The Three Dimensions of Content Marketing

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“Researchers looking for strategies and solutions for increasing financial literacy have identified three dimensions,” Jalene Hahn explains in the Indianapolis Business Journal, consisting of knowledge, attitude, and awareness.

The goals of content marketing, it occurred to me, are the same as those named by Hahn:

Knowledge:

When it comes to content marketing, teaching is the new selling. With so much ready access to so many sources of information, visitors to your site want to know that you and your organization have something new to add. At the same time, people generally don’t like to have their assertions and assumptions challenged, even when they’ve arrived seeking information on a particular subject. As content writers, we want our vendor or practitioner clients to be perceived as subject matter experts offering usable information and insight in addition to readers’ own knowledge level.

Attitude:

In the book Stop Hiring Losers , when authors Minesh and Kim Baxi  talk about hiring and retaining good employees,  they name six defining attitudes, or things that motivate different people. These include learning, money, beauty/harmony, altruism, power, and principle. When it comes to content marketing, the secret is knowing your particular audience and thinking about how they (not the average person, but specifically “they”) would probably react or feel about your approach to the subject at hand.

Awareness:

Social media can be used to raise awareness about social issues and encourage users to make changes in their own lives, a University of Plymouth professor explains. Online search can’t create awareness of something people don’t know exists. Once awareness is raised, readers are ready to learn more from reading content and become more engaged.

As is true of helping consumers gain financial literacy, content marketing is a way of helping business owners and professional practitioners use the three dimensions of  knowledge, attitude and awareness to appeal to their online audiences.

 

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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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How Do You Want Your Content to Make Them Feel?

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Hobbies present an escape, helping you get out of your head and calm down, associate professor of health psychology Matthew Zawadzki explains, but it’s important, in choosing an activity, so ask yourself how you want it to make you feel. Should the hobby result in your feeling:

  • mentally engaged?
  • distracted?
  • socially connected?

“Marketers aim to understand the needs, wants, and behaviors of their target audience in order to effectively promote and sell their products or services, Official Insights remarks on Reddit.com.  “This often involves researching and analyzing data on consumer demographics, psychographics, and buying habits.”

One study conducted by professors at Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania found that content inspiring awe, surprise, or humor is much more likely to be shared. But audiences differ, and, as content marketers, we need to know our target audience’s pain points, desires, and frustrations, in order to understand what emotional context we should include in our content, contentwriters.com cautions. Going even further, emotional context actually includes phrase and word choices, even terms, and acronyms with which your readers are familiar.” BrainyGirl Kim Garnett points out.

The best way to “make it personal,” Maxwell advises in  his book, The 16 Undeniable Laws of Communication, is “to pair what they do know with what they don’t know.”  Learn the organizational culture of the group, their personal experiences, even their national origin, then communicate the insights about you have about that already acquired knowledge.

Our Say It For You content writers have come to understanding that our purpose is not to  admonish, warn, frighten, or even inspire online readers, who have arrived at our site on a fact-finding mission, looking specifically for information The tone of the content should assume that with information presented in a way that mentally engages them and forges a connection, they will move forward with action.

As we plan our content, while we aren’t aiming at presenting an readers with an escape, we do want to make them feel both mentally engaged and socially connected – with our business owner and professional practitioner clients, that is!

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The Long and the Short of it When it COmes to Content

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“The best content is the right length, includes keywords, and is relevant to the reader”, Intuit Mailchimp explains. You want your blog posts to engage readers and improve SEO, and the length of your posts is an important metric.

Fill with no fillers.
As a content creator at Say It For You, I particularly appreciated Mailchimp’s observation about length: “There’s a lot to learn about some topics, but others are simple and straightforward…Some blog posts need to be short and sweet… The moment you feel like you’re adding filler content, you should start trimming down your blog post to the important parts.”

Having composed blog posts (as both a ghost writer and under my own name) numbering well into the tens of thousands, I’m still finding it difficult to fix on any rule about length other than “It depends!” I like to remind writers of what Albert Einstein said: “Make everything as simple as possible, but no simpler.”

Compose to fit.
Factors to consider in deciding the length of a post, MailChimp reminds marketers, include:

  • the target audience’s sophistication and prior knowledge of the subject
  • the purpose of each blog post
  • the complexity of the topic itself
  • the frequency of posting
  • the actual metrics of past postings (how much time have your readers been spending on the site?)

Position the owner or practitioner as a Subject Matter Expert.
Establishing trust and credibility by offering usable information and insights is not directly related to length. Once readers feel assured that you know your stuff and that you care about offering good information and good service, they might be ready to take action before they even read all the way into the blog post!

Consider SEO.
“Search engines tend to prefer longer content, so go with longer content if you’re trying to improve your search engine rankings,” Intuit Mailchimp advises.. The “golden” blog post length, according to WIXblog, is actually 2,300 – 2,500 words: Articles of this length, the authors state, are “typically thorough and educational, and therefore have a much higher chance of ranking on search engines.”

When it comes to length of blog posts, the long and short of it might simply be “it depends!”

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Focusing on the Reader of the Story

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“Here’s how to introduce yourself to a reporter so that you will be a source for a news story on the subject,” consultant Janet Falk writes. The five W’s, she advises (who, what, when, where, why) should serve as the framework for your pitch.

In blog marketing, the “Who”, of course, denotes narrowing down your audience in order to “target” the content to those you most hope will be reading your post. “Be as specific as possible,” Falk cautions.

The “what?” has two components: What idea or concept will you present? Then, what will they do next with that idea? Think of readers’ situation before they learned this information; compared to after they hear about it, Falk writes.

Translated into content marketing, the “what” relates to the “where”. In the Call to Action, what alternatives are you offering for next steps? There should be more than one: those ready to buy should be enabled to do that right away (link or phone number). Those who need more information before making a decision should be able to message you. For those not quite ready for any of those steps, provide a link to a video or white paper. Navigation to that “where” needs to be very easy.

The “Why” is the most important question of all, Falk explains. “How will your idea help someone save time, save money or make more money?”

When it comes to blog marketing, there’s a lot of talk about “traffic”. Yes, blogging is part of business owners’ and professional practitioners’ “pull marketing” strategy, designed to attract readers’ eyeballs. In practice, however, fewer might actually prove better, I explain to Say It For You clients. The real goal is attracting readers of “the right kind“, customers who have a need for and who will appreciate the services, products, and expertise being showcased in your content.

 

In the scenario Janet Falk describes, you are introducing oneself to a reporter as a source for a news story, In content marketing, the “reporter” is the search engine algorithm, which serves as a “gateway” for you to tell your story to the target reader. “Social media algorithms can be a powerful ally in growing one’s online audience. Think of them as virtual matchmakers designed to match users with content that suits their interests,” sproutsocial,com explains.

Whether you’re introducing yourself to a reporter or to an algorithm, define your five W’s, always focusing on the ultimate reader of the story.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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