Staying in Touch With Content

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“You need to take control of the narrative,” Bryce Sanders cautions financial advisors in Financial Advisor Magazine. When the stock market is going up, some advisors don’t see the need to call their clients. Others don’t think they need to call when the market is going down. But either way, Sanders cautions, it’s a big mistake not to stay in close touch with your advisees.

At Say It For You, we realize, every single one of the reasons Sanders cites for staying in touch with financial planning clients is true for business owners and professional practitioners in every field:

1. Your clients should be expecting you to be in touch with them on a predictable basis.
In content marketing, it’s a big mistake to take your foot off the gas. Yes, creating a steady stream of content takes time and patience. As online marketing guru Neil Patel stresses, websites that publish regular, high-quality content are providing real value to users.

2.    Give the client credit for the successes they have achieved using the information you’ve provided.
Your website can include customer testimonials to boost credibility in two ways. Success stories boost your credibility with new prospects, helping them decide to do business with you. At the same time, testimonials also foster commitment from those providing those testimonials.

3.  Clients need to know where they stand with you, knowing you are paying attention.
To maintain that “paying attention” stance, it’s crucial to avoid “yo-yo content posting”. Spacing marketing content pieces at regular intervals and maintaining consistency allows regular readers and newcomers to the site to expect – and benefit from – a regular flow of information.

4.  Clients have the potential to invest new dollars with you, and are looking for direction.
When it comes to content marketing, the word “news” can mean several different things, including “your own news”, introducing a new employee, a new partner, a new product, a new service. Community news relates to “what’s going on and how we fit in”.

Content marketing is nothing more than staying in touch with what’s happening in your community, in your industry, in your business or practice – and sharing those insights with your readers!

 

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Society-Happens-Here Content Marketing – Thanksgiving Food for Thought

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The 2024 Edelman Trust Barometer reveals a new paradox at the heart of society. Rapid innovation offers the promise of a new era of prosperity, yet most institutions, including government and the media, are not trusted to introduce these new innovations to society, and so people are looking to business leaders for guidance. That means business owners are expected to comment, not only on their own products and services, but on societal changes that affect their industry or profession…

At Say It For You, our content writers know readers are trusting our business owner and professional practitioner clients to help them with more than good products and skilled services. In addition to information, searchers need help making sense of all the changes happening in their neighborhoods and in their world.

“When customers provide more data, they expect better experiences,” salesforce.com cautions, so marketers need to create experiences that are:

  1. connected
  2. personalized
  3. immersive

What I’ve learned over the years of creating blog content for dozens and dozens of clients in different industries and professions is that, in order to “turn readers on”, we must incorporate one important ingredient – opinion. Taking a stance, I’ve found, is what gives content its “zip”. We must be influencers, I advise clients and blog content writers alike. Whether it’s business-to-business or business-to-consumer writing, the content itself needs to use opinion to clarify what differentiates that business, that professional practice, or that organization from its peers.
We need to be coming from a place of “who we are” as much as from a place of “what we offer”.

A content marketing alert: This Thanksgiving, an important part of our “food for thought” menu needs to be Society-happens-here content marketing.

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Today, I’m Working on Being a Content Expert In…

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The vast majority of reporters are constantly thrown into topics, issues, controversies, and specialties they know little about, Indianapolis Business Journal editor Lesley Weidenbener admits. In fact, being a journalist requires diving into unfamiliar topics, she says.

Often, upon learning of the content marketing my team members and I do at Say It For You, someone will ask, “So do you specialize in marketing for a particular industry or profession?” In fact, not only does being a ghost writer of marketing content require diving into unfamiliar topics, much of the joy we take in the work derives from precisely that experience of gathering information, interviewing practitioners and business owners, and then (just as Weidenbener puts it), “massaging” that information into stories that help readers understand things better.

From data analytics to death care, from HVAC services to nutritional supplements, from personal injury law to retirement planning to leadership training, dental surgery, and leadership training, each content marketing assignment has offered a new “today I’m working on being an expert in…” opportunity.

One of the most telling acknowledgments of this “working-to-become-an-expert” philosophy came in the form of a recent client testimonial:  “Say It For You worked hard to understand nuance in our industry, including external research…”

Being a lifelong learner is a big part of online content marketing, to be sure. In order to deliver quality writing of any kind, you’ve got to keep educating yourself, reading everything you can get your hands on. While it’s important to cite sources by paraphrasing and hyperlinking back to the page where the information originated, the skill lies in “translating”” that information, putting it into the context of your primary topic.

When content marketing works, though, it’s about much more than the technical details.  The goal is to attach a “face” and lend a “voice” to the information by filling in the finer details about the people behind a business or practice and sharing the reasoning behind the choices they’ve made.

Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow, my fervent hope is, I’ll be working on become an expert in…who knows?

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The Four Elements For Creating Wonder

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As writers, we can use four characteristics that have the power to inspire a sense of wonder in our readers, Matty Dalrymple explains in Writer’s Digest:

  • mystery and exclusivity
  • a disconnect from reality and expectations
  • displays of specialized elements of knowledge
  • an immersive yet ephemeral experience

Dalrymple, I realized, was addressing novelists, but could those four elements work well for creators of online marketing content as well?

Mystery – by showcasing characters’ use of special elements, “we transport readers to a wondrous world”, Dalrymple says.

In content writing for business, we’ve learned at Say It For You, business owners or professional practitioners want to become valuable providers of information, ultimately persuading readers to use their products or engage their services. There must be no mystery about the fact that searchers have come to the right place. Still, through content, writers can show how things – or causes – their readers care about are in jeopardy, creating wonder about possible paths forward.

A disconnect from expectations – When an aspect of a setting or situation deviates from the norm, that surprises and intrigues readers.

Creating compelling content can – and should – incorporate both people storytelling and product storytelling. The expectation is for the content to tout the successes of the business or practice, but true stories about mistakes and struggles will engage precisely because of the disconnect. People want to do business with real people, and admission of failures and mistakes often surprises and intrigues.

Displays of specialized knowledge – Because the character has such arcane knowledge, readers have a sense of awe at how much exists of which they were unaware.

Content writers aim to have their clients be perceived as subject matter experts offering usable information and insights.  Once readers feel assured that the providers know your stuff and care about offering good information and good service, they might be ready to take action, Bringing in less well-known facts about familiar things and processes “displays” specialized knowledge, making readers wonder how many other “secrets” await.

Immersive experience – While allowing readers to get a sense of being part of the story, the author needs to convey that the experience is ephemeral.

When you’re composing business blog content, I tell writers, imagine readers asking themselves – “How will I use the product (or service)?” “How will I feel?” Your content can offer a “taste” of the benefits users stand to enjoy when using your products and/or services.

While assuring searchers they’ve come to the right place to find the information they need, skillful use of the four story elements can create a sense of wonder, a feeling of “Wow! I never realized…..”

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“What-Just-Happened?” Content Marketing

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“Write a short story in which a person wakes up to find the world outside the front door has changed dramatically. What can they figure out in the first hour of this new situation?” Writer’s Digest contributor Amy Jones suggests to authors looking for fresh ideas.

Problem solution selling is a sales approach that aims to solve customer problems rather than just focusing on selling a product or service, Breakcold explains. “It requires a deep understanding of the customer’s pain points and challenges, and the ability to present a tailored solution that addresses those specific needs.”

While, in this Say It For You blog, we’ve often stressed how very important it is for content creators to understand the needs and concerns of the target audience, I think Amy Jones’ “What-just-happened?” approach goes a step further. When marketing a product or service that those prospects might very well have a need to use in the event of a future catastrophe or scarcity, the content marketing goal is to spur preventative action now.

Certainly, “disaster preparedness “ a set of actions before an event, can “avoid or at least lessen negative outcomes”,  but the challenge in marketing preventative tools – from back-up generators to regular HVAC checkups to long term care insurance — lies in evoking that “what-just-happened?” short story in readers’ minds.

“Agents must get customers to focus on the risks they face and the appropriate coverages, not on the price, Insurance Thought Leadership cautions.” .Without getting prospects to visualize “expensive emergency repairs and premature failures” , the advice given by an HVAC company to its prospects packs minimum power.

As content writers, we cannot position ourselves (or our clients) within the marketplace without studying the surroundings for our target audience. And, for content pieces to be effective, they must serve as positioning and differentiating statements to let readers know who’s asking for the action. That “action”, however, is unlikely to take place until and unless prospects are able to visualize that “what-just-happened?” scenario.

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