The Opinionated Blogger: Blog Content That Expresses Your Point of View

Once upon a time, blogs were all about referring readers elsewhere. This was back in the days when they were known by their full name of "weblogs." A typical weblog would serve as a link-enabled guide to all the cool, helpful and otherwise interesting sites or news stories the blogger discovered -- a sort of mini-directory of sites related to the blogger's (and presumably the reader's) primary interests.

Over time, bloggers began commenting on the sites, and those comments eventually took the center stage as technology made it easier for a wide range of people and companies to make their voices heard. Suddenly your blog could serve as an editorial column, a how-to archive, a promotional page, or the instigator of an ongoing interactive conversation. Business owners realized that their blogs could help them establish an online reputation as the reigning expert on a particular subject, while also encouraging readers to explore the rest of the company's site for related products and services.

Why, then, do so many company blogs read like throwbacks to the late 1990s? You know what I mean: You click on, say, a financial website to read about the latest big economic news story, and the blog article there simply refers you over to a generic story from CNN or Money or whoever. Or if that website has posted on the subject, it's simply a retread of the same information, or a general overview that you could find anywhere else. I imagine this occurs because the person tasked with creating the blog content simply doesn't have time to compose original literary gems on a regular basis, so the company either outsources the work to "writer mills" or links to articles hosted on another business's site.

And the reader is left thinking, "Yeah, but how did you feel about the story?" And you've blown an opportunity to demonstrate your industry wisdom and insight.

When you compose an article for your business's blog, stop and think about how the subject matter relates to the business's mission, vision, products/services and viewpoint. Then weave that voice into the text alongside all the generic who-did-what-to-whom-and-what-do-the pundits-say-about-it stuff. What do you say about it -- and how does that opinion color your recommendations and solutions for concerned readers?

If you can't get your opinions out there with the necessary skill in a timely manner, then you can still outsource the actual writing. But instead of simply throwing that job out to the lowest bidder on a big, impersonal content board, forge a genuine relationship with a professional writer who can actually get to know your business. When I ghost-blog for clients, I take the time to learn about their unique value proposition, experience and perspective on what they do. This allows me to spin your article so that it doesn't just relay the facts, but it also presents your opinion, your personality, your conclusions, and of course your brand. That's the difference between simply referring readers to other people's expertise and dazzling those readers with your own.

In my opinion.

4 Kinds of Content Marketing That Can Boost Your Business

The world of marketing seems to grow more complex every day. Like some many-headed mythical beast, a modern-day marketing campaign often makes use of multiple media channels and platforms, not to mention multiple kinds of content, to draw their target audience into their sales funnel. With so many kinds of content marketing to choose from, which ones are most likely to make a difference in your success? Let's look at four powerful traffic drivers worth considering.

1. Blog Posts

As I've pointed out in the past, your company blog can give you an online voice that constantly reinforces your online authority and relevance as a major player in your industry. Certain types of blog posts can prove especially effective in this regard. For instance, list posts have grown immensely popular for their ability to pack several compelling points into a shareable, easy-to-digest format. (Look no further than this very post for an example.) These points don't have to well up from the depths of your own imagination; you can collect compelling bits of data from all over the Internet, if need be. I've seen entire posts that consisted simply of inspiring quotes related to a particular topic. You can also interview celebrity guests or invite them to blog on your site.

2. Infographics

Infographics combine written content and visual design into a uniquely user-friendly package. How many times have you found yourself zeroing in on a helpful infographic embedded in a larger article or web page? Just as you don't necessarily have to write all your own blog content, you don't have to have graphic design skills to create infographics for your content marketing campaign. Your copywriter can work with the graphic designer of your choice to produce infographics that make a big splash with your potential buyers.

3. Long-Form Guides

Nothing demonstrates a business's expertise more thoroughly than a detailed, practical guide that helps people understand a concept or solve a problem. These guides often take the forms of eBooks, industry reports, white papers, quarterly newsletters, or plus-sized articles. You can make these pieces available in return for the interested party's contact information or subscription. This approach builds your prospect lists and helps pre-qualify leads, especially if you end up sending your subscribers a steady stream of helpful information.

4. Videos

Did you know that people spend one-third of their online time watching videos? This form of content marketing can entertain, enlighten, and compel sales just as effectively as others that rely on writing and graphic design. Just about anything you can convey through a blog post, infographic, or guide can prove equally effective in video format. Just don't make the mistake of assuming that you can simply take some video footage, slap a voice-over narration on it, and call it a day. Videos require careful organization and structure, with narration that really sells and graphic images that support the moving pictures and reinforce your brand identity.

There are plenty of other kinds of content marketing that I could (and very well may) write about in future posts. For now, however, these four key types of content marketing should keep you busy and boost your revenue. Contact me if you need help bringing your content to life!

Working With a Copywriter? Remember These 3 Tips

Congratulations on hiring a freelance copywriter! This skilled, experienced professional should greatly enhance the effectiveness of your marketing content while also freeing you from the burden of writing that content yourself. Just keep in mind that your experience, and your final result, can only go as smoothly as your interactions with this expert will permit. If you want to get the most out of working with a copywriter, take heed of the following four helpful tips.

Tip 1: Discuss the Process

Different copywriters have different ways of working, so don't assume that your experience with your current copywriter will necessarily follow the same process as any previous experiences you may have had with others. Always ask plenty of key questions in your initial conversation. How much does the writer charge, and on what basis? What's the schedule for making those payments? How long will it take the writer to deliver a first draft and any revisions? What materials do you need to give the copywriter before the work can start? What other professionals (web design team, SEO specialist, etc.) do you need to copy on all communications with your copywriter? Make sure you're clear on all these points right from the beginning.

Do you want to engage your copywriter to address recurring content needs, such as weekly blog posts or content for a quarterly newsletter? If so, you need to work out a long-range editorial calendar that clarifies exactly what content you want and when you want it. Ideally, you and your writer can hash out a whole schedule of article topics and delivery dates to prevent any last-minute scrambles or crossed signals. You can always adjust the details as you go -- but only if you set those details down first.

Tip 2: Consolidate Your Feedback

In an ideal world, your copywriter will deliver such a brilliant first draft that you see no need for any changes. But even if you and your writer communicated like a dream throughout the initial phase of the project, you may still see little bits and pieces in the text that require tweaking. You may also need to include some additional point that you forgot to tell the writer about or only just discovered during the composition of the draft. Most revisions can easily accommodate these changes. However, if your changes actually change the scope of the project, don't be too surprised if your writer has to charge an additional fee to reflect the new work.

Try to avoid the "committee rewrite" if you can. You might have no choice but to send the draft past multiple respondents, each of whom may make contradictory rewrite requests. This approach can cause two major problems. First, you may have to sit on those comments forever until everyone has chimed in. Second, you may end up sending your writer little constant dribbles of comment after comment, creating a state of perpetual revision. Make sure all the necessary comments go through one person, who can then coordinate them into one cohesive set of requests. Require all parties to submit their comments within a set timeline.

Tip 3: Keep the Ball Rolling

That set timeline I mentioned above will help you follow this third tip. Don't let a copywriter's first draft or revised version go unnoticed once you have it. I've had clients who sat on a project for weeks or months before finally replying with revision requests -- by which point, I'd moved on to the next project without even remembering much about the previous one. Sitting on content forever (as opposed to requesting changes promptly or indicating your acceptance of the content as is) may also hold up the work of your web designer, blog manager, graphic designer, or other professionals who need that final approved content before they can finish their work.

Make these three tips part of your overall plan for working with a professional copywriter, and you'll always get exactly the content you need, on time and on budget. Contact me to learn more!

4 Tips for Writing Stronger Marketing Content

Marketing content creation can prove immensely frustrating. No matter how well you know your business and industry, no matter how brilliant your products or services, no matter how desperately your target audience needs what you've got, you just can't seem to score with your website, social media, or print marketing content. What gives?

Sometimes tiny details can make all the difference between a solid but unremarkable piece of marketing content and a powerfully effective one. One of my writing teachers used to say that there's no such thing as good or bad writing: "There are only stronger and weaker choices." Do you make weaker choices here and there without even realizing it? We all do from time to time. If you want to make your written marketing content hit harder and turn more readers into buyers, take the following four tips  to heart.

Tip 1: Trim the Fat

Flabby writing can't compete with firm, lean statements. Watch out for empty, unnecessary phrases such as "Adding insult to injury..." or "Another point to consider is...." If you can get to the point without this baggage, do it. If you can't, then re-examine that point until you can make it as economically as possible.

You can also trim the fat from your marketing content by choosing slimmer words. Don't reach for a four-syllable word when a one-syllable or two-syllable word will get the job done. If you need to get flowery for purposes of style or tone, fine, but don't make "purple prose" your default setting as a content writer.

Tip 2: Get Specific

Good, great, beautiful, nice, bigger, better -- these words don't really convey much useful information, do they? As a potential customer, I don't get anything from the description of your product or service as "great;" I want to know what's great about it. Is it cost-effective, convenient, time-saving, sleek, powerful, long-lasting? Does it improve my gas mileage, kill bugs on contact, or clean my windows effortlessly? Ditch the vague, meaningless adjectives and give me clear, vivid descriptions that tell me what I need to know.

Tip 3: Guide Readers' Thoughts

Even the sharpest images and most efficient language will fall flat if your content lacks an effective structure and flow. Think about the journey you take every time you read a blog article, web page, or other marketing piece for the first time. You begin with no knowledge of what lies ahead, only a nagging problem that you seek to solve. So you naturally want to see that problem acknowledged right from the beginning, yes? Since this company clearly understands your needs, you keep reading -- and you discover the solution to your challenge in the text below. Now that you know you've found your answer, of course you'll click that link to the Contact page to place an order or schedule a conversation. If your current content doesn't guide your readers' thoughts from A to Z in a smooth, organic manner, consider reassembling it from the ground up.

Tip 4: Use Imperatives

"If you have my answers, then tell me what to do." This subconscious plea drives the path from interested bystander to new customer. Too soft a sell can leave your potential buyers undecided about committing your product or service, while overly vague directions can make it harder for the committed ones to go forward. Don't go all coy about your call to action with phrases such as "Doesn't it make sense to talk to our team about your needs?" Instead, say: "Contact our team today so we can discuss your needs." Feel  that extra push toward the finish line? So will your audience.

Try these tips and see for yourself what kind of extra oomph they add to your marketing content's effectiveness. Or if you'd rather hand the task over to someone who works with words for a living, just hire a freelance marketing copywriter!

Words as Symbols in Your Marketing Content

Another Fourth of July has come and gone. It's hard to imagine a more cut-and-dried holiday, right? Independence Day commemorates the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776. What could be more straightforward than that?

Ah, but wait a minute. The national holiday we recognize as the Fourth of July stirs up a wide range of responses, depending on who you ask. Some people take the literal approach by envisioning the Founding Fathers famously adding their signatures to the document in question. Many folks mark it as the birthday of the United States of America, with all the patriotic thoughts that accompany that idea. But what else might the Fourth of July mean to people in this day and age? If you're a fireworks fan, it may be a glorious opportunity to blow stuff up. If you're an animal lover, you may bite your nails over images of your beloved pets cowering under the bed as those fireworks go off. If you work like a dog the rest of the year, you may see the Fourth of July holiday as a lifesaving day of rest.

See what I mean? The same simple phrase -- "Fourth of July" -- can trigger different (and equally legitimate) images or feelings for different segments of the population. I'm picking on the Fourth for reasons of topicality, but I could just as easily point to any other concept, word, or phrase known to humankind. What about a loaf of freshly-baked bread? If you're a foodie, the very idea could fill you with gleeful anticipation or send you running to the store to purchase a bread maker. On the other hand, if you suffer from a severe gluten sensitivity, you may associate that "lovely" image with recollections of digestive agony.

Words are tools, and tools often have multiple uses, with no inherently right or wrong applications. However, when you're creating marketing content for your business, you must think about how your specific tool choices will impact your target audience. A word that might have powerful, energizing, or soothing effects on you might have a totally different effect on the people to whom you're directing your marketing content.

How do you tiptoe your way through this tricky landscape? It all starts with a detailed knowledge of your ideal buyer, which means building a buyer persona -- a fictional profile based on all the demographics, survey responses, and other customer data you can gather. The next step most likely involves engaging a professional copywriter who understands how to string together just the right symbols to produce the intended emotional responses for that ideal buyer. If you don't have such a professional on staff, contact a freelance copywriter and have a discussion about how to put the symbolic power of words to the strongest possible use in your marketing. After all, if words are tools, you might as well hire a true wordsmith! 

Want to Maximize Your Time? Leave the Writing to the Writer

Even with the extensions granted due to the pandemic and the Texas winter storm, the tax man cometh. I knew that sooner or later I'd have to get to work on my return. And by “working on,” I mean collating information, itemizing business expenses, printing out 1099s and so forth. Since I’d been keeping all the information more or less in one place all year (a hard-earned lesson in itself, believe me), the process took maybe an hour, tops. I then sent it off to the person who really does the hard work -- my CPA.

It’s a good thing, too. Apart from my general mathematical ineptitude, I hardly understand what I’m looking at when I study all the various forms the IRS seems to have for every possible situation. The instructions alone would be enough to keep me busy long past the due date, never mind tabulating every figure in its corresponding little box. Even if I could figure out the basic mechanics involved, I couldn’t possibly keep up with all the changes in the tax code that seem to pop up year after year like some bureaucratic Whack-a-Mole game. The result of my fumbling and stumbling would be a mountain of errors (which I’m told the IRS doesn’t appreciate), along with countless hours of lost writing time. Instead, I will pay a chunk of money to my CPA and let her sail through the paperwork like the experienced and knowledgable professional she is. Not only will she get the numbers right, but she will also make sure I’m taking all the right deductions (and none of the wrong ones) for my own good. What a deal!

But that’s the beauty of outsourcing to experts. You keep chugging along doing what you do best, the experts do what they do best, and everybody wins. My CPA’s billable time probably carries a higher price tag than my own, but she can do in an hour what would take me ten hours away from my everyday work. Better yet, she’ll do it right. That’s why outsourcing to a CPA makes sense -- just as outsourcing to a freelance copywriter makes sense for business owners who want to maximize their precious time.

Some of my clients are perfectly capable of writing their own marketing content -- but why should they? Whenever I hear resistance over the concept of paying for writing services, I ask, “How many hours would it take you to (a) do this work and (b) make sure it attained the right level of quality and effectiveness?” The invariable answer is that it’ll take them a lot more time, sweat, and frustration than it’ll take me. So the client actually spends considerably less money than he’d lose in the form of wasted time and stalled business productivity. 

My advice? Take those saved hours and put them into fulfilling orders, submitting bids, landing new accounts, and other immediately profitable activities -- and leave the writing to the writer!

Key Points to Understand About Blogging

Different people have different levels of awareness regarding blogs and blogging. Some of my clients have come to me with clear, detailed notions of what sort of blog content they'd like me to write for them, while others have asked, "What is this blogging thing you mentioned in passing, and why would I do it?" Let's examine some key points on the subject.

Blogging Has Been Around Longer Than You Might Think

Blogging actually predates some of you out there. The title of earliest blog probably goes to Links.net, one person's personal web chronicle of his life and work experiences. By the late 1990s, this type of online page had become known as a weblog, or blog for short. Journalists, politicians, and businesses began tapping the power of blogging around this time. The number of blogs on the Internet shot up from just 23 in 1999 to a staggering 50 million by the mid-2000s. Some of those blog pages have remained up and running for decades. So blogging as a major form of online self-promotion is the real deal, and it should remain so for as long as there are people and brands that need to get the word out about themselves.

Blogging Is Good for Business

There's a good reason for blogging's popularity and longevity in the world of digital marketing: in short, it's good for business, especially if your blog page lives within your website's domain. For one thing, every new chunk of relevant content your brand uploads to the Internet lends your website that much more online authority. Don't forget that Google accounts for about 40 percent of all online traffic. The more you can do to get Google's attention, the better you'll rank on those search requests -- and the blog articles that the searchers pull up will have a chance to score their own marketing points and lead viewers to other features on your website. As other people and businesses discover your blog content, they may actually link back to it as a reference, boosting your audience further. Blogging is probably the easiest, most effective way to earn those valuable inline links.

Blogging and lead generation go hand in hand. If your business were to post just two blog articles per month, you'd stand to gain 70 percent more leads than your non-blogging competitors. Of course, the quality of the blog content makes a difference, too, because people really do read these things. Almost one-quarter of all Internet time is spent absorbing social media content such as blogs. The majority of these readers say that such content makes them feel more confident about the entity posting the content.

Blog Content Can Take Many Forms

"What would I blog about?" has to be one of the most frequently asked questions among business bloggers. Thankfully, a blog can have extraordinary flexibility as long it adheres to the brand image you wish to present. You can post humorous editorials, your reactions to important industry news, spotlights introducing new key players on your team, explanations of individual products or services, and articles that address seasonal concerns or sales.

You may find that your most popular blog articles focus on helping your target audience solve common problems. How-to articles, for instance, can help readers understand how your products or services can make their lives easier, while their searches for such solutions may naturally cause the relevant article to pop up on their screens. Are you especially proud of how you solved one of your client's problems? Write up a brief case study and post it as a blog article to give others with the same concerns a powerful real-life illustration of your potential value to them.

You Don't Have to Create the Blog Content Yourself

Back in the early weblog days, a blog was very much an extension of an individual's likes, dislikes, insights, and recommendations. As blogging evolved into a digital marketing strategy for businesses and organizations, the creation of blog content became a team effort. Even then, an organization might not have the requisite talent tool, spare billable time, or sheer patience to pump out the endless stream of blog content that the Internet always seems to demand. 

That's where third parties like me come in. A skilled copywriter knows how to absorb a company's brand image and produce messaging that fits that mold, creating customized content that genuinely reflects your spin on what you do and how you do it. So if you want to enjoy the considerable benefits of blogging without the headaches involved in actually coming up with that content, contact me today!