Why readers love lists -- and why brand journalists should love to write them

Blogger Jeff Bullas has found out what David Ogilvy discovered in the 1960s and Guy Kawasaki echoed in the 2010s: People like to read and share lists. It's an invaluable lesson for the brand journalist.

Bullas writes on ragan.com:

I can hear some of you yawning. The reality is, in a time-poor world, giving people a list of things to do—for example, 10 tips for creating a great video—is the type of headline and article people click on. Packaging and chunking information tells your readers you won't waste their time. Lists are also easy to read and view. This type of content works well. 

Mark Regan calls this "refrigerator journalism." Reader's Digest built an empire on this format. David Wallechinsky created a series of best sellers in the 1970s with it.

Back when I reported for the Dallas Business Journal, our most popular and anticipated annual product was ... The Book of Lists.  We charged $35 per copy. It was that in demand.

My advice on writing lists for any brand journalist:

1. Learn it.
2. Live it.
3. Love it.

The Unique Selling Proposition: How to craft a USP for your client's product

The Unique Selling Proposition should be in the toolbox of every brand journalist.

Also known as the USP, the Unique Selling Proposition was the brainchild of advertising copywriter Rosser Reeves, one of the original Mad Men of the 1950s and ‘60s. He and his partner Ted Bates are among the models used to create the show’s lead character, Don Draper.

Reeves created the USP in the late 1940s to bring social science to “hard sell” advertising. He applied it to create some of the most effective print, radio and TV advertising of his day:

• M&Ms melt in your mouth, not in your hand.
• Only Anacin has four leading headache remedies.
• Wonder Bread helps build strong bodies in eight ways.
• Certs breath mints with a magic drop of retsyn.
• Colgate cleans your breath while it cleans your teeth.
• Only Viceroy gives you 20,000 filter traps in every filter.

Somehow, Reeves has fallen into obscurity while a handful of his peers remain well known: David Ogilvy, Bill Bernbach, Mary Wells, George Lois and Leo Burnett. Common wisdom in marketing and advertising says Reeves’s “hard sell” approach gave way to the Creative Revolution that overtook advertising in the late 1960s.

And yet the Unique Selling Proposition is as robust today as it was 60 years ago:

• Geico: “15 minutes could save you 15% or more on car insurance.”
• Apple iPod: “A thousand songs in your pocket.”
• Direct TV Genie: “Enjoy HD DVR Service in every room with just one HR DVR.”
• Southwest Airlines: “Bags fly free.”
• Axe shower gel: “Nothing beats an astronaut.”

You’ve may have read about the USP in books on copywriting, advertising and marketing. Unfortunately, the term has become as casually garbled in current use as “meme” and “nimrod.” Even Reeves called it “perhaps the most misused series of letters in advertising.”

Fortunately, Reeves laid out the rules of the USP in his 1961 book, “Reality in Advertising,” which is now sadly out of print. Here is how he described the USP.

“USP is a precise term and it deserves a precise definition:

1. “Each advertisement must make a proposition to the customer. … ‘Buy this product and you will get this specific benefit.’"
2. “The proposition must be one the competition cannot, or does not, offer. It must be unique – either a uniqueness of the brand or a claim not otherwise made in that particular field of advertising.
3. “The proposition must be so strong that it can … pull over new customers to your product.”

In other words: A USP is a unique and clear proposition that will grab attention and sell a product or service to a customer.

So, how does the Unique Selling Proposition work for the brand journalist?

First, we have to recognize that brand journalism is a form of advertising. If your only goal with your brand journalism is to attract attention, or spread awareness, or entertain an audience … then you are short-changing your clients. The goal is always to either sell the product outright, or (more likely) cause the prospect to take a specific action toward buying the product.

Second, we should also realize that the USP has a second cousin in journalism: the story angle. The angle is the approach to the story that makes it most interesting to the specific audience we are attempting to attract. It “sells” the story to the editor as well as to the reader or viewer.

The angle tells us what to put into the story and what to leave out. It tells us how to write the headline. It tells us how structure the story.

The USP serves the same function. Once we establish the Unique Selling Proposition, we have a north star to guide our research, our story structure, our headline, our selection of keywords, and our copywriting.

SEO for the brand journalist: Make it easier for Google to find your content

Mastering the art and science of SEO copywriting is essential for the brand journalist.

SEO stands for “search engine optimization.” This is the strategy we use to attract the attention of Google and other search engines.

The easier we make it for our target customers to find our web articles, the happier we make our clients.

You may have heard about also sorts of secret formulas for improving SEO. Many folks think SEO is a job for the information technology gurus. That may have been true, but Google ended that with its most recent updates to its algorithm.

Google wants to put SEO in the hands of copywriters. That’s good news for every brand journalist. Today, SEO is primarily a function of how we write our stories, not how they are coded.

The first step is to identify the keywords you want to use in your SEO copy. These are the words that help customers find your story with an online search.

Generally, the keywords are a phrase that you will use frequently in your article.

For example, I recently wrote a brand journalism article about diagnostic testing for the West Nile virus. Using Google’s keyword search tool, I figured out that about there are about 310,000 searches each month for the words “West Nile virus” and about 110,000 for “symptoms of West Nile virus.” So I made sure to use those keywords often in the story.

How often? You don’t want to “stuff” your story with keywords. Google will penalize you for doing that.

Aim instead to use the keywords throughout the text as a rate of between 2 percent and 5 percent. That’s about once every 100 words. That level of keyword density appears to be the Google’s sweet spot for SEO copy.

To get the most out of your keywords, you will want to include them in:

• The title of your article: Keep it really simple. Write a real headline with a subject and a predicate. Put the keywords up front, if you can. For example: “How to diagnose the West Nile virus in horses” or “West Nile virus: How to diagnose the disease in horses.”
• Sub-titles: To make your brand journalism more easy to read, try inserting a sub-title every few paragraphs in each story. In addition to breaking up long blocks of text, sub-titles give you yet another opportunity to work your keywords into your SEO copy without a penalty. Google loves sub-titles, especially when they help it define what you article is about. Readers love them, too.
• The suffix of the page’s URL: What you don’t want is a long, irrelevant page URL, like this one: example.domain.com/news/article/0,,30200-1303092,00.html. Instead, aim to create a URL like this: example.domain.com/news/article/WestNileVirus. You can do this easily by typing the key words into your title and hitting “save” before you put in your actual headline. Some programs also allow you to edit your page URL later in the process. In some cases, you may need your client’s webmaster to help you out.
• Anchor text: This is just another phrase for the words we use to create links from one page to another page. Avoid using a link like “click here.” Instead, create a link using your keywords.
• Images: Google reads only text. It can’t see images. But it can see text that is embedded in the image’s menu. When you upload an image, go to the image’s menu and enter your keywords into the space marked “alt tags.” Now Google can recognize your image and will know how to identify it for searchers.
• Navigation menu: If your keywords apply to your entire site, consider adding them to the navigation links. That will also boost your client’s SEO by giving even more emphasis to the pages to which they lead.

Two other tips, both of which may require you to work with your client’s webmaster:

1. Create a site map for your client’s entire site.
2. Enter specific keywords into the metadata for every page, not just the home page.

How to create content through crowdsourcing

Susan Gunelius blogs at Entrepreneur.com:

Brands like The Huffington Post and American Express OPEN Forum grew exponentially thanks to crowdsourcing. Both tapped into the crowd of industry experts and invited them to write free content for the websites. In exchange, writers received free links back to their own sites and an opportunity to get in front of larger audiences than they could reach on their own. 

You can do the same thing by inviting customers, authors, business partners, and anyone else who could benefit from free cross-promotion or simply would enjoy having a place to publish their opinions online to write content for your business blog. ... 

Keep in mind, content can come in many forms, including reviews, comments, images, video, and more. 

How Instagram and Vine are changing how we report and consume news

TechNewsDaily's Leslie Meredith reports at Mashable:

Photojournalist Ben Lowy even used his iPhone and Instagram to cover turmoil in Libya last summer. He wrote that using a phone, rather than an intimidating DSLR camera, allowed him to get closer to subjects. He believes Instagram photos get more attention because viewers feel as if they are looking at a friend's photos. 

Filters have also come to Getty Images, which offers high-end stock photography. Percolate, a startup that provides a social media publishing service for brands, announced a new service that lets its clients select photos from Getty Images, add their logo and apply filters from Aviary, the photo-editing app that powers Twitter's in-app photo editor. 

But filters are just the beginning. Vine, Twitter's 6-second video app, is also changing the way news is shown. For instance, Vine's looping format can heighten emotion as viewers see a video clip repeated over and over again.

Is transparency the new strategy for content marketing?

Avi Dan at Sparksheet reports:

Transparency is the essence of the new business model. A great example of this is Patagonia, the outdoor apparel brand. Instead of producing slick fashion ads to communicate with its customers, Patagonia has laid bare the environmental and social footprint of its product line and marketing supply chain. 

Its website, The Footprint Chronicles, features an interactive world map that pinpoints every textile mill and factory in Patagonia’s supply chain. 

The map includes detailed profiles of key suppliers, along with video and photo tours of how Patagonia’s different products are made.

Starting to sound more and more like "real" journalism, eh? But can the Fortune 500 CEO accept this concept? Can the corporate lawyer? I have my doubts. Of course, much of the Fortune 500 turns over every decade or so. Perhaps this is the meteor that kills off some of the larger dinosaur companies and allows the smaller lung-fish ones to thrive.

What does great content look like?

Steve Seager offers this infographic:

Four ways to get more out of the content you create

Ardath Albee at the Marketing Interactions says:

If marketers from across the company would just step back and think about it, they would see huge opportunities for content re-use, creating connected pathways for their customers and consistency in experience delivery that could drive performance improvements across programs:

• Create one storyboard for all groups to work from - Yes this will need to be summarized with roll downs for different programs, but it will help each marketing group determine how they can best contribute to building the same story based on their area of expertise.

• Weekly stand-up meetings to present program developments, engagement results, learning from execution and suggestions for refinements.

• Institute metrics that measure across groups and programs, not just individual team efforts. One program must feed another, each channel supports, enhances and leads to others, etc. Look for ways that successful programs can inform other initiatives.

• Consider how marketing efforts can be integrated to create better overall outcomes that serve the customer and the company, not just the department or group. For example, if your social media team is posting wins but your white paper downloads have fallen off, something is out of whack.

How to scare your boss into supporting your content program

Joe Pulizzi at the Content Marketing Institute says: 

When all else fails, fear can work as well or better than a rational argument. For the “fear” plan to work, you have to do some research up front on your competition. Pick the leading content marketer in your field and determine:

• How many subscribers (email, Facebook, Twitter, etc.) do they have to their content versus yours?

• How do they rank in key search terms versus your rankings?

• A comparison of social sharing

• Positive, online word-of-mouth (check Twitter for this one)

• Recruitment activities (are they landing the best talent?)

These are just a few. The key here is to determine what’s of critical importance to the lead decision maker toward buy-in. Clearly show how the competitor is using certain content strategies that are leaving you (and your content) in the dust.

Video will boost your client's search engine optimization

Matthew McKenzie at Content4Demand says:

• Video is more than 50 times as likely than a plain text page to appear on a first page of search rankings. That’s some pretty heavy-duty SEO mojo.

• Video can double your landing page conversion rates.

How to (brilliantly) employ an infographic to tell a how-to story that makes a hero of your client's product

Here's a example of "news you can use" that presents the story as an infographic.

The subject is "how to slim your wallet." It offers practical advice to men for getting rid of that ridiculous bulge in our back pockets.  And it packages this information in a four-beat story line.

But the star of the show is the company's product: a slimmer wallet with a better design for access.

Take a look.

Is your company ready for the challenge of producing content?

Gilad de Vries at Content Marketing says:

Many companies plan to expand their content marketing efforts in 2013. This signifies a tremendous opportunity for marketers to supplement their existing expertise with content creation, curation, and amplification. But this opportunity also poses a great challenge: It requires skills that most simply don’t have. ...

So why is content marketing so challenging for traditional marketers? In most cases, creative shops develop an advertising strategy that has a “big idea,” or underlining message that the brand focuses on for the year, and a few campaigns that are planned and pre-scheduled. Alternatively, a successful content marketing strategy requires a shift in focus from several creative campaign “sprints” per year to an editorial-style content “marathon.” 

In other words, organizations need to adapt from building one big idea to weaving together a collection of small ideas for a robust, always-on creation and curation content strategy that is distributed across social and native advertising channels. 

YouTube: How one marketer attracted 3 million viewers to his site

Paul Wolfe has attracted more than 3 million viewers to his YouTube site. He says one secret is to be consistent with your posting schedule: 

YouTube can be a great source of traffic for your business….but you have to be consistent. You have to think of yourself as a TV show and post regularly – once a fortnight, once a week, twice a week, five times a week. Whatever the frequency that suits you….find it, and stick to it. 

That way your audience will know what to expect.  And YouTube will too ...  you’ll quickly learn that YouTube values consistency.

If you target everyone with your content, you target no one

From Tom Fishburne at the Content Marketing Institute:

Your target market is not the same as anyone who could conceivably buy your product. A target market is deliberately exclusive. That niche focus is what gives your message teeth. It is what compels consumers to identify with your brand. It is what gives you insight to speak to them so clearly.

How to speed up the approval process to post copy in real time

Shankar Gupta says on the Fast Company blog: 

Real-time can’t be run by a committee. When looking to take advantage of a major media event, identify someone on your team to make the call on whether the risk is worth the potential reward. This will help expedite the approval process without having to enter multiple rounds. That person needs to be immediately accessible and empowered to make decisions, so that content can go live--and as quickly as possible. 

Using the same approval that you use to approve traditional ads simply won’t work for real-time content creation. By establishing a faster pathway for time-sensitive content, you can help your brand build that relevance.

Is the lengthy post more likely to be shared?

Kumail Hemani at Search Engine Journal makes his case for the lengthy, comprehensive post:

Provide readers with meaningful content that pushes them to something actionable. Rather than being a blog post that someone reads and forgets about before sharing it on a social network. Look at your content and check to make sure someone will get value from it. 

If they don’t get anything out of it, they’ll never share it or tell their friends about it.  Your post will be dead. ... Before publishing your content, think like the expert.

He backs up his opinion with some research:

Two University professors of Pennsylvania looked at the New York Times and found what kind of content generate most shares and links. They found that long, in-depth posts appear to go viral much more often then shorter posts.

3 ways to make your CEO more ... human

Matthew Schwartz at PR News offers these avenues:

• Blogs: At the risk of stating the obvious, this is a layup for CEOs. Writing a blog a few times a week provides a way for senior executives to share their passions, hobbies and, dare we say, quirks, in order to show their audiences that they are not obsessed with the top and bottom lines and can talk about their life beyond dollars and cents.  

• Podcasts: Does your boss love to chat? Even better, does your boss have a mellifluous and inviting voice? Set him or her up with a weekly podcast; not to shill for the company or the industry but to have a jargon-free conversation about the values of the brand and how it relates to some of the larger issues confronting society. Tossing in a periodic opinion about things that have absolutely nothing to do with the company can’t hurt, either. It shows that your boss is able to relate to subject matters beyond a spreadsheet. With apologies to Steve Allen, radio is the theater of the mind—and can help to cultivate your audience(s).  

• Video vignettes: Does your boss have a friendly tennis game that he or she plays weekly? Is your CEO a cinema buff? Or does he or she not miss any of their kids’ softball games? Arrange for a video crew to (unobtrusively) follow the boss on a personal outin This can show how gelling out with some friends or cheering on the kids helps the CEO to recharge the batteries and think more holistically about how to improve the brand’s products, services and relationships.

How to make your writing easy to read

How to write for easier reading from Rusty Cawley

OK, so not everyone can write as well as Hemingway. But if you can converse in English, you can learn to write to the level of an above-average U.S. newspaper reporter. It’s a matter of discipline. If you follow a handful of principles set down by readability expert Robert Gunning in the 1950s, you can master the craft of writing clearly.

SEO: Getting found vs getting read

From Patsi Krakoff at The Blog Squad: 

Here’s the thing: when you follow the basic common sense rules for getting your article found online, it’s also good structure for making sense to the readers. Here’s why, reviewing three basics of search engine optimization and how it applies for both getting found and getting read: 

• Opening paragraph needs to alert the search engines about the topic being discussed. What’s this article about? You use your keywords upfront and hyperlink them if you can. Although you want to be compelling so readers want to read your article, you want to be clear about the subject matter through obvious use of keywords and hyperlinking. 

• Your title needs to place keywords prominently so the search engines and the readers know what the subject is, and are curious to read more. 

• You need to repeat the keywords throughout your piece, so readers don’t get off track and can take away some key learning about your topic. You probably need to remind them of your point in your concluding paragraph to do this. (I don’t mean you should go over board and use the keyword ad nauseum).

Hashtags: 5 best practices for strategic success

From Paul Dunay at Marketing Darwinism:

In order to be successful with your hashtag strategy, leaders in the space recommend several best practices to follow:

• Limit the number of hashtags you use and keep it simple. Too many hashtags make it difficult to track and are confusing to consumers.
• Make them mean something. Figure out what you are going to focus on and then consistently leverage those across numerous campaigns.
• Avoid open-ended questions. By not limiting the response to a specific type, not only are you losing relevancy, but you are opening a can of worms for a hashtag hijacking.
• Be realistic. Make sure you have permission from your consumers to claim that hashtag. Blackberry’s #BeBold campaign, complete with super heroes, was a #Fail that opened it up to ridicule that quickly expanded into a chance to mock their slip into irrelevance.
• Get organized. Use dashboards structured by hashtag or more easily monitor and manage your campaigns.