Blogging for Business – the Long and the Short of It

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long and short“This is one of the holy wars in the world of blogging,” says Dave Taylor, referring to the question: “Are long blog entries better than short ones?”

Who decides what’s too long and what’s too short?  Either the reader or the writer, says Taylor.  In corporate blog writing, he explains (and as we content writers in Indianapolis know), there are no editors, layout people, or government regulators to dictate the length of any SEO marketing blog post.

As a corporate blogging trainer, I felt my own approach to the subject was vindicated when Dave Taylor cited a common piece of editorial advice about how long a book or article should be: “Write just enough to cover the material at the appropriate level of detail, then stop.” That dovetails nicely with the rule I cite when offering business blogging assistance:

“Make blog posts as long as they need to be to get the point across (choosing  just one point to emphasize in each post to begin with),
but not a single sentence longer”.

BlogRevolter.com offers a different and very interesting take on the optimal length for blog posts. “In a short blog post, sometimes the writer neglects to provide information…Write the entire article and allow it to stretch,” is the advice.  “That way, searchers will get their entire question dealt with.”

So, as a professional providing blog writing services, to what side of the “holy war” do I lean?  Both! 

Reminds me of the old tale of two men who came to their rabbi for help settling a dispute.  After hearing the first man’s story, the rabbi declared “You’re right!”  Then the second man told his side, and the rabbi exclaimed “You’re right!”  A third man was puzzled.  “Rabbi, they can’t both be right!”  Said the rabbi, “You know, you’re right, too!”

In corporate blogging for business, it’s important to offer enough information in each post to convincingly cover the one key theme of the post. When posts start pushing the 450-500 word mark or beyond 500 words, it might be time to downsize. Remember the Milo Frank rule: “The attention span of the average individual is 30 seconds.”

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Business Blog Writers’ Challenge – Creating Interest Through Stories

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storytellingThe trick to business blog writing is telling stories.  The trick to finding story ideas for writing business blog posts month after month, year after year may be, as Malcolm Gladwell says in What the Dog Saw, “to convince yourself that everyone and everything has a story to tell.”

Gladwell discusses the biggest challenge any SEO marketing blog writer faces – the human instinct to assume that most things are not interesting 

Gladwell reminds us that we:

  • flip through the channels on the TV
  • go to a bookstore and look at 20 novels before picking one to buy

We have to be choosy, he explains; there’s just so much out there. And, in fact, during every corporate blogging training session, I have to remind would-be blog writers of that very challenge.  To counteract the fear of reader ennui, I add Gladwell’s words of inspiration: “If you want to be a writer, you have to fight that instinct (to assume most things are not interesting) every day.”

Clicking on – or away from – any one web site or blog post is much easier than browsing through 20 novels and even easier than flipping TV channels, I caution Indianapolis blog writers.  In fact, online searchers tend to be scanners rather than readers, making any SEO marketing blog writer’s task even more of a challenge.

So, is it a challenge that can be overcome?  Is it a challenge worth overcoming? Make that a resounding “Yes!”. Apparently, business owners agree. According to HubSpot.com, corporate budgets for blogs and social media are up more than any other aspect of marketing expenditures.  

“Call it noise, call it the next big thing, or just call it stupid….Blogging has become a huge thing in today’s world,”, says blogger Ryan Farley, stating that nothing gives him more confidence in a company than to see the knowledge of its employees via their blogs. “Corporate blogging gives you the opportunity to communicate with your customers and potential customers in an entirely new way… You will establish your company or yourself as a voice of authority and expertise in your industry and your customers will be there to witness it first hand.”

Blogging has  become so strong that the word “blog” made Merriam-Webster’s 2004 Top 10 Words of the Year list, Farley emphasizes. That fact alone should be enough to spark interest on the part of business owners.  The blog writers’ challenge is to engage the interest of online searchers with recent, relevant, and story-based content!


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Todd Hunt Teaches Blog Writers About Negative Surprises

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Todd HuntAnyone involved in corporate blogging for business should read the latest e-newsletter by business speaker Todd Hunt, who warns readers that Five Guys Burgers and Fries has an unusual application for the word "little".  If you order a Five Guys hamburger, I learned, you’re served two beef patties, while their "little hamburger" order contains only one.  (Anywhere else, Hunt points out, two patties is called a "double".)  So, I thought (not to be "punny"), what’s Todd Hunt’s "beef"? That the customer discovers the anomaly only after he’s ordered, paid, and then opened the foil package, Hunt explains.

As a professional involved in providing both blog writing services and corporate blogging training, one principle I emphasize to business owners and freelance blog content writers is to deliver on the implied promise of the blog post title.  In other words, online readers should not "open the foil package" by clicking on a title only to find that the content doesn’t match up. 

Todd Hunt implies that two thin patties is not a good thing when you were expecting just one fatter one (even if the quantity of beef is the same).  Since online searchers tend to scan rather than read, the "impatience factor" makes surprises even less welcome when it comes to SEO marketing blogs.

An interesting study out of Rensselaer Polytechnic and Texas Tech University addresses the writing of navigation in online help systems.  Overall, the largest problem participants reposted in using the help system wasn’t in processing the information, but in the frustration they experienced in finding the correct help topic!

While this may not constitute a perfect parallel, I think the findings in this study could be useful to blog content writers.  Providing startling statistics or surprising insights in business blogs is a very good way to add value and engage readers.  But those readers are likely to experience only frustration if there are surprises when it comes to the blog post content not matching the title of the blog post! Surprises aren’t fun after you’ve "opened the foil"!

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Corporate Blog Writing Call to Arms

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call to actionCorporate blog content writers – do these words sound like a call to action (or what?):

“Winning over modern B2B buyers is becoming an increasingly difficult task,” warns Marketing Sherpa.com, citing new research showing a 50% decline in the overall effectiveness of website design, SEO, and email in producing business-to-business bottom line results.

That’s the reason that in corporate blogging training sessions, I urge business owners, marketing directors, and freelance blog content writers to begin where email and website SEO and design leave off, using fresh and frequent blog content writing to “bring in the cavalry”.

“What about that decline in SEO effectiveness Marketing Sherpa was talking about?” asked several Indianapolis blog writers. “Can any SEO marketing blog succeed in business-to-business marketing?”

In his Tradesmen Insights blog, John Sonnhalter offers several answers to that very question. (Sonnhalter’s B2B marketing communications firm targets the construction and industrial markets.)

Websites are mostly static – “Once a contractor has been to your website, why does he need to come back?)  Your blog can get him to follow you on a continuing basis, Sonnhalter explains.

Blogs exhibit thought leadership, increasing brand awareness. “This encourages others to link back to you,” Sonnhalter adds.

Blog content can be repurposed by using it on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, giving you additional exposure, points out Sonnhalter.

As a professional ghost blogger, I heartily approve of Sonnhalter’s advice to blog writers to write guest posts on other people’s blogs and to invite others to write guest posts on theirs. This is something I encourage business blog writers to do, and which is a frequent practice of mine at Say It For You.

Just as in business to consumer marketing, B2B marketing boils down to somebody at a computer (or perhaps using a handheld mobile device punching some words into a search bar.   Whether those “somebodies” are individual consumers or administrative assistants to CEOs, whether they’re purchasing agents or small business owners or Grandma, those online searchers have needs and wants that they’re looking to fill.

 If you’re ready with fresh, relevant, up-to-date, and useful information to greet their clicks (whether on Google, Bing, Twitter, YouTube, or Facebook), that helps stack the deck in favor of your business success!

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Speak to the Influencers in Your Business-to-Business Blog

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“The visitor experience means giving your website visitors exactly what they areFord Saeks looking for,” says online marketing maven Ford Saeks. “It means making it obvious where to click on your landing pages, what choices they have, how they can contact you, buy, download or find a solution to their problems or desires.”

As an Indianapolis blog writer offering corporate blogging training, I remind business owners and blog content writers that, in a very real way, each blog post itself constitutes a call to action. Author Peter Guber, in Tell to Win, describes “the hidden power of story”.  What that means to me is that, in blogging for business, we need to present stories that in themselves are calls to action for readers because the readers see themselves in those stories.

Remember, the reason those readers found your site in the first place is that what you provide matched up with whatever need or want they typed into the search bar! Those readers need confirmation that they’ve come to exactly the right place to fulfill their needs and wishes.

On the other hand, different searchers might be in differing states of readiness to act. Readers who are ready to buy should be able to do so right away, using the fewest possible steps. For others who need to learn more, you can offer to answer their question, offer a subscription, a sign-up for your e-newsletter, a video for them to watch, a white paper they can download, a webinar, a product sample, etc.)

Sales trainers often speaker of reaching “Influencers” who in turn will help “Decision Makers” choose where to buy products and services. Since an effective SEO marketing blog plays an important role in any company’s overall marketing strategy, it’s crucial to compose blog posts (both in terms of using the right keyword phrases and in terms of the style, tone, and general “voice’ of the blog content) with those Influencers in mind. 

In fact, something else for freelance blog writers to keep in mind is that influencing the Influencers can prove even more important in business-to-business (as compared with business-to-consumer) blog marketing!

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