Digital Minds Forum

In my previous blog post I discussed some practical ideas for sending out enewsletters. Here are some ideas for creating compelling content.

Here’s the premise of my suspicion that any marketer who works in a business is perfectly capable of writing an endless stream of interesting and engaging newsletter (or blog) articles:

“I have never come across anybody who new enough about a particular industry or topic to start a business in it, who didn’t also have a nearly endless supply of content to choose from” (Michael Katz – E-Newsletters That Work)

So, you work in a company within an industry that you happen to know quite a lot about – that’s what you do for 35 or more hours every week. Let’s see what you already have inside your head that you could write about.

Now I’m a teacher. I’m not going to give you the answers (at least not this week) but in true active learning methodology, I’m going to facilitate you to find them yourself. So sharpen your pencil and get ready for a one person brainstorming session.

Write a list of all the questions you are asked about your business on a regular basis:

• How do I…?
• Should I…?
• What do you think about…?
• How do I know if…?
• Is it worth spending money on…?
• Do you know where…?
• What would you recommend for…?
• What do you predict will happen to…?
• Can I have an expert opinion on…?
• What’s happening with…?
• How did you manage to achieve….?

You should now have a long list of ideas for your newsletter. These aren’t boring company profiles, new product reviews, interviews with the CEO. They answer the genuine questions that your customers and others in your industry are interested in hearing the answers to.

You may not have all the answers, but I bet you know a man who does.

What are you waiting for?

Marie Page runs an international e-business selling instructional DVDs teaching contemporary musical instruments. She blogs at http://musicademy.com/blog

Have a look at http://yoobot.co.uk/ to see the site that the British Heart Foundation has launched to engage 11–13 year olds in the UK and encourage healthy eating habits now. It’s a good case study and the campaign has won an Award http://www.thinkbox.tv/server/show/ConCaseStudy.1559

First let’s get one thing straight. Neither I nor your customers want to hear about what you had for breakfast. Get your social media straight. Blogging is not Facebook and neither is it Twitter although of course you might use either of those tools to promote your blog. Neither is blogging generally a diary of your day-to-day activities and teenage angst – that’s LiveJournal.

If you’ve seen the 2009 Meryl Streep film Julie and Julia you’ll know the true story of an office worker and aspiring writer who loved to cook. Julie Powell blogged about her year of cooking every recipe in Julia Child’s epic French cook book. Julie chose her subject and blogged about her passion, attracted thousands of readers and ultimately a book and film deal.

All very well for an aspiring writer but you’re a marketer – why should you blog?

20 reasons to blog (rule number one of good blog writing – blog readers love lists!)

1. To engage with your audience and collect customer feedback (blogs allow comments and 2-way dialogue).
2. Because it makes SEO sense – search engines love websites with updated, unique, keyword dense copy. They reward it with a higher page rank. Blogging works for SEO. Seemples.
3. To enable you to sell more – a first visit to your website is like a first date – are you really expecting your customer to go all the way? Woo them. It takes time to develop trust and commitment.
4. To position yourself and your company as a thought leader in your market.
5. To create a place to think, plan and reflect.
6. To make a big impact with zero budget.
7. To showcase products and images and tell behind the scenes stories. You, rather than a journalist, are in charge of your content.
8. Because its a place to be more informal and risqué.
9. Because it humanises your company – people buy from people, not websites.
10. To improve your writing – good for your job and your career.
11. To create content for newsletters (I’ll blog about this in a future post).
12. To play with technology and ideas.
13. To force you to read and research about your market in order to gather the information you need for your posts.
14. To collaborate with others – guest posts are really effective and it gives you the chance to interview others in your industry, work with other departments, talk to customers, senior staff and even the odd celebrity.
15. Because there is no need to wait for the webmaster.
16. To express yourself and create a historical record of your content – in 18 months of blogging I now have hundreds of entries, a huge archive of brilliant marketing material that we ransack on a daily basis.
17. To podcast/videocast easily.
18. Because it is enjoyable, compulsive and rewarding.
19. Because it doesn’t have to be perfect.
20. Because interruption marketing doesn’t work any more.

But I’m not a journalist

You might not be the best writer in the world but I can guarantee that you know more about your specialist subject than most other people in the world. So you work for the most boring company in the world selling boring components in a boring industry (or at least that’s what everyone else outside your marketplace thinks). But inside your marketplace is a world of people actually quite interested in those components, in how they are made, who makes them, where you sell them, who else buys them, what they then do with them and what the stories are behind the brand.

I’ll create a detailed list of blog content ideas in a future post but try sitting down for 10 minutes and thinking about all the questions your customers (or the people you meet at networking events and tradeshows) ask. You’ll have yourself a list of topics to write about in no time that will be scratching where your potential readers are itching.

How to get started

The beauty of online publishing is that it doesn’t have to be perfect but it is very easy to get going. Copy shouldn’t need to be approved from everyone from the CEO through to the office cleaner. I’d recommend using software such as Wordpress and have the content added to your website hosting (www.yoururl.com/blog) rather than being hosted somewhere else (like blogger.com). Like that you get the SEO advantage and the right corporate association from the start. Wordpress is simple to use and there is even a magazine-like idiots guide to getting started (Bloggers Handbook – How to succeed in social media and blogging. ISBN 978-1-906078-38-6).

Now that’s assuming that you are writing the official blog for your company. If you are simply an employee and the blog is unofficial then by all means use hosted software such as blogger.com. Other platforms include Joomla, Typepad, Moveable Type, Vox, Drupal, Tumble, Silverstripe, Clear Content and Squarespace.

But I don’t know what I’m doing – I’ve barely even read a blog

Get introduced to the art of blogging by signing up for marketing guru Seth Godin’s blog. Apart from showcasing thought leadership, he’ll turn your brain inside out about marketing. http://sethgodin.typepad.com/

The Marketing Profs Daily Fix is also full of bite sized marketing tips and advice http://www.mpdailyfix.com/

Stuff White People Like is a fun site which will have you forwarding links and content in no time http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/

Innocent’s blog is a nice example of a corporate blog that nicely reflects all Innocent’s off the wall brand values http://innocentdrinks.typepad.com/

Ice Cream Journal – another corporate blog with some very nice touches http://icecreamjournal.turkeyhill.com/

Idiots Guide to Blogging – the ultimate how to guide http://www.idiotsguidetoblogging.com/

Likewise Thoushallblog is full of ideas to get you started http://thoushallblog.com/

http://thexfactorfromapersonwhoknows.blogspot.com/ – topical blog written by a teenage friend of mine. She wants to be a journalist so has started blogging to hone her writing craft. It’s a nice example of how easy it is to get started and create a professional looking blog

And the one I write – very much for a niche market and the most effective marketing tool we have ever used. www.musciademy.com/blog

Marie Page runs an international e-business selling instructional DVDs teaching contemporary musical instruments. She blogs at http://musicademy.com/blog