The Accordion Method in Content Marketing

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Whether you’re preparing for an interview or for generating content, the Accordion Method involves having ready a short, a medium, and a long answer for every question you’re likely to be asked, Paula Rizzo advises in Writer’s Digest:

  • The short answer is the sound bite that grabs attention.
  • The medium answer adds more content around the topic.
  • The long answer adds much more detail and opinion.

As a senior health producer at Fox News Channel, Rizzo recalls, she was booking guest experts all the time. Sometimes an expert would ramble when the host wanted a short answer, and sometimes people didn’t give enough information. You need to be able to deliver content in a way that fits the situation, Rizzo cautions.

Here is how, in creating online marketing content, writers can follow Rizzo’s five steps for success:
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1. What is the question? First, brainstorm the basic question (or questions) you’ll likely be asked during the interview. You need to get to know the show and its audience, Rizzo advises.

Who are your target customers or clients? What approach would have the most appeal to that segment of your market?  Will the emphasis be on your products? Your special services? Your expertise?  Pick one primary area of focus in preparing your “short answer”.

2. Watch previous episodes. Learning what questions were posed by hosts to other interviewees is crucial, Rizzo says.

At Say It For You, we encourage freelance content writers and business owners alike to curate, meaning to gather OPW (Other People’s Wisdom) and share that with their readers, commenting on that material and relating it to their own topic.

3. What is the short answer? Think in headlines. For the host who wants a short, targeted answer, interviewees must be prepared to offer just that, Rizzo explains.

A business blog post 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. 

4. What is the medium answer? Even when a medium answer is called for it’s important to “start with a bang” and then add some context and evidence.

When expanding to a medium from a short answer, think about whether the information is not only useful, but will be received as unique (rather than the same information found in other places..

5. What is the long answer? Give compelling evidence for your attention-grabbing short answer.

To sustain our content writing over long periods of time without losing reader excitement and engagement, we need to constantly add to our own body of knowledge – about our industry or professional field, and about what’s going on around us in our culture.

For online marketers, the Accordion Method helps writers research and “store” content for different segments of a target audience.

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Blog Titles of All Types for All Types of Readers

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Thought it’d be decades before any material in the AARP Bulletin might be of interest to you? Think again. For content writers of every age, the October issue of the AARP publication serves as a complete 301 course in creative titling…

  • Newsy titles
    “Medicare Costs Rise Slightly for 2024”
    “AARP Launches Disaster Prep Site”

The word “news”, when it comes to content marketing, can include several different things: a) “your own” news about you and your business or practice (new employee, new service offer or product line, an award, participation in a community event, etc.) b) news from your industry or profession.

  • Topic titles
    “Fixing the Caregiving System”
    “Super-Agers: How They Live Longer, Think Stronger, Enjoy Life More”

Each of these is an example of offering solutions to a problem, with the second title using the theory of social proof, meaning that, as humans, we are simply more willing to do something if we see that other people are doing it, referencing the behavior of others to guide our own behavior.

  • Question/Challenge titles
    “Are You Addicted to Junk Food?”
    “Can a Crook Steal Your Entire Home?”

People are online searching for answers to questions they have and solutions for dilemmas they’re facing, and often we can help searchers who haven’t specifically formulated their questions by presenting a question in the blog post title itself.

  • Huh? Oh titles
    “Punch In, Pay Taxes”: Programs Allow Older residents to Work Off Property Taxes”

From all my “reading around” – magazines, books, blogs, textbooks – you name it, I’ve come to the conclusion that many titles have – and need to have – two basic parts: the “Huh?” and the “Oh”. The “Huh?s” need subtitles to make clear what the article is about; “Oh!” titles are self-explanatory. In the AARP article, the “Punch In, Pay Taxes” part grabs our attention, but doesn’t tell us enough about what we’re about to learn.

  • List titles
    “Ways to Save at Department Stores”
    Property Deeds: 4 Things to Know”

That lists and bullet points in general are a good fit for blogs is actually something I stress in content writing sessions.  (By most accounts, search engines like lists and bullet points, too.)

You don’t have to qualify for membership in AARP to realize one thing – there are titles of many types to attract readers of all ages!

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Content Statement Ceilings

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“Look up to be wowed!”, a piece in Haven Magazine about “statement ceilings” begins. After all, plain, flat ceilings are just…well, passé, and, for a home that inspires “oohs” and “aahs”, you need a cool structural element. Added height, uplighting, combining different materials, can all enhance your dining room, great room, or entryway, home buiilders explain. .

There’s a parallel here for content marketers: Grabbing readers’ attention is one of the most important lessons, as Marcia Hoeck of copyblogger emphasizes, because “no matter how brilliant your ideas are, you can’t offer them to your prospect unless you’ve made her look in your direction first.” What’s more, Hoeck adds, human focus is limited; the brain has to focus on specific information, choosing which input will enter and stay. We can’t succeed if our messages don’t break through the clutter to get people’s attention, Chip and Dan Heath, authors of Made to Stick, agree.

As content writers, our “ceilings” are obviously article titles. Are there certain words in blog post titles that are more likely “win attention? In fact, curiosity-stimulating words (or set of words) need not be the keyword phrases used to “win search”. Some examples out of one recent issue of a popular news magazine:

  • Finding….
  • How…
  • Could…
  • A new….
  • Things just….
  • The best…
  • The impossible…
  • The hidden…
  • Is it O.K if….
  • Don’t…
  • Who is….

What these subtle attention-commanding phrases do, I explain at Say It For You coaching sessions, is set expectations. The title words “finding”, “the hidden”, and the “impossible” might engender the expectation of discovery or of gaining a new insight. “Things just”, “could”, and “the impossible” hint at an opinion piece, even a rant. “The best”, “how”, and “don’t” imply that valuable advice and cautions will follow. “How” hints that information about the way a certain process works is to follow, while “Is it O.K if” suggests readers might be asked to weigh in on an ethical dilemma of some sort.

Making space both beautiful and functional is the challenge facing home builders. And, in a way, the challenge in blog content writing is  not only capturing readers’ attention, but maintaining it. We need to search for “sticky” ideas and concepts that have the power to maintain interest over time – and to propel action.

Statement ceilings are great for capturing attention, but but be sure the rest of the home lives up to that attention-getting promise!

 

 

 

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More Farm-Grown Content Marketing Insights

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This week, my Say It For You blog posts were inspired by the 2024 Farmer’s Almanac…

“Harvesting” tidbits of information will always prove useful to content writers, and this issue of Farmer’s Almanac contains some wonderful examples of information that readers either never knew or which they’ve likely forgotten. In content marketing, these very tidbits can lend variety to blog posts while reinforcing information we want to convey to prospects.

The Farmer’s Almanac piece “Why the LEAP in Leap Year” is a perfect example: (Everyone knows that in a leap year, an extra day is tacked onto February. But what is it that “leaps”?) The calendar organizes each year into 365 days, but it actually takes our Earth 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, and 46 seconds to orbit the sun. To correct this calendar “inaccuracy”, Julius Caesar added a day to the calendar every four years. (Back then, February was considered the last month of the year, so that’s where they added the day.) The adjustment meant that what was Monday on the first non-leap year would be Tuesday on the next year, and Wednesday on the year after that. It’s the day of the week that does the “leaping”!

While the “tidbit” about leap year would certainly add interest to a blog offered by any business or practice, what is needed to make it work is a tie-in or “trigger” relating that information to the business or practice being marketed to online readers. For example, air conditioning companies or appliance venders might use the Mental Floss Magazine story about how, when President Garfield was shot and lay dying in the White House, inventors rushed forward with devices they hoped would help, using a contraption to blow air over a box of ice into a series of tin pipes, eventually using a half-million pounds of ice.

At Say It For You, we remind content writers that, however fascinating the tidbit or story may be, in content marketing the information needs to make a difference to the target readers. Meanwhile, keep “harvesting” those valuable “Did You Know?” facts and anecdotes!

 

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Will Your Post Persuade – or Convince?

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This week, my Say It For You blog posts were inspired by speaker and humorist Todd Hunt…

When your message changes someone’s actions,  Hunt’s video explains, what you’ve done is PERSUADE, Todd Hunt explains. On a deeper level, when you’ve CONVINCED the recipients of your message, you’ve actually changed their beliefs.

Unfortunately, it seems that a great deal of marketing content is devoted to persuading prospects by describing “what we do”,  what the services and products the company or organization offers. Too often, little effort appears focused on “what we believe”- type “convincing” visitors, giving them a sense that “kindred spirits” are to be found at this web address.

The idea of changing beliefs through content is hardly new. The LASSI (Learning and Study Strategies Inventory developed at the University of Texas) is an 80-item assessment based on the theory that success in learning relies on thoughts, behaviors, attitudes, and beliefs.  Researchers at the University of Bath, meanwhile, created a measurement for ads called the Emotive Power Score to gauge if the ad is going to change feelings about the brand.

The best posts, we emphasize at Say It For You, give online readers a feel for the company culture and for the core beliefs owners wish to share. While content marketing uses Calls to Action, aiming to persuade lookers to become buyers, content that convinces through “we believe” statements can result in long term customer loyalty. Although the marketing content might relate to a for-profit business, a core-beliefs-over-core-products-and-services emphasis can prove surprising effective in making the cash register ring.

Will your next blog post be designed to persuade readers to take action – or will it convince, changing or reinforcing their beliefs?

 

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