Showing Ideas Instead of Telling Facts

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“Great stories show ideas instead of telling you facts,” storytelling expert Karen Eber explains. We live in a story world, she says, with stories providing ways to:

  •  differentiate yourself
  •  build connection and trust
  •  create new thinking
  •  bring meaning to data
  •  influence decision-making

The “tools” we can use to accomplish these goals include the three story elements of character, conflict, and connection, the author adds.

Working “against” us as storytellers, she cautions, is the fact that most of what is read is easily forgotten, citing the Ebbinghaus Forgetting Curve, a visual representation produced by German psychologist Hermann Ebbinghaus of the way learned information fades over time. In fact, he discovered, the biggest drop in retention happens soon after learning.

For us storytellers and content marketers, the encouraging note is in the “how” – the same set of information can be made more or less memorable, Ebbinghaus discovered, depending on how well it’s communicated in the first place.

Two important elements important in improving retention are time and repetition, Olivia McGarry points out in the LearnUpon Blog. “Spaced learning is considered one of the best methods for combating the learning curve.” Varying the content format using visuals, storytelling, and gamification, helps enormously, making sure learners know that completing the training will help ease their “pain points” and solve problems.

McGarry suggests that, when students share knowledge with each other, that goes a long way towards improving retention of the material. In that vein, at Say It For You, I advise content writers to periodically compose entire blog posts around questions posed by readers.

As content marketers, with the ultimate goal of influencing decision-making, we must help clients differentiate themselves, build connection and trust, create new thinking, and bring meaning to data, always remembering to show ideas rather than merely telling facts.

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Telling Your Business Story Through a Brand New Lens

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“There are no original stories, but there are always original ways to tell old stories,” Mariah Richards encourages authors in Writer’s Digest. A “new voice” has the power to change the “old voice” for the better, or at least in a way that might appeal to different readers, she explains. Kali Rose, in Oh Reader magazine, agrees. In fact, she loves to revisit her favorite books, with subsequent readings allowing her to see things she missed the first time around.

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. “What else is left to say?” is the common thread in the questions I’m so often asked.

At Say It For You, our content marketers have long ago learned that there are many subsets of every target market group. Not every message will work for every person, so coming at a topic again and again, each time from a different angle, is the secret to assuring readers we’re “on the same page” with their very specific issues and approaches.

By its very nature of periodic messaging, blog marketing is going to be centered around key themes. As you continue posting content about your industry, your products, and your services, you’ll naturally find yourself repeating some key ideas, adding detail, opinion, and story around each.

In writing for business, as blog content writers soon learn, the variety comes from the “e.g.”s and the “i.e.”s, meaning all the details you fill in around the central “leitmotifs”. Case studies and testimonials illustrating specific instances of the company’s products and services became solutions to various problems.  It’s these examples that lend variety to the blog, even though all the anecdotes reinforce the same few core ideas.

In fact, at Say It For You, I’m always on the lookout for different “templates”, not in the sense of platform graphics, but in terms of formats for presenting information about any business or professional practice, including how-to posts, list posts, review posts, and op ed opinion posts.

There may be no original content, but you can always help them see your business content through a brand new lens.

 

 

 

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The Best Way To Make It Personal

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“All the time I’m preparing my outlines,” John Maxwell teaches public speakers in his book, The 16 Undeniable Laws of Communication, “I’m asking myself three questions:

  1. How can I make it special?
  2. How can I make it personal?
  3. How can I make it practical?

The best way to “make it personal,” Maxwell advises, is “to pair what they do know with what they don’t know.” The first part involves “know-your-audience” preparation, the author cautions: the organizational culture of the group, their personal experiences, even their national origin..The “what they don’t know” part describes the insights you’re communicating about that already acquired knowledge.

Maxwell’s advising speakers, but in creating marketing content, the very same principles apply. The secret is knowing what your particular target audience already knows and how they (not the average person, but specifically “they*) will be likely to react or feel about your approach to the subject at hand.

For example, while you may point out that your product or service can do something your competitors can’t, that particular “advantage” may or may not be what your target readers are likely to value. For example, even if your readers are money-motivated, are they cost-conscious or might they prize luxury and exclusivity?  Yes, while building content, it’s important to consider not only age, gender, and nationality, but where those target readers “hang out”, what they read and watch, and what they’re saying on social media.

“Chunking refers to the strategy of breaking down information into bite-sized pieces so the brain can more easily digest new information,” explains e-learning coach Connie Malamed. “The reason the brain needs this assistance is because working memory, which is where we manipulate information, holds a limited amount of information at one time.”  Again, pairing information with which your audience is already familiar, then adding a different “spin” or new way to consider – and make use of – that information, offers a “pathway” for communication between the content creator and the consumers of that content.

 

Part of content marketing’s inherent challenge is that the information offered needs to be highly relevant to readers’ search queries.  How can we sustain content writing over long periods of time, yet avoid dishing up same-old, same-old? Maxwell’s two-part “make it personal” secret is the operative one:

  • Establish common ground, confirming to readers they’ve come to the right place to find the products, services, and information they need, and that the people in this company or practice are knowledgeable and passionate.
  • Offer lesser-known information, adding a layer of “new” to themes you covered in former posts, or perhaps a new insight you’ve gained about that existing information.

 

 

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Chocolate Chip Content Marketing

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“No one is buying chocolate chip ice cream anymore,” a Mental Floss Magazine article points out. Thanks to a buffet of options and flavors, chocolate chip is now being perceived as passe and boring.  What’s more, due to health concerns, overall consumption of ice cream has dipped in recent years, the authors lament.

Ice cream is hardly the only area in which what was once the rage is now hardly remembered. Ponchos? selfie sticks? Hoverboards? (Who’d be caught dead?) Some things, of course, were made obsolete by technology (think paper maps, pagers, overhead projectors, typewriters, and telephone books).

Staying on top of trends becomes a crucial element in content marketing.

“The information you put on your website reflects your business, so ensuring you strike the right tone and include the necessary information is critical, IntuitMailChimp cautions. E-E-A-T (experience, expertise, authoritativeness, trustworthiness) have risen to the top of copywriting trends, Lauren Jefferson writes in Focus Copy.

“As consumers increasingly seek alignment between their purchases and personal values…brand ethics will become essential,” Vericast.com adds. “Instead of relying on broad demographic information, new technologies allow brands to create highly tailored campaigns to resonate with specific consumer groups.”

Despite all the trends that have come and gone, as content writers, we’ve learned at Say It For You,we can take courage from the fashion industry. There a sense of nostalgia has been awakened, with trends from the 70s and 80s making a comeback over the past decade.  Tailored jackets and cinched waists are fashion staples that have made a comeback.

Reminding content writers that there is no lack of resources available to our readers, I recommend going beyond presenting facts, statistics, features and benefits. By sharing some “chocolate chip ice cream” nostalgia, we have a better chance of engaging our readers.

 

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Can Silence Sell in Content Marketing?

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“In all the noise from sales training, the underrated power of silence often speaks volumes,” Matt Nettleton of Sandler Trustpointe comments. “Handled correctly, silence allows prospects to reveal their deepest concerns and desires.” Skilled salespeople, the message is, listen intently, allowing the customer to speak.

“Successful selling requires a delicate balance between talking and listening. While you need to provide enough information to communicate your product’s value, you also have to make sure your prospect feels heard,” Aditya Kothadiya writes. “In our age of constant communication and short span of attention, genuine listening is a rare commodity and a great gift,” he adds. All those things are true only when you meet in person, Kothadiva admits. Even video conferencing, where salesperson and prospect can see each other’s faces, doesn’t create the same emotional connection as an iin-person encounter.

“Listening to customers isn’t just hearing about their problems. It’s not picking up the phone or answering the ringing bell at your service desk. It involves paying close attention to their needs and understanding how you can help them achieve their goals,” Sophia Bernazzani Barron says in Hubspot.

But how does all this work when it comes to online marketing? “Social listening”, InMarket’s Digital Marketing Playbook explains, involves monitoring keywords and paying attention to what people are saying about your brand. “You can leverage positive comments that you receive from customers about your products and service in your marketing strategy, sharing them on your website and other channels,” Hannah Smiddy of Swanky adds.

Certainly, as was discovered in a Schwab benchmarking study for Registered Investment Advisors, “when providers focus on the unique needs of their target audience, they can develop an experience that is perceived as valuable by those clients.” At Say It For You, we know that content must be tailor-made for your ideal customer – the words you use, how technical you get, how sophisticated your approach, the title of each blog entry, all must focus on things you know about your target market – their needs, their preferences, their questions – and only secondarily on how wonderful you and your staff are at satisfying those needs and preferences.

Still, how can “silence sell” in content marketing, when, by definition, you are ‘sending out” messaging rather than remaining silent? Over the years, we’ve come to realize, “silencing” the features and benefits of your products and services, while “sounding” the voice of the people behind those products and services. After all, the people who find your blog are those who are already online looking for information, products, or services that relate to what you know, what you have, and what you do! Your online marketing challenge is not to seek out the people, but to help them seek you out and then show them you’ve been listening to “who they are”.

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