Is Guest Blogging Dead? + Recommends and More

A hot topic around the marketing blogosphere is whether or not “Guest Blogging” is dead.  Given that we authors guest blog our little hearts out whenever we can, I sincerely hope not. (Nor do I think it is.)  But I do think that when something is huge and everyone and their second cousins glom onto the fad, that eventually that fad can grow wearisome.  We writers know that — think of genre fades and how they bloom incredibly in big bursts.  And eventually, they too will fade into the normal swing of the pendulum.  But it does bring an interesting point up about the quality of those guest blogs.   As an author, when you answer a Q&A, are you really digging deep to find creative ways to answer questions?  I know it’s tough, especially if you’re doing more than one. I’ve spent a few weeks digging for gems to share.

What comes After Social?

“Telling really good stories is hard. Today, we have to be able to do it in a single Instagram sized image and in a six second Vine. We also need to be able to make marketing feel like something bigger—something with a larger purpose. It’s the reason we see Dove and Guinness and instantly want to share the story. This is not content—it’s a narrative. Narrative which stops us in our tracks and breaks through the noise to earn our attention.”  | FULL ARTICLE HERE

SO much of marketing is about telling stories that connect emotionally with your audience.  And our audience has a very short attention span because of what they’ve come to expect — to be emotionally engaged by a single image, by a 6 second video as mentioned above.  And think of the longer term campaigns like Dove offers — real women, real beauty and it’s not just a one-off event.  It’s a campaign that spans years.  Progressive Insurance is another — they’ve told a story with their sales woman commercials.

So when you’re thinking about what to say about you, as an author, about your books — how can that be a narrative rather than a sales pitch?  Consider building a six month content campaign that tells a story about you and your work.  Where would you start?  What were your turning points as a writer or person?  What’s your ending?

Why Online Companies Must Focus on Building Trust

This is geared toward small business onlines, but it has a lot of value for authors, as well.  So much of how we build our names is online, through social media, and it’s important to remember that every interaction you have with your readers will stack upon each other.  Consider if you’re building a stack of blocks — when your interaction is positive, it builds trust and another block is stacked.  When your interaction with your readers doesn’t convey trust, it knocks a block down.

Here’s one I particularly like:  Isabelle Theme by BluChic

Design Geek Font Addiction

 I am a font addict! I love fonts of all shapes, kinds and I can spend hours (literally) searching through font selections. And I’m not sharing how many fonts I have on my computer. 😉   So I thought I’d share some of the ones I find that I become instantly enamored of, as well.   Yes, the design geek in me exists, always.

Here’s one I saw that I instantly loved: Mercury Script.  Such pretty lines and curves!

That’s it for today’s Marketing Feed.  Stay tuned every week! 🙂