Can Your Business Blog Pass the Acid Test?

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You had better believe your business blog visitors are looking for the “acid test” in your blog.  An acid test, of course, is a process of finding out if something is real or not.  From the wonderful little book I’m highlighting this week in my Say It For You blog, I learned that, back in the Middle Ages, hydrochloric acid was used to test for real gold .

“When someone visits a blog, they decide whether they should read or run,” observes Derek Halpern of DYIthemes.com., adding that “trust triggers” prevent your website from” losing out on the visitors you rightfully earned.” A trust trigger is something that makes them say to themselves, “Okay, this site is the real deal.” Halpern lists the number of subscribers and social media followers you have as important trust triggers, for example.

Lee Ka Hoong of smartbloggerz.com, on the other hand, suggests offering freebies such as e-books, coupons, services, etc. and blogging something personal, while Georgina el Morshdy of copyblogger.com. advocates giving your ideas names and labels, presenting formulas alongside empirical evidence.

As a business blogging trainer, the piece of advice from Lee Ka Hoong that is my favorite is this: “Be consistently good.  Train your audience to expect a certain level of quality from you and constantly deliver."

“Trust is a big word and it doesn’t come at a cheap price,” .cautions Harsh Agrawal of basicblogtips.com.  Agrawal reminds us that there’s a huge difference between a website and a blog.  When it comes to a blog, he says, people look for a face, a person they can connect to. “A good About page is all about you AND your blog.

Leadership coach David Lim talks about being definitive, avoiding “kinda-sorta” statements, sounding trustworthy and authoritative.  “Authority” is actually an important term in SEO marketing blog writing. For one, Google’s algorithms are sensitive to authority when selecting which content to match with a reader’s search in any given category.

The acid test for readers who visit your blog for answers and for information they can trust might be thought of as having three parts:
:

  • Do you come across as an expert in your field?
  • Do you seem like a go-to source of information?
  • Do you present a definite perspective on your industry?

Are you “for real”, your readers are asking?  Your blog content will help them decide.
 

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As a Business Blogger, Are You Jumping on the Bandwagon?

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In the deep south of America, travelling bands would once perform on their wagons in front of political or other rallies.  The bands were a highlight of the event, drawing the crowds, and the political and religious leaders would climb up to the wagon, gaining themselves an immediate captive audience. Hence the expression, I learned from the wonderful little book I’m highlighting this week in my Say It For You blog, “Jumping on the bandwagon.”

SEO marketing blog content writers can make use of the same technique, “entering conversations” that are trending at the time and tying blog content to current events.  Noted sales and business trainer Dan Kennedy likes taking just such a current-events content-creating dare:  Hand him any newspaper, he says, and he’ll find something he can use to promote his clients’ products and services.

When you write blog content centered around current happenings, that serves the dual purpose of  “playing off” already existing popular interest (like the crowd already having gathered to hear the musicians), while possibly earning search engine “Brownie points” as well. What do I mean?  Well, I’ve coined a phrase for it: "accidental organic donor". Sometimes there's a disconnect between what the online searcher originally wanted (which might have to do with current events or trending news) and what he or she accidentally finds. When that "accident" turns out to bring a new reader to your blog, (and if your content engages that reader's interest, the mistake can result in your converting a mistake into a customer!

By some counts, 40 percent of online Americans read blogs. Are your business blogs going where the bandwagon is drawing a crowd?

 

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Tarred With the Same Brush? Blog!

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“Being tarred with the same brush is to be part of a group regarded as all having the same faults and weaknesses, but, by inference, unfairly.” That quote comes from the wonderful little book, Red Herrings and White Elephants, by Albert Jack.  This week, my Say It For You blog content is based on ideas from that book that I think will be useful for businessowners and for Indianapolis freelance blog content writers.

One purpose corporate blogging for business can serve, and admirably, is damage control.  Through putting your own "spin" on reports about your company, I’ve often said, you as a business owner can exercise control over the way the public perceives any negative developments or mistakes, and you can use your blog to correct any inaccurate press statements. But what if the damage involves negative developments with some other, perhaps better-known, company in your industry? How can you use blogging to avoid being “tarred with the same brush” and having your business suffer from loss of customer confidence and trust?

When I’m helping business owners and professional practitioners craft their messages, damage control can become a very real issue. As a corporate blogging trainer, I know how crucial it is for them to convey to their customers, as well as to the online searchers who are their prospects, the kind of message that will alleviate mistrust and create confidence. At the same time, I explain, you ARE part of your own industry or profession. When aspersions are being cast, even if you and your employees are not responsible for any mistake or wrongdoing, you must “step up to plate” and speak directly to the issues.

There are two reasons, I believe, that business blog posts are such valuable tools when it comes to such a customer relations challenge:

  1. Business blog content is current, talking about the “now”. The style of a business blog is conversational and – direct.
     
  2. By definition, in the blog, customers’ concerns and fears are being dealt with out in the open, “in front of other people”. That gives the remediation more weight with readers.


Here are some elements that can be of business blogging assistance in difficult damage-control situations (the content might be spread over several different posts):

  • Summarize the situation – what is fact and what is myth?
  • Who was and who wasn’t involved?
  • What the general industry position is on the subject (reassuring readers that what has happened is a violation of, rather than an outcome of, the way the industry operates)
  • What you as a company or practitioner are doing to avoid ever falling into that same “trap”
  • Inviting and encouraging comments and questions
  • What steps your customers can take to protect themselves and reassure themselves that they are being fairly served


Concerned about being tarred with the same brush when there’s a negative development in your industry or profession? Blog!
 

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Selling by Question in Blog Content Marketing

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Thirty years ago, D. Forbes Ley was teaching sales professionals the advantages of the questioning technique.  While blogs are closer – or at least should be – to advertorials than direct selling mechanisms, this week my Say It For You blog posts are devoted to some of the gems in Ley’s book “The Best Seller”. While blog marketing wasn’t even a gleam in the eye when that book came out, it’s amazing how relevant the ideas are for blog content writers today.

 I tell new Indianapolis blog content writers that, in creating content for SEO marketing blogs, we need to keep in mind that people are online searching for answers to questions they have and for solutions for dilemmas they're facing. But even if those searchers haven’t specifically formulated their question, I suggest we can do that for them by presenting a question in the blog post itself!

Ley taught salespeople that asking questions has a number of advantages in the selling process:

  • Answering questions satisfies the prospect’s need to “dominate” (control the situation). Online readers DO dominate, using their mouse to “bounce” to another website if they feel their needs are not being addressed.
     
  • Questions allow the salesperson to guide the direction of the meeting. For blog writers, then, that means making our point of view clear, making sure it’s relevant to a current conversation or trend, and that the point of view differentiated enough to stand out.
     
  • By answering questions, Prospects confirm their needs.
     
  • Prospect feels understood
     
  • Salesperson can fan an existing desire rather than work to create a new one
     
  • The question relieves the pressure that could otherwise become an objection (by stating the prospect’s viewpoint)


“We don’t sell products and markets, we sell people,” says Ley, adding that the good thing about that is that people are more uniform and predictable than “markets”.

 

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Hurt and Rescue in Blogging for Business

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“When developing a business interest you have to assume a problem that you can promise to solve,” author D. Forbes Ley was advising sales professionals thirty years ago.  This week my Say It For You blog posts are devoted to some of the gems in Ley’s book “The Best Seller”. While SEO blog marketing wasn’t even a gleam in the eye when that book came out, it’s amazing how relevant the ideas are for blog content writers today.

Once buyers have developed an emotional interest in your product, they will reveal that with “buying signals”, Ley explained.  But, he continues, “when the prospects are still undecided because of lack of Want, you have to remind them of their hurt and rescue them.” Ley calls that the “Hurt and Rescue” selling tactic.

In corporate blog writing for business, a much softer approach is called for than the sort of face-to-face selling Forbes Ley was describing. Still, it occurs to me, reading that chapter of his book, that SEO marketing blogs will succeed only if two things are apparent to readers, and in the order presented here:

  • It’s clear you (the business owner or professional practitioner) understand online searchers’ concerns and needs. That means calling to readers’ minds the costs, the risks, and the problems that drove them to seek information about what you know and what you know how to do.  In other words, the blog content puts the “hurt” front and center.  
     
  • You and your staff have the experience, the information, the products, and the services to solve exactly those problems and meet precisely those needs. That’s the “rescue”, the solutions your expertise and experience will bring to bear.

What D. Forbes Ley was advocating thirty years ago wasn’t the “hard-sell” or “scare tactic” approach (which wouldn’t have been welcomed by prospects then any more than they would today).

As a business blogging trainer, I think the lesson here to content writers is to identify ways in which something potential customers value could be in jeopardy.  We then assure searchers they’re not the only ones to find themselves in this predicament and show them we’ve solved these precise problems for customers and clients many times before.

Call it the “Hurt and Rescue” technique for blogging for business!
 

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