In Content Marketing, Hit Anything But the Ball Out of the Park

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“Cliches begin their lives as imaginative expressions and comparisons,” explains Richard Lederer in the Mensa Bulletin. But then, after repeated use, those phrases become trite, hackneyed, and lifeless, he explains.

For example, Lederer reminds content writers, you might hit:

  • the bulls-eye
  • the spot
  • the ball out of the park
  • the nail on the head

But your writing, he cautions, will turn out to be nothing more than “a yawn”. “Our hardworking English language means business,” Lederer reminds us, and we need to think about creating content that has impact without using expressions that are “dead as a doornail”.

Having devoted the last sixteen years of my life to wordsmithing blog posts at Say It For You, I know firsthand that variety can be the spice, not only of life in general, but of content.  Gray Matter, the Elevate blog, explains that the larger your vocabulary, the easier it becomes to break away from old thought patterns. We view our thoughts as shaping our words, but our words shape our thoughts, too. A large vocabulary isn’t for showing off – it should be used to expand your thinking – and that of your readers. There’s o much content out there – being boringly clichéd is a certain path to the bottom of the heap when it comes to engaging readers and converting them to buyers.

In addition to avoiding over-used expressions, content writers need to consider varying sentence length. Brandon Royal, author of The Little Red Writing Book, reminds us that not every sentence needs to be kept short.  Instead, Royal advises writers to weave in short sentences with longer ones. Every so often, he suggests, a “naked” (extremely short) sentence can add a dynamic touch.

“Using clichés is as easy as ABC, one-two-three, pie, falling off a log, and taking candy from a baby,” Lederer admits, but…don’t. It’d be all too simple for online visitors to click away. “The purpose of a blog is to create a more engaging website for your brand,” Indeed .com reminds business owners and candidates alike.

In content marketing, hit your target market, not the ball out of the park!

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Infuse Your Content Marketing with Freudenfruede

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“Finding pleasure in another person’s good fortune is what social scientists call freudenfreude,” Juli Fraga writes in Reader’s Digest, “describing the bliss we feel when someone else succeeds even if it doesn’t directly involve us. Freudenfreude can “foster resistance, improve life satisfaction, and help people cooperate during a conflict”.

When it comes to content marketing, it might appear that praising or even recognizing the accomplishments of a competitor is the last thing any business owner or professional practitioner would want to do in their blog content.  Yet, competitor-focused content can be some of the most profitable you’ll ever publish, Ramona Aukhraj of IMPACT writes, because prospective buyers need to know you’re aware they have other options, and that you can be trusted to  have their best interests in mind. (A side benefit, IMPACT adds, might be that, in writing content about competitors, you’re using keywords that might drive traffic to competitors’ sites!)

Alexander Chua of Kalungi.com agrees that, specifically with B2B blogging, there are good reasons to mention competitors, including showcasing your own confidence, controlling the conversation, and possibly generating mentions of you by those competitors.: Most important, Chua says, is that you’re providing value to your readers.

Still, I couldn’t help thinking, while all these posts mentioned valid and very practical reasons for referring to competitors, none suggested anything approaching the possibility of achieving pleasure at learning about or recognizing competitors’ achievements. The high road is the one to take in blog marketing strategy and tactics development,  we try to always remember at Say It For You. As Bing Crosby used to croon, “Accentuate the positive…latch on to the affirmative.”

Where content writers might find – and share with readers, that feeling of “freudenfeude”, I believe, is in celebrating the combined success in an industry or professional field. Your blog becomes a way to educate leads on industry trends and developments, informing readers about “what’s-going-on-and-how-do-we-fit-in”, celebrating how far we (as an industry or profession) have come in terms of both technology and human understanding.

Freudenfreude – it’s all about the “We”.

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Content Writers Can Take Inspiration From Big-Hitter Bios

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The Start Your Own Business Magazine 2023’s list of “things big-hitters in business have in common” is one blog content writers might want to keep taped to their computer screens, I couldn’t help thinking…

1. Big-Hitters are perfectionists. Steve Jobs obsessed over small details.
Successful blogging for business is all about detail.  Corporate websites provide  basic information about a company’s products or a professional’s services, but the business blog content is there to attach a “face” and lend a “voice” to that information by filling in the finer details. In fact, details are what people tend to remember long after reading a piece.

2. They stay on task. Warren Buffett invests for the long haul.
In training sessions, one of the main lessons I need to convey to would-be blog content writers is that the real challenge in blogging is sustainability, even more than the content creation. “Every time you write a blog post, it’s one more indexed page on your website. It’s also one more cue to Google and other search engines that your website is active,” Corey Eridon of Hubspot says.

3. They have courage. Mark Zuckerberg dropped out of Harvard to work on Facebook.
At least some of our readers already know quite a bit about our subject.  What they’re looking for is new perspective on the subject. People are going to want to do business with people who have the courage to offer strong recommendations and opinions in a blog.

4. They do the right thing. Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page ended dealings with China (the Chinese wanted to censor search results.)
As business blog content writers, we can work to inspire readers to have three types of trust in the business providers and professional practitioners who hire us: a) trust in their know-how, b) trust in their ethics, and c) trust in their empathy and caring for customers.

5. They think differently. Apple’s Steve Wozniack was the innovator, designing the Macintosh.
Online searchers will undoubtedly have heard some of the information you’re providing before.  It’s your unique slant or innovative approach that’s likely to elicit that all-important “Never thought of it that way!” response.  Your blog post is a way to show readers that this is no cookie-cutter company they’re about to meet. I always advise clients to use their blog to provide information – particularly new information – related to their field.

Content writers can take inspiration from big-hitter business people.

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So What’s My State’s Insect?

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Imagine – up until five years ago, Indiana was one of only three states with no state insect! Chronicled by the Indiana Department of Natural Resources, legislation was signed by Gov. Eric Holcomb rectifying the situation, naming the Say’s Firefly our insect of choice after students in several Posey County and West Lafayette schools wrote proposals and collected signatures while learning about the legislative process. As things turned out, not only is the Angled Candle Firefly native to Indiana, it’s named after Hoosier Thomas Say, father of American Zoology.

Ever on the search for fascinating factoids to spice up marketing content, I found mention of Firefly in the book What Makes Flamingos Pink by Bill McClain. (The cover describes the tome as “a colorful collection of Q & A’s for the unquenchably curious”, which is precisely the trait we treasure at Say It For You ).Fascinating tidbits of information lend variety to blog posts, and can be used to spark interest, to help describe the products and services offered by the business or practice, and even to clarify owners’ point of view.

The thing about tidbits, though, is they need to matter to the reader. Plus, I’ve learned over the years, there needs to be a back story. Skimming through the McClain book, my eye was caught by the statement “Every state in the United States has a state insect.” So, what’s my state’s insect? I immediately wanted to know. Still, absent the wonderful back story about students gathering signatures to support their choice of a name to propose to the legislature, I would have lost further interest in the subject of state insects.

I often recommend including interesting information on topics related to your business (or, if you’re a freelance blog content writer, related to your client’s business). If you can provide information most readers wouldn’t be likely to know, we teach at Say It For You, so much the better. But there has to be a “back story” showing a) why the information matters to the owner or to the history of the business and b) showing how the information might matter to the reader..

Tie In Tidbits and “So What’s” in Blogging for Business

So what’s MY state insect? And, what was “the deal” with MY state finally getting on board?

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How Will They Experience Your Blog Post?

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Ellen Dunnigan

 

At a recent Drive Indy event, executive coach Ellen Dunnigan emphasized the mantra “Intentionality is the hallmark of influence”. Keeping in mind the formula P+A=MA (purpose + Audience = My Actions), before entering a room or beginning an encounter, you must predict, Dunnigan advises,  how they are likely to react to your presence. Your presence includes the way you look, the way you carry yourself,  the words you choose. How do you intend for the person or people you will face to experience their encounter with you?

Always ask yourself, Dunnigan urges, what the single most important point (of the meeting, the encounter, the speech) will be. Translated into content creation, that very concept is expressed as “The Power of One”. Each blog post should have a razor-sharp focus on just one story, one idea, one aspect of your business, we teach at Say It For You. Focused on one thing, your post has greater impact, since people are bombarded with many messages each day. The Power of One also means targeting one audience per blog post. The more focused a blog is on connecting with a narrowly defined target audience, the more successful it will be in converting prospects to clients and customers.

In dealing with an employee whose dress or manner of speaking with customers needs changing, a member of the Drive Indy audience asked Dunnigan, how can I best approach that encounter? Again, intentionality is the saving force, was the speaker’s answer. In preparing for the meeting, focus on the “single most important point”, predicting how the employee is likely to experience the encounter.

“Executive presence” means showing up – at the head of a room or on a web page, as confident and competent, respecting your audience while “predicting” their response to the information or advice you’re providing. “It’s your rant, but it’s all about them,” as I stressed in my last Say It For You post. People generally don’t like to have their assertions and assumptions challenged, even if they respect your expertise and have a need for your products and your guidance.

How will your readers experience the blog post you’re preparing to publish?

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