Rilasciato Fedora 34: ecco tutte le novità
B2B Content Marketing: 10 Tips to Level Up Your Writing Skills
What is the biggest challenge a writer faces?
Nothing.
Well, by “nothing,” I mean a blank white screen and a blinking cursor.
It mocks you with its unlimited potential. It fills you with fear that anything you put on that screen won’t be an improvement over its pristine emptiness.
We content marketers have to face this challenge nearly every day, and somehow find a way to write content that connects, engages, and persuades.
I’ve spent my entire adult life working in the content trenches — first as a comedy writer, and now as a content marketer. Here are a few tips I’ve picked up that can elevate your writing and make that blank screen less daunting.
10 Tips for B2B Marketers to Elevate Their Writing Skills
#1: READ
In his excellent book On Writing, Stephen King says: “If you don’t have time to read, you don’t have time to write.” And if one of the world’s most prolific and celebrated authors can take time to read, we can, too.
Read marketing content, for sure, to see what the competition is up to. But don’t stop there. Read poems, novels, fiction, nonfiction, good stuff and guilty pleasures. Anything you read will help you continue to develop a distinct voice — even a bad example can show you what not to do.
#2: Be Aware of Rhythm
Now, I’m not saying you should write blog posts in iambic pentameter (but if you do, please link me). But it’s good to keep an eye on the rhythm of what you’re writing.
For example, watch out for parallel structures. In time, these will bore your reader. Soon enough, they’ll tune out completely.
Notice how all three of those sentences in the last paragraph have the same cadence? The same goes for short sentences. You put them one after the other. They’re all the same.
Vary the rhythm in your sentences — string them together with punctuation; let one stretch out like a rubber band. Then, snap! Put in a few short ones. Maybe a fragment, even. See how the writing comes alive?
#3: Practice Introductions
For many writers, just getting started is the hardest part of writing an article. Many will even write the entire body of the text and add the introduction after the fact.
Too many of us were scarred by high school English class, where an introduction had to introduce every point we were going to talk about, and had to start with something like, “Throughout recorded history,” or “Webster’s dictionary defines…”
Practice writing introductions that break the mold:
- Ask a question
- Make a controversial or otherwise intriguing statement
- Write a personal anecdote
In short, think less about introducing every talking point, and more about hooking the reader and pulling them in.
#4: Don’t Tell the Audience What They Already Know
This one goes along with the last point, because frequently introductions are all about stating the obvious. “Everyone knows that…” “We all understand that…”
Whenever you find yourself lecturing the audience on something you both know, take a step back. What can you tell them that they haven’t heard yet? What’s the quickest way to get to the good stuff?
#5: Let Go of Obsolete Rules
And speaking of high school English class: It is better to be clear, natural and genuine in your prose than to follow archaic rules of grammar. Language is a living thing that is constantly changing. So don’t feel beholden to what Mrs. Funke told you back in 9th grade.
For example:
- End sentences with prepositions
- Put commas where they feel natural
- Use sentence fragments
- Use. Weird. Punctuation. For. Emphasis!
- Embrace the singular ‘they’
And many more. Basically, you should sound like a real live person, not a textbook.
#6: Read It Out Loud
When we talk about writing in a “conversational tone,” we’re saying the writing should feel more like talking to a friend than reading something stiff and formal. What better way to make sure you’re conversational than actually reading your work out loud?
Now that we’re all in home offices instead of open-concept half cubicles, this one’s easier to do. Back in the before times, I would sometimes duck into a conference room or huddle room to read my work out loud. It’s amazing how many opportunities you’ll find to make your writing sound more natural when you’re hearing it instead of reading it.
#7: Experiment with Editing
I love the way that Google Docs saves a version history of everything I write. It makes editing so much easier, and the stakes so much lower for making major changes. You can try something, and if it doesn’t work, it’s easy to revert to the previous draft.
Experiment with the structure of your content — move paragraphs around and see if that improves the flow. Try cutting out the sentences you’re most proud of — odds are they’re the most self-indulgent and least likely to connect with your audience. Believe me, I speak from experience.
One easy way to experiment with editing: Cut the first paragraph of your introduction and see if you miss it. I frequently find that first paragraph is either wheel-spinning or scene-setting that the audience doesn’t really need.
#8: Write, Wait, Review, Revise
Writing and revising require two different mindsets. If you’re trying to do both at the same time, you’re likely not doing either as well as you might. For your first draft, concentrate on getting the words on the screen. When you’re done, walk away and let it rest — overnight, if possible.
Then you can approach what you’ve written with fresh eyes, read it through, and revise. After that, make sure to have at least one other person review it before you publish, just to catch whatever you might have missed.
[bctt tweet=”“Writing and revising require two different mindsets. If you’re trying to do both at the same time, you’re likely not doing either as well as you might.” — Joshua Nite @NiteWrites” username=”toprank”]#9: Spice Up Your Conclusions
Lastly, in conclusion, at the end of the day, finally… there are many ways to begin a conclusion, and most of them are (yet again) holdovers from high school. Ditto the idea that you shouldn’t introduce new information in a conclusion, but just rehash the points you’ve already made.
Thankfully, we’re not writing five paragraph essays anymore, and a conclusion can be more than an awkward recap. In fact, for marketing, it’s essential to make every conclusion a launchpad, a call to action that compels the reader to take the next step. Bland, by-the-book conclusions won’t get that job done.
Beat the Blank Screen
If you feel anxious when faced with that blank screen and its judgmental blinking cursor, start by letting go of some preconceived notions about what business writing has to be. It turns out that B2B buyers are actual people, and they would rather read something personable and expressive than something stiff and by-the-book. My tenth tip: Give yourself permission to write the way you talk, and you’re more likely to make a human connection with your reader.
Need help leveling up your content? Contact us today.
The post B2B Content Marketing: 10 Tips to Level Up Your Writing Skills appeared first on B2B Marketing Blog – TopRank®.
Microsoft Surface Laptop 4 15 pollici con CPU AMD Ryzen 7
WhatsApp, i messaggi effimeri potranno cancellarsi in 24 ore
WhatsApp ha introdotto negli scorsi mesi i messaggi effimeri, vale a dire quelli che si cancellano automaticamente dopo un certo lasso di tempo. Adesso, tuttavia, pare che il team di sviluppo sia al lavoro per potenziare questa funzione.
Il nuovo Fire HD 10 di Amazon arriva in Italia
La famiglia dei tablet Fire di Amazon si arricchisce oggi anche in Italia di un nuovo dispositivo, quello che potremmo definire il top gamma della linea: Fire HD 10, il più potente della serie, dotato di display Full HD con oltre due milioni di pixel, processore octa-core per prestazioni veloci e reattive e fino a 12 ore di durata della batteria, la stessa durata assicurata dal Fire HD 8.
Amazon Key: la spesa in garage si espande
Key for Garage è un servizio che estende sostanzialmente i servizi di Amazon Key. Per riassumere, si tratta di quella opzione che consente ai fattorini di consegnare i pacchi anche quando i destinatari non sono in casa. Come? Tramite una speciale attrezzatura, infatti, i dipendenti di Amazon riescono ad entrare nell’autorimessa dei clienti e a depositare i pacchi in un punto definito in modo da non intralciare l’ingresso dell’auto nel parcheggio casalingo.
Pfizer sta testando una pillola contro il Covid-19
Pfizer, l’azienda farmaceutica statunitense starebbe testando una pillola che, in caso di successo, potrebbe rivoluzionare la lotta alla pandemia da Covid-19 e aiutare i pazienti a curarsi direttamente a casa. Gli esperimenti, che coinvolgono circa sessanta volontari, tutti adulti sani di età compresa tra i 18 e i 60 anni, si stanno tenendo da alcune settimane in due laboratori segreti del gigante farmaceutico, uno negli Stati Uniti e uno in Belgio, e dureranno 145 giorni, con l’aggiunta di altri 28 giorni per “screening e dosaggio”.
La Cassazione stoppa Telecom: niente recupero consenso dati personali
La Cassazione ha confermato il divieto imposto dal Garante della Privacy a Telecom, che impedisce all’azienda di telecomunicazioni di portare avanti la campagna “recupero consenso” per acquisire il via libera all’utilizzo dei dati dei clienti che in precedenza, avevano già escluso di voler essere contattati telefonicamente per fini promozionali. Secondo i giudici, infatti, l’iniziativa della società telefonica andrebbe oltre “il limite fra l’informazione che si può sfruttare a fini pubblicitari e la violazione della privacy“, in quanto “una comunicazione telefonica finalizzata ad ottenere il consenso per fini di marketing, da chi l’abbia precedentemente negato, è essa stessa una comunicazione commerciale“.
La demo di Resident Evil Village sarà giocabile per 7 giorni
Le lamentele degli utenti sono state ascoltate. Resident Evil Village arriverà ufficialmente il 7 maggio prossimo su tutte le principali piattaforme di gioco, ma per stuzzicare un po’ l’appetito dei fan della serie e di chi si affaccia per la prima volta a questo survival horror Capcom aveva deciso di rendere disponibile una demo finale del titolo per 24 ore a partire dal 2 maggio.
TikTok Ads: Nuove Funzioni E Opportunità Per Gli E-Commerce
Ufficiale: iniziata la produzione di House of the Dragon
Adesso è finalmente ufficiale: l’attesa serie House of the Dragon, il prequel de Il Trono di Spade ambientato circa 300 anni prima degli eventi raccontati in quell’opera, dà l’avvio delle riprese che si terranno nel Regno Unito. La conferma è giunta nelle scorse ore attraverso l’account Twitter dedicato alla serie TV, accompagnati poi da una serie di ulteriori messaggi che sono serviti per la presentazione del cast.
Google’s partnerships with international organizations
Whether it’s a pandemic, climate change, or the health of the global economy, many of the problems of our era can only be effectively addressed by collaboration across borders. In an interconnected world, such collaboration depends on international organizations that bring together governments, the private sector and civil society. And we think technology can help.
We’ve recently seen how technology-enabled solutions like smartphone-based exposure notifications can support public health authorities in the fight against COVID-19, machine-learning models can reduce energy consumption, and AI can address cybersecurity challenges posed by hackers and spam. We at Google are proud to be investing billions in R&D each year to innovate new technologies to help address the world’s biggest cross-border problems.
To be sure, our relationship with international institutions is a two-way street. Our development of new technologies is guided by multilateral frameworks like the United Nations (UN) Roadmap for Digital Cooperation, the UN Sustainable Development Goals and the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. More broadly, we, like every company, benefit from the good work done by institutions ranging from the World Health Organization (WHO) to the World Bank in securing public health, strengthening the global economy and resolving conflict. And we value international organizations’ ability to shape global agendas and drive multi-stakeholder consensus — like how the OECD is working to reform global tax regimes or the World Trade Organization is working to promote a framework for digital trade.
This year, Google’s plan is to accelerate our partnerships with international organizations on four fronts.
1. Slowing the pandemic and supporting economic recovery.At the beginning of the pandemic, we wanted to help people find answers by surfacing critical information and leading global initiatives like “Do the Five” and “Wear a Mask.” For the first time, we partnered with the WHO to run public service health announcements through Google Search and YouTube. This partnershiphas led to campaigns in more than 100 countries and has driven over 1 billion ads served (impressions, or views) and 115 million clicks to the WHO website, educating users about the disease and fighting the infodemic. In recent months, we’ve turned our focus to helping millions of people around the world acquire the necessary skills to participate in the post-pandemic digital economy, and we’ll continue to support digital transformation of economies and communities to ensure that we step back into a stronger, resilient and more inclusive world.
2. Artificial intelligence and innovation.Building off our longstanding support for the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), we will continue to work with UN agencies to develop AI in a way that meaningfully improves people’s lives. For example, we’ve partnered with the UN World Food Programme to develop an AI-enabled tool to improve the delivery of disaster aid, and with UN-ESCAP and the Association of Pacific Rim Universities to launch an AI for Social Good report. We believe AI can be a transformational tool to support the goals of multilateral institutions.
3. Sustainability.Sustainability has been a core Google value since our founding. Now in our third decade of climate action, we’re working to help fulfill the vision of the UN SDGs and the Paris Agreement, becoming the largest annual corporate purchaser of renewable energy andcommitting to operate 24/7 on carbon-free energy by 2030. But we are also taking action far beyond our own operations, working with international organizations like the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to create tools like the Environmental Insights Explorer and our breakthrough AI for building energy efficiency that help everyone move towards a carbon-free world.
4. Open internet and human rights. The advent of the internet a generation ago fast-tracked human rights around the world in a way history had never seen. Google’s commitment to human rights, including to the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, dates back to our earliest years. Cognizant of the alarming realities behind the gendered impact of the pandemic, we have had a particular focus on gender equality. That’s why Google joined the Generation Equality Forum as a member of the Action Coalition for Technology and Innovation for Gender Equality; our Ad Grants partnership with UN Women has already enabled over seven million public service announcements in over 237 countries, raising awareness of the outsized impact of COVID-19 on women and girls. This year we also launched the Google.org Impact Challenge for Women and Girls, a first-of-its-kind program to empower women and girls to reach their full economic potential.
While we accelerate our work in these four areas, Google is committed to supporting international organizations to tackle the next generation of cross-border challenges that lay over the horizon. In an era of growing skepticism of government institutions, that starts by rebuilding trust and consensus in the value of working globally to solve problems.
As a technology company inspired by the power of human resilience, we can think of no better way to honor the setbacks, sacrifices and hardships of a battle-wearied world than to work with organizations committed to helping everyone — and doing our part by building the tools and technologies to make their vision possible.
A DJ’s mission to tell Asian American stories, track by track
Photo by Sthanlee b. Mirador, 2017
As a Filipino American born and raised in the Bay Area, I was lucky to easily find people who looked like me. From historic neighborhoods like SOMA Pilipinas and Japantown to the Bay’s deep roots in Black and Latinx culture, I found diversity in people, culture and food.
I saw fewer people who looked like me in mainstream media like TV shows, magazines or music videos. How could I be surrounded by so much diversity, especially within my own Asian American community, that wasn’t reflected in the shows I watched or my favorite songs? Where was our story?
Fortunately, today looks different. I’ve seen Filipino artists go platinum, reach millions of YouTube views and become household names.Still, there are so many Asian American stories unheard and undiscovered. I’m still searching for storytellers who look like me, and stories that sound like mine.
Richie, who also goes by his DJ name TRAKTIVIST, knows what I’m talking about. Richie is a Filipino American Bay Area native like myself. “I was born in Daly City, grew up as a DJ, and joined a mobile DJ crewaround the time when there was a scene for Filipino DJs,” he says proudly. Daly City is nine miles south of San Francisco and nearly 58% of its population identifies as Asian.
Yamaha presenta il campionato inaugurale eSX eSport
Durante il Round 16 del Monster Energy AMA Supercross dello scorso fine settimana, una stagione del Campionato del mondo FIM, è stato annunciato il lancio del campionato eSX eSport presentato da Yamaha. La registrazione è ora aperta su Battlefy.com/eSX e le gare inizieranno venerdì 7 maggio con le qualificazioni per le prove a tempo.
Writers’ block? 8 Creators share tips and inspiration
Building an audience for your brand takes time, commitment and a lot of content.
Most successful web creators have been publishing consistently for years. That can seem daunting to new creators and it’s easy to panic when the well runs empty, but there is no reason to worry. We recently spoke with eight creators about the habits, tools and inspirations that help them spark fresh content ideas.
Record your thoughts when the thoughts come.
Over the last six years, Amy Jay used her site Go Fast Mommy to share how she balances “healthy living, working out, motherhood and life.” As a busy mom, it can be difficult to make time to brainstorm content. When asked how she comes up with ideas, Amy shares, “I usually get my best ideas when out for a run, so I will often stop to open notes on my iPhone or record a voice message when an idea hits.” This ensures that she shows up for her muses when they show up for her.