You might say that business blog content writing is all about turning the je-ne-sais-quoi of a business or practice into information readers understand and relate to.  The expression “a certain je ne sais quoi (French for “I don’t know what”) refers to a quality that’s hard to pin down or describe, but which makes the subject interesting, explains Chloe Rhodes, author of “A Certain ‘Je Ne Sais Quoi’”.

It’s not that using a lot of fancy words – or foreign words, for that matter – in corporate blog posts is a great idea.  In fact, I caution newbie blog content writers to keep their posts simple to understand even while working to deliver content that’s interesting and a little different from the expected.

Being a little different is one key to success in SEO blog marketing blogs.  After all, if your business is a household name, goodie for you – you can keep using the tried and true. Truth is, though, most clients of our Say It For You professional ghostblogging marketing  services are still just household name wanna-be’s. To capture attention, those business owners and professional practitioners absolutely need to project a certain je ne sais quoi.

Just “boasting” isn’t going to do the trick.  Using language such as “innovative solutions”, “great customer service”, “world-class”, or “game-changing”, as David Meerman Scott points out, warning freelance blog writers to avoid that sort of gobbledegook. Instead, conveying the special “flavor” and personality of your brand and your people is precisely what blogging for business needs to contribute to your overall marketing strategy.

Another term for phrases such as je ne sais quoi is “loanwords”.  These are words that are adopted by speakers of one language from a different language.  But, why? More specifically, why can loanwords sometimes be of business blogging help?

“Often used to acknowledge a woman’s mystifying beauty or charisma, the phrase is also widely applied to appreciate that certain something that makes a superb plate of food so tasty or a vintage champagne so deliciously refreshing” (Chloe Rhodes’ definition), the expression ' je ne said quoi' implies that when online readers choose that product or service, they can anticipate a “special” experience. 

Your business blog writing needs to convey that you’re not just another furniture store, dental practice, car dealership, beauty salon, fitness facility, or retirement community, but that your business or practice will deliver that…well, you know, that je ne sais quoi experience!

 

I’ve always been a people-watcher, noticing faces, the way people carry themselves, what they selected by way of clothing and accessories, how they talk with others, how they gesture, how well or ill-groomed they are – I find all those details endlessly fascinating.

Over the last five years, as I’ve developed my Say It For You professional ghost blogging business, I’ve added a new hobby – writer-watching.  Now, what I’m noticing are differences in writers’ style, presentation, word choices, organization, use of slang, whether their tone is more formal or more casual – and I find those details endlessly fascinating as well.

What brought this all to mind was a half-page feature article In the Indianapolis Star about two weeks ago, called “People-Watching: The 20 Most Interesting People to Visit Indiana This Fall”. 

(It wasn’t just the number in the title that drew my attention, although it’s an interesting coincidence that the title of the Discover Magazine article I quoted in my last blog post was a list of “20 Things You Didn’t Know About Cars”.)

In corporate blogging training sessions, I caution new Indianapolis blog content writers about the limited attention span of the average online searcher. That means the way the content is organized and presented in any SEO marketing blog post will probably make a big difference in how much of the post gets read, or even in whether it gets read at all!

Keep in mind that the People-Watching article in the Indianapolis Star was easily 1400 words long. The typical SEO marketing blog post, by contrast, is less than a third of that in length. To be sure, there are different schools of thought concerning optimal length of blog content, but 1400 words is, well, l-o-n-g!. What made the piece “digestable” was the way it was organized.

For each interesting-person-to-visit-Indiana-this-fall, there were the same four pieces of information offered:

• Claim to fame:
• Current project:
• Quote:
• Seeing him: 

In blog content writing, not every post needs to be organized in the same way, but the clearer the path along which readers are led within the post, the greater the likelihood they will remain engaged and the greater the chance of them heeding your call to action.

Business blog content must show the “claim to fame” of the business or the professional practice.  As business coach and author Jim Ackerman puts it, every business owner must be able to start a sentence with “I am/we are the only……”   Then, the blog writing needs to talk about the “current project” (What have you done lately? What are you doing these days?).

A quote or personal statement from the business owner or service provider helps prospective clients identify with “real people”.  Under “Seeing him”  in the Star article, we learned that we could meet Steven Amstrup at his free lecture at Butler University, or buy tickets to see George Lopez at Crackers. In blog content writing, the “Seeing him” is the call to action.

Writer-watching reward of the day for freelance blog writers in Indianapolis? (With apologies to Julie Andrews), a spoonful of organization can help the message go down!