Say It For You Reads Around – Part One

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No matter what business, what professional practice, or what organization you’re blogging about, ideas for blog content writing are everywhere, but you’ve got to be alert.  One sure-fire strategy for idea-generation is what I call “reading around”, scouring other people’s blogs and articles, magazine content – and books.

All this week, my Say It For You blog posts will share ideas I got from “reading around” in a few of my favorite tidbit-type books. “Do you have a keen curiosity?  Do you like to read books that enrich, reward, and entertain? If so,” the book jacket tells us, “you’ll delight in the 5 W’s: WHO? By Erin McHugh.

For business blogging training purposes, you’d be hard-pressed to find a more suitable piece than “Who’s Up There?” in the 5 W’s: Why. The chapter is about the Ohio State University professor, who, in 1972, categorized UFO sightings, ranging from the First Kind (a UFO is within 500 feet of an experiencer) to the Fifth Kind, where communication actually takes place between alien and human.

From my point of view as a freelance blog writer, I imagine readers of business blogs in Indianapolis might be categorized the same way.

Close encounter of the First Kind: The frequent, recent, and relevant use of keyword phrases in the SEO marketing blog caused the search engine to make a match, and the reader found the blogsite on Page One.

Close Encounter of the Second Kind (UFO leaves marks on the ground, interferes with car engines and radio reception).  When it comes to blog writing services, achieving a Second-Kind encounter might mean the reader actually clicked on the link and was transported to the company’s (or the practice’s or charity’s) website. However, the encounter goes no further, since the content failed, for whatever reason, to demonstrate to the reader that he/she had come to the right place for the information, products and services needed.

Close Encounter of the Third Kind (human is able to view alien occupants in the UFO.)
Often corporate blogging clients get too hung up on company branding and corporate identity, when in fact, corporate blog writing needs to let the readers “meet” the owners (Why did they choose to do what you do? What are they most passionate about in delivering your service to customers and clients? What are they trying to add to their industry?

Close Encounter of the Fourth Kind (abduction). Part of learning how to write a blog is learning how to “optimize a marketing outreach from the driving point to the landing page, and on through to conversion." In a fourth-kind encounter, lookers become buyers.

In the best-of-all-possible-worlds Fifth Kind UFO Encounter, communication actually takes place between alien and human. Content writers in Indianapolis aim for “raving fans’ who provide testimonials, post questions, Tweet about the business, and keep coming back for more.

As a professional ghost blogger, I used my read-arounds to illustrate points about blogging.  How can you put your own reading around to best use to tell the story of your company, your practice, or your organization?

 

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Feeding Instructions for Your Business Blog

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Bo Mattsson of CintAB, was initially surprised by just how many customers think it worthwhile to participate in market research. It’s because, he learned, brands listen more today to what customers want.

Mattsson’s OpinionHub survey found that:

  • 62% of consumers are more likely to buy a brand’s product if that brand has sought out their feedback
  • 56% of respondents feel more loyal to a brand if it makes the effort to solicit their insights.

Nobody likes people who can speak of nothing but themselves. And business owners and practitioners whose blog content writers appear to be consumed with the products and services they’re ” serving up” (regardless of how those are being received on the consumers’ end!).

True, as a corporate blogging trainer, I stress the importance of first person business blog writing because it reveals the personality of the business owner or of the team standing ready to serve customers. But, without readers’ feedback, SEO marketing blog writers are “driving blind”. Using testimonials in blog posts, capturing customer success stories, and welcoming comments to your blog are all ways to get feedback.

During corporate blogging training, business owners new to corporate blogging for business marketing often express a fear that, if they allow comments on their blog, some of those comments might be negative. Corporate Blogging for Dummies authors Doug Karr and Chantelle Flannery put that fear to rest, explaining that negative criticism is an incredible opportunity for any company. " There’s probably no topic more powerful in business blog content writing than a detailed story of how company owners took a customer complaint to heart and made things right.
 
“Listening to your customers’ feedback can be invaluable to your business, especially if you take the time to consider their input and put their ideas into practice,” is what the National Federation of Independent Business has to say on the matter. NFIB lists online tools for soliciting that feedback, including Get Satisfaction, SurveyMonkey, PollDaddy, and Search.Twitter.com.

 As a longtime corporate blogging trainer, and professional ghost blogger, I find this “truth” to be self-evident: One crucial element in the care and feeding of an effective business blog is – feedback!

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Business Blog Writing With a “Q”

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Listening with “half an ear” the other day to a QVC announcer touting a pants suit, I caught one of those interesting word tidbits the professional blog writer in me so appreciates. I was reminded once again that, in running a business or a professional practice, we sometimes forget how much help the right words can be. And, of course, as I’m always telling newbie freelance blog content writers in Indianapolis, words, along with pictures, are our only tools of the trade.

Praising the velour fabric of the pants suit he’d designed, that QVC special guest announcer casually let drop these words: “Just look at this fabric. It has real quality, and I don’t mean spelled with a ‘K’.” 

No further explanation was offered, and none was needed. And that’s precisely, I reflected, what a word tidbit does in an SEO marketing blog post – it makes a big impact or clarifies a concept so that readers are instantly “on the same page”. The implication on QVC, of course, was that “Kwality” would be “cutesy”, a description unworthy of the high quality that this QVC garment offered.

Marketing adviser Spork agrees: “Low quality ads,” he says, “send the wrong message about a company’s inherent value,” When it comes to blogging for business, high quality includes

  • Using proper grammar and spelling
  • Properly attributing curated material to its author
  • Making it easy for readers to navigate your website
     

Howdoyouspell.com defines the word “quality” as “an inherent or distinguishing characteristic”.
In today’s social media-rich world, distinguishing anyone or anything is hardly an easy thing to achieve.  As we blog content writers in Indianapolis know all too well, “traditional” marketing messages are part of the competition for consumers’ eyeballs and eardrums along with new media. That’s why, in corporate blogging training sessions, I emphasize that “winning search” through business blog writing is simply not enough.

As Linda Mansfield of Restart Communications defines quality in marketing, you have to make sure that the people who are the ‘face’ of your company are approachable, likeable, knowledgeable, and available.”

Whether you’re posting regular blogs or using a business blogging service to “say it for you”, keep your eye on the goals of sincerity and excellence. That means QUALITY spelled with a “Q”!

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Tying Back in Business Blog Writing

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Tying to the audience, for a speaker, means informing listeners how your speech will relate to them and establishing a connection between you, University Center of Rochester speech teachers tell their students. But, in “Quick and Dirty Tips on How to End a Speech”, Lisa Marshal talks about effectively winding up a speech. “My idea,” she says, “is to tie back your residual message to something you’ve mentioned earlier in the speech.” That helps the audience feel a sense of familiarity with both the topic and the speaker, she explains.

Marshall’s suggestion of using a Call to Action as the tie-back in a persuasive speech is perfectly suited to business blog content writing.

  • Using the same phrasing in the closing paragraph as was used to capture interest in the “Pow!” opening line helps online readers feel that sense of familiarity – the words ring true because those readers have “heard it before”.

  • In “All Write With Coffee”, fellow blogger Annelle Altman puts it another way: The reader has the earlier information in the back of their minds, and at the end, that information makes the entire story fit together.

    In the same way, tie-backs can be of business blogging assistance. The opening of the blog post presents a problem, a question, a startling statistic, or some sort of challenging statement. The next few paragraphs explain a solution to the problem or the business owner’s point of view.  Then, when the closing line uses the same words used in the opener, reinforcing information readers feel they already “know”, the “tie-back” is complete.

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Business Blog Posts and Thank You Cards

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The other day, a really nice thank you card arrived in my mail.  The message began, “On behalf of the American Marketing Association, I would like to say thank you for your membership”. Enclosed was a card listing the top five benefits of membership in the organization.

Mind you, I didn’t need to be resold on the AMA; after all, I’d just renewed my membership for the third time. But did that little card serve as a satisfying confirmation that I’d made a good buying decision?  You bet. And, as a business blogging trainer and professional content writer in Indianapolis, getting that card reinforced something I’ve been teaching about effective blogging for business, namely that, in addition to being a vehicle for attracting new customers, blog posts can be useful in customer appreciation.


Port-to-Port Consulting owner Damon Richards talks about addressing issues with existing customers through a 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,”, Richards says, “a useful added benefit is the ability to send messages to your existing customers…"

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 train those providing blog writing services in Indianapolis to use corporate blogging for business to share business owners’ and professional practitioners’ own "attitude of gratitude" for the trust their clients have placed in them.

“Your brand is ultimately what your consumers perceive and how they share that perception with others,” is the way Bob Chenoweth expressed it in a guest blog post..” And blogging gives you the opportunity to boost your brand in the minds of both followers and finders,”, he adds.

Using blog writing to thank customers is not necessarily about combating “buyers’ remorse”.
(I had none when it came to my AMA membership.) But restating those top five benefits made me think about becoming even more involved in taking advantage of those benefits and telling others about them as well.

On my Say It For You website, I explain that in business blogging, it’s not only the readers who benefit, but the business owners as well. I call that the “training benefit”. When you blog (or work with a professional blog content writer to produce posts), you’re verbalizing the positive aspects of your business in a way that people can understand, reviewing the benefits of your products and services and keeping them fresh in your own mind.

When you’re involved in the creation of an SEO marketing blog, it’s as if you’re constantly sending yourself a thank you note.  And who doesn’t like to be thanked and appreciated?

  

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