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Close Observation Creates Better Copy and Content Writing

Take These Three Passes When Observing Subject Matter

We’ve all seen cats observing their vistas. Sitting in windows, their tails twitch with excitement. We, too, can easily write better copy and content by looking at subjects with intense curiosity. Three views we can take on a subject include its physical appearance, its social impact, and its holistic application.

Physical Appearance Drives Most Copy

Want better copy and content writing experiences? Opt for close oberservation.
Close observation of the physical, social, and holistic applications of writing.

As the old adage goes, “you can’t tell a book by its cover.” Yet, much of the writing we create for copy and content is heavy on visual appeal. So if we are already transfixed on how a product or a service appears, then how can we look more closely at it? What we are looking for are the details of the product or service that make it unique or valuable to the consumer.

For example, does a nozzle on a garden hose have new settings for water distribution not found on competitors’ hoses? Or, does a restaurant offering freshly made juice stand apart by using only sustainably produced serving dishes and cutlery? Specific features make a subject stand out from the competition. Beyond the cover or visual aspects are positive societal impacts to entice customers, too.

Describing How a Product Helps Consumers Connect with Others

Enabling consumers to connect with others in a product or service description is another way to add value to a copy and content writing. Going back to the previous example of the hose, a product or service can  appeal to people when they can use it to help others. A long-range flow might help one neighbor water an elderly neighbor’s flowers. Relationship building among potential customers can easily move from copy writing into social media, which are enhanced with photography and video.

Holistic Approach to Subject Observation

The added-value of a holistic observation of a product or service creates brand loyalty. If a customer experiences satisfaction, then he or she is more likely to be a repeat customer. For example, if a particular demographic consists of environmentalists, then they may be more likely to feel good about eating at a restaurant that serves biodegradable service wear. The menu selections may further resonate with such consumers if it contains organic, locally sourced produce and animal products. The restaurant itself may resonate with consumers who prefer a small business over a nationally known eatery. These personal sorts of considerations are viewed as holistic benefits to a product or service.

Observations Increases Value of Subject Matter

Creating catchy copy and content writing benefits from close observation. The physical description brings a subject to life. The social description adds the appeal of altruism to the subject. Finally, the holistic description encourages consumers to relate their personal beliefs to an item’s identity. They are the easiest way to produce thoughtful and enticing wording for any number of products and services.

 

 

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Blogging to Encourage, Empower, and Enrich Audiences

Blogging that Brings Out the Best

Positivity in blogging is more important than ever. Making an audience feel at home entices them to read a post – even those running at the recommended 300 words – to the end. Successful blogs encourage, empower, and enrich their readership with pertinent content, lively photography and videos, and succinct content. Below are three examples of how women are blogging personally and professionally with thoughtfulness and elegant style.

Positivity in blogging increases readers’ engagement by encouraging, empowering, and educating the audience.

Blogs Encourage Discovery

The blog may be for personal exploration/discovery, such as the travelogue, Exploring the World, does. My friend, Mary Jane Koenig, encourages travel for active seniors at http://maryjanekoenig.blogspot.com/ As a retiree, she and her husband explores Florida and places that cruise ships take them.

Blogs Empower Change

Blogs may be artistic and soul-expanding like the one my friend, Suzi Baum Banks, crafts. As an artist, actress, author, and workshop leader, she holds a unique set of credentials to offer perspective on deep growth and change for mothers and other women in search of a more fulfilling life. She post her empowering words at http://www.suzibanksbaum.com/blog/

Blogs Enrich Opportunities

Or, a blog may be business-minded, as the one that my friend, Debbie Peterson, writes at Getting to Clarity. Here she enriches mid-life women’s own narratives to be their best advocates for professional change. This change begins from within their thinking patterns. She applies her experiences as public speaker and business coach to write a blog that focuses on nurturing an optimistic mindset for success. Find her at  http://gettingtoclarity.com/blog/

Blogging that Makes a Difference

While some sensitive subjects may arise, these authors make their points with a good dose of compassion, advice, and goodwill. And in doing so, they enliven the dialogue between themselves and their readers to encourage all women to live more passionately creative lives. Recently, Debbie Peterson shared Maryanne Williamson’s poem, “Our Deepest Fears” with me. It speaks on the subject of transformation to give a fresh reminder that blogging about potential has ripple effects for those we know – and even those we have yet to meet.

 

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Venn and Now: Graphic Organizer Advances Professional Writing

Traditional Ways to Use Venns

Venn diagrams are a classic organizational tool that can be taken from the classroom to the boardroom.
Venn diagrams are a classic organizational tool that can be taken from the classroom to the boardroom.

Some things never go out of style. To educators preparing for a new school year, Venn diagrams are as classic as motherhood and apple pie. So why toss a classic graphic aside like a pearl-button cardigan when it is so useful? Go retro and up cycle the Venn to advance professional writing.  Use this academic chart to gather ideas quickly. Then, complete a project in a timely manner by seeing how companies, brands, products, or services compare and contrast. Teachers continue to give students Venns to analyze texts. Anything that could be compared and contrasted is fair game. Transportation of Union and Confederacy troops during the Civil War? No problem! Or. life in early-Industrial Age Paris and London in Dickens’ “Tale of Two Cities”? Sure thing! Venns take on subjects across the curriculum with ease. Here is the reason: they are practical!

How Venns are Practical

Educators love this construction, because it is a complete visual. What is inside the two – or three – interlocking circles is the same. And the differences? They are easily located in the slices that do not intersect. While “bubble charts” facilitate brainstorming, the words inside of a Venn’s different segments accomplish the same goal.  With less mess. The analysis happens rapidly, because of the way this compare/contrast visual is in place. Students can easily access prior knowledge and link it to what can be found in sources. Then, they document it in class assignments, such a as a term paper or a Power-Point presentation.

Three Ways Venns Increase the Speed of Professional Writing

The Venn’s application as a business writing tool extends its use from the classroom to the boardroom. Everyone in a meeting can naturally use it as a reference. When ideas are quickly generated, Venns can sort random ideas for practical display and retention. Whoever is responsible for the notes from the meeting can quickly write a memo or status report.

Furthermore, when an entrepreneur or small business owner is working with a client, a Venn is a fast way to capture information about a product or service desired. Later. documents such as blogs, articles, and other forms of web content writing can be easily created from notes housed in a Venn filled with important points.

Finally, Venns can facilitate writing a public speech or webinar script. Key points can be jotted down, weighed for importance, and organized by priority. Speakers can implement Venns as visuals during their talks. These actions make for more powerful presentations. How? The graphic is used from the conception of the idea through the writing and editing of the draft. Then, the same visual is used through the practice of the speech or voice-over in a webinar into its delivery to an intended audience. The value of the Venn is in its ability to adapt to all of the phases of the project.

There are so many ways to apply this workhorse of a diagram. From the traditional use in the classroom to the implementation in business writing, copy writing, and speech/script writing, these graphic organizers speed up writing time. They create a common ground for group participants to work together. They are multi-tasking to work in any industry. In short, Venns rule!

 

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Great Blogs Begin with Honest Emotions

Honest emotions draw customers into blogs for a closer read.
Honest emotions draw customers into blogs for a closer read.

Honesty Best Policy When Writing Blogs

As idioms go, “Honesty is the best policy,” is pretty hard to dispute in everyday life. Blog writing is no different. Why? Because unless you are going for comic relief, lying just is not worth it. Of course there will be those out there that disagree, probably loudly, with my belief. Sure you can nearly always fatten the bottom line with padded statements, white lies, and cloaked reasoning. But when your head hits the pillow at night, telling the truth always, always, always matters most when writing content. So what are some guidelines for honing honest writing?

A Few Guidelines to Promote Honest Blogs

Here are a few guidelines to keep your writing,  as well as your integrity, in tact:

  • Write with the audience in mind. Reputable publications do not allow travel writers to cover junkets. Such excursions are usually loaded with pre-written scripts. These do not encourage the frankness needed for a successful travelog. It is the same in any industry. Write blogs about the things you have paid for and enjoyed. If you have been given an advanced copy of a novel for review, say so. Readers can see right through anything else.
  • Engage in real emotions by using regionalisms and local color. For example, if I were to write a post about a recent stop at”Duke’s Barbecue” in Walterboro, South Carolina, I’d make sure to add the linguistics of the South. When I asked where the drinks were located, the waitress pointed passed the buffet and said, “the sweet tay an north tay are right over!” Quizzically, I replied, “North tea?” Before she could reply, another diner, presumably from points north of the Mason-Dixie line, chimed in: “She means unsweetened tea.” “Gotcha!”
  • When giving detail of a service, a product, or a combination of the two, give specific details of what customers can expect. Anything less gets written up in a negative Google, Yelp, or AirBnB review. And that means bad news for you! Half-truths will haunt you much longer than you might believe when dashing the blog off.
  • If you are in doubt of the level of honesty in a blog, hand it over to your mother, former middle school English teacher, or a local writer. Most will be unflinching in their appraisal of your wording.
  • Write from the heart. Whether it is about a non-profit that cares for the adoption of teenagers or a company that provides complimentary care, such as massage therapy, make sure your blog reflects what actually is happening to its readers. After all, you want people to share your blog posts, don’t you?

Truth. It will never go out of style. Nor will your integrity if you mind your blog with honest words!