Tag Archives: content marketing

Justin Welsh on Being Boring

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I’m not the only one who grips my keyboard. On Saturday, Justin Welsh wrote “The hidden power of being boring.” Excerpt:

If you ask me, success isn’t about unlocking secrets — it’s about doing the boring stuff, day in and day out….

I write. I write every single day. Even when I don’t feel inspired. Even when nobody seems to care. And even when it feels like I’m talking to an empty room. I’ve now written for over 2,100 consecutive days without missing.

But of course, that’s not what people want to hear.

WYSASOA

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A few of you may come away puzzled when I use the term “WYSASOA.”

I don’t understand this.

Isn’t it OBVIOUS that “WYSASOA” stands for “Why You Should Always Spell Out Acronyms”?

That’s pretty stupid, John, you’re saying. If you use acronyms and phrases without defining them, your readers are going to be confused and aren’t going to buy from you.

The counter-argument is that if you don’t know what WYSASOA means, then I probably don’t want to do business with you.

To a point, that’s true.

But why make it hard on yourself?

Perhaps someone doesn’t use WYSASOA, but does use EYA.

(pause)

“EYA” is “Explain Your Acronym.”

Do I have to spell out EVERYTHING to you?

Yes I do.

Introduction Goes Here

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Proposal professionals are familiar with this question: do you write the executive summary first, or last?

I recently struggled with this, but in a non-proposal project—specifically, for an online article I was writing for a Bredemarket client. I had already asked my seven questions, so I had a high-level idea of the points I wanted to make. But I intentionally started writing the rest of the online article, and put some filler text at the beginning:

“*** Introduction Goes Here”

Those who have worked with me on content, proposal, and analysis projects know how much I love my three asterisks, and other things to flag incomplete text.

But why did I delay writing the introduction to the end? Because of one important difference between proposals and online articles.

  • When an entity receives a proposal, the content is analyzed internally by few who HAVE to read it. The humans and non-person entities (proposal evaluation software) are required to analyze sections of the proposal, or perhaps even the whole thing.
  • When an entity receives an online article, the content is analyzed externally by many who DON’T have to read it. The humans and non-person entities (Google, Bing, etc.) may start reading at the beginning, and if they don’t like the article, they quit reading right there. (Proposal evaluators don’t have that luxury.)

Because of this, the opening words of an  article can be very important. And the right words need to be there.

So I saved that writing exercise for later.

Process

Luna Marketing Services asked us on Instagram when we last went over our current processes.

My answer: January 18, 2024.

The illustration shows just one part of one of my processes. I don’t share the rest of this particular process, but it governs creation of most of my “CPA” materials.

In fact, I am about to start a short writing project for one of my clients, and I will start by asking these seven questions.

But not in Word. In the client’s Jira.

Don’t forget that processes require flexibility. Don’t complete processes for the sake of completing processes.

Bredemarket’s Three (So Far) Industry Pillar Pages

Since I started creating (sort of) pillar pages in April 2022, I’ve built more, including three devoted to particular industries.

An Eventful Monday

Now that I’ve formally scheduled the release of my talkie—it’s even an “event” on Facebook—I may as well provide a description of what my talkie contains.

  • First, the video is 3 minutes and 40 seconds long, which for me is long. And why you won’t see it on Bluesky or Instagram. But you will see it here; it’s already scheduled.
  • Oh, and I talk. The video alternates between shots of me at Bredemarket world headquarters and shots of textual/image descriptions incorporating Canva’s finest AI-generated music. If you’ve seen my other videos you know the…um…score.
  • I start by introducing the subject of “marketing and writing services” and identifying MY hungry people (target audience). 
  • Then I explain, in detail, what Bredemarket’s “CPA” services are NOT…and what they ARE.
  • I briefly touch on the questions I ask my clients. If you’ve read Bredemarket’s “Seven Questions Your Content Creator Will Ask You,” you’re already familiar with these questions.
  • Then I do something that some sales professionals would NEVER do—reveal my pricing up front.
  • Finally, my call to action is for interested prospects to book a meeting with me on my CPA page. If you don’t already have the link to that page, you’ll get it on Monday.

Well, that’s that. Come back Monday at 8:00 am Pacific Standard Time / 1600 GMT.

My Latest Bredemarket Video Is (well, will be) a Talkie

I assembled my latest video on Friday night.

It’s a talkie. 

But my talkie doesn’t cause 21st century controversy.

I still have my usual text, images, and AI-generated music, but I actually talk between the segments.

I plan to release the video on Monday.

Well, except on Bluesky and other social channels that can’t handle 3 minute and 40 second long videos.

The facts are that I need to trim 2 minutes and 40 seconds to get my new video on Bluesky.