Try a By-the-Numbers Business Blog Post

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The editors of For the Record Magazine (a publication for health professionals) have latched on to a good I page is decorative, with seven 7 numbers (in color) heading up the seven short paragraphs of text.

While the basic information in your blog will be served up in work form, visuals add interest.  What’s more – (our grade school teachers used Show and Tell for a reason), people absorb information better when it is served up in more than one form.
For the Record’s writing about seven statistics, each having to do with health care.

Earlier this week, I described a “one-tank template”, based on a Columbia Club magazine article about places its members could visit using less than one full tank of gasoline. In the health magazine article, the” template” is the numbers:

  • 8
    Only 8% of primary care phy6sicians reported being “very dissatisfied” with their Electronic Health Record system’s ability to lessen their workload.
  • 72
    This is the percentage of physicians who said technology was helping them make more informed health care decisions.
  • 94
    This is the percentage of patients who prefer video visits to telephone-only consultations with their doctors.

The point of using numbered lists in business blogs, I explain to blog content writers, is to demonstrate ways in which your product or service is different, and to provide valuable information that engages readers, helping them see you as a go-to guy or gal to solve their problem or fill their need.

A gem of a quote I found in the book “Dance First, Think Later”, is this: “If you say that there are elephants flying in the sky, people are not going to believe you.  But if you say that there are four hundred and twenty five elephants in the sky, people will probably believe you.”

Numbers are valuable tools in corporate blogging for business because they add both interest and credibility to any factual material.  So, in order to freshen up blog post content, I teach in corporate blogging training sessions, start with an idea about your product or service, then put a number to it:

Whatever your business or professional practice, the real point of the numbers is to offer valuable information, showcase your expertise, and demonstrate ways in which your product or service can help problems.

 

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One-Tank Templates for Business Blogging

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As a member of the Columbia Club, I get to enjoy the club’s monthly magazine. In fact, one article from last month’s issue sparked a great idea that I want to pass along to business blog content writers.

The feature “One Tank Destinations” describes three interesting places to visit in Indiana, all of them close enough to downtown Indianapolis (Columbia Club is right on Monument Circle) so that you can get there and back on a single tank of gasoline.

Think about it – the Club’s providing interesting information to its members, adding value, yet not selling them anything. Of course, that’s one of the purposes of any blog presented by a business or professional practice – adding value to the relationship existing customers have with that business or practice, and demonstrating what a good idea in would be for prospects to get on board.

The “trick” is in the title.  It would’ve been ‘blah” at best to call that page “Three Places to Visit in Central Indiana”. The expression “one tank”, on the other hand is catchy and makes the reader “figure it out”. What’s more, One Tank becomes a template unifying the three different mini-feature stories, one about Bluespring Cavern, one about the Culbertson Mansion, the third about Scribner House.

Whenever you have several pieces of information to impart, consider ways to “unify” them under one umbrella or category. The Writing Center calls this “glueing our ideas together”.

Actually, every blog post will probably need some “glue” in the form of transitions. As The Writing Center explains, whether you’re joining single words, phrases, sentences, or even paragraphs, transitions tell readers how to organize their thoughts as they read.

“One-tank templates” are perfect for business blogging!

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“Our Pick” Business Blogging

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“Sleek and shapely wins the style race,” begins USA Today’s review of the the new Banana Republic sheath dress collection by designer Roland Mouret. Always intrigued by fashion, preferring simpler silhouettes, I was intrigued by this article from a blog content writer’s viewpoint as well as from that of a would-be wardrobe connoisseur. Here’s why”

Reporter Andrea Mandell begins with testimonials – Mouret’s dresses are being worn by the likes of Jennifer Lopez, Beyonce, and Halle Berry – but goes on to assure readers that the Banana Republic versions are wallet-friendly.

“When buying products, consumers are influenced by references,” choosing products that appear to have a “higher status”, explains Professor Nienke Vlutters of the University of Twnte. In blogging for business, don’t forget to tell them “who else is doing it”!

Next, the designer himself is interviewed. He talks about his own favorite from the collection: the one-shoulder color-black dress, inspired by the one seen on Jennifer Chastain.

Customers want to buy from or work with the person who has the reputation, credibility, and knowledge of an expert, and that’s exactly the result we professional blog writers are aiming for on behalf of our business owner and professional practitioner clients.

What really gives the USA Today fashion piece its “pow!, in my opinion, is the section “Our Pick”. “We love his emphasis on sleek details such as this subtly patterned Sloan leopard panel pencil skirt…”, says Mandell.

The real blogging value gets added, I’ve always maintained, when content writers add “spin” to the information presented, basing the comments on the  business owner’s or practitioner’s own business wisdom and expertise. In other words, don’t just serve up information – add “your pick”.  Readers want to relate to you when you have knowledge AND an opinion to offer.

Interviews in a blog? Yes. Testimonials? Yes. But then, share your picks!

 

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Business Blog Readability in the Flesch?

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“Readability is a critical yet often-overlooked aspect of writing – particularly online writing,” according to Jeanne Dininni of StraightNorth.com. The idea, of course, is to match your writing to your intended audience. “Some sites target a more educated demographic, some attract a population segment with specialized knowledge or expertise in a particular area, and others,” observes Dininni, “cater to more general audiences”.

Science?  Common sense? Both, actually. After all, we business blog content writers aren’t in this to entertain ourselves – we’re out to retain the clients and customers we serve and bring in new ones.

If you didn’t already know this, there are tests you can put your blog through to see how you’re doing in terms of readability – are you reaching the right people and doing it by using words and sentences to which they can relate?  Well, a Readability Index Calculator can give you the answer.

The most-used calculator is the Flesch-Kincaid.  Your scores on the Flesch indicate two things:

  1. How easy your text is to read on a scale of 0-100. (A high score, say 60 or 70 means your stuff is relatively easy to read; a low score, say 20 or even 10 means you’re getting too close to legalese territory – and who wants that??)
  2. What grade in school a person would need to have reached to be able to understand your content. (A score of 7 would mean the typical seventh grader would understand your writing, while a sixth grader might not. In fact a score of 6 or 7 would be considered optimal in journalism.)

So what, exactly, do those two Flesch-Kincaid measure to take your readability “temperature”?  Essentially, two things:

  • The average number of syllables per word
  • The average number of words per sentence.

I tested a recent blog post of mine, https://blog.sayitforyou.net/blog/ghost-blogger/dont-you-hate-it-when-blogging-for-business, with the following “verdict”:

“This page has an average grade level of about 7 and a reading ease score of 68.7. A value between 60 and 80 should be easy for a 12 to 15 year old to understand.”

You need to know – how would your business blog measure up in the Flesch?

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An Email Tip Business Bloggers Can Use

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Anyone involved in corporate blogging for business should read the latest e-newsletter I received from business speaker Todd Hunt.  Funny thing is, in this piece, Hunt’s not directly talking about business – or about blogging.  Instead, in this “Hunt’s Headlines”, he’s offering some tips about email. So what’s the connection?

Well, assuming you’ve got readers signed up for an RSS feed for your blog (and I certainly hope you do), and assuming you’re posting every few days (and, as a corporate blogging trainer, I certainly hope that’s true), then your most valuable readers are receiving not just occasional, but regular emails from you.

As an aside, Todd Hunt apparently agrees with the Power of One concept I teach blog content writers: focus on one central idea in each post, leaving the rest for another day. Hunt’s referring to email, but the caution is very valid for business blogs. The way he puts it is “Send separate emails, rather than bundling myriad items in one message.”

But, when you do that, Hunt points out, you need to be careful to vary the subject lines. If you don’t, you run the risk of having your client never open an email, because they believe they’ve already read that one!

Now, the first time a “stranger” arrives at your blog site through organic search (that person needs the kind of information, products, or services you offer but doesn’t yet know of you or of your business or practice), Todd Hunt’s tip won’t apply.  But for those of your loyal fans who’ve signed up for an RSS – wow! That tip could mean the difference between your business blog post getting read or having it be deleted before it’s ever been opened!

Of course, as Sharon Housley of FeedForAll reminds us, the best way to engage RSS subscribers is simply writing good stuff. “A consistent stream of original content will do well to earn subscribers’ loyalty,” she says, and “the best RSS feeds provide content that is compelling and unique.”

But, to be sure your “stuff” – all of it – gets opened, remember the Todd Hunt tip about varying the subject line!

But, to be sure your “stuff” – all of it – gets opened, remember the Todd Hunt tip about varying the subject lines!

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