On Writing Better | Writing On The Web by Patsi Krakoff, The Blog Squad

Writing On The Web by Patsi Krakoff, The Blog Squad

Content Marketing Strategies for Smart Professionals

Archive for On Writing Better – Page 18

5 Questions to Ask for Writing Great Web Content
#1: What’s the Problem?

By Patsi Krakoff

Thursday, September 24th, 2009

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?

As you write your copy, you should cover each of the answers. This will keep you on task, and lead your readers through to action. I suppose it depends on what you're writing, but I can't think of many web pages, blog posts, newsletter articles where these 5 questions wouldn't be appropriate.

I've been re-reading Maria Velosa's Web Copy that Sells this week. Her blueprint for creating simple copy that works to market your products and services is clear. There's a reason it's organized this way.

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

A Simple Blueprint for Writing Web Content that Gets Results

By Patsi Krakoff

Wednesday, September 23rd, 2009

The rules haven't changed, but it's surprising how many people start writing on the web 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 because marketing people like new buzzes, and it sure beats writing advertisements that get ignored. But smart marketers know the rules and never forget them. Even if the Internet changes at lightening speed, the writing basics for copy are the same.

I'm a newbie, I've only been writing marketing copy for ten years. Before that, I was a journalist and a psychologist so I wrote feature articles and academic papers. Writing content for marketing is different. It's designed to produce an action, most often sales.

Every once in a while, I go back to the basics. A standard learning tool for many copywriters is Maria Veloso's Web Copy that Sells, originally published in 2004. The 2nd edition is now out and I've been reviewing and re-reading it. Good stuff.

Here's a recap of some really key nuggets from this book:

Categories : About Blogs, Content Marketing, On Writing Better, Online Marketing, Writing Great Copy

Boring, Banal and Full of Bull-shitake:
How to Write Better than That

By Patsi Krakoff

Monday, September 21st, 2009

I spent the weekend doing research…well, not entirely, I played tennis, went to the movies, watched HBO and laughed a lot with my hubby. But work wise, I've been visiting a lot of blogs and sites lately, researching what makes for good content marketing and bad.

Newt Barrett does a terrific job of highlighting sites that get Content Marketing right as well as those who miss the boat over on his Content Marketing Today blog. I always learn better when I can see samples of what works and what doesn't work. I'm sure you do too.

However, I am a little stymied in my quest to find bad samples of content marketing on blogs. Why? It's not that there aren't bad sites and bad content on the Web. There's a lot of garbage. But mostly what I find is mediocrity.

Many bloggers are writing reasonable content. And they're probably getting some results. Most blog writers are just barely scraping the surface of what needs to be said. I believe most of you can do better than that.

Mediocrity Sucks

I hate mediocrity, because you can't really disagree with it or get excited, or anything. It's just a waste of my time to read the same old things. With mediocrity, you can't quite put your finger on it, but you know it stinks.

Okay, let me be frank. I think there are a lot of boring blogs that could be much better. People are regurgitating what others are saying. Sometimes they add their own perspectives, sometimes not. But mostly they're trying to post as much content as possible, without really saying anything new.

Boring, banal and bull–shitake, is what I'm really thinking. In fact, I know for sure that one professional is merely copying and pasting posts from other people (me!) and republishing them as her own. Besides being borderline illegal, and not very Kosher, it's boring. Been there, read that. Please don't bore me with old news.

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

The Power of Case Studies for Getting Clients

By Patsi Krakoff

Friday, September 18th, 2009

When I was fresh out of graduate school, newly licensed as a psychologist, I needed to get some clients. Word of mouth wasn’t going to do it, nor was relying on insurance referrals or my Yellow Pages ad. (Photo credit: Shutterstock)

I spotted a family style magazine at the hair dressers one day, and decided to buy a half page advertorial. I wrote about a fictitious client – “Susie” – who was unhappy about her weight, her husband, her life. I added some specific details about this person (“Susie” was an amalgamation of clients I had worked with as an intern).

That marketing tactic worked like a charm. Women came to my office saying they knew I could help them, because I had written about Susie who was so similar to them it was eerie.

Before I became a psychologist I had been a journalist, and the combination of those two skills paid off. It was my introduction to content marketing, although I didn’t know it at the time.

In business, this marketing tactic is a case study. It works because you connect with people where it hurts. You show them that others are similar, and here’s what happened to them. You give them hope. You spell it out for them.

Categories : About Blogs, Content Marketing, On Writing Better, Online Marketing

Content Marketing with Blogs:
15 Ways to Find Fresh Ideas

By Patsi Krakoff

Monday, August 31st, 2009

Do you want to know how to come up with fresh, quality content for your blog without fail? Even if you're trying to write a post every day, or every other day?

I sit down with a fresh cup of Cafe de Olla every morning with this big question: what am I going to post about today? …followed by these other questions and thoughts:

What problem can I help web writers with?
What's a major concern for small biz owners trying to use the Web to attract clients?
How can I be helpful and add something fun, exciting or clever into my writing?
Who else is writing about content marketing that can inspire me?
What do readers want and need to know?
How can my next blog post educate, entertain, engage and enrich the lives of my readers?
…and, at the same time, how can I use content to build relationships, and attract the right readers, who need and want my products and services? (and help build my business)

I truly believe that a business blog is the best damn content marketing tool on the Planet! Honest. But it only works if you write every day or every other day – well, okay, at least three times a week. That's a lot of posts, and for me, it means an hour a day, sometimes more. But that's not bad, really.

Categories : About Blogs, Content Marketing, On Writing Better

Content Marketing with Blogs: Fishing for Business, or Catch-and-Release?

By Patsi Krakoff

Thursday, August 27th, 2009

I had the best grilled salmon last night in one of my favorite restaurants here in Ajijic…which got me thinking about fishing…

I view business blogging as an attraction strategy, rather than an activity that earns income via ads. A blog is like a fishing net that you throw out onto the World Wide Pond to catch new leads, who nibble on your words like fish on bait.

I believe a blog is a powerful client magnet when done the smart way. It reverses the client chase. But few bloggers have a grasp on how to write effective posts on a business blog and what kinds of content make sense for their readers.

Content is key, of course. It’s the bait that beckons a fish to the hook. Your words — when you’re using keywords right — will attract the very people who are looking for the solutions you write about on your blog.

The tricky part is this: asking for business. You can do a bang-up job of attracting readers, but at some point you must ask for action. Otherwise, your blog is a catch-and-release system:

"Hi, thanks for stopping by my blog, here's some great information to solve your problem, have a nice day!" ;-0

Categories : About Blogs, Content Marketing, On Writing Better

5 Reasons Content Marketing is Getting Harder

By Patsi Krakoff

Wednesday, August 26th, 2009

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 well)
A shift towards the reader/customer and their needs (what you may not know very well)
A business environment that is changing rapidly (what is unknown)
More people online in your field writing about the same things (some better, some worse)
A huge volume of content about everything possible, creating information overload for readers

Categories : About Blogs, Content Marketing, E-Books, Managing Your Ezine & Blog Tasks, On Writing Better

How to Get Read Online: Broken feet, desserts,
money and words

By Patsi Krakoff

Monday, August 24th, 2009

I'm a skimmer. In the 20 minutes since I got my coffee and opened my email, I've learned what happened to these friends and colleagues:

Kathleen Gage broke her ankle training for the Portland marathon
What Sherman Hu had at his barbeque for dessert
That an internet marketer made $21,365
How to avoid throwaway lines in article writing

Which of these messages or posts do you think I opened first? Which got my attention the most? The least? (I sound like Keith Olbermann's MSNBC opening line, "Which of these stories will we be talking about tomorrow?"

Easy, I put them in the order I remembered them, and that's the order in which they got my attention.

Here's why, here's the lesson you need to pay attention to if you're writing blog posts or sending email messages to make an impact.

Categories : About Blogs, Content Marketing, Email Marketing Tips, Getting Read, On Writing Better

Why Free is Good, Done Right

By Patsi Krakoff

Wednesday, August 19th, 2009

I work with a lot of coaches, writers, and consultants. Some of them are doing well, in spite of the recession. Others are struggling. I often wonder what the difference is between those that stay afloat in a downturn and the others. I think it's their marketing savvy more than their talent or education, but who really knows?

One of my favorite clients, a successful executive coach with a Ph.D., emailed this week to say how frustrating it is in the coaching field these days. It seems everyone's a coach. People take an Internet coaching course and market themselves by giving away free sample coaching sessions.

As a trained organizational psychologist with licenses and years of experience, he doesn't feel he should be giving away free sessions. I don't blame him. And yet, I was thinking…

The problem is universal. How do you attract new clients without standing on the sidewalk like a carnival barker, begging people to come into your tent?

I guess this is why Chris Anderson author of The Long Tail, has written a new book called Free: The Future of a Radical Price.

Categories : About Blogs, Content Marketing, On Writing Better, Online Marketing

Archive for On Writing Better – Page 18

5 Questions to Ask for Writing Great Web Content
#1: What’s the Problem?

A Simple Blueprint for Writing Web Content that Gets Results

Boring, Banal and Full of Bull-shitake:
How to Write Better than That

The Power of Case Studies for Getting Clients

Content Marketing with Blogs:
15 Ways to Find Fresh Ideas

Content Marketing with Blogs: Fishing for Business, or Catch-and-Release?

5 Reasons Content Marketing is Getting Harder

How to Get Read Online: Broken feet, desserts,
money and words

Why Free is Good, Done Right

Content for Coaches and Consultants

Serenity Virtual Assistant Services

Social Buzz Club