Yes-At-Your-Age Blogging for Business

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“Blogs are not ads” is a rule I reiterate at corporate blogging training sessions.  Often.

Still, as we’re all aware, the ultimate aim of SEO marketing blogs is to make the cash register ring.  Somewhere in the process of getting that to happen, blog content writers are going to need to deal with buyers’ misapprehensions and objections.

Just the other day, I noticed a six-word billboard advertisement for Indiana’s WGU online university:  “Earn a degree. Yes, at your age!”

I really liked that “take-the-bull-by-the-horns” approach, going right for the anticipated objection and countering it.

“Consumers are skeptics,” explained Bob Chenoweth in a guest post on my blog two years ago. “They have objections, conscious or unconscious, stated or unstated. As a solution provider, your primary goal must be to convert the skeptical prospect into a customer by overcoming these objections and gaining trust.”  Chenoweth adds that business blogging breaks down barriers, and minimizes and overcomes objections.

Debunking myths about your industry is a great place to begin when creating business blog content. Not only is addressing misinformation in your company blog interesting to readers, it highlights your own special expertise and knowledge. So, while blogs are definitely not ads, you can reassure readers’ doubts and make them more comfortable trying out your product or service.

  • Lasik eye surgery: Yes, even if you have astigmatism
     
  • Bankruptcy: Yes, even if you owe back taxes
     
  • Retail store return of product:  Yes, even if you’ve taken the tag off
     
  • Clothing company: Yes, even after Labor Day
     
  • Auto sales: Yes, even with less-than-perfect credit


What’s the “yes-at-your-age” for your business or practice?
 

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Business Blogs Figure in the Formula for Trust

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There’s a formula for trust.

That’s something I learned at Tim Roberts’ session on selling at the Revenue North conference a couple of weeks ago. Trust is a mightily important element in SEO marketing blogs. As a corporate blogging trainer, I felt I needed to hear what Roberts, a consummate sales professional, had to say about it.

First, though, since words are the tools we freelance blog content writers in Indianapolis use to engage prospects’ interest in what our Say It For You clients have to offer, I needed to know the three words Tim Roberts says to get rid of.

Those “no-no” words, Roberts stressed, are “quality”, “service”, and “expertise”. It’s not that my business owner and professional practitioner clients shouldn’t deliver those very three things to their clients and customers; it’s just that those words are so over-used as to have become empty promises in the eyes of prospects.

What’s more, Roberts added, salespeople need to “get rid of themselves so they can use all of themselves.” That’s not as cryptic a statement as first appears, and it’s definitely a statement that’s relevant in blog content writing.

Here’s my take on that statement: When readers are directed to your business’ or practice’s blog, there needs to be a sense that it’s all about them (meaning the readers), not about you.

So what’s the “trusted advisor” formula?  T=C+R+I.

Readers, after all, found your blog because what they needed corresponded with what you sell, what you know, and what you know how to do. Now that they’re “meeting” you, the blog content writing is the key to making clear your C, your R, and Your I.

Credibility – It becomes evident, through the content of the blog, that you’re the subject matter expert they’re seeking.

Reliability – You’ve helped clients and customers “just like them” many times before; you’re familiar with your readers’ needs and concerns.

Intimacy – Your blog presents you as “real people”, with a passion for serving in your field.

In a sense, Google (or other search engine) has “validated” you by matching the searcher with your particular recent and relevant blog. Now it’s up to you to validate those readers and become their Trusted Advisor!
 

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Naked Sentences Stand Out in Blog Content Writing

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Remember “streaking”?

To grab attention, streakers ran naked in public places.

For us Indianapolis freelance blog content writers, there’s a lot to learn from Brandon Royal’s The Little Red Writing Book, and I’ve devoted all three of this week’s Say It For You blog posts to some of Royal’s excellent pointers on writing in general. SEO marketing blogs. which multi-task as promo pieces, advertorials, bulletins, tutorials, and mission statements, are, above all, a form of written communication. Sharing the wisdom is part of my own mission to improve the quality of the writing in business owners’ and professionals’ blogs.

One rule that is of business blogging help in particular is keeping sentences short. Short sentences have what I call “pow!”. Short sentences, particularly in titles can easily be shared on social media sites. Focused content, I teach in corporate blogging training sessions, keeps readers’ attention on the message.

That doesn’t mean, though, as Brandon Royal reminds us, that every sentence needs to be short. “That would create a choppy style,” he says. Instead, “the writer must judge how to weave short sentences with longer ones” and use sentence variety.

Brandon calls really, really short sentences "naked", and he suggests that occasionally, these add a dynamic touch to your writing. As an example, he cites a campaign for dark beer. “I like beer.  Beer explains more about me than anything in the world,” it begins. That first 3-word line has “pow!”. In corporate and professional practitioner blogs, two to four word “naked” opening lines can be used to capture attention as well.

Naked sentences stand out in blog content writing!

 

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Never Fear the “I” in Blogging for Business

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Blogging for business has many aspects. Corporate and professional practitioner blogs are part promo, part advertising, part bulletin, part tutorial, and part mission statement, but the bottom line is that blog content writing is just that – writing.

This week, I‘m building my Say It For You blog posts around the wisdom in Brandon Royal’s The Little Red Writing Book. While it’s true that blog content writing can’t be approached in the same manner as, say, magazine article writing or peer-review academic writing or novel writing, when it comes right down to it, good blogging is based on good writing.

“‘Often personal examples go hand in hand with the use of the personal pronoun “I”,” explains Royal. “Do not be afraid to use this pronoun; it’s personal and specific. Readers appreciate knowing how a situation relates to the writer in terms of his or her personal experience.”

As a corporate blogging trainer, I think that statement about being personal is especially truly when it comes to the content in SEO marketing blogs.

To demonstrate that you understand the problems the online searcher is dealing with, it can be highly effective to relate how you personally went through the same failure stages. To the extent you can truthfully say, “I know how frustrating the problem is, and that’s why I’m devoted to solving that problem through my business or profession,” that gives your blog content writing “I” power. Next best to the business owner or professional relating an “I” experience which drives their passion, is anecdotes and testimonials (other people saying “I”).

At first blush, this “I” advice may sound like a contradiction of a principle I’m always emphasizing to newbie Indiana business bloggers, which is that their blogs aren’t meant to be all about them and their companies – it's meant to be about those searchers who need what they do, what they have, and what they know. But truly, there’s no contradiction. Personalizing examples, as Brandon Royal puts it, simply makes them more memorable.

Never fear the “I” in blogging for business – so long as it’s for the purpose of personalizing the information you want to convey to your readers!
 

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Business Blogging’s Brevity/Detail Tradeoff

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“A trade-off exists between brevity and detail,” Brandon Royal explains in the Little Red Writing Book. Sufficient detail will make a piece of writing longer, he adds, but “examples and details are the very things people remember long after reading a piece.” Specific, descriptive words, he advises, make for more forceful writing.

Specific and descriptive wording makes for more powerful business blog content writing, too. As a corporate blogging trainer, that’s something I need to stress to beginner bloggers. Corporate websites provide basic information about a company’s products or a professional’s services, but the business blog content is there to attach a “face” and lend a “voice” to that information by filling in the finer details. And it’s those very details, more than any list of professional credentials or corporate accomplishments, which end up winning the hearts of online readers.

So, what about keeping SEO marketing blog posts short? Each post, I teach, should contain a razor-sharp focus on just one story, one idea, one aspect of the business or practice. After all, readers come online searching for information, products, or services, and they are not going to take the time to read the full text of even a relatively short blog post) without assurance that they’ve come to the right place. That’s why I teach new freelance blog writers in Indianapolis to address readers’ “What’s-In-It-For-Me?” questions at the beginning, rather than later on in each post.

That’s precisely where the tradeoff between brevity and detail comes in. We need “close-ups” for emotional connection and impact, and our challenge is that “close-ups” use up more words. Brandon Royal suggests a compromise that can be very useful for business owners’ and professional practitioners’ blogs: Keeping individual sentences short helps us in the brevity department, while adding other, short sentences to fill in the details helps with emotional impact.

Short, but not terse, brief, yet filled with impactful detail. Whoever said effective blog content writing was going to be an easy task?

 
 

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