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The Context of Content

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By Lisa D. Jenkins

It’s not the story, it’s the telling of the story.

Last week, I was in the wilds of Idaho, rafting the Main Salmon River of No Return. I left the online world and was completely disconnected from technology; no smartphone, no laptop. I did allow myself to bring a camera and Flip.

I took images and footage sparingly because a couple of years ago I realized I was losing memories because I was too busy trying to capture them digitally. But I do have a few incredible reminders that will help me remember all the amazing things I saw and experienced.

When The Husband picked me up from my trip, I couldn’t wait to get home and show and tell him everything.

The memories were easy for him to consume: the big bright trout I caught at the mouth of Sheep Creek, the massive bald eagle that flew just over my head,

Oddly, the images and video were more difficult. He looked through them and wasn’t nearly as exuberant as I thought he’d be. Take this image for instance, what do you see?

rushing river

You see a burned out forest. Wildland fire is not uncommon in Idaho and we often see sections of landscape marred like this. While mildly interesting, it’s not uniquely remarkable. Until you know that as we were rowing by, our guide Matt explained that he was rowing through this fire last year – at this very spot.

In the same way that story provides context that informs my image, you need to inform the content you share with context for your readers.

It’s not just the pieces of your story that make it remarkable, it’s how you thread those pieces together that tell a remarkable story.

What does this look like?

Do you have a new product? Outline the real-world problems your product solves to inform a simple demo video. This makes it easy for people to know who the product will help. If it’s not them, they might recognize the struggles of someone they know.

Are you adding a new service? Let your audience in on how you detected a gap in the services you provide, to inform the launch for your latest offering. This builds on established trust and gives your audience a behind the scenes view of how your company works to stay current with their needs.

Have you reached a goal? Use a timeline or infographic to inform a milestone your business is celebrating. This help others understand where you started and how exciting it is for you to mark the occasion. People who’ve been with you from the beginning will appreciate the walk down memory lane and newer readers will appreciate not feeling left out.

Telling your story.

As you execute your content strategy, include contextual elements that weave your disparate content into a cohesive story. Each point of reference you provide helps your readers feel included and invites them to go deeper into the story with you.

Author’s Bio: Lisa D. Jenkins is a Public Relations professional specializing in Social and Digital Communications for businesses. She has over a decade of experience and work most often with destination organizations or businesses in the travel and tourism industry in the Pacific Northwest. Connect with her on Google+

Beginnings and Endings

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By James Ellis

There are really only two hard parts to writing effective marketing pieces. If you’re thinking about your email, web pages, or direct mailings, it doesn’t matter.

Sadly, these two things are the beginnings and endings. Do those properly, and you barely need a middle.

The job of the beginning is to get your target interested. The job of the ending is to tell the target what to do next. Yes, it really is that simple. If I was running your marketing department, i’d rather have killer beginnings and endings rather than all the great middle content you can stuff in a web page.

Yes, the beginnings and endings are just that important. Think about it. Once you’ve got someone interested, the only thing that can happen is that you can either close the deal and convert them, or you can say something stupid or unappealing and lose them. Why take that chance? Once you’ve got them interested, tell them what to do next. Don’t waste your target’s time (trust me, they will appreciate it) and get to the point.

Please note that I never said how long the beginnings or endings need to be. The perfect email isn’t necessarily just a subject line and a call to action link. But if you can get their attention in ten words, and the link is the offer, what else is there to talk about?

The beginning isn’t just the subject line and pre-header, but those are part of the beginning. The beginning isn’t limited to the structure of the medium (subject line in emails, headlines in web sites, etc), but whatever it takes to achieve the goal: gain interest.

The beginning of Moby Dick isn’t “Call me Ishmael.” It’s a hundred thousand words that explain the relationship between a man and a white whale, or really the nature of obsession. All those words are needed to get our attention because simply saying “An old sea captain lost a leg to a whale and wants revenge” is not attention-getting; it’s an idea in need of supporting detail.

On the other hand, what else do I need to know beyond “50% off all our most popular products” except what to do next?

It doesn’t matter if you use emotion, loss aversion, numbers, relationship reminders, or sensational quotes. Just be intentional about getting their attention.

So once you have their attention, you need to do something with it. Don’t tease, don’t dawdle, don’t wait. Get to the next step. Click the link, call for an appointment, sign up for a subscription, whatever it is, just get to the point.

It’s crucial that you make sure that the beginning aligns with the ending. If you get my interest by saying “Free beer and pizza” the ending can’t be “Sign up for a subscription” because I won’t understand why they go together. I’ll smell something fishy and bolt.

This is the basis of all good marketing. Making it more complicated than that just clouds the issue. Nail your beginning and ending. The rest takes care of itself.

Author’s Bio: James Ellis is a digital strategist, mad scientist, lover, fighter, drummer and blogger living in Chicago. You can reach out to him or just argue with his premise at saltlab.com.

Storytelling Hits Home – Part 2

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In January I wrote a post about the subject of a documentary I am making. I talked about her community and how they had let her down and a little bit about our relationship. She has been in a women’s correctional facility, a jail, since then and we have maintained close contact. Well, as close as you can over a scant few phone calls that are monitored and letters someone else reads after she has written them. There is a chance that in a few weeks she may be released and has expressed the desire to enter a drug rehab program. I applauded her decision and was amazed when she told me there was no one to help her make this happen. I listened thinking this was the addict talking, making excuses, and offered encouragement but didn’t respond. After describing the lack of counseling in the facility she finally asked me to help.
  
And so it begins. Phone call after phone call, department after department: “No, we can’t refer. ” “She needs a counselor.” “I can’t talk to you about that.” Round and round I went. 

I am passionate about helping others. I am passionate about being an advocate for those who, for whatever reason, may not have a voice. But today, as I began advocating for someone close to me I kept hitting a wall. Today I was so frustrated I wanted to scream. Today I felt powerless, silent and ineffective. I have good intentions; I volunteer, serve on committees and volunteer boards. I promote non-profit online and wherever and whenever I can. 

What do we do when the systems we have in place to advocate and care for those disadvantaged in any and every way don’t work? How do we accept the fact that those processes put in place are not being managed in a manner that benefit those who need them? 

Again the community has let her down, and again tomorrow I will pick up the phone. 

photo credit: Amy Stark flickr
from: Kathryn Jennex aka @northernchick

Storytell Your Life So You Never Forget What You're About

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I've been thinking . . .

about stories.

I’m remembering a song from my childhood.

“Tell me a story. Tell me a story.
You promised me. You said you would.
You gotta give in, ’cause I’ve been good.
Tell me a story, and then I’ll go to bed.”

The best were the stories my dad told about his life. I’ll never forget those. . . .

My friends used to say that no matter how bad things got, the experience was worth it, if we ended up with a story to tell. That thinking helped us turn the most unpleasant happenings into adventures and quests.

We would sit and swap stories while sipping wine, listening to music, and letting candles burn to set the mood. That wasn’t the only time we told stories though.

Stories were the way that we told each other where we had been and who we were.

As we got to know each other, it seems that we could hardly get near one another without telling a tale of an event in our lives. In the car, on the phone, we were constantly sharing a piece of an epic — all detailed and filled with conversation and setting — as if we were relating a scene from “on the road” movie we had seen at the local theater.

Stories of our lives were how we figured out what was going on.

We don’t do that as much now.

Now the information seems to come fast. The stories are shorter — less detailed, more factual. We relate data. The stories we try to tell aren’t as delicious as they once were. We don’t savor them anymore.

I vote that we slow down and start storytelling our lives again. I promise that if you tell a story rich with the wonder of living, I’ll be here alive with anticipation, ready to listen. Our stories are worth every second we take to pass them on.

The real ones are the best, even the real ones that only happened in our heads.

Let’s storytell our lives so we never forget who we are and what we are about.

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