Teaching Business Blog Readers to Mind-Trip

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The wonderful little e-newsletter from performers Christian and Katalina is a perfect example of something I stress to blog content writers in Indianapolis: Don’t be afraid to “give away” your knowledge.

It happens often at Say It For You blogging services interviews: When I’m discussing with business owners or professional practitioners what kind of content they want brought to their potential customers, those owners express fear of “giving away the store”.  If they demonstrate the steps that make up their process, they fear, would-be customers might decide to do it themselves instead of becoming clients.

Apparently Christian and Katalina aren’t concerned their readers will turn into competitors.  The entire content of the newsletter, in fact, consists of teaching readers like me a magic trick that will have our friends believing we have super-powers. And, as a corporate blogging trainer, I understand why that was a smart move on the entertainers' part.

C & K know I like magic shows, (or I wouldn’t be signed up for their newsletter to begin with!) Could I follow the steps to mind-trip my friends into believing I’m starting a new career as a gambler because I can tell whether the coin hidden in their hand is heads-up or tails-up? Um….maybe, but never with the pizzazz and expertise of the masters, which is what makes C & K’s shows so interesting to me.

Similarly, I can reassure business owners getting ready to launch an SEO marketing blog that the only people who are going to notice their blog are the ones already interested in that topic. “Giving away” knowledge showcases the owners’ experience and expertise rather than threatening it in any way.

So, go ahead – give your readers a mind-tripping “peek behind the curtain”, show them how it’s done.  More often than not, readers want to get it done, not by themselves, but by the expert you’ve shown you are!

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Say It For You Reads Around – Part Three

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This week’s Say It For You blog posts are devoted to sharing ideas from my “reading around”; The Little Red Writing Book, by Brandon Royal is a great example of how sharing content, or “curating” material from other people’s blogs and articles, magazine content – and books is one sure-fire strategy for idea generation.

Part of learning how to write a blog, I explain in business blogging training sessions, is learning how to sustain your blog content writing over long periods of time without losing reader excitement and engagemen. Erin McHugh’s answer in The 5 W’s: Why?  is offering lesser-known information to add interest and to demonstrate the business owner’s or professional practitioner’s special expertise.

Royal offers another idea for anyone providing blog writing services – using similes and metaphors to enliven the writing itself.

In presenting SEO-friendly information to establish common ground, confirming to readers they’ve come to the right place to find the products, services, and information they need, you can add metaphors. That way, you’re helping readers “appreciate the information picturesquely”, as Joseph Pulitzer used to describe it. And, even though literary techniques such as similes and metaphors touch on creative writing, Royal suggests, there are still uses for them in everyday writing.

As a professional ghost blogger and corporate blogging trainer, I couldn’t agree more. Most business owners and professionals can think of quite a number of things they want to convey about their products, their professional services, their industry, and their customer service standards. Still, I’ve found over the years, the problem is those ideas need to be developed into fresh, interesting, and engaging content marketing material.

Metaphors and freelance blog writers go together like a horse and carriage (Oops! That was a simile!)  Joseph Pulitzer had three suggestions for his journalists on how to present information to the public. All three are relevant for Indianapolis blog content writers:

“Put it before them briefly so they will read it,
“clearly so they will appreciate it,
“picturesquely so they will remember it (Here’s where the metaphors are so effective),
“accurately, so they will be guided by its light.”

 

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Say It For You Reads Around – Part Two

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This week, I’m using my Say It For You blog posts to share ideas I got from “reading around” in a few of my favorite tidbit-type books. That’s because one sure-fire strategy for idea generation, I’ve found, consists of scouring other people’s blogs and articles, magazine content – and books. That strategy seems to work no matter what business, what professional practice, or what organization you’re blogging about.

Part of learning how to write a blog, I explain in business blogging training sessions, is offering usable, interesting information. On the one hand, the information needs to be highly relevant to the reader’s search.  On the other hand, how can you sustain blog content writing over long periods of time, yet avoid dishing up the same-old, same-old stuff?  The trick, I think, in corporate blogging for business, is to find lesser-known information that can add interest and demonstrate the business owner’s or professional practitioner’s special expertise.

One of the chapters in The 5 W’s: Why? by Erin McHugh offers an answer: use the famous and the less-famous.  Mchugh lists inventors with whom all of us are familiar, such as Isaac Newton, Ben Franklin, and Thomas Alva Edison. But in addition to listing the invention for which each man is best-known, the author lists the less well-known accomplishments of each..

Readers all know that Isaac Newton discovered the laws of gravity.  Few know, however, that Newton invented the reflecting telescope.  Readers already associate Eli Whitney with the cotton gin, but seldom associate Whitney with the inventing of mass production principles.  Stories of Benjamin Franklin’s experiments with lightning are legendary, but did you know he invented bifocals? Were you aware Edison invented the mimeograph machine?

For anyone providing blog writing services, the ability to accomplish two goals in each blog post can make the difference between engaged readers and those who bounce quickly away, having found nothing new and exciting.

  • Establish common ground, confirming to readers they’ve come to the right place to find the products, services, and information they need, and that the people in this company or practice are knowledgeable and passionate.
     
  • Offer lesser-known information, adding a layer of “new” to themes you covered in former posts, or perhaps a new insight you’ve gained about that existing information.

As a professional ghost blogger, I continue to use reading around to help me illustrate points about my topic.  How can you put your own reading around to use, combining the old with the new  to tell the story of your company, your practice, or your organization?

 

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Say It For You Reads Around – Part One

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No matter what business, what professional practice, or what organization you’re blogging about, ideas for blog content writing are everywhere, but you’ve got to be alert.  One sure-fire strategy for idea-generation is what I call “reading around”, scouring other people’s blogs and articles, magazine content – and books.

All this week, my Say It For You blog posts will share ideas I got from “reading around” in a few of my favorite tidbit-type books. “Do you have a keen curiosity?  Do you like to read books that enrich, reward, and entertain? If so,” the book jacket tells us, “you’ll delight in the 5 W’s: WHO? By Erin McHugh.

For business blogging training purposes, you’d be hard-pressed to find a more suitable piece than “Who’s Up There?” in the 5 W’s: Why. The chapter is about the Ohio State University professor, who, in 1972, categorized UFO sightings, ranging from the First Kind (a UFO is within 500 feet of an experiencer) to the Fifth Kind, where communication actually takes place between alien and human.

From my point of view as a freelance blog writer, I imagine readers of business blogs in Indianapolis might be categorized the same way.

Close encounter of the First Kind: The frequent, recent, and relevant use of keyword phrases in the SEO marketing blog caused the search engine to make a match, and the reader found the blogsite on Page One.

Close Encounter of the Second Kind (UFO leaves marks on the ground, interferes with car engines and radio reception).  When it comes to blog writing services, achieving a Second-Kind encounter might mean the reader actually clicked on the link and was transported to the company’s (or the practice’s or charity’s) website. However, the encounter goes no further, since the content failed, for whatever reason, to demonstrate to the reader that he/she had come to the right place for the information, products and services needed.

Close Encounter of the Third Kind (human is able to view alien occupants in the UFO.)
Often corporate blogging clients get too hung up on company branding and corporate identity, when in fact, corporate blog writing needs to let the readers “meet” the owners (Why did they choose to do what you do? What are they most passionate about in delivering your service to customers and clients? What are they trying to add to their industry?

Close Encounter of the Fourth Kind (abduction). Part of learning how to write a blog is learning how to “optimize a marketing outreach from the driving point to the landing page, and on through to conversion." In a fourth-kind encounter, lookers become buyers.

In the best-of-all-possible-worlds Fifth Kind UFO Encounter, communication actually takes place between alien and human. Content writers in Indianapolis aim for “raving fans’ who provide testimonials, post questions, Tweet about the business, and keep coming back for more.

As a professional ghost blogger, I used my read-arounds to illustrate points about blogging.  How can you put your own reading around to best use to tell the story of your company, your practice, or your organization?

 

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Feeding Instructions for Your Business Blog

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Bo Mattsson of CintAB, was initially surprised by just how many customers think it worthwhile to participate in market research. It’s because, he learned, brands listen more today to what customers want.

Mattsson’s OpinionHub survey found that:

  • 62% of consumers are more likely to buy a brand’s product if that brand has sought out their feedback
  • 56% of respondents feel more loyal to a brand if it makes the effort to solicit their insights.

Nobody likes people who can speak of nothing but themselves. And business owners and practitioners whose blog content writers appear to be consumed with the products and services they’re ” serving up” (regardless of how those are being received on the consumers’ end!).

True, as a corporate blogging trainer, I stress the importance of first person business blog writing because it reveals the personality of the business owner or of the team standing ready to serve customers. But, without readers’ feedback, SEO marketing blog writers are “driving blind”. Using testimonials in blog posts, capturing customer success stories, and welcoming comments to your blog are all ways to get feedback.

During corporate blogging training, business owners new to corporate blogging for business marketing often express a fear that, if they allow comments on their blog, some of those comments might be negative. Corporate Blogging for Dummies authors Doug Karr and Chantelle Flannery put that fear to rest, explaining that negative criticism is an incredible opportunity for any company. " There’s probably no topic more powerful in business blog content writing than a detailed story of how company owners took a customer complaint to heart and made things right.
 
“Listening to your customers’ feedback can be invaluable to your business, especially if you take the time to consider their input and put their ideas into practice,” is what the National Federation of Independent Business has to say on the matter. NFIB lists online tools for soliciting that feedback, including Get Satisfaction, SurveyMonkey, PollDaddy, and Search.Twitter.com.

 As a longtime corporate blogging trainer, and professional ghost blogger, I find this “truth” to be self-evident: One crucial element in the care and feeding of an effective business blog is – feedback!

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