Ask Using the Power of One

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When Steve Rupp, creator of the Premier Connect Coaching for realtors, shared a gem of prospecting wisdom at a recent meeting of our networking group, InfoConnect2, I was reminded of one of our long-held Say It For You content-creation mantras – the Power of One.

A good referral “ask”, Rupp emphasized, is very, very specific – in terms of both category and time frame:

“Within the next 13 days (choosing an odd, specific timeframe adds
focus and makes the task more memorable – and more actionable), can you introduce me to someone you know who is talking about building a new home?” (As a realtor, you also want to meet buyers and sellers of existing homes – but today you’re focused on planting a “trigger phrase” in your fellow networkers’ minds: building a home).

When it comes to creating marketing content for our clients, we at Say It For You firmly believe in Power- of- One specificity:

  • One message (per article or post)
  • One outcome (describe one desired outcome)
  • One audience (base the content on the target audience for that one “ask”)
  • One writer (One Say It For You writer, as opposed to the team, is better positioned to forge a relationship with each client)
  • One client per market (thereby avoiding conflicts of interests)

A business blog post, for example, should impart one new idea or call for a single action. Focused on one thing, your post has greater impact, since people are bombarded with many messages each day. Respecting readers’ time will produce better content marketing results.

In asking friends, clients, or colleagues to introduce you to potential customers, Steve Rupp emphasized, be specific. At Say It For You, we agree.

Using the Power of One, we’ve found, is the best way to create content!

 

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Some Simple Truths About Blog Marketing

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“Proverbs are brief, well-known sayings that share life advice or beliefs that are common knowledge”, preply.com explains. “Proverbs can also provide a shortcut for explaining or imparting information, adds grammarly.

In terms of offering advice to our business and practice owner clients about their content marketing “habits”, two particular proverbs come to mind:

1. Rome wasn’t built in a day.
After years of being involved in all aspects of content creation for business owners and professional practitioners, one irony I’ve found is that consistency and frequency are rare phenomema. There’s a tremendous fall-off rate in posting content, with most efforts abandoned months or even weeks after they’re begun. The oh-so-important lesson here is that blog marketing is no sprint.  A long-term, drawn-out effort is required in order to “build equity” in keyword phrases, gather a following, and gain – and sustain – online rankings.

2. Out of sight, out of mind…
Adhering to a posting schedule is crucial. Whether it’s once a week or once a month, consistency helps build trust with your audience and improves a blog’s search engine ranking.
Sharing your blog posts on social media and through email helps keep you “top of mind”.

When marketing online – whether it’s a product, a service, or even a concept, several proverbs seem particularly apropos:

1. Birds of a feather flock together…
To be an effective marketing tool for your business, your blog must to be the result of a well-planned strategy aimed at a specific segment of the market.  Your business or practice can’t be all things to all people, so your content must focus on things you know about your target market – their needs, their preferences, their questions – and where they “flock” – what social media sites do they frequent? At which community events, rallies, and celebrations are they to be found?

2. Hope for the best, prepare for the worst…
One of the goals of content marketing is to “humanize” a business, creating feelings of empathy and admiration for the business owners or professional practitioners who overcame the odds and went on to succeed. But what about negative comments that readers make about a business or practice? When those concerns or complaints are recognized and dealt with “in front of other people” (in blog posts), it gives the “apology” more weight. Go ahead and “let the client tell his story,” which then gives you the chance to offer useful information to other readers and to explain any changes in policy that resulted from the situation.

The simple truth about blog marketing is that it brings owners and customers together through the sharing of wisdom.

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Plainspoken Content Marketing

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I always enjoy Richard Lederer’s columns in the Mensa Bulletin; the author’s “Stamp Out Fadspeak satire in the January 2025 issue was particularly relevant to content marketing. English parlance is in a “cringeworthy state”, Lederer complains, all because of “fadspeak”, consisting of clichés and way-overused terminology. “Work with me on this,” Lederer mimes. “I’ve been around the block…I’m not the elephant in the room or the 800-pound gorilla.” Lederer ends his rant with “Now that I’ve been able to tell it like it is in real time, I’m outta here.” 

When writing web content, the Bureau of Internet Accessibility advises, the best option is to avoid jargon. If you’re using a professional term, is it giving your audience essential information, or are you using it to make your content sound more important? Plain language is usually the best tool for getting your message across.

“At one time, the cliché you’re using was likely a creative and precise way to make the point, but no more,” says Megan Krause of clearvoice.com, listing 35 of the most overused phrases in content marketing, including “low-hanging fruit”, “circling back”, “in a nutshell”, and “at the end of the day”. Ask yourself what you’re really trying to say and then say it with dynamic, decisive language, Krause recommends.

But what about using jargon in blog writing for business? In general, jargon is a “handle-with-care” writing technique, because readers are impatient to find the information they need without any navigational or terminology hassle. On the other hand, we realize at Say It For You, industry or profession-unique terminology can be used as a way of establishing common ground with a select audience of readers, increasing their sense of being part of a group sharing specialized knowledge.

Marketing clichés can be so overused that you’d be hard pressed to know what company is offering to “take you to the next level”, Brooke Sellas writes in BSquaredMedia. Instead of touting how “efficient” or “effective” your product or service is, she advises, “get real” with case studies, testimonials, or other outcomes or results. Stop saying you’ll “go the extra mile” or “above and beyond”, which just makes you sound like every other provider on earth. Instead of presenting your company as “outside the box; say something that actually describes how you’re different.

“Business cliché’s were fresh and meaningful once upon a time,” concedes Dave Baker of Super Copy Editors, “but their best days are long behind them.”

As content marketers, we often find industry terminology to be useful and informative. Cliches, in contrast, should be “outta here”.

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Proving Readers Right

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A “History Facts” piece I came across yesterday made me aware that the word “Pennsylvania” is written with a missing “n” on the Liberty Bell!  Prepared for yet another “gotcha!” – type article, I was pleasantly surprised when the authors explained that the “mis-spelling” was not a typo at all. In fact,  back in the 18th century, “Pensylvania” was a legitimate spelling of the colony’s name.

At Say It For You, we’ve often touted myth-busting as a tactic content writers can use to grab online visitors’ attention. At the same time, we caution, it would be a tactical mistake to prove readers wrong. As writers, we want to showcase our business owner and professional practitioner clients’ expertise without “showing up” their readers’ lack of it!

The golden rule in content marketing, corporate travel advisor  Qahir Chipepo agrees, is to create fans first, then introduce your solution. Educate, entertain, and inspire is what you want to do, he says. 

So true… Business blogs are wonderful tools around facts, and that’s why we writers can use content as a way to not only dispense information, but to address misinformation. At the same time, when we aggressively refute existing opinions or beliefs – or “dis” the competition, we risk alienating our clients’ audiences, turning our content into a “turn-off”. 

Every industry, every profession has its myths, ideas that sound true but simply aren’t.  Content marketing is actually the perfect vehicle for defusing false news, correcting misunderstandings, and protecting readers from word traps. Presenting the actual facts and statistics in your content is meant to have the same effect as the windshield defogger on your car. Once the mist is cleared off the glass, you reason, readers will see for themselves what’s out there – they won’t need to be either told or sold!

Realistically, though, our clients’ competitors represent viable alternatives for their prospects and customers, and readers will resist being “made wrong” for having checked out what the competition has to offer. That means that, rather than starting with what “they” are “doing wrong”, the content  should emphasize the way “WE” believe it’s best to deliver value.

Prove readers right, knowing that, armed with the facts, they will make the right decision every time!

 

 

 

 

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Mining What You Know Yourself

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To make your writing more unique and richly layered, Whitney Hill advises in a Writer’s Digest piece, mine areas of your own life.  “Writing to market”, she says is a common and very viable strategy, meaning familiarizing yourself with the websites, social media, and trends preferred by your likely readers.  But, on a deeper level than “market”, there’s audience, Hill says. Market describes the places, times, and offerings; audience is the people in those places, times, and offerings. Digging deep within ourselves for inspiration can help us connect with the right others.

People

“Our families, colleagues, friends, and other people we know may spark an idea for….a narrative thread,” Hill goes on to suggest. (It’s important to remember factors such as safety, privacy, and liability, she cautions.)  My own twenty-seven year financial planning career put me in touch with a variety of teachers, speakers, and clients, each with stories and lessons…

Background

Educated in the public school system in Pittsburgh, parochial schools in New York City, University of Missouri in Kansas City, and the College of Financial Planning in Denver, Colorado, I have been exposed to a variety of learning experiences that I’m sure have found expression in my writing. 

Field

Language has always been at the core of my work. Following years teaching of Hebrew using the Voix et Image method of second language teaching, then penning a weekly financial advice column for twenty two years, I’ve been involved, for the past seventeen years, in content marketing. The “leitmotif” of finding the right words has characterized my days for as long as I can remember. 

Focusing on what we know best – ourselves – can be a way to strengthen our craft, helping us write stories that deeply connect with readers. Since, at Say It For You, our purpose is to focus readers’ attention on our content marketing clients, we are taking on the readers’ personas, rather than our own, helping them ” interview” the business owners or practitioners in light of their own needs.

While Whitney Hill is advising novelists and short story writers, the concept of “mining what you know yourself” is very appropriate for content marketers. In order to truly connect with our clients‘ readers, we need to connect with those clients’ people, backgrounds, and fields, all while finding connections to our own backgrounds, enabling us to mine what we know ourselves!

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