Writing On The Web by Patsi Krakoff, The Blog Squad

Content Marketing Strategies for Smart Professionals

Finding Creativity Juice: Under a cactus in Mexico?

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

Do you love your brain, love searching for a great idea that will grab your readers' attention, and just pull them into reading your blog post or white paper?

Or is the creative writing process like pulling teeth without the novocaine…? For many of the professionals I work with, writing is time consuming, and even painful… like fingernails scratching across a blackboard.

It's hard, slow work giving birth to a piece of content that will solve a problem and entertain at the same time. In a recent Copyblogger piece, The Three Essentials of Breakthrough Content Marketing, Sonia Simone writes:

"High-quality content trains your readers and listeners to keep opening your stuff. It rewards them for doing what you want them to do. That means that every piece of content you write has to either solve a problem your audience cares about or it has to entertain them. Preferably both."

Sheesh. I know what you're thinking. "I'm a consultant, coach, … expert in xyz, not Hemingway!"

I'm not either, but what I've learned about writing on the web and content marketing isn't rocket science.

I struggle with finding things to write about on this blog. I've written a ton of information here about writing great newsletters and blog posts, as well as white papers and articles to increase your visibility. Sometimes it feels like I've already written as much as I have to say. There's nothing new, it's been done before.

White Papers: A Key Piece of Your Content Marketing,
Especially Offline

By Patsi Krakoff in Buying Content, Content Marketing, On Writing Better, Writing Great White Papers

I'm working on a white paper for one of my long term clients. I had a flash back: it reminded me of my first journalism assignment when I was a cub reporter for the San Diego Union Tribune. That was 50 years ago! I feel like I've come full circle back to my first job and first love: writing about people.

If you don't have a white paper you can use for your marketing, think about doing this. My client has plenty of web pages up and does a superb e-newsletter (I know this because I help him with his!)

But as he says, "My clients are CEOs and high-level directors of companies. They don't spend much time online. I need something tangible, printed, that I can leave behind after a meeting, or send to them before."

How Chip Scholz Gets Content Marketing Right
(even if it hurts…)

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

On a recent post about leveraging what you know to help other people online, one of my favorite clients, Chip Scholz, commented:

Great post, Patsi. Thanks for reminding me of the power of writing, and of delivering great content. I find writing extremely time consuming and almost painful! How can I find ways of making it easier and less time consuming? Do you have any suggestions on resources (other than you of course!)

Time consuming and painful, ah, yes. And the pain is where, exactly? I'm a doctor, but help me out here, Chip. I'm a doctor of psychology, so if the pain is anywhere in your body, you've come to the wrong place.

Chip's off speaking, consulting and coaching somewhere, earning big bucks doing what he does best, so I'll have to work with what's showing on his web pages. I'm going to answer his question based on his content marketing.

What I'm seeing for Chip's online visibility is content marketing on the following pages:

Website: ScholzandAssociates.com
Blog: Leader Snips
Book landing page: Selling for Geniuses
Twitter: ChipScholz

4 Ways to Keep Your Brain Healthy:
Think Heart, Eat Happy

By Patsi Krakoff in Coaching/Personal Development, Managing Your Ezine & Blog Tasks, On Writing Better

Yesterday I gave a talk at the Lake Chapala Society about "4 Ways to Keep Your Brain Healthy." As a former psychologist, I have a passion for sharing what neuroscientists are discovering about the brain.

The four areas you need to pay attention to for your brain are mental challenges, cardio exercise, healthy diet, and happiness. I call this the "Think-Heart-Eat-Happy" brain program.

The most important thing to do for your brain, at any age, is to get regular physical exercise that raises your heart rate to around 60-70% of maximum. This will elevate levels of BDNF: Brain Derived Neurotropic Factor, a protein that is crucial for the growth of neurons and their communication networks. It's called "Miracle Gro" for the brain, it's that important.

Do You Understand the Archimedes Effect?

By Patsi Krakoff in Content Marketing

I love my job. My boss lets me play tennis everyday, as long as I get my work done. I'm joking, of course, since I'm self-employed. I really do have a dream life. So how can you do the same thing, leverage what you know, teach it to others, and make money working from home doing what you love?

Today I read about the Archimedes Effect from Chris Brogan, who's new book is called Trust Agent:

The Archimedes Effect

Understanding leverage is what separates the hobbyists from the professionals. Do you understand how to take what you’re doing in one instance and extend it out into something bigger or better elsewhere? This is what brought Madonna from just another singer into being a worldwide brand.

Leverage is behind all the most powerful people in the world, but it all starts somewhere. Gary Vaynerchuk leveraged his wine store into his video project and took that into his media project and his book deal. Gary bleeds leverage.

Do you understand the Archimedes Effect?

Don’t Forget Facebook: Here’s a Big Source of Readers

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

I'm really upset at the recent article about Facebook over on Copyblogger. Here I've been spending valuable and scarce free time over on Twitter, ignoring Facebook. Now I've just found out I might be missing a crucial traffic builder.

I'm not completely missing the boat, I do have some presence over there at Facebook, just not visiting it daily. My blog posts and twitter updates are automatically fed into my Facebook page. It's a good thing, too. Turns out there's a huge pool of potential readers on Facebook and we need to be nurturing them too.

Go read this article and make up your own mind about where to spend your marketing minutes…

How Facebook is Gunning for Google (And Killing SEO) by Mike Wasylik

(And for those of you who care why I've been so absent on blogs and emails lately, I've been in an intensive Spanish course for the past two weeks. It's beginning to cramp my work and play time, and anyone who knows me will understand that my time on the tennis courts is sacred. You can shorten my work day, but don't you dare try to shorten my tennis time. Something has to go, and it's my time spent blogging, tweeting and surfing other sites … Pero hablo bien Espanol ahora!)

Best Tip for Using Twitter?

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

What is your one tip on how B2B marketers should leverage social media? This is what I was asked by ClickDocs, a great source of information on content marketing. You can read other insights from other experts here. Here’s my answer:

Small business professionals who want to attract people for their products and services through Twitter often start off on the wrong foot. They look at it and answer the question, “What are you doing?” Who cares?

Start off by doing a search for keywords in your field. Use the search button at the bottom of the page and type in “Need help with …XYZ” and see what comes up.

On any day, people are asking for help with things on Twitter. You can answer their questions, refer them to your blog, and offer to help. Be sure to follow them when you do.

5 Key Principles of Content Marketing

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

I know a lot of people trying to figure out how to supplement their incomes with an Internet business. Some of them ask me how to go about it. While that's a huge endeavor involving many pieces, the key is writing on the web using content marketing.

What you publish on web pages works to attract a targeted audience of people who are interested in finding solutions to their problems.

Remember, the number one reason people use the Web is to get information.

That's why I recommend starting with a blog. A blog is a communications and publishing tool you can use to attract readers, those people who are your ideal prospects. Of course the next question is "What do I write about?"

That's where you need to learn how to do Content Marketing.

What are the principles of Content Marketing to abide by? Here are some good tips from Velocity UK, a marketing consultancy firm who just published a great B2B Content Marketing Workbook.

Content marketing plays by different rules than traditional, ‘broadcast-style’ marketing, here are some of the key ones:

MindTram Is a Gold Mine for Book Lovers

By Patsi Krakoff in Books, Content Marketing, On Writing Better

I'm a firm believer in reading books and am amazed at how many people don't read them daily. I carry my Kindle with me and if I have to wait, I use the time to read.

(I read a quote somewhere and can't find it now, but it said something like …'one who can read books but doesn't is on a par with one who can't read'. I think it was Oscar Wilde but like I said, I can't find it now. Let me know if it rings a bell for you.)

I am thrilled to find a site called MindTram by Colin Ude-Lewis. Colin does what I do: reads and marks up books with yellow highlighter and makes notes. But he goes a step further. He makes his notes available to you. I've just signed up for his service, Wisdom Notes.

For a small subscription fee, you can get his notes and quotes on a huge library of self-development, philosophy and business books. This is a true treasure trove for anyone who loves books, and loves expanding their thinking and knowledge. It's also a great source of content ideas for blogs and newsletters.

Colin is an executive coach in Europe at Lewis Fields.

Content Marketing Is “Issues” Marketing: Velocity UK

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

I just heard about this on Twitter and downloaded a fab content marketing ebook published by Velocity UK, a consulting-led B2B marketing agency specializing in technology markets.

Doug Kessler is the author, it's well designed and power-packed. Please go download it here: The B2B Content Marketing Workbook – Thought Leadership for B2B Lead Generation and Beyond.

What stands out for me – besides the great design – is the melding of concepts of thought leadership and content marketing. And making the link between "issues" and content marketing. (Reminds me of a Friends sitcom clip where one of the girls repeats "He's got issues!")

Think about it. In this beautiful Web 2.0 world, you no longer write about your products and services. It's all about the issues your customers have. We should be calling this Issue Marketing to be real.