Category Archives: Writing Great Blog Content

Basic Human Motivation: 4 Ways to Engage Readers

If you are writing content designed to persuade and influence, you need to know what makes people tick. (photo courtesy of digitalart/FreeDigitalPhotos.net) There are universal drives that are common in all human beings, across cultures, across the globe. When you create content that appeals to either of these four basic drives, you can’t help but engage the hearts…

Content Marketing that Speaks to the Old Brain

You get better results with your content marketing when you speak to the “old brain,” the one that’s also known as the primitive brain or the survival brain. Knowing how the brain works will help you write better as well as help you with presentations to influence others. There are a few principles to remember, and here’s…

5 Reasons Content Marketing is Getting Harder

I hate to be a purveyor of gloom, there’s too much of that around these days. But I’ve been thinking about this and want to share my thoughts with you. Here are some reasons content marketing is getting more challenging. There exists: A shift away from focusing on your products and services (what you know…

Writing Compelling Content:
What Drives Your Readers?

In a recent blog post, Compelling Content:  What Are Your Readers’ Hot Buttons?, we explored the top 10 hot buttons and the use of emotional words and phrases to tap into these issues.  Here’s another model based on only 4 drivers. 4 Drives in a Nutshell Driven: How Human Nature Shapes Our Choices (Jossey Bass, 2001),…

5 Content Marketing Questions:
Get Readers to Take Action

What will make your web readers take action or not? Content marketing isn’t successful without results. So when writing a blog post or a web page, keep these key questions in mind. You want to inspire readers to pick up the phone, click here, sign up, register, or remember your brand. Here’s a final note…

5 Content Marketing Questions:
#3 What’s Possible?

In Maria Velosa’s Web Copy That Sells book, there is a 5-step blueprint for writing on the Web. This is really what content marketing is all about. When you answer the following 5 questions, your writing tasks are simplified and your copy becomes clear. What is the problem (pain, predicament)? Why hasn’t this problem been solved? What…

5 Content Marketing Questions:
#2 Why Hasn’t This Problem Been Solved?

In a previous post, 5 Content Marketing Questions: #1 What is The Problem?, I reviewed the content marketing questions that help you organize and simplify your Web writing by asking 5 important questions: What is the problem (pain, predicament)? Why hasn’t this problem been solved? What is possible? What is different now? What should you do now? Question #2, Why hasn’t this…

5 Content Marketing Questions: #1 What’s the Problem?

In a previous post, Writing Web Content that Gets Results: Questions, I reviewed the basic rules of writing web content. In this post, we’ll explore the 5 content marketing questions that will help you organize and simplify your web page and blog writing by asking 5 important questions: What is the problem (pain, predicament)? Why hasn’t…

Writing Web Content that Gets Results: Questions

The rules haven’t changed, but it’s surprising how many people start writing web content without regard for the basics. Many people focus on the medium, the latest shiny tool: the blog, the Twitter tweets, and Facebook updates, without regard for the basic rules of writing copy for the Web. Content marketing is a buzz word not just because…

Compelling Content: What Are Your Readers’ Hot Buttons?

How do you write compelling content that attracts and engages readers? Ahhh, that question again…(followed usually by how do you turn readers into buyers?) First, let’s deal with the compelling content thing. Your content isn’t going to market a thing if you don’t reach inside the heads and hearts of your readers. Obviously it’s all about your…