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Interviewing Questions for Blog Posts

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Interviews are a vital aspect of nonfiction writing, Don Vaughn explains in Writer’s Digest. and freelancers often turn to subject matter experts or to everyday people with unique experiences, perspective, or opinions. Vaughn suggests five key questions be posed to interviewees:

  1. What was your inspiration for…..?
  2. Why is your accomplishment important?
  3. What were the greatest challenges you faced?
  4. What do you get personally from your work?
  5. Who else would you suggest I talk to?

In a sense, blog posts might be viewed as “reverse” or “flip-flopped” interviews, with prospects interviewing the business, rather than the other way around. At Say It For You, we teach content writers that searchers are recruiting help, evaluating the content in light of their own needs. But, as a blog-content-writer-for-hire by business owners and professional practitioners, I’ve found that actually interviewing the founders or principals of a business or practice can make for very effective marketing content, often more compelling than the typical narrative text. How does that work? In a face-to-face (or online) interview with a business owner, executive, or professional practitioner, I capture their ideas and some of their words. I then add “framing” to the post with my own questions and introductions.

Interviewing subject experts will give your content depth, credibility, and perspective, explains Dawn Wolfe of thesimonsgroup.com. For one thing, industry experts are in a better position to make a topic meaningful for non-insiders. As a side benefit, Wolfe suggest, the experts you interview are more likely to share the content with their own networks, increasing your reach. In fact, Wolfe recommends providing interviewees with “teaser copy” they can post to their own social channels, making sure to include relevant hashtags. Wolfe has practical suggestions for locating subject matter experts to interview, suggesting analysts, authors, consultants, government agency and nonprofit personnel, universities and professional associations.

The STAR method of conducting a “behavioral” interview has become quite popular, The interviewee is asked to describe a Situation they were in, a Task they needed t accomplish, the Actions they took, and the Results. But, whatever format our Say It For You content writers select for an interview with a SME (subject matter expert), the goal is to elicit new insights into the subject matter. Whether it’s business-to-business blog writing or business to consumer blog writing, the blog content itself needs to contain opinion and insight, not only information and products.

 

 

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Things-You-Never-Knew Content Marketing

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“Time to take a look at how amazing (and a bit freaky!) we all are,” says Patricia S. Daniels of National Geographic. And we want to do this why? To: 1. discover healthy living 2. improve function 3. explore the latest discoveries. The special issue offers no fewer than 100 things you never knew”, in the form of “tidbits” of information about the human body..

Things-you-never-knew tidbits are super-valuable when it comes to content marketing. For one thing, tidbits showcase the knowledge and expertise of the business owners or practitioner, while at the same time softening the effect of any strong opinions expressed in the article or blog.

In content writing, word tidbits and tag lines are both designed to help readers remember something– a concept, a company, a product, a service. But, while a tag line may be catchy, even memorable – it’s pure advertising, revealing little to nothing about product or service, the company or the experience in store for the buyer. The right word tidbit in contrast, can capture the sense of the owners and how much those owners care about continuing their decades-long relationship with customers.

The “things-you-never-knew” concept is successful because it relates to the fact that web visitors tend to be curious creatures, particularly when it comes to testing their own knowledge and learning more about themselves. In fact, “self-tests” tend to engage readers and help them relate in a more personal way to the information presented in a blog or other marketing content On the other hand, online searchers are looking for more than just information; they need perspective. Yes, the National Geographic issue is designed to help readers become aware of these fascinating details of bodily function, ls, they need help discovering what to do about those details in order to achieve a more healthy lifestyle.

Business blog posts, for example, much like those individual things-you-never-knew pieces in National Geographic, should be designed to spark reader curiosity, playing on our natural desire to self-test, then offer technical information “in chewable tablet form”.

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Blogging the Whys, Whats, and Talking Points

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Carmel Rotary and the City of Carmel, I learned from the Carmel Monthly magazine, are preparing to host the Deputy Mayor of Cortona Italy, Carmel’s new sister city. As part of an “authentically Italian experience”, titled Arte d’Italia, Attesti, a world-renowned pianist, will perform at the Palladium and at the Carmichael.

Exciting cultural news, but as a content marketer, I was quite impressed with the way writer Janelle Morrison presented that news, including the three elements that need to be included in blog posts designed to inform readers about new developments in a business or practice:

The Whys
The typical website explains what products and services the company offers, who the “players” are and in what geographical area they operate. The better websites give at least a taste of the corporate culture and some of the owners’ core beliefs. But, as we stress at Say It For You, it’s left to the continuously renewed business blog writing, though, to present new developments, as well as giving readers a deeper perspective with which to process the information and show why it’s important. The first part of the Carmel Monthly article explains the various ways, according to Mayor Brainard, any city that is a member of Sister Cities International benefits in terms of international goodwill, student educational exchanges, and expanded business relationships.

The Whats
Morrison then went on to detail the “whats”, meaning the details of the upcoming plans, representing opportunities to “showcase some of Carmel’s finest and most beautiful venues and organizations”. Hotel Carmichael’s Chef Jason Crouch have curated “an amazing menu focused on the rich culinary influence found in this region of Italy”. Carmel Symphony Orchestra Artistic Director Janna Hymes worked via Zoom with Attesti to design a whole new program featuring Italian and American pieces. In blogging for business, it’s simply not enough to provide even very potentially valuable information to online searchers who’ve landed on a company’s corporate blog. The facts (the “whats”) need to be “translated” into relational, emotional terms that compel reaction – and action – in readers.

The Talking Points
Prepare talking points for each interview, is the advice offered by Sally Cates to financial advisors in Financial Planning Magazine. Business bloggers need to prepare talking points as well, curating and properly attributing materials from different sources to support the points and add value for readers. Some of the powerful talking points included in the Carmel Monthly piece are these: Music is a universal language. Mayor Attesti explained that the Italian legislation, more restrictive than that of the U.S., makes approaching sponsors for cultural activities a challenge; he hopes to learn about economic sustainability of cultural initiatives. On the other hand, he hopes to suggest ways to increase tourism and cultural life in Carmel.

In blogging for business, all three elements are important for success – the whys, the whats, and the talking points!

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