What Makes Your Message Memorable?

Denise Wakeman of www.biztipsblog.com just directed me to a post on Yvonne DiVita’s blog A-ha! (Authors Helping Authors) about what it takes for an author to make their message memorable. 

Yvonne DiVita’s message to book authors is just as applicable to newsletter and ezine authors. Here are a couple of points, and I urge you to read the entire post:

1. Clarity of message seems to be the first essential to a memorable book (article)
2. Delivers [the] message in the form of a story
3. Make the problem clear and the solution belong to your reader
4. Whenever possible use graphics to add to the emotional punch of your writing

This makes sense, doesn’t it? The beauty of writing for an online newsletter or blog is that your article content needs to be short. By virtue of being short, you have to be razor-sharp clear.

Take out all those unnecessary words and get to the point. Points are better understood with an example. And since, we are all models of walking our talk (n’est-ce pas?), what better way to illustrate a point than by a personal experience. Just make sure that the learning lesson is clear, and you aren’t just sharing stories to gratify your own ego.

Making your message memorable means linking the message to something unforgettable. What can you think of that you will never forget? How can you use that experience to tell a story and give the gift of a lesson learned to your readers?

Here’s to writing better ezines!

Yvonne DiVita will be one of our guest experts on Conversations with Experts August 10.

Wayne Hulbert, who knows a thing or two about blogs and search engine optimization, has something to say about writing and how it can improve through blogging.

I love this idea, and know from personal experience it is true! My own writing, since I’ve started blogging, has loosened up a bit. My sentences are shorter. I’m getting more personable. I try to get to point quickly.

Most importantly, I am having more fun writing than I ever did when composing long newsletter content.

Read what Wayne has to say about improving your writing skills. Here’s an excerpt:

Blogging improves your writing skills.

Better writing ability, and an enhanced ability to express yourself in print, is a rarely thought about benefit of blogging.

While most people think of writers as infinitely talented, living in some rarified air denied to the rest of us, writing is a learned skill. While some people are indeed born more talented with the written word than others, most people can become better writers simply through practice.

Blogging is as good a practice field as any.

Wayne goes on to explain how blogs work to improve your writing skills.

Why Not Start Blogging This Week?

If you haven’t started blogging yet, try one out.

You can get a free account (Blogger.com, Typepad.com) – don’t worry about the bells and whistles of the design – just start using it to write an entry every day for a week. Have fun with it. Just write about what you are doing that day that could interest your target readers and clients.

Write from the heart, let your thoughts flow. See if you can tie ideas together into some teaching points that clients would love to read.

Then, if you want to take this to a professional level, get help with setting up a business blog. Either hire Denise and I to set it up for you, or get our do-it-yourself manual, the Build a Better Blog System ebook.

You will save yourself time and money by learning how to do this correctly from the start.

Then just practice, practice, practice!

Do a Google search and you will find advice galore about writing online copy. Is it any different than writing for print publications? Yes. Studies show that the eye reads online screen print differently.

I recommend this online article from MarketingProfs.com:

Marketing Challenge: 7 Ways to Super Content
by Meryl K. Evans and Hank Stroll 

The Stanford-Poynter study found that nearly 80% of study participants (online readers) read article summaries rather than complete articles. When viewing complete articles, readers read only 75% of the text.

How does this impact your writing when composing a post for your blog or a newsletter article for your online ezine?

Here are three things I’ve mentioned before, but merit repeating:

1. Use bold subtitles, (or, as I’ve done here, bold key words)
2. Keep paragraphs short.
3. Ensure there’s white space.

Start off with the meat of your topic, give it to them right away. Then you can wax poetic, expand, or tell a story. You only have a short time to grab attention, so don’t waste words. Let them know right away what you can do for them.

Never forget to pull the reader in by addressing their concerns and challenges.

Then let them know what you are asking them to do. What is your call to action? Email you, subscribe to something, download a full report, sign up for a seminar? Give them clear instructions, links, (make sure the links are working properly) and thank them for their attention.