The Content Marketing Institute hit a home-run with their question to content experts, “ How do you make content more engaging? &# This is an important post to read for anyone blogging and posting content to connect with readers. Ten experts responded, including moi , and their answers are illuminating. In my opinion and experience, content that engages is emotional. The human brain is emotional at its very core. While women process messages with more emotions than men, both must be engaged emotionally for a message to be remembered and acted upon. Show the human side of your business. MORE >>

Content marketing experts and the people who write marketing messages ought to understand how consumers’ brains work if  they want to engage and create trust and loyalty. The problem lies in assuming people are in charge of their own choices… Everybody thinks they are in control of their behaviors and decisions. We think we are rational, logical, and smart human beings. But we may not be so smart if we don’t recognize our own and others’ irrationality. 95% of our  decision making  and buying and Web actions are heavily influenced by  unconscious processing. Clutter. MORE >>

I’m glad to see that there are more agencies focusing on content marketing for small businesses. stumbled upon The Content Factor and found their approach to blog writing and white papers refreshing: The Content Factor provides good advice for content marketing strategies: But to be successful with blogging , you have to recognize some key differences: The best blogs are personified. Readers like to feel like they know the blog writer and feel some of the blog writer’s personality and humanity come through. Blogs have to be kept up. Once you fall behind, you are dead. We should know. MORE >>

Works Better for Your Brain" alt=" Why Writing Like You Talk Works Better for Your Brain" />. Works Better for Your Brain" width="150" height="150" /> Today’s guest post is by Barb Sawyers : Many experts who try to write their own content need to rewire their brains, to abandon the lessons drilled into them at school in favor of the more conversational approach that works better online. The good news is that they can evolve. don’t have a million dollar research grant, but let me share what I’ve learned as my writing has adjusted. This style of writing allows you to engage more personally. MORE >>

The study of the buying decision process, or neuromarketing, has had a tremendous impact on content marketing. More brands are being studied in laboratories around the world as consumers are being hooked up to brain imaging machines,  fMRI ,  EEG  and other devices so that they are monitored while they read marketing messages and make decisions. Neuromarketing is extremely expensive  market research  to do, but fortunately most brains work the same, with some exceptions for age and gender. Whether or not there is emotional ENGAGEMENT. How easily the message and the brand is encoded to MEMORY. MORE >>