Blog Posts and Bradford Hill Criteria

/0 Comments/in , /by

blog metrics

Back in 1965, Sir Austin Bradford Hill published a paper about the dose-response relationship. If X causes Y, the more of X you have, the more Y will result, is the concept.. While Bradford Hill’s original work related to disease causation, his methods are often used to evaluate cause/effect links in other fields.

Why is causation such an important research activity? “Causation influences decisions related to prognosis, diagnosis and treatment,” researchers found, and “findings also teach us about the functioning of healthy systems”. The authors point out that even though a condition may be found to respond to a certain treatment, that does not necessarily uncover the cause. Of that your headache!)

At Say It For You, our blog content writers know that consistently posting content that is accurate, dependable, and actionable attracts new customers and clients and keeps them coming back. But knowing whether, and how well, your tactics are doing in terms of accomplishing these goals involves verifying the “dose-response relationship” between the content and the results.

Three of the nine criteria Sir Bradford Hill proposed are:

1. Strength (effect size).
2. Consistency (reproducibility)
3. Specificity: (Causation is likely if there is a very specific population at a specific site)

Sometimes, Chief Marketing Officers forget to use the techniques they rely on with other forms of marketing when it comes to blogs, Heidi Cohen of the Content Marketing Institute observes. Metrics are needed to determine whether you’ve achieved your goals. Things worth “counting” include:

  • Visitors (where do they come from? Where specifically do they go on your site?)
  • Page views (where do visitors click to and where do they leave?)
  • Time on site (shows how engaged they are)
  • Signups for an RSS feed or newsletter

Different topics and different blog formats (even days of the week for publishing your blog) can then be tested Bradford Hill-style for strength, consistency and specificity.

To what extent, exactly, is your marketing blog “causing” marketing results? Bradford Hill can help you be in the know!

 

Facebooktwitterredditlinkedintumblrmail

In Blog Post Titles, Beware of Anchor Bias

/0 Comments/in , , /by

 

Anchoring bias causes us to rely heavily – often too heavily – upon the first piece of information we receive. Whether we’re setting plans, making estimates about something – or reading a blog post – we interpret newer information from the reference point of our “anchor”, thedecisionlab.com explains. What’s the problem? The “anchor” idea gets stuck in our heads, making us reluctant to accept information that follows, information which might cause us to change our minds.

For business blog content writers, the first piece of information readers are going to receive is obviously the title of the post. We want the searcher to “drop anchor” by clicking on the link, and of course want search engines to offer our content as a match for readers seeking information and guidance on our topic.

When it comes to blog marketing, titles that seem clever are often not effective. The name of the blog post must make clear – to both searchers and search engines – what the post is about. Search engine optimization aside, a blog post title in itself constitutes a set of implied promises to visitors. In essence, you’re saying, “If you click here…

  • you’ll be led to a post that in fact discussing the topic mentioned in the title
  • you’ll be led to a post that explains how to reduce an undesirable effect
  • you’ll be led to a post that explains how to achieve a desirable effect
  • you’ll obtain information on how to do something

The tone of the blog post title also implies a promise:

  • this content is going to be humorous or satirical
  • this content is going to provide a list
  • this content is going to be thought-provoking and/or controversial
  • this content is going to be cautionary or even frightening

As blog content writers, we also need to beware anchoring. As Decision Lab explains, “Anchoring is so ubiquitous that it is thought to cause a number of other thinking fallacies, including the planning fallacy. The planning fallacy describes how we tend to underestimate the time we’ll need to finish a task. Since researching and composing an excellent blog post for a business is labor-intensive, including “reading around”, researching, composing, illustrating, and sharing, both commitment and time management need to be part of the expectations from the get-go.

On a basic level, maintaining consistency – beginning with blog post titles, then to blog post content, and ultimately to delivering quality products and services to customers – is the only way for any business to become, and remain, valued in its marketplace.

Use blog post titles as anchors, but beware of causing anchor bias!

Facebooktwitterredditlinkedintumblrmail

Blue Man Group as a Model for Blog Content Writers

/0 Comments/in , /by

As Chip Munn writes in Financial Planning magazine, financial advisors can take several tips from the Blue Man Group entertainment act, begun in the 80s, which incorporates comedy, music, and humor performed by three men, with heads and faces painted blue, who speak not a single word in the course of their stage performances. There are valuable business lessons for financial planning practices Munn believes, which can be derived from the Blue Man business model. For blog marketers, there are lessons as well:

You need to understand what people you’re looking for on your team and in your audience. (In addition to being skillful stage performers, Blue Men performers need to be of fairly uniform height and build.)

In blog marketing, the bottom line is knowing your target audience. Intelligence about your reader base needs to influence every aspect of the blog – its look, its style, its length, its frequency. As Seth Godin points out in his book All Marketers Tell Stories, “great stories are rarely aimed at everyone”.

You need to own your image and your equipment. (Blue Man group created their own unique instruments.)

One of the very important purposes of any business blog is to demonstrate “only-ness” to readers. To have any hope of engaging readers’ interest, blogs must provide fresh, relevant content, a challenge due to the sheer volume of information on the Web. Two strategies include bringing in “unique instruments” – less well-known facts about familiar things and processes, and suggesting new ways of thinking about things readers already know. Taking a stance, using the blog to express a firm opinion on issues, is a way to leverage your uniqueness.

Stay close to your clients. (Blue Man founder Chris Wink would periodically leave the executive suite to perform and remain involved.)

People tend to be comfortable associating with professionals and business owners who give back to their community. Blog content can focus on personal anecdotes and on the personal values of the business owners and of the people delivering professional services, alluding to current community happenings and concerns.

Plan growth in small increments. (Blue Man group began in Chicago, and scaled to become a global entertainment force, ultimately purchased by Cirque du Soleil.)

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! In blog marketing, keep telling your story consistently and frequently, honing it all along the way, and allowing time for your “reach” to grow.

Blue Man Group can be a model for us blog content writers!

Facebooktwitterredditlinkedintumblrmail

Guest post: 3 Ways to Create an Extra income Stream from Home

/0 Comments/in , , /by


(Photo by Upsplash)

Want to earn an income but don’t know how or where to get started? Your home can be a money-making machine. Here are a few ways you can add to your finances by taking advantage of your own house…

Sell Items Online or in Yard Sales

If something’s just gathering dust in your house, consider selling it. You could have a cabinet or a couch you no longer need — sell them online! A yard sale is also an excellent idea if you have more items you need to dispose of that are in good condition. In addition, yard sales are visible and advertise themselves, which is an advantage over indoor sales. Make sure you check your local zoning laws and homeowner association restrictions to avoid issues.

Make Renovations and Share the Steps

Equity is the percentage of your home that’s already been paid off. If your home is worth significantly more than what you still owe on your home loan, you may be able to use that equity to pay for home enhancements or renovations. It’s a smart way to finance a renovation project. You may even enjoy tax deductions (if you use the money to enhance your home substantially) and low interest rates (because the property is used as collateral for the loan). Additionally, you can expect a healthy ROI with the right renovations, as well as sell the house quickly and for more money, if that’s something you’re considering.

Start a Blog or a YouTube Channel

Blogging is a smart way to make extra cash. If you like sprucing things up regularly in your home, create a website or a YouTube channel to share your home improvements, DIY projects, flips, and more. You can create an additional income stream by placing ads on your website and earning sponsorships (in time). Post often, research the best times to upload content, make your home enhancements compelling, and really provide valuable information — more people will like and share your videos and content this way, helping you earn more.

Affiliate marketing is another excellent way to make money when you run a home improvement blog. You could simply recommend products or items you like or personally use in your projects. Each time a client uses your link to purchase, you’ll earn a commission. Of course, you’ll need to reach and build up an audience for your platform to take off. Promote your posts and videos on social media accounts by sharing before and after images of your projects.

Making cash off your home is relatively easy as you have more options than you might realize. Whether through selling stuff you no longer need, starting a blog or vlog to document home renovation tips, use your home as the starting place to get your message across and get visitors coming back for more.

 

Today’s guest post was contributed by Seth Murphy.  Seth first dabbled in DIY projects because that was cost-effective. Now Seth hopes his blog, Papa DIY, will encourage readers to take a chance at tackling their own hands-on projects… check out Seth’s blog at https://papadiy.com/about-me/ 

Facebooktwitterredditlinkedintumblrmail

Briefs for Blog Posts and Blog Posts as Briefs

/0 Comments/in , , /by

 

Leafing through the Harvard Business Review Special Issue on digital intelligence, I noticed a very helpful formatting detail – in the corner of each first page of an article, there was a box titled “Idea in Brief”. There were three bullet points for each article summary:

  • the problem
  • the root cause
  • the solution

The magazine editors explain that they’ve provided those summaries to “help busy leaders quickly absorb and apply the concepts”.

That little “grid” is made-to-order for business blogging! People are online searching for answers to questions they have or for solutions for dilemmas they’re facing.  But my experience has shown me that defining a problem, even when offering statistics about that problem, isn’t enough to galvanize prospects into action. But showing you not only understand the root causes of a problem, but have experience providing solutions to very that problem can help drive the marketing process forward. Still, searchers are unlikely to follow you into a “deep subject dive” unless they can anticipate that a “solution” to their problem will be forthcoming. For that reason, a “brief-in-a-box” is actually a visual could prove highly useful in longer content blog posts.

In corporate blogging for business, it’s important to offer enough information in each post to convincingly cover the one key theme of the post. At the same time, it can be very effective to compose a long, comprehensive article and then turn that material into several different blog posts relating to that one issue or problem. Ways to accomplish this vary:

– busting one common myth or misconception relative to the problem
– describing one possible solution to the problem
– updating readers on one new piece of research of one new industry development
– offering a unique opinion or slant on best practices

Inserting “Ideas in Brief” in blog posts is a great idea, but in a way, blog posts themselves are a form of “ideas in brief”!

 

Facebooktwitterredditlinkedintumblrmail