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.

Published by daisyquaker

A digital content marketer that loves helping businesses create unique content that helps them build their audience and grow their business.

109 thoughts on “3 Public Speaking Approaches that Improve Your Blog”

    1. Thank you, I’m honored! And I’m glad you found it interesting, I enjoy listening to great speeches, and the amount of prep that goes into that is quite something, I think it’s a great approach to creating new blog posts as well 🙂

      Reply

  5. Great parallels!
    I used to do a lot of public speaking, with the purpose to inform or, less commonly, to persuade. But I always felt the sign of a good presentation was getting people to laugh. I’m hopeful my blog does the same thing.

    Reply

  8. Very informative, inspiring, and entertaining post. And excellent advice. I think I seek to do all those subconsciously, but now you’ve inspired me to think about those categories consciously. Thank you. 🙂

    Reply

    1. Your welcome, I’m glad the post inspired you to think of things a little differently or should I say more consciously? Thank you for checking it out, and giving feedback!

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    1. It’s a lot of fun once you get into it, I think the trouble I had most at first was developing confidence in my point of view. How has it been working for you?

      Reply

      1. I am confident about what I blog about — the one thing I worry about is offending people since I tend to have a large evangelical Christian fanbase and they can be very nervous about posts that don’t agree exactly with what they think.

      2. That sounds like a balancing act! I imagine if I were writing for such an audience, knowing my underlying message that I want to communicate through my blog that I can keep coming to would help me keep my focus. As long as its in line with my mission,I’d try and stay authentic to that… but then again I don’t write for an evangelical fan base.

  11. congrats on being fresh pressed!!

    this post made me think back to the last ‘great’ public speaker I’d seen… and now that I’ve thought about I remember. It’s kind of funny in a way, he told us, that we probably wouldn’t remember his name, or what he said- but we’d remember what he did… then he related it to life. He said, your name might not be remembered, what you said, most likely won’t be remembered- but what you did, that’s what you’ll be remembered by. and, just as he predicted, I recall clearly what he did (and that bit of what he said) and not much else about him.

    thanks for making me think- and the tips!

    have a lovely day!

    Reply

    1. Thank you, it’s really an honor to make the list!

      It’s interesting, I heard a quote once, went something like “people won’t remember what you said, how you dressed, or who you were, but they’ll remember how you made them feel” Atleast that’s what comes to mind at the moment!

      Reply

  12. As our British cousins would say, “Spot On!” It always helps to have your blog offer something to the reader. You’d be surprised at what you can learn from others if you first offer something positive or enlightening to your reader. I try to treat each post as a personal message from me to an individual reader…sort of a remote one-to-one connection. Excellent post. Aloha from Hawaii Island.

    Reply

    1. Aloha! Thank you for stopping by, that sounds really interesting in creating that connection with your readers, definitely should try and implement that on here as well.

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  15. Very interesting… I like to think that I do all three (i.e. inform, entertain, and inspire) but your post makes me wonder if indeed I do any of them very well?

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    1. Well I think with each ost, just like a speech, there are elements of each but there is one dominant purpose to writing. I think the purpose of my writing is to be informative, but I try and have elements of each.

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    1. That’s true, it’s both one person communicating to an audience of sorts, although speeches have the benefit of allowing that human interaction/element, making it perhaps easier to see the feedback, with blogging you can’t have that, perhaps making it a little harder, I think.

      Reply

  24. Thanks for the tips!

    Layout and length play a big role too, both in a speech and blog, as well as visual aids. Although I love words and read fast I shrink back at the sight of a blog that goes much over one screen’s length. Digestible chunks, just like when we are learning something new.

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    1. I write about that in a previous post too, I try to keep my posts between 600-800 words at most, and break content into chunks making to make it easier to wade through.

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  25. If a blog is to be successful over the longer term, I think using anecdotes is critical. There are a million blogs out there essentially offering the same thing to an extent and there has to be a point of difference. In my experience, that point of difference is a humorous situation your readers can identify with that reinforces your message.

    Thank you for sharing this with us.

    Reply

    1. You make an interesting point one of the blogs I read talked about the power of adding stories, anecdotes or even insider jokes to content (although I shy away from insider jokes because it might alienate some readers)

      Reply

  26. . Thinking of your blog as either teaching readers something new, or expanding their knowledge base.

    I hope my blog can reach that point of view.

    I always try to put an important issues that might others not knew about it.

    Reply

  27. Thinking of your blog as either teaching readers something new, or expanding their knowledge base.

    I hope my blog can reach that point of view.

    I always try to put an important issues that might others not knew about it.

    Reply

  28. Thank you!!! Very informative, entertaining, and inspiring. I’ve been trying to do this for my blog. and finding ways to improve. Now i have a guideline.

    Reply

  30. The goal for me, (I’ve done a ton of public speaking as well as blogging) is to connect with readers, so whatever achieves that is working…I think your suggestions are good. The humbling and frustrating part is that every reader and listener seeks something different; some are hungry for inspiration while others just crave a good laugh. So I also know that every post, and every speech, won’t connect with everyone.

    Congrats on being Freshly Pressed!

    Reply

  31. THANK YOU. I AGREE WITH WHAT YOU SAY. TOO BAD I DON’T ALWAYS DO THAT – ALTHOUGH I MAY HAVE A DIFFERENT NOTION OF WHAT IS ENTERTAINING – BUT IT IS IN MY MIND. YOUR BLOG HOWEVER, IS GOOD FOOD FOR THE MIND AND I WILL TRY TO NOT JUST THINK ABOUT BUT ACT ON IT. THANK YOU FOR THE ADVISE AND REMINDER!!!!

    Reply

  36. Great post. I’ve unconsciously tried to emulate a few of these points while posting. Now I’ll try to be more aware of the value that I’m providing for readers. Thanks.

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  38. Excellent information. My blog is a conglomerate of all these things. I just never knew it. I like to have a blend of all. My hope is to submit some articles to magazines. I’m still honing my writing skills. My blog just began with quotes. As I’ve grown in confidence and readership I’ve added photograhy, poetry, and now a guest author. If the articles go nowhere, at least I’m leaving a legacy for my family, finding a refuge away from the wear and tear of life, and brightening another’s day.
    Peace,
    Alexandria Sage

    Reply

    1. All the best in your pursuits Alexandria, you touched on a motivation I had in starting this blog too, to grow in confidence in sharing my ideas, which I continue to work on

      Reply

  40. Daisyquaker, what a fantastic post, and so weel written thank you for inspiring me and also giving me a motivational kick up the jacksee 😉 …LA x

    Reply

  42. What if our business has fallen to the point at losing faith and trust from the customers, could the 4 types of strategies (Informative, Persuasive, Entertaining, and Inspirational) help us in terms of getting back the faith and trust of customers? What I am trying to say is that, is there any ways to bring the faith and trust of customers back to our business while the business tends to collapse? PS. Thank you for the very useful tips!!!

    Regards,

    W. Sorf

    Reply

    1. I think authenticity is important in this situation, recognizing where you’ve fallen short and being honest with your audience in your steps to improve? Sharing and being open that you are aware of your customer’s perceptions of your business, and you are working to get back on track. Being authentic and genuine in your communication mediums can really help in this situation. Contact me if you want to go into greater detail 🙂

      Reply

  44. This post of yours refreshed my memory, I used to take a public speaking class in high school. It’s good to know that public speaking, and blogging are similar to one another. Thank you for sharing!

    Reply

  49. I recently feel I’ve hit a hump with my blog when I posted a long winded entry with little purpose other than recollecting my night’s events (entertaining as they may be) it wasn’t something I felt should’ve been posted as unedited as it was. Your post helps me to zero in on new techniques to ensure my posts are high quality. Great post and thank you for sharing!

    Reply

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