“Being tarred with the same brush is to be part of a group regarded as all having the same faults and weaknesses, but, by inference, unfairly.” That quote comes from the wonderful little book, Red Herrings and White Elephants, by Albert Jack.  This week, my Say It For You blog content is based on ideas from that book that I think will be useful for businessowners and for Indianapolis freelance blog content writers.

One purpose corporate blogging for business can serve, and admirably, is damage control.  Through putting your own "spin" on reports about your company, I’ve often said, you as a business owner can exercise control over the way the public perceives any negative developments or mistakes, and you can use your blog to correct any inaccurate press statements. But what if the damage involves negative developments with some other, perhaps better-known, company in your industry? How can you use blogging to avoid being “tarred with the same brush” and having your business suffer from loss of customer confidence and trust?

When I’m helping business owners and professional practitioners craft their messages, damage control can become a very real issue. As a corporate blogging trainer, I know how crucial it is for them to convey to their customers, as well as to the online searchers who are their prospects, the kind of message that will alleviate mistrust and create confidence. At the same time, I explain, you ARE part of your own industry or profession. When aspersions are being cast, even if you and your employees are not responsible for any mistake or wrongdoing, you must “step up to plate” and speak directly to the issues.

There are two reasons, I believe, that business blog posts are such valuable tools when it comes to such a customer relations challenge:

1. Business blog content is current, talking about the “now”. The style of a business blog is conversational and – direct.
    
2. By definition, in the blog, customers’ concerns and fears are being dealt with out in the open, “in front of other people”. That gives the remediation more weight with readers.

Here are some elements that can be of business blogging assistance in difficult damage-control situations (the content might be spread over several different posts):

• Summarize the situation – what is fact and what is myth?
• Who was and who wasn’t involved?
• What the general industry position is on the subject (reassuring readers that what has happened is a violation of, rather than an outcome of, the way the industry operates)
• What you as a company or practitioner are doing to avoid ever falling into that same “trap”
• Inviting and encouraging comments and questions
• What steps your customers can take to protect themselves and reassure themselves that they are being fairly served

Concerned about being tarred with the same brush when there’s a negative development in your industry or profession? Blog!
 

“When developing a business interest you have to assume a problem that you can promise to solve,” author D. Forbes Ley was advising sales professionals thirty years ago.  This week my Say It For You blog posts are devoted to some of the gems in Ley’s book “The Best Seller”. While SEO blog marketing wasn’t even a gleam in the eye when that book came out, it’s amazing how relevant the ideas are for blog content writers today.

Once buyers have developed an emotional interest in your product, they will reveal that with “buying signals”, Ley explained.  But, he continues, “when the prospects are still undecided because of lack of Want, you have to remind them of their hurt and rescue them.” Ley calls that the “Hurt and Rescue” selling tactic.

In corporate blog writing for business, a much softer approach is called for than the sort of face-to-face selling Forbes Ley was describing. Still, it occurs to me, reading that chapter of his book, that SEO marketing blogs will succeed only if two things are apparent to readers, and in the order presented here:

• It’s clear you (the business owner or professional practitioner) understand online searchers’ concerns and needs. That means calling to readers’ minds the costs, the risks, and the problems that drove them to seek information about what you know and what you know how to do.  In other words, the blog content puts the “hurt” front and center.  
   
• You and your staff have the experience, the information, the products, and the services to solve exactly those problems and meet precisely those needs. That’s the “rescue”, the solutions your expertise and experience will bring to bear.

What D. Forbes Ley was advocating thirty years ago wasn’t the “hard-sell” or “scare tactic” approach (which wouldn’t have been welcomed by prospects then any more than they would today).

As a business blogging trainer, I think the lesson here to content writers is to identify ways in which something potential customers value could be in jeopardy.  We then assure searchers they’re not the only ones to find themselves in this predicament and show them we’ve solved these precise problems for customers and clients many times before.

Call it the “Hurt and Rescue” technique for blogging for business!