3 Underrated Topics That Can Enhance and Empower Your Blog

Here we go again, encountering that most dreaded of nemeses: the blank screen. If you maintain a blog, you probably face this recurring battle about as enthusiastically as your next root canal appointment. We bloggers are always on the hunt for varied, entertaining, valuable subject matter we can share with our target audiences. But it can be all too easy to fall into a rut where you rehash the same handful of topics over and over, boring both yourself and your readers in the process. Additionally, it's just plain hard to find a hundred ways to spin the same article. Maybe it's time to start thinking out of the box by tapping some other kinds of blog posts -- posts that mix things up while still offering genuine interest and marketing value. Take a look at three powerful contenders that business owners often underrate or neglect.

Underrated Topic #1: The Employee Spotlight

Many company blogs spend most or all of their time addressing customer questions, needs, and concerns -- rightly so, since Google searches on these topics can lead directly to helpful blog posts on these subjects. You definitely want to keep creating a steady stream of such posts, but you should also take a little time to remind your audience of just how well-equipped your team is to tackle those challenges. So why not post a "Team Member of the Month" or "Meet Our Newest Team Member" article every once in a while? Introduce one of your specialists and mention that person's position, functions, background, credentials, industry experience, hobbies, et cetera. It's an easy write; after all, you've got their resumes on file, and you can email a simple questionnaire to get any other details that would enliven the article. Plus it helps your customers feel that they know you.

Underrated Topic #2: The Industry Update

You might be thinking, "Oh, none of my customers care about the ups and down of my industry." Think again! Changes in techniques, strategies, economic factors, cultural preferences, and other dynamics have a direct impact on your business -- which in turn can have a direct impact on how you serve your target market. This means that you can, how has the evolving EV market affected what kinds of cars people are buying? If you're in the electronics industry, what do your customers need to understand about the impact of supply-chain disruptions? It might feel like you're trading marketing for journalism, but you can spin these facts and figures back to the bottom line: why you're the knowledgeable expert your customers should continue to trust.

Underrated Topic #3: The Hearty Laugh

Enough of the serious stuff -- sometimes people just want and need a lighthearted break in their day. Believe it or not, you can make a big impact just by giving your target audience a laugh or two. Now, unless you're in the comedy business, you obviously don't want to devote your blog to nothing but yucks. However, an occasional humor-oriented piece does no harm, and it may in fact do your brand a world of good. You're not just a company; you're a team of witty, charming humans worth listening to, laughing with, and ultimately buying from. I throw out the odd "comedy" piece from time to time, such as my annual October post in which I relate common marketing challenges to Halloween horrors. It's fun for my audience, it's fun for me, and it still lets me address genuine marketing issues.

Give these three kinds of blog topics a try. I think you and your readers will appreciate the fresh dose of variety and vitality that results. I'm always happy to help you dream up and write these articles, so don't hesitate to reach out!

How to Make Your Blog Posts More Interesting

You may already understand that blogging can boost your business in many ways, from increasing your online authority and raising brand visibility to directing potential customers toward your website. So you have every right to feel frustrated when the hours of work you put into blog content creation yields nothing but the sound of crickets chirping. What went wrong? Sometimes you can trace the lack of interest to an erratic posting schedule, faulty SEO practices, or other strategic goofs. But you must also consider another possibility: blog content that simply doesn't grab your intended readers. If you think your blog articles lack that special something, take a look at some things you can to spiff them up.

Write for Your Audience, Not Yourself

You might be thinking, "I don't get why my audience doesn't love this blog content. i wrote it myself, and I think it's fascinating!" That's great, but you're forgetting one crucial fact: You're not your target audience. Your blog posts might convey compelling or even brilliant information that you and your peers would gladly lap up, but your customer base probably doesn't care about the specific technologies you employ, trends affecting your industry, or detailed explanations of how your products work. They may not even understand the buzzwords you're using, leaving them feeling bored, confused, or feeling like you're talking to somebody else -- which you are, unfortunately. Always ask yourself what your readers want to read and need to know before writing Word One of anything.

Let the Readers Into Your World

Even if your target audience doesn't care that much about the particulars of your industry, they can (and should) still feel a bond with you through the blog content you create. Look for exciting inside news that might spark their interest and build a blog post around it. Have you hired a brilliant new team member who has a lot to offer your customers? Write a post focused on that person. Did you recently solve a huge problem for a client? Create a little case history that explains how you came to the rescue, implying (of course) that you can do the same for the reader. Are you poised to release an amazing new product or service? Release a series of teaser posts that spark public interest and get your audience ready to buy. Do you need to address a recent challenge that potentially damages your image? Blog about it openly, stating your plan for correcting course and regaining trust.

Leverage Hot Topics

These days it seems like everybody in the world has their eyes glued to a favorite news feed, faithfully following the latest breaking headlines on everything from politics to fashion. You might find it all but impossible to compete against those hot topics. Luckily, you don't have to. Ever hear the saying, "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em?" Hop on the bandwagon by thinking up ways to bring those topics into your blog posts, either as a passing reference that segues into your real topic or as a subject that directly affects your audience's need for what you do. When you consider the immense flood of breaking news that seems to surround us every day, you can see how your potential for grabbing your audience's interest is equally endless.

Give Advice

Many of the individuals who land on a blog page may have done so as the result of Googling a specific concern or question, a problem that they need to figure out pronto. Since they clearly have a strong, immediate interest in that subject, you want their query to lead them to your blog post on that very subject, right? Think about what kinds of challenges your target market faces regularly and what kinds of advice you commonly dispense. Then create blog posts offering simple explanations and helpful tips for one challenge after another -- not neglecting to include your own products or services as one potential solution. Once you've built up a formidable arsenal of such posts, they should continue to pay off for weeks, months, or years to come by directing a stream of new and repeat traffic to your business.

Now that you know how to make your blog posts more interesting, you're ready to start dreaming up those compelling topics. Would you like some help from a creative professional with decades of blogging and marketing content creation experience? Contact me today so I can help you light that fire under your audience!

How to Make Your Content Creation Easier

So you're stuck with the task of writing your own website, blog, sales letter, press release, or email marketing content. Maybe you don't have a professional marketing person on your team, or maybe you just like doing things yourself. But there's no getting around the fact that marketing content creation can challenge your wits, patience, and sanity even under the best of circumstances. Sooner or later you'll find yourself staring at a blank screen without the slightest clue on how to move forward and produce the content your business urgently needs in a crowded, competitive marketplace. If you're already sweating creative bullets, here are some things you can do to make the process a bit easier and less stressful.

Start with a Plan

You can't know what content to write without first knowing who you're writing it for, what they need and want to read, and how to push their buttons so they'll respond to your call to action. That means doing your research and coming up with a buyer persona -- that imaginary person I've talked about before, one who fits all the demographics and characteristics of your ideal customer. Okay, now that you have your audience in mind, you can plan your content creation accordingly. If you intend to blog regularly, that means coming up with an editorial calendar (which I've also harped on in the past). Block out a whole year's worth of topics if possible. you can always tweak it as you go, but have some kind of plan in place to guide your way.

Use Topic Brainstorming Techniques

Do you hate having to come up with an endless stream of ideas for blog, email, or newsletter content? Talk about a brain drain! But fear not, because a few little ideation tricks can help prime the creative pump. For instance, you might start by thinking about your target audience. What nagging problem did they probably have recently? What aspects of your business seem to interest them the most? What's the most helpful advice you could give them right now? Answers may pop into your head with startling speed. If you can't dream up whole articles out of thin air, what about titles? Ray Bradbury used to type out title after title and then let each title suggest an entire story to him. Worth a try, right? 

Streamline Your Style

Do you tend to launch long, elaborate sentences and then get sort of lost halfway through them? Are you always struggling for just the right word? Maybe it's time you simplified your marketing content style and vocabulary. Focus on clear, simple statements in everyday language. Even if you work in some specialized technical field, your audience probably doesn't want to sift through a lot of technobabble. They just want the answer to that all-important question: "What can you do for me?" So streamline your style, clarify your points, and you'll find that your content becomes both more effective and less of a pain to write.

Draft Now, Fix Later

"Analysis paralysis" can strike anyone at any time, making even the most straightforward decisions needlessly agonizing. Unfortunately, it's especially common in the world of content creation. As long as that screen stays blank, you haven't made any mistakes -- and so the screen stays blank. If you're a perfectionist, you may stare at that blank screen forever, terrified that you'll write something that doesn't meet your lofty standards. But remember this: You can't fix what doesn't exist. Barf out that hopeless word salad of a draft, accept that it needs revision, and then revise it. Launch the ship, and then correct the course as needed.

I hope these tips help you move forward with your marketing content creation. If you'd rather engage professional assistance for this chore, put me to work as your freelance marketing copywriter. What could be easier than that?

How to Spark Your Content Writing Engine

If you're tasked with writing content for your business's website, blog, newsletter or press releases, you're writing content for professional use. And if you're tasked with doing enough of it enough of the time, you'll start to feel the pressure sooner or later, no matter how years of experience you have at it. What do you do when the blank screen suggests absolutely nothing to you? How do you get literary blood out that overworked cerebral turnip? It's a question we all have to contend with. Here are a few suggestions that I've found helpful.

Stop Thinking

Zoning out is more productive than you might realize. It might take the form of mild daydreaming about your writing project -- a process Kurt Vonnegut liked to call "woolgathering" -- or it might be closer to a Zen-like state in which you simply think of nothing at all. These practices are highly beneficial to a locked-up, stressed-out creative mind. It not only gives the gray matter a rest, but it also silences the merciless self-critic behind so many cases of writer's block. There's a reason Ray Bradbury kept a sign above his typewriter that read, "DON'T THINK."

Go for a Walk

Many of the great creative minds in history could just as well be dubbed "creative feet," favoring lengthy walks as they pondered the morning's work or the evening writing session to come. It makes a kind of sense if you think about it. The light exercise stimulates cardiovascular performance, pushing oxygenated blood through your brain and improving your mental efficiency. Walking can also be highly inspiring or about as interesting as watching paint dry -- and believe it or not, either of these reactions can give your creativity a boost. You might become charged with ideas from observing the local flora and fauna, or you might find your surroundings so deadly dull that you have nothing to think about except your writing. Walking can also relieve muscular tension, another potential distraction.

Sleep

"Sleeping on it" is more than just an expression; it's aalso a legitimate way to solve nagging questions and issues when you're working on a writing project (or any other project that requires creative problem solving). Many times my head has hit the pillow in a state of utter confusion, only to wake up with a sense of absolute clarity, the answer to my problem suddenly resembling child's play. Whether your subconscious mind pulled an all-nighter while you slept or your conscious mind just wasn't seeing the obvious due to nighttime fatigue, plenty of sleep can solve plenty of writing worries.

Write Anyway

If that writing project is due tomorrow and your brilliance engine just won't engage for love or money, sometimes all you can do is grit your teeth and write the thing. If you have the technique, you'll still manage to turn out respectable, professional-level work. If you're still learning your craft, the result might be rough around the edges -- but hey, that's what revisions are for. Feel your client out on this issue; some want the deadline treated as holy writ, while others will want you to take that extra day if it'll make a significant difference in the first draft. But writing reasonably well even when you're not "feeling it" is the hallmark of a pro.

One last note: Sometimes the best thing that ever happened to a creative project is the addition of a second point of view. If you feel like it's time to get another writer on board, you know who to call! I'll be sure to come running -- unless I'm busy daydreaming, walking, sleeping or writing, of course.

Staring at a Blank Screen? Remember These Content Creation Tips

Few sights can strike terror into the hearts of marketing content creators more quickly and brutally than a blank screen. You've probably been there; I certainly have. You sit there, mentally sweating bullets, wondering how you're supposed to turn all that nothing into something that sells. I've written about ideation before, and I doubtless will again, because it presents an ongoing challenge even for experienced writers. Then once you have the idea -- where do you allow that idea to take your content? When you're struggling to get your creative gears turning, keep the following helpful tips in mind.

Your Potential Buyer Has a Real-World Problem to Solve

Sometimes the sheer number of a business's available products and services can muddy the waters when it comes to marketing content creation. Where do you start? Well, you take a lot of the confusion out of the ideation stage by focusing on specific, individual challenges of pain points that you know your prospective buyers have. Let's say you're a roofer, for example. What worries keep your target audience members awake at night? Do they know that their roof is nearing the end of its projected lifespan? Do they see spots that might indicate damaging leaks? Do they have loose shingles littering the lawn after a storm?Do they need to spruce up their home's asking price by refurbishing the roof? These pain points give you a handle on which to hang your creative hat.

The Buyer's Problem Prompts Your Solution

Once you've described your prospective customer's needs in vivid detail, you've got that person saying, "Yes, you understand exactly what I'm dealing with! So, how can you help me?" This is your cue to segue directly into the solutions you offer. Describe in clear, simple, powerful terms exactly how you can relieve that person's pain through your products and services. Don't drown the reader in details; you can always provide details on individual web pages or (better yet) in a conversation that closes the sale. For now, focus on conveying a sense of emotional reassurance and excitement about the solution to a nagging problem.

The Bottom-Line Benefit Sells the Product or Service

When in doubt, rally your creative message around the bottom-line benefit of your product or service. Remember, your customers don't care how they get to the goal line -- they just want to make that big score. What bottom-line benefit do you provide? Well, at the end of the road, you make your customers happy. Maybe you achieve that goal by making them more physically comfortable or emotionally secure. Maybe you help them enjoy greater business efficiency or productivity, with an even deeper bottom line of helping them earn more money, which raises their quality of life and (guess what?) increases their happiness.

As you might imagine, hurdling these creative obstacles takes a certain amount of time, effort, and patience no matter how many mental triggers you employ. The more urgently you need to come up with that marketing content, and the more time your many other business activities demand, the more stress and pressure you may feel when you sit down to confront that blank screen (which, of course, doesn't exactly help you set your imagination free). If that's the problem you face, here's another helpful tip -- ask a professional marketing content writer to do the creative work for you!

Need Creative Input? Brainstorm with a Copywriter

I received a call not long ago from one of my regular collaborative partners, a firm that specializes in marketing strategies and campaigns for small businesses. The owner of the company was trying to come up with some fresh branding for one of her clients, but the combination of COVID-related distractions and an overly-busy schedule had left her feeling the need for a boost in the creativity department. Could I please give her a call to brainstorm slogans and angles with her for an hour or so? Well, sure I could.

Marketing agencies recognize the critical value of teamwork, even when they don't maintain a full team on the payroll at all times. Today's trend toward more nimble business models has encouraged agencies to subcontract content writing, graphic design, SEO, and other important pieces of a marketing project. Perhaps even more critically, it gives them as-needed access to a variety of specialists, with all the accumulated experience, skill, wisdom, and insight that those professionals possess.

Think of brainstorming as just one more service that a skilled marketing specialist can bring to your creative table. As early in the process as it may be, the brainstorming stage can produce some extraordinary forward leaps. Whether you need help with a current marketing campaign or a long-term approach to client promotion, you may find that hiring a writer to provide this early-stage input removes a lot of obstacles between you and your goals.

If you're business owner and you don't have your own marketing firm or department with whom you can knock ideas around, then you might find a creative consultation immensely helpful for your own campaigns and projects. I'm not a full-blown marketing strategist -- but as you see from the example above, even marketing strategists can use a second set of frontal lobes on occasion. Brainstorming with someone who employs a high degree of creativity for a living can help you dislodge old ideas, free yourself from inertia, and help you confirm that you're on the right path.

I've posted before about how business owners can sometimes lose perspective on their own products and services. If you find yourself in that situation, it's time to call in a third party -- preferably one who can look at your marketing with both objectivity and a certain level of professional insight. You'd be amazed at how well a simple comment such as, "Oh, so this what you're really trying to say" can suddenly bring your branding and messaging into sharp focus. Clear concepts permit clear planning and effective implementation.

Maybe what you need from your copywriter doesn't fall neatly into a category. Maybe you could really use a set of tag lines, or ten different metaphors for the same idea, or a fabulous punch line. Maybe you don't know what you need -- you just know that you need something. 

Contact an experienced freelance copywriter and borrow his brain. He'll be happy to rent it to you for a reasonable rate. Just give it back to him when you're done.

Fear Factor: Using Halloween in Your Marketing Content

Boo!

Halloween will be here before you know it. Actually, that's not true. You'll know it well in advance; in fact, you're probably already seeing evidence of it everywhere, from storefront displays to all the costumes and masks peering out ominously from supermarket shelves. If you want to promote your products and services as immediately and arrestingly as possible, it wouldn't hurt to add a touch of Halloween chill to your marketing content. Let's look at a couple of ways you can do just that.

Make Your Pain Statement Extra Scary

Written marketing content typically includes three main elements: a pain statement, a relief statement, and a call to action. The pain statement presents an irritating, inconvenient, frightening or embarrassing problem, dropping the readers right into the situation they're desperately seeking to avoid. The relief statement then allows you to swoop in like the cavalry with your problem-solving product or service. Finally, a call to action directs the readers to stop, reverse or prevent that agonizing issue right now by contacting you or making a purchase.

Halloween represents a golden opportunity for you to spice up your pain statement with some tried-and-true imagery. For instance, are your customers suffering from power-wasting "energy vampires" in the form of inefficient old electronics that need replacing? Do your customers hear things that go bump in the night -- things that could be silenced by your expert plumbing or HVAC services? Are your pest-control customers constantly fight off multi-legged "zombies" that keep coming back from the dead? A bit of Halloween can make your pain statement not only more clever, but also much more vivid.

Goof on Famous Halloween-ish Moments

Do you remember Jack Nicholson battering down a door with an axe to murder his family, a possessed Linda Blair's head doing a 180, or Bela Lugosi hypnotizing his unwary prey before unleashing his fangs? Of course you do; we all do. These moments have taken root deep in our popular culture -- which makes them ideal fodder for your Halloween marketing campaigns. They're so well known, in fact, that they lend themselves to parody. Think about how some of your favorite moments, images, and quotes from various scary movies could be put to good use in humorous TV and radio spots, direct mail postcards, email ads or blog articles. It's an easy, powerful way to connect with your audience through a shared experience.

Not all memorable Halloween tropes are scary ones. We've all seen hordes of children stumbling along the streets in the dark, bags in their hands, dressed as everything from ballerinas to frogs in the hopes of terrifying the local townsfolk. We're all familiar with the haunted house that scares absolutely no one, or the comedy of errors that occurs when you mistake someone inside a mask for someone else entirely. We've encountered our share of egg-laden windows and toilet paper on shrubbery. These images can all make their way into your Halloween marketing, setting the stage for whatever story you wish to tell your target market.

Give some thought to how you can put the Halloween holiday to work for your marketing purposes -- or hire a freelance copywriter to help you brainstorm. But whatever you do, do it soon, before the 31st rolls around and the monsters come out!

The Blogger's Nightmare: "But I Have Nothing to Say!"

How many times have you heard those words escape your lips as you stared into the abyss of an blank notepad or computer screen? Whether you've just taken up the art (and business) of blogging or you're struggling with your thousandth post, this exclamation may ring all too familiar.

It's not unlike the common actor's nightmare: You're summoned to play a role you know like the back of your hand, only to realize at the last minute that they've switched you to a different role, or that you had the wrong play in mind altogether. All you can do is stand there and make something up -- or run away. That may be how you feel right now. You know you need to blog regularly as a means of refreshing your online content and maintaining your target market's attention. But where in the world do you start?

Ideation, or the generation of ideas, can be a major stumbling block to all kinds of creative activity. Many artistic types respond by shutting down entirely and waiting until some invisible hand turns on the idea spigot again. (Hopefully these folks have day jobs or trust funds to carry them through their draught.) The rest of us simply push forward as best we can, relying on every memory, anecdote, thought or stimulus that might hold some promise. It's tempting for many novice writers to imagine some wellspring of ideas that fuel the great practitioners. Harlan Ellison got so tired of having people ask him, "Where do you get your ideas?" that he began telling them that there was an idea factory in Schenectady that sent him a monthly package of them. (It says something about the desperation of these individuals that many of them believed him.)

Ideas almost never drop in out of nowhere; they have to be squeezed into existence, sometimes by brute force. Start by going through any resources that have saved your creative bacon in the past. Do you have a favorite book of quotes, for instance, or a particular art form or hobby that always seems to inspire you? Have current events made a notable impact on your industry or your readers? Do your business interactions produce interesting anecdotes or case histories for you to share your audience?

Another trick when you feel stuck in a rut is to change up the way you blog. If you tend to post serious pieces, for example, try a humorous one to break up the mood. If you've never involved a second person in your blog creation, try interviewing a colleague or peer. If you never create lists, create a list. If you always write in lists, write in paragraphs instead.

Last but not least, remember that two heads are better than one. Ask your readers what they would like to see in future posts, or ask your business team for a quick bull session. and if all else fails, bring in a total outsider such as a freelance copywriter to dream up some fresh ideas you might never have considered on your own. (Just a thought.)

The point is that there's always something to say. In fact, I just wrote an entire blog post about having nothing to say. So, no excuses -- put your idea hat on and get back to work!

Out of Blog Ideas? Try These Topic Triggers

It happens to every blogger, website owner, or social media manager at some point. You know you have to keep up that regularly-scheduled stream of blog posts to keep your target market engaged -- and you know that it has to be original relevant content, not just whatever you can scrape off of someone else's website. But you can do nothing but stare at your computer monitor or smartphone screen, emitting flop sweat instead of ideas. At times like these, it's easy to freeze up in panic or despair that you've completely run out of blog content for the indefinite future. But keep a cool head, because help is on the way. Here are some ideas and suggestions to spur your imagination and trigger a fresh flood of blog content.

Think in Categories

How many different kinds of blog articles are there to choose from, really? Blog content tends to fall into different categories, and you can use those categories as a starting point to determine what kind of post you want to write. For example, what about:

A success story - Can you recall a recent situation in which you helped one of your clients out of a jam? If so, you have the basis for a success story that might convert readers into customers.

Breaking news - Has some major innovation, cultural shift or financial upheaval affected your readers and/or your industry? It's time to add your two cents to the online discussion.

A call for input - What do your readers think about a specific subject? What's on their minds, and how you can provide some much-appreciated assistance? Ask them to submit topics that you can address on your blog.

A guest blogger - Who says that you have to write every word of your own blog content? If you have access to valued vendor partners or industry pundits, why not invite them to contribute occasional posts as guest bloggers? You can then return the favor by making guest appearances on their blogs, making you visible to a whole new audience.

An employee spotlight - Do you have a new employee or established "superstar" you'd like to introduce to your readers? A blog article can provide the perfect opportunity to call attention to the quality of your team members (and, by extension, your company).

A product or service spotlight - Do you have a new product or service that you want to promote, or a regular feature that could benefit from some additional focus? Blog about it -- and invite your readers to learn more by contacting you directly.

Think in Questions

Another useful technique for triggering blog topics is self-questioning. Asking yourself certain compelling questions can lead your mind down the path toward fresh ideas. For instance, you might ask yourself:

• What's the most important thing I've learned in the past 12 months?
• What are the [X number of] things my readers can do about a specific problem -- and how can we help?
• What are some of the most common myths or misconceptions our target audience might have about some aspect of what we do?
• What burning issue or danger does our audience really need to know about?
• How does the current season or upcoming holiday affect our readers' need for our products and services?
• What kind of special offer or event can I announce in the context of a blog article?

Try these triggers on for size and see whether they open up new vistas for your blog content. If you need even more help, bring a second brain on board by hiring a freelance copywriter!

Does Your Blog Need Freshening Up?

Do you hate blogging? Well, don't feel bad -- from time to time, we all do.

I hang on to favorite old blog posts from sites like ProBlogger, and I recently re-read a fascinating article by guest blogger Ryan Barton entitled "9 Steps to Take When You Loathe Your Own Blog." While I have to admit that I'm not at the loathing stage yet, I still found the information highly illuminating. Barton discusses issues that plague all bloggers from time -- a sense of stagnation, a lack of fresh content or new ideas, that nagging feel of obligation as opposed to inspiration. It's all too easy for a regular blog to become an annoying chore instead of an exciting opportunity. And yes, I've certainly had my moments where the thought suddenly hit me: "Oh crap, it's already time to blog AGAIN?" And I do this stuff for a living, so I can only imagine how intimidating that thought must be to a non-writer or occasional writer.

One theme that seems to permeate Barton's post is the need to change things up, from trying a new writing venue or posting schedule to varying your blog-reading habits to get a fresh perspective on things. In my (biased) opinion, this in one of the biggest advantages of hiring a ghost-blogger. Adding that extra brain to the think tank automatically helps generate new, unusual, mold-breaking ideas and topics. Hiring a generalist instead of a specialist in your industry is even better, because you're getting the outsider's point of view. 

Another suggestion of Bryan's is to re-focus on your target audience. Who is your ideal reader, and how specifically can you envision that person in your mind? We marketing folks use terms such as "target market" or "demographic," but target markets and demographics don't read articles -- people do. Not groups of people clustered around a monitor, either, but individuals. The more clearly you can aim your writing at a specific person, the easier it is to ask yourself, "What kind of article would really benefit John Doe right about now?" Talking to an individual is always easier than figuring out what kind of speech to give to a crowd, so try this technique to grease the wheels on your personal blogging engine.

Hey, you know what? I enjoyed writing this article. I bet Barton enjoyed writing his, too. (You can read it here.) Now go enjoy writing yours -- or just hire me to write it for you and go enjoy doing anything else!

The Right Time for Marketing? Right Now

Steve Martin used to joke about the most important element in comedy: "And that, of course, is...ti-MING, ti-ti-ime....ming."

No one's timing is always perfect -- not in comedy, and not in business. But we like to bamboozle ourselves into thinking that there's one perfect shining moment in which to act, one perfect thing we can do or say that will hit the cosmic jackpot and get customers running to us. We watch and wait for that moment, hoping that we'll be quick enough to pounce on it when it arrives.

And in the meantime, our business hangs in stasis.

Procrastination is human nature. We want all conditions to be optimal before we commit to starting something. We want to know the temperature in the pool before we even dip a toe into it. A lot non-swimming happens that way.

Writers understand this kind of fear better than just about anybody. Some speculate that the dreaded "writer's block" is, in part, a simple fear of commitment, an unwillingness to try ideas out and watch them fail. When you insist that everything that comes from your pen has to be gold, you make it impossible for yourself to start. So writers have to get used to the routine of starting somewhere -- anywhere -- and drafting a big chunks of text that will almost certainly hit the wastebasket. But in the process of crossing things out, we discover the piece we wanted to write among what remains.

Launching a marketing campaign can produce the same kind of fear. What if the timing isn't just right? What if you make a strategic error along the way? What if your judgement isn't perfect? Wouldn't it be more comfortable just to stay where you are?

There's no bad time to market yourself. I've had business owners wave off the prospect of launching some fresh marketing on the grounds that "I'm doing really well at the moment." It's those last three words that matter. Don't let yourself be blindsided by this month's numbers -- they are probably the direct result of the marketing you did last month, last quarter, or even last year. Slack off on marketing now, and you may hear crickets chirping a month of two from now. When things are going badly, marketing can help get you back on top; when things are going well, marketing can help keep you there.

"But I have no ideas." That's what marketing consultants and copywriters are for. You'd be surprised how many ideas you have once an experienced professional starts pulling them out of you. I've helped clients create entire newsletters, blogging campaigns, and article series out of what appeared to be thin air -- only it wasn't thin air. They had the ideas; I just helped bring them to life. We didn't wait for the planets to line up just so. We made it happen.

And so can you. Anytime.

4 Surefire Blog Article Options for Your Business

Successful online marketing hinges on the creation of high-quality marketing content disseminated on a regular basis to your target audience. The simplest way to keep that content train rolling along the track is by posting a steady stream of blog articles on your website and other social media channels. But even if you have a professional copywriter on hand to turn your ideas into text, somebody still has to come up with the ideas in the first place -- and that's where the content train often screeches to a halt. Fortunately, you don't have to re-invent the wheel every time you have to produce a new post. Here are four tried-and-true types of blog articles you can always turn (or return) to.

1. The Spotlight

Do you have something about your business you want to talk about, such as a branding change, new product line, new client or exciting upcoming development? Write a blog article about it! Your blog can throw the spotlight on a variety of buzz-worthy happenings, from a case study of a major problem you recently solved for a customer to that big charity event you're hosting in a few weeks. This option is especially attractive if you don't also have a dedicated news page on your site.

2. The Editorial

If you're an authority in your field, then your opinion matters -- or at least you want it to matter to those who encounter it online. An editorial piece on some aspect of your industry, or recent events that relate to your industry, can put your experience, expertise, and insights on display to powerful effect. You'll want to walk a fairly careful line, of course, because an overly inflammatory approach could easily alienate a lucrative segment of your audience, while a sour or grumpy tone may also prove a turn-off.

3. The How-To Guide

Everybody loves free guidance on how to solve a particular problem, especially if that advice is coming from someone who really knows his stuff. Well, every business on the planet meets some kind of need -- and a need is a problem looking for a solution. Dispensing valuable free advice is never time or effort wasted. Brighten a few lives with your expert how-to articles, and you can expect those folks to come back to you when it's time to pay for more complex solutions.

4. The List

People love to click on list articles. They're neatly organized, easy to read and easy to digest. Bloggers also love list articles because they provide a handy, ready-made format -- which naturally guides the brain into producing relevant talking points to fill those lists. For best results, give your list article a title that will compel your target audience to check it out, such as...oh, I don't know..."4 Surefire Blog Article Options for Your Business." See how that works?

When you're flailing around for blog topics, fall back on any of these categories and see if you don't suddenly get ideas. Happy blogging!

Back to the Well: The Art of Repeating Your Blog Content

It's every marketing content creator's nightmare. You warm up the computer (the one on your desk or the one in your head), you search for a fresh topic for a blog article, and that's when you realize that you've hit the wall. Somehow you have managed to cover every single subject possible for discussion; there's absolutely nothing left to say, or at least that's how it seems at the moment. Meanwhile, that archive of articles from years gone by beckons to you like a long-forgotten pile of gold doubloons. "Oh, but I couldn't just.... but... I mean.... could I?" Yes, you can indeed re-use, re-visit or recycle old marketing content for your blog, as long as you do it the right way.

What's the wrong way? Well, simply re-posting an old article verbatim isn't an ideal approach. Regardless of what Google may or may not think about duplicate content within the same blog (and that's a question for your web developer or SEO expert), your devoted readers may recall reading that piece before -- and if they feel you're just treading water, they won't have any reason to keep checking your blog for the latest insights. Also, relying completely on existing material means you're not generating the ever-growing body of work that increases your online authority.

But there's nothing wrong with, say, dusting off an old article, updating it and presenting it as your revised thoughts on the subject. Most of the original material can probably still stand, allowing you to add some new value and call it a day. You can also use that old post as the springboard for a different angle on the same topic, or quote big annotated chunks of it in a new article. Keep these points in mind:

• Change happens. Your business, industry and/or target audience may have evolved over the years. The article that worked for you back then may not make the same impact now -- but with a little tweaking, its new an improved form could say exactly what needs to be said.
• What's old is new to your new audience members. More recent additions to your blog readership may be totally unaware that you've tackled a given topic before, and they're not likely to dig through years of archives just to determine otherwise. These folks can probably benefit from a "rerun," while established readers won't mind a slightly new twist on the subject.
• If it was worth saying once, it's worth saying again. Some of the most critical points emphasized in your marketing content deserve to be heard again and again, not as rote repetition but with intriguing new variations on the theme. The great composers felt no shame about doing this, and neither should you.

Don't assume that every single blog article you create has to be unique, unexplored and unheard of. As long as you can make older work fresh and relevant, you'll never run out of valuable things to say -- which means you'll never run out of marketing content!

Breaking Through Burnout: How to Keep Your Marketing Content Fresh

What's your definition of the term "burnout?" For many workers, it's that sense of mindless routine that long ago replaced any genuine enthusiasm or novelty. For some longtime employees, it's counting the days until retirement so they can be freed from a career they never really wanted in the first place. In the marketing world, burnout is often associated with a kind of creative exhaustion -- the dreaded blank you draw when you know you must produce a new piece of critical content within a set timeframe for the umpteenth time.

Creative burnout can afflict not only individuals but entire departments. If you or your marketing team find it a struggle to meet your content creation deadlines these days, you may have your own case of burnout to break through. Here are some tips for re-invigorating your imagination and refreshing your marketing content.

Tune in to your competitors. 

If your eyes glaze over whenever you review your own marketing for new ideas, splash some cold water on them by checking out your direct competitors' stuff. I don't mean steal from them; I mean let their styles, sensibilities and viewpoint nudge your out of your complacency -- even if only to respond, "Oh, come on, get real! This is why we get it and they don't." Being reminded of what sets your own brand apart could set off some new creative sparks on how to communicate that uniqueness.

Practice creative repurposing. 

If you find yourselves saying, "Oh, we've said that already," stop and think about whether that's actually a problem. It's possible to repurpose content in fascinating ways simply by folding it into a new format or using it to support a new angle on the subject. Finding a new context for old content can give you a launching point for fresh perspectives or even inspire totally new concepts.

Get your audience into the act. 

Maybe you're worn out from constantly trying to second-guess what your target audience wants or needs to hear. There's a relatively simple way to remove that burden: ask them. Run interactive contests, include questions that prompt responses or conduct interviews with some of your prime clients for future blog posts. You might be gifted with some fabulous nugget of insight that can be polished into powerful new marketing content.

When in doubt, sub it out.

Sometimes there's simply more marketing content to be created than there are hours in the day or marketing professionals in the office. Don't be afraid to expand your tent as needed by engaging freelance marketing professionals to take the extra load off your schedule. That's what we're here for!

Don't let the demands of marketing content creation drag you into the doldrums of creative burnout. Try the ideas listed above and see if you don't start feeling better fast!

Want More Timely Marketing Content? Think Seasonally!

I'm writing this post about a week after Martin Luther King Day, and about three weeks after New Year's Day. Did these holidays offer particular opportunities for your business? Did they at least align themselves nicely with your organization's brand identity, mission, values or goals -- and if so, did your marketing content reflect or comment on them?

Of course you want to populate your blog, social media channels and other inbound marketing platforms with timeless or "evergreen" content that will always matter to your target audience (and always help you rank higher in search results). But national, state or local observances of all kinds make an impact on our daily lives. The seasons themselves can play a huge role in how consumers behave, what they search for and what they buy. Take Valentine's Day, which is coming up in just under three weeks. If you're a candy maker, a confectionary retailer, an upscale restaurant or a florist, does this holiday matter to you? Of course it does, so you'll advertise special discounts, storewide sales or other promotions accordingly. It would also make good sense to blog on the topic, if only to jog your potential customers' memories on the subject and push them into action.

But seasonal behaviors are often much less obvious than that -- which is where online analytic tools and savvy can come in handy. For example, if you have a particular product you want to promote, try running that keyword through Google Keyword Planner or Google Trends to see how the numbers for that product spike or drop at specific times of year. You may find that the search timing appears disconnected to the relevant time of year; people planning a June wedding, for instance, aren't going to wait until June to engage all the necessary services. Analytics help you understand when and how fast the "gears" of the consumer decision-making process actually turn -- and this enables you to time your marketing content to reach them at just the right moment.

Get imaginative with your seasonal approach to content marketing. Yes, Mardi Gras, Valentine's Day and President's Day tend to grab all the media attention in February, but what about Groundhog Day? Doesn't this goofy minor holiday have something to say about the advent of warmer springtime weather -- and might those weather changes (for better or worse) influence your audience's buying behaviors? If you're in the health and wellness industry, what about all the national health awareness days that occur in February, such as American Heart Month, National Children's Dental Health Month and African Heritage & Health Week? Or what about state and local holidays such as Texas Independence Day or Maryland Day? 

All of the observances mentioned above -- and many, many others -- represent golden opportunities for touching your target market with especially timely and relevant information. So get ahold of a skilled, experienced marketing copywriter and start seasoning your marketing calendar with seasonal content!

Improving Your Ideation Skills for More Brilliant Blog Posts

Most great accomplishments begin with a great idea. That may give a distinct edge to the world's certifiable geniuses, but it's likely to drive the rest of us, well, certifiable, especially when it comes to creating fresh, original blog posts and other forms of marketing content. Nothing can cause more frustration and mental agony that ransacking every resource you possess for that insanely great topic idea that's somehow escaped you in scores or hundreds of previous articles. If you're a business owner not in the habit of creating marketing content, you may find this aspect of the process overwhelming; if you're tasked with hammering out tons of client content for a marketing agency, you're probably aghast at the amount of time it's taking you. Here are some smart strategies for more effective ideation.

Ask Yourself What the Reader Needs

Inbound marketing is all about getting your content in front of people in response to their demonstrated needs and interests. You want your brilliant, entertaining article to pop up when a prospective buyer searches online for help with a specific challenge or question. So it's not enough simply to populate the Web with general-purpose explanations of your products and services -- you have to ask yourself, "What is my reader likely to need some help with right now?" For instance, many of you probably reached this article because you had questions or concerns about ideation for your blog posts. (And here we are, examining that specific challenges and its possible solutions. Mission accomplished!) Focusing on specific issues will help you identify focused, relevant ideas to write on.

Expand Your Scope

Sometimes your ideation process actually needs to become less focused to generate fresh results. This was the case when I was ghost-blogging for a company that sold metric screws and bolts. We discovered very quickly that discussing the various features of the products themselves was a fast track to boredom, not to mention the fact that there were a finite number of products to discuss. So I expanded the ideation focus outward to include applications for these different items. What do screws and bolts go into? Boats! Motorcycles and bicycles! Sports cars! Cutting-edge computing devices! Cool stuff that pertains directly to users' everyday needs. (See above.) We even got into the history of screws and bolts, metric versus Imperial measurements and other "fringe" topics that nevertheless fed real-world interests.

Use Springboards

A famous comedian once held his audience spellbound for several minutes -- only to say, "I told you that story to tell you this one," at which point he began telling the anecdote that actually contained the joke. Do major news events, customer success stories, famous fables or other existing tales hold the kernel of your next great article? Is it analogous to some specific aspect of what you do? Does it illustrate a point that you want your audience to absorb and respond to? Amazing developments are floating in the air (or on your browser's news feeds) all the time. Grab one and run with it.

Compelling, unusual, specific topics can take your inbound marketing content to a whole new level, whether you're coming up with them yourself or getting help from the experienced creative mind of a professional marketing copywriter. Don't shy away from the challenges of ideation -- conquer them!