“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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Beginning Bloggers Can Be Fools With Tools – And That’s OK!

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inept handymanFellow blogger Pamela Wilson suggests "blogging with a learner’s mind".  It’s a wonderful suggestion, and here’s why:

Wilson observes that there are no shortcuts to becoming an effective business blogger. To get to be any good at blogging, you have to blog.  That, in turn, means being willing to make beginner’s mistakes, understanding that those mistakes are going to be made "in public", because blogs are by definition, "out there" for all to read. That has to be OK, she correctly maintains, because each "failure" (things we got wrong, things readers understood the wrong way, grammar and spelling errors that got published, the links that didn’t work, on and on..) brings us closer to success.

Given that business bloggers are going to make some mistakes starting out of the gate, there are a couple on blogger Kevin Muldoon‘s Top 10 list that are particularly worth stressing (in my experience as a blogging trainer and professional ghost blogger).

Blogging about too many subjects – "The top blogs on the net are all focused on one topic or genre", says Muldoon.

For me to say "I couldn’t agree more" would be an understatement.  Even where a business offers a variety of services and/or products, the business blog is going to be most effective when built around a unifying theme or "leitmotif".

Erratic posting frequency – "It’s very important to update your blog on a regular and consistent basis," advises Muldoon.

Once-in-a-while blogging just doesn’t do the trick, even if it’s high-quality stuff, I’ve always emphasized to new business bloggers.  To satisfy search engine (which you have to do to get read!), your blog must be updated frequently, in fact very frequently. Drill sergeant discipline is what it’s going to take, I warn.  Get used to it – or hire a ghost blogger!

Since Kevin Muldoon lists "repeating what other bloggers are saying" as a Top 10 mistake, I’d have to plead guilty for this blog post.  But since "no opinion/scared to rock the boat" is also on his blogger mistake list, I’ll respectfully add my part dissenting, part supporting view:

  1. Reading competitors’ blog posts is a great form of market research for business owners launching their own blogging strategy.
     
  2. Having your business blog considered by readers the "go-to" source of information about your field (not only about your own business) is hardly an undesirable result.
     
  3. Repeating what established bloggers have said (ideally, at least) forces "newbies" to think about what they might add to the discussion. 

Actually, every item on Muldoon’s list can serve as a valuable caution for experienced as well as newer business bloggers. Effective blogging, I’ve found, is both an acquired skill and, in many ways, an art.  There’s marketing expertise required, at least some degree of technical expertise, certainly some writing expertise. But, trumping all these, I believe is the simple, yet extraordinarily difficult task of consistently and continually "showing up"!

 

 

 

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Guest Business Blog Post: Singing My Song

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Cindy HartmanToday my friend Cindy Hartman of Hartman Inventory contributes a guest blog post in answer to my challenge to use song titles as inspiration for business blogging:

I enjoy reading Rhoda’s blog posts in Say It For You because I learn a lot from them! Accepting her challenge (I’m going to challenge readers to pick out song titles – either from my list or from anywhere – and show why they think that song expresses some aspect of their own business!). Instead, I decided to use the song title idea to thank her.

“Stuck On You” (Lionel Richie)
This post is a way for me to say thank you for all Rhoda has done for me. Whether personal or through her blog posts, she is always willing to share her expertise. Her articles offer insight about blogging, branding, marketing, grammar and creativity. I’m stuck on reading her posts daily.

“Help!” (The Beatles)
Rhoda teaches us how to do things, rather than just tell us. Case in point: using song titles to come up with new ideas for our blogs. She’s currently writing a “song series” herself, so we can read and learn. Examples, examples, examples = help with a capital H.

There are two specific areas she’s been very helpful – reaffirming my belief that people want to hear stories and supporting me in being a “grammar freak”.

“If You Don’t Know Me By Now” (Simply Red)
As a small business owner who provides a business and home inventory service, I know how important it is for you to know, like and trust me. The best way for this to happen is to allow you to meet me through my blog. Then, you’re more apt to do business with me. One of Rhoda’s blog posts, Blogs Who Need People, encouraged me to continue to include personal stories in my blog posts.

“Since U Been Gone” (Kelly Clarkson)
How hard is it to say “you’ve” instead of “you”? Many marketing experts state that blogging is casual and we shouldn’t be concerned about punctuation and grammar. There seems to be a need to crank out blog posts quickly at the expense of correct construction. I’ve always questioned that because I believe my writing represents my business – and me, as a person. Sloppy writing could easily give the impression that my service is offered in such a manner as well.

“It’s Over” (Roy Orbison)
In closing, I want to reiterate how song titles and lyrics can inspire creativity, having used them as blog post titles. However, I never thought to take it to a full theme/series of posts. I have accepted the challenge! Starting next week, I’ll write a series discussing all the different reasons for a business or home inventory.

Please join me on my blog to read the series her suggestion helped me create.

Cindy

 

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