“Say It For You” High on the Charts with Song Title Challenge

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musical notesI was absolutely delighted with the enthusiastic response to my corporate blog-writing challenge revolving around song titles.  (As a blog content writer, I posed a challenge to business owners to explain some aspect of their business by referring to a song title.) The many comments and emails were topped off by Cindy Hartman (Hartman Inventory), who devoted an entire guest blog post to thanking me, using various song titles.

So, why did this zany idea of mine about writing for business catch on so well with my Say It For You blog readers? I’m going to use today’s blog post to share the four reasons I came up with.  Each of these is something I’m going to try and do more of in future business blog writing, and hopefully, you will do the same.

  1. The blog offered a challenge (readers were challenged to think about something familiar, namely their own businesses, in a whole new light, yet it was simple enough for anyone to try.
     
  2. The idea was very specific, but had broad appeal:
  •            You could choose any kind of song, from rap to rock to country Western.
     
  •            The idea could be applied to any kind of business or professional practice
     
  •            Anyone, including employees and customers, not only the owners could relate to the challenge (it is an idea that a business blogging service  or freelance SEO copywriter might use)

     Searchers use our business blogs in individualized ways. Some will scan quickly, verifying they’ve come to the right place, then hopefully click through in response to one of our Calls to Action.  Others might follow our links, meandering through pages of material, perhaps returning to tie it all together. Still others might make note of what we have to offer, filing that information away for a later time.

     3.   The challenge allowed self expression.

           4.  The blog post introducing the song title idea offered free, valuable advice to 
              business bloggers.

As relationship strategist Ron Sukenick teaches, sharing ideas, information, and resources with others increases your own influence and impact in the business world.

Speaking of song titles, I’m so glad I thought of that business blogging challenge.  As James Brown might say, "I Feel Good!"

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Blogging to Answer the Question “What Do You Do At Work?”

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"Coca-Cola and General Motors don’t have to explain to the outside world what they make," puzzledpoints out James Hagerty in a fascinating Wall Street Journal piece. But, he explains, as enterprises become more complex and multi-faceted, image and branding consultants are coming up with fanciful names that do little to answer the question "But what do you actually DO?" 

Goes back to what I’m always teaching about blogging for business: focus each blog post on one very specific idea you want to convey to online searchers.  In your blog post, make that concept absolutely clear – none of this "We have ways…." stuff!

Hagerty gets a chuckle out of Parker-Hannifin Corp., which styles itself "the global leader in motion and control technologies," saying that description might apply to a maker of lingerie! Why not just go ahead and mention the brakes and safety belts Parker-Hannifin manufactures? he asks. Similarly, 3M Company says it makes "life easier and better for people around the world", rather than simply coming out and saying it makes scotch tape.

Hagerty’s article really resonated with me when it comes to blogging for business. In composing blog posts meant to drive business by attracting search engine indexing, specificity becomes even more important than in corporate mission statements.  After all, there can’t be a "match" unless your description of what you do, what you know about, and what you sell dovetails with the words searchers use to describe their needs!

Even assuming online readers find your blog post, and even in the unlikely event they’ve read it through in its entirety, all your effort to host and post blogs could turn out to be the most colossal waste of your time and theirs if they’re left asking, "So what do you DO, actually?"

In the Wall Street Journal article, Hagerty lists a number of companies with cryptic answers to that question:

  • Terex Corporation: "Materials processing." Huh? (They make rock-crushing machines for the building industry.)
     
  • DXP Enterprises: "Leading products and service distribution focused on adding value and total cost savings solutions to MRO and OEM customers."  Huh? (They make pumps, tools, nuts, bolts, and hard hats.)
  • TRW Corp: "Global leader in active and passive safety."  Huh? (They make brakes and safety belts.)
  • Ingersoll Rand:  "World leader in creating and sustaining safe, comfortable, and efficient environments." Huh? (They make locks, air conditioning equipment, and battery-operated golf carts. 

I don’t know about you, but as a professional ghost blogger and business blogging trainer, I find a powerful what-not-to-do lesson in these corporate statements:

Every single one of your business blog posts needs to leave readers asking "How can I get some?" NOT "Huh?"
 

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“You Are a Business Pro” Good Tactic for Business Bloggers

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rental carMy compliments to the National® Car Rental "chef" for cooking up a great ad in the Wall Street Journal.  Man in business attire is wheeling his luggage down the aisle of rental cars, saying to himself, "I will choose any car in the aisle. Any car."  National® Car Rental then is  implying, "Sure you will!" The company then says to the customer, "You are a business pro."

Although this is an ad, not a blog post, in just two lines of type, NCR has demonstrated two rules for effective business blogging:

Focus each blog post on one – and only one – aspect of your product or service.
Here NCR puts the focus on customer control.  "Because only National lets you choose any car in The Emerald Aisle and go.  No trips to the counter.  No asking for keys.  No hassles.  In the Emerald Aisle you can choose any car and pay the mid-size price, even if it[s a full-size or above.  Take control." Notice there’s no discussion of price, no discussion of safety, or service, or rules.  Readers come away with one idea – with National, I’m in control!

Focus on the reader’s needs and wants, not on what your business offers.
Paint a word picture of how the reader will feel upon taking advantage of your offer – how proud, how safe, how secure, how benevolent, how self-confident.  The first words out of the gate from National® are the ones its customer will be saying: "I will choose!"

Are there any strings attached to the National® deal? Sure. "Control" requires enrollment in the complimentary Emerald Club, and choice of cars is subject to availability and dealer participation, we learn.  But we don’t learn those things first. National® Car Rental leads with its key idea: The customer will feel in control!

Business bloggers, take heed.  Lead with a keyword phrase, combined with one key concept.  Do that well, and, for that one blog post, ’nuff said!


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Your Business Blog is a Sally Port

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sally portBlogs are sally ports of a sort, I’ve concluded, a middle space between the blogosphere and your corporate website.

In the Middle Ages, sally ports were small spaces in the castle or city walls that allowed besieged troops to sally forth to attach the enemy without compromising their own fortification. Today, sally ports control entry into restricted military or civilian areas. People, materials, or vehicles can be thoroughly checked, with the first door closed behind them prior to allowing them through the second door.

Business blogs, in a way, are reverse sally ports.  While guards use the sally port space to check out would-be entrants, deciding whether to allow them in, with blogs, it’s the opposite. Online readers who enter the "sally port" of the blog post check you out, deciding whether they want to "come" in to your website!

As a professional ghost blogger who also trains employees to blog, I often liken blogs to booths as a trade show. The matching process of organic search (with search engines such as Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc.) has placed readers in the vicinity of your "booth". Your blog post title grabs their attention, assuring them they’ve come to the right place for the products, services, or information they need.

Now that those searchers are in the "sally port", scanning the content of your business blog post, they decide if they want to go through the second door (by clicking on the link to one of your website landing pages or following one of your blog’s Calls to Action)

In a military or civilian sally port, if a person or vehicle is found to be unauthorized, the guard can lock down both gates. The individual or vehicle in question is trapped inside until police can neutralize and remove the offender.

The business blog sally port situation is in sharp contrast to that.  The searcher remains in full control of the situation and can "escape" with a simple click of the computer mouse. The business owner has no power to force the reader to come into the corporate website – in fact readers must be invited to take the next step.

With business blogging, it’s the searchers doing all the sallying forth!

 

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Being Smarter Than a Staircase in Your Business Blog

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staircaseBack in August of this year, I quoted employee benefit professional Mel Schlesinger who’d recommended a very effective sales technique called "Oh, by the way".  The idea was that, after a prospect or client had agreed to move forward with a purchase, the salesperson, on the way out the door, would describe an add-on service or product feature.  Often an additional sale would follow. (Had the salesperson gone into detail about all the possible benefits and features, the theory goes, the customer might have become overwhelmed and postponed making any buying decision.)

I found that whole idea very apropos for business blogging.  As a blogging trainer, I’ve always stressed the importance of having each blog post emphasize one – and only one – key concept.  On the other hand, there’s nothing wrong with offering online readers extra information if they want it, using the simple mechanism of an after-thought and a "click here" option.

Always fascinated with word tidbits and new expressions, I learned just the other day (my Mensa friend Jud Horning happened to mention this expression in another context) that there’s a French idiom that exactly fits the "Oh, by the way" technique in blogging.

The expression "avoir l’esprit de l’escalier" literally means having as much wit as a staircase.

We’ve all had that experience.  Minutes, or even days later, we think of what we should have said in answer to an out-of-line personal question, a quip, or even an insult.  American humorist Burgess, who died in 1951, called these what-you-wish-you’d-said things "tintiddles". Because we did not have a quick wit, (even a staircase or a chair might have been quicker with a response than we!), it’s too late we think of the most fabulous retorts.

As a professional ghost blogger for business, I still maintain that focus is key to effective business blogging. But, should you wish to offer "extra credit work" to the "gifted students" among your "class" of online readers, do it in the form of a "tintiddle or "avoir l’esprit de l’escalier"!


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