What Does it Take to be a Sophisticated Blog Marketer?

October 13, 2016/0 Comments/in blog marketing, Business writing tips/by Rhoda Israelov

The original meaning of the word “sophisticated” was quite different from the way we think of it today, author Bill Brohough teaches in The Gloomy Truth Behind the Words You Use . To “sophisticate” something was to adulterate it by mixing it with something inferior, so being sophisticated meant the opposite of genuine.

When it comes to online marketing – even using the description “sophisticated” as we understand that word today (meaning cultured and refined) – what qualities set that level of marketing apart? “What is a ‘sophisticated marketer’, anyway?” asks Alex Rynne of LinkedIn’s Marketing Solutions blog, gathering responses from various marketers.

Some different “takes” on the question include:

one who focuses on results over marketing tactics and activities
one whose marketing is not elitist and complicated
someone who takes both old and new marketing techniques and executes them in a calculated hybrid of strategies
one who delivers the right kind of information to buyers across the entire customer lifecycle.
one who questions each premise and considers alternatives

To sell a product or service, you must market it differently depending on what stage of sophistication your market is in at the time, Todd Brown shares in his blog post “The Greatest Marketing Lesson I Ever Learned.”

Often, sophistication means simplification, I teach newbie Indianapolis blog content writers. Matching our writing to our intended audience is part of the challenge we business blog content writers face. After all, we’re not in this to entertain ourselves – we’re out to retain the clients and customers we serve and bring in new ones, so we try to use words and sentences to which our target readers can relate.

Think Differently About Your Blog

September 29, 2016/0 Comments/in blog marketing, Business writing tips, idea sources for blogs/by Rhoda Israelov

“Organize and present your ideas with a targeted reader in mind,” advises Richard Anderson in Powerful Writing Skills. “Don’t be satisfied with putting down data and results or observations and opinions. Find a way to make this information meaningful to your reader.”

That doesn’t mean you should talk down to your readers, Anderson cautions. Think of your readers as being just as intelligent and sincere about their jobs as you are about yours. (Even if they aren’t, he points out with tongue in cheek, they’ll appreciate you assuming they are.) Respecting readers helps them see you as intelligent and well-informed, so try to imagine, Anderson adds:

what they might ask you
what they might object to
what they might already know
what they might find interesting

In blogging for business, of course, there’s a fifth thing to try to imagine: what you want the reader to DO as a result of reading your post. Each 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. Respecting readers’ time produces better results for your business.

Not only must you as a writer think differently about your reader, you must think differently about your subject, Richard Anderson stresses. Imagine you’re writing a memo or a letter. Studies show that readers respond positively to memos and letters that contain a sense of the writer’s enthusiasm, Anderson points out. That doesn’t mean announcing your excitement, he adds – let the subject speak for itself.

When you blog, you verbalize the positive aspects of your business, reviewing the benefits of your products and services, constantly providing yourself with training about how to talk effectively about your business. In communicating the information to others, you can end up thinking differently about yourself!

Bloggers Can Learn From Dried Ink on Dead Trees

August 18, 2016/0 Comments/in blog marketing, Business writing tips/by Rhoda Israelov

“To drive quality traffic to your site, you must think like a publisher,” content marketer Rustin Banks tells business owners and blog content writers. In fact, everything he needed to know about online content marketing, he asserts, he learned from his experience “printing dried ink on dead trees”.

Banks suggests ten rules from print journalism that online content writers would do well to follow:

“Get out of the building” – talk to your target customers to validate your
assumptions.
Use the inverted pyramid structure, starting with a broad thesis, getting more specific as you get further into the post.
Capture attention in the first sentence.
Think “nut graf” (main idea or thesis; elevator pitch) for the post.
Cut the fat – offer value before the reader has a chance to lose interest.
You’re only as good as your sources – validate your assumptions or cite thought leaders.
Write about what you know, not about yourself.
Find your focus – keeping it simple is the hardest thing you’ll do.
Accuracy, accuracy, accuracy!
Steal from the greats without getting caught…Whatever your industry or field, study the best and teach yourself new ideas.

The Ethical Journalism Network lists some core principles of journalism for “everyone who aspires to launch themselves into the public information sphere”: At least three of these can apply to blog content writers:

Truth and accuracy – “Journalists cannot always guarantee ‘truth’, but we should always give all the relevant facts we have.” When we cannot corroborate information, we should say so.

Fairness and impartiality – “While there is no obligation to present every side in every piece, stories should be balanced. “Impartial reporting builds trust and confidence.”

Accountabililty – “When we commit errors me must correct them. We listen to the concerns of our audience.”

Bloggers can learn from dried ink on dead trees!

Finding the Flossiest Blog Topics

July 19, 2016/0 Comments/in blog marketing, Business writing tips, idea sources for blogs/by Rhoda Israelov

Mental Floss Magazine, always masters at making unlikely connections among seemingly unrelated topics, did it again in “25 Flossiest Cities in the World”. The term “flossy”, the editors explain (lest we envision dental care), means “exhibiting qualities of charm, quirk, and brain-boosting power in equal measure”.

The article is all about places that don’t come to top of mind, steering readers’ minds away from the tried and true and introducing them to new ways of looking for travel destinations.

I explain to newbie content writers in Indianapolis that steering away from the tried and true gives business owners the chance to showcase their own knowledge and expertise. Even more important, the technique of myth busting helps engage interest. A different approach can serve to answer readers’ concerns, as in the following examples:

Dentist’s blog:
Do amalgams used for fillings cause mercury poisoning?
Beautician’s blog:
Does makeup cause acne?
Internet security firm blog:
If you don’t open an infected file, can you get infected?
Home décor firm blog:
Should small rooms be painted in pale neutral colors?

Visitors arrive at your blog to find information on specific topics. But, once your opening lines have reassured them they’ve come to the right place, it’s a great idea to use some unlikely connections to give them the sense of being ahead of the crowd, having some unusual “inside information”…

Giethoorn, Netherlands, Mental Floss advises, is flossier than Venice, with four miles of canals dug in the 13th century.
Lavenham, England is flossier than Pisa. Many of its buildings were constructed in the 15th and 16th centuries, are crooked because they used green timber which warped as it aged.
Huizhou, China is flossier than Austria. China’s duplicature craze resulted in Austrian, English, Swiss, Italian, and Spanish copycat cities.

What flossy topics can you use to unexpectedly engage blog readers’ interest?

For Kazoos and Blog Marketing, Don’t Blow – Hum!

March 17, 2016/0 Comments/in blog marketing, Business writing tips/by Rhoda Israelov

childs red gazzoo Want to pick up the kazoo? Start with Rule No. 1, advises Barbara Stewart, a classical musician who took the humble instrument all the way to Carnegie Hall. What is Rule #1? Hum, don’t blow.

Always on the hunt for interesting trivia to use as business blog content writing fodder, I was fascinated to learn that the first documented invention of the kazoo was in 1883, but it was not until 1902 that the version we know today was patented by George D. Smith. One of the original kazoo factories is still in business today in Eden, New York.

Barbara Stewart was an anomaly among serious musicians; the kazoo had lost popularity among professionals, who recognized its serious limitations (although the Beatles and Jimi Hendrix each used it in certain of their songs).

Point is, there’s a lot of similarity – and symbolism – in the kazoo for us business blog content creators.

1. Blogs are not “serious literature”.
“It’s important to distinguish between creating multimedia content and writing in a pure literary sense,” Timothy Bowers tells authors who use blogs to promote their books. “A writer’s blog should deliver the text, and as little else as possible,” is his advice. Strategies and techniques used by other bloggers (hyperlinks, images, embedded videos) do not fall under the category of writing in a pure literary sense, he adds.

2. Like Kazoos, whose musical range is limited, blog posts are, by definition, short pieces, which limits the quality of character and theme development possible in longer works.
While the Internet marketing mantra proposed by digitalmarker.com, “Every piece of content should be as long as it takes to convey the message, and no longer” may be applied to writing of every ilk, blog posts, unlike, say novels, are best when focused on a single message or theme. Novels in contrast may effectively and purposefully meander into character development and even philosophical musing. What each blog post does is focus on just one aspect of your business, so that online searchers can feel at ease and not be distracted with all the other information you have to offer.

3. Blogs, like kazoos, should be hummed, not blown.
The secret of successful business blogging, I found, lies in not “blowing your own horn”, in other words coming on too strong. A blog is not an advertisement; you might say it’s an advertorial,. staying in “softly, softly” mode. As a content writer for a business or practice, you’re answering readers’ questions and “humming” solutions, not blowing them in readers’ faces!

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