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Blogging to Share Your Process

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If you do something unknown, unfamiliar, or unexpected, your clients are going to feel their security is in jeopardy, Luke Agree cautions financial advisors. And, no matter how you slice it, Agree adds, that’s not good for business.

Financial advisors who share their process with their clients are able to avoid that risk. Sharing must include not only your value proposition (what makes you different or better than other professionals in your field), but also your process of operating the business and delivering client services.

What are your “habits”? How frequently do you report progress? Do you prefer email, phone calls, texts, or letters? What updates will you be providing and how frequently? How will you provide continuing education – seminar? Podcasts? Newsletters? A blog? How responsive is your office set up to be to inbound inquiries?

In sharing your process, Agree makes clear to his audience of financial advisors, you’re really sharing promises.

Blog marketing is also a matter of making – and keeping – promises, we teach at Say It For You. Over my years as a freelance blog writer, I’ve seen many companies launch a blog marketing strategy with great expectations, but poor implementation. Just as in the world of finance, value is based on a the market’s perception of whether a company is likely to keep its promises about future growth, it is essential for any practitioner, product or service provider to keep promises and deliver predictable and consistent results.

In creating a content marketing plan, I like to begin by challenging the owner of a business or professional practice to answer the following question: “If you had only eight to ten words to describe why you’re passionate about what you sell, what you know, and what you do, what would those words be?” In other words, whether the business owner him or herself is doing the writing, or whether they’re collaborating with a writer, the first steps I creating blog content involve clarifying, and then sharing, the “process” and the promise to follow that process.

Blog to share your process!

 

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In Blog Marketing, Controversy Can Start – or End – Conversation

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Ban the word “must” in your pitch to an editor, Estelle Erasmus advises writers in Writers Digest. “We must do more for starving children” is not likely to get you an op-ed, because no reasonable person would argue the point. Editors are looking for something that can be legitimately part of a debate, she explains, so as to start a conversation.

When it comes to blogging for business, common intuition is that more controversy generates more buzz, Zoey Chen and Jonah Berger find. Yet, while controversy does increase interest initially, it also generates discomfort.

Research demonstrates that people care deeply about three Bs: behavior, belonging, and beliefs. If you create division around any of these things, people will seek to either confirm or disprove what you’re saying, which creates buzz. On the other hand, what you don’t want to create is backlash against you and your product or service.

Still, as Fractl writes, “Creating a piece of content that incites an emotional reaction or discusses a polarizing topic can bring valuable attention back to your brand.” To avoid backlash, she advises: a) Don’t choose a side or have an agenda in presenting the issue. b) Look at the lighter side of the story.

A controversy “do” includes offering a unique perspective, looking at a situation in a way that many people might not have considered, theEword.com points out. Also important is creating timely content, showing that your business is up on current affairs. Be balanced and a fair moderator, adds blogherald.com.

At Say It For You, I’ve always emphasized to content writers that blogs must have a strong, “opinionated” voice. Posts must go far beyond Wikipedia-page-information-dispensing and offer the business owner’s (or the professional’s, or the organization executive’s) unique perspective on issues related to the search topic.

Controversy can start – or end – conversation, to be sure. But, given that there is always going to be controversy, blog content writers need to use it as a tool for thought leadership.

 

 

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Put the Emotion Back in B2B Blog Marketing

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Do emotional connections count in business-to-business blog marketing? According to Jeanette Maw McMurtry, you’d better believe they do. When personal values are present in a business choice, the author notes, purchasers are eight times more likely to pay a premium price. Sales trainers talk a lot about SEP (unique selling propositions), but it is our ESPs (entional selling propositions) that make the different, McMurtry cautions.

There are certain “behavior “drivers” marketers need to keep in mind:

  • Authority – Use research reports, statistics, and testimonials to add strength to your message. “Authority” is an important term in blog marketing, as we explain at Say It For You, because Google’s algorithms are sensitive to authority when selecting which content to match with a reader’s search in any given category.
  • Social proof – Who else that they know is using your product or service? There are actually several kinds of proof you can use, including statistics and testimonials.
  • Credentializing proof (degrees, newpaper articles you’ve written or that have been written about you.
  • Reciprocity – Stories of “give-back” to loyal customers and to the community reinforce trust.
  • Scarcity – People flock to own what they believe they may not be able to get later on.

One very powerful emotion is fear, McMurtry reminds marketers. Thought-provoking questions can inspire prospects to think about their problem and about the creative solutions you offer. In fact, the two dominant buying motives are desire for gain and fear of loss, Salesforce teaches, and most salespeople use the wrong one when trying to motivate a prospect to buy.

In blog marketing’s race, as Jeremy Porter Communications teaches, “those who make the most emotionally persuasive argument win.” One question that constantly arises in Say It For You blog content writing training meetings is this: Can emotional blog marketing be effective in B2B situations?

The answer is a resounding “Yes!” – Go full steam ahead in putting the emotion back into BsB marketing!

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Blog Like a Fundraising Round

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One of the all-time best pieces of advice for blog content writers that I’ve heard comes from an unlikely source – corporate startup fundraising consultant Kristen Copper, CEO of Startup Ladies. “A round is a cycle of fundraising that clearly defines the amount of money being raised and how it will be used within a defined time,” Cooper explains

It’s important for business owners and freelance blog content writers to remember that the title and the actual blog post content must be congruent, so that readers find the kind of information they’ve been led to expect. It’s all well and good to use keyword phrases in blog titles in order to win online search, but the blog post must deliver on that implied promise, by providing content that is on topic and on target for the search terms.

Blog content writers face a challenge when it comes to clearly defining readers’ expectations. Analytics can offer after-the-fact clues (how long readers remain on the page, who many of them click through to website landing pages, email us, or sign up for an RSS, but it is our job to communicate clearly the extent to which our product or service can be expected to deliver results within a clearly defined time period.

On another note, Cooper mentions the importance of a “lead investor”, a person or group working directly with the founder of a company. The “lead” not only makes a substantial initial investment in the company, but makes introductions and connections, putting their own name behind the fundraising effort. The parallel in blog marketing is testimonials.

Client testimonials can boost credibility in two ways: Customer success stories help prospects decide to do business with you. At the same time, the process of writing or posting the recommendation or even being interviewed for a testimonial reinforces the commitment of the “lead customers” themselves..

In blogging for business, content writers can use the model of a fundraising round, clearly defining expectations and using “lead customers”.

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When Blogging, Be Prescriptive, But Be Present

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Understanding how the point of view differs in three different types of personal narratives is crucial in telling a story effectively, William Kenower explains in Writer’s Digest.

  1. A memoir is how we tell a story about something that happened to us in the past.
  2. A personal essay describes a solution to a problem the author sees in the world and lays out how the solution should be brought about.
  3. In a prescriptive, the author is an instructor and the article or piece is an instruction manual.

“Though the author may use stories to illustrate their lesson, in a prescriptive piece, the reader expects and understands that the author will be the one delivering the knowledge. To write these kinds of pieces, the author must feel comfortable in the rule of a teacher or guide,” Kenower says. But even in telling a story, he adds, an author is driven to write because of what experience has taught them.  

“Consumers are used to telling stories to themselves and telling stories to each other, and it’s just natural to buy stuff from someone who’s telling us a story,” observes Seth Godin in his latest book All Marketers Tell Stories.

Not all stories succeed, Godin points out, because not all stories have the following essential elements:

  • Great stories are authentic
  • Great stories are subtle, allowing the target audience to draw their own conclusions.
  • Great stories appeal not to logic, but to the senses.

In business blogs, when we tell the story of a business or a practice to consumers, we “frame” that story in a way that will appeal to the target audience. The business owner or professional practitioner is the “teacher”, driven to write because of what experience has taught them.

Blog marketing is prescriptive, offering how-to advice on solving a particular problem or filling a particular need. At the same time, we’ve learned at Say It ForYou, blogging is a very personal form of communication, and our clients’ corporate messages need to be translated into human, people-to-people terms. The blog is the place for readers to connect with the people behind the business or practice.

Because of what experience has taught me, my advice to bloggers is to be prescriptive, but be present!

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