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Is there anything worse than a typical recipe blog post?
Imagine: you’re browsing the web on your mobile phone for that perfect chocolate chip cookie recipe to wow everyone at your family’s annual Memorial Day cookout. The top Google results look promising, and you click into the second search result entry with its enticing, ooey-gooey thumbnail: Mary’s Ultimate Soft-Baked Chocolate Chip Cookies (with a Secret Ingredient). Oh, yeah! You’re so ready to break out the flour and sugar and whip up a batch. Your relatives will have nothing but nice things to say if you can reproduce this delightful recipe. Even Aunt Karen with the chip on her shoulder (haha) can’t say no to a great chocolate chip cookie.
You start scrolling through the recipe post’s introduction. Oh, nice – Mary developed these cookies herself from scratch over years and years of testing. Well, that’s cool. I wonder what kind of chips she recommends using. Ah, here we go, an overview of the types of chocolate chips available and the differences between them. And their origins and popularity levels throughout the globe. Well, I don’t know if I really need that much detail, let’s just skip that paragraph…
Ok, the secret ingredient is oat flour. I can either purchase pre-ground oat flour, or make my own from the oatmeal in my cupboard. That’s helpful. Oh, but now she’s talking about how she started using oat flour due to her son’s gluten allergy…for the next nine paragraphs. Hmmm, it’s almost like she’s just writing to write, or worse, just writing for SEO.
Oh no, here we go. She mentioned ingredients you can add for a “twist,” and of course one of them is lavender. Whenever food bloggers mention lavender, you know they’re going to talk about- yep, there it is, Mary’s 14-day journal of her culinary exploration in the French countryside. OF COURSE. You’re nearly pulling your hair out as you hiss:
Now, Mary is welcome to write about whatever she likes on her own damn blog. We’re not here to debate that. But Mary, would it have been too much extra effort to add a link at the top for those of us who just want to make your chocolate chip cookies in the next century? I wonder how many readers clicked away from the 20-mile-long recipe post in favor of a simpler (and briefer) offering.
When possible, keep your blog posts abbreviated and focused on a single topic. Ultimately, your readers are looking for a specific piece of advice or information that will help them learn more about your solution and make a purchasing decision. Recipe posts like Mary’s cause many readers to disengage as she jumps from topic to unrelated topic. Scrolling through 14 pages of content before getting to the recipe card is extra frustrating on a mobile device, where a thumb swiping in even slightly the wrong way can open unwanted ads or even bring the reader back to the top of the page to start all over again.
In your own posts, always offer an option to “Skip to the Recipe.” If your piece culminates in a prompt to join an upcoming webinar, include the registration information at the beginning of the post, as well as at the end. If your post is part of a series, link to Parts I and II at the top so that readers know what to expect, and put them back at square one if that’s where they need to be. The easier you make it for readers to find the information you need, the more likely they are to return to you as a reliable source of knowledge.
For readers who do want to read more, include links to your other articles within the blog article itself or at the bottom of the page. This is a great chance for you to be strategic about your reader’s next step towards becoming a customer.
Do you want them to read a related article that digs more deeply into a solution or that presents a use case?
Do you want them to attend an upcoming virtual event that you’re offering for decision-makers?
Would you rather just invite them to contact you?
These are all fantastic options to feature under your “Read More” or “Watch Next” subheadings. Just make sure that any links you include are set to open in a new tab, so readers can easily navigate back to your blog article.
By Percy Mesnik
This strange beast (Piper) was trying to take my people from me. My choices were to eat it, or ignore it. I decided to ignore this feline fella, and continued to demand love from my humans!
And that worked. Things were going along just fine, until…
This new, very funny looking canine, Loki, came bounding into the house. How can my people think this is okay? How can they still provide me the much-deserved attention and keep this hooligan around?!
Well, let me tell you the lesson that I learned! While these new intruders had come in and tried to take what is rightfully mine, my people discovered a way to still provide me with that special attention that only I, the queen of the house, deserve.
You B2B marketer types might refer to this as “nurturing a relationship.” Onboarding new clients or animals is important, but you cannot forget the OGs who helped you get to where you are and taught you how to be a strong and effective provider.
Here at the homestead, we rely on quality content: “atta girl”, “good job”, and random treats. You want to ensure you are sharing a good message with your clients, too. My owner spends a lot of time sitting on his ass and talking about content marketing, and its power and importance. He has this awesome-sounding program that helps businesses not only bring in new deals, but also help nurture the ones they have. Just like my owner did with me. Though, I wouldn’t be that sad if the hooligan disappeared.
I mean, look at her, always getting up in my space. Just leave me alone!
I’m a little hurricane of destruction. Sometimes I like to climb into the linen closet or onto the kitchen counter and knock over EVERYTHING I can find. It’s important to include fragile items of all shapes and sizes in my gravity experiments. I guess Mom is anxious to know the velocity of a shampoo bottle or drinking glass falling to the ground, because she always comes running! Sometimes this is right in the middle of when Mom is working on a social media post, or maybe even a marketing email. She needs to stop really abruptly to come see the results of my hard work.
For times like these, she uses the Save as Pending feature in her PartnerOn account! Mom can quickly save her work and return to it when she’s ready. Visit the ContentMX Knowledge Base to learn how it works.
I remember the old days like they were yesterday. Mom would wake up early in the morning, give me breakfast and snuggles, and then be gone for what seemed like an eternity. I’d spend my days napping, birdwatching, napping, running around, dozing, and also sometimes snoozing. After a few decades, Mom would come home, relieved to kick off her shoes, and of course I would be at the door to happily greet my weary Mama and beg for my dinner.
Our routine has changed a little, since she’s ALWAYS home now! Mom doesn’t go into the office anymore; she’s brought the office home. It’s pretty awesome. I get to cry for more food whenever I feel like it, and climb all over her laptop during something called a “Zoom.” One time, I looked at the Zoom and saw some other humans and they said I was so cute! I guess a Zoom isn’t so bad, but they say there’s something called Zoom exhaustion where humans get tired from looking at it for too long. I think when that happens, they should just take a break and throw some toys for me to play with.
Sometimes if Mom is on a Zoom, I hear and see other kitties, dogs, and occasionally even mini humans, too! I love to see all these new friends having fun on the Zoom when their humans are working from home, too. But, I noticed that sometimes the humans say “I’m so sorry” when their mini human cries or if their dog barks, and I really wonder why they are saying sorry.
Sterling (my kitten sister from another mister) and I have a theory – we think that humans usually keep their office lives and their home lives separate. In the office, they have the people they work with and very important things to do, and then they get to come home and enjoy their time with us. We think it must be a little strange for them to be working on important stuff and also giving us attention at the same time. We agree that we can sometimes be just a little bit distracting, especially when Mom’s desk seems like a great venue for our next play fight. Dog barks scare us a little, but based on my interpretation, I think that dogs bark because they’re excited by the mailman or they just want to play. And of course, mini humans can cry for any hundreds of reasons (especially for food or attention, like Stirry and I do all the time!). All of these noises are totally normal “home life” sounds, but humans feel embarrassed because they know that babies and animals don’t usually belong in “office life” (until now).
We don’t think the humans need to be sorry if other humans hear mini human cries or dog barks over Zoom, or maybe even see a happy cat butt sashay on their screens. I think those moments are a good time to laugh and remember that every human behind the Zoom is just that – a human with his or her own home life, that they have suddenly had to combine with their office life.
We are very excited that Ollie sat down with us to share what it’s like to be a trusted partner pet. Thank you for taking time out of your busy day to fill us in on how you stay out of the dog house and in good standing with your humans!
What is it like to be the pet of a Gold Partner?
I feel quite entitled. Our Gold status gives us many opportunities and when we close a big sale, I get about 10 extra scratches behind my ears (not that I am counting). The more business we get the more I brag about it to the other neighborhood cats. They spread the word to their friends and it all comes full circle. More scratches for me!
How many pet supply vendors do you support?
I am finicky. I like my morning and evening meals from different cans. Combine that with my poofs (one for each room) and my chase toys and we’ve got a lot of different companies involved. Hard to keep track of them all, but they are pretty good about sending coupons for new poofs and free food samples. Then there’s those boxes that come with the delivery guy. Ooh, did I tell you how much I love those boxes?
What is your number one method for gaining attention?
Generally I use the stalk and attack method. This means keeping a consistent presence and making myself known with multiple quick pronouncements each day. It’s all about repetition and quality. But, don’t bite too hard or you may end up in the dog house. The dog does not like me that much.
Do you enjoy being remote with Zoom?
What’s not to like? I am hardly ever alone and I can get a little camera time to satisfy my ego. Avoid standing on the keyboard if you want to have your minute to shine.
How do you use social media?
Be cute. Be as cute as possible at all times and you will get lots of likes. The more likes I get, the more scratches and hugs I get. It’s very symbiotic.
