Writing On The Web by Patsi Krakoff, The Blog Squad

Content Marketing Strategies for Smart Professionals

What’s Missing in Content Marketing: Who and Why

By Patsi Krakoff in About Blogs, Attracting Clients, Brain Based Content Marketing, On Writing Better, Teleclasses & Seminars

Storytelling and personalization is the biggest missing piece in content marketing as I see it. People are good at writing about what they know. They aren’t as good about expressing who they are and why they do what they do.

If you’re not writing real stories, your content – on your blog, in your newsletter, on your web pages – runs the risk of being boring. You may be excited about what you do as a professional, but your clients will get bored or overwhelmed if you just throw information at them.

In the Content Marketing Webinar last week, I talked about communicating your back-story… the background about the why and who of your business. It’s especially important in service businesses where people hire you to help them solve a problem.

I once asked a guy who founded an online training service what his back-story was, and he didn’t know what I meant.

He thought I would see the obvious, that there was a gap in what was available online and an opportunity to make money. Okay, that’s exciting… to you and your spouse for sure.

But there’s always more to the story than that: Why did he personally spend considerable time, energy and money creating what he did?

There has to be drive, passion and love. He had to care. That’s the story people need to know. Read More→

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

Content Marketing Tips: Find Your Online Voice

By Patsi Krakoff in Attracting Clients, Content Marketing, On Writing Better, Online Marketing, Teleclasses & Seminars, Writing for the Web

How do you find your voice and create your brand story so that readers are inspired and emotionally triggered? How do you get content marketing results?

This and other key tips will be discussed Wednesday April 20, 2011 on an open webinar I’m giving:

Time-Saving Tips for Content Marketing Results

Register to get the recording if you can’t come at 5 pm ET, plus I’ll send you handouts, a list of outsourcing resources, a marketing road map and discount coupons for services.

“Before you can truly understand your customers, you have to understand yourself,” says author and content-marketing evangelist Joe Pulizzi.

If you are a coach, doctor, lawyer, any professional, you are trying to differentiate yourself in a crowded market. There are a gazillion websites in your field. To succeed, you need to forge a separate and unique identity and create an enduring and memorable brand.

You need a brand story. You need a brand personality. You need to stop sounding like everyone else.

I think this is one of the hardest things for busy professionals to communicate in writing content for the Web.

Why? Because it involves personal creativity. It’s one thing to write what you know. You can type 350 words of knowledge into your blog post in about 10 minutes or less. That’s the easy piece.

Don’t believe me? Come on, you explain stuff on the phone to clients all the time. Read More→

Tags : Attracting Clients, Content Marketing, content marketing tips, content marketing with blogs, Online Marketing, storytelling, webinars

Content Marketing: Connect the Dots and Drive Results

By Patsi Krakoff in Attracting Clients, Content Marketing, Online Marketing, Teleclasses & Seminars, Writing for the Web

How do you master the art of writing content for the Web so that you provide quality information on your web pages, blog, and newsletters that works to convert readers to clients? Ahhh, that’s what I’ve been trying to figure out for the last 12 years. In the World Wide Web, there often seems to be no rules.

But that’s not true. You have to find what works for you in your business, with your target audience. And then publish a lot of content in many different forms. But if you’re a busy professional, unless you have staff, you don’t have time for everything.

So on Wednesday, April 20, 2011 at 5 p.m. ET, I’m giving an open webinar to share my tips and tools that make online marketing manageable, especially for service professionals, solo entrepreneurs, busy consultants, coaches, etc.

Time-Saving Tips for Content Marketing Results – Register to get the recording, handouts and a marketing road map.
Wednesday April 20, 2011, 5 pm ET

Here’s a sample of what you’ll learn: For example, your content should accomplish these 4 goals:

Connect with readers right away (ask them about their problems or challenges)
Answer reader’s questions and educate
Provide choices without confusion
Compel readers to take one action

These goals apply to your website, your blog, your newsletters and everything you publish on the Web whether in text, audio or video.

Outsourcing your content needs will save you a lot of time, but only if you do it right.

Let’s say you’ve outsourced your newsletter and blog content to a professional writer, an expert in your field. The writer gives you content for your blog or newsletter. You publish it under your banner or logo, therefore it’s up to you to get it personalized and provide context.

This means you’ve either got to add your own stories, or introduce it with a personal note. (Or have the hired writer do this for you, which may cost more.)

Context: What I mean by providing context is that you need to connect the dots from your content to your business. You don’t want readers to read your content and say, “Oh, that’s interesting.”

I’m mean to say, sure you do, but that’s not enough. Draw a picture for them.

How does this content apply to the work you do with your clients?
Tell a story about a real person that illustrates the concepts in the article
Tell how you personally interact with and interpret these principles in your work Read More→

Tags : Attracting Clients, business blogging, Content Marketing, content marketing tips, converting readers to clients, online content, Online Marketing, Writing for the Web

Content Marketing for Professionals:
Time-Saving Tips Webinar

By Patsi Krakoff in Attracting Clients, Content Marketing, Teleclasses & Seminars

Are you getting results from your content marketing? Does your website do it’s job? What about your e-newsletters? Or your blog? If these marketing tools were people, would you give them a raise … or fire their butts? Think about it.

It’s all fine and dandy to spend time, money and energy upgrading, re-designing, and adding content so that you have an automatic lead generating system online, but if your output is more than your incoming business results, it’s all just silly, isn’t it?

I’ve been working with some really great clients who understand good content marketing. And, I’ve reviewed more than my fair share of boring blogs, websites and newsletters this past month.

I’m frustrated yet occasionally blown away by the quality of online marketing by small businesses and professionals.

Big ANNOUNCEMENT:

I’m giving a free webinar this Wednesday April 20, 2011 at 5 p.m. ET:

Time Saving Tips for Content Marketing Results

You can register here.

What’s the one BIG mistake I see eight out of ten websites making? For that matter:

Why are so many e-newsletters not getting read?
What do many smart professionals forget to do in their online marketing?
What’s the least time-consuming, most effective way to build up your web presence?

Part of the problem I see with marketing – at least with coaches and consultants – is that people are too busy with clients and don’t have a clear marketing road map to follow. The 1-2-3 next steps aren’t laid out. What’s “not sure” gets put off. Here’s what else… Read More→

Tags : Attracting Clients, Content Marketing, content marketing tips, inbound marketing, webinar

Content Rules: Insight and Originality Attracts Clients

By Patsi Krakoff in About Blogs, Attracting Clients, Content Marketing, Teleclasses & Seminars

Content marketing works: you can publish online content – blog posts, videos, webinars and web pages – that attracts clients to you. Using content marketing, you don’t have to chase after them, spend money on advertising, direct mail, or printed newsletters. Or as the authors of Content Rules say,

“Produce great stuff, and your customers will come to you. Produce really great stuff, and your customers will share and disseminate your message for you. More than ever before, content is king! Content rules!” ~ Ann Handley and C.C. Chapman, Content Rules: How to Create Killer Blogs, Podcasts, Videos, Ebooks, Webinars and More that Engage Customers and Ignite Your business (John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 2011).

Wonderful. And, a lot of work. Getting other people so excited about your work they tell others about it is a challenge, unless, of course, your name is Seth Godin, Joe Pulizzi or Tim Ferriss.

If you’re a service professional, say a doctor, therapist, lawyer, financial adviser, or health expert, you need to create content that will help your clients. You need to become a trusted resource and go-to curator of tips and information that is helpful to people who are interested.

And you need to create strong feelings around your published content so that people will take action and keep coming back. You need them to subscribe, to sign up, to download, to ask you questions and engage with you so they become clients when they are ready.

Content Rule #2: Insight inspires originality. In their book Content Rules, Handley and Chapman lump two concepts into rule #2:

Know yourself
Know your customers Read More→

Tags : Attracting Clients, coach marketing, Content Marketing, content marketing with blogs, Online Marketing, Writing for the Web

Content Rules: Secrets of Writing Compelling Content

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

Marketing nowadays requires writing and publishing great content in multiple ways. That’s why there’s a tsunami of information online about content marketing.

But the hard question comes when you sit down to a blank computer screen and outline what sorts of pieces of information, web pages and blog posts, need to be published for your business. What exactly is going to interest your ideal readers and clients?

Many experts echo: tell stories. All good films and good fiction are about a compelling, conflict-driven story. But you run a business, maybe you’re a professional who offers services such as coaching, health care, financial planning, speaking? You’re not selling widgets or software. Some people just tell it like it is:

“Here’s what I do. I solve these problems. Here are some of the customers who say we’re great. Now please go sign up for my newsletter. I’ll send you more of my propaganda/information. I hope you’ll call me one day and hire me for my services.”

Sadly this classic marketing approach is everywhere. And, it gets multiplied on websites, blogs, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and videos on YouTube, to the point that people tune out.

How can you introduce storytelling into your marketing mix? How can you make your writing interesting, more like a good movie or book? I wish I knew, but like great art, it’s hard to define.

I’m reading a book by Ann Handley and C.C. Chapman, Content Rules: How to Create Killer Blogs, Podcasts, Videos, Ebooks, Webinars and More that Engage Customers and Ignite Your business (John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 2011). Read More→

Tags : Attracting Clients, blog content, blog writing, Content Marketing, content marketing with blogs, Writing for the Web

Content Checklist: Don’t Publish Without It

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

I love checklists because I’m always forgetting things. Once I published a post without a title. Yesterday I almost forgot to hyperlink anything in a post. Fortunately, before I publish I run an analysis for how a post will score with the search engines using Scribe, a great tool.

Scribe catches everything and tells me things like “there are no primary keywords found.” Yeah, I know that’s ridiculous. But if you don’t use Scribe you could be publishing stuff that search engines don’t grasp.

Here’s a great checklist, just published over at the Content Marketing Institute, authored by Ahava Leibtag.

The checklist is designed for digital content creators and marketing teams, but it can and should be used by anyone writing a business blog or other content for the Web. It defines valuable content using five benchmarks:

Findable
Readable
Understandable
Actionable
Shareable

If this image is too small, go to the post over at the Content Marketing Institute and download the PDF version.

This is a great checklist to keep handy for anyone creating content for blogs.

For example, there’s a difference between “Readable” and “Understandable” and both are important. Readable refers to formatting, bullet points, etc.

Understandable means you take time to re-read your post with the eyes and brains of your typical readers and take out any ambiguity.

As you can see in this checklist, it’s also important that your content be actionable and shareable. This is similar to what I write about in my ebook, Content Marketing with Blogs. If you haven’t downloaded that yet, be my guest, click here.

Tags : Attracting Clients, blog content, blog formatting, blog writing, Online Marketing, Writing for the Web

Is Your White Paper a Sales Pitch in Disguise?

By Patsi Krakoff in Content Marketing, Online Marketing, Social Media Stuff, Writing Great White Papers

I asked Lauren Carlson to share with you here some important perspectives on content marketing. It doesn’t matter what you call your information (white paper/eBook, microsite/landing page), what matters is using information wisely to get found, get known and get clients.

Is Your White Paper a Sales Pitch in Disguise?
Guest Post by Lauren Carlson, SoftwareAdvice.com

When was the last time you read a white paper that added real value to your research process? I’m racking my brain and finding it quite difficult to come up with any good examples.

More often than not, today’s white papers are really just masked sales pitches, too long to keep the attention of today’s buyer. They aren’t engaging the customer and are therefore not serving much of a purpose. So, now what?

It’s time for companies to turn to 2.0 technologies to reach the 2.0 buyer. Twitter is extremely powerful for reaching audiences and building relationships. Advances in graphic design and technology leave no excuse for not having vibrant, captivating content.

There is even software that makes it easy to create, manage and track buyer activity on your site so that you know the kind of information your potential customers want.

With all of these advancements for content marketing, it’s about time we shred the white paper. Marketing Automation Software Guide (MASG) posted an article on this topic. Below is a summary.

Introducing the new buyer Read More→

Tags : Attracting Clients, Content Marketing, ebooks, Online Marketing, Twitter, Web pages, white papers, writing on the web

Content Curation: How to Become a Thought Leader

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

Here’s an important post from Joe Pulizzi’s Junta42 blog, Content Curation Grows Up, Original Content Still Key . I share these key points with anyone who struggles with writing online for their business and needs ideas for what to write.

I first heard the term content curation is this post by Rohit Bhargava back in 2009.

Rohit positioned that, as more corporations and individuals create content, the role of the content curator is needed. Rohit describes this position as:

Someone whose job it is not to create more content, but to make sense of all the content that others are creating. To find the best and most relevant content and bring it forward.

I know many of my readers and clients who want to become thought leaders in their field. The thing is, Joe and Rohit are absolutely right: you don’t have to be the one with all the ideas. But you do need to gather all that’s relevant and being said in your field and summarize the key points that are most important to your audience.

And, you do need to add your point of view. That’s what makes you unique and a thought leader.

Here’s what else Joe says in his post: Read More→

Tags : Attracting Clients, blog content, blog writing, business blogging, content curation, content marketing with blogs, thought leadership, Writing for the Web

Marketing with Videos: What’s Wrong with the Script?

By Patsi Krakoff in Content Marketing, Content Marketing with Videos, Online Marketing

I was shocked to read some sample scripts for video commercials being filmed at the studios of iMotionVideo last week in Orlando. People are still confusing features and benefits in their marketing messages.

Some videos are great to watch, even if you’re not interested in what they’re selling. But others…OMG, it’s just sad.

The iMotionVideo service allows businesses to write and submit their video scripts, then they format and use actors or voice-overs to turn your script into great video commercials.

But many people aren’t clear in writing their marketing messages, confuse features with benefits, speak in jargon, and assume their viewers know what they know.

It’s a good thing iMotionVideo provides a professional actor, John Eastman. His rich baritone voice can make even the worst marketing message sound good.

Here’s what small businesses and independent professionals are doing wrong with their video scripts that they submit for one minute commercials:

Some marketers try to promote the features of their products and programs instead of benefits. “Our ABC program is offered at a one-time only discount,” instead of promoting what the ABC will do for them, what benefit it will provide to the viewer, such as save them time, make them money, make them happy. Half the time, I couldn’t figure out what their “ABC” was.
They assume the viewer knows what their company does, and use insider jargon and terms.
They try to appeal to everyone, and don’t clarify who their target audience is. Since videos are posted to YouTube and other video directories besides their own website pages, their viewers need to know who the commercial is for. Read More→