In Blogging For Business, Just Keeping On May Not Do the Trick

/0 Comments/in /by

“Writers swear by this piece of advice,” says hongkiat.com, referring to writing every day without fail.  Maybe, honkiat suggests, they shouldn’t. “Writing every day doesn’t improve skills as much as we’d like to think,” he cautions. (Reminds me of Bubba, the worker Action Coach describes who claims the wisdom of 20 years’ experience, but who has really had the same one year of experience 20 times over!)

Of course, with SEO-conscious marketing blogs, frequency plays an important part in winning search, so establishing a habit is definitely a positive move. “But, here’s the thing,” observes hongkiat. ”Unless you’re a writer by profession, having to write every day is unrealistic. You have a business to run.”  

In fact, it was in response to that very reality that I created Say It For You six-plus years ago, providing concierge blog content writing for business owners and professional practitioners who “have businesses to run".

As John Jantsch  of ducttapemarketing observes, “Outsourcing content creation is an essential tactic, especially for small businesses.”

There’s no longer any dispute about the importance of content creation for attracting new customers and for retaining regulars. Content gets the business noticed online and helps it stand out from the competition. 

The kind of  content to which he's alluding includes:

  • the benefits of your products and services
  • the history of your business and your own journey
  • successful case studies and testimonials
  • company news of importance to your customers
  • your perspective on trends in your industry


“Outsourcing is not the same as abdication, Jantsch cautions business owners. “You need to maintain tight control on themes, voice, message, and specific topics.”  Owners can and should participate in the planning; it’s the execution that takes time away from running the business or practice, and that’s precisely where we professional content writers step in to shoulder the load.

 

Facebooktwitterredditlinkedintumblrmail

Timelines in the Say It For You Magazine Challenge

/0 Comments/in /by

For my third pick out of the People Magazine Style and Beauty Extra, I chose “10 Beauty Breakthroughs from Cosmetics Historian Gabriela Hernandez”, because that article reminded me of the important place “history” has in blog content writing for business. (Since business blogging demands consistency and frequency, every so often I offer a “magazine challenge” to myself and to other writers to scan some popular magazine in order to be reminded of new ways to present familiar information to readers.)

I like the way “Beauty Breakthoughs” is organized by date, beginning with 1915 and going up to 2011. I think using a timeline format every so often in one of your business blog posts would be helpful in several ways:

  • Helping readers navigate through and digest your material. (In 1915, we learn, rouge was first packages in a sliding metal tube, paving the way for lipstick.  From our blog writing point of view, this would be a good spot to insert tips and information about current product offerings.)
     
  • Sharing stories of struggle. History-of-our-company background stories have a humanizing effect, engaging readers and creating feelings of empathy and admiration for the business owners or professional practitioners who overcame adversity.
     
  • Calling attention to the modern solutions that grew out of those past attempts. (In 1965, we’re informed, Flori Roberts offered the first full range of makeup for black women.)


I’ve said it before, and it’s worth repeating: people relate to stories about people, more than to facts and statistics, and particularly more than to sales pitches..  As a business blogging trainer, I realize that's one lesson we bloggers all need to tape to our computer screens: Let the history of your industry and the history of your own business do the selling. A timeline is one way to let your company history “say it for you”!.
 

Facebooktwitterredditlinkedintumblrmail

More of the Say It For You Magazine Challenge

/0 Comments/in /by

The magazine challenge exercise is one answer to “bloggers’ block” (you know, that condition when, inevitably, blog content writers get stuck thinking up new ideas to keep their posts engaging). The idea is to use a magazine of your choice, combing its pages to find new ideas for business owners and professionals to explain what they do and how and why they do it.

This week, I’m using the People Magazine Style and Beauty Extra as my jumping-off point, because in it I found a number articles that suggest new ways of presenting familiar information. Of course, with business blogging demanding consistency and frequency, finding new ways of presenting familiar information is what our task is all about.

One useful article, I thought, was “Beauty Myth vs. Reality”. Style and beauty experts were asked to weigh in on which treatments used by actresses from Hollywood’s Golden Age stand the test of time. The article was organized by the purpose of the treatment. For platinum hair, for example, celebrity Jean Harlow used to apply a mixture of peroxide, ammonia, Clorox, and Lux laundry soap flakes.  She did that weekly.  The magazine then quotes modern hair expert Frederic Fekkai, who says that bleaching hair too often makes it turn coarse and dull.  The article continued in similar format, discussing treatments for shiny hair, to fight wrinkles, for glowing skin, for soft skin, and to close pores.

Organizing information in new ways is one important way in which business blog content can bring value to readers. Even using content from former blog posts, newsletters, or even emails, from other people’s blogs and articles, from magazine content, or from books, collating those into new categories and summarizing the main ideas you found useful can prove of great use and interest to readers.

What myth-vs.-reality items relating to your own business or professional practice can help organize information and advice?
 

Facebooktwitterredditlinkedintumblrmail

The Say It For You Magazine Challenge Revisited

/0 Comments/in /by

It all started two years ago in the Minneapolis airport during a two hour layover. I decided to challenge myself to find at least a week's worth of ideas for Say It For You blog posts in a single magazine issue (after all, what else is a freelance blog writer to do when she’s bored?). Long story short, that diversion sparked a challenge I issued to other blog writers, who came up with a host of interesting ideas relating to their own businesses.

Fellow blogger Serina Kelly of Relevate, for example, chose articles from Whole Living, to urge business owners to apply energy to make their business grow, avoid getting stuck in their daily routine, and to let people know you appreciate them.  

The basic idea behind my magazine challenge exercise is to combat “writer’s block” (you know, that time when, inevitably, blog content writers get stuck thinking up new ideas to keep their posts engaging), and to offer new ways to help business owners or professionals explain what they do and how and why they do it.

Now, two years after the original challenge, I happened to pick up the People Magazine Style and Beauty Extra (OK, It was the headline “Gorgeous at Any Age” that lured me on a personal level…) But on a business note, I found, this very publication screams “blogger magazine challenge”, because it suggests so many new ways of presenting familiar information.

First to catch my blog trainer’s eye was a one-page write-up of an interview with Jessica Alba, revealing the author’s beauty secrets, which has the interviewee completing sentences such as:

  • I can’t leave the house without….
  • I’m really good at….
  • I learned to love….
  • My beauty trick is….
  • I first wore makeup when…


What’s effective about that particular format?  First and foremost, it’s personal.  A real person is filling in real details about “I” and “my”. As a reader, I immediately started asking myself the same questions:  What can’t I leave the house without? What did I learn to love?

“‘Often personal examples go hand in hand with the use of the personal pronoun “I”,” explains Brandon Royal in The Little Red Writing Book. “Do not be afraid to use this pronoun; it’s personal and specific. Readers appreciate knowing how a situation relates to the writer in terms of his or her personal experience.”

Blog writers, take heed.  What can’t your business owners “leave the house without?”
 

Facebooktwitterredditlinkedintumblrmail

What’s in a Name When You’re Blogging For Business?

/0 Comments/in /by

“A good title makes all the difference in the world,” says Nolan Wilson of benchmarkemail.com. Wilson cautions blog content writers to

  • include keywords
  • be short and to the point
  • use power words
  • deliver on your promise in the body of the post

Since one area I always emphasize in corporate blogging training sessions is post titles, I was fascinated to read in Mental Floss: the Book about the struggles movie makers go through in finding the right title for each film.

  • Back to the Future was almost re-named Spaceman from Pluto, on the grounds that no movie with the word “future’ in it had ever succeeded at the box office. Fortunately, the “keyword” was left in the title, which then was able to “deliver on the promise” in a big way.

Keywords can be very important to the success of a business blog, especially when used in the title and in the opening paragraph of the post.  In the title, the keyword phrases help signal – to both “spiders’ and readers that this post promises to deliver information on the information typed into the search bar.

  • Woody Allen originally chose the name Anhedonia for his film (Anhedonia is the scientific term for the inability to experience pleasure).  United Artists insisted the term was unmarketable, and the name was changed to Annie Hall.

 Of course there are no keyword phrases here.  The point, though, is that a good blogger, as Erik Deckers points out, must be able to put your business message into simple language customers can understand.

  • 3000 was the original name of the Julia Roberts movie about a prostitute (referencing the amount of money she was paid).  Disney wanted to lighten up the script and changed the name to Pretty Woman.

Disney was protecting its own brand, I believe. When we freelance bloggers work with business owners, we need to arrive at the right tone and the right emphasis for the blogs. Whether the business owner him or herself is doing the writing, or whether they're collaborating with a professional blogger partner like me, the content needs to be consistent with that business’ brand.
 

Facebooktwitterredditlinkedintumblrmail