Blog Listicles Must Appeal to Readers’ Immediate Interests

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They’re both “listicles”, but, for me as a blog content writer, there’s an interesting difference:

  • 7 Things You Should Know About Virginia Woolf’s ‘To the Lighthouse’
  • 10 Things You Might Not Know About Mother’s Day

Yes, I was an English major in college, so of course I’d studied the book To the Lighthouse. That was a long time ago, though, and today I just didn’t feel as if I needed to know more things about the novel. Mother’s Day, on the other hand was something happening right now. So, while I agree that listicles really “work, as insightsyesadagency.com points out, they must appeal to searchers’ immediate interests.

“Don’t get even – get odd!” is one piece of advice the insightsyesadagency offers, recommending odd-numbered lists over even-numbered ones. In general, listicles are popular because they require minimal effort on the part of readers, conveying authority and appealing to our desire for organization.

Listicles should offer creativity and originality, while still touching on the key points that drive traffic,” insights.digitalmediasolutions.com advises, adding that .”the type of content in listicles should fit the target audience.” At Say It For You, we couldn’t agree more with that last statement. Everything about your blog should be tailor-made for that customer – the words you use, how technical you get, how sophisticated your approach, the title of each blog entry – all of it, I tell newbie blog content writers, and listicles are no exception to that basic content planning rule.

Career coaches suggest that using numbers may be one of the most underutilized strategies in cover letter writing. Numbers are a great way to be specific about your accomplishments, demonstrating that you pay attention to benchmarks and concentrate on setting and meeting goals. As a blog content writer and trainer, I stress that numbers can be used in business blogs to “build belief”. For example, statistics can demonstrate the extent of a problem your product or service helps solve.

Using numbers in blog post titles is a great way to both attract attention and to set expectations for a post. Words on the other hand, are used to put lists and statistics into perspective, so that readers are given the answer to the “So what?” and “So, what’s in-it-for-me” questions. Just why do I need to know 7 things about Virginia Woolf’s novel just now? Mother’s Day, in contrast, is something to be dealt with this very month.

Listicles must appeal to readers’ immediate interests.

 

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The Good and the Bad of Fillers in Blogs

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Fillers are words that add no substantive meaning to a sentence and merely fill the space, Wordvice.com explains. Whether you’re writing a journal article, a research paper, a dissertation, or a blog, creating sentences that are strong and concise is important in conveying your message to your audience.

Wordvice.com offers three examples of sentences that can be shortened by eliminating filler words:

  • “There is an octopus sitting on top of my car.” (Better: “An octopus is sitting on my car.”)
  • “This is actually an interesting question.” (Better: “This question is interesting.)
  • “In order to apply the new method to our entire system, perhaps we should perform a local test.” (Better: “We should perform a local test before applying the new method to our system.”)

In speech, grammarly.com notes, while fillers such as “ums” and “uhs” don’t add meaning to your statements, they do allow you to take a second to think about what to say next. In writing, though, unnecessary adverbs and empty phrases add length but not substance.

Filler words and phrases commonly used in writing include: basically, just, really, highly, needless to say, in my opinion, okay, totally, and literally.

Blog content fillers and SEO
Unfortunately, blog content writers often insert fillers for the sole purpose of increasing the word count of each post. Based on the perception that search engines use article length as a ranking signal, writers intentionally use word fillers to “plump up” their content with an eye to SEO.

Since search engines do measure reader time on site, instead of fillers, writeonline.io suggests “grease-slide copy”, which are phrases that create smooth transitions between paragraphs and sentences and keep readers on the page.. Grease slide text might include questions such as “Have you wondered why…..?”i..Ever noticed how…..?” “Want to know a secret…?” or provocative statements such as “Be honest….” or “We’ve all done it….”

Problogger.com ,  meanwhile, suggest “killer fillers”, which are shorter posts requiring less original in-depth research, including guest posts, interviews,  link roundups, and reader discussions.

At Say It For You, we have found, the most effective length for any one blog post is as long as it takes to show readers that “right here” is where to find answers. I teach the importance of keeping a very specific focus within each post, avoiding either extraneous words or extraneous material.

“Fill” your blog with valuable, “killer”, content, but avoid fillers that have little value to add.

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Blog What the Best Have in Common

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“We’ve become experts in identifying what draws a person’s eye to a cooking space,” Sarah Weinberg writes in delish.com, and we’ve noticed that the best ones have things in common.

  1. Smart and accessible storage
  2. Countertops that are easily cleaned and that don’t absorb food particles and odors
  3. Smart appliances
  4. Attractive, bright lighting

Quality is always defined in the eyes of the customer, Simple-PDH.com notes. Different groups of customers might define “best” in different ways, and we can group customers into “target markets” to better understand their needs and preferences. “Quality is defined by two elements: customer satisfaction and customer expectations.” Meeting customer expectations is what defines success.

For that very reason, it’s a very good idea to blog about “what the best have in common” when it comes to your category of product or service. Learning about these “commonalities” helps prospects define their expectations of you and of what you have to offer them.

In working with Say It For You business owner and practitioner clients to create blog content for them, I often encounter resistance to the what-the-best-have-in-common model. Reluctant to suggest that they have things “in common” with some of their competitors, they prefer to focus only on aspects that prove they (and only they). are “best”!

” An informed consumer is capable of making sensible decisions by gaining an insight about a product prior to its purchase.” Based on that belief, one of the primary objectives of the European Union has been the provision of information to consumers. The opposite effect happens with “choice overload”, which can lead to behavioral paralysis, KelloggInsight points out.

At Say It For You, we know that consumers know: whatever your business or practice, there are other out there, and realize that some of those are worthy competitors of yours. But, when visitors to your website find answers to their questions, updated information about your type of product or service, and social proof offered by clients and customers, you won’t need to be “the only one” to be “the one” with whom they choose to do business..

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In Blogging for Business, Go Ahead and Be a Secondary Source

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Historical novels are stories informed by the past, Hunter Liguore explain in Writer’s Digest. But when doing research, should you start with primary or secondary resources? Primary evidence comes from the diaries or biographies of people who actually witnessed an event. In contrast, secondary sources analyze and interpret information.

Often, Liguore points out, with primary sources you can stumble upon fascinating details (whether people in that era or region used forks or what their chief source of light was). But primary sources don’t offer opinions or insights or draw any conclusions from those primary facts. Primary research gathers; secondary research analyzes and interprets.

At Say It For You, we realize, all of us freelance business blog content writers are creating secondary research. Our job, in fact, is to interpret and synthesize information and put it in terms others can understand.

There’s much more to it than that, however. Bloggers for business now need to go beyond providing information and become “thought drivers”. Whether it’s business-to-business blog writing or business-to-consumer blog writing, the blog content itself needs to use opinion to clarify what differentiates our client’s business, professional practice, or organization from its peers.

The primary distinguishing fact of secondary research is analysis or “slant”. A point I often stress in corporate blogging training sessions is that whether you’re blogging for a business, for a professional practice, or for a nonprofit organization, the content must be driven by a unique slant on the information you’re serving up for readers. Yes, you might choose to just aggregate information, but that’s unlikely to result in readers coming to your client’s business or practice for service, products, and advice.)

Be sure the things you choose to say in your blog posts (about what you sell, what you do, ad what you know about) also make clear why readers should care about any of those things. Bottom line, after all, is that while you may be the “primary source” in running your business or practice, the content needs to interpret and opine, showing readers why and how your information can make a positive difference for them.

In blogging for business, go ahead and be a secondary source!

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Blog Away Purported Providers

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“Do you know who does most of the estate planning work in our country?” attorney Brian Eagle asked at the start of his professional education lecture series. The startling answer – not legal professionals, but real estate agents and corporate human resource departments.

Since proper and complete estate planning, Eagle teaches, is meant to help organize one’s affairs in such a way as to “give what I have to whom I want, the way I want, and when I want, saving every last tax dollar, professional fee and court cost possible,” merely signing 401(k) beneficiary forms or property purchase agreements is hardly going to get the job done….

One core function of a business blog is explaining to readers what it is you do. As Certified Business Coach Andrew Valley once explained in a 2020 Say It For You guest post, “You must tell the listener how your product or service can benefit that person, and how you can do it better or differently than others who do what you do.”

But what about those many others who think they can offer advice on “what you do”, pushing out content on your topic, but who totally lack experience and training in your field of expertise? Your USP, or Unique Selling Proposition, Valley stresses, must be unique; something competitors cannot claim or have not chosen to emphasize in their promotions. A USP, Valley says, raises your business or practice above the “noise”.

Just as Eagle Wealth Management lists client objectives that can be accomplished only with the guidance of experienced and trained legal professionals, including:

  • control – giving “to whom I want, the way and when I want”
  • tax savings
  •  avoiding court costs
  • privacy
  • conflict avoidance

through your blog, you must make clear to readers how your experience and training benefits prospects and clients in ways that “shortcuts” – and lesser-trained providers – cannot.

“A good way to get more participants is to address and solve their challenges. By first mapping out the challenges your audience faces and then showing what it takes to  truly satisfy and solve these challenges, you will be able to stand out in the crowd of providers,” Eline Hagene writes in frontcore.com.

You can leave “purported providers” in the dust when you demonstrate ways in which your clients can achieve “what they want and how they want it”!

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