“Companies have to be willing to share their points of view in their digital content,” explains Marketing News, adding that “Your point of view needs to be relevant enough to be part of a conversation that’s taking place, but differentiated enough to stand out.”

So how do we do that? is the question blog content writers in Indianapolis ask.  Think about the problem you’re solving, says Marketing News, and where that problem might take us over the next five to ten years.

To me as a corporate blogging trainer, that translates into business bloggers realizing that blogging is first about thinking, and only secondarily about putting those thoughts into words.  Maybe even more important in the case of SEO marketing blogs is getting readers to think about the issues and problems on which you’re offering information and expertise.

In blogging for business, of course, the content needs to be based on solid research into the needs and interests of the target customer.  In offering business blogging assistance to business owners, though, I explain that market research is not enough to infuse true life into the blog. Customers, I explain, want to know what you think and where you’re “coming from”; they want to know your unique slant on your industry. In short, they want to get to know you.

The first part is relatively simple. Online searchers have found your blog, and they’ve stayed long enough to assure themselves that the information they find there is a good match for their needs (you offer the products and/or services they came for). But now, those prospects still need to choose whether to become your client/buyer/patient/customer.

The questions I ask Indianapolis blog writers, then, include:

• Is your point of view clear? 
• Is that viewpoint relevant to a current need or conversation or trend? 
• Is your point of view differentiated enough to stand out? 

You might say readers need to “hear” you think!

 

When things aren’t going right in business, the natural tendency is to point fingers away from oneself – whatever’s wrong, it’s the fault of that guy or gal over there, that other department, or that other manager.” says Bill Jeffries, President & CEO of Executive Strategies International.

 

That’s why, in working with employees to develop high-performing teams, Jeffries insists the “senders”, (aka the blamers) come along to the sessions with their “send-ees”. Similarly, in the Israeli Defense Forces, an officer is always expected to lead from the front. The famous cry of the officer is "aharai!" (follow me).

Does all this have anything to do with providing business blogging assistance? I really think so. It doesn’t matter, in my book, whether business owners or professional practitioners are doing their own blog posting or hiring professional ghost bloggers like me to help. The blog’s message might be well-thought out, or it might even be unintentional. Either way, wherever there’s a blog, that blog is conveying the values and beliefs of the owners.  You might say blog content writing is one way of inviting online readers to “come on in” and become part of the process of bringing those values to life.

The business owner offering advice through blogging for business is, in a way, the sender. (He or she’s giving advice, issuing Calls to Action, and “driving” traffic to the website, basically assuming a leadership role.  The online reader searching for information, products, and services is the send-ee in the typical corporate blog writing scenario.

Thing is, the cry of the blogger had better be “aharai!” (the cry of leading from the front), not the cry of either salesperson or movie director. In a blog offering information about health products or services, it needs to be obvious the content writer is a believer in and user of those very products and services. What reader can be engaged in advice about stock trading when the advisor has all her money in CD’s? In corporate blogging training sessions, I stress sincerity and passion over facts and figures when it comes to SEO marketing blogs.

Freelance blog writers in Indianapolis – how many ways can you say “Follow me!”?