Writing On The Web by Patsi Krakoff, The Blog Squad

Content Marketing Strategies for Smart Professionals

Online Persuasion: Seeing Through the Eyes of Your Customers

By Patsi Krakoff in Attracting Clients, Content Marketing, On Writing Better, Online Marketing, Online Persuasion, Pathway to Profits

There’s an important shift in content marketing tactics that affects professionals who want to get found, get known and get clients online. And that shift means a different mindset.

I saw a great blog post the other day. There was a picture of a pair of glasses lying on a bench with this caption: Don’t you wish you could see through your customers’ glasses?

What if you could live in their shoes for a day? Or, track their brains as they go online to your website? What makes them click? What makes them take action?

Here’s where you should start thinking a little differently when writing content for the Web:

Smart content marketers are using persuasion tactics that appeal to emotions rather than reasons. They know that emotions not only guide our decisions and actions, they determine whether or not we buy.

When successful web writers create online content, they appeal to the senses and the emotions. They:

Grab attention through outrageous headlines and images
Appeal to basic human wants, desires
Tell a story of one person
Use emotional hot buttons
Use persuasion triggers
Motivate action with fear, scarcity, urgency

The most effective content marketing occurs with a mixture of both rational and emotional tactics. That’s because people use the emotional parts of their brains to make what they consider rational decisions. Read More→

Tags : Attracting Clients, blog marketing, blog writing, Content Marketing, content marketing with blogs, converting readers to clients, Online Marketing, online persuasion, persuasion triggers, web marketing, Writing for the Web

Online Persuasion: Creating Desire

By Patsi Krakoff in Attracting Clients, Content Marketing, On Writing Better, Online Marketing, Online Persuasion, Pathway to Profits

How can you appeal to readers’ emotions on a business-oriented site? Online persuasion works best when you appeal to both the logical and emotional centers in the brain.

If you want to write content that persuades readers to take action, you write about emotional triggers AND provide reasons to act.

Many online content marketers misunderstand what it means to “appeal to emotions.” How exactly do you bypass the conscious thinking brain and instantly connect with readers’ emotional centers, out of their conscious awareness?

It’s easier than you might think. Stephen Denning writes about this in his book The Secret Language of Leadership, and these lessons for leadership communications are applicable to writing web content.

Here’s a diagram of how many business professionals traditionally write content when they want to persuade people to take action:

The traditional communication approach follows this sequence:

Define the problem ► Analyze it ►Recommend a solution

Effective content marketers, however, follow a unique, almost hidden pattern:

Grab the audience’s attention ► Stimulate desire ► Reinforce with reasons

When language follows this sequence, it can inspire enduring enthusiasm for a cause and spark action. Read More→

Tags : Attracting Clients, blog writing, Content Marketing, content marketing with blogs, emotional brain, emotional triggers, Online Marketing, persuasion triggers, Writing for the Web

How To Raise Your Coaching Fees

By Patsi Krakoff in Attracting Clients, Coaching/Personal Development, Teleclasses & Seminars

I want to invite you to join an incredibly valuable teleseminar from some people I trust.

The title of the seminar is: How To Raise Your Coaching Fees With Ease & Feel Great About It!

Click on the above seminar title to register.

I have hosted a similar teleseminar with Kim Ades and Marc Manieri. Their Journal Engine Software is an ingenious product for anyone doing personal, executive and leadership coaching. Here’s why I can recommend this new teleseminar:

The seminar leader, Kim Ades, runs a full time coaching practice called Frame of Mind Coaching. They make over 100 coaching sales each year, and Kim has personally increased her coaching fees from $1,200 to over $6,000. I think she has valuable information to share with you.

If you’re doing any kind of coaching, you know it’s great work and you bring valuable help to people. It’s time for you to start earning the coaching fees you deserve, no?

(Disclosure, this is my affiliate link and I whole-heartedly endorse this program because if you’re a coach, you most likely should be earning more~!)

How To Raise Your Coaching Fees With Ease & Feel Great About It!

Website & Blog Headers: 5 Keys for Branding

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

What are the key elements to a custom blog header that work well for online content marketing?

Your header contributes to your blog branding, and also helps readers decide if they want to stay and read or subscribe.

How do you like my new look? I’m talking about the new header and colors… Since switching to a WordPress a couple months ago, I decided to give this blog a face-lift while I was at it.

Suzanne Bird-Harris of Websites in WordPress did the graphic design for the header. If you’ve ever thought your site could use a little face-lift, this is a no-brainer! For a reasonable fee, Suzanne can transform your blog and give it a whole new look with a custom header.

A big thanks to my friend Paul Hart who took the photo.

Having a blog header is obviously an important element to online content marketing. It’s the first thing new visitors see when they land on your blog.

Here are the key elements (you’d be surprised at how many smart professionals forget to add their name, their photo, or the benefits to readers…)

The title (branding elements should define the area of expertise and be memorable)
The author’s name
What’s in it for readers if they stay to read?
Who is the blog for, who is the targeted audience?
An attractive photo

These elements may seem obvious, but often, when working with clients, they are so close to the blackboard, that they forget key elements. I’ve even seen one professional include everything in the header, but forget the title of the blog.

Another common error is being too vague about the topic and the targeted audience.First time visitors shouldn’t be confused when they arrive.

As Malcom Gladwelll writes, people make up their minds in the blink of an eye…

Tags : Attracting Clients, blog marketing, business blogging, content marketing with blogs, Online Marketing, writing on the web

The Brain Science of Online Persuasion

By Patsi Krakoff in Attracting Clients, Content Marketing, On Writing Better, Online Marketing, Online Persuasion, Pathway to Profits, Writing Great Blog Content, Writing Great Copy, Writing Speeches

What has brain science taught us about how people are persuaded to take action online? And, how can we use that wisdom when writing content that serves to market ourselves and our businesses?

These two questions have been fueling my mental energy for the past few years. As a journalist-turned-psychologist, turned-online-content-marketer, you might imagine that these issues keep me up at night … or not! I believe this is important stuff for any professional who wants an effective online presence.

Here’s what I see as an important shift in online marketing tactics. It has significance for you if you’re trying to create content for your own business.

Business persuasion skills, whether for presentations in person or for web pages online, have always centered on problem solving using rationality and logic. Smart professionals believe that people make decisions based on clearly laid-out arguments and intelligent thinking.

What’s the problem?
What does this mean to your target audience?
Why hasn’t this problem been solved?
What is your solution?
What should people do now?
What will happen if they don’t?

Business professionals approach online content marketing and writing for the web with this mentality. It makes sense and there’s nothing wrong with it… except it’s probably not getting good results.

Ad people, however, copywriters and marketers don’t use this approach. The people who write ads for TV, or print, or direct mail letters have been using persuasion tactics that appeal to emotions rather than reasons. Read More→

Tags : Attracting Clients, blog writing, business blogging, Content Marketing, content marketing with blogs, converting readers to clients, Online Marketing, persuasion triggers, Writing for the Web

Video: How to Create Great Sales Pages in WP

By Patsi Krakoff in Attracting Clients, Content Marketing, How to...Tips, Online Marketing, Pathway to Profits, Promoting Your Ezine +/or Blog

Here’s a quick video I’m using to promote Suzanne Bird-Harris’ fabulous WordPress Sales Page Template.I love the image of the “web designer thief” that sneaks across the screen about half way through… 😉

Take a look, and if you haven’t downloaded the free audio interview and transcript we did together, go to PatsiPicksWPSalesPage.com and do so now.

What do you think about the video? I think the folks at iFlashVideo.com did a super job!

I want to share with you this nice email I got from Kathy Porter, who was on the actual teleseminar call:

“Hi Patsi – your webinar training on how to incorporate a sales page into a WordPress platform is one of the BEST things I’ve participated in this year. (I’ll be creating my own WordPress blog shortly, now that I’ve gotten my feet wet using Typepad.)

Think I can help you expand your reach with this product by tweeting and “face-booking” your affiliate link as my heartfelt thank you for making this info available.”

Kathy Porter
Creator and Owner, MrsBizWhiz
Web site/blog: www.MrsBizWhizConnects.com

Tags : Attracting Clients, Content Marketing, converting readers to clients, landing pages, sales pages, video marketing, web marketing, Wordpress sales pages

How to Make Social Proof Work Online

By Patsi Krakoff in Attracting Clients, Content Marketing, Online Marketing, Online Persuasion, Pathway to Profits

Do some client recommendations work better than others? Social proof is such a strong trigger for online action, it’s good to know what works best for your Web content marketing strategies.

In a previous post, What Clients Say, I reported on research that showed people selected travel destinations 20 percent more with a client recommendation and a photo of the reviewer.

Research studies show that some ratings and reviews will influence more than others: This report is taken from Dr. Susan Weinschenk’s book Neuro Web Design: What Makes Them Click:

We are most influenced when we know the person and the person is telling a story. But quite often, it’s unlikely we will actually know a person doing an online review, unless they are a well-known author or respected expert in the field.
We are somewhat less influenced when we don’t know them, but we can imagine them because their is a name, a company name, a link to their site, and maybe a persona description of them (like, for example, a stay-at-home mom, a runner, a CEO, a Ph.D.) Read More→

Tags : Attracting Clients, client stories, content marketing with blogs, converting readers to clients, landing pages, persuasion triggers, sales pages, social proof, testimonials

Online Persuasion: What Do Clients Say?

By Patsi Krakoff in Attracting Clients, Content Marketing, Online Persuasion, Pathway to Profits

How are you using client recommendations in your online content marketing? Do you add them as an afterthought?

Maybe you just collect them and put them on a separate page for testimonials? Or are they a major part of your content creation strategies?

Recommendations, testimonials and client stories are a powerful persuasion tactic. It’s one of the key persuasion triggers that get people to take action. It’s called social proof.

Robert Cialdini wrote about six weapons of influence in his landmark book Influence. Social proof is one of the most powerful mechanisms for triggering buying decisions. Here’s why:

Customer ratings and reviews are one of the ways we decide and choose to buy products online. I use them all the time to click and buy: I glance at the number of gold stars other people have given a book on Amazon, or a pair of tennis shoes on Nike.

If there are two pairs of shoes I’ve selected for my size and price, I’ll go with the one that has 5 stars over 4. Think about it: I don’t know these people, they may have feet completely different to mine, they may not play tennis as often as I do, or on the same court surfaces.

My foot is narrow and bony. Not everybody’s version of a comfortable fit is going to be mine. And I know this. But when I see a customer rave review and 5 stars, I’m all in.

Think about it: we let other people influence our buying decisions even when we have nothing in common with them.

We are heavily influenced by social persuasion, we can’t help it. Our brains respond to our strong need to belong and fit in, and it all happens in our unconscious minds.

Do these same persuasion tactics work for sites and businesses that aren’t selling physical products? Does social validation work for businesses selling services and experiences? Read More→

Tags : Attracting Clients, blog marketing, blog writing, Content Marketing, content marketing with blogs, converting readers to clients, persuasion triggers

Content Marketing Results: 18 Ways to NOT Get Blog Traffic

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

What do you need to know about about the way people read online to make your content marketing efforts pay off?

What are you doing or not doing on your blog that screws up your traffic?

At least a few times a week I get an email from a smart professional who struggles with making their web marketing work to get found, get known and get clients. Here’s a typical one…

“Okay, Patsi, I’ve been following you for a while now, and your blog writing tips have helped. I’m posting twice a week, but I’m still not getting comments, and my traffic stats stink. Can you take a look?”

Of course, I have to point people to my consulting services if they want me to spend time doing a good analysis and provide specific solutions.

But often the problems and the solutions are common and universal. I can almost predict where the low traffic problems come from based on looking at a lot of blogs over the last five years.

Here’s a general overview of things I see many people doing on blogs that don’t bring good results:

Frequency: Not posting enough
Headline: not compelling or even clear
Content: No clearly defined problem and solution, no answer to the “so what?” question
Content: No keyword usage in headline, first paragraph, or in body
Content: Too broad and general, need to hone it down to specifics, need to personalize it
Formatting: Too many long blocks of text, need shorter paragraphs, subheadings
Engagement: Too author-centric, not enough asking readers questions, addressing them as “you”
Engagement: Not enough client stories, no quotes from other people Read More→

Tags : Attracting Clients, blog content, blog formatting, blog marketing, blog traffic, blog writing, business blogging, content marketing with blogs, social media marketing, web marketing, web traffic search traffic

Blog Marketing: How Readers Find Your Business

By Patsi Krakoff in About Blogs, Content Marketing, Online Marketing, Pathway to Profits, Social Media Stuff

What’s your favorite excuse for not blogging for your business? Here are some that I hear:

“I don’t have time to blog.”
“My clients aren’t surfing the Web reading blogs.”
“Oh, that means I’ve got to write about my business every week?”

And yet, if these same professionals realized that a business blog is the best way to get found online, the best way to connect with potential clients, and the pathway to turning readers into clients, they might see things a little differently.

Here’s a drawing I made that shows how readers find your blog and become clients.

There are over a billion people connected to the Internet. I’m willing to bet my lunch money that quite a few of them fall into the category of “your ideal clients.”

It’s not likely they go online looking for you, your business or your blog. I’m not saying that. But they do go to search engines and they type in questions with keywords.

And they do go to Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Here’s what this looks like, how readers find your blog, in this Smart Draw diagram I did: