Soap-then-Water Blog Content Writing for Business

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As a freelance blog writer, I subscribe to blogs of many types. One recent post that caught Jack Klemeyermy attention was by friend and sales coach Jack Klemeyer .  Jack had overheard a conversation about the mess often created in the ladies’ room when ladies put water on their hands first and only afterwards reach for the soap.

Do you wet your hands and then add soap, or squirt soap in your hand and then add water?  Well, Kleimeyer uses that question in his blog as an example of the proper way to prepare for a sales presentation. Many of the points stressed in that blog post are relevant to corporate blogging for business, because after all, a company’s SEO marketing blog is part of its effort to generate sales.

“Too many times when a person is selling (or trying to convey an idea or attempting to influence), they haven’t done all the prerequisites needed to ask for the sale,” Klemeyer explains.  The coach is referring to things such as establishing rapport and gaining a complete and mutual understanding of the client’s needs and how the salesperson’s product or service can be of benefit to the prospect.

According to Mike Gegelman, a financial planner in Florida, prospecting comes down to three things: the right message to the right market at the right time. That’s in line with Klemeyer’s advice that successful sales are the result of prior preparation and research.

Speaking of prior preparation when it comes to business blog writing, in the early stages of creating a new blog, the blog content writer and the client (the business owner) are trying to strike precisely the right “tone” for the blog.  I’ve discovered one very interesting thing I’ve in dealing with different content writers in Indianapolis and with the client businesses they serve.  Whenever there’s a “disconnect” between the two parties, it’s almost always about how “sales-ey” the blog should or should not be. 

Generally speaking, as I often stress when I offer corporate blogging training, blog posts are not ads, and there should never be a hard-sell or boastful tone to the content.  When asked to provide business blogging help, I explain that blogs are closer in nature to informative “advertorials”, positioning the company or practitioner as helpful, well-experienced, and knowledgeable.

And that, of course, comes right back to the prior preparation and research Jack Klemeyer correctly calls such a crucial part of the sales process. One particular form of preparation I encourage anyone providing business blog writing to do is reading OPB (Other People’s Blogs). Repeating what other, established bloggers have said and then commenting on that forces  business bloggers to think about what they might add to the discussion.

As Klemeyer says, a complete and mutual understanding of the client’s needs is crucial in sales. In corporate blogging for business, there’s a double load of “homework” that needs to be done, because, in a way, there are two clients to understand – the blogging client (the business owner or manager), and the buyers of that business’ products and services.  Putting water on your hands and only then going for the soap can result in a big ladies’ room mess.  Writing for business without doing your homework first will probably have a parallel outcome!

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Corporate Blogging for Business – Going Beyond “Nice”

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No matter what the business, when it comes to delivering a product or service, “nice work” just isn’t good enough.  As a freelance blog writer offering corporate blogging training, I need to drive that point home.

Rickleff Painting puts that principle into action; the company brochure explains they pay exceptionalattention to the details that make the difference between “nice” results and exceptional results. As I was listening to Steve Rickleff’s presentation at my Columbian Business Network meeting, I realized the nice/exceptional distinction is important for me to emphasize with my clients when offering them my Say It For You business blogging service.

“What makes you exceptional?” asks business coach Tom Volkar, stating his belief that we increase the probability of success in life to the degree that we are willing to express our exceptionality. Discovering, then giving voice to that exceptionality, I realized, is the secret to marketing success in general and certainly applies to SEO marketing blogs.

After years of being involved in all aspects of corporate blog writing and corporate blogging training, one irony I’ve found is that blog content writers who do nothing more than “show up” are exceptional! That’s because business owners who are able and willing to maintain consistency and frequency in posting to their blog are rare. There’s a tremendous fall-off rate, with most blogs being abandoned months or even weeks after they’re begun. 

It’s not only when it comes to blog posting consistency and frequency that Rickleff’s principle of exceptionality holds true for bloggers; that principle must hold true in an even deeper sense in writing for business. A company might in fact pay attention to the details and achieve exceptional results, but potential customers and clients don’t yet know that – the blog content writer needs to make that come across in each blog post.

Steve Rickleff was right there when he made his presentation. In person.  But, as an Indianapolis blogger, I’m not right there in person, and neither is the business owner or practitioner with whom the customer will be dealing.  The challenge in the business blogging help I offer is to convey that message of exceptionality using the printed word, with perhaps some help from video and pictures.

Go for the exceptional, blog content writers. "Nice" just may not be good enough!


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DIY Blogging is Choice, Not Last Resort

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do it yourselfAt a recent event at Columbian Business Network, Charles Schwab VP Shelley Helmerick handed out a little promotional booklet that I believe holds some big lessons for corporate blog writers.  "Everyone wants great service," explains one section, "but not everyone wants it the same way…Sometimes people want to conduct business electronically – without direct personal service…At Schwab, do-it-yourself is a choice, not a last resort."

At corporate blogging training sessions, I explain that, at Say It For You, we agree. In fact, in a recent blog post I mentioned a Farm Credit Services radio ad with the tag line, "When you’ve seen one farmer, you’ve seen one farmer," point being that blog readers have different needs and need different choices for interacting with your company.

Whether it’s financial services, farming, or corporate blogging for business, the same idea holds true. Yes, I originally became an Indianapolis blogger in keeping with the "don’t-do-it-yourself" outsourcing trend I was seeing in writing for business. Still, for business owners with a preference for doing it themselves, it became important for me to offer business blogging assistance and training.

Certainly, just as one Facebook article about wedding planning puts it, "Do-It-Yourself Makes It More Personal!", adding that hand designing everything from the wedding invitations to the bridesmaids’ gifts adds "a more personal touch without breaking the bank".

Brides may be going back to Do It Yourself, but in social media, including the care and feeding of an SEO marketing blog, the dominant trend is towards outsourcing.  The obvious reason is that few business owners have the time to create and post blogs with enough frequency to attract the attention of search engines. Still, that Schwab booklet, I realized, hit upon a point – each client needs a different degree of business blogging help, and each client prefers a different ratio of help vs. DIY.

At one end of the spectrum, the business owner might want certain employees to receive corporate blogging training so that they can then take over the function of business blog writing.
At the opposite extreme a company might turn over to a business blogging service the entire effort of crafting the message and maintaining the consistent posting of corporate blog content.

But, to whatever degree DIY is the driving force behind the corporate blog writing, it needs to be conscious choice, never a last resort!


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Blog Content Writers’ Triggering Tidbit Challenge

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"Where do you get your ideas?" is the question Malcolm Gladwell discusses in the preface redheadto his latest book What the Dog Saw. In that same vein, today I’m posing a business blog writing challenge – along with a batch of freebie "triggering tidbits" – to readers of my Say It For You blog posts and those who need corporate blogging training.

What I dub a "triggering tidbit" is nothing more than a piece of unusual or little-known piece of information which bloggers for business can use in their posts, tying that information to explanations of their own company’s products, services, and culture in order to capture online readers’ interest.

The tidbits I’m listing today come from the latest issue of one of my very favorite magazines, Mental Floss.  There are always good ideas in the magazine applicable to writing for business.

Here’s the Triggering Tidbit proposition:


As an Indianapolis blog writer to all my business owner friends and readers, my challenge to you is this: Develop a blog post for your SEO marketing blog by building your business blog writing around that tidbit of information. Use that tidbit to explain your way of doing business or to clarify the way one of your products works, or why one of the services you provide is particularly effective in solving a problem, or enhancing a user’s appearance or health.

E-mail the link to your ‘triggering tidbit"-inspired post blog by the end of May, and I’ll give it a mention here in my own Say It For You blog. Don’t yet have a corporate blog site  on which to publish your post? E-mail your creation to me, and I’ll publish it here (how’s that for free publicity?)

I’m just that curious to see how different businesses can come at the same information from different angles.  And of course, as a trainer offering business blogging help to business owners and employees, I’m anxious to verify my theory that good ideas for writing for business are all around us all the time.  We just need to keep our ears and eyes open.

Tidbit #1:  "Redheads require 20% more general anesthesia than non-gingers before going under the knife."

Who might use this tidbit in corporate blogging for business:

  • Hair salons (to talk about hair color analysis and treatment)
  • Dentists (to promote individualized, gentle dental care)
  • Skin care clinics (to provide information about delicate skin)



Tidbit #2: "About one in every 4 million lobsters is born with a rare genetic disease that turns it blue, which makes it easier for predators to spot."

Who might use this tidbit in business blog writing:

  • Marketing companies (how to make yourself stand out from the crowd)
  • Patent lawyers (discussing how success can trigger infringement efforts)
  • Billboard advertising firms (drawing attention with skillful use of color)
  • Wardrobe and fashion advisors




    Tidbit #3:  The "Poems in the Waiting Room" charity was founded in 1998.  The organization distributes cards with poems to the waiting rooms of medical practices in the British National Healthcare System (and, since 2010, in the U.S.).


Who might use this tidbit in writing for business:

  • Book stores
  • Physicians
  • Psychotherapists
  • School tutoring service
  • Medical centers

Tidbit #4:  The myth of the 5-second rule says that if a treat spends less than 5 seconds on the ground, it doesn’t collect germs.  Dr. Paul Dawson of Clemson University showed that "bacteria such as salmonella transfer onto food instantly upon contact."

Who might use this tidbit in corporate blog writing:

  • Restaurants (to how off their high standards of cleanliness)
  • Instant hand-sanitizer manufacturers or vendors
  • Housecleaning services
  • Grocery stores (to emphasize their extra precautions taken with produce)


Won’t YOU rise to the Triggering Tidbit Challenge?  This Indianapolis blog writer will be looking forward to your e-mails with examples of creative writing for business!


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It Isn’t Easy, This Blogging for Business Thing

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notebook and penBlog marketing isn’t easy. (If it were, everyone’d be doing it; they aren’t!) 

As an Indianapolis blog writer myself, I follow the blog of marketing professional Phil Steele. Steele sounds like an ad for a blog writing service when he counts the ways in which it’s so hard to sustain a consistent marketing program of any type…

"Urgent vs. Important:  As ‘urgent’ matters arise in managing customer, vendor, and employee relationships, ‘important’ matters, like marketing, get moved down the list," Steele explains.

Knowing the crucial importance of branding and conveying the corporate message are to the success of any business, Inbound Marketing author Brian Halligan observes, "Your next marketing hire…should be someone with great writing skills."  In fact, as a blog content writer  over the years, offering business blogging help, I’ve thought of myself as a sort of inbound traffic cop.

"Lack of dedicated resources: The sales manager, business owner, or employee has multiple responsibilities, so the chances are that, when marketing is getting done, it’s sporadic and the message content not thoroughly thought out."

In a Financial Planning Magazine article, Steve Bogan explains that, in any business, there are four distinct roles that must be filled in order for the business to succeed.  He names those roles Finder, Binder, Minder, and Grinder.  The Finders search for new business, the Binders consummate the deals, the Minders manage the client relationships and provide client services, and the Grinders handle administrative tasks.  While any of these positions could in theory generate excellent fodder for corporate blog writing, in reality, that rarely happens without consistent business blogging assistance.  Outsourcing the work to a freelance blog writer often proves the most practical solution for the business. 

"Not knowing where to start: Business owners and managers know their businesses very well. But ask them to put their sales message or the benefits of working with their company down on paper, and they don’t know where to start."

In fact, it was to satisfy this very need to put a company’s message to paper that inspired the founding of Say It For You. Often, after months and even years of procrastination, some intense corporate blogging training sessions are enough to give business owners or managers a place to start in creating their own SEO marketing blog.

Business owners who realize they do not have the time or resources for corporate blogging for business invite me to discuss the business blogging service I provide,  They tell me they want to take advantage of every possible marketing angle in order to reach their niche market and help their business to get found online. They know adding even one more item to their already full plate isn’t going to be easy.

Steele’s advice on marketing: "First, be committed to making it happen.  Secondly, put in place either internal or external dedicated marketing resources.  By putting someone in charge of implementing your marketing plan, the odds of it happening go up significantly."

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