Think back to the last time you attended a great public speaking event. What made it great? Often times you either learned something new, laughed till it hurt, or you were really inspired by the presentation.
Public Speakers have a tough job. They either give a great presentation the audience welcomes and enjoys, or they are met with pin-drop silence. It’s an art and science that has hundreds of little techniques, but there is a common thread that runs through all great speeches that can be applied to writing great blog posts.
What do a great speech and a great post have in common? Purpose.
In public speaking there are 4 types of speeches: Informative, Persuasive, Entertaining, and Inspirational. Although a speech may have elements of each, most speeches fall in one of these categories. There is always a dominant purpose, or approach that the speaker uses to deliver value.
3 ways to deliver value to your readers
Blogging for blogging’s sake does not help your marketing efforts, it can make your content seem haphazard and unplanned. Instead focus on creating content that makes readers flock to your blog the same way they would flock to a presentation.
The cue small business owners and bloggers can take from public speaking is defining the primary purpose of your posts or content. Do you write to inform, entertain, or inspire?
Inform
“What will I learn from reading your post today?”
Informative blog posts teach readers something new. This does not necessarily mean your posts should just be “How To” guides. An informative post can include news that is relevant to your industry or the products you deliver, or even success strategies that users can benefit from. Thinking of your blog as either teaching readers something new, or expanding their knowledge base.
Marketing benefit: Readers learn something new from reading your content, this will create loyalty and trust in your service or products.
Entertain
“What will I read that will lighten my day?”
Arguably every post should have some element of entertainment to it, but blogs that aim to entertain are focus more on brightening up a reader’s day by amusing them or even making them laugh out loud. Funny stories, anecdotes, or even pictures that brighten up your reader’s day help make your writing endearing.
Marketing Benefit: Think of Blendtec’s “Will It Blend?” series, finding amusing or unconventional uses for your products is a great promotion tactic for your small business (remember blogging does not mean you can’t involve multimedia).
Inspire
“What can I read that will help me achieve my goals?”
This is helpful for businesses offering services such as personal life coaching, fashion retailers, cleaning services or marketing services. Inspirational posts can motivate readers by sharing powerful stories or giving fresh ideas that inspire action. Inspirational posts leave room for the reader to think about how to apply this wisdom or perspective in their lives.
Marketing benefit: You will inspire repeat visits, but also grow in your reader’s mind as a useful resource in the area.
Each of these approaches focus on the reader’s benefit and not on your product or company. A great speech delivers a benefit to the listener, just like a great post delivers a benefit to the reader.
Image credit Flickr-by TOM81115
Daisy Quaker is a freelance internet marketing consultant, specializing in social media strategy, content marketing, e-mail marketing and internet marketing strategy. In her spare time she writes a personal style blog. Find her on <Twitter and Google+ and tell her what strategies work for your business.
Daisy Quaker is a Badass 
Congratulations making freshly pressed, great tips.
Amazing information. I would certainly try these and I hope it works!! Thanks.
http://personalbyv.wordpress.com/
Love it! A great reminder for us all to maintain a little focus in our own blogs, and glad you were FP so I could stumble upon yours! Thanks for sharing!
Thank you for stopping by, it’s great to receive the FP acknowledgement, makes it all worth it 🙂
Completely does! Look forward to reading more!
Thank you for this inspiring post and congrats on being Freshly Pressed.
Thank you for stopping by, it was pretty cool to have my post up there!
Thank you so much for this post. I am a young lover of words that recently started a blog about my home country http://innamazing.wordpress.com/ I do agree that I’m a little clueless about blogging, so your tips are really helpful. I really wish to grow as a writer and I hope one day I can inspire people.
All the best, I think having a focus on what you want to write is a good way to start your blogging adventures!
Thanks for writing this. I appreciate it and as a new blogger it has inspired me.
Thank you stopping by, I’m glad you found it inspiring 🙂
Reblogged this on otherisland.
super super helpful post!! Do you mind checking out my blog http://www.candelacouture.com, its new and i would love to see what you think!
great posts btw!
Wow that’s a fantastic analogy…public speaking and blogging are actually very similar indeed. Thanks so much for this post, I’m new to blogging and I keep thinking ‘what do I really want to get across to people in this blog? What am I really writing here?’
This has really helped me clarify!
I completely agree with these! Many people don’t view blog writing as “real” writing, so they don’t tend to think about their audience….these are some really great tips!
Cheers,
Courtney Hosny
I’m fairly new to blogging but have read a bit on writing good posts. I don’t think that anything I have read has come close to your for good advice on content. Reading this single post is going to influence how and where I take my blog in future. Thanks, Jeff
Thank you so much for the compliment 🙂 I am no pro-blogger myself, the great thing is it’s fair game so long as you can stick to it, I wish you the best in your endeavor!
Just new to blogging, this post has given me very good guidance on how to approach my future posts. Thanks, can’t wait to read more!
Love this Post – I always come back to read it to give me inspiration & a ‘Pep talk’ ! LA
@Daisyquaker – I just had to tell you that I have just finished writing a post on ‘Branding Yourself – Your USP’ and this post was my inspiration. I just love it. Thank you for giving such insightful information. LA x
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Fantastic & inspirational! 🙂 loved it!