Business Blogging With Trivia

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Ultimate Trivia bookAlways on the prowl for fresh content, I look for different techniques blog content writers can use to help business owners present what they know, what they do best, and what they have to sell.

Fact is, when I’m offering business blogging assistance, I talk about the need to create as much fresh material as possible.  WebInkNow explains that, in blogs, content needs to inform, educate, and entertain.  That’s a pretty tall order for busy business owners and employees.  Yet, without maintaining a system for consistently posting new, fresh content to their SEO marketing blog, the tactic cannot hold its own as part of a company’s market strategy and tactics development.

Do You Know? Ultimate Trivia is a little book I came across the other day, realizing it could offer very valuable business blogging help. Reading through those trivia puzzles reminded me of a theory I have about quizzes in general, namely that our curiosity is most intense when we’re testing our own knowledge!  That’s why I believe tests, games, and quizzes are hard to resist, including those incorporated into corporate blogging for business.

Author Guy Robinson welcomes readers by saying, "This is a quiz book with three kinds of questions:  those you know, those you once knew, but can’t quite remember and it’s driving you mad, and those you can’t answer but you’d really like to know."

Here are just a few of the trivia questions from the book and what types of businesses might use a trivia question like that in its business blog:

DO YOU KNOW WHICH?

Q: Which dates furthest back in history: Popcorn, Tulips, Cockroaches, or Elephants? 
A: Cockroaches.
Blog: Pest control company

Q. For which instrument did Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart never write a concerto: Trumpet, Violin, Bassoon, Clarinet?
A. Trumpet
Blog: Music store, Music school, Band uniform house

DO YOU KNOW WHO?

Q: Who was the inspiration for Billy Crystal’s "Saturday Night Live" character Fernando, famous for the catchphrase "You look maahhhvelous!": Sammy Davis, Jr., Fernando Lamas, Ricardo Montaban, Crystal’ s uncle Fred?
A: Fernando Lamas
Blog: Beauty salon, Cosmetic surgeon, Weight loss company

DO YOU KNOW WHAT?

Q: A garden with soil pH of 4.5 needs what for balance: Something alkaline like limestone or ash, Something acid like gypsum or sulfur, Sand, or Compost?
A: Something alkaline
Blog: Landscape company, grounds maintenance company

Busting myths, offering fascinating but very useful information, and above all allowing readers to test their own knowledge, can showcase the expertise of the business owner while using the irresistible force of curiosity.

Robinson ends his intro by saying, "In these pages, you can show your stuff, refresh your memory, and maybe learn something along the way." Much as bloggers for business want to add more things online searchers can do (click through the shopping cart, download a white paper, submit a request, BUY!), as a longtime professional ghost blogger, I’d have to say starting with Robinson’s three would be a terrific strategy for all of us blog content writers!


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Business Blogging to Say Thank You

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thanksYears ago, says Talent Builders CEO Barbara Giamanco, she learned the importance of expressing thanks and of showing customers you care.  The art of appreciating others, she explains, goes a long way, but, on the other hand, "people can detect fals flattery from a mile away."

As a trainer for corporate blogging for business, I find both sides of Giamanco’s statement relevant.  As freelance SEO copywriters, we at Say It For You aim to attract traffic to clients’ websites by providing business blogging assistance.  In corporate blog writing, we accomplish that, at least in part, through the use of keyword phrases in the titles and in the text of corporate blogs themselves.

But, to be effective (that is, engaging to readers), business blog writing needs to be conversational and personal – in other words, sincere.  Otherwise, online searchers will detect the falsity and click away!

It occurs to me, though, that in addition to being a vehicle for attracting new customers, writing for business in blogs could take the form of customer appreciation.  

In a recent guest blog post, my friend Damon Richards talked about addressing issues with existing customers through the corporate blog.  "While the primary purpose for business blogging is to provide useful information to prospective customers so they will want to do business with you, a useful added benefit is the ability to send messages to your existing customers…"

Expressing sincerely appreciation for the privilege of serving your clients and customers is a message that has appeal to everyone in writing for business.  And while Damon was referring to technical information of which he wanted both new and existing customers to be aware before his support staff engaged with them, I’m talking about using corporate blogging for business to share your own "attitude of gratitude" for the trust your clients have placed in you.

Blog content writers saying "thanks" to people – now, that’s a winning marketing strategy if ever I’ve heard one! 

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What Can Bloggers for Business Learn From a hair-Drying Chain?

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"Hollywood loves concepts that can be pitched in a few words…Unfortunately, simple hair dryersconcepts are also copy-catnip."  That’s why Drybar, an L.A. startup franchise selling shampoo/blowdrys only, decided to make their mark with exceptional service."

As a professional ghost blogger and corporate blogging trainer, I realized that a good part of the advice Inc. Magazine‘s two customer service experts offered to Drybar co-founders Michael Landau and Allison Webb is directly applicable to blogging for business.

Have them at Hello.
"First impressions carry outsize importance because of how memory works," the experts advised Drybar.

In Say It For You corporate blogging sessions, I tell blog content writers that the the first sentence of a blog post is the "downbeat" (think band leader or orchestra conductor).  That sentence needs to be strong and definitive, assuring online searchers they’ve come to exactly the right place for the kind of information, products, and service they need.

Keep them pumped. 
"Do the right thing.  Then do it again, ad infinitum… Consistent service is, by definition, repetitious."

I tend to get repetitious, I’m sure, about the drill-sergeant discipline it takes to maintain the kind of frequency and longevity needed by blog content writers to win online search rankings.  But, more than merely "keeping on keeping on", excellent blog content writing  means making each post read as if this is the first and only time you’ve ever blogged (think actor in a long-running Broadway show performing to a new audience on night #117).

Have them at Goodbye.
"Make sure the last moment they are with you is not the signing of the bill," Drybar owners were advised by Inc. experts. "What you want them to remember is people thanking them for coming."

While SEO marketing blogs are most likely being read by potential clients as opposed to existing ones, the blog posts need to help readers put themselves into the scene, envisioning the savings, the satisfaction, the pride, the increased health and improved appearance they’ll enjoy after using your product or service.  And, you don’t want to say "Goodbye" at all, rather "See you on the website!" So, business blogs’ parting lines should never be a sales pitch, but a picture painted in the prospect’s mind!


"With service," says Inc., you have to be obsessive…Excellence is a pain."

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Business Bloggers Need to Make it Human

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human"Make it human," advises Paul Gillin, author of Secrets of Social Media Marketing.

As a professional ghost blogger and corporate blogging trainer, I think Gillin’s rules of good writing should be the gold standard for blog content writers:

  • Good writing is conversational, using terms like "I" and "you" (not third-party dialect).
  • Good writing speaks in declarative terms.
    In offering business blogging help, I refer to the first sentence of a blog as a "downbeat" (like the start of a piece of music and  the ending sentence as a strong "parting shot".. 
  • Be passionate, or at least committed, adds Gillin, or you’ll run out of things to talk about. Since this is Say It For You blog post #450, I guess I’ve passed the passion test!) Passion can be conceptual, not necessarily directed by a particular product or service, explains the author.

There’s a very common-sense, practical reason for writing in language real people use, says Gillin.  In the "new world" of the Internet, it’s no longer human beings sitting in ad agency rooms making decisions about what information people consume.  Search engines fulfill that role, working from words that consumers themselves specify.

As every freelance SEO copywriter knows, it’s the keyword phrases in the title and opening sentences of blog posts that help search engines make the match between the consumer and the provider of information. But when I offer business blogging assistance, I must constantly remind blog content writers to live up to those "implied promises" by delivering the appropriate, valuable information in the body of the blog post.

Gillin adds is that bloggers need to deliver that information in human terms – "Write like a person!" he says, reminding readers that social media are, after all, social.

That doesn’t mean you need to be a humorous writer, Gillin concedes.  It’s perfectly all right to take a thoughtful, serious approach to your topic.  Just write as if you were having an actual conversation!

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Is Your Blog Helping Readers Ask the Right Questions?

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Idea generation comes from asking the right questions, according to consulting firm questions marksowners Keven and Shawn Coynes, whose brand-new book Brainsteering is a must-read for blog content writers.

"Right Questions," say the Coynes, "are ones that make you take a different perspective on your problem than any you’ve taken before."  As a corporate blogging trainer, I realized that’s precisely what really great blog posts are designed to do.

Blogs, as I so often stress to business blog writers, are not advertisements or sales pieces (even if increasing sales is the ultimate goal of the business owner).  Whatever "selling" goes on in effective blogs is indirect and comes out of business owners sharing their passion special expertise and insights in their field.  When blog posts "work", readers are moved to think, "I want to do business with him!" or "She’s the kind of person I’ve been looking for!"

As a professional ghost blogger offering business blogging assistance to corporate owners, I especially liked the "101 Right Questions to Spur Breakthrough Ideas" listed in the appendix of Brainsteering. Here are a couple I believe can stimulate the sort of reader interest that could lead to sales without making the blog post itself at all "sales-y".

  • (Under the category of Right Questions for new products and services):
    What’s the biggest (avoidable) hassle that our customers have to put up with?

Gillette became rich through realizing the inconvenience of sharpening a safety razor after each use, and coming up with a solution to that "hassle" People are online searching for solutions – your blog needs to remind readers of the need and be right there with the solution!

  • (Under the category of Exploring Unexpected Successes):
    Who uses our product/service in ways we never intended or expected?

Stories of unusual uses of a business’ products and services help emphasize to potential buyers how they might benefit.


  • (Under the category of Finding the Perfect Gift):
    What event or accomplishment are they (the recipients of the gift) most proud of in their lives?

    A well-tempered blog, says Paul Gillin in "Secrets of Social Media Marketing", should be written mostly in first person.  The passion of the business owner will come across most powerfully that way. What are you most proud of about your business and your industry?

"We all need good ideas.  Breakthrough ideas.  All day.  Every day, " claim the Coynes.  Brainsteering takes all the creative energy normally associated with traditional brainstorming and steers it in a more productive direction." Corporate blog writing at its best presents breakthrough ideas to online readers.

Do your blog posts help readers look at things from a different perspective? Try brainsteering your blog posts!
 
    
   

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