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Blogging for Business with Sympathy and Service: 4 “Amens”

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“Instead of selfish mass marketing, effective marketing now relies on sympathy and service,” Seth Godin posits in the book This is Marketing. What marketing is, the author explains. “the generous act of helping someone solve a problem. Their problem.” “Getting discovered”, “getting found”, and “getting the word out” are no longer the first things to consider, but come last. As marketers, Godin is firm, it’s our job to watch people, figure out what they dream of, than create a transaction that can deliver that feeling.

In planning how to market your product or service, Godin suggests, start by filling in the blanks in this sentence: “My _________ will be exactly the right choice for people who believe that_______ and who want to feel_________.”

Four Say It For You “Amens”:

  1. Belief and trust, we have found at Say It For You, are in large part a function of familiarity Precisely because blogs are not one-time articles, but conveyers of messages over long periods of time, they serve as unique tools for building a sense of familiarity (and ultimately trust) in readers.
  2. In blog content writing, ask yourself: Which psychological fulfillment does your brand support most? Exactly as Godin is expressing, blog readers will self select and become buyers only to the extent your content has focused on creating experiences that align with their values. Business blogs should never be rated “E” (intended for everyone).
  3. As content writers, we’ve also come to understand over the years that face-to-screen is the closest we will come to the prospective buyers of our clients’ products and services. Even when it comes to B2B marketing, we know that behind every decision, there is always a person, a being with feelings they have and feelings they want to have.
  4. Through the pandemic we became familiar with the phrase “social distancing”, which is the precise opposite of what we must try to do in blog marketing, which is to create connections with our audience and make them feel supported and in turn receptive to our message. As writers, we must present the business or practice as very personal rather than transactional.

In blog marketing, aim for sympathy and service!

 

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Advice-Column Blogging for Business

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You wouldn’t imagine consulting the Farmer’s Almanac for tips on blogging for business, but, hey, ideas are everywhere, as we assure readers of Say It For You. In fact, the two articles “7 Ways to Water Wisely” and “8 Top Water-Saving Tips” might serve as perfect models for what I call “advice-column blogging”.

  1.  Both these articles are in “listicle” format, with titles heading up paragraphs explaining how to use that tip. The listicle visually organizes the page, making the information easy to digest. Under the heading “Create a sprinkler-friendly lawn”, for example, the author advises adjusting the lawn’s shape so the sprinkler waters the lawn without dampening the driveway, porch of bare ground.
  2. An odd number of tips is presented. As Blue Orchid Marketing explains, studies have shown that odd-numbered lists trigger better responses from readers, perhaps because they’re perceived as more ‘decisive”.
  3. The tips are practical and doable by readers, with no direct tie to product “pitches”.
    There’s a reason “how-to” blog post titles work, marketing gurus Guy Kawaski and Peg Fitzpatrick show in the Art of Social Media. The best “How-to’s, they explain, are neither too broad nor too limited. They have a “news-you-can-use” feel. At Say It For You, we sometimes encounter resistance from business owners when it comes to starting a blog. Owners of personal service businesses, in particular, voice fears of giving away valuable information “for free”. (What happens in the real world is that readers don’t want to do it all themselves and turn to the source of the advice they’ve been offered.).
  4. The language is personal and direct: “You can….” “Your garden… “Select hoses for your needs.” “Good soil is your partner….”
  5. Both articles are compact, with well-organized information confined to a single page.
    Opinions differ on the optimal size for a blog post, with one “rule” I have read being to keep the post short enough so that the reader needn’t scroll down the page. Unlike purchasers of Farmer’s Almanac issues, online searchers tend to be scanners more than readers, and it’s important to engage attention quickly.

In creating advice-column blog posts, you might want to start with the Farmer’s Almanac!

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What Are They Afraid Of? It’s Important to Know

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In planning your novel, Moriah Richards advises authors in Writer’s Digest, knowing the broad strokes of history will help you determine what details to include in your story:

  •  What’s the worst disaster these people ever faced?
  • Are they afraid of that happening again?
  • What would they do to prevent it from happening?
  • Is there something that made them feel ashamed?
  • Is there something they’re proud of?

Richards is alluding to the fictional worlds writers create, but the same questions can help blog marketers understand their target readers’ concerns, fears, and collective memories.

“Some common advice for beginning freelance writers is to read sample copies of the magazines they wish to pitch, Robert Lee Brewer notes, suggesting freelance writers study the “voice” and “tone” of articles in their target magazines.

Similarly, at Say It For You, we advise blog writers to get a sense of “worst disaster” perceptions by studying blog posts on the subject, looking for slants that haven’t been covered and drawing on their own memories and experiences.

Author Steven James teaches budding novelists to maintain suspense in their writing. “Building apprehension in the minds of your readers is one of the most effective keys to engaging them early in your novel and keeping them flipping pages late into the night. ”Of the six techniques James suggests writers use to create suspense, the one that appealed to me most as a corporate blogging trainer was this: “Put characters that readers care about in jeopardy.”

There are many things readers care about that can be put in jeopardy – health, self-confidence, safety, career, appearance, property, the proper education of children. On the other hand, while I agree that allaying readers’ fears is a powerful tool, I believe too many marketing blogs are meant to scare consumers into action.

At Say It For You, we advise taking the middle ground, identifying the need, and assuring searchers they’re not alone in this dilemma or need. The message is that you have the experience and expertise to deal with their “worst thing that’s ever happened”. 

 

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Single-Topic Publications and Ghost Blogs: Sisters Under the Skin

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Don’t eschew specialty magazines, is Don Vaughan‘s advice to writers looking for assignments. You don’t have to be a subject matter expert to write on specialty topics, he says – all you need is an innovative idea specific to the topic.

At Say It For You, we agree. Since our blogging clients are guaranteed exclusivity in their marketplace, we often find ourselves writing content on topics in which we’ve no prior experience or training. I couldn’t help chortling at Vaughan’s remark about the Portable Restroom Operator publication, which has been “chugging along since 2008”. (One might wonder, Vaughan observes, what there would be left to write about after two or three issues on the subject of toilets!)

Most specialty magazines, Vaughn explains, are eager to receive pitches from skilled writers with intriguing ideas that:

  1. touch on unexplained aspects of the magazine’s them
  2. offer new approaches to frequently reported topics

Specific tactics that Vaughan recommends for non-specialist magazine writers can be useful for blog writers:

  • profiles of innovators in the field
  • aspects of the topic’s history
  • reflections on important anniversaries of the industry (or, in the case of blogs, of the company or practice)
  • new product reviews
  • profiles of prominent people who have benefitted from the product or service you offer
  • news about developments in the industry

“On rare occasions,” Vaughan observes, “good story ideas may arise from not being knowledgeable about the publications’ topic (bloggers, read “client’s topic”). He shares the story of one writer who broke into writing for Guns and Ammo Magazine with a pitch about the first and only time he’d ever shot a gun. Human interest stories can be a source of out-of-the-box story ideas, showing how professionals addressed a very ordinary situation.

In blogging, as in writing for specialty magazines, creativity and intention count more than technical expertise!

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Blogs are About Value, Not Pricing

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An article in Mental Floss magazine about a 300 year-old Stradivarious violin reminded me of an ongoing discussion having to do with whether product or service pricing should be mentioned in blog content….

In discussing the upcoming auction of the Strad, author James Stewart makes some salient observations about pricing and how it relates to value. Factors that add to the value of this particular violin include:

  • the fame of the violin maker family
  • the identity of former owners of the instrument (Seider taught violin to Albert Einstein using this violin)
  • the association with the 1930’s filming of The Wizard of Oz at MGM Studios

Due to this combination of value-enhancing factors, it’s estimated that the violin might fetch $15 to $20 million in the upcoming auction.

“Today’s consumer is bombarded with advertisements in all media, direct mail offers, and telemarketing offers,” observes Dr. Richard Murphy of Jacksonville, University. “There are numerous factors involved when we begin to discuss the issues of value, cost and price. The value of anything is perceived by the customer, not the manufacturer or the vendor.” A Forbes article mentions one of Warren Buffett’s most famous quotes: “Price is what you pay; value is what you get.”

One question facing blog marketers is whether prices should be mentioned at all in the content. Ten years ago, Marcus Sheridan of social media examiner.com observed that, instead of addressing the No. 1 consumer question up front, business owners often decided to wait until a later stage of the sales process. “People like to know how much stuff costs,” Sheridan warned.

At Say It For You, we don’t think price is the No. 1 consumer question on the minds of web searchers who land on our clients’ blog posts. Instead, what your business blog writing needs to do is answer questions, offer perspective and thought leadership, while giving searchers a “feel” for the desired outcomes of using your products and services.

Think about it: When you visit an online shopping site, or even when you go into a local store to buy something, often all you can see are products on the shelf (or, in the case of an online visit, pictures of products) with names and prices.  Too often, there’s nobody to talk to and no other information available, (there may be customer reviews online).

At our content writing company, here’s how we view the issue of “putting price first”: Buyers want more than just product and service descriptions and prices. Blog content writing is about introducing readers to business owners, explaining the owners’ specialty or niche within their field, their special “philosophy” about their area of practice or their industry, and their unique approach to providing client services.

Blogs are about value, not pricing!

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