Small Cap Blogging for Business

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“Not blogging?  You’re in the minority,” asserts Lisa Barone in smallbiztrends.com, with 65% of small business survey respondents in HubSpot’s annual “State of Inbound Marketing” study saying they are using corporate blog writing.

Well, at Say It For You, we are most certainly blogging! The fact that the very post you’re reading is #600 in the series brings to mind the S&P 600 stock index.  The S&P 600 covers only an approximate 3% of total U.S. stocks.  Powerful despite that small size? You bet.  As of February 24, the index was up 10.77% for 2012!

Small but powerful is, as a matter of fact, a perfect description for the tactic of using business blog writing to accomplish three goals all business owners have: building awareness, credibility, and trust.  As a corporate blogging trainer in Indianapolis, I call attention to business content writing in blogs as a natural centerpiece for most small business’ social media marketing.

What’s keeping the other 35% of small businesses from using blogs as a business-building tool?  The two biggest fears, I’ve found, are:

  • “Giving away” information and know-how that might prompt potential users to become do-it-yourselfers instead.  In reality, informational blogs have the opposite effect, demonstrating to prospects how knowledgeable the business owner or professional practitioner is!
     
  • Running out of content ideas. At #600, as you can see, this small business is still going strong; creative content generation is what I teach!  Collaborating with a freelance blog writer can be the answer to owners’ lack of time to devote to creative writing.

Only those who put money into the S&P 600 stocks saw their investment grow by that amazing 11% in two months.  Likewise, only those business owners and professional practitioners who put frequent, recent, and relevant content into the blogsphere on a consistent basis will be able to realize all the benefits blogging for business can bring.

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Those First Five Seconds in Business Blog Writing

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“If they’re in your session, they’ve already drunk the Kool-Aid,” explained well-known humor speaker and coach Bill Stainton at our most recent National Speakers Association of Indiana meeting.  Stainton was offering a tip to conference “breakout session” speakers, but he might well have been coaching content writers in Indianapolis.

Conference attendees who choose to attend sessions titled “Better Employee Relations”, “Applying the New Federal Regs on Manufacturing”, or “Orange Growing in Your Own Back Yard”, for example, already have an interest in one of those topics. The point Stainton was emphasizing to us speakers is that in such a situation, long introductory remarks are superfluous;  the session leader needs to get to the heart of the matter straight away.

As a professional ghost blogger for business owners and professional practitioners, I realized that breakout sessions at a conference are an almost exact parallel with corporate blogs. If readers have arrived at your business blog, it’s because they already have an interest in your topic – they’ve already “drunk the Kool-Aid”, and are ready to receive the information, the services, and the products you have to offer. It’s now up to you to assure those visitors, through the words and pictures in your business blog content, that they’ve come to precisely the right place to get what they’re after.

In any talk, not only a breakout session but even a keynote address, Stainton explained, the first five minutes must be indicative of what the audience can expect. What will be the format and presentation style (humorous/ serious, questions welcomed/questions held to the end?) and “stance” (problem-solving/ informational/motivational?). The audience will go along with any number of different approaches, but they want to know “the deal”, meaning what they should expect.

When I’m offering corporate blogging training sessions to business owners and their employees, or talking to freelance blog writers, I’m telling them the same thing.  It’s just that a couple of seconds, not five minutes, describes the “window” of time blog content writers have to “get indicative” and capture readers’ attention.

Yes, online readers who arrive at your business blog may have already tasted the Kool-Aid and apparently are interested in more of it.  Your task is to keep them engaged with valuable, personal, and relevant information, beginning with the “downbeat”,(which is my term for the first sentence of each post).

Yes, those visitors are drinking Kool-Aid, and the only question remaining is – will they be drinking your brand?

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Blog Writing Arithmetic: Add Curb Appeal, Subtract Distractions

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Realtors quoted in the Indianapolis Star and New York Times reporter Matt Richtel each offer advice to consumers that I think all Indianapolis blog content writers should heed:

“Curb appeal,” report the realtors, “is critical to attracting the public.  If prospective buyers don’t love it from the curb, they won’t even schedule an appointment.”

In blogging for business, curb appeal starts with the title of your blog. Even if the search engines have delivered readers to your link (on page 1 of Google, for instance) the title must be appealing to readers, and, ideally, short enough to be shared on social media sites. In fact, having engaging titles in SEO marketing blogs is the equivalent of applying fresh paint and new handles to the front doors of a house you want to sell.

The New York Times article, on the other hand, is reporting on cars.  The increasingly complicated “infotainment” systems on the dashboards in cars distract drivers and cause accidents, federal traffic agencies are beginning to realize. .

For business owners, distractions are plentiful, and many a blog, begun with the best of intentions, ends up neglected or with the effort totally abandoned. With SEO marketing blogging on the rise, more and more business owners and professional practitioners are running out of time and hiring freelance blog content writers to take up the slack.

Those providing business blogging services, on the other hand, need to avoid distractions on the blog page itself.  Anything that takes readers’ attention “off the road”, away from the message and the Call to Action is distracting.  Overdoing the visuals with complex charts, graphs, and diagrams, even too much Flash technology on a blog page can divert attention away from the core message of the blog.

Focused blog content writing for any business or practice adds curb appeal and avoids distractions.  Remember, business owners want online visitors coming past the “curb” and into their website.  We writers want those readers keeping their eyes on the road to all the valuable information, products, and services business owners and practitioners are eager to provide!

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Can Memorable Business Blogs Improve Customers’ Memory?

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“All bloggers would like to get more interaction and participation from their readers and visitors,” says vandelaydesign.com.  (As a blog content writer and corporate blogger trainer in Indianapolis, I found nothing new in that observation.)

Imagine my delight, though, to learn that, aside from the obvious conclusion that engaging readers through our business blog writing helps increase the response to our Calls to Action, we freelance blog writers may be helping protect against dementia in seniors!

Getting social, according to a 15-year study of older people in Sweden, may prevent dementia by providing emotional and mental stimulation. Subjects in a University of Michigan study did better on tests of short-term memory after just ten minutes of conversation with another person.

What are some of the ways Indianapolis blog writers can encourage more interactivity through our corporate blog writing?

Vandelaydesign.com advises displaying the most recent comments in the sidebar of your blog. In corporate blogging training sessions, I go one better by advising blog content writers to periodically compose an entire blog post around a question posed by a reader.

Two other Vandelaydesign suggestions include putting a link on your blogsite that says “email to a friend” and adding a “share on Facebook” link.

Two tactics I often incorporate into my Say It For You blog writing services include using “tests” and surveys to engage readers and help them feel they are part of a conversation with my business owner clients.

Engaging in conversation can provide mental stimulation for people of all ages. It’s nice to know, though, that memorable business blogs can help improve customers’ memory!

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Which “Wow!” Do You Want for Your Business Blog?

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“When journalists write pieces, they write so a person can look at the headline and say ‘Wow, that looks interesting.’ When somebody reads a retirement document, you want them to say, ‘Wow, I learned something today.’” 

Employee benefit advisers say their biggest challenge is overcoming the apathy that many employees have toward saving for their retirement, and that the secret is in the way the message gets presented.

In “Using Blogs to Educate your Stakeholders,” Kat Liendgens says that same thing applies to corporate blogging for business. When you make sure, in your business blog, to educate your users not only about new features and products, but about the benefits of those products and features, she explains, you’re ensuring continued buy-in.

“Wow-that-looks-interesting” headlines that stoke curiosity constitute tactic #1 in freelance blog writers’ anti-apathy strategy.  “Gappers”, according to advertising maven Michel Fortin, are headlines that make readers want to close the gap between the problem named in the headline and the solution. (I’ve used a variety of that tactic in this Say It For You post by posing a question.)

When it comes to creating “wow-I-learned-something-today” content, as a corporate blogging trainer, my mantra is a simple one:

“The more you know about, the more you can blog about.”

 In other words, in order for us freelance blog content writers in Indianapolis to deliver high-quality website materials, articles, and corporate blogs, we simply must keep educating ourselves, reading everything from newspapers and magazines to billboards and advertisements, and listening to everything from TV and radio shows to casual conversations.

Blogging for business, I repeat, is a matter of enriching ourselves so that our content can be richer.  Anyone providing business blogging services should be able to state “Wow! I learned something today!” – every day!
 

 

 

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