Writing On The Web by Patsi Krakoff, The Blog Squad

Content Marketing Strategies for Smart Professionals

Bloggers: Brush Up on Your Writing Skills

By Patsi Krakoff in Content Marketing, On Writing Better, Online Marketing, Writing for the Web

Business 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:

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→

Tags : Attracting Clients, blog content, blog writing, business blogging, Content Marketing, content marketing with blogs

Oscar Wilde: Advice on Better Blogging

By Patsi Krakoff in About Blogs, Attracting Clients, How to...Tips, On Writing Better

You know that your blog is a key part of your search strategy, but do you know how to get the most out of it? What would Oscar Wilde advise for better blogging?

Thousands of blog guides exist, but do they really help or just cloud the issue further?

This is what you need to know when it comes writing to a better blog, one that’s really readable.

There’s no such thing as ‘blog style.’ However, the easier it is to read the better. Break it up, make it easy for the reader. That means short, sharp paragraphs and the same with sentences. If a paragraph is more than five lines, you’ve gone too far.
People don’t want to read blogs. At least, not ones that have no value. Put your point across early on, and they’ll read the rest of it.
The key to achieving a better blog, whether you measure that by how many people read it, share it on social media, or comment on it, is to make everything as clear and as simple as possible.

Cut It Out

Oscar Wilde once said that you should never use a long word if there is a short one available that means the same thing. Read More→

Tags : Attracting Clients, blog content, blog marketing, blog writing, business blogs, content marketing with blogs, SEO

Online Content Marketing: Let’s Put the “We” Back Into Weblog

By Patsi Krakoff in About Blogs, Attracting Clients, Content Marketing, Online Marketing, Social Media Stuff, Writing Great Blog Content

I 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:

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→

Tags : Attracting Clients, blog content, content marketing with blogs, converting readers to clients, Online Marketing, social media marketing

Small Business Content Marketing: When to Hire A Freelance Writer?

By Patsi Krakoff in About Blogs, Attracting Clients, Content Marketing, Online Marketing, Writing for Others, Freelancing

When 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→

Tags : Attracting Clients, business blogging, content marketing with blogs, freelance writing, Writing for the Web

Content Marketing Writers: How’s Your Cognitive Fitness?

By Patsi Krakoff in Brain Based Content Marketing, Content Marketing, On Writing Better, Writing for Others, Freelancing

What’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→

Tags : blog writing, brain science, neuromarketing, Writing for the Web

Better Content Marketing:
Words and Numbers Matter

By Patsi Krakoff in Brain Based Content Marketing, Content Marketing, Online Marketing, Writing for the Web, Writing Great Copy

As 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:

The surgery has a 95% survival rate
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→

Tags : Attracting Clients, brain science, Content Marketing, neuromarketing, Writing for the Web

SEO: 3 Things Journalists and Bloggers Can Learn

By Patsi Krakoff in About Blogs, Attracting Clients, Content Marketing, Writing for the Web

From 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→

Tags : Attracting Clients, Content Marketing, SEO

4 Common Blog Writing Stumbling Blocks

By Patsi Krakoff in About Blogs, Content Marketing, Writing Great Blog Content

There 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→

Tags : Attracting Clients, blog content, blog writing, business blogging, content marketing with blogs

Relationship Marketing Messages that Work:
How to Use Send-Out Cards

By Patsi Krakoff in About Blogs, Attracting Clients, Content Marketing

Relationship 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→

Tags : Attracting Clients, Content Marketing

Content Marketing with Blogs:
6 Steps to Writing Awesome Fresh Content

By Patsi Krakoff in About Blogs, Content Marketing, On Writing Better, Writing Great Blog Content

Blog-by-renjith-krishnan What 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→

Tags : Attracting Clients, blog content, blog writing, Content Marketing, content marketing with blogs