Writing On The Web by Patsi Krakoff, The Blog Squad

Content Marketing Strategies for Smart Professionals

Neuromarketing Research: 3 Keys that Trigger a Buying Decision

The study of the buying decision process, or neuromarketing, has had a tremendous impact on content marketing.

More brands are being studied in laboratories around the world as consumers are being hooked up to brain imaging machines, fMRI, EEG and other devices so that they are monitored while they read marketing messages and make decisions.

Neuromarketing is extremely expensive market research to do, but fortunately most brains work the same, with some exceptions for age and gender. So the results acquired for companies with big budgets are showing us how to create messages that have a powerful impact on the brains of all consumers.

Neuromarketing research studies have shown that these three factors determine whether or not a consumer is inclined to make a buying decision:

The degree of ATTENTION
Whether or not there is emotional ENGAGEMENT
How easily the message and the brand is encoded to MEMORY

Attention, emotional engagement, memory: 3 keys to priming the brains of your audience to buy or take the action you want. (Source: The Buying Brain, A.K. Pradeep, CEO of NeuroFocus) Read More→

Tags : content marketing with blogs, neuromarketing, Online Marketing, persuasion, persuasion triggers

“WIIFM”? Neuromarketing Improves Your Odds

By Patsi Krakoff in Brain Based Content Marketing, Online Marketing, Online Persuasion

Every time I read about a new neuromarketing study, it seems they’re only confirming what copywriters and marketers knew all along: to get readers to take action, you must address the “what’s in it for me” filter in consumers’ minds. Easy, right? Well…

Although we can’t directly cause people to do something, we can use knowledge of the brain to improve our chances of influencing their buying decisions. We can write better content because we understand how consumers make decisions.

We know more about the subconscious functions than ever before. We know what kinds of messages reach the emotional brain and the old brain, even though consumers aren’t aware of their influence. More importantly, we now understand that much of our decision making goes on in the old brain, out of conscious awareness.

Neuromarketing and science can help improve your content writing so that it has more of an impact on people in your target audience.

I just love this site: SalesBrain, a neuromarketing company. Founded by Christophe Morin and Patrick Renvoise, authors of Neuromarketing: Understanding the Buy Button Inside Your Customers’ Brains. The company does sales training using neuroscience as it applies to what influences buying decisions.

I recommend you visit the site, as it is clear and easy to navigate to find great information about buying decisions. I found the page on 6 ways to stimulate the old brain especially illuminating.

Here’s an excerpt from www.SalesBrain.net:

The ‘Old Brain’ is Self-Centered

The ‘Old Brain’ is a very self-centered entity and general considerations about others do not reach it. Think of it as the center of ME. Do not assume that it has any patience or empathy for anything that does not immediately concern its survival and well-being.

The ‘Old Brain’ Seeks Contrast

Before/after, with/without, slow/fast all allow the Old Brain to decide. Contrast is a safe decision engine. It allows quick and safe decisions. Without contrast, it enters a state of confusion, which ultimately results in delaying decision.

The ‘Old Brain’ is Tangible

Numbers work for the neo-cortex, but the ‘Old Brain’ won’t decide based on numbers alone! It is constantly scanning for what is familiar and friendly, what can be recognized quickly, what is tangible and immutable. It cannot process concepts like “flexible solution”, “integrated approach”, or “scalable architecture” without efforts and doubts.

The ‘Old Brain’ Remembers Beginning and End

It forgets most everything in the middle. This short attention span has huge implications on how to construct and deliver powerful messages. Placing the most important content at the beginning is a must, and repeating it at the end an imperative. Keep in mind that anything you say in the middle of your delivery will be mostly overlooked.

The ‘Old Brain’ is Visual

Neuroscience demonstrates that when you see something that looks like a snake, you react even before the conscious mind physically recognizes it’s a snake. This implies that visual processing enters the ‘Old Brain’ first which can lead to very fast and effective connection to the true decision-maker.

The ‘Old Brain’ Responds to Emotion

Neuroscience has clearly demonstrated that ’emotional cocktails’ create chemical reactions that directly impact the way we memorize and act.

What do you think about this? Makes sense to me.

How will you apply it to your content marketing?

Tags : brain science, Content Marketing, neuromarketing, persuasion, persuasion triggers

Memory + Emotional Attention = Content Marketing

By Patsi Krakoff in About Blogs, Brain Based Content Marketing, How to...Tips

How do you write good blog posts that connect emotionally with readers and turn them into loyal fans? Oh, heck, that’s easy. All you have to do is:

Grab their attention
Get them emotionally engaged
Make a memorable impact

There you go, right? Easy-peasy. This is what you need to do whenever you write any content designed to market your products and services. Attention, emotions, memory.

Neuroscientists are now showing that the two most important elements of persuasion are emotional engagement and memory. Of course you can’t get either of these unless your marketing messages gain readers’ attention first.

Why this is so important? We’ll go into how to do it another day, since this involves quite number of suggestions and tips.

These three goals for your content marketing are required if you want to write stuff that is effective to attract prospects, and get them interested and primed for making a purchase or other desired action.

This information comes from research on neuromarketing and what makes people buy. If you’re interested in learning more about the brain from a marketer’s viewpoint, I recommend The Buying Brain and Neuromarketing: Understanding the Buy Buttons in Your Customer’s Brains. Read More→

Tags : brain science, Content Marketing, neuromarketing, persuasion, persuasion triggers

5 Reasons Content Marketing is Getting Harder

By Patsi Krakoff in Attracting Clients, Content Marketing, How to...Tips, Online Marketing, Writing Great Blog Content

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

This makes it harder for you to grab readers’ attention and get through to them. However, readers are still hungry for solutions and are looking for trustworthy professionals to work with.

I know this because I’ve experienced it personally. In spite of the recession, people are still hiring consultants to help them with their content marketing strategies and with writing quality content for business marketing.

As marketing guru Seth Godin writes:

“With 80 million other blogs to choose from, I know you could leave at any moment (see, there goes someone now). So that makes blog writing shorter and faster and more exciting.” Read More→

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

Writing Compelling Content:
What Drives Your Readers?

By Patsi Krakoff in Brain Based Content Marketing, Content Marketing, How to...Tips, On Writing Better, Online Marketing, Online Persuasion, Writing Great Blog Content

In a recent blog post, Compelling Content: What Are Your Readers’ Hot Buttons?, we explored the top 10 hot buttons and the use of emotional words and phrases to tap into these issues. Here’s another model based on only 4 drivers.

4 Drives in a Nutshell

Driven: How Human Nature Shapes Our Choices (Jossey Bass, 2001), by Harvard professors Paul R. Lawrence and Nitin Nohria.

Based on evolutionary science, our drives can be categorized into four basic motivations:

The drive to acquire
The drive to bond
The drive to learn
The drive to defend

This is subtle and important. Let’s imagine you run an executive coaching business. You provide professional services to leaders in organizations. Since you work one-on-one with your clients, you probably have a pretty good idea of which of the above four motivators frequently come into play.

If your clients are results-driven competitive executives, you can’t assume that they’re motivated by the drive to acquire, but it’s a good bet. They may just as well be driven to succeed by the desire to form successful relationships with others, or to learn everything there is to know, or to defend their territory.

But one drive will probably be more motivating than the others, and it will be evident in your client’s priorities. Assuming your client is driven by the drive to acquire and to have more, you’ll need to write content to appeal to this need.

What is the fear associated with each drive? Read More→

Tags : blog content, blog marketing, Content Marketing, converting readers to clients, persuasion, persuasion triggers

5 Content Marketing Questions:
Get Readers to Take Action

By Patsi Krakoff in Content Marketing, How to...Tips, Online Persuasion, Writing for the Web, Writing Great Blog Content

What will make your web readers take action or not? Content marketing isn’t successful without results. So when writing a blog post or a web page, keep these key questions in mind. You want to inspire readers to pick up the phone, click here, sign up, register, or remember your brand.

Here’s a final note in my blog post series about writing good content on the Web that gets results.

In Maria Velosa’s 2009 edition of Web Copy that Sells, she suggests 5 questions your copy should answer:

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 answer these questions, you lead readers down a path to take action. Good content on the Web, when it’s well written, should:

Educate
Entertain
Engage readers
Enrich lives

If at all possible, you should strive to enrich the lives of your readers as well. Try to make their lives better by showing them how they can save time, energy or money.

Question #4: What is different now? Read More→

Tags : blog content, Content Marketing, content marketing tips, content marketing with blogs, persuasion

5 Content Marketing Questions:
#3 What’s Possible?

By Patsi Krakoff in Content Marketing, How to...Tips, On Writing Better, Writing for the Web, Writing Great Blog Content

In Maria Velosa’s Web Copy That Sells book, there is a 5-step blueprint for writing on the Web. This is really what content marketing is all about. When you answer the following 5 questions, your writing tasks are simplified and your copy becomes clear.

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?

First answer question #1, what’s the problem. Then, answer questions #2,why hasn’t the problem been solved? Then answer question #3, what’s possible?

As you write out several sentences to answer these questions, you’ll lead your readers through a path that leads to action. Action is the goal for all good content designed to market your business on the Web.

In psychology, counseling, and coaching, when you describe how life could be better, you’re setting the stage for people to make changes. You’re engaging someone to start using the brain neurons involved in positive thinking.

Awareness that a change is needed is the first step (questions 1 and 2). Painting a picture of how things will be better is the next step (questions 3, 4 and 5).

In marketing and copywriting, this section is known as the benefits. The key idea that makes a real difference happens when you drill down deep to core values in people’s lives.

Example: A pill that gets rid of back pain provides a big benefit: no more back pain. That’s obvious. As a writer, you must draw a picture of what is possible now that the pain is gone. Read More→

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

5 Content Marketing Questions:
#2 Why Hasn’t This Problem Been Solved?

By Patsi Krakoff in Content Marketing, How to...Tips, On Writing Better, Writing for the Web, Writing Great Blog Content, Writing Great Copy

In a previous post, 5 Content Marketing Questions: #1 What is The Problem?, I reviewed the content marketing questions that help you 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?

Question #2, Why hasn’t this problem been solved?, is a great opportunity to address the challenges your readers and potential customers face.

You have a chance to show you understand your readers well, and you have an expert’s understanding of the subject matter. You can delve into the history of the problem, providing insights they may have never thought of.

The answers to this question serves to build audience anticipation for a new solution you’re about to reveal.

How is it they haven’t solved their problem?
Why is it that traditional solutions aren’t working?
Why are they still stuck?
What‘s new about this situation that contributes to more frustration?

This is where you can really hook readers into your story. Yet so many blogs and email messages skip this step. It doesn’t have to be long, but discussing these points in a few sentences will get your readers to say, “Oh, right, I’ve experienced this. She understands me. What’s the solution, then?”

What’s your experience? Do you skip over this step when writing your own copy? Or, have you honed this question – or answer – to a simple sentence or two?

Another added bonus of including this step when writing for your business is that it forces you to periodically ask yourself this question. It can actually strengthen your confidence and help you focus, or if necessary, re-focus, your business. It’s a simple way to take a step back and look at the big picture, seeing the forest and the trees.

Next up: Questions #3 – #5 to ask when writing content for the Web that gets results.

Inspired by Maria Velosa’s Web Copy that Sells, a blueprint for creating simple copy that works to market your products and services

Tags : blog content, blog writing, Content Marketing, content marketing with blogs, storytelling

5 Content Marketing Questions: #1 What’s the Problem?

By Patsi Krakoff in Content Marketing, How to...Tips, Online Persuasion, Writing Great Blog Content, Writing Great Copy

In a previous post, Writing Web Content that Gets Results: Questions, I reviewed the basic rules of writing web content.

In this post, we’ll explore the 5 content marketing questions that will help you organize and simplify your web page and blog 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 content, 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.

Psychologically, we’re hard wired to sit up and pay attention to problems. This is why it’s a good idea to lead off with your headline and first paragraph addressing readers’ pain. Negative emotions are strong enough to wake us up and get us to read the rest of the story.

There are two things you must realize about this seemingly obvious and simple question: Read More→

Tags : blog content, Content Marketing, content marketing tips, content marketing with blogs, Writing for the Web

Writing Web Content that Gets Results: Questions

By Patsi Krakoff in Content Marketing, On Writing Better, Writing for the Web, Writing Great Blog Content, Writing Great Copy

The rules haven’t changed, but it’s surprising how many people start writing web content 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 not just because marketing people like new buzzes. Smart marketers know the rules and follow them. Even if the Internet changes at lightening speed, the writing basics for content remain the same.

I’ve been writing on the web for twelve years. Before that, I was a journalist and a psychologist and 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:

Before you write one word, you must first:

Know your objective
Know your target audience
Know your product or service

I know this seems so common sense it’s not worth spending time on, but the time you take to write down a few notes on each of these things will be well worth it.

For example, writing on the web can have several objectives, besides making a sale. What is it you’d like readers to do? Contact you for more information? Sign up for a digital report? Leave a comment, watch a video, fill out a survey?

It’s okay if you’re a teacher and enjoy educating people without any sales objective in mind. However, if you’re not asking readers to think, ask, remember, or act, then you’re not really teaching, are you? Don’t let readers leave saying, “That’s nice, so what, bye-bye…”

Who are you trying to write to and reach? The more you know about your audience of readers, the easier it will be to “speak their language.” You can’t really connect if you don’t know to whom, can you?

And of course you know your products and services, especially if it’s your own business and you’ve been working in it for a while. But how well do you know what the benefits are to your end users? How well do you know your customers’ challenges and problems?

Example: one of my clients is a talented artist who sells original painted greeting cards for various occasions, online through her website. When I asked her what problems does she solve with her cards, she said she provided a thoughtful way of connecting with someone on a special occasion. She hadn’t thought out all the other ways she helped her customers:

Her cards were unique, and therefore said much more than a store-bought card from a large company
Her cards were original art work which recipients were more likely to keep
Her cards saved people time from having to go to a store to browse through hundreds of cards
Her cards saved people the hassles of getting into a car and driving
Her cards offered a large selection of messages, including many blank

The more you can dig deeper into all the challenges your customers face, and the more content you can create that addresses solutions, the better your writing will resonate with readers. The stronger your online writing will be. Readers will subscribe, keep coming back, sign up for more, and become loyal fans.

I want to give you this simple 5-step blueprint for writing web copy that sells, as explained in the Velosa book, so stay tuned. If you want to be sure to get an email notice when I publish the next post, use the subscription form in the upper right hand corner to subscribe.

In the meantime, have you identified your first things first? If you haven’t, why not? I’d love to hear from you.

Tags : blog content, blog marketing, Content Marketing, content marketing with blogs, copywriting, Online Marketing, Writing for the Web