Amazing, the way Robby Slaughter’s newest book “The Battle for Your Email Inbox” is so applicable to business blog writing! All three of this week’s Say It For You blog posts are based on Slaughter’s email-related advice.

No, we cannot change the behavior of others, the author admits, and no, we’re not responsible for other people’s actions. But if, through email, Slaughter points out, we control our own behaviors, we have the power to influence the behaviors of others. What do we control?

• When we send email
• How quickly we reply to email from other
• What it is that we write.

“The secret to managing the timing of your email is calmness and consistency.”

Consistency is the very backbone of business blogging success. It’s crucial for business owners and professional practitioners to understand that nowadays it’s only recently updated information that is likely to impact the success of their online marketing.

Once-in-a-while blogging just doesn’t do the trick, even if it’s high-quality stuff.  To satisfy a search engine, your blog material must be updated frequently, and I mean very frequently. 
“Before you decide to write an email, you should determine if email is the appropriate place to have the conversation at hand.”

In blogging for business, the topic of comments is one that elicits different responses from clients, largely because of fear those comments might be negative or critical. In truth, comments are actually more likely to be either negative or posted to promote the commenter’s business rather than yours.  On the positive side, social media, including blogs, help business owners control their message and exercise damage control.  But if the blog itself is not the appropriate place to have the conversation, it can be taken offline.

In certain instances, it’s better to pick up the phone or have a conversation in person, advises Slaughter.  One example is when you’re critiquing someone’s work or giving negative feedback.

Nowadays, apparently, it’s OK (or at least legal) to knock a competitor by name.  But, although one possible approach in a business blog is to compare your products and services to others’, it’s wise to do that in a positive way.

This week’s Say It For You blog posts are based on wisdom gained from friend Robby Slaughter’s new book, “The Battle For Your Email Inbox”.

“When information is elevated to a scenario, it becomes more obvious what to do with it,” the author explains.  “Matching elements to groupings is fundamental, he adds, so when you encounter a fact or suggestion, attempt to classify it.”

That same concept applies to blogging for business, I’m convinced.  Each claim a content writer puts into a corporate blog needs to be put into context for the reader, so that the claim not only is true, but feels true to online visitors.

I think Robby Slaughter’s description of email –“water on the open seas, everywhere and totally inescapable” – is true of blog posts.  There are literally millions upon millions of posts out there making claims of one sort or another. If we can’t help readers in their attempt to classify all that stuff, we’re not likely to be of much help at all to them.

It wouldn’t be exaggerating for me to say, based on my own experience reading all types of SEO marketing blogs, that very few manage to convey to visitors what the blogger’s claims about that company’s or that practice’s products and services can mean to them, the readers!

In fact, meaning becomes super-important when we’re blogging to describe the features of a product or service.  Sometimes I tell content writers, “Try using the phrase ‘which means that…’ to explain ways that product or services will be of help to users. Imagine those readers asking themselves, How will I use the product?  How much will I use? How often? Where? What will it look like?  How will I feel?”

I absolutely agree that information needs to be elevated into scenarios. My way of describing the process to newbie content writers is this: Painting the picture is only Step #1.  What comes next is putting the reader into the picture!