Aligning Content For Story Telling

When you learn how to understand your target audience, it is the most significant factor in strategizing your content marketing concept. If you don’t know what your customer’s goals and interests are, then you will find it very challenging to submit content that is engaging and that tells a story. Keep this in mind when writing content. A reader is better able to identify with a story rather than a concept. I am not saying our readers are not as savvy as we are, but when you tell a story about a product, for example, rather than the features of the product, it gives the reader a better perspective and helps the customer to identify with the product.

Let me explain further: I have written a book titled, “The Man in The Shadows: He Touched Me Where It Hurt.” 

Although, the title somewhat describes what the book is about, if I were to take sections of the book and place it in this piece of content or write a synopsis of a similar story, I would get a better reaction from my audience. Who are my target audience? I would say it would be parents, teenagers, young children and child sexual abuse victims. You must first identify your audience before writing content. Without having to place sections of my book here, I would align the content of my book with a similar short story about a fictitious character, Jessica.

Jessica

The loud squeaky noise from the opening door startled Jessica and woke her from a not-so sound sleep. Grabbing her sheets tightly with her clenched fingers, she peered through the dark to see who it was. Adjusting her eyes to the dark was not easy, but she could finally see the silhouette of a very tall figure in a pair of familiar black pants and white shirt. As the figure boldly entered the room, Jessica softly lay back down on the bed and pretended to sleep. She was hoping that he would go away, but suddenly, she felt a well-manicured hand over her mouth, preventing her from screaming. She tried to bite the hand while she forced herself to look up at him. Unable to gasp with horror, she stared up at her older cousin, Willy as he placed his index finger of his other hand over his mouth to hush her up. Once he noticed signs of obedience, he quickly began his planned and desensitized attack on her body. She cringed in disbelief and could do nothing but surrender because she remembered in that moment that no one was at home to hear any possible screams. Her parents had left for a dinner engagement and Cousin Willy was supposed to stay at the house until they got back. He was staying alright, but helping himself to her slender body and childlike innocence.

The Story Alignment

Do you see how this short synopsis about Jessica’s experience aligns to the title of my book? That is how you should write content to feed your readers. I didn't talk about what is in my book, other than mention that it is a similar story. I gave the readers a sneak of what they could expect from my story. Impact your audience – don’t believe for a second that they don’t know what to expect because they do. If you enjoyed this short story, you will enjoy my book, “The Man in The Shadows: He Touched Me Where It Hurt and my other book, “For The Wounded Soul.” 

Check them out by clicking the described title hyperlinks. If you buy the first one, I will give you a free audio book download coupon to get the other. What are you waiting for? Don’t you love an interesting story? I know you enjoyed this one and you will enjoy the others. So act right now and CLICK HERE to buy The Man in The Shadows: He Touched Me Where It Hurt!” Email me with proof of purchase and I will send your free audio download coupon for “For the Wounded Soul.”

Writing for a Specific Purpose and For A Target Audience

When you understand the demographics of your audience, it will determine how you write, what you end up writing about, the choice of words and the tone of your content. Once you know who you are writing to impress, it will give you a sense of purpose on the point of your content and how you will bring those points across. Once you know and understand your purpose and the audience to which you share this purpose, you will be more focused in your writing.

In my case, I am very passionate about writing for victims and survivors of child abuse. My immediate audience would be parents who have had children survive this traumatic event and victims who have reached adulthood. I would also target child advocacy groups to let them know that I share their cause and possible share my writing with them so that they can in turn share with their members. The public-at-large is also my audience because they need to become aware of this issue.  Why?

Write to Educate

I try to take the opportunity to use my writing to educate the public on the seriousness of this issue. I would indirectly target the decision-maker of big corporations so that they can provide me with a wider audience reach? How? Well, these big nay-sayers are encouraged to buy my books in bulk (sponsorship) and donate it to the child advocacy organization in good faith. However, I could go one step further and offer to put a one page ad in my book for the corporation. This will provide a benefit to the corporation and give a reason to act.

SIDE NOTE: By the way, if you are a corporation or company, feel free to purchase my books online and donate them to your favorite child advocacy organization or to Darkness to Light, an advocacy group, of which I have an interest.

Write to Give Hope

When I was writing my book, my first thought was the audience that I was writing for.  Initially, I started by writing for the parent who doesn't understand that he/she should be careful to observe their children. Or the child sexual abuse survivor who is still trying hard to deal with the issues related to their unfortunate ordeal. Then I will think about the precise point I wanted to make. In this case, I would want the survivor to know that he/she is not alone because I am a survivor too.

I write my books in such a way as to give hope. For the parents, I share my story, which shows that even a close family member can be the perpetrator. Therefore, my writing conveys the message that it is especially important to closely monitor children. I cannot say that enough!

I usually ponder on the questions that my target audience would ask. I go over those questions, find the answers and include in my draft. I will put a lot of thought into this step. If I have to do additional research, I will – including statistics to show how crucial it is to spread the word about child sexual abuse and the effects it has on children.

Conclusion

Whatever, you write about, let it be something that is dear to your heart. If you write a romance novel, for example, develop a story that people can identify with. If you write non-fiction, make it purposeful and choose the right audience before you put any words on paper.  If you want to help my particular cause and passion, purchase my book at Amazon or virally share this article or the link to my book on your social media pages. Help me to shatter the silence of child sexual abuse. There is a child out there that needs your help too!

Adding a Human Element to Your Content

Content marketing has seen a surge in the recent past and it is not letting up. However, not all content marketers get the hang of how to leverage their content. Readers are not interested in just hearing about the opinions of your brand or reading rewritten material from other industry sources. They want to relate to what you have to say. In fact, most readers are looking for solutions and that is what valuable content should provide.

Adding a human element to your content will make you more believable and that is why Google implemented the Google Hummingbird concept. Instead of writing for the search engine ranking with a bunch of keywords or phrases stuffed here and there throughout an article, why not write specifically to benefit the reader? Here are four guidelines to humanizing your content:

1.    A blog is a great way to break into your industry. It is an excellent tool for building relationships, in addition to social media. A blog is more up and personal. You have to post regular content on your blog, though, that your readers can look forward to. In other words, they will know where to come when they need answers or solutions. Make sure you keep your blog topic-specific, which means, you don’t want to have a blog about pets and you are also including articles on dating, unless your furry feline, for example, is dating another pet (just kidding!) A little humor helps too.

2.    Conduct extensive research on the topic that you are writing about. Don’t do this haphazardly. Spend some time to dig deep into the soul of the Internet. Your readers can tell if you put a lot of work into an article or not.

3.    Make sure that your content is properly edited. If you need help in this area, hire a writer and editor like myself. View my prices here. A girl has to eat, right? Once you have written a piece of content, share it with your Twitter followers and Facebook fans as well as other social media platforms such as Google+.

4.    Add infographics, videos and images to your content to make them more visually appealing.

Don’t worry about how many words you have in your article. For the most part, a 500-word article is quite acceptable, but if you end up with 400 words, so be it. Quality is more important than quantity. Remember, you are not writing for an article directory or search engine. You are writing to please your readers. Although not your entire focus, write an attention-grabbing title with keyword included. This will get your reader to pay attention, but write content that informs the reader rather than seduce them. Many copywriters would disagree, but who cares? My ethical obligation is to my readers and it should be the same with you. You want your readers to trust you. No one wants to deal with someone who has ulterior motives or bad intentions. With valuable and interesting content, readers will want to share with their friends and associates.

PAUSE: Take a look at this book written to support the victims of child abuse and view other books written and featured on AMAZON.

Leave your Ego at the Door

This is not about you! You are creating content for the reader and you must have the best of intentions – not necessarily writing to specifically sell a product or service, but writing to share your knowledge and expertise. Of course, your content will eventually sell the product because if this is your only source of income, no one expects that you are just going to be a sucker. You simply can’t, if you have mouths to feed.

Write as if you were the reader. What would you want to read and is your own content worth reading? When you create value, you build stronger connections and relationship with your reader – addressing the issues of concern to the reader. You will become the ‘go to’ person when your reader is looking for similar information.

Conclusion

When you use the appropriate techniques to relate to your readers, content writing becomes easier and is more effective in reaching your desired audience; driving traffic to your website and making you look like the expert and leader you are. Purchase one of my latest book on AMAZON and you, too can enjoy the kind of content created for readers like you.

Promoting Your Audio Books

Believe it or not, some people find it mentally painful to sit and read a print book. Some people don’t have the time, considering their busy schedules. In the past, this was not the case. People loved to read, but with the advent of innovative technology such as mobile phones, laptops, tablets, iPads and the latest gadgets, there are hardly many people buying printed books as before. So what is the option since the written word has to be read?

Audio books have been around for a few years, but have not been as popular as E-books (electronic books). Recently, there seems to be a surge in the purchase of audio book formats. Consider the convenience of listening to an audio book while you drive in your car or exercise at the gym. I love to read, so I could do both printed and audio, but for those who just cannot see themselves opening up a printed book, audio is the ideal option.

I have created a couple of audio books from my printed copies and the response has been amazing. In fact, people are buying more of these audio books than the printed copies and guess what? They are the same price, so what is the catch? People prefer to listen with their ears than read with their eyes.

Delivering Content

When you are a writer, it is crucial that you deliver content in a variety of formats so that you can reach a broader audience and allow them to read the content in a way that they would prefer. Doing so will ensure that the information is easily and properly digested. I love printed books, but in the past, I found more time to read. These days, I am busy writing and don’t have as much time. So I can relate to anyone who doesn’t have the time.

Audio books make it easier for many people and for writers, like me as well. There are many different ways to promote your audio book. You could share a sample chapter on your blog, or you could host a webinar speaking on the related topic in your book to educate your target audience. You could also produce a book trailer, which is a preview of the audio and any visual components associated with it. This combination will bring your book to life.

Beyond Audio Book Production

The hard work doesn't start when creating your audio book, but it is at the end of production. When promoting your audio book, approach your marketing efforts as if you were launching a new product. Don’t treat it as an extension of the printed copy. This is the mistake many authors make. Consider it an entirely new product for an entirely different target audience – the ones who prefer to listen more than read. Use all the avenues and techniques that you are privy to such as:

• ·         Writing a blog like this one with information on where our audio book version can be found online
• ·         Add a hyperlink on your website so that it can be purchased with one click
• ·         Post updates on your social media pages
• ·         Use Google+ Hangout and Twitter chat to get the word out to your online audience; pretending that it is a new book and not just a version of the previous one

I don’t like to leave cash on the table and neither do I want to prevent the listening audience from getting a hold of such valuable information just because they don’t like to read printed books. I realized from my experience that there was a market segment that loved audio books and I was determined to serve them. 

You, too, can enjoy my audio books. It only takes two easy clicks: ONE HERE and the OTHER HERE. If you would like to solicit my copy writing and content writing service, please Click Here.