Blogging Better And Better

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Driving along between business appointments the other day, I heard a radio commercial that I thought could be the perfect primer for blogs.  In just a couple of short seconds, I was informed that Porter Paint is better in the four ways that count:

  • Better products
  • Better technology
  • Better service
  • Better results

I’ve said it before – Your blog posts "give voice" to your business belief systems and goals. And if your goal is not only to say you’re better than your competitors, but to truly be better, aren’t those areas named in the Porter Paint ad exactly those areas in which your business needs to excel?

We hear a lot of the popular marketing term "branding". Business owners large and small put a lot of time and money into creating a brand name, a motto, and a logo. And, you know what?  You could look upon that list of four ways in which Porter Paint says it’s "better" as nothing more than a catchy motto for their radio ad. "Let’s see what happens when the paintbrush hits the wall", you might be thinking.

But, since a blog is an ongoing thing, there are going to be multiple chances to think through – and talk through – each one of those "better" items. Whether I’m training the business owner him or herself to create blog content, or whether they’re collaborating with me as a ghost blogger, each one of those "better" items is going to be "called on the carpet" to defend itself.

Do you have better products?  Better than what?  Better how?  More environmentally friendly? Prettier? Longer-lasting? Safer? More satisfying? Less fattening? Blog posts give you the chance to truly examine your own beliefs about which market niche you’re serving with your products and services, and how you can do everything better.

Is there an advantage to the technology you offer or the technology that went into your products? Are you truly offering better service?  Better than yesterday? And was that better than last week? Are you focused on constantly improving processes and customer service? 

Talking about actual streets or neighborhoods where you provided service to customers makes for great blogging content, explains Chris Baggott of Compendium Blogware. Not only will that help you appear in more online searches, as Baggott points out, it will focus your attention on how you work to satisfy actual customer needs. 

When working with business owners to create a blogging strategy, I often begin by posing the question: "If you had only 8-10 words to describe why you’re passionate about what you do, what you know, and what you sell, what would those words be?

Sounds corny, perhaps, to suggest a blog could change not only a slogan, but a business. But, you know what? I find it often works out that way.  Blogging about better products, better technology, and better service brings being "better" to top of mind.  So what else could ensue but…- better results for the company and for its customers?

 

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Blogging For “Business Owners Just Like You”

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Business consultant and coach Lois Creamer’s positioning statement™ is an elevator speech with a plus. If you’re at all interested in building your business, says Creamer, you’d better polish up your own positioning statement post haste.

A positioning statement™ promotes you by concept – who you are and what you do – and (here’s where most "60-second commercials" miss the mark) by outcome.

Creamer’s own positioning statement serves as the perfect model:

"I work with small business owners and entrepreneurs who want
 to book more business and make more money."

In my Say It For You blog posts, I’ve often described blogs as extended elevator speeches.  After hearing Lois Creamer speak, though, I realize that’s not enough. For blogs to be effective, they must more closely resemble positioning statements, clarifying and emphasizing outcomes. At the same time, positioning statements as part of your marketing strategy and tactics development, are SEO friendly, utilizing the key words and phrases that most accurately describe your company branding and your corporate identity.

True, business blogs, being shorter, less formal, and more personal than websites, are the perfect venue to showcase your products, the services you offer, and your unique approach to your field.  Always remember, though – your potential clients and customers are still thinking "So what?  What’s in it for ME?"

"People aren’t concerned about remembering your web address or even your name or brand," says Chris Baggott, CEO of Compendium Blogware.  "Search engines like Google have opened up a wonderful new world for consumers where they simply have to enter their wants, needs, or problems."  And with whom do consumers want to do business? As market research overwhelmingly demonstrates, "People like me", Baggott points out.

Every single blog post gives you a new opportunity to explain what outcomes result from working with you and your company, answering the "so what?" and the "Why you?" even before your target customer formulates those questions.

(How’s this, Lois?) I work with business owners and entrepreneurs just like you who want to attract customers and clients they would otherwise never meet and who want to make more money.  I Say It For You!

 

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How Many Ingredients Are In This Blog Scoop?

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"Simple is better" could become 2010’s most powerful marketing mantra, according to Bruce Horwitz of USA Today ("How Many Ingredients In This Scoop?").  Horwitz explains that consumers these days want to know not only what’s in the stuff they eat and drink – they want to know what’s not.

Simplicity’s an apt mantra for business blogging as well.  "At the end of the day," says Chris Baggott, CEO of Compendium Blogware, "search engines want to deliver relevant content."  And relevance, according to Vanessa Fox of Search Engine Land, means "keeping to the topic, helping the search engine understand what your site is about…ideally about one thing in particular."

So, what should be the basic ingredient mix in an SEO marketing-friendly blog?

Convinceandconvert.com names eight blog elements, but my take is that there are five basic must-haves for each blog post, and I believe you should decide on those in the following order:

1.  Today’s main point
Each post should have a "reason for being" that can be summarized in one statement, a sort of blog post "elevator speech".

2.  Title
After deciding on a main point, you can use a keyword-rich title to capture the attention of search engine spiders. The work of your title is hardly done at that point, however; it needs to engage the curiosity of searchers so they click on that link.

3.  Supporting points
These are like the legs supporting the seat of a stool, where the seat is your main idea for the post. Here’s where a bullet-pointed list, an illustration, or an anecdote might come into play.

4.  Visuals
Add power to the words in your post with a blog visual – a picture, chart, or video clip.

5.  Call to action
Suggest where readers can go from here – click to your website, call you, send an email, post a comment, ask a question, respond to a survey or question you’ve posed.

Michael Pollan, author of the book In Defense of Food, apparently agrees with me about five being about the right number for ingredients.  "As soon as you stress fewer ingredients," he says, "you’re implying that the food is healthy."

Very simply, the KISB standard, (Keep It Simple, Blogger!) could prove a rule worth keeping!

 

 

 

 

 

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The Challenges Of Attracting The “Unblogged”

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We ghost bloggers are marketing specialists, to be sure, but, at least for me, a lot of the pleasure of my profession comes from working with words.  Whether I’m reading a newspaper article, skimming through a magazine during my pedicure, or even taking notice of billboard slogans, it gives me a special kick to discover "word tidbits".

The other day, in USA Today, I read a feature story about cities that are offering incentives to banks to get them to offer services to low income residents.  This is a really serious topic, because many people are getting into deep financial trouble by using liquor stores, check cashing establishments, and payday loans for their financial transactions.  The headline of the article was "Bank On Programs Work With Challenges of Unbanked."

The reason "unbanked" is so effective a tidbit is that it captures a whole complex of issues in just one word.  In a way, that’s precisely the effect you want your company blog posts to have.  Your potential customer is searching, scanning various pages until something causes an "Aha!" reaction.  Had the USAToday headline mentioned "people who don’t have bank accounts", for example, I doubt I’d have read the article.  "Unbanked" – now that was engaging!

In blog marketing, of course, key words play a role in winning search engine rankings.  But there’s so much more than that, I think, to using words as tools to engage blog readers.  In the business world in general, I find, we get tied up in making our products or in providing service to our customers and clients, and sometimes forget how much help the right words can be.

Blogging can be an absolutely indispensable marketing tool, but too often, business owners and professionals remain unblogged, mostly for lack of time.  After all, word tidbits aren’t likely to appear near the top of most business owners’ "To-do lists"!

A professional ghost blogger can help the "unblogged" business owner unleash the power of words to bring in business!

 

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Should Blogs Exclaim To Fame?

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Restaurant reviewer Lou Harry generally avoids using exclamation points in his writing: "I figure if the sentence is dramatic enough, the exclamation point isn’t necessary," he says.

To test this theory in restaurants, Harry’s devoting this month to visiting restaurants with exclamation points in their name, pronouncing Zionsville eatery Oobatz! more than worthy of punctuation braggadocio.

In blog posts, I’ve found, it is important to exclaim.  There are at least two reasons for this.  First, as I often stress, online searchers tend to be scanners, not readers. Punctuation, italics, and bold type are some of the ways to draw attention to the central point(s) in each post.

Friend and language expert Bill Alerding reminds students that any language develops initially in spoken form, only later evolving into written form.  The function of punctuation, then, is to indicate the pauses, the intonation, and the emphasis that a speaker would communicate with his or her voice.
 
The second reason to use emphasis clues in blogs is to satisfy the "spiders".  Search engine software indexing programs need clues to match up the content on websites and blogs with searchers’ needs.  Google’s "goal in life",(as I heard it expressed once by local SEO maven Ken Zweigel) is to "crawl" the Web and say "Gotcha!" when it finds information most relevant to the search phrase entered by the user.

Of course, using exclamation points to "cry ‘Wolf!’" too often will nullify the effect.  Lou Harry’s approach to restaurant reviews is actually very apropos for blogging – an idea has got to earn its punctuation!

 

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