Capable of Blogging About Your Incapabilities?

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“As a marketing distribution and communication firm, there are lots of things we’re really, really good at,” begins the Incapabilities section of the Rector Communications website. “However,” the piece goes on to admit, “like all companies, we do have our limitations.  And we believe it’s best to be honest and upfront.”

Well! As a blog content writing trainer in Indianapolis (where Rector Communications is based), I tell you, I could hardly wait to see where the writer was going with that one. Engaging readers is what business blogging is all about, and I gave that “incapabilities” opener a “10” on an attention-grabbing scale.

And get this one: “We suck at foosball.  And we don’t have a ping-pong table, a dartboard, or a winning fantasy football team…come to mention it…none of us are very good at bowling, either.”  (At this point I’m taking the bait, thinking, “So what ARE you good at?)

Actually, this entire “Incapabilities” page idea falls right in line with a question I raised in a Say It For You blog post last week: If we’re going to use good taste in blog marketing, never saying things about the competition we wouldn’t want said about us, how can we clarify the ways we stand out from those other companies or practitioners?

Rector uses self-deprecating humor. “We can’t pick you up and fly you to a meeting in our Gulfstream primarily because we don’t have a Gulfstream.  We also don’t have a 50 person creative team.  So, we’re sorry, but we can’t charge you for a 50 person creative team.” (Talk positioning – the What’s-In-It-For-Me in working with Rector’s small, local team is crystal clear to the reader, isn’t it?)  

Just in case a reader missed the point, Rector sums it up nicely: “All of our idiot creatives, tech geeks and damn AEs are right here in Indiana.  Which we think is a good thing, because what we lose in scapegoating ability, we gain in accountability and communication.”

Are you capable of blogging about your business “incapabilities”, turning your “lemons” into blog content writing lemonade?
 

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What’s Changed, What’s the Same in Business Blog Content Writing – Part Three

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Blogger Saugat Adhikari’s observation that “Things were different back then” made me curious enough to use all three of this week’s Say It For You blog posts to discuss some ‘state of the blog” observations of my own, looking back at the way things were in 2008 (when Adhikan and I began our respective blog series) and seeing what differences there are today.

Five years ago, I offered my readers the following explanation of the relationship between a business’ website and its blog: “Corporate websites provide basic information about a company’s products or a professional’s services, but the business blog content is there to attach a “face” and lend a “voice” to that information by filling in the finer details.”

“The big thing about a corporate blog,” I continued, “is that it's made up of lots of little blog posts! In each post, you highlight just one idea, showcase just one of your products, or describe just one special service you provide. Rather than a resume-like list of all you have to offer, you engage blog readers with several delicious details centered around just one idea. You can get to all the other wonderful things you have to share in future blog posts!

As Lisa Irby of 2planawebsite.com acknowledges, “Blogs are typically easier and cheaper to set up than websites.” Back five years ago, of course, it was even more difficult for an untrained business owner to create even a basic website. By contrast, “Today’s easy-to-use website building software offers…an endless choice of templates and functions,” according to “Top 10 Best Website Builders of 2013”..

Looking back over five-plus years of freelance business blog copy writing and website copy writing, I can see that, while websites have become far easier to update, the basic differences between website and blog still apply. Fellow marketer Michael Gaasterland organizes those differences as follows:

  •  A website is created to publish a definitive message; a blog is created to keep publishing fresh content.
  •  A website is organized hierarchically, intended to be read top to bottom. A blog, organized in reverse chronological order, contains hundreds of posts and can be searched by readers for specific content they want.


What’s changed? With all the new site building platforms available, it’s much more feasible for even non-techie business owners and professionals to make changes to their own websites. But what hasn’t changed is that blog writing is meant to accomplish different goals – creating current conversation around informal, newsy, frequently posted new content..
 

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What’s Changed, What’s the Same in Business Blog Content Writing – Part Two

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“Things were different back then,” says fellow blogger Saugat Adhikari of Elist10, referring to the year 2008 (which happens to be the year he – and I – started blogging). But, were they, really? I asked myself, deciding to devote this week’s Say It For You blog posts to the subject of changes that have affected corporate blog writing over the past five years.

Of course, the past five years in particular have seen changes in the way businesses and consumers spend money (due to the economic downturn), as Corey Eridon of Hubspot points out. “There is considerably more resistance to what is being sold, while there is significantly less money available to spend.” At the same time, Eridon add, “the internet has made information, once only available from salespeople, accessible to everyone with an internet connect or phone.”

The way I look at it, those factors serve to make our work as business blog content writers all the more important. True, today’s online searchers have very little patience for the hard sell approach.  In fact, something I emphasize as a blog copywriting trainer is that if hard selling ever worked, it certainly doesn’t work any longer.  The best approach to take in the company’s of the practices’ blog, I advise, is demonstrating knowledge and offering valuable tips, focusing on topics your target audience cares about.

The other significant change that’s taken place over the past five years, I believe, is content proliferation.  There’s just so much stuff out there, it’s definitely more of a challenge to get noticed.  So, while five years ago, it may have been possible to build up a real head of steam by blogging consistently and frequently, in today’s markets those two “to-do’s” may simply fail to do the trick.  We have to promote our blog posts (or, in the case of us freelance blog content writers, our clients’ blog posts) in social media and via email.  We have to do more and work harder to stay in the game.

But, after more than five years of providing blog content writing services, I’d have to say some things haven’t changed at all.  What blogging is still all about is providing those who find your site with a taste of what it would be like to have you working with them.  Those potential buyers may be better informed and less patient.  Fact is, though, they need our help with their challenges and issues.  Our content tells them we’re ready, willing, and able to provide that help!
 

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What’s Changed, What’s the Same in Business Blog Content Writing – Part One

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“Things were different back then,” observes fellow blogger Saugat Adhikari of Elist10. “Blogging wasn’t a big phenomenon back then,” he adds (referring to 2008), and there were fewer blogs. Today there is less of a focus, Adhkari thinks, on micro niche websites, and bloggers are now mostly focusing on producing high authority, high quality content.

Reading that post “How Blogging Has Changed in 5 Years” made me curious, because, like Adhikari, I’d begun blogging in 2008.  I wanted to see in what ways things I was saying in Say It For You posts back then compare with my observations today. I promptly resolved to devote all three of this week’s posts to my “findings”.

First, I absolutely agree with Adhikari’s observation that high authority, high quality content has evolved into being the name of the game today.  This is due not only to the fact that Google’s algorithms have pushed matters in that direction, but also, due to the sheer quantity of content provided by businesses, practitioners, and organizations, online readers have become more discriminating, less patient with low-quality or advertising-like content.

Still, I’m not sure I agree with the micro-niche part of Adhikari’s remarks. Five years ago, in my blog post “Business Blogs: Rated “S” For Someone”, I’d made a rather strong statement: “In order for blog posts to be effective as part of a business marketing plan, the content of the blog must be targeted towards a specific audience.” Today, I’d have to say, I still agree with blog consultant Mark White’s advice that “Your knowledge  (of your target audience) needs to influence every aspect of your blog”.

What’s changed in 5 years? There’s much more of a focus on high authority, high quality content. What hasn’t changed? The need to know your customer. Unlike video games, your business blog should not be rated “E”, intended for everyone. “S” for SOMEONE is still the best rating for business blogs!

 

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Blog Content Writers Help Business Owners Paint the Clown

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Fellow National Speakers Association member Thaddeus Rex has something valuable to tell us business blog content writers – Stop being so serious! Paint the clown!

Under the topic "6 Ways to Hook Your Audience (i.e.Customers), Rex encourages marketers to "show us the leader and why they're ridiculous, and help us understand why you're the more sensible alternative."

We love laughing, Rex observes, and we love those who make us laugh even more.  So, he concludes, if you can just get us to laugh at your competitor (you know, that big, old-guard company with a lot more money to spend on advertising than your small business owner or professional practitioner can afford), you've got gold.

Reading Thaddeus' article made me reconsider a sort of moral dilemma that, over my years as a corporate blogging trainer has always hovered on the edge of my mind when it comes to blog marketing (actually to any kind of marketing).  It's almost axiomatic that, in writing for business, we want to clarify the ways we stand out from the competition.  Yet "Golden Rule" ethics dictate that we say only those kinds of things about specific competitors that we'd want them saying about us!

How, then, can we get the point across that readers should want to choose this business or this practice, or these products and services over those offered by the competition?

Thaddeus uses the Wendy's commercial "Where's the beef?" as an example.  We're left laughing when the three little old ladies stare at a giant sandwich with an itsy burger inside.  McDonald's is never mentioned, but the commercial points out that "At Wendy's, you get more beef and less bun." In short, Thaddeus' advice is, get readers to laugh at the competitor's negative, but emphasize your positive.

In blog content writing, you can say what your competitors do, and then go on to say why you do things the way YOU do.

  • Some dry cleaners are in the practice of _____, but here at ABC, we believe ________ is best.
  • Some cosmetic surgeons pack the nose after a rhinoplasty, but, at XYZ Clinic, we _______, because……

 

A well-known songwriter advises us to "accentuate the positive" and not to "mess with Mr. In-Between".  When it comes to your competitors' negatives, help your business owner clients "paint the clown"!

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