Using quotes to create website content.

How many emails or phone calls or webinar invites have you – the small business owner – received weekly about creating website content, content marketing, or blog content to entice and intrigue new customers into your email marketing database?  I’m willing to bet it is at least one daily, possibly dozens.  Are you one of those folks who look at a blank screen and think, ‘What the heck should I write about today? I don’t know what to write about or how to write it!’  The answer is website content – and you can find it easily with a few clicks searching for quotes.

An easy way to get past the ‘writer’s block’ is to use quotes.  Everyone loves quotes and essentially they are pre-written micro-blogs for the busy businessperson.  They are the handy-dandy, ‘someone else already thought of this viewpoint,’ and they are famous (or infamous enough) for an audience to recognize the name, and entice them to read more.  Quotes are reusable, which makes them so valuable to those who like to read them.

Here’s a few tips and uses for quotes to create blog and website content that will entice your target market to want to come back often to get more, thus exposes your business and website (or blog) to more potential customers.

Daily motivation: Business offices love to plaster posters on the walls and conference rooms.  They are usually inspirational, and chosen carefully, may have a directly relevant message to the meeting participants or staff members.

Education: Quotes can be powerful tools for teaching or training where the learner (target audience) is encouraged to pause, reflect, and relate the message to a personal situation for problem solving.

Artwork: Graphic artists sometimes are able to find stunningly beautiful artwork to accompany the quotes, paralleling the sentiment and enforcing the message.  These may be appropriate for daily RSS feeds to a business-related email audience where the message is daily branding without being overly salesy.

Speechwriting: Occasionally speechwriters need lead-ins or filler material for promoting a message, and if the speech goes over well with the audience, it’s reusable content for posting on the company or business website to repurpose the message.

Writer’s Prompts: A quote is a great lead-in for a simple message or to philosophize about a particular idea to the target market audience.  Humor in the quote also attracts more readers (or cute jokes) – everyone wants a daily smile to make their day positive.

Celebrations of Life:  Quotations are great for paralleling messages with holidays and special occasions.  They are great to use within businesses offering event planning, weddings, life coaching, mentoring, counseling, or memorial services.  The content is there, and usually very well written sentimentality. ‘Steal it’ and use it to its best message potential.

Quotations are so popular they are offered on hundreds of daily RSS feeds in websites or email messages from life coaches to religious organizations, from Internet marketers and social media managers to small businesses needing to simply keeping their name in front of their customers without making every communication a sales message. There are hundreds of websites what offer quotes, and resource the original speakers (do remember to give credit!).  These pre-written mini-blogs might be used to your advantage for some of the best content marketing for your business or branding message.

Dawn Boyer is the owner of D. Boyer Consulting – a career services coach, social media management, human resources and business development consultant. She can be reached at Dawn.Boyer@DBoyerConsulting.com or https://dboyerconsulting.com for small business consulting, resume writing services, LinkedIn training, or career social media management.