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Why Three Is A Magic Number For Knock-out Blog Content

April 4, 2016 by jennifer mcgahan Leave a Comment

Why Three Is A Magic Number For Knock-out Blog Content

3 is a magic number in blog contentThe other day I was explaining the reasons why someone would want to track where their customers are coming from. I found myself thinking as I spoke (I love it when that happens ;)) that I had to have three good reasons, so that my listener

a. would understand

b. would be entertained

c. would be convinced.

So I gave her not one, but three reasons for tracking customer origination leads.

Why Three?

As you can see from the first paragraph, I naturally use at least three components to fully make a point. I’ve been noticing this trend lately as I write, and I’ve been wondering if it’s more than just my style. Why does the number three hold so much weight?

Drummed into my sophomoric brain in high school was the rule for writing a basic composition: the introduction, the body, and the conclusion. Not only is the composition divided into three parts, but the body always includes three paragraphs or supporting points that back up, explain, or describe what you promise in the intro. (Thank you, Sr. Karla, AP English teacher and SAT reviewer.)

The “Rule of Three” is a principle used throughout time in writing, speaking, and storytelling.

  • Imagine Goldilocks encountering the house of The Two Bears…not quite so satisfying.
  • Or if only Two Wise Men traveled from afar to visit the new-born king.
  • Can you say which Two Stooges were the funniest? They’re incomplete without the third.
  • What if the king had given the miller’s daughter just two nights to turn straw into gold. Suspense depends on the rule of three.

Three is complete. 

  • There are three virtues: Faith, hope and love.
  • Life, Liberty, The Pursuit of Happiness.
  • Peace, love and understanding.
  • Live. Laugh. Love.
  • Learn it, Know it, Use it.
  • Eat, Pray, Love.
  • A jug of wine, a loaf of bread, and thou.
  • Tolkien’s Trilogy.
  • The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Three is stable. 

We live in three dimensions, and we never feel like we’re on stable ground unless we have three points to start with, or rest against. A two-legged stool falls down. Physics demands three points to build the most basic structure. That’s why bridges and and buildings that must support great weight are often built with a series of triangles.

Three creates a pattern.

Three forms a satisfying pattern. The bare minimum of two components allows you to form a simple group. Two notes create a very simple rhythm. It’s only when you add a third, that you add a counterpoint to an otherwise dull repetition and you establish a pattern…or break it.

Three is dramatic.

Speechwriters use The Rule of Three to stir emotion in their listeners and to help people remember concepts:

  • Free at last, free at last, thank God almighty we’re free at last. — Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
  • I came, I saw, I conquered — Julius Caesar
  • Government of the people, by the people and for the people. — Abraham Lincoln
  • The iPad2 was “thinner, lighter, and faster.” — Steve Jobs

Three is memorable.

Besides sticky slogans and phrases, there’s this: People usually remember no more than three things. Aristotle wrote about this human tendency centuries ago, and it’s clear we haven’t changed much. Public service announcements, advice, and tips are best digested in threes.

  • Stop. Drop. Roll.
  • Stop. Look. Listen.
  • Reduce. Reuse. Recycle.
  • Quick check for stroke: uneven smile, can’t raise both arms over your head, a slurred simple sentence.
  • Three manners we first teach our kids: Please, Thank you, You’re Welcome.

If you want to leave your audience with something that actually changes lives, keep your main points to three. Don’t give them any more than the three most important concepts.

Three suggests progression.

In stories, you satisfy a reader or listener with a clear beginning, middle and end.People can readily follow three-part instructions:

  • Ready. Aim. Fire.
  • Lights. Camera. Action.
  • First, Next, Last.
  • Charts, graphs and projections are often separated into three groups: High, middle and low.
  • Athletic accomplishments are showcased with three levels of status: Gold, sliver and bronze.

Three is a truly magical number where words are strung together.

Your blog is the perfect place to master it. If you want to evoke emotion, provide balance, persuade, entertain, communicate effectively, and make a lasting impression; remember the rule of three.

Filed Under: Content Marketing Tagged With: blog content, content, copywriting, rule of three, web content

What’s Stopping You From Owning Your Own Media Channel?

June 13, 2014 by jennifer mcgahan Leave a Comment

What’s Stopping You From Owning Your Own Media Channel?

your own media channelThe allure of print. Why the glamour around published material; trade magazines and newspapers?

A local business man was recently telling me about his marketing strategy when the talk turned toward that ever-so-sexy word “content marketing.” This guy loved the idea of writing articles that he could share to show expertise, build trust and get in front of people he hasn’t met yet. A seriously active phone dialer and networker, he was looking for some ideas about getting himself “out there” more.

newsboys!What he really wanted, he confided, was to get some articles published in some established business magazines. Not their websites, but the actual hard copy, printed magazines or newspapers. Ahh, the tantalizing scent of ink!

Being featured in an reputable publication, especially one with prestige and readership, draws attention to your business, promotes the writer as an expert, and throws you into the spotlight, or so it would seem. Don’t those big magazines have thousands of subscribers? what a great way to be seen!

The idea of “being published” is tantalizing to relatively unknown people whose business is their brand. Instant exposure. What could be better? Though that accomplishment used to be something you could flaunt fro years, today content marketing is about pumping out your own content on your own channel as well as publish the occasional feature in a printed journal.

As soon as I brought up the idea of a blog, my new friend winced. “Too much work, I don’t like to write, too time consuming and not prestigious enough.”

Oh. I have to admit, that last one stumped me. He was looking for acclamation and presence in traditional trade magazines. The funny thing is, when I asked him what trade magazines he read, he couldn’t think of any. He said, “All I ever read is the shit on the internet.”

The shit on the internet. Blogs. (Hey! What an idea!) Although that’s all he was used to reading, he wanted to stand out by publishing something in some distant, exclusive land called print media.

Yeah, it is kind of cool to see yourself in print. Something you hold in your hands. If you remember life before Amazon and Kindle, the holy grail for writers was publishing.

I’m not immune. I have sitting on my shelf the 2013 edition of The Writer’s Market, the Bible of sources, guidelines, and addresses of publications in any imaginable field. (Now, of course, it’s an online subscription.)

Bought, but never used, the tome is a reminder of the change in media today. I have no real need to mark it up the way I used to, partly because I’m writing about topic which favors the internet — copywriting and content marketing — and mainly because just about everyone I want to reach is accessible online. Linked in helps you find people who know the person you want to meet. As my friend Amy Cole, a Linkedin expert, says we’re all less than six degrees away from our dream job. Or in this case, the dream agent, dream published article, dream writing gig.

For writers and other experts (and people with ghost writers), you get exposure by writing online.

Yet, still there’s still this old time-y fascination with print. If it’s difficult to get published, it must mean you really deserve to be there if some editor on high deems your writing worthy of ink.

traditional media magazineI love paper. Magazines are still best read by physically turning pages, unmatched by reading the same content on a Kindle. I still subscribe to some, and love plopping on the sofa and opening a glossy magazine. But there’s that nagging disconnect between digital and paper. As I flip pages, I note the things I want to check out online, but I never manage to do it, in spite of the “blip this page” icon.

The hold-in-your-hands newsletter, delivered via the mail carrier and landing in your mailbox is one of culture’s uncommon objects. Introducing one to your followers would make you really stand out — but it takes commitment and money for postage and printing.

The best start you can give yourself in content marketing is to simply publish your own articles under your name in your own space, your website. Give your readers access to a blog and your live followers, all your fans in real life, will see you’re committed to getting them the best information you can about what you know to be true.

Content marketing is personal and direct. It’s not about pulling out a copy of a magazine from two seasons ago and pointing to an article with your name in it. It’s about sharing and being the same “you” — but online.

Besides being more accessible by creating your own content in a blog, you actually make it easier for those magazines to eventually publish one of your articles in the form of a guest post or a contributing author. And the beautiful thing about that is the ability to link back to your website.

For many, whose business is wrapped up in their personal efforts, your face and your name is your brand. While you gain clout to be seen in an established source, content marketing is all about become your own media, the source, that place where people go because they trust you to produce and curate content that reflects your sensibilities and distinct point of view.

This change in perspective requires some bravado on your part. That confidence is required to get your own vibe going. When you don’t fit in nicely with some established magazine’s content, you boldly declare your own.

The ironic truth behind all of this is that the more you identify your own content and your own readership and whatever it is that makes your stuff special — and that means not fitting in with the other guys — the more YOU you are, the better chance you have of being noticed by some of the websites and media sources with similar audiences. You become a more attractive possibility for a future guest post or editorial within their pages just by audaciously coming up with your own content in your own space.

So why NOT you?

Three easy steps to owning your media channel.

Start your blog… or video blog or podcast. Tell your story! No one has the right to tell it but you. Your blog is the easiest, fastest, most economical way to become that media channel you want to appear in, so start today. Buy your domain name, host it somewhere, purchase a snazzy, robust wordpress theme, and Boom! you’re up and running for less than a couple hundred dollars.

Stop thinking small. Stop figuring out a way to land on someone else’s stage. Be audacious and real and raw. Why the hell NOT you? There’s no real trick to it. You’re already swimming in the water of your own ideas, so own them and take some responsibility for getting them out there. Stop waiting and positioning yourself and hoping for someone else to do it for you.

Whatever you are doing in person, do online. There. That’s the big secret.

What a mistake NOT to.

Regarding the “shit” available online — the stuff my friend read, but didn’t think was good enough for the people he hoped to impress — I should have pointed out that a lot of that stuff wasn’t junk, but actually helpful content, written by serious authors with some style. Have you noticed that when the quality of writing on the Internet is very good…you know where to go to find it.

So seize the day. Go all in. Own your content.

I promise, you’ll never regret publishing content for your own media channel. The sooner the better.

Newsboy photo: Flickr CC, Children’s Bureau Centennial

Woman with magazine photo: Flickr CC, Pedro Ribeiro Simões

Related Posts:

 How The Quest For Authority Undermines Your Message

Mobile  + Email + Content + Talent = Small Business Edge

Unusual Free Opt-In Event Hits a Home Run

Filed Under: Content Marketing Tagged With: author, blog, blog authority, content marketing, content writing for entrepreneurs, contnet writing, copywriting, creating content, earned media, entrepreneur, magazines, media, media channel, online copy, owned media, owning media, paid media, print, readership, seize the day, small business, starting a blog, traditional magazine, traditional media, web content

How to Blog In a Busy, Loud, Distracting Place

May 27, 2014 by jennifer mcgahan Leave a Comment

How to Blog In a Busy, Loud, Distracting Place

blogging in a distracting environment Sometimes the best thing about being your own boss is the worst thing about being your own boss — you can work anywhere and set your own schedule.

When you need to make a call you, can pick up the phone just as easily at the beach as your home office, though you run the risk of getting sand in your phone. If a client needs something tomorrow, you don’t have to “stay late” to finish it; you fit it in sitting in the back seat of your minivan while waiting for your kid to finish her dance rehearsal. And when it’s raining and three boys need to burn off some serious energy, you can take them to an indoor trampoline mega center and still get that blog post done.

This is why I started this business in the first place. I wanted to make a real difference in my customers’ businesses, and I wanted flexibility and family time. The lure of the work-from-home business drew me to start a writing business of my own.

If you’re living the same kind of lifestyle, you already know its many perks. Like taking phone calls at the beach, meeting deadlines from your car, and writing articles at JumpStreet. (I got $6 off for liking and following.)

If pressed to find downsides to this entrepreneur lifestyle, only three come to mind (although they are gifts in disguise):

1. Since I’ve been doing this for eight years now, I’ve made myself unemployable in a physical sense. I’ll never commit to a nine-to-five workday, not in my own home and not in someone’s office. The idea fills me with dread.

2. The second is my fear that my kids will have a skewed idea of productivity. They are learning that (take your pick) I’m either always working, or never working. The “work ethic” my grandfather admired is neither obvious nor definable.

3. And the third slippery slope of working from home is the problem of setting your own boundaries. Because the fact is, you can always be working on your business!

You probably won’t get very far if you can’t focus on what needs to be done. So let’s talk about focus when you know what needs to be done, and you’ve chosen to do it in a less than optimal location…like I have today.

Sitting in Jumpstreet writing my blog. Can it be done? Why yes, it can. This blog post is proof.

The din is your friend. Dive in and blog.

found a quiet corner to writeOddly, it’s the noisiest places that are the best. Next time you step into a large cavernous spaces with high ceilings and echoes, stop and listen. You hear everything, and…nothing at all. That vacuous, constant dull roar is almost like white noise. Auditory people may actually find it easier to concentrate in these environments because there is no single noise that catches your attention. Since you are immersed in sound, it’s fairly easy to shut it out.

(Kind of like when you’re underwater, you’re not thinking you’re wet. It’s only when you get out of the pool that it registers, “Hey, I’m all wet!” Ever notice that?)

If you really aren’t comfortable inside the wall of sound, then plan ahead. Invest in some noise canceling headphones and listen to calming music. Ambient sounds won’t touch you or your productivity.

When you can’t NOT look, put on blinders.

Visually, the bright colors and constant movement rattle your focus if you concentrate best in calm environments. Stay in your groove by positioning yourself in a corner where passing traffic is low. You could also turn a chair around and face a wall. Who cares what people think? You’re multitasking. You can always find somewhere out of the way of the most commotion if you take the time to look for it. These coveted spots are where you’ll find other people with their laptops open. Guaranteed.

infaddicthoodie. JoeMaliaNeed blinders? Wear a baseball cap to block the visibility of almost everything. Or you could contact Joe Malia for one of his hoodie creations. Pull it over your computer to create an intimate workspace in the midst of chaos. Ahh, total privacy + zero visual stimulation.

Sometimes you just can’t avoid the need to produce some intense and thoughtful work. Entrepreneurs are always on some kind of deadline (or they should be), if they are serious about meeting their goals.

The alternative: Get the easy stuff done when you’re in a non work-friendly environment.

Creating content doesn’t have to be one of those intensely stressful items to check off your to-do list. If you have a plan and a content calendar, your marketing plan becomes a whole lot easier to manage.

With a planned-out schedule of upcoming blog post ideas, you could easily spend an hour or two filling in the smaller content pieces on the fly. There are many small jobs perfectly suited for those times when you know you need to get stuff done, even though your mind and attention are not at peak performance, like my two hours here at the trampoline place.

The key is identifying the content you can create without a lot of effort. The pieces that fit into the big picture, even though on their own you don’t consider them to be urgent and/or important.

For example, instead of writing a blog post or article, you could spend your time doing less strenuous jobs:

  • Curating some content to share on social sites.
  • Commenting on blogs.
  • Finding appropriate pictures for upcoming blog post and Facebook updates.
  • Scheduling tweets. (I love Buffer for this.)

These don’t require your undivided attention for long periods of time, so make the most of the times you find yourself in a loud, distracting environment.

A Content Strategy is the key.

Anything you get done here and now is something you won’t need to do later.  Save the weightier chunks of content for a more focus-worthy situation.

There’s only one way to know what you’re doing and where you’re going: A calendar that holds all the important pieces of content you’ll publish over the next couple of months. As a small biz guy or gal, you really don’t need to look ahead much more than that. But you do need to know what your best clients are looking for at each step of the buying cycle. Do you have something they can use as they are just taking stock of a new problem? Do you provide insight when they start comparing prices and solutions? These are questions that you tackle as you put together a strategy and content calendar that address the unique needs of your buyer.

You want to be there for them every step of the way, not just waste their time with any old content published willy nilly on any channel. That blog post you’re writing in the hurricane of busy-ness and “real life” is much easier when you know what you need to say and the precise words to say it. The keywords have already been selected, and the main ideas are in place. Now it’s merely a matter of filling in the details with stories and information you know very well.

I love people and all the wiggly warm fuzzies, but the scientific side of me knows it’s only logical to have a roadmap. I don’t have time to figure it all out on the fly — or guess!

With a strategy, your blog post practically writes itself. Without one, you stare at your laptop for hours with nothing to say. 

This life you’re choosing is in constant motion. As a small business owner you get to live it your style. It’s all you, baby! Whether you prefer to get everything done in one designated spot, or if, like me, you take it on the road many days; you are the choreographer of your own beautiful life and business. With a little planning, a strategy, a content calendar to guide you, and a willingness to bust out some content right here and now — wherever that may be — you will keep all those balls in the air and successfully connect with your customers and clients.

the kids played dodge ball while I wroteHere’s a shot of the boys playing bouncy dodgeball. I stood and watched them for awhile…awesome! If you want the freedom to do the same, keep the helpful, valuable content flowing to your customers and clients, and run your business all at the same time, you can do it.

Filed Under: Blogging Tagged With: blog, blogging, blogging on the fly, create content in a noisy place, creating content, creating web content anywhere, entrepreneur, getting things done, no creative team for creating web content, no excuses for not blogging, no time for blogging, small business, solopreneur, too busy to create content, web content

Telling Stories That Save Lives: Our Built-In Survival Mechanism

April 17, 2014 by jennifer mcgahan Leave a Comment

Telling Stories That Save Lives: Our Built-In Survival Mechanism

stories save livesAll stories tell of a conflict and its resolution.

Every unpleasant circumstance can be described with a tale by someone who overcame it. Happy endings taste sweeter when the protagonist turned lemons into lemonade.

Imagine you’re a visitor to Africa in the early 1900s.

You’ve never seen a lion, not even in a zoo. You haven’t personally witnessed their size, shape, color, or hunting ability. You’ve never seen a lion prowl, bask in the sun, or lope through dry grass on the savanna.

No throaty growl, no hunger in their eye, no muscle graces your personal memory. Yet you can imagine her.

You can imagine the ferocity with which she rips into her dinner, her intent focus as she licks her young cubs clean. You can visualize the straw-colored fur of the animal, and even the flick of its tail because you’ve read, seen, or heard accounts of lions. Maybe you saw a picture. Maybe, if you are lucky, you know more about lions than a mere, clinical understanding because you also heard a story…

The Rustling in the Bush…

Imagine your host lives in a quiet village. You arrive and spend your first night in his hut, enjoying food and conversation, including stories…stories about lions, rhinos, and famous hunters.

Lucky for you, you take it all in.

Next morning, you wake with the sun and head out to the river. You need water, so you’re up and moving, enjoying the morning light and the walk.

Suddenly, there’s a soft rustling in the bushes about 40 yards away. Hush. You stop. In fact, if you’d been listening too closely to your own thoughts or your own footsteps, you might have missed it. You strain to hear it again, like a gentle sound of something slightly adjusting itself. Could have been a breeze…but it’s not quite like the rustle of leaves in wind. And there is no wind.

Maybe it was a ground squirrel, or a bird hopping from one branch to another. No, this whisper of sound had weight behind it. You turn your head and freeze, unable to see the eyes that are intently focused on your next move.

If you had not heard the story last night about the swift villager who shot an arrow through the right eye of a lion last winter, you wouldn’t have a “next move.” You wouldn’t be wondering whether this lion was the half-blind legend, or it’s two-eyed sister. Instead, as adrenaline surged through your body, you’d be thinking in your last moments…”I am dinner.” 

If you had not paid attention to the story, the circle of life would end for you; and continue to turn for the hungry beast in the bush. 

Mutual tension builds as the lion sinks lower on her haunches, pressing its paws one after the other into the soft ground. The lion never takes her eyes off you, and emits a low rumbling sound from its throat, just as it springs toward you with terrible, quiet speed.

You are ready.

There is one way to escape your fate, only one — and only if you are lucky enough to be hunted by the one-eyed lion, and no other.

For this was the story your host told you last night.

You remember what he said, how you could thwart the attack and survive. Last night there was laughter and some sage head nodding, but this morning…that entertaining story saves your life.

Wired for Story

stories and case studiesWired for storyThe brain needs stories. Humans depend on stories to survive. Lisa Cron tells how this survival trait is hardwired into early humans in her book Wired for Story. Without the ability to process a story, early man would not understand that the rustling in the bush meant danger. [from the book Recommend This! by Thibeault and Wadsorth… Both books are worth reading.]

The connections we have with others require the ability to sympathize and match our experiences to those of others. It’s a beautiful thing, really, the human brain.

In the lion example, your cognitive brain establishes the possibility of danger and equips you with a possible way of dealing with it — even if you’ve never personally experienced being stalked by a hungry predator.

In modern life, stories are still essential.

We tell stories to our customers, our friends, our kids, our parents, and our colleagues. We warn, delight, educate, shock, and comfort them with stories. When you want to prevent or encourage an action in others, tell a story. Allow your listener to imagine a similar outcome . Show how that outcome helps, prevents, soothes, or makes people better in some way.

Processing stories is one way humans survive. We listen because they entertain us. We listen because our brains require it. We remember them because stories help us make sense of the world.

We retell them because they alter the path of our lives and may do the same for our listeners.

And that’s why humans must continue to tell and retell stories to survive.

Lion photo, Flickr CC: Olivier B. 

Filed Under: Content Marketing, The Book Pile Tagged With: . web copy, customer connection, making a connection with web content, stories, stories in copywriting, stories in web content, stories people remember, storytelling in web content, telling a story, telling stories to customers, web content

How To Pump Out Extraordinary Web Content With Ease

April 5, 2014 by jennifer mcgahan Leave a Comment

How To Pump Out Extraordinary Web Content With Ease

This is a rewritten reposts of an article published in April of 2014.

pump out content with ease I’ve been listening to the most interesting music lately — monster music! This game is the latest thing among 5th graders — and it has everything to do with coming up with web content ideas that get attention. Let me show you how easy this is…

My Singing Monsters and easy web content creation

I won’t lie to you. At first I hated the dull, repetitive, guttural sounds. Over and over this one-track little cartoon creature assaulted my ears. As my son Henry happily played with his phone, I couldn’t help thinking the end of our culture was near. “What’s the world coming to?” I thought, in the usual way the older generation dumps on the younger one.

And then something weird and wonderful happened. A second monster joined the first monster and started harmonizing. Hmmm, now this was intriguing. 

Soon after, what was once painfully tiresome became interesting, and I started listening. As I listened, over the next few days, I found myself humming the monster song and hearing the melody meander through my brain. Henry had created a fabulous song by adding monster after singing monster to his island. The tune was catchy, even more so because I was aware of all the rich undertones the melody was built on. Check it out for yourself…

What’s that have to do with cranking out web content? I don’t know about you, but sometimes I have a tendency to sound like that lonely monster piping out the same note, measure after excruciating measure. (If you always have a drawerful of blog post ideas, then stop reading right now. But if you struggle with this sometimes, like I do, then please keep reading.)

Why is it so easy to gab about the same old thing in your web content? Because it’s your profession, it’s what you know, it’s your area of expertise. I could write every post about copywriting, how to build a compelling story, copywriting apps and “tricks” to write well, etc… but then I might be in a rut.

Remember the singing monsters if you want people to talk back and pay attention to your web content!

You have a rich life full of glittering, fearless, irrepressible, strange and beautiful parts. You’re different from day to day, you have fascinating edges, curves and facets. If you show some of these dimensions in a unique, even slightly quirky way, you will be remembered. But if you beat the drum of your expertise all day, every day, you become somewhat boring.

Patterns add dimension and bring your content to life.

Ever notice how certain characteristics and mannerisms help you make a connection with people? Maybe people smile when they hear your infectious laugh, or they notice your sense of style because you dress yourself impeccably, or you ask just the right question at the moment everyone is thinking it. Those human personality traits aren’t as easy to show online. In the real world you make an impression in an instant, but online you have to do some extra “work” to be  the real “YOU.” Wouldn’t it be cool if it were easier?

Add harmony to your single note.

patterns and repeatabilityThink about it. If you are constantly telling your blog followers or Facebook fans just one thing, people will get bored and leave. But if you regularly add some flavor — a hobby, some belief that sets you apart from others, or a dream you’re striving to reach — you will stand out.

People remember patterns. Do they remember you?

Most people respond to, and are capable of holding on to patterns because they keep their attention better than an endless drip of one repetitive message. If you need convincing that it’s okay to stir in your personal interests, a sub theme, or a sideline into your expertise, look no further than this article on patterns in branding, which shows that remarkable brands send a fluid message with several distinct points and counterpoints for people to bounce to and fro. The best brands add this pleasing complexity without being confusing. According to Marc Shillum,

Consistency in human behavior is not derived from repetition alone; it is about the formation and recognition of coherent patterns. Patterns are the way our brains perceive actions, thoughts, memory, and behavior to ultimately inform belief. They allow for differences while creating a whole. Patterns are unique in the fact that they create consistency around difference and variation. Creating a believable and consistent brand begins with the creation of coherent patterns.

The good news is that you can show multiple aspects of your life — your business style, leadership philosophy, hobbies, family, values, etc — and people will remember you because you mixed things up, not in spite of it.

Think of the experience you provide your customers. Do you entertain them, give them something to think about, or shock them sometimes? Do they know exactly what they’re going to get when they see your email in their inbox? If they already know (or think they know), they may start to disengage or unsubscribe from your feed or list.

Don’t let that happen. There’s so much juicy stuff to share.

Now, I’m not advising you to display so many different sides of you that you rattle your clients. (I know I’d scare some folks!) And don’t make things up just to seem exotic or interesting, but, here are some things to think about as you add some mixture to your expertise, whether your brand is personally represented by YOU, or you are representing a larger corporate brand:

  • Consider hobbies, favorite foods, family, pets, heritage, travel, charities, clubs, locale…how have these influenced or added to your point of view?
  • Do people know you for something unique: a fashion statement, hairdo, temperament (curious, inspirational, diplomatic)? Identify that and work it into your personal brand. By the way, you are probably already doing this without being aware of it.
  • Pepper your website and social sites with posts about things you genuinely care about. Your enthusiasm will attract like minds.

So…those themes that tie your life together highlight  the rare “monster” you are…Don’t be afraid to show them, re-iterate your special patterns, and stand out from the crowd. As a copywriter and experienced interviewer, I can usually find at least a few patterns in a short 30-minute interview with new clients. If you want to use your “patterns” to create remarkable content, start by contacting me using the form below, and I’ll send you out our Content Quiz to get you started.

Filed Under: Content Marketing Tagged With: blog, blogging, boring web content, branding tips, branding yourself, content, content creation, content writing tips, copywriting, creative web content, keeping your content interesting, Marc Shillum, marketing for small business, mixing it up with web content, My Singing Monsters, patterns, repetition, self branding, Singing Monsters, web content, writing content, writing interesting content, you are your brand

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