Archive for category: the Say It For You blog

If you ask the question, I’ve learned over the years of Say It For You freelance blog content writing, most business owners will tell you they have more than one target audience for their products and services. Still, what I’ve found is that, while there may in fact one market segment or demographic that has proven to yield the greatest number of raving fans for them, they also have “outliers” who bring in just enough revenue to matter.

Fortunately, blog writing is made of very “stretchable fabric” Today’s blog post can slant in one direction; tomorrow’s can take the same theme or “leitmotif” and deal with it in a different way. When I’m offering corporate blogging training, one of the things I keep stressing is that you don't want your blog to be an all-in-one marketing tool that forces a visitor to spend a long time just figuring out the 99 wonderful services your company has to offer.  In fact, ideally, your business blog post is rather short, offering just enough to convey to individual searchers they’ve come to the right place, and to invite them to click over to your website to learn further details.

On the other hand, what you can do with the blog is offer different kinds of information in different blog posts. In a way, each time you post you're pulling out just one of those attachments on your “swiss army knife” and offering some valuable information or advice relating to just one aspect of your business. Another day, your blog post can do the same with a different "attachment".

 For instance, a recent issue of Mental Floss Magazine (I highly recommend this publication as a business blog content idea generator) talks about dogs.  First, there’s a main story, “How Seeing Eye Dogs Found Their Way to America. But there are also smaller articles about what breed of dog is

• Most likely to win a show
• Most likely to stay healthy
• Most unbeatable

Each vignette includes interesting statistics, history, and facts about the breed.

In blogging content terms, what type of target reader might be interested in each of these offerings about dogs?  Well, history buffs (the part about the seeing eye dogs coming to the U.S.).  Dog lovers.  Dog breeders.  Dog obedience trainers.  People who work for organizations serving the blind. Pet store owners.  Vets.

One over-arching topic, something to satisfy each market segment. That’s the beauty of blogging as a marketing tool – you can have different posts for different folks!
 

Not only does he regularly use a whiteboard, admits business coach Jack Kleymeyer, he’s used one for more than twenty years.

As a “coach” in my own right (I offer training in business blog writing), I thought Kleymeyer’s list of white-boarding “plusses” apply to us as Indiana blog copy writers and to the business owners and professional services people we write for.

Friend Jack K. had learned the art of white-boarding from consultant Tim Honsey, he explains.  Like all good ideas, the technique deserves touting, so here goes:

Through using a white board, you can see the bigger picture.
At first glance it might appear that employing a professional writer might take away from the special authenticity blogs have. Mikal Belicove, blog strategist, dismisses that idea.  A professional ghost blogger, he explains, adds a lot more to the mix than just labor, providing insight and clarity.  Often, we freelance blog content writers function as the “white board” for business owners and professional practitioners who use us for business blogging help, helping them see the bigger picture.

You can see connections you might not otherwise see.
Sometimes Indianapolis blog content writers fall into the trap of thinking that every word they write has to be directly about their business' products and services. If we keep a very narrow focus in our blog, it won't be long before we run out of new things to say. But, by relating what we do to other things, especially when that connection is an unexpected one, we engage readers' curiosity. Meanwhile, we’re providing valuable and interesting information that can offer readers a broader perspective on our own topic.

The only advantage on Kleymeyers’s why-whiteboard list that I believe might NOT apply to writing business blog content is #5: “You are able to remove emotion from the equation.”
When I'm offering business blogging assistance, I emphasize that the best website content – and the best corporate blogs – give online readers a feel for the corporate culture and some of the owners’ core beliefs about their industry and the way they want to serve their customers. The most powerful and effective Calls to Action are laden with emotion.  "Today everyone – whether they know it or not – is in the emotional transportation business," says Peter Guber, author of the new book Tell to Win.
 

Are you white-boarding in your blog?