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Either Way, a Good Bottle is a Good Bottle

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For the average wine drinker, it’s a no-big-deal thing, but for serious aficionados of Champagne and for those in the wine industry, Alison Napjus points out in Wine Spectator, there’s an important distinction:

While small grower producers, or “RMs”, source their grapes only from vineyards they own ,” negociants”, or ” NMs”, purchase their grapes from different villages and subzones. Connoisseurs (“wine snobs”?) might value RM products, but transferring ownership of land among family members is “prohibitively expensive” under French law, Napius points out, and RMs have trouble meeting demand. NMs, meanwhile, have begun paying closer attention to viticulture in their own vineyards.

The result of all this supply/demand push-pull is that the ” perfect” Champagne product today is neither an RM nor an NM, the author explains. Consumers are really just looking for a steady supply of quality Champagne. “At the end of the day, it’s what’s in the glass that matters, not the code on the label,” the author concludes.

The same observation might be made in my field of content marketing, I couldn’t help thinking. “Content marketing works by capturing the attention of your desired audience members and helping them address their informational and task-oriented needs,” Jodi Harris of the Content Marketing Institute explains.

  • Prefer to use straightforward or “Huh? Oh!” titles for blog posts? Doesn’t matter, so long as, in the body of the post, you deliver on headline’s promise.
  • Whether you post content once a week or once a month, consistency helps build trust with your audience.
  • Statistics can be used to demonstrate the extent of a problem or to provide data about products and services a company offers. Either way, when presented effectively, numbers can move readers to make decisions.
  • “Jargon”, industry or profession-unique terminology can be used judiciously by content writers for explaining and defining a point, or simply as a way to establish common ground with a select audience.

Either way, a good piece of content is a good piece of content!

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No Explosion Needed – Just Information

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“There was a time when we were taught to start with the explosion, the crisis, the murder, the detonation of the bomb, then go back and show the reader how we got to this terrible situation. I’ll explain why you might want to avoid this approach,” says book writing coach Myra Levine.

As content creators for business owners and professional practitioners, it’s tempting to be enigmatic in order to arouse curiosity, but at Say It For You, we agree with Levine that it’s not always the best idea.  After all, it’s essential for us to assure readers that they’ve come to the right place to find the information that satisfies whatever needs brought them online to find answers. In other words, the opening lines can set the tone and arouse curiosity, but it’s best not to sustain the mystery very long.

In terms of satisfying readers’ need for information, Brightedge.com comments that many types of content simply do not need very long blog posts to provide value for readers. On the other hand, articles with only a cursory treatment of the topic may not be deemed high-quality content.  “You will want to dive deeper and provide more information.”

One technique used in comedy is exaggeration, which, as humor speaker Jeff Fleming explained to me years ago at a National Speakers Association meeting, can emphasize points you want the audience to remember. In content marketing, however, while we sometimes aim to engage readers and show empathy regarding their dilemma and problem, it’s crucial that we be seriously “factually correct” in describing the extent to which our products and services can be of help.

Should your book start at the beginning or in the middle of the trouble? “These are decisions, and they’re not easy ones to make,” admits Myra Levine.  In creating  marketing content, while we’re out to engage online readers, no “explosions’ are needed, just valuable information with a personal touch.

 

 

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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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Content Marketing Using How-Tos and How-To-Avoids

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How do people avoid killing themselves when swallowing swords? According to The Big Book of Big Secrets, one of the secrets is not swallowing. When you stand and face upward, the upper gastrointestinal tract is straight and flexible enough for a sword to pass through it – if you can resist the urge to swallow, keeping the two sphincters (one between your pharynx and esophagus, the second between the esophagus and stomach) from closing. In other words, sword “swallowers’ have to suppress their gag reflex. (“Practice” includes cramming progressively larger objects into the back of the throat while trying not to gag.) in addition to avoiding damage through mind control, some swallowers, the authors reveal, coat their swords with a lubricant such as olive oil.

“Content marketing works by capturing the attention of your desired audience members and helping them address their informational and task-oriented needs,” Jodi Harris of the Content Marketing Institute explains. The aim is for the audience to rely on your guidance, so providing advice about a tool or technique that can make their lives easier is key. “Tips and tricks” – meaning information on how to do things – add value.

Using your content to teach readers how to avoid negative outcomes is another way to provide value. To the extent in which you provide research, data, and logic to back up your advice, it will be perceived as even more valuable, Dana Herra explains.

Some business and practice owners new to the concept of content marketing worry about providing how-to or even how-to-avoid tips, fearful that they will be “giving away” their expertise. But there’s every reason to do just that, and to do it without fear, we explain to new Say It For You clients.

  • Caterers can showcase their skills by “giving away” how-tos in the form of recipes and table decorating tips.
  • A hospital operating room supply company might “gives away” how-to-avoid tips on pressure ulcer prevention.
  • An insurance professional might “give away” how-to-avoid household accidents tips.
  • Jewelers might “give away” tips on safety cleaning and storing necklaces.
  • A search firm might “give away” valuable how-to-prepare-for-an-interview advice.

Think of those “how-tos” and “how-to-avoids” as the “olive oil” helping the online visitor reading your content “swallow” your advice and ask you for more!

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Ask Using the Power of One

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When Steve Rupp, creator of the Premier Connect Coaching for realtors, shared a gem of prospecting wisdom at a recent meeting of our networking group, InfoConnect2, I was reminded of one of our long-held Say It For You content-creation mantras – the Power of One.

A good referral “ask”, Rupp emphasized, is very, very specific – in terms of both category and time frame:

“Within the next 13 days (choosing an odd, specific timeframe adds
focus and makes the task more memorable – and more actionable), can you introduce me to someone you know who is talking about building a new home?” (As a realtor, you also want to meet buyers and sellers of existing homes – but today you’re focused on planting a “trigger phrase” in your fellow networkers’ minds: building a home).

When it comes to creating marketing content for our clients, we at Say It For You firmly believe in Power- of- One specificity:

  • One message (per article or post)
  • One outcome (describe one desired outcome)
  • One audience (base the content on the target audience for that one “ask”)
  • One writer (One Say It For You writer, as opposed to the team, is better positioned to forge a relationship with each client)
  • One client per market (thereby avoiding conflicts of interests)

A business blog post, for example, 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. Respecting readers’ time will produce better content marketing results.

In asking friends, clients, or colleagues to introduce you to potential customers, Steve Rupp emphasized, be specific. At Say It For You, we agree.

Using the Power of One, we’ve found, is the best way to create content!

 

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