You may have heard me say this before…As The Blog Squad, I’ll come right out and tell you that blogs are the best darn content marketing tool on the planet!

But maybe you don’t see it that way. You may have a blog and find it a pain to keep up. Maybe you tried blogging for a while, but you didn’t see big benefits for your business.

I hear these complaints from people all the time…

And quite frankly, after all the effort, what’s the big deal? If it’s not bringing in clients, sales and money, why waste time posting on a blog?

Read More→

As a former psychologist with a passion for how our minds and brains work, I'm writing this series of blog posts about how neuroscience contributes to content marketing.

When you write to readers on the web, you have an opportunity to connect and engage with people  globally. What an opportunity, and what a daunting challenge.

What can we learn about the human brain that makes it easier for us to write good content that works?

So far, I've stressed how important it is to compel people to read your stuff, including:

• Brain Based Blogging: Lessons from Neuroscience for Content Marketing
• Compelling Content: What Are Readers' Hot Buttons?
• Business Blogs Deliver Content Marketing: 4 Keys to Great Results
• How to Turn Your Blog into a Content Marketing Ferrari

The lessons so far are that you must:

Read More→

 In the brain, emotions are closely linked to action. In our mammalian past, they were the single most important function of our brains. Our survival depended on quick action.

Feelings do not require reflection or thought. We feel, we act. We think later and justify our actions based on input from our more highly advanced reasoning brain.

Strong feelings are hot-wired into the brain's action centers, provoking any one of the "F" actions:

• Feeding
• Fleeing
• Fighting
• Fornicating

Emotions are simple and clear so that action is easy and fast. This is built into our brains for very clear reasons of survival as a race. We wouldn't be here talking about content marketing if our ancestors hadn't become good at all four "F" actions.

Maybe our current culture of consumerism means our brains are now hot-wired to react differently to our emotions? Maybe instead of feeding, we grab a snack, we argue or write snarky responses, and we make purchases over the internet. These things won't necessarily contribute to our survival, but they do satisfy the need for action and instant gratification.

Read More→

 How do you write compelling content that attracts and engages readers? Ahhh, that question again…(followed usually by how do you turn readers into buyers?)

First, let's deal with the compelling content thing. Your content isn't going to market a thing if you don't reach inside the heads and hearts of your readers.

Obviously it's all about your readers. The better you know who they are and what they like, the easier it is to write content for them.

Use emotional words and phrases, and think about triggering their hot buttons. There are universal drives and human motivators. It doesn't matter if your reader is a 20-year-old gamer or a 70-year-old retired professor. Human beings are all driven by hot button motivators. (See the excellent book by Barry Feig for more about this: Hot Button Marketing: Push the Emotional Buttons that Get People to Buy). Some of these are:

What drives your readers? How can you test your assumptions? Maybe you could push a few buttons to see what reaction you get?

Read More→