What’s Changed, What’s the Same in Business Blog Content Writing – Part Two

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“Things were different back then,” says fellow blogger Saugat Adhikari of Elist10, referring to the year 2008 (which happens to be the year he – and I – started blogging). But, were they, really? I asked myself, deciding to devote this week’s Say It For You blog posts to the subject of changes that have affected corporate blog writing over the past five years.

Of course, the past five years in particular have seen changes in the way businesses and consumers spend money (due to the economic downturn), as Corey Eridon of Hubspot points out. “There is considerably more resistance to what is being sold, while there is significantly less money available to spend.” At the same time, Eridon add, “the internet has made information, once only available from salespeople, accessible to everyone with an internet connect or phone.”

The way I look at it, those factors serve to make our work as business blog content writers all the more important. True, today’s online searchers have very little patience for the hard sell approach.  In fact, something I emphasize as a blog copywriting trainer is that if hard selling ever worked, it certainly doesn’t work any longer.  The best approach to take in the company’s of the practices’ blog, I advise, is demonstrating knowledge and offering valuable tips, focusing on topics your target audience cares about.

The other significant change that’s taken place over the past five years, I believe, is content proliferation.  There’s just so much stuff out there, it’s definitely more of a challenge to get noticed.  So, while five years ago, it may have been possible to build up a real head of steam by blogging consistently and frequently, in today’s markets those two “to-do’s” may simply fail to do the trick.  We have to promote our blog posts (or, in the case of us freelance blog content writers, our clients’ blog posts) in social media and via email.  We have to do more and work harder to stay in the game.

But, after more than five years of providing blog content writing services, I’d have to say some things haven’t changed at all.  What blogging is still all about is providing those who find your site with a taste of what it would be like to have you working with them.  Those potential buyers may be better informed and less patient.  Fact is, though, they need our help with their challenges and issues.  Our content tells them we’re ready, willing, and able to provide that help!
 

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What’s Changed, What’s the Same in Business Blog Content Writing – Part One

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“Things were different back then,” observes fellow blogger Saugat Adhikari of Elist10. “Blogging wasn’t a big phenomenon back then,” he adds (referring to 2008), and there were fewer blogs. Today there is less of a focus, Adhkari thinks, on micro niche websites, and bloggers are now mostly focusing on producing high authority, high quality content.

Reading that post “How Blogging Has Changed in 5 Years” made me curious, because, like Adhikari, I’d begun blogging in 2008.  I wanted to see in what ways things I was saying in Say It For You posts back then compare with my observations today. I promptly resolved to devote all three of this week’s posts to my “findings”.

First, I absolutely agree with Adhikari’s observation that high authority, high quality content has evolved into being the name of the game today.  This is due not only to the fact that Google’s algorithms have pushed matters in that direction, but also, due to the sheer quantity of content provided by businesses, practitioners, and organizations, online readers have become more discriminating, less patient with low-quality or advertising-like content.

Still, I’m not sure I agree with the micro-niche part of Adhikari’s remarks. Five years ago, in my blog post “Business Blogs: Rated “S” For Someone”, I’d made a rather strong statement: “In order for blog posts to be effective as part of a business marketing plan, the content of the blog must be targeted towards a specific audience.” Today, I’d have to say, I still agree with blog consultant Mark White’s advice that “Your knowledge  (of your target audience) needs to influence every aspect of your blog”.

What’s changed in 5 years? There’s much more of a focus on high authority, high quality content. What hasn’t changed? The need to know your customer. Unlike video games, your business blog should not be rated “E”, intended for everyone. “S” for SOMEONE is still the best rating for business blogs!

 

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Blog Content Writers Help Business Owners Paint the Clown

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Fellow National Speakers Association member Thaddeus Rex has something valuable to tell us business blog content writers – Stop being so serious! Paint the clown!

Under the topic "6 Ways to Hook Your Audience (i.e.Customers), Rex encourages marketers to "show us the leader and why they're ridiculous, and help us understand why you're the more sensible alternative."

We love laughing, Rex observes, and we love those who make us laugh even more.  So, he concludes, if you can just get us to laugh at your competitor (you know, that big, old-guard company with a lot more money to spend on advertising than your small business owner or professional practitioner can afford), you've got gold.

Reading Thaddeus' article made me reconsider a sort of moral dilemma that, over my years as a corporate blogging trainer has always hovered on the edge of my mind when it comes to blog marketing (actually to any kind of marketing).  It's almost axiomatic that, in writing for business, we want to clarify the ways we stand out from the competition.  Yet "Golden Rule" ethics dictate that we say only those kinds of things about specific competitors that we'd want them saying about us!

How, then, can we get the point across that readers should want to choose this business or this practice, or these products and services over those offered by the competition?

Thaddeus uses the Wendy's commercial "Where's the beef?" as an example.  We're left laughing when the three little old ladies stare at a giant sandwich with an itsy burger inside.  McDonald's is never mentioned, but the commercial points out that "At Wendy's, you get more beef and less bun." In short, Thaddeus' advice is, get readers to laugh at the competitor's negative, but emphasize your positive.

In blog content writing, you can say what your competitors do, and then go on to say why you do things the way YOU do.

  • Some dry cleaners are in the practice of _____, but here at ABC, we believe ________ is best.
  • Some cosmetic surgeons pack the nose after a rhinoplasty, but, at XYZ Clinic, we _______, because……

 

A well-known songwriter advises us to "accentuate the positive" and not to "mess with Mr. In-Between".  When it comes to your competitors' negatives, help your business owner clients "paint the clown"!

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Business Blog Content Writers Take Second Place

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“When your market clearly sees how your offering is different from that of your competition, it’s easier to influence the market and win mindshare,” says Marketing MO. “One of the key elements that many small to mid-sized companies overlook is how they provide value at the highest level.”

As freelance blog content writers, the way I see it, our job is to convey that value message to online searchers. That’s assuming, however, our business owner or professional practitioner clients have defined how they deliver value to their customers.  In other words, I see content writing as the second stage in the process, not the first.

My message to corporate and professional clients is simple: Your blog is just ONE piece of the general strategizing you do with your ‘team” – your web designer, marketing consultant, managers, and employees. And, while we blog writers can often serve as “quarterbacks” and help our clients assemble the team of Subject Matter Experts in various areas such as Search Engine Optimization, reputation management, public relations, graphic design, web design, and CRM) our main focus needs to be on writing blog posts using all that intelligence.

Marketing MO lists three ways to deliver value to customers:

  1. Operational excellence – delivering lowest price in the market by producing more volume at a lower cost
  2. Product (or service) leadership – staying one step ahead of the market through innovation and quality
  3. Customer intimacy – knowing the target customers' changing needs and delivering correct solutions over time


“You can provide the best offering, the cheapest offering, or the most comprehensive offering, but you can’t provide all three,” cautions Marketing MO.

Some might disagree.  In any event, honing the strategy must precede honing the message. As a professional blog writer in Indianapolis, I want to come in second place in the marketing sequence.
 

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Shoot For Engaging vs. Catchy in Business Blog Content Writing

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The point Ryan Tapak of SunAmerica wanted to convey to us members of the Financial Planning Association was this: “Research shows that spending is highest early in retirement and declines with age.” In fact, Tapak had catchy names for each of three age groups of retired people when it comes to spending needs:

  • Go-Go  (ages 55-64)
  •  Slo-Go (Age 65-74 )
  •  No Go (Age 75 and up )


Cute, even memorable, I thought. He’d given us a sort of “memory hook”. Since business blog content writers like me are always searching for novel ways to present information to online readers, memory hooks are “a good thing” (as Martha Stewart would say).

But for me, the real impact of those categories didn’t hit me until Tapak described the way his parents, his grandma, and his great-grandma are carrying on their lives.

Mom and Dad, both recently retired, are having a good Go-Go time.  Mom almost never cooks; she and dad eat out between activities –they’re busy with clubs, exercise sessions, and trips. They have two cars, and, they’re spending money at a rapid clip, making up for lost time.

Tapak’s widowed grandma leads a quieter, Slo-Go life, playing cards and tending her garden, eating the majority of her meals at home. Grandma cautions the kids not to buy her clothing for Christmas – she’s got too many things in her closet already.

Great Grandma is hardly ever persuaded to leave the house.  She tells Ryan it’s too cold/ too hot/ too wet/ to drive anywhere; she’s content to remain at home watching her shows on TV. She’s the prototype for the No Go phase of life.


The experience I had with Ryan Tapak’s presentation at the Financial Planning Association illustrates a point about putting power into business blogs: It pays to use close-ups for emotional connection and impact. It’s the details –that stimulate emotional responses in readers.

 In fact, as I explain to Say It For You freelance blog writers, blog posts have a distinct advantage over more static traditional website copy precisely because of that close-up effect. And the “closer up” the focus, (and that goes for business-to-business blog writing every bit as much as B-to-C), the greater the impact.

Shoot for engaging vs. catchy every time.  Get up close and personal by introducing real people into the content of your business blog!
 

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