Content Creation That Levels the Playing Field

Content Creation That Levels the Playing Field

Creating compelling, conversational and authentic content lets you connect to your reader while boosting your SEO rankings, gaining traffic and even generating leads.

Look how Penzey’s e-blast hits home for professional and amateur cooks, with messaging from founder, Bill Penzey:

“By popular demand! We’ve held off on promoting long enough to get caught up to where we can make a free Spice with purchase offer and we’ve made it one of our very best. Two 1/4-cups of our Penzeys Cinnamon  (a $7.90 value) can be yours with any purchase through Tuesday. Just  visit penzeys.com and after any spending at all enter Happy into the apply code box at checkout. No need to place the Cinnamon in your basket, the code will do that for you and for free.”

Tips:

1. Know your readers’ passions, interests, motivations
2. Write like you’re having a conversation with them
3. Engage, don’t sell

Moosejaw has fun with its readers. The outdoor apparel outlet store uses humor and a bit of attitude without being overly forward about it. By appealing to people’s emotions, they’re more engaging and
memorable:

“Follow us. Or don’t. Check out our Instagram for cool pics, gear giveaways, dogs, and captions that my mom brags to her friends about.”

Tips

1. Use emotion to connect with your reader
2. Let loose whenever possible (stiff copy’s a real turn off)
3. Enjoy the process

First Round Capital is a consortium of venture capitalists. They use empathy to make readers feel understood and let the value of their offerings sell themselves. Here’s how they differentiate themselves:

“Talk with a few First Round Founders and they’ll tell you how we’re different. They’ll tell you that we know how hard and lonely the startup journey can be, and how we’ve helped them evolve from a great founder to a great CEO. They’ll explain how we equipped them to build a better company by focusing exclusively on those first couple of years — in part because we’re simply not an option to lead their Series A or B.”

And here’s how they connect with entrepreneurs: “Starting a company is lonely.”

Tips:

1. Show, don’t tell
2. Make friends with brevity and clarity; use radically simple sentences
3. “Whenever you can, tell stories instead of explaining stuff. Humans love stories, and we
   hate having stuff explained to us.” (This one’s from author Elizabeth Gilbert.)

If you’d like more tips on developing compelling content, or you’re interested in talking to us about a project where we engage in content creation, feel free to reach out. And thanks for following us on social:  LinkedIn,  Facebook,  Instagram and Twitter.