Archive for content marketing with blogs – Page 16

Content Marketing to the Male Brain

By Patsi Krakoff
Tuesday, November 9th, 2010

What can we learn from brain science about how to market to men?

79% of men are alienated and barely able to recognize themselves in the ads portraying their gender (Business Week, 2006)

The Old Spice site has some great TV clips that do a good job of appealing to men’s views of themselves, using humor and exaggerations of stereotypes.

Here’s what else grabs the attention of male brains…

Attention: They live in the ‘now.’ They are concrete thinkers that like to consummate, finish. Men are goal-oriented. A male axiom is “get it done.”

Men are interested in power and in looking good, even more than being good.

Time– Men tend to hone in, more quickly than women, on what they’re looking for. Men are not browsers. A male motto, “Get what I want and move on.”  Provide clear links to what they are looking for.

Causality– Men are concrete and tend to tightly focus their awareness. Their notion of cause and effect is linear and men are visually-oriented because of this concrete perspective.

Seeking clarity, men create absolute distinctions: black-white, yes-no. First- last, winner-loser.

Men like to feel unique and special, and as such they will follow their gurus, heroes and sports stars and teams.

Celebrity endorsements and affiliation – If Michael Jordon wears them, they’re good enough for men.

Look at Steve Jobs, Richard Branson: If the company president is a rebel and a renegade, then others will join their cause and identify with the company and their products.

Other people – For the male it’s every man for himself. Men prize individuality and self-reliance. They conceive of other people as “my competition.“

They ask, “What will your product do to make me better than the others?”

Look at Razerzone.com, a manufacturer of PC gaming hardware such as mice. This company publishes a gaming guide to show “noobs” how to rapidly improve their online game scores. It’s a list builder that is responsible for the company going from a list of 8,000 to 200,000 in less than 2 years.

It’s their key content marketing piece, and there are others. The president, RazerGuy, has his own blog, and they have active participation on Facebook. There are even Razer fan sites built by evangelists, and many tattoo the company logo, a three-headed snake, on their bodies.

Categories : About Blogs, Attracting Clients, Content Marketing, Online Marketing
Tags : , , , , , , ,

The Senior Brain: How to Market to Oldies but Goodies…

By Patsi Krakoff
Monday, November 8th, 2010

Something’s wrong with the way marketers are trying to reach people over 65. I know this from personal experience.

I am learning new stuff about the brain all the time, and since I have one myself, older brains are particularly interesting to me.

If marketers don’t get wise to the way seniors perceive their marketing messages they are are in for a rude awakening. Marketing to the older brain isn’t done by showing pictures of frail people, confused people, or trying to frighten them into buying stuff.

Wake up, folks. “Seniors,” doesn’t mean senile. Older people aren’t all decrepit and stupid. Not only that, but we’ve got more of the money, honey.

Let’s just take the young seniors, those Baby Boomers who are just coming of age now. The 44 million baby boomers are maturing rapidly, and represent the richest generational cohort in history. In the US, they control 77% of all financial assets. They use ½ of all credit cards, and spend 2½ times the per capita average on discretionary purchases.

The level of spending by those over 45 will soon exceed that of people between 18 and 39 by $1 trillion US. Yet, despite these statistics, only 10 percent of all branded marketing target older consumers (Wolfe and Snyder, 2003).

I know that neither myself, my husband or any of my friends of similar ages are attracted to the way seniors are depicted in marketing messages.

Some of us don’t use a cane or a walker. We actually play sports and even dress like younger peeps.

Here are a few facts about the older brain and how it likes to be marketed to. Read More→

Categories : Attracting Clients, Content Marketing, Online Marketing, Online Persuasion
Tags : , , , , , ,

Content Marketing Optimized for Search Engines

By Patsi Krakoff
Wednesday, November 3rd, 2010

How can you learn basic search marketing for blogging in 5 minutes or less? Do what all the smart and savvy bloggers and content marketers do: use Scribe.

At the end of this post I’ll give you a link for a special discount code which expires on Friday November 5, 2010 at 5 p.m. CT. In case you don’t understand what Scribe can do for you, here’s the best way I can describe it, along with a screen shot of what a Scribe report looks like.

Scribe SEO Copywriting is a practical tool you install and use for each blog or web pages you want to publish. Once installed, you can get a report BEFORE you publish, which tells you how optimized your content is for search engines.

Before I started using Scribe, I assumed (because I’m pretty smart and I’ve been getting good search results) that if I wrote quality headlines and posts, using the keyword phrases I wanted to focus on, those little search robots would be pleased…

Wrong! By using Scribe, I learned which pages and posts were getting 100% scores… and which were only ranking 52%, 78%, and 90% with the little darling spiders. In seconds, after writing a draft, a report is generated, telling me what’s wrong with my headline, use of keywords, description, etc.

All I have to do is make a few corrections and usually I can get a 100% score on the 2nd try.

Trust me, I’m no geek. This is so easy a 3rd grader can use it. Do yourself a favor and try it out, you can always unsubscribe from the monthly fee ($27 for 300 analyzes a month). I am an affiliate, I recommend it, and I love it.

Here is a sample analysis… Read More→

Categories : Content Marketing, Online Marketing
Tags : , , , , , , , ,

Business Blogging: Blast Past the Blunders

By Patsi Krakoff
Wednesday, November 3rd, 2010

Here’s how to bust out of blog oblivion: Blogging 101: 6 weeks to Confident Blogging with the Queen of WordPress, Suzanne Bird-Harris.

The latest survey of small biz professionals revealed most people struggle with “Time:” 72% say they don’t have enough time to update their blog.

But we often say that, when in fact the reason we don’t have time is because we’re not sure what exactly what we’re supposed to be doing, or how to do it.

Once you master a skill, you can get it done quickly. And, if you’re successful at it, you want to do it again and again.

Here’s what the survey reveals:

  1. 72% struggle with enough time to blog
  2. 54% of people say they struggle  to know what to write about
  3. 52% aren’t sure how to apply SEO strategies to increase the reach of their blog

No wonder people run out of time. If you sit down to blog and have to figure out these two important things (#2 and #3), well, there goes your day!

To remedy this, Suzanne and I are going to teach the solutions to #1 and #2: blog writing and SEO workshop in January 2011.

In the meantime, get prepared by mastering the basics. If you’re struggling with your WordPress blog, don’t miss Suzanne’s Blogging101 workshop: 6 Weeks to Confident Blogging. (Don’t miss the early bird discount – you must sign up by Friday, Nov. 5,  2010 to save $50.)

You can read more about the details of the 6 week workshop on Suzanne’s Blogging101 web page here.

Here’s what one of her clients said about her: Read More→

Categories : About Blogs, Content Marketing, Ezine & Blog Classes, Online Marketing, Teleclasses & Seminars
Tags : , , , , , , , ,

Search Engine Results: 3 Tips for Savvy Bloggers

By Patsi Krakoff
Tuesday, November 2nd, 2010

I don’t know why it took me so long to learn this SEO stuff, but I DO know that I wouldn’t post one more blog post without using Scribe SEO Tool. Thank you thank you, Brian Clark of Copyblogger. You’ve saved me from oblivion.

At first I thought, an SEO tool? – well, that must be for programmers and geeky types. Why would I mess with that, I’ve got too much information packed into my brain and the thought of learning SEO secrets made my head swim. Besides, blogs are naturally search engine friendly…Then I thought, oh heck, I trust Brian Clark, let’s give it a whirl and I can always unsubscribe after a month.

I can’t live without it now. I just love it when it tells me I’ve got a 100% score on a blog post. Now, when I hit publish, I’m confident my post will be understood for the right reasons by those search spiders. Read More→

Categories : Content Marketing, Online Marketing
Tags : , , , , , , , ,

Smart Time-Saving Tips on Blogging…

By Patsi Krakoff
Monday, November 1st, 2010

What are the steps you need to follow to ensure each blog post is optimized for search engines as well as for your readers’ interests? Oh my… there are a lot. But to keep me out of overwhelm, I wrote them down, and put them into a flow chart.

This is good for days when I’m brain dead and likely to forget something important. But it’s also a good chart for anyone working with a V.A. or assistant who needs to take over some of the tasks for you.

I recently designed and recorded a presentation for the Content Marketing Institute on everything that goes into creating and publishing a quality blog post. It’s published on a neat tool called Brain Shark: you make a power point presentation, then record the notes over the phone. How neat is that?

I’d like to share it with you here. Tell me what you think:

I realized after I watched this that my diagrams are way too small on this screen. So I’ve decided to republish them below, larger.

And here is the flow chart of all the steps I use for posting on my blog: Read More→
Categories : Content Marketing, How to...Tips, Managing Your Ezine & Blog Tasks, Online Marketing, Social Media Stuff
Tags : , , , , , , , , , ,

Basic Human Motivation: 4 Ways to Engage Readers

By Patsi Krakoff
Thursday, October 28th, 2010

As content marketers, if you are writing content designed to persuade and influence, you need to know what makes people tick.

There are universal drives that are common in all human beings, across cultures, across the globe. When you create content that appeals to either of these four basic drives, you can’t help but engage the hearts and minds of readers on a profound level.

We can learn a lot from evolutionary studies. Our brains haven’t changed much, nor have our fundamental motivations.

I suggest a frame work for understanding basic human motivations: the Four Drive Theory, presented by Professors Paul R. Lawrence and Nitin Noria in their 2001 book Driven: How Human Nature Shapes Our Choices.

There are many theories about what motivates behaviors, but I like this Four Drive theory because it is based on studies of primitive man, primitive societies, and the evolution of brain functioning over the last 100,000 years.

It doesn’t matter if you view humans as being motivated according to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, or Freud’s Pleasure/Pain framework, or any other drive theory. What matters for marketing is that you understand basic human drives, and what drives peoples’ behaviors at their most fundamental sources.

This theory doesn’t exclude other theories, but as a framework for marketing, I think it works quite well. Keeping these four things in mind, you can create more effective marketing that reaches the subconscious brains of your consumers.

These four fundamental drives motivate all human beings. Some are stronger drives than others, but we all have all four operating in the background of our lives.

Neuroscientists and anthropologists know that our brains haven’t changed much over the last 100,000 years. We are still driven by four key motivators. Everything the brain does is strongly motivated by these four drives:

  1. The drive to acquire objects and experiences that improve our status relative to others.
  2. The drive to bond with others in long-term relationships of mutually caring commitment.
  3. The drive to learn and make sense of the world and of ourselves.
  4. The drive to defend ourselves, our loved ones, our beliefs and resources from harm. Read More→
Categories : Content Marketing, On Writing Better, Online Marketing, Online Persuasion
Tags : , , , , , ,

Engaging Content: Get Emotional, Really Emotional

By Patsi Krakoff
Wednesday, October 27th, 2010

How can content  marketers create content that engages – truly engages – the emotions of readers?

When Harry Met Sally, Sally insisted men could never tell when women were faking an orgasm. To prove it, she demonstrated her own audio version, fully clothed, sitting in a crowded restaurant. The diners at Katz’ Deli were shocked and amused, as were millions of movie goers.

The scene features one of the funniest lines ever, “I’ll have what she’s having,” spoken  by Estelle Reiner, the director’s mother who played one of the restaurant patrons.

This is important stuff for content marketers to grasp and use when creating content that engages the hearts and minds of readers.

If you want your readers to be so moved that they ask you for some of what “she’s having,” then make your stories emotional.

Scientists have shown that humans have an innate ability to feel what others feel through neurons called mirror neurons. These are what allow us to feel empathy, to put ourselves in someone else’s shoes.

Our brain neurons fire just as if we were actually doing or feeling what we see another human doing or feeling. Each time you tell a story about a client, we put ourselves into the picture.

Telling stories about clients who use your services and products isn’t just a marketing tactic. It’s neuroscience in action. Your readers can feel the pain of the client who was frustrated, angry, disappointed… and feel their relief when you helped them out. In those moments, they are that client, they get it. They are right there in the story.

How many of you did that when you watched Meg Ryan fake an orgasm? The director tells us that in test showings, the women in the audience were all laughing. The men were silent. Maybe they were worried…  I don’t know. For sure, no one was bored or unengaged…

Try to imagine the feelings your audience of readers will experience when you tell a story. Will it make them want “some of what you’ve got?”

Categories : Attracting Clients, Content Marketing, On Writing Better, Online Marketing
Tags : , , , , , , ,

Content Marketing with Blogs: New edition

By Patsi Krakoff
Tuesday, October 26th, 2010

Want to know more about online persuasion and how you can write content that gets results? Here’s a quick one minute video promoting my Content Marketing with Blogs ebook, newly revised. The formatting and design was done by my son-in-law, expert graphic designer and creative genius, Scott Krakoff. Tell me what you think…

If you haven’t downloaded it yet, be my guest: Content Marketing with Blogs…

Categories : About Blogs, Attracting Clients, Content Marketing, Online Persuasion
Tags : , , , ,

Neuromarketing Books for Marketing to Brains

By Patsi Krakoff
Sunday, October 24th, 2010

If you want to know more about how to write content that makes an impact on the brains of your readers, here are some interesting sites and books about the emerging field of neuromarketing.

There are new neuromarketing companies and books galore, and I believe most offer important clues for content marketers. Here are a few of my favorites:

Read More→

Categories : Content Marketing, On Writing Better, Online Marketing, Online Persuasion, Writing Great Copy
Tags : , , , , , , ,
« Previous Page
Next Page »

Content for Coaches and Consultants

Serenity Virtual Assistant Services

Social Buzz Club

get your bright idea known