In Telling What You Have to Offer, Show Them Who You Are

/0 Comments/in /by

 

Some three years ago, in a Say It For You post entitled “Blogging to Offer – and Change – Opinion”, I emphasized a core belief I have about content marketing: “Providing information about products and services may be the popular way to write blog posts, but in terms of achieving Influencer status – it takes opinion.” A recent editorial in Wine Spectator Magazine reminded me of the crucial “op ed” aspect of our work….

As Wine Spectator editor and publisher Marvin Shanken explains, “We believe that evaluating wines blind ensures that our tasters remain impartial and that our reviews are unbiased, with all wines presented on a level playing field.” Shanken admits that not all wine critics share this approach. Some argue that it’s all right to review wines alongside the winemakers themselves, believing that honesty and independence can overcome the expectations triggered by knowing the identity of a wine, its reputation and its price.

In “Differentiate, differentiate, and Differentiate” (back in September of this year), I explained that, in content marketing, we identify the unique qualities of our client’s products and services, highlighting the differences between those and the ones offered by competitors. As Carol Kopp explains in Investopedia.com, those differences might relate to product design, marketing, packaging, location convenience or pricing. The piece “Why We Taste Blind”, though, goes much deeper than that, showcasing a fundamental difference in philosophy between Wine Spectator tasters and those of some of the publication’s competitors.

There’s an important content marketing lesson here, in my opinion. In just about any field, there will be controversy – about best business practices, about the best approach to providing professional services, about acceptable levels of risk, even about business-related ethical choices. Rather than ignoring that controversy, we need to help clients weigh in on those very choices and issues. Their readers need to know what’s most important to them, what their vision is in terms of serving their audience.

In doing what our English teachers used to call “compare and contrast”, I want to add, it’s important to emphasize the positive. Rather than “knocking’ competitors, marketers need to focus on demonstrating what this company or practice values and the manner in which the owners believe their products and services are best delivered to their customers.

Facebooktwitterredditlinkedintumblrmail

First, Offer Readers the Right Questions

/0 Comments/in , , /by

When it comes to interest rates, “investors are seeking the right answers to the wrong questions,” Boston-based MFS investment management portfolio manager and global investment strategist Robert Almeida suspects.  When planning a long-term investment portfolio strategy, the precise timing of a Fed rate cut is not the issue.  We should be asking what the fact that rate cuts are even being considered reveals about the fundamental health of our economy, Almeida asserts…

The most serious mistakes are not the result of wrong answers, the Corporate Learning Network editors agree.” The truly dangerous thing is asking the wrong questions.” Why is that so? “A wrong answer to the right question can, as a rule, be repaired and salvaged. But if you ask the wrong question and get the right answer, chances are it will take a lot longer to discover and inevitably lead to even more costly errors. As an example, the editors quote a comment by Steve Jobs on the birth of the automobile industry: “If Ford had asked people in a focus group what they wanted they would have said ‘faster horses’.”  Translation – your marketing content cannot focus on satisfying a need for your client’s product or service without prospects first recognizing that need! “You have to start with figuring out what problem you’re solving, instead of searching for the answer,” Nicolas Cole writes in Inc. Magazine. ” Great ideas are answers to the right questions.”

Duotech Services lists questions business owners should be asking possible vendors and suppliers, including:

  • Does your company have experience with a business like ours and understand our needs?
  • If there was a boost in productivity could your adjust to meet our increased needs? If we needed to slow down production, are you flexible enough to adjust to that reality?

(Notice that these questions are not centered around  cost, but around ease of communication and adaptability.)

Blog posts, as we so often stress at Say It For You, are not advertisements or sales pieces (even if increasing sales is the ultimate goal of the business owner).  Whatever “selling” goes on in effective content is indirect and comes out of business owners sharing their passion special expertise and insights in their field.  When content marketing “works”, readers are moved to think, “I want to do business with them!”.

Before offering solutions or answers, offer readers the right questions!

Facebooktwitterredditlinkedintumblrmail

Society-Happens-Here Content Marketing – Thanksgiving Food for Thought

/0 Comments/in , , , , , /by

The 2024 Edelman Trust Barometer reveals a new paradox at the heart of society. Rapid innovation offers the promise of a new era of prosperity, yet most institutions, including government and the media, are not trusted to introduce these new innovations to society, and so people are looking to business leaders for guidance. That means business owners are expected to comment, not only on their own products and services, but on societal changes that affect their industry or profession…

At Say It For You, our content writers know readers are trusting our business owner and professional practitioner clients to help them with more than good products and skilled services. In addition to information, searchers need help making sense of all the changes happening in their neighborhoods and in their world.

“When customers provide more data, they expect better experiences,” salesforce.com cautions, so marketers need to create experiences that are:

  1. connected
  2. personalized
  3. immersive

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 readers on”, we must incorporate one important ingredient – opinion. Taking a stance, I’ve found, is what gives content its “zip”. We must be influencers, I advise clients and blog content writers alike. Whether it’s business-to-business or business-to-consumer writing, the content itself needs to use opinion to clarify what differentiates that business, that professional practice, or that organization from its peers.
We need to be coming from a place of “who we are” as much as from a place of “what we offer”.

A content marketing alert: This Thanksgiving, an important part of our “food for thought” menu needs to be Society-happens-here content marketing.

Facebooktwitterredditlinkedintumblrmail

Convey the Concept through a Warm Human Storyteller

/0 Comments/in , , , /by

Lately, brands increasingly prioritize people as the voice of their value, Robert Rose writes in “Trust the Story, or the Storyteller?‘

“Storytelling is a powerful marketing tool that can be used to connect with customers on an emotional level, build trust and credibility, and ultimately drive sales,” Oxford Academic agrees, naming three reasons stories are so important a part of content marketing:

  1. Stories evoke emotions – empathy, joy, sadness, anger.
  2. Stories offer a glimpse into your values and beliefs.
  3. Storytelling gives your brand a unique personality. There are many different types of stories that can be used to connect with customers, the authors point out, including brand stories, customer experience stories, employee experience stories, customer testimonial stories, and case studies.  No matter the type of story, the point is to use vivid language to help readers visualize the event or happening.While it’s true that stories help us remember, that’s not good enough, Joe Lazuskas explains – they have to make us care.  Your stories need to talk about why you come to work every day, and about what you believe the future of your industry ought to look like. Two particularly important elements of a story are:
    a)Relatability – you’re telling the story of a person similar to the target reader.  b) Fluency – Realistically, Lazuskas reminds us, most U.S. adults can’t read at even a high school level; we need to keep a low barrier to entry between the audience and the story level.

    As a content marketer at Say It For You, I can never forget an article I read years ago about an experiment performed at Stanford University.  Students were each asked to give one-minute speeches containing three statistics and one story.  Later, students were asked to recall the highlights in each other’s talk.  Only five percent of the listeners remembered a single statistic, while 63% were able to remember the story line.

To convey marketing concepts, use a warm, human storyteller!

Facebooktwitterredditlinkedintumblrmail

Tell Them How You Ship the Diamonds

/0 Comments/in , , , , , /by

 

In Tuesday’s blog post I used the “Hear your happy holidays” headline of an AudioNova ad in the Indianapolis Star to illustrate the importance of results-driven marketing, suggesting that content marketers need to focus on results of using the product or service rather than on its features…

There’s more to it than that, however. As Seth Godin points out in his book This Is Marketing, as content marketers we need to differentiate the path our business owner or practitioner clients choose to take in helping their customers achieve those results. Diamonds, for example, can be transported in an armored car or put in a package and sent by mail. What is more likely to be valued by your customer – speed of delivery or safety? Dedicate effort to empathize with your audience, comprehend their obstacles, and reflect on how your offerings can assist them in reaching their objectives, Godin urges content creators.

“To put it as succinctly as possible, a key differentiator is a brand’s distinct and unique value that sets itself apart from its competitors within the market,” brandmasteracademy.com explains. Also known as the USP (Unique Selling Proposition) the differentiator answers the question: “Why should I choose this brand over its competitors?”

Interestingly, as Elizabeth Harr and Lee Frederiksen, PH.D point out in hingemarketing.com, many so-called differentiators make a company sound more like their competitors! To be effective, the authors explain, a differentiator must meet three criteria:

  • It must be true.
  • It must be relevant to potential clients.
  • It must be provable.

In Get Different: Marketing That Can’t Be Ignored, Mike Michalowicz remarks that, to customers, “better” might not actually be better. Different is better.The author tells business owners to discover their best “est” – Are you the oddest? Hokiest? Sharpest? Fastest? Safest?

In all your content marketing, tell them just how AudioNova will help them hear the holidays. What about your diamonds? Will you be shipping them via the U.S. Postal Service or using armored cars?

Facebooktwitterredditlinkedintumblrmail