Topping Needs to Be in the Same Category in Your Business Blog

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“I only slept three hours last night,” bemoans Alice in a recent Dilbert cartoon.kung fu
“I used Kung Fu to divert an asteroid that was on a collision course with Earth,” replies the co-worker.
”Topping needs to be in the same category!” says Alice indignantly.

 

As a reader (and yes, I still read the paper “paper”), I enjoy the wacky cynicism of Dilbert, but this particular conversational exchange reminded me of the way categories are supposed to function in business blog posts, and of the way they so often don’t.

Blog categories help readers find their way to content that matches their specific intentions. In the early stages of your blog, I teach business owners, organizing the material isn’t so important – readers can simply scroll down and read earlier posts. Once you’ve been creating blog content for months and even years, the categories become invaluable.

That “rule of thumb”, though, assumes that, from the get-go, you’ve focused each post on one central idea and one idea only, perhaps supporting that concept with a couple of examples. In corporate blogging training sessions, I refer to that blog writing concept as “the Power of One”. Simply put, if your copy tells too many irrelevant stories, you lose the reader’s attention. (No call for a boast about Kung Fu when Alice is complaining about sleeplessness!)

The same rule applies to the Calls to Action we incorporate in our blog posts. Our job is to focus readers’ attention on what we have to offer and on what steps they can take to get some!

That is not to say that we bloggers need to become One-Note Nellies. Not adding variety to our blog posts would surely serve as a “reader repellant”. So how can we harness that Power of One and still offer the degree of variety that keeps readers engaged? Effective blog posts are centered around key themes, just like the recurring musical phrases that connect the different movements of a symphony.  The variety comes from the details you fill in around those central themes, from the stories you tell and the instructions you offer, and even the metaphors you use.

Wanna brag about how you used Kung Fu to divert an asteroid? Save that for another day, another blog post.  The “topping” needs to be in the same category!

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Business Blogs Must Magnetize and Mesmerize Before Monetizing

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Magnetizing, then mesmerizing your audience is all about you stepping out of old fashioned magicthe realm of mediocrity as a speaker or trainer and into the realm of magic, says Callan Rush, the self-dubbed Maven of Motivation. Only after those first two steps are accomplished, she explains, can any speaker monetize his/her business.

I was struck by how relevant Rush’s advice is to business blog content writing. Problem #1 for seminar leaders, she explains, is low attendance.  Isn’t “getting found” online the first step for businesses?  Doesn’t every business or practice need to draw online traffic before anything else can happen?

The first three steps on Rush’s Magnetic Marketing Checklist are:

  •  Choose a specific audience
  • Choose a specific problem
  • Create a tantalizing title

The Say It For You “take”:

Your knowledge of who your target audience is must influence every aspect of your blog  – the words you use in the title, how technical you get, how sophisticated your approach – all of it meant to magnetize the specific type of customer or client you want and those who will want to do business with you.  That’s why we content marketers use and repeat keyword phrases to help search engines  recognize us as the best match for the right online searchers.
Millions of people are putting ideas and information out on the Web, often just to share knowledge and give others the benefit of their opinions.  But in your case, you’re using your blog as part of your marketing campaign. The blog is your “podium” – you get to showcase your business so customers will want you to be the one to provide them with the product or the service they need. But, like the seminar presenters whom Callan Rush advises, even after they arrive, if you fail to mesmerize your audience – you’re toast!

Captivating readers, just as captivating audiences, depends on what Rush calls WDYD – (What do you do?)  In other words, you need to choose a very specific problem or need, and offer a very clear and compelling solution.

We business bloggers are faced with a tall order: our content must magnetize, then mesmerize. Only then will any “monetizing” become possible!

 

 

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Business Blogs as Tools for Helping

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football stadium“Journalism students at IUPUI took advantage of the Super Bowl festivities in Indianapolis by working as reporters and social media experts,” reports the IUPUI website.

As an executive career mentor at Butler College of Business, of course, I can appreciate the benefit of this “real life, real business” experience the student journalists are receiving.  But the aspect of the article I found most interesting from my business blogger’s point of view was this:

The focus isn’t on touting the Super Bowl – or the restaurants, hotels, and transportation companies in town.  Instead, the focus was to have the students use social media as a tool for helping.  In one example highlighted in the article, “the Social Media Command Center team monitored Twitter feeds in order to offer help, directions, or other services”.

Since the work I do as a freelance blog writer and corporate blogging trainer has everything to do with enabling people to search for and easily find the information, products, and services they need, I liked what the students were doing to help visitors navigate our town.

Ease of navigation (as I stress when offering business blogging help) is absolutely crucial to the success of any SEO marketing blog. From the manner in which the corporate blog page is set up to the corporate blog content writing, the process must be smooth.  (One of my favorite cautions is that frustrating potential clients is to be avoided like the plague.)  In fact, the emphasis always needs to be on helping, never on selling.

Unlike the case with us content writers, for the Super Bowl student journalism students, identifying their target customers is not a challenge.  But, like us, that team was tasked with appropriately signaling to target customers that they understood and were dedicated to serving those customers.

The more your customers “see” how you understand them and are dedicated to helping them, the more differentiated and persuasive you become, according to local marketing professional Amy Lemen.

Even with as desired and popular a “product” as the Super Bowl, journalism students were learning, social media (and especially business blogs, I’d add!)  efforts work best when they are used “as a tool for helping”.

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Going for a Globe or an Oscar in Your Business Blog?

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When it comes to the business of honoring those who toil in filmmaking, the two Omain rivals are the Golden Globe Awards and the Oscars. Susan Woszczyna of USA Today clarifies the differences between the two.

 

WHO DECIDES?
For the Golden Globes, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association’s 93 members aim to recognize excellence in film and television, both domestic and foreign. The Academy Awards or Oscars honors cinematic achievements only.  The Oscars are overseen by the nearly 6,000 member Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

One good rule of thumb about business blogging is to narrow down the target audience.  To be an effective marketing tool for your business, your blog must to be the result of a well-planned strategy aimed at a specific segment of the market.
WHAT’S THE VENUE?
The Globes prefer a party atmosphere, says Woszczyna, and the event takes place in a banquet room at the Beverly Hilton hotel, with dinner and beverages served. The Oscars, by contrast, are held at a movie theater inside a shopping mall and, according to Elena Sheppard of Arts.Mic, are “all business”.

I remember reading an article in Speaker Magazine about the Alice Cooper rock music group who developed their brand around one target audience – kids.  “If the parents hate, the kids will love it” became their motto.  Know your brand and choose everything from the style of your writing to the visuals you use in your business blog based on what “venue” you wish to be associated with.

 

ONE TOPIC OR TWO?
The Golden Globe awards include television shows in addition to films, and often are drawn to different and more obscure films. The Academy Awards leave TV to the Emmys and (at least in Woszczyna’s opinion) focus primarily on well attended and well recognized movies.

Blogging can have several different purposes, but make no mistake – blogging for business is marketing. The more focused our efforts are, the more successful the blog will be in converting prospects to clients and customers.

Are you going for a Globe or an Oscar in YOUR business blog?

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Learning the Business Blogging “Trade”

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A saying often credited to author James Bennis goes like this: “Don’t justContractor standing with toolbelt on white background learn the tricks of the trade – learn the trade.” 

In and around Indianapolis, a big hub for blog content writers and IT mavens of every ilk, there’s lots of talk about “tricks” and “tips” for creating engaging content for business blogs.  In fact, when I lead blogging training sessions or communicate with my business owners or practitioner clients, I like to share helpful “tips”.

I came across a website called “Working the Web to Win”, where three published authors put together a rather specific to-do list for blog content writers, including such basics as

  • Create a “killer” title.
  • Make them an offer they can’t refuse in the opening paragraph.
  • Provide a “quirky’ conclusion.
  • Make sure you provide ample subheads and pithy quotes throughout the article.
  • Make sure the article is visually appealing.
  • Include a call to action.

Every one of these pieces of advice is valuable, I believe, and I certainly wouldn’t categorize them as “tricks” or as taking the easy way out. I’d say “The Free Dictionary” definition of “tricks of the trade” as being those “special skills and knowledge associated with any trade or profession”, is very fitting.

Is writing an art or a trade? James Chartrand asks. “I don’t like being called an artist. I don’t really like other writers calling themselves artists, either. Come to think of it, I don’t really feel anyone with a computerized job is an artist,” Chartrand concludes.(Well! We could certainly pass some time tossing that one around, now couldn’t we?)

My own take is that “learning the trade” when it comes to blogging for business is that’s it’s all about “learning around”, getting ideas from everywhere and everyone, constantly looking to make connections between our own experience and knowledge and “Other People’s Wisdom.”

In a sense, a true business  blog content writer never stops learning the trade!

 

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