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Your First Job is to Communicate a Beautiful Idea

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“Caught up in the difficulty of mystifying, magicians often forget that the first job of any artist is to communicate a beautiful idea,” is a quote from Raymond Joseph Teller in Joshua Jay’s book How Magicians Think. One idea that audiences find irresistibly beautiful is that they are being given access to “secret”, or at least little-known, information. That is precisely the tactic Penn & Teller used in demonstrating the age-old cups and balls trick, but using clear plastic cups, demonstrating that it is the magician’s skill rather than the props that create illusions.

“The idiom ‘inside scoop’ particularly refers to information that is only known to people who are among a select group”, grammarist.com explains. In the book Craved, author Kel Hammond notes that people love behind-the-scenes video footage, which makes people feel like they’re in the know. Showing people a more personal side of who is behind the brand is a powerful marketing tool. In other words, it’s the idea of being empowered with “inside info”, rather than the information itself, the accomplishes the marketing goal.

Researchers at the University of Bath, working with Nielson, came up with two ways to score ads.

  1. Information Power Score – measures what the consumer perceives as the value of the message
  2. Emotive Power Score – measures if the emotion is going to change feelings about the brand

    At Say It For You, our business is blog marketing, which means connecting professional practitioners and business owners with prospective clients and customers. And, while I continually preach and teach that blog posts are not ads, but more like advertorials, establishing connections is the name of the game for both advertisers and content marketers. The first job of content marketing is, in fact, to communicate ideas that online visitors will find “beautiful”, making them feel as if they are part of a well-informed “inside group”.

    Sometimes, the “beauty” of the blog content is that it simplifies and unifies diverse details into central concepts.. Other times the “beauty” lies in linking “conversation-piece” tidbits of information to concepts that help readers better understand complex processes. Caught up in the difficulty of online marketing, let’s remember that the first job of any blog content writer is communicating beautiful ideas.

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Letting Them Know You Hear Them

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“As you listen to people, let them know that you hear them, value them, and understand them,” Ron Willingham writes in Integrity Selling for the 21st Century. You can offer feedback by nodding approval at key points, giving verbal responses, and through your body language, the author adds.

All well and good for in-person selling, but what about blog marketing? After all, content writers can’t “nod approval” at key points or use body language to cement connection with online searchers. Yet, “the buying process is in the hands of the customer, and marketers must create targeted, personalized experiences for people,” as marketingevolution.com stresses.

Even in face-to-face selling situations, it may be too easy to assume you know the customer’s needs and then move on to offer them solutions or recommendations, Willingham cautions. The pros must not only be willing to talk to you about a solution, but have a sense of urgency about seeking a solution. Of course, the very fact that searchers found their way to your page indicates their interest in the subject of your blog, but now the content writing challenge is to create those “targeted and personalized experiences”.

At our Say It For You content marketing company, we absolutely agree. Stories of all kinds help personalize a business blog. Even if a professional writer is composing the content, true-story material increases engagement by readers with the business or practice. Case studies are particularly effective in creating interest, because they are relatable and “real”. The content must speak to “our shared experience”. I tell newbie blog writers: “Everything about your blog should be tailor-made for that customer – the words you use, how technical you get, how sophisticated your approach, the title of each blog entry – all of it.” Since we, as ghostwriters, have been hired by clients to tell their story online to their target audiences, we need to do intensive research, taking guidance from the client’s experience and expertise dealing with actual customers.

Online visitors to your blog need to find an experience along with information.  Word tidbits, unique points of view, special how-to tips, links to unusual resources, and humorous touches – all these things make your blog post special. Stories – testimonials, real-life successes and failures, help translate corporate messages into people-to-people terms. Metaphorically, at least, the stories in your blog posts can represent nods of approval and understanding.

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Asking Discomfiting Questions in Your Blog

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I have to say the questions “Would you recognize your primary care physician if you saw her on the street?” and “Could you pick your dentist out of a lineup?” got my attention a whole lot faster than any trite reminder of the importance of medical and dental checkups. In fact, AARP Magazine writer Kimberly Lankford eschewed polite nudging in favor of in-your-face retirement planning questions – “Would you like your neighborhood if you couldn’t drive” “When was the last time you tired yourself out?:”

Blog readers tend to be curious creatures and, as a longtime blog content writer, I’ve found that “self-tests” tend to engage readers and help them relate in a more personal way to the information presented in a marketing blog. Popular magazine editors appear to agree as well, because current issues are full of tests, games, and quizzes.

Kimberly Lankford’s questions to AARP readers, though, fall into a whole ‘nuther category, provoking not curiosity but introspection. “Picture your grandparents living in your home – would you worry about them getting around safely?” Often in blog content writing, it’s effective to present what I call “startling statistics” to incentivize readers to take action. “Every 11 seconds, an older adult is treated in an emergency room for a fall,” Age Safe America tells us. While statistics such as these can certainly serve as Calls to Action in blog posts, the AARP Magazine approach uses discomfiting questions to drive readers to action.

We’ve all read (heck, for 21 consecutive years, I wrote) articles that focus on the financial aspects of retirement. “Retirement planning should include determining time horizons, estimating expenses, calculating required after-tax returns, assessing risk tolerance, and doing estate planning,” cautions Investopedia.com.

The AARP article, in contrast, enters readers’ consciousness from an entirely different direction:
“OK. You’re retired. What will you be doing next Monday?” This very discomfiting question forces readers to look at themselves, not just their finances.

Are there any discomfiting questions you can pose to blog readers to forcing them to come to grips with the very need with which you’re in a position to help?

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Ampersands OK in Blog Titles, But Not in Content

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“Use and, not ampersands, in business writing, even for emails. It is more professional,” Mary Morel advises in onlinewritintraining.com. Ampersands are for titles, signage, and where they are part of an organization’s branding, she adds.

Historical trivia bit – The ampersand was once the 27th letter of the alphabet In the early 18th century. Roman scribes, writing the Latin word “et” (meaning “and”) would link the E and the T. creating the shape of the ampersand. Centuries later, children reciting their ABCs found it confusing to say X,Y,Z, and”, so instead they would say “and, per se, ‘and'”, clarifying that the
ampersand was a separate letter.

The ampersand “adheres to a modern ethos of speed and brevity,” grammarbook.com explains. The ampersand helps save space, and fits in with other letters’ heights. “Still,” the authors conclude, “the more sparing you are with ampersands in formal writing, the better,”

Ampersand usage is a style detail many people don’t think important enough to merit attention, the probizwriters.com blog observes. “After all, if most people don’t know the rules, who will notice if you screw it up, right? Unfortunately, it’s little details like proper ampersand use that can make your writing look or feel clunky or dumb, even to readers who don’t know exactly why.”

Worst of all, speaker Todd Hunt believes, is inconsistent use, mixing “and” and “&” in the same writing piece.

As a blog content writing trainer, I think the most compelling reason to avoid ampersands in blog content was explained by Rebekah Wolf in medium.com: Copy devoid of characters is easier to skim and even easier to understand. As readers scan your blog post, their eyes are likely to be drawn to the character instead of to the most important words.

Of course, blog content writing should be more informal in tone than academic pieces, as we stress at Say It For You. Blogs are meant to be more conversational, more personal, and tend to be most effective using an “I-you”, author-to-reader tone. There’s an invisible line, however. Could the ampersand represent one of those subtle dividing points between casual and careless? Hmmm….

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Blog Marketing and Network Marketing – Sisters Under the Skin

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Network marketers who ask themselves the question “Who do I talk to next now that my original list of names has run out?” might find answers in Bob Burg’s The Last Prospecting Guide You’ll Ever Need: Direct Sales Edition. While Berg discusses salespeople’s face-to-face and telephone encounters with their prospects, blog content writers can take some tips from him as well.

  • Mega-successful networkers are active givers, “constantly on the lookout for a piece of information that will interest someone in their network. They recommend great books, make lots of introductions.

I’ve spent more than a decade now putting together a collection of books that serve as blog writing resources – books about writing, “tidbit treasure” books, books about marketing, books about sales, and books about corporate blogging. Many Say It for You blog posts are built around content from specific books, with links to help readers order the book for themselves. I often recommend books to my Twitter followers as well.

  • Successful networkers are “connectors”, realizing that everyone they meet might turn out to be a valuable contact to someone else in their network.

When I’m creating content for a business, I need to keep up on what others are saying on the topic, on what’s in the news, and about what problems and questions have been surfacing that relate to what my client sells and what that business or practice does for its clients. By staying alert, I often find problems best solved by networking colleagues rather than by myself or my blogging client. 

  • Successful networkers enjoy the challenge, the learning, and the people with whom they interact.

In the business world in general, I find, we get tied up in making our products or in providing service to our customers and clients, and sometimes forget how much help the right words can be. The challenge is that often business owners and professional practitioners remain “unblogged”, mostly for lack of time.  The ultimate challenge for content writers is to make that connection between them and all the searchers who need their experience and knowhow.

  • Successful networkers are always on the lookout for things that can help others improve their business.

At Say It For You, we advise content writers to find complementary businesses or practices.  Ask those owners (or cite their blogs) for tips they can offer your readers.  Pet care professionals can share tips from carpet cleaning pros – or the reverse! If you’re a carpet cleaning pro, you can share tips from allergists as well.  If you’re an insurance advisor, offer tips from car dealers about accident prevention…

Blog marketing and networking – sisters under the skin!

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