Author Archive for Patsi Krakoff – Page 32

My Most Painful Struggle on the Web

By Patsi Krakoff
Wednesday, December 8th, 2010

I don’t think I’m alone in my pain. What I find most difficult is having to juggle multiple tasks when it comes to marketing online. It’s not the tasks themselves – it’s the thinking clearly and maintaining focus that gets me down.

I can blog about business blogging and content marketing. I love writing about all things blogging and marketing online.That’s what I do here on this blog, WritingontheWeb.com.

But it’s difficult for me to shift gears and focus on writing content for executive coaches and management consultants, which is a big part of my business, with a different target audience and different message.

Leadership development is an area of expertise for me. I write Ph.D.-quality content for coaches and consultants. Although I love reading business books and crafting articles for my successful executive coaches, or ghost-blogging for them, I’m suffering from a split brain and it hurts!

Half my days are spent doing right-brained creative writing. The other half is left-brained managing the business, operations, accounting, client services, etc. I don’t do either well when I have to do both. I can focus on marketing and operations. Or, I can focus on writing and creating quality content. Read More→

Categories : Content Marketing, Online Marketing, Teleclasses & Seminars

Emotional Marketing Makes Memories

By Patsi Krakoff
Tuesday, December 7th, 2010

If you want your content marketing messages to be remembered, you must engage the emotional memories of your readers. Memory formation happens in two ways:

  1. A new memory is formed when it hits the amygdala and makes an emotional connection.
  2. A stimulus may hit the amygdala and be assimilated because it resembles a previously established emotional connection.

What results is a neural network of recalled associations that gets triggered by a memory of a hot-button stimulus. Everything we retain in memory is because it’s gained an emotional place in our brain. At some point, something was important enough because it was emotional. That’s what hot-buttons are… we feel as if someone has poked us.

What can you do to stimulate memory formation? Make an emotional impact.

How? As a content marketing professional, you have words and visuals in your quiver of tools. How do you poke someone and push their hot buttons?

Stories are key. Negative stories can get people’s attention, but can also leave a negative aftertaste, if not followed by positive stories. I’ve talked about this before:

► Grab the audience’s attention ► Stimulate desire ► Reinforce with reasons

What else can you do to poke someone’s hot buttons? How else do you make an emotional impact? Read More→

Categories : Attracting Clients, Brain Based Content Marketing, Content Marketing, Online Marketing, Online Persuasion
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10 Ways to Use Facebook as a List Building Tool

By Patsi Krakoff
Friday, December 3rd, 2010

(Annalaura Brown is guest blogging this week, while Patsi’s on vacation.)

Facebook can be a powerful list building tool if you know how to use it properly as such. Here are ten ways you can use FB to build your email list and increase your online business income.

  1. Share your blog posts.

You can do this automatically by using one of several tools such as ping.fm or networked blogs.  Both of these tools allow you to post a blog post on your blog and then have the post automatically show up on your profile or fan page or both.  Ping.fm puts it in your status update while networked blogs puts an image and a summary of the post on your wall.  You will find that many people will read your blog posts from FB, comment, subscribe to your list etc.

2.       Share your compelling opt-in offer.

You want to of course do this on your blog but they are additional ways that you can do it on FB too. Some examples of ways that work to do this are:

  • Include in a status update along with some cleverly written text
  • Put it as a link on your fan page along with an explanation
  • Put it with a description of a video that you upload to FB.

3.       Use the notes application.

This is Facebook’s way of allowing you to write blog posts directly on FB. You can write notes with text and pictures and tag your friends to draw their attention to it. Make sure to avoid tagging too many people or tagging people who might not appreciate the gesture. You also want to always offer value with a link at the bottom to your opt-in offer. Avoid writing notes that may be seen as spam by others.

4.       Share videos.

Videos are very popular on FB and if you do it right, your video may even go viral and be shared by others and create even more visibility for you and your offer. Make sure to include the link to your opt-in offer with the description part of your video.

5.       Offer your offer as a solution to people’s problems. Read More→

Categories : Content Marketing, List Building Tips, Social Media Stuff
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How’s Your LinkedIn Profile?

By Patsi Krakoff
Wednesday, December 1st, 2010

(Note from Patsi who is on vacation: This week I asked Phyllis Miller to write a guest post on social media resources. This is excellent advice you need to know and act on. And, if you haven’t already, connect with me on LinkedIn…)

I will be the first to admit that, when three years ago I received an invitation to LinkedIn.com, I joined without a clue as to what I was joining or doing.

Three years later I know that any professional who does not take the opportunity of a free and well-written LinkedIn profile is “cutting off his/her nose to spite his/her face.”

And this is true whether the professional plans to ever actually make connections on LinkedIn.

Why is this LinkedIn profile so important?

Let’s say you are a lawyer. You have written many legal articles for print publications (some with online sites) and you have served on various bar association committees.

If a prospective client were to “google” you, some of these legal articles and some references to you on bar association committees would appear in the search results.

Yes, if your firm has a website your firm profile will be there. But most of these firm profiles are one very long paragraph with rather stilted language.

None of the above provides a well-rounded look at who you are as a legal professional.

What you need is a well-formatted LinkedIn profile that people are accustomed to reading for others and would be able to easily read about you.

By setting up an effective profile, you can offer a range of professional information that will enable prospective clients to quickly learn about you – and hopefully do business with you.

And the good thing about your profile is that you can always add to it and revise it whenever you want. (In fact, if your law firm changes its name – due to a loss or gain of a partner, for example – remember to change the firm name throughout your profile.)

Be sure to include a good headshot of yourself and choose the option of your whole name appearing on your profile rather than just your first name and the first initial of your last name.

Bonus tip: LinkedIn offers company pages (still in beta as of this writing) and has just rolled out product and service tabs for these company pages.  Here is a blog post to help you take advantage of these new opportunities: http://www.millermosaicllc.com/linkedin/new-linkedin-company-feature/

Phyllis Zimbler Miller (@ZimblerMiller on Twitter) and her social media marketing business partner Yael K. Miller (@MillerMosaicLLC on Twitter) offer a Professional Setup service.  See http://www.millermosaicllc.com/linkedin-professional-setup/

Categories : Attracting Clients, Content Marketing, Social Media Stuff
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7 Mistakes Speakers Make with Presentations

By Patsi Krakoff
Monday, November 29th, 2010

We’ve often heard the brain can only hold seven things in mind. The brain research behind this is valid, and in everyday life we experience it with 7-digit phone numbers.

This week in Las Vegas, at Chris Farrell’s and Mike Filsaime’s Affiliatedotcom.com event, many speakers presented “7 Steps” to better internet marketing. But I think there’s a perception that an audience will listen and remember 7 things from a presentation which is wrong.

What’s true for phone numbers isn’t true for concepts.

Try 3-4 things instead. There’s no way anyone can  remember seven tips from a presentation. No way. Especially when there are 6-7 other speakers on the podium per day, over two days.

Let’s get real, folks. The other things is, that to be effective, you need to repeat your message several times. Now some of the speakers were able to do this, even in spite of having 7  tips. But that makes for a lot of repeating and it’s still not going to be remembered.

But with 3 things, yes, you can drill them home. 1-2-3. Repeat at least 7 times, and you’ve got a message that will be remembered and associated with your name.

The more I think about this, this “rule of 3” should also apply to other content you publish and communicate: newsletters, blogs, white papers, ebooks, etc.

Especially in this era of information overload, we need to become more aware and considerate of our target audiences’ capacity to receive and retain messages. Only 3 main points or steps to your solutions. Not 7. Read More→

Categories : Brain Based Content Marketing, Content Marketing, Online Persuasion, Writing Speeches
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Neuromarketing and How Content Marketing Works

By Patsi Krakoff
Wednesday, November 24th, 2010

What are 3 ways to frustrated your reader’s brains? Last week, I presented a speech at the 5th International Customer Media Congress in Haarlem, The Netherlands. Besides sharing what neuromarketing is teaching us about the brain and marketing, there are tips here for most web-based content publications.

I hope you enjoy it and learn something. Let me know if you have questions…

Categories : About Blogs, Brain Based Content Marketing, Content Marketing, On Writing Better, Online Persuasion
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3 Great Twitter Apps for Content Marketers

By Patsi Krakoff
Tuesday, November 23rd, 2010

Today’s post was written by Louise Baker, freelance blogger and journalist.

When it comes to Twitter apps for today’s busy professionals, there are some top notch applications available that will let you maximize your productivity on the service without falling prey to the infamous social media “time suck.” Here is an inside look at what you need to know about three of the top Twitter Apps for business: CoTweet, HootSuite and Twaitter.

CoTweet

CoTweet holds the distinction of being the Twitter app of choice for some of the largest corporations that have finally begun to take their Twitter campaigns seriously, including Ford, Dell, Whole Foods, Salesforce.com and and several others. CoTweet is designed to allow teams to collaborate to provide real-time responses and relevant content to Twitter and other social media services. There are two versions of the application available, including Standard and Enterprise.

CoTweet Standard is fairly basic and is designed for individuals or small businesses who only manage a couple of Twitter accounts with a relatively small team. CoTweet Enterprise requires offers a full range of dynamic features for companies that are dedicated to creating a substantial presence across multiple Twitter accounts, such as solid workflow reports and advanced analytics. Read More→

Categories : Content Marketing, Online Marketing, Social Media Stuff
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How to Write a Content Marketing Blog Post

By Patsi Krakoff
Monday, November 22nd, 2010

Here’s a little review of steps involved in writing and publishing a blog post:

Once you have written the body of the post, it’s time to check for effectiveness:

Before you publish, here are a few smart things to check for: Read More→

Categories : About Blogs, Content Marketing, How to...Tips, Managing Your Ezine & Blog Tasks, Online Marketing, Writing Great Blog Content
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Print Consumer Magazines Score Big in Europe

By Patsi Krakoff
Thursday, November 18th, 2010

Print magazines are alive and well, but they’re in transition. The ones that are thriving are customer magazines, designed to be helpful and relevant to consumers while delivering marketing messages and building brand loyalty.

Yesterday I led a workshop in the Netherlands at Media Partners Group. They specialize in both Dutch and English language publications for large companies, like Shell Oil and Heineken Beer, among others. Here’s the way they describe themselves:

MediaPartners Group inspires with text and images. We build relationships, stimulate sales and promote loyalty. We reach clients or employees by performing the unexpected, but without being creative for creativity’s sake.

Our dedicated team of specialists in the areas of strategy, design, content, copy, account and project management provide clients with sponsored magazines, web design, direct marketing solutions, in store communications, advertising and loyalty programmes for internal and external target groups.

As almost everywhere in Holland, professional people all speak English. There were several staff members from the UK, which is why they are able to create high quality communications for huge global corporations. The other reasons are because they are a group of talented smart people who love their work. Read More→

Categories : Attracting Clients, Brain Based Content Marketing, Content Marketing, Online Persuasion
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Customer Media Congress: Patsi’s in Dutch…

By Patsi Krakoff
Wednesday, November 17th, 2010

There aren’t many conferences that I’d fly 5700 miles to get to, but the 5th International Customer Media Congress looks as if it’s going to be another smash hit. I’ve been invited to speak, by uber-publishing-content-marketing icon, Sak van den Boom.

Somewhow in my family it meant you were in real trouble when you were “in dutch…”

Patsi Krakoff keynote speaker op 7 november: een effectieve tekst raakt je onderbewuste

Met wat voor tekst scoor je nu het beste op het web. Internetguru Patsi Krakoff uit Mexico blogt dagelijks en heeft wereldwijd veel volgers. Ze komt speciaal voor het jubleumcongres naar Haarlem om haar kennis te delen. 11 topvrouwen in marketing en communicatie op het netwerkcongres over customer media in de Philharmonie in Haarlem. Verzeker jezelf van een plaats. Schrijf nu in.

I don’t suppose I’ll see you there, but consider yourself invited. Here’s the line-up: 11 top notch experts in creating content that engages the hearts and minds of customers through custom publishing. Who says print is dying? Read More→

Categories : Brain Based Content Marketing, Content Marketing, In the News..., Online Marketing, Online Persuasion
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