Need-To-Know Corporate Blog Writing

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pointy headed bossThe pointy-headed boss wants Dilbert to show him how to download apps on his new phone. “How often do you expect to download apps?” asks Dilbert.  “It’s hard to say.  I just know I want all of them.  How many are there?” To which Dilbert replies: “Four”.

Comic strip writer Scott Adams is using dry humor to convey a message about non-productive effort.  (Dilbert knows perfectly well that the number of phone apps is closer to fifty thousand than four, but he isn’t interested in spending time teaching phone apps to a man who’s failed to catch on to Excel after Dilbert spent eight sessions teaching him).

There are a couple of messages here for corporate bloggers, too.  As I explain to freelance blog writers and business owners, trying to engage potential customers, anyone with a computer has access to the largest repository of information in human history, namely the Internet. Online readers, though, can absorb only so much in a sitting. Still, the statements in SEO marketing blogs must be correct and truthful – four in place of fifty thousand just won’t do.

What I’ve found in my work as professional ghost blogger is that both sides may need some business blogging assistance.  Blog content writers, on the one hand, need to keep each blog post focused on one main idea, one “app”, if you will, out of all the products and services and expert advice the company has to offer.

Blog content readers, on the other hand need to gain perspective about the information they’re being given. Is that different than what I’ll find with your competitor?  In what way?  What makes your company so special? How will the information you’ve offered benefit me? Assuming the reader understands that you’ve offered technically correct information, that reader may still not know what to make of that information.

Like the pointy-headed boss, readers want an answer to the question “How many are there?”  Effective writing for business serves to reassure those searchers that you can, over time, offer help with all of the “apps”.  But, for today’s corporate blog post, teach just one.

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The Client May Be King, But He’s Not Blog Director

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"The client may be king, but he’s not the art director," is the Von R. Glitschka quipking passed along in a recent tweet out of Melbourne-based marketing firm BaselineDesign. Eleven words, but enough to make any provider of client services stop and think, no?

C’mon, admit it. If you make your living offering creative services to clients (in the case of Say It For You, we offer business blogging services and corporate blogging training), you’ve had times when you wanted to tell the client to lay off and let you do what you’re good at.  Sure, (you’d love to say) you’re the client writing the check and running the business, but our little project here is going to work only if you’re open to the expert advice I’m trying to implement.

Wait a minute – isn’t it the client who’s the expert here? In fact, whenever I’m giving a talk or presentation about corporate blogging for business, one very natural question that almost always arises is "How can any professional ghost blogger understand enough to write about a business if the writer is not experienced in that very field?

The answer goes to the heart of the interaction that needs to take place in business blog writing.  Remember, SEO marketing blogs are (or at least should be) just one tactic in any business’ or professional practice’s overall marketing strategy. And what I’ve found is that, in the real world of small to medium-sized business, the owners are so focused on the day to day running of the business, they stop thinking about those eight to ten words I asked them for when we first met:

If you had only 8 – 10 words to describe why you’re passionate about what you sell, what you know, and what you do, what would those words be?

If what freelance blog writers do is help business owners build their brand (whether the employees or the business owners are doing the writing or whether they’re collaborating with outside writers), then the process of deciding what to include in the corporate blog becomes one of self-discovery.

People want to do business with people, people they know, like, and trust (we’ve all heard this expression).  Basically, potential buyers want to know what makes the business owners tick and what "ticks them off".  In blogging for business, therefore, it’s really all about "the king" rather than about the products and services he provides.

And is the king the "blog director" as well? When there’s an expert blog content writer involved, you will never be able to tell!

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Groupon and Corporate Blogs – Examining the Pros and Cons

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couponsIndianapolis blog writers, particularly those providing content for SEO marketing blogs, need to read what Tim Altom has to say in the Indianapolis Business Journal on the subject of Groupon deals.

“Want hordes of new customers battering down your doors and filling your lobby?” he asks.  “Groupon says it can get you there.” “ Even Groupon’s proponents sing its praises only warily, and its critics can be scathing in their condemnation,” Altom adds, going on to describe the way a Groupon deal is structured and to share some of the best and worst results clients have been reporting..

As a professional ghost blogger who offers business blogging help to various corporations, I have to say there are best and worst results to report about corporate blogging for business, too.

At least a part of the motivation for companies hiring freelance blog writers is the same as the motivation for offering Groupon deals – wanting those hordes of new customers to batter down the doors.  And, in theory, corporate blogging is one way to get you there. ”Blogs are very powerful in terms of search engine optimization, explains webbequity.com, describing several reasons that’s true:

  • Blog content demonstrates thought leadership more than vendor websites, and therefore search engines give more authority to blogs.
  • Blog content is updated much more frequently than commercial website content, providing an advantage in real-time search results.
  • Due to the informational rather than promotional nature of the content, blog posts are more likely to draw links from news stories and articles. I advise blog writers to “prime the pump” by writing guest posts on other people’s blogs and to invite others to write guest posts on theirs.

So what are the negatives, I’m often asked in corporate blogging training sessions? and why do results vary so much for both Groupon and in writing for business?
“Groupon can pull them in,” explains Tim Altom, “but you have to close the rest of the retention deal yourself.” 

Similarly, searchers looking for information, help, products, and services are drawn to your SEO marketing blog, but there are several things that need to be put into place – smooth navigation to and around your website, capturing of email addresses, and a system of follow-up to convert some of those searchers into customers.
 
“Savvy merchants are adopting Groupon as only part of a bigger strategy for catching new business and encouraging returns,” concludes Altom.

Blogging for business works exactly the same way!

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Business Bloggers’ Friday Wordsmithing Tip: Serve the Second Draft

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“Rare is the writer who can sit down and knock out a perfect writing draft withoutthink twice corrections,” warn the authors of The Little Red Writing Book. Perhaps that’s one of the reasons the vast majority of businesses who engage in online marketing end up needing professional business blogging help.

As far back as 2008, a survey by Technorati showed that 95% of blogs have been abandoned and neglected! “We know we need to do it, but we’re so focused on the overwhelming tasks that build up day to day, that many well meaning marketers simply abandon their blog altogether,” points out Web Marketing Therapy.

At least in theory, blogging for business should be much easier than writing brochures or ads for the company. Since, as I explain during corporate blogging training sessions, blog content writing should be conversational and informal, are second drafts even needed when it comes to blogs?

“When is it really finished?” asks The Little Red Writing Book, acknowledging that “Making changes to your writing is annoying and grueling”, but also admitting that writing for everyday purposes takes less editing and reviewing.

When it comes to business blog posts, I tell freelance blog writers, more important than the SpellCheck and GrammarCheck go-around is checking to make sure of two things:

  • Each blog post is focused on one, and only one, main idea.
  • You’ve visualized your target readers, the customers that are right for your business. Are you satisfied that this blog post truly been addressed to them, in their language, addressing their concerns?

As all Say It For You Indianapolis blog writers know, it takes more than one pass to get it right.  Better to serve your SECOND draft!

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Business Bloggers’ Wednesday Wordsmithing Tip: Use the Power of Suggestion

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seltzer tabletsWhile Milo Frank’s ideas on painting word pictures and finding a common language with your audience were the stuff of Monday’s Say It For You wordsmithing ideas for blog content writers, today let’s return to another of my favorite authors – Malcom Gladwell.

Since I offer business blogging help and am always on the alert for interesting information that can help freelance blog writers appeal to online readers, I loved learning about the Jack Tinker advertising agency.  I was fascinated to hear that it was the Tinker agency that came up with the name Riviera for Buick’s luxury car, the name Accutron for Bulova’s quartz watch, and the name for Oasis cigarettes.  All these choices were based on the kind of psychological research that was a Tinker speciality.

The one Gladwell anecdote that really stood out for me as a professional ghost blogger, relates to Tinker researcher Herta Herzog.  In the middle of discussing new approaches for Alka Seltzer commercials, Herzog said, “You show a hand dropping an Alka-Seltzer  into a glass of water.  Why not show the hand dropping TWO?  You’ll double sales.” And, explains Gladwell, that’s exactly what happened!

All of us involved in providing business blogging services need to keep that Alka Seltzer strategy firmly in mind.  For one thing, the story demonstrates the power of images, reminding us how important it is for us to incorporate photos, video, and even clip art into our SEO marketing blogs.

Even more important in blogging for business is putting your products and services in context for the online visitor.  How will I use the product?  How much will I use? How often? Where? What will it look like?  How will I feel?

In business blog writing, then, painting the picture is only Step #1.  What comes next is putting the reader into the picture!

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