Archive for Content Marketing – Page 13

Bloggers: Brush Up on Your Writing Skills

By Patsi Krakoff
Wednesday, April 10th, 2013

Content-Matters-Blog-Writing-TipsBusiness bloggers: just how good are your writing skills?

Most bloggers and those who run small businesses that publish blogs are not natural-born writers, or even trained writers. Most businesspeople studied things such as marketing, communication, or business.

It’s not often they’ve studied English or creative writing. Yet it’s becoming expected that businesses have a well-written blog, as well as expertly-written content on their website.

Some businesses can afford to hire professional writers to author their blog and/or website. This is great, if you can handle the expense. Many small businesses are not willing or able to pay a writer when first starting out. So how can you brush up on your writing skills in order to maintain a professional blog and website for your company?

There are lots of resources for business bloggers available in many different mediums. Here are some ideas:

  1. Books: Good old fashioned reading can definitely help you to review grammar and sentence structure rules. There are many good books out there on writing. A search on Amazon for “writing skill reference books” turns up many titles that are well-reviewed by customers. Most can also be purchased in an eBook format for reading on the go. You could certainly purchase one of these books and read it when you have a few free moments. Any effort you put into learning more about writing well will show in your material. Read More→
Categories : Content Marketing, On Writing Better, Online Marketing, Writing for the Web
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Online Content Marketing: Let’s Put the “We” Back Into Weblog

By Patsi Krakoff
Wednesday, March 27th, 2013

Follow-MeI get calls from small business professionals who want to start a blog or an e-newsletter. They’ve usually invested money in a nice website, and then suddenly realize that something’s missing… like customers and leads!

They’re genuinely surprised that with the money they spent on their website, no one is coming to see it, indicate they like it, let alone pick up the phone and call.

As for LinkedIn and Facebook, they’re baffled why people don’t interact with them. It doesn’t take a genius (and I’m no genius), but my guess is they have a “me-site,” a “me-blog,” and “me pages” on social media sites.

Instead of generously sharing information about their field of expertise, they share “me-formation.” There’s an “I” in information, but that doesn’t mean you should always talk about yourself. Content should be focused on readers, not you and your business. Sure, people want to know about you, but actually they want to know what you can do for them.

Start everything you write online with a focus on customers and the problems that you can solve for them. Then follow up with building trusting relationships with your readers that lead to sales.

Here’s how online content marketing works for small businesses:

  1. Relationships: Whenever you write content (blog posts, e-newsletter articles, emails), keep the focus on what problems you can solve for your customers. What are their struggles? What do they most desire? Connect with them by writing for them and about them. Read More→
Categories : About Blogs, Attracting Clients, Content Marketing, Online Marketing, Social Media Stuff, Writing Great Blog Content
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Small Business Content Marketing: When to Hire A Freelance Writer?

By Patsi Krakoff
Wednesday, March 13th, 2013

Content-Matters-Blog-Writing-TipsWhen should you hire a freelance writer for your blog or website? Most small businesses don’t realize how much writing goes into publishing (and updating) a website or blog. Yet the content on your website or blog is the key component of your content marketing strategy.

In order to get the online results you deserve (leads: phones calls, emails, sales!) your web content should be well-written and SEO optimized — as well-thought out as anything else you do to market yourself and your small business.

So who writes the web content? That’s a good question. For small businesses, it’s often the owner or an employee who takes charge of producing and updating the website and blog content. And that can often be a poor decision. If your content is written by someone who’s not a professional freelance writer and isn’t trained to effectively write for the web, it’s usually fairly obvious. Read More→

Categories : About Blogs, Attracting Clients, Content Marketing, Online Marketing, Writing for Others, Freelancing
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Content Marketing Writers: How’s Your Cognitive Fitness?

By Patsi Krakoff
Wednesday, March 6th, 2013

brain-freedigitalphotos.netWhat’s the most important thing you can do to improve your skills as a writer, blogger, or content marketer? I’m not sure there’s any one right answer, but my vote goes to working on your cognitive fitness.

That’s a term we’re going to be hearing a lot about. I first read about it in Harvard Business Review in a 2007 article called Cognitive Fitness by Roderick Gilkey and Clint Kilts.

Originally coined by Michael Merzenich, cognitive fitness refers to the capacity of a person to meet the intellectual demands of life. It is evident in an ability to:

  • Assimilate information
  • Apply rules of logic
  • Comprehend relationships
  • Detect patterns
  • Identify emotions
  • Create new perspectives
  • Develop reasonable conclusions and plans

If that’s not a job description for the professional content marketing writer, what is?

Brain Coaching for Writers Read More→

Categories : Brain Based Content Marketing, Content Marketing, On Writing Better, Writing for Others, Freelancing
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Better Content Marketing:
Words and Numbers Matter

By Patsi Krakoff
Wednesday, February 27th, 2013

Content-MattersAs a psychologist, I’m fascinated by how our brains work. When writing online content, I try to apply neuroscience to understanding why some copy outperforms others. When writing for business, i.e. content marketing, you want to get the words right, so that  your web pages, blogs and e-newsletters get results for your business.

Words matter. Content matters. Sometimes it boils down to just one word or set of words that can make the difference between a customer who reads or one who clicks away. For example, which do you think has more impact:

  1. The surgery has a 95% survival rate
  2. One out of 20 patients die from the procedure

If you are like most people, you would find the second statement far more worrisome even though the odds are the same. Even in today’s marketing world, where we are inundated with images and sounds, words still matter a great deal.

There is a subtle but important difference between “10 percent” and “1 out of every 10.” Roger Dooley cites examples in his book Brainfluence: Read More→

Categories : Brain Based Content Marketing, Content Marketing, Online Marketing, Writing for the Web, Writing Great Copy
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SEO: 3 Things Journalists and Bloggers Can Learn

By Patsi Krakoff
Thursday, February 21st, 2013

Blog-Definition-by-StuartMilesFrom what I see, many bloggers aren’t using hyperlinks when they publish blog posts. Worse, in some cases, they aren’t teaching writers about this in online writing courses. I just attended a week-long writer’s conference in San Miguel. and although there were a few workshops on blogging and online creative non-fiction writing, not one word about keywords or linking!

I could be wrong, of course, because I didn’t sit through the only two courses on social media and blogging basics. But everywhere I attended (there were three courses per day over four days), even opening paragraphs ignored this online basic fact of life: When publishing online, your content must be optimized for search engine indexing.

Granted, this was a course for fiction and non-fiction publications and writers. But if the experts aren’t teaching search engine basics to writers, where will they learn it? For sure, most journals are all published online.

Here’s the thing: when you follow the basic common sense rules for getting your article found online, it’s also good structure for making sense to the readers. Here’s why, reviewing three basics of search engine optimization and how it applies for both getting found and getting read: Read More→

Categories : About Blogs, Attracting Clients, Content Marketing, Writing for the Web
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4 Common Blog Writing Stumbling Blocks

By Patsi Krakoff
Wednesday, February 13th, 2013

Business-Blog-BlocksThere are many reasons to have a business blog but the most important is that it’s great for retaining clients and customers. Business blogs offer insights into your services, product updates, and compelling relevant content that solves the problems of your clients.

However, blog writing can be tougher than you might think. It’s important to keep posting fresh new content, in order to get readers coming back (thus increasing your visibility and site traffic). Here are some potential stumbling blocks that you might come across on your road to building a successful business blog, and their solutions:

1. Problem: Not enough time in the day

You may find that you just can’t carve out time in your busy schedule to write blog posts. Or, you don’t have a designated day or time to do your writing. This can lead to sporadic posting and going too long between posts, causing readers to lose interest.

Solution: Consider setting aside a specific portion of your day to dedicate to your blog. Think about when your head is most clear and you can focus. This will allow you to simplify the process and save you valuable time.

2. Problem: Figuring out the right schedule to publish

How often should you publish posts on your blog? If you don’t post often enough, you risk losing your reader base. Posting too frequently can also be problematic, as you may overwhelm your readers and yourself by constantly having to come up with new content. (Hint: It depends on your field or industry: some require daily postings, but others only once or twice a week.) Read More→

Categories : About Blogs, Content Marketing, Writing Great Blog Content
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Relationship Marketing Messages that Work:
How to Use Send-Out Cards

By Patsi Krakoff
Tuesday, February 5th, 2013

SendOutCardsRelationship marketing is getting simpler with inexpensive tools. Yesterday I got one of those ‘Send-Out’ cards in the mail from a colleague whose webinar I attended. It’s a great way to practice the fine art of relationship marketing. Send-Out cards, although printed, look as if they’re hand-written, and can be used to get the attention of prospects. More often than not, they aren’t, however.

I admit I don’t open any junk mail. I dump immediately in the trash. Professional marketers are usually attempting to upsell you on more products or services. But because I like this person, (Michael Katz of Blue Penguin Development), I opened it. I was also curious to see how someone I respected in marketing would use this mass-mailing-made-to-look-personal tool.

Big surprise: He sent me a valuable tip without any attempt to sell me or ‘friend me.’ Instead of “Thanks for attending my webinar, and by the way, here’s the next big thing I’m doing for you,”  I got a reminder that a marketing plan needs small daily steps to connect with clients.

Michael’s tip resonated with me. I keep remembering it. I’m someone who puts off marketing (apart from blogging) until after I finish my client work. (This is the very same recipe the cobbler uses to fix his children’s shoes…) Read More→

Categories : About Blogs, Attracting Clients, Content Marketing
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Content Marketing with Blogs:
6 Steps to Writing Awesome Fresh Content

By Patsi Krakoff
Wednesday, January 23rd, 2013

Blog-by-renjith-krishnanWhat private Hell do you go through to write fresh blog content? How do you pick a blog topic that will score with search engines AND solve a problem your target audience frequently has? Do you scour the dungeon of your mind for new slants on old stuff?

I don’t know any business professional who doesn’t struggle to keep up a fresh supply of awesome content for their readers. It’s part of content marketing with blogs, but it can be easier and more fun if you make it so.

Here’s my typical blog writing experience: Up early when brain is freshest, check ESPN for tennis matches. Watch a 5-setter at Australian Open. Drink two large mugs of coffee. Check email. Find a blog feed that could interest my readers (small business professionals who do content marketing with a blog). Seek inspiration, find it, and start writing directly into WordPress blog platform.

First paragraph focuses on the problem using keywords important to my readers. Second paragraph either expands on the problem, or diverges off into a small story or personal anecdote. By the time I get to a third paragraph, I’ve often sparked a memory or an idea that could be useful to my clients. Then I make a list of solutions or suggestions.

Then the last paragraph is a call to some sort of action. I may ask readers a question or suggest a ‘next step.’ This may include a link to contact me or call me or download a special report. Read More→

Categories : About Blogs, Content Marketing, On Writing Better, Writing Great Blog Content
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5 Ideas for New Business Blog Topics for a New Year

By Patsi Krakoff
Wednesday, January 16th, 2013

Content-Matters-Blog-Writing-TipsLet’s face it – Business blogging can get repetitive. It seems as if there are only so many blog topics out there for your readers, and you’ve exhausted them all. We know the key to a successful business blog is fresh content, which brings more reader who might be potential new clients.

But what exactly does “fresh” content entail? New topics or a different perspective on a problem, or an innovative tip – these are all good. Swapping guest blog posts with another business also infuses new life into a blog. Sometimes hiring a new writer can help bring new ideas, views, and topics to a blog.

Covering new topics is one of the best ways to get new readership as well as appeal to your current audience.

Here are some ideas for new blog content for the New Year:

  1. Guest bloggers – having a guest blogger can breathe new life into your blog. Guest bloggers offer a fresh perspective and new topics. Consider asking a guest blogger to contribute a whole series of posts rather than just one.
  2. Cover current events – instead of just focusing on what is going on with your business specifically, scour the web for business news articles that are related to your area of expertise. You can put a personal spin on the story as well as offer tips or advice that are related. Read More→
Categories : About Blogs, Content Marketing
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