Blogging the Specialness

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“What makes No. 2 pencils so darn special?” ask the editors of Mental Floss: the Book, noting that “The No.2 is definitely No. 1 in the pencil market.

Answering the question of what makes ANY one product or service, ANY one business or professional practice special – well, that’s the job description for any freelance content writer of business blogs. In the case of the No. 2 pencil, the Mental Floss editors patiently explain, the medium weight graphite makes No. 2’s ideal for general writing.  (Harder pencils are used for drafting, softer for bowling scores).

As writers and researchers, we business bloggers are using own strengths to play to – and play up – the unique strengths of the business owner and professional clients who’ve hired us to give voice to their story. Make no mistake – it’s a challenge to stress “specialness” without engages in two practices Indianapolis Business Journal’s Tim Altom calls PowerPoint “sins’: Too much, and Too Self Conscious.

As fizzle.co so aptly puts it, nothing is a bigger turn-off than a blatant sales pitch. Yet, if you have a business, Corbett Barr points out, you have to sell products or services to earn revenue. But the best sales pitch, he says, is no pitch at all.  In fact, Barr explains, that’s what permission marketing (and blog content writing is a big component of permission marketing, along with search marketing and social media) is all about.

When you’re blogging, you’re talking to a friendly and interested audience about things that might help them (as opposed to forcing your message in front of people who are trying to avoid it, Barr continues. Let the useful and interesting information you offer to readers of your blog bring out the specialness of the product or service.

Did you know, Nicolas-Jacques Conte created the number system for pencils back in the eighteenth century?

 

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Leveraging Your Community in Blogging for Business

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With this week’s Say It For You blog posts centered around marketing advice, I found a lot of value in Constant Contact’s Susan Solovic’s post “10 Ways to Market Your Small Business on a Shoestring Budget”.

Even though advertising can be expensive, Solovic cautions, it’s even more important, when times are tough, to keep your business brand front and center.  Customers have less money to spend, so when they do get ready to buy, you want to be at the top of their list.

Solovic goes on to offer a laundry list of ways to make that happen, including such tried-and-trues as networking, giving a speech, asking for referrals, and offering coupons. For me as a business blog marketer, though, the one piece of advice that stood out was “Leverage your community”.

“You don’t have to think big when it comes to your marketing efforts.  Think locally,” says Solovic. “What’s going on in your community?” Whether it’s sponsoring a local team or charitable event, she advises, “search for opportunities to get in front of local customers.

Getting personal is a huge element in the success of any SEO marketing blog. Indianapolis blog content writers must focus on personal anecdotes and on the personal values of the business owners and of the people delivering professional services. But, taking it further than that, the content should actually reflect and even allude to current community happenings and concerns.

When we bloggers enter conversations that are trending at the time and tie our blog content to current events, that serves the dual purpose of “playing off” already existing popular interest while possibly earning search engine “Brownie points” as well. Did we attend a performance or rally? How does what we heard and saw tie in with our own work in the community?

Marketing is all about leveraging your community, and blog marketing is really nothing more than “meeting” strangers and helping to turn those strangers into friends.  Blogging really is all about community!

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Humanizing Blog Marketing

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This week’s Say It For You blog posts are centered around marketing advice. Yasmin Bandror of socialmediatoday makes note of several marketing trends, with the #1 piece of advice being  “Humanize your business!”.  

“At the end of the day,” Bandror remarks, “business is about people, right? People are thoroughly attracted to interesting, sincere personalities and to the human element and the person behind the business…Find your own voice, inject your own special personality into your brand and into each piece of content.”

Couldn’t have said it better myself.  In fact, I often do stress that very point to newbie blog content writers,  because one interesting perspective on the work we do as professional bloggers is that we translate clients’ corporate message into human, people-to-people terms.

That’s the reason I prefer first and second person writing in business blog posts over third person “reporting”. I think people tend to buy when they see themselves in the picture and when can they relate emotionally to the person bringing them the message.

I like to compare the interaction between blog writers and online readers to behavioral job interviews.  These don’t focus on facts, but attempt to reveal the way the prospective employee functions, discovering the person behind the resume.

Just as employers want to know how reliable you’ve been in the past, your blog posts need to include stories about how you solved client problems, and what lessons you’ve learned through your experiences that you’ll be applying in your dealings with them should they choose to become your customers.

Who, exactly, are you?  Readers of your business blog posts should be able to tell for sure!
 

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Staged-Based Blogging for Business

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“So, how can your sales and marketing teams ensure that they’re catering to the preferences of their consumers?  The answer is stage-based marketing,” says Jenna Hanington of Pardot.

It seems a study conducted by Jenna’s colleague Matthew Sweezey revealed that 96% of B2B consumers start their research on Google (no big surprise there).  But then 76% indicated that they return to Google two to three times to continue their research, each time searching for more specific information. “As consumers progress through the sales funnel, they seek out different types of content.” The lesson that’s so important for us blog content writers to glean here: Consumers want different content at each stage of their research.

Offering different content at each stage of the sales cycle is the foundation of stage-based marketing, concludes Hanington.

Top of the funnel: For prospects at this beginning stage, content should be light, educational, and product-neutral.  Blog posts can focus on industry-relevant topics rather than on product. “Often, prospects in this stage don’t even know that they have a fixable problem.”

To appeal to those online blog readers who are in “first-stage”, we can include statistics that demonstrate how widespread and significant a particular problem is, then going on in the blog content writing to allude to your (or your client’s) experience in handling this precise problem.

Middle of the funnel:  As prospects move through the funnel, the content can get a little more specific. “You want to get your prospects thinking about the advantages of having your product, as well as the disadvantages of not having it,” explains Hannington.

Marketing blogs will succeed, I teach, only if it’s clear you (the business owner or professional practitioner) understand online searchers’ concerns and needs, and that you and your staff have the experience, the information, the products, and the latest technology to solve exactly those problems and meet precisely those needs.

Bottom of the funnel: Once the prospect has made it all the way to the bottom of the funnel, you should be focused on selling them your product or service.  They’re sold on your industry and are deciding among vendors, Hannington points out.

A reader who has reached the final decision-making stages will be looking for unique value propositions, asking him/herself: “What’s in it for me?” If your content answers that question, the reader’s next step will be to follow one of your Calls to Action.

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Not-An-Ad Blogging For Business – Even If You’re No Olympian

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“When you’re a winter Olympian, there are no sick days or nights,” reads the headline for the Vicks Dayquil® and Nyquil® ad.

Now, there‘s a good example of a “pow” opening line, I thought, recalling the way I advise blog content writers to begin each post, grabbing readers’ attention and offering a glimpse of the topic to be discussed.  But, really, is it a good line?” I reflected. After all, 99.9% of the Oprah Magazine readers who will see that ad aren’t Olympic athletes!

(This week, I’m focusing all three of my Say It For You blog posts on lessons we blog content writers can learn from advertising copy writers.) On closer examination, this particular ad appears to fly in the face of one important rule I teach about blog content writing. The content of each post, I continually stress, must be centered around the needs of our target audience, and, as I pointed out, Opra's audience probably isn’t made up of Olympians.

Still, what makes the ad work is that it’s “au fait” (informed, up-to-date, and abreast of what’s going on in the world.) “The blogging format lives and dies on current information,” emphasizes Susannah Gardner in “Writing a Good Business Blog”. The Olympic Winter Games are in the news now, and it’s easy for readers to compare the demands of their own busy lives with the even more rigorous demands of the athletes.

In general, I teach, it IS important to blog about time-sensitive, current topics everyone else is covering. Sure, searchers have the choice to go directly to more complete and even more authoritative sources when it comes to topics in the news, but what you have to offer is your unique perspective as you "translate" the information for the benefit of readers. If your post helps readers make sense of the news, you'll come across as a trusted and understandable authority.

Even if you’re no Olympian, you need a good night’s sleep.  And, even if your readers are no Olympians, linking your business blog content to what’s in the news can be an effective way to grab attention.
 

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