Writing On The Web by Patsi Krakoff, The Blog Squad

Content Marketing Strategies for Smart Professionals

I Had Twitter for Breakfast…

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

Twitter is eating me up. I start my work day just fine, but then I got distracted by an article on Twitter in Time Magazine, and an hour later woke up from Twitter plunging.

If you're still scratching your head about how to use it, or if you should use it or not, here's a series of articles from Time that will help you decide:

How Twitter Will Change the Way We Live

10 Ways Twitter Will Change American Business

Top Ten Celebrity Twitter Feeds

Let's put it this way: you can waste time with Twitter, or not. It can be a BIG source of traffic back to your blog or website, if you use it properly. At the minimum, you should set it up so your blog updates are automatically fed into your Twitter updates. Use TwitterFeed.com for this.

If you're a small business looking to sell products and services to other businesses, you need to start using Twitter. I don't know about other social networking sites. Well, I do know about them (Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.) but I'm just not spending time on those like I do on Twitter.

A Story Teller’s Mindset:
Key to Great Content Marketing

By Patsi Krakoff in About Blogs, Content Marketing, On Writing Better, Online Marketing, Writing for the Web, Writing Great Blog Content

The hardest thing about writing good content for marketing is coming up with stories to tell. There's no lack of knowledge, or research, or interesting concepts to blog about, or to write white papers about.

I read one or two books a week, full of interesting information I can share with you here. But it's dry without my telling you a story of how that information comes to life in the real world.

What's needed is a story-teller's mindset. I'm working on that, but it's not something that comes naturally to me. I'm observing people who have that already.

Like Eric, Tall Eric, down at the tennis courts. If I mention coffee, he's got a story. Okay, so that can be a bit annoying if you're in a hurry, but he's usually got my attention for a couple of minutes. There may be a point to his story…or not.

Confirmation Biases: More Brain-Based
Content Marketing

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

There are two ways to communicate about a problem, the traditional way and the brain-based way. This goes for writing a blog post, an email, a web page, an article, or a newsletter. In fact, for all of your content marketing, think about how your readers may be reacting to what you say.

Traditionally, the way to write about a problem, the way I was taught in graduate school and the way most of us in business or academia were taught, is to:

Define the problem
Analyze the problem
Provide options
Recommend a solution

Let's look at a better way, based on research from brain-based neuroscience:

1. Get attention
2. Stimulate desire
3. Reinforce with reasons

Do You Commit These 2 Blog Writing Errors?

By Patsi Krakoff in About Blogs, Content Marketing, Grammar & Common Usages, On Writing Better

Uh-oh. When I heard the siren I pulled over immediately. But this cop isn't like most. She's the grammar police, a business communications expert. This is what Barb Sawyers has to say in this week's guest post:

Bloggers, I love your raw energy. After decades of writing for often-stuffy business and government leaders, it's exhilarating to ride your wave.

But, there are two things you do that drive me crazy. So listen grasshopper, as I reveal the two of the most closely guarded secrets of the masters.

I'm not going to make you relearn all those boring grammar rules from school, just two easy ones that will help readers understand and remember what you've written.

They are:

Confusing sound-alike contractions and possessives (e.g. it's; its). By doing this, you not only look bad, but also become more difficult to understand.
Unnecessarily long lists. Ask yourself: how many items can I remember if I forget my grocery list?

Good Is the Enemy of Great Content Marketing

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

Read this post: How Martha Stewart's Cupcakes Can Help You Find Inspiration by Francis Raymond on Connect the Docs Blog. Besides being a clever headline, and even if, like me, you don't like cupcakes, this post tells you a couple of ways to spice up your blog writing.

Go read stuff outside your field.
Research what other people are doing and writing.

This is why I've been running a series about what other people are doing with content marketing. You may understand everything about your field. But do you understand what others struggle with and excel at in your field?

If you're not reading your competitors' and colleagues' stuff, how can you know? There's good stuff out there, very good stuff. And a lot of bad stuff and just so-so stuff. You can get inspired by the good, bad and the mediocre.

Even if your stuff is clearly way out in front…it can be better. Here's a quote from author Jim Collins about this:

Good is the enemy of Great.

Collins says the reason we have so few great companies, great schools and great governments is because we've got so many good ones. We stop trying. It's true for your blog, your writing on the web, and your content marketing.

HerMentorCenter Does Content Marketing
How Barb Sawyers Does Content Marketing
How John Agno Does Content Marketing
Sales Autopsy: Alive and Kickin'

HerMentorCenter Does Content Marketing – a Review

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

Content Marketing Review for Phyllis Goldberg, Ph.D. and Rosemary Lichtman, Ph.D. www.HerMentorCenter.com: These two dynamic women are writing a book about healing family relationships, and to attract a following they are writing on a website and blog, NourishingRelationships.com.

They're attracting a following of mid-life people who face family issues caring for both adult children and aging parents. When they won the Content Marketing Review Contest, I was interested to see how their content marketing efforts are bringing the results they would like. Here's the review:

“Her Mentor Center – Mentoring women through mid-life”

The first paragraph on the home page is:

Are you facing mid-life challenges?

Perhaps you are in the midst of relationship, health or career transitions. You are not alone. Millions of other boomer women are searching for solutions. We the Mentors have been there, learned from our experience, and are here to guide you.

Let Her Mentor Center™ support and empower you.

How Barb Sawyers, Newsletter Expert,
Does Content Marketing

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

I've been asking people what content marketing means to them for their businesses. And I've been getting some interesting responses that I'm featuring here. Hopefully, you will gain a better understanding of what this popular buzz term means to people like yourselves, in small businesses.

This response is from Barb Sawyers, who runs the successful site Stickemail, Communications that Stick, and the blog, Sticky Communications. Barb has had mixed results from her efforts so far, and candidly expresses a few doubts. She'd like to see more action, more quickly, yet wants to avoid the "hard sell" copywriting of many internet marketers. Perhaps some of you can relate?

Q: What does Content Marketing mean to you in your business?

I was thrilled to discover content marketing because it gave a new respectability to what I've been doing for the past 30 years. I'm a corporate communication writer, with the first half my career in government, associations and the private sector and the last half as an independent. I have never enjoyed hard-sell marketing communication, but love writing for people who want to educate and inspire.

Q: How are you doing it now?

How John Agno, Leadership Coach,
Does Content Marketing

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

I've been asking you to think about what content marketing means to your business, and how are you using it in your niche.

John Agno, a fabulous leadership coach I've known for some time now, has been calling himself an "infomediary", long before the term 'content marketer' ever became popular. Here are his answers to my questions. (See the post The Content Marketing Two-Step Trap for background.)

Dear Patsi,

Your questions:

• What works for you in your business?
• What kinds of content work to attract and stay in touch with readers, build your KLT factor (Know, Like & Trust), and makes sales?

The thread that goes through my executive/business coaching practice is "leadership."

Sub-categories are:

1. Coaching women executives/business owners in succeeding by better understanding how their male boss, peers and customers think–in order to succeed in their business and/or career.

The Content Marketing Two-Step Trap

By Patsi Krakoff in Content Marketing, Managing Your Ezine & Blog Tasks, On Writing Better, Online Marketing

Every where you go on the Web these days you hear blog and Twitter talk about "Content Marketing."

Seems it's the new buzz word among Internet marketers. But if you're like me, an independent professional who does her own marketing, and who doesn't use paid advertising, you're no stranger to Content Marketing. You've already been doing it.

Anytime you write content on the Web (or elsewhere) you present yourself, your personality, and your knowledge so that readers get to know you. They like you (you hope!), they begin to trust you, and they eventually become clients or customers, or at least regular readers.

Or not. It's not always easy to write quality content that works to actually bring in business.

Although it seems self-evident, it's not. Why not?

Can You Be Nice AND Sell the Sh*t Out of Your Stuff?

By Patsi Krakoff in Content Marketing, On Writing Better, Online Marketing, Teleclasses & Seminars

A smart biz mentor once told me that success is in the 1% nuances. He said the difference between someone selling and making money online and someone doing all the work and NOT making money is in the details, those little tweaks to your email and web copy content marketing.

If you're like me, you don't want to come across like an internet marketing sleeze-bag and hype yourself up so bad you're embarrassed to read your own stuff. Especially if you're selling your own writing or services. There's something funny about selling yourself.

I just had a sale on my article and e-newsletters subscriptions and boy, did it start out slow. Happily, it ended with a bang of new orders. So I had a chance to analyze my own marketing efforts. Here's what I found.