Archive for Content Marketing – Page 78

5 Ways to Enrich Your Blog Posts

By Patsi Krakoff
Friday, May 9th, 2008

Business blog authors love writing on blogs since it’s so quick and easy. You can usually post in 20-30 minutes and be done with it. That’s a great use of your marketing time, and you provide readers with valuable content to market your business.

Rodin_s_thinker_statue
But while ‘quick and easy’ is great, sometimes it’s not enough. Denise and I recommend you write at least one rich and meaty post a week. Stimulate your readers to think. Be profound. Go deep.

“Oh no,” you might be saying. “More time to spend on blogging!”

It gets even worse: here’s another “E” writing tip! Enrich your blog posts! First it was the 3E’s – Educate, Entertain and Engage readers.

Now there are 4 E’s! Educate, Entertain, Engage and Enrich with your blog posts!

How do you enrichen your post? Here are 5 ways. But don’t expect to be writing and posting in 20 minutes. This takes time to read, research, find quotes, and to link back to sources.

Read More→

Categories : About Blogs, Content Marketing, On Writing Better, Writing Great Blog Content

4 Questions a blog post should ask and answer

By Patsi Krakoff
Thursday, May 8th, 2008

Question_cube
This is a follow up to yesterday’s post Educate Your Readers, about the four different learning styles of blog readers.

Why this is important: Because you want your blog posts to educate, entertain, and engage readers of your business blog. What do you need to remember when writing a post that’s designed to educate?

According to the 4MAT system on www.aboutlearning.com, when you are educating people you need to appeal to four different kinds of learning styles:

  1. Imaginative learners
  2. Analytic learners
  3. Common sense learners
  4. Dynamic learners

How does this translate into blog writing for your business? Think in terms of the questions each type of learner would be asking as they read your blog post:

  1. Why?
  2. What?
  3. How?
  4. What if?

Read More→

Categories : Content Marketing, Writing Great Blog Content

Educate your readers: 4 ways people learn

By Patsi Krakoff
Wednesday, May 7th, 2008

Science_professor
Remember the 3 E’s of Better Business Blogging? It’s my short hand memory checklist before publishing a blog post: Educate, Entertain, & Engage readers.

You write to educate, entertain and engage readers when you want to build readerships and get great results with your blogging.

When it comes to educating readers, it’s important to take a page out of teachers’ notebooks. Teachers know that not all people learn the same way.

Most of us teach in the style we’re most familiar with: our own learning styles. If you’re analytical, you’ll teach using data. Your blog readers will understand and learn well if they’re like you.

But not all readers are the same. Denise is an active experimenter. She wants to know how to do something and needs to try it out before she learns something.

I’m probably more of a conceptualizer: I’ve got to sit and think about something a while. It also helps when there are visuals so I can see how it works.

Read More→

Categories : About Blogs, Content Marketing, Writing Great Blog Content

Content Marketing Blogs: We made the list!

By Patsi Krakoff
Tuesday, May 6th, 2008

Junta42
Joe Pulizzi of Junta42 announces his Top 42 Blogs for content marketing this week, and WritingontheWeb.com, this blog, went from #25 to #24! He’s getting more stringent on qualifications so I consider myself lucky indeed.

What I like most about this list is the company: these are all great blogs with a lot to say about how your content markets your business. You could spend a week reading each one and come out with an MBA in content marketing!

Congrats to Brian Clark at Copyblogger.com for taking the 1st spot.  Also congrats to the other Top 5, including Lee Odden, Brian Solis, Newt Barrett and Ardath Albee.

Here’s a link to Joe’s Junta 42 blog post announcing the updated list.

Categories : Content Marketing, Online Marketing

Brian Clark and the Secret to Life

By Patsi Krakoff
Tuesday, May 6th, 2008

Copyblogger_tagline If you haven’t read Copyblogger Brian Clark’s story The Snowboard, the Subdural Hemotoma and the Secret to Life yet, do so now. This is what I refer to as telling your story and capturing the hearts of readers. But be prepared to be moved…

Categories : Content Marketing, On Writing Better, Writing Great Blog Content

Cornerstone Content for Better Business Blogging

By Patsi Krakoff
Monday, May 5th, 2008

Building_houses Do you know what I think most business blogs are missing? A clearly defined key post that explains:

• what the blog author’s core message is
• what the blog author’s story is and why they are blogging
• what the blog author really values and cares about
• what the blog author gets angry about

I call this Cornerstone Content. Others call it pillar posts, flagship content, core content.

It needs to be featured on special stand alone page(s). You announce it in a side-bar notice and link to it so that first time visitors know exactly where they can read your cornerstone message.

Read More→

Categories : Content Marketing, On Writing Better, Writing Great Blog Content

Content Marketing for Consultants: How Michael got more business than he can handle

By Patsi Krakoff
Sunday, May 4th, 2008

Special_report Many of the professionals I work with providing newsletter services (www.CustomizedNewsletters.com) are highly educated consultants and executive coaches who make their living by delivering information, coaching and training services to others in organizations.

In other words, they’re independent service professionals who are hired by businesses to create great results: like my friend Michael who markets his business writing services to corporations. In 2003, Mike had a problem because of the economy at that time. Businesses were pulling in the reins on hiring outside consultants. Remind you of anything?

If this kind of story sounds familiar to you, read on. I want you to go look at a video where Mike tells his story of how he turned an economic downturn into more business than he could handle.

http://www.theblogsquad.net/wpvideo

I often ask consultants, "Besides your newsletter, what other ways do you market yourself and get clients?" Nine out of ten rely on word of mouth referrals from past clients and colleagues. Only a few are regularly using email, blogs or social networking methods for getting known and getting leads.

My suggestion?

Read More→

Categories : Content Marketing, On Writing Better, Writing Great White Papers

Hypnotic Writing? Jon McCulloch speaks out

By Patsi Krakoff
Friday, May 2nd, 2008

Hypnosis Guest author Jon McCulloch emailed me from Ireland the other day in response to my posts about hypnotic writing as a sales copy technique. I asked Jon to share with everyone here his thoughts about Joe Vitale’s Hypnotic Writing book:

Hi Patsi,

Your review of Joe Vitale’s "Hypnotic Writing" was interesting, although you might enjoy another’s perspective.

Vitale does have a lot of interesting stuff to say, although he’s done the usual thing and hijacked a lot of pretty basic concepts we’ve known for a long time and just hung another label on them ("hypnotic").  A smart thing to do, of course, but let’s not pretend he’s invented anything new.

But my biggest objection to the book is the pseudo-science he employs to "prove" his claims. He’s by no means alone in this, but since he’s in the spotlight he’ll be the one to "shine", so to speak.

First, for example, in several places he implies he can write copy to "compel" people to buy.

Read More→

Categories : Content Marketing, On Writing Better, Writing Great Copy

Gullible or not? Or just easy to persuade…

By Patsi Krakoff
Thursday, May 1st, 2008

Influencecialdini I had to let out a sigh of relief when re-reading Robert Cialdini’s Influence: the Psychology of Persuasion. Seems the esteemed professor and expert on compelling behaviors admits to being somewhat of an easy sell himself. Which is why he says he started studying people who fall for sales scams and ways they are influenced to act.

Whew, I’m not alone. I love a good story and easily get roped in by expert copywriters. Even when I know an offer’s too good to be true, I want to buy it just to see, to make it work anyway.

Read More→

Categories : Books, Content Marketing, On Writing Better, Writing Great Copy

Negative Business Blogging: Just don’t bore me…

By Patsi Krakoff
Monday, April 28th, 2008

Ist1_665933_who_gave_her_decaf
How can you create better business blog posts? This isn’t always easy to do. How many different ways can you write about your expertise with enough pizazz to create buzz or at least a few reader comments? Here’s a suggestion:

Go negative. Take something someone said and rigorously disagree with them. People love reading an argument. It’s human nature. But there’s a right way to do this…

Easier said than done if you want to maintain good relationships with colleagues and peers, if you ask me. One person who gets it right is Leesa Barnes, Podcasting Expert. Last week she disagreed with someone over the environment. I thought I’d share this excerpt and link to her post. She knows how to "go negative" in a way that is cool and stirs up the conversation.

Today, April 22nd, is Earth Day and I’ll be honest. I don’t care about the environment. Actually, I do care about the environment, I just don’t care about all the hype surrounding it. It seems that people care about the environment only when it’s cool to do so.

Read her full post and then see how you can use  negativity to create an interesting post for your readers. Of course, you can always disagree with me and start an argument about this…;-)

Categories : Content Marketing, On Writing Better, Writing Great Blog Content
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