Too many times, bloggers focus on their content without stopping to think about how they’re presenting it. Today Dave Hughes takes a look at creating memorable content by injecting Emotion into it.
The trick is to know how to construct an effective bloggerie (or blog post). Luckily, this doesn’t involve deals with the devil, mystic VooDoo rituals or ancient Chinese secrets. (Unless you want to base your chances of business success on Satan, a dead chicken and a fortune cookie, in which case have at it.) There’s one simple method that is present in all effective marketing that you should use in creating your content: an emotional connection.
Game-Time!
Let’s play a game. Look at the following group of letters and tell me what they mean:
Now, let’s look at those same letters, in the same order, but presented in a different way:
I’m going to bet the second group is easier to comprehend, easier to remember, and has more of an impression than the first group. Why? The same “message” is contained in both, but in the second case the message was constructed to play upon your preconceived mental images and emotional connections.
I don’t mean that proper blogging uses acronyms (although they don’t hurt at all)…in the second case, you don’t have to explain what “FBI” stands for, or “CIA”, “NASA”, etc. Your readers will automatically have a mental image pop into mind when they see them.
No one has to be told what the IRS is, but AIRS could be anything.
No Business Like Show Business
Let’s look at this from a completely different angle; Hollywood movie pitches. Pretend for a moment that you’re a movie studio executive accepting one-sentence pitches for new movies. You’ve got $50 million dollars to invest in a movie…all you’re looking for is a sure-fire idea. (After all, you had to mow a lot of lawns to build that $50 million up!) Here’s the first pitch:
“A balding guy runs around in American cellars and caves, finding treasure and solving mysteries.”
Okay…not too bad. It might even have potential. Now, let’s hear the next one:
“It’s ‘The DaVinci Code’ meets ‘Indiana Jones’!”
Which movie do you have a clearer picture of in your mind? They both describe the “National Treasure” movie franchise, but which one makes it easier to envision how great it could be?
Now, are you trying to sell balding guys running around cellars and caves when you write, or two blockbusters combined into one package?
Don’t Forget To Be Memorable
Don’t focus on standing out…focus on being memorable. The best way to do that is to form an emotional connection with your readers, and one of the most effective ways to do that is to help your customers make an association between your writing and something they already have an emotional connection with.
