The “Really” Factor in Business Blog Content Writing

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There must’ve been eighty of them – which magazine did I want to buy? Even after I’d ruled out knitting, motorsports, men’s health, motorsports and bridal fashion as topics, the choices were overwhelming.  And then I saw it – the one I had to have: TIME, its cover sporting the following absolutely irresistible question:    Who REALLY decides which flights get cancelled?

In training blog content writers, I like to compare searchers browsing the internet to people visiting a trade show.  People are walking around the exhibit hall on the lookout for a product or service that meets their needs. When they pass your "blog booth", you want them to find something that draws their interest.  That "something" is the title, promising fresh, engaging content in your post. Once you’ve caught their interest, you hope, you’ll have the opportunity to invite those customer to “come inside” to your website or to follow one of your Calls to Action.

Speaking of Calls to Action, it was essentially the word “really” on the TIME cover that “called” me to buy that very magazine as opposed to any of its 79+ neighbors on the display. Made me think about how we marketing blog writers could accomplish the same sort of results using the Really Factor.

The implied promise in the word “really” is that readers can expect to be given some “inside scoop”, stuff not everybody else is privy to. And if that information can be related to a recent news story, all the better. As a professional ghost blogger for business, I know that one way to ensure blog content is fresh is tying that content to current events. I also know that Indianapolis res

Like garlic or hot pepper in food, the Really Factor should be added to SEO marketing blogs  with a really light hand.  After all, we wouldn’t want to be accused of “crying ‘wolf’” in our every post. On the other hand, entering conversations that are “trending” at the time , tying our blog content to current events, now that’s a good habit to develop.  Really! 

 

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Why You Might Want to Blog About What You Don’t Know

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WHY YOU MIGHT WANT TO BLOG ABOUT WHAT YOU DON’T KNOW
“I’m not sure who started encouraging writers to ‘write about what you know’”, observes novelist and literature professor Elan Barnehama. At first glance it makes sense, he admits. The problem is, he says, the story is always better served by the narrative that could happen when you don’t have constraints. That doesn’t mean he can’t use what he knows, Barnehama hastens to assure his readers, but when he allows himself to discover new aspects of the world, his novels end up being about his readers, not about himself.
http://www.writersdigest.com/online-editor/why-you-should-write-about-what-you-dont-know

Blogging about what you don’t know? That seems to fly in the face of all the corporate blogging training I’ve ever received or given to others. After all, isn’t the whole idea in blogging for business to showcase the expertise you have and the problems you KNOW how to solve?

Fellow blogger Ivan Widjaya of Biz Penguin might have tapped into the Barnehama’s mentality. “Off-beat posts regarding your company can bring people closer to you. They can lower the fence, so prospects and customers can have a peek on what’s going on inside your company and brands.” Widjava advises being not only passionate, interesting, but unusual and even quirky.  Sometimes, he thinks, being quirky can “help you establish a unique audience that will take whatever you offer them.”
http://www.bizpenguin.com/give-me-5-minutes-and-ill-give-you-the-secret-to-blogging-for-your-company-566/

There’s another aspect of this “what-you-don’t-know” aspect of blog content writing. To sustain our blog content writing over long periods of time without losing reader excitement and engagement, we’ve need to constantly add to our own body of knowledge – in our industry or professional field, and about what’s going on around us in our culture. Ironically, business blogging can serve as a form of market research in itself, as smallbiztrends.com points out.
Reading, bookmarking, clipping – and even just noticing – new trends and information relating to your business field goes a long way towards keeping the quiver stocked with content ideas.
http://www.smallbiztrends.com

At Butler College of Business (where I’m an Executive Career Mentor”, “experiential learning” is a hallmark of the teaching method, with the idea being “learning by doing”. In creating content for SEO marketing blogs, it could be a case of “doing by learning”. As we “read around” and “curate” materials from other thought leaders, we’re becoming better ‘teachers” by becoming better learners. Now that Barnehama has got me thinking about it, I realize that, for Indianapolis bloggers, “what we don’t know can HELP us!”

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Learning to Bunt in Your Business Blog Writing

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Bunt“The bunt isn’t a game changer, like a homer or a triple.  Instead, it nudges things along – keeping the ball as far as possible from where your opponent wants it to be,” is just one of many of the lessons from her Dad that Sandy Hingston recalls in FamilyDigest..

When I offer business blogging assistance or corporate blogging training to Say It For You clients, I often need to remind business owners new to blogging that it isn’t the sort of marketing tactic likely to “hit it out of the park”.  On the other hand, consistent business blog writing, very much like bunting in a ball game, will almost certainly nudge things along.

Sandy Hingston’s dad taught all his kids that bunts are things of beauty, “means to an end, a strategy, brains over brawn.” As a professional ghost blogger , I think Mr. Hingston’s teachings are quite fitting when it comes to writing for business in the form of blogs.

“Remember: control.”
A blog can give a business the ability to exercise journalistic control. Blog content writers have the ability to put out news about the business with the business owner’s own slant on it! If there’s ever any negative news about the industry or the company, I teach Indianapolis blog writers, the blog is the perfect place to field questions and comments head-on.

“He makes me do it again and again and again.”
Material that is recent and frequently posted is more likely to be indexed by search engines. Like bunting practice with Sandy’s dad, SEO marketing blogs succeed in large part based on continuing to post new content every few days.

“Brains over brawn.”
Blogging for business is one way small business owners with small marketing budgets can compete, using “pull marketing” to meet strangers and increase their customer base without mounting expensive advertising campaigns. According to Chris Baggott of Compendium Blogware, because blogs are specific, relevant, and personal, they tend to be more successful than traditional websites in targeting and attracting the right kind of visitors, those who need and want what you have to offer.

No, as I remind freelance blog writers and their business owner clients who are in a rush to make the cash register ring, blogging for business is rarely a game changer. But as a means to an end, part of an overall, long-term marketing strategy, it can be a thing of beauty!

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Adding Background Color in Your Blog

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Most business blog posts make claims.  The claims may be understated, exaggerated, or exactly on the money, but still – a claim is a claim. The problem is, often blog visitors don’t know how to "digest" the claims you’ve "served up".  They simply don’t have any basis for comparison, not being as expert as you are in your field.

What I’m getting at is that every claim needs to be put into context, so that it not only is true, but so that it feels true to your online visitors.

As an example, I found a paragraph in a news magazine talking about Suburu.  The piece starts out with a fact: "A report released this week by Suburu of America shows the company sold 23,667 vehicles last month." (As my grandmother used to ask, "So, do I eat this with a fork or a spoon?")  Since I’m not in the car sales business, I had no way of judging how good our how bad 23,667 sales was for Suburu – compared with what?

Fortunately, the report went on to put the number into context in two ways:

23,667 cars sold represents a 35% improvement over the same month last year.
23,667 cars sold is the best May sales total in Suburu company history.

Now I, as the reader, can begin to relate to the number 23,667, because it has a background context. 

As a professional ghost blogger and blogging trainer, though, I know there’s more to do with claims.  After the claim has been given background "color", readers must be shown how that claim has the potential to help them with their problem or need! (It’s the old sales maxim about how customers don’t care about the features and benefits of a product or service until and unless they know how much you care – about them!

There are something like ten million blog posts out there making claims of one sort or another as you’re reading this one. Based on my own experience as an online reader, I’d venture to say fewer than 10% of them put their claims in context, and only the very top few manage to convey to their blog visitors what the claims can mean for them!
http://blog.gravymasters.com/blog/ghost-blogger/0/0/station-wiifm-blogging

Add some winning background color to the claims in your blog posts!

 

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Use Guest Bloggers for Bad-Deal-or-Bargain-Business Blog Posts

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USE GUEST BLOGGERS FOR BAD-DEAL-OR-BARGAIN BUSINESS BLOG POSTS
Every industry or profession can be approached in different ways, and blog content writing for a business or professional practice is the perfect way to offer a “bi-partisan” presentation of the issues.

As a trainer in corporate blog writing, I know how crucial it is to differentiate yourself and clarify the special “slant” you have and your position on the issues faced by your industry or profession. I’ve gone so far as to tell new bloggers. “Blog more what you believe than what you do.”
http://blog.sayitforyou.net/blog/ghost-blogger/blog-more-what-you-believe-than-what-you-are

An article that appeared two weeks ago in the Indianapolis Star called “A Bad Deal or a Bargain?” reminded me just how important it is in blog writing to express points of view in addition to offering product and service information.
http://www.indystar.com/article/20130223/OPINION03/302230027/A-bad-deal-Indiana-bargain–

The Star piece was addressing the debate about the Indiana Gasification Project, which would construct a plant in the southern part of the state to convert coal into “synthetic gas”. The newspaper page was divided down the middle. On the left side, Steven Francis of the Sierra Club and Ed Gerardot of the Indiana Community Action Assn. were making the point that a coal-to-gas plant would hurt ratepayers. On the right, Mark Lubbers, project director of the gasification company, discussed reasons why building the new plant makes sense.

I think the same effect could be achieved in blogging for a business or practice by having a guest blogger explain her point of view, then having the “host” blogger tell her side of the story.

Now, I’ve always taught that reading competitors' blog posts has always been a great form of market research for business owners launching their own blogging strategy.  Even repeating what established bloggers have said (of course in each case properly attributing the material to its source) forces "newbies" to think about what they might add to the discussion.

But today I’m talking about using your blog to present opinions on industry or professional issues.  Rather than you summarizing what others may think, or the way competitors have chosen to handle the problems, why not invite the actual “thought competitor” to express her ideas on your blog site?

In providing blog marketing services to my Say It For You clients, I try to keep in mind the rule Pulitzer Prize-winning author Michael Cunningham shared with Oprah: Always remember to write for people at least as smart as you are. Why not use corporate blog writing to put conflicting views about a particular subject (your guest blogger’s view and your own) out there and let smart readers judge for themselves?
http://www.oprah.com/index.html

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