Posts

In Creating Content, Have What She’s Having

/0 Comments/in , , , /by

 

 

As I was greeting former colleagues and friends at the summer meeting of our Financial Planning Association, I couldn’t help but notice the T-shirt one of the chapter officers had on under his sports coat — “You had me at EBTDA”,  the caption read.  

(Knowing that the topic of the day was going to be preparing one’s business or professional practice for sale, I recognized the acronym – Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization – a financial term measuring a company’s performance and ability to pay back debt).

From the vantage point of my present occupation in content marketing, I was fascinated by how easily that acronym called to mind the Rene Zellweger line from the movie “Jerry McGuire”.  Interestingly, there’s a study about that, done at Cornell University, suggesting that the memorability of quotes can be explained by science. Although lines in a movie might become popular because of an unusually effective delivery by an actor, the scientists identified six qualities that make quotes “stick in our minds:

  • distinctive words
  • simple syntax
  • shortness
  • generality (so many people can relate to the words)
  • present tense
  • labial sounds – M, P, B,V

(While “You had me at hello” is short, simple, and “general”, the quote is in past, not present, tense, and uses no labials. It does use alliteration – “had” and “hello” both begin with the H sound, and Tom Cruise’s delivery was tear-jerkingly romantic.)

Other quotes flagged in the Cornell study include:

  • “Nobody puts Baby in a corner.”
  • “Here’s looking at you, kid.”
  • “Toto, I have a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore.”
  • “I’ll have what she’s having.”

In terms of creating online content, Wix.com names six title structures that have proven highly effective:

  • Using numbers (“12 things that….)
  • Using superlatives (Greatest….. Ultimate guide to….)
  • Questions (Why does…..)
  • How-tos
  • The big reveal (Secrets I learned…..)
  • Bracketed descriptors (Tips for Planning Content [FreeTemplates])

The quote “I’ll have what she’s having” (from “When Harry Met Sally” is one we often cite when training business blog content writers: link the products and services offered by your client to prevalent trends. Consumers want to do what “everyone is doing” and to “have what she’s having”.

In creating marketing content, show ’em how to “have what she’s having”!

Facebooktwitterredditlinkedintumblrmail

Gwawdodyn Hir Content Marketing

/0 Comments/in , , , , /by

In Writer’s Digest, I was introduced to Robert Lee Brewer, who created a series called Poetic Form Fridays, sharing, each week, an example of a different kind of poem. The Gwawdodyn Hir, for example is a six-line Welsh poetic form characterized by five things:

  • Each poem is a sestet (it has six lines)
  • There are nine syllables in the first four lines
  • There are ten syllables in the final two lines
  • Lines one, two, three, four, and six end rhyme
  • The end of line five rhymes with a syllable in line six

Brewer advises writers to try different formats for their own writing, setting the example by writing his very own Gwawdodyn Hir love poem called Languish:

Move the blood around your beating heart
and provide our love a chance to start
as if you’re the horse and I’m the cart
or lost explorer without a chart
to know the universe or words to say
through these silent days when we’re both apart.

As a marketing content creator, what I found so fascinating about this article and about Brewer’s original poem is that, staying within such almost over-restrictive Gwawdodyn Hir guidelines, the man was able to create a highly original piece of content, expressing a message of his own choosing.

In creating blog posts or articles, working off a “grid” can help writers organize their thoughts while still creating unique content:

“Consider the following steps and tips to write an article,” ExcelTMP suggests.

  • Choose a topic
  • State your point of view on that topic
  • Write the title.
  • Each section of the article should:

Describe what the section is about and why it matters.                                     Give detailed research or examples                                                                        Provide a “takeaway” thought for the audience

HubSpot offers its own grid:

  1. Why the topic matters: Explain the importance of the concept or task.
  2. Who it applies to: Identify the audience, industry, or sector that will benefit from the post.
  3. What to expect: Summarize what the post will cover (e.g., “In this post, we’ll explain why [term] is essential, outline how to [task], and provide practical tips to get started”).To stand out from the crowd, try incorporating your own expertise or examples as it relates to the term.

It’s interesting that, just one year ago, in this Say It For You blog, I quoted another Writer’s Digest author, Mariah Richards, who said, “There are no original stories, but there are always original ways to tell old stories,”

In the field of content marketing,  one concern I hear a lot from business owners or professional practitioners is that sooner or later, they (and we, their writers) will have depleted the supply of new and different ideas to write about. It’s true that, by its very nature, periodic messaging will involve repetition, with the variety coming from the “e.g.”s and the “i.e.”s, meaning all the details you fill in around the central “leitmotifs”.

Just as Robert Lee Brewer was able to be creative with the restrictive Gwawdodyn Hir guidelines, in our mission as creators of marketing content for our clients, we can create highly original pieces of content to convey our clients’ marketing messages to each of their targeted audiences.

 

 

 

Facebooktwitterredditlinkedintumblrmail

Minding Your Metaphors in Creating Marketing Content

/0 Comments/in , , , /by


“When CEOs use war metaphors, analysts worry,” Joao Cotter Salvado and Donal Crilly point out in this month’s issue of the Harvard Business Review, citing Oracle executive chairman’s statement about “bulldozing” competitors or First Solar’s description of an acquisition as an “offensive”. Business should never be perceived as a battleground, the authors opine.

I thought of this article when, earlier this week, in her guest post about building “killer sales pitches”, Chantal Briggs made use of some very powerful metaphors. (“A metaphor is a figure of speech that compares two different things by stating that one is the other,” Alice Underwood explains in grammarly.com.)

Chantal Briggs’ metaphors of note:

  • “You need tactics that punch above your size.” This expression comes from boxing.
  • “messaging that doesn’t just land, it sticks.” (In gymnastics, a perfect landing means maintaining balance and control without any movement of the feet after hitting the ground.)
  • “You’re not just a boutique coffee roaster; you’re the shop that sponsors open mic nights and buys beans from farmers by name.”
  • “If your sales muscles feel flabby…”

“Metaphors are commonly used in the marketing space due to their ability to communicate complex topics in relatable ways,” IntuitMailchimp points out. In fact, certain metaphors (think “hold your horses”) are used so often they lose their original meaning and become part of our language pattern, the authors note.

In marketing content, we teach at Say It For You, one technique to engage readers is using an unlikely comparison in order to explain an aspect of a business or professional practice. Given the short attention span of the typical web searcher, “startling” comparisons can turn out to be good teaching tools, and suggesting, through an “off-the wall” comparison, a totally new way of using a product or service —  well, that has the power to open up new possibilities of doing business with you.

Putting ingredients together that don’t seem to match is not only an excellent tool for creating engaging business content, but also a good teaching tool. Going from what is familiar to readers to the unfamiliar
area of your own expertise, allows your potential customers to feel smart as well as understood.

As head of a content marketing team, I took a somewhat different “thought path” down one of Chantal’s metaphors. She uses “Sometimes the best advice is a mirror” to encourage entrepreneurs to go back to business school: “When you see someone who looks like you —same hurdles, same goals—succeeding through education…”.

To me, the core message of the “mirror” metaphor is that, as content marketers, we need never stray from reflecting, in our content, the needs and preferences of our “target market”, those who may not “look like us”, but who do face common hurdles and who have similar goals. “Envisioning your likely target market is part of the process of creating and refining a product. It informs decisions about its packaging, marketing, and placement,” Margaret James writes in Investopedia.

Minding our metaphors is key in managing content marketing. After all, none of us want our messaging to merely land – we want to stick the landing!

Facebooktwitterredditlinkedintumblrmail

Clarity Before Content: Why Trying to Talk to Everyone Hurts Your Message

/0 Comments/in , , , /by

“Trying to reach everyone means you reach no one.”

It’s a phrase we hear often in marketing circles, but most business owners nod politely and keep casting a wide net. They fear that choosing a niche means turning down opportunities. After all, if your services can help everyone, shouldn’t your message try to include them all?

As a strategic consultant and the creator of Define Your Light’s Roadmapping Sessions, I see this hesitation constantly. Clients come in with good intentions and great ideas, but they’re stuck in what I call the content fog — producing a mix of blogs, social posts, and website copy that sounds helpful… but doesn’t land.

Why? Because the message is diluted.
And usually, the root problem isn’t the marketing — it’s the lack of clarity.

I’ve Been There Myself

For a while, I wrote almost exclusively to parentpreneurs. I thought that was my niche – other business owners juggling growing companies while raising kids. And while I absolutely care about that segment (I’m one of them), I realized something important: the people who were actually hiring me weren’t choosing me because of our shared family dynamics.

They were choosing me because I brought calm to their chaos. Because I could translate their ideas into action. Because I made strategy feel personal.

The label didn’t matter. The clarity did.

Why Content Needs a Compass

That realization reshaped my business, my content, and it’s now at the heart of the Roadmapping process I offer. I believe in Clarity Before Content — the idea that messaging only works when it’s grounded in a deep understanding of who you’re speaking to, what they need, and what you want to be known for.

One client, overwhelmed by a sea of possible audiences, told me:

“I feel like I can help everyone. I don’t want to box myself in.”

She wasn’t alone — it’s one of the most common things I hear.

So we slowed down and worked through a focused series of exercises designed to bring her audience into sharper view. Instead of staying stuck in vague generalities, she began to see patterns — the clients who energized her, the problems she solved with ease, and the places where her expertise created the biggest transformation.

Through this process, she realized she wasn’t narrowing — she was refining. Her message stopped trying to speak to everyone and started resonating with the right ones. And with that clarity, her content began working harder — not because she was producing more, but because every word had direction.

By the end, her messaging shifted from general to magnetic.
Her website, emails, and even how she described her work in conversation became clearer and more confident — not because she changed her offer, but because she finally knew who she was talking to.

The Truth About Niching

Niching isn’t about cutting people out — it’s about drawing the right people closer.
It’s how you stop chasing and start attracting.
When your content reflects true alignment, the impression not only lands — it lasts.

That’s the kind of clarity I love helping clients discover — whether it’s in a full Roadmapping Session or a more nimble Marketing Sprint. These focused sessions are all about cutting through the noise, finding the message that truly resonates, and shaping content that connects with the right people.

That’s what clarity creates.
Not just better strategy, but deeper connection.
With your work.
With your audience.
And with the business you’re building on purpose.


Today’s guest post was contributed by friend and fellow networker Erin Jernigan, business & nonprofit strategy consultant,  at Define Your Light. 215 804 6870   www.DefineYourLight.com.

photo

 

Facebooktwitterredditlinkedintumblrmail

Bringing Yourself to the Page

/0 Comments/in , , , /by

” For better or worse, in today’s world, everyone is a brand, and you need to develop yours and get comfortable marketing it,” Jill Avery and Rachel Greenwald point out in the Harvard Business Review special spring issue. The question to ask yourself is what can you bring to the table of your industry out of your own personal experience. Two examples the authors offer:

  • You studied psychology, and have insights into human behavior.
  • You’re a UX designer who understands how to create more-accessible products.

Whatever your special talent, know-how, or experience, you can bring that to bear as an employee or executive to add value, is the point.

For us as content marketers, in essence “ghost-writing” newsletters, web page content, and blog posts for our business owner and professional practitioner clients, the concept of “bringing self to the page” has a double meaning. Yes, as Whitney Hill advises in a Writer’s Digest piece, “mining” areas of our own lives helps us connect with the right others. But since our purpose is to focus readers’ attention, not on ourselves, but on our content marketing clients, we use our own experience and wisdom to help readers “interview” those owners and practitioners in light of their own needs.

“Some articles have greater impact and reader engagement if written from personal experience, The Writer’s College explains. Writing an article from personal experience can avoid sounding generic, especially if you bring personal experiences to life with vivid sensory details, “showing” rather than just telling. Still it’s important to reflect on the impact and growth that resulted from the experiences you’re describing.

In using content marketing to translate our clients’ corporate messages into human, people-to-people terms, I prefer first and second person writing over third person “reporting”. I think people tend to buy when they see themselves in the picture and when can they relate emotionally to the person bringing them the message. I compare the interaction between content writers and online readers to behavioral job interviews, where the concept is to focus, not on facts, but on discovering the “person behind the resume”.

In bringing our clients to the page, we know that “how-we-did-it” stories make for very effective marketing content for both business owners and professional practitioners. True stories about mistakes and struggles are very humanizing, adding to the trust readers place in the people behind the business or practice, not to mention showcasing the special empathy those providers have for their clients and customers.

Through messaging, ghost writers, providers, and customers are all “brought to the page”!

Facebooktwitterredditlinkedintumblrmail