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Why Blind Dates With Blogs are a Bad Idea

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Have you gone on a blind date with a book? Lauren Carlton of the American Library Association asks. “The set-up for the display is simple”, Carlton says. “Just wrap books in paper to hide their covers — hence the ‘blind date’ — and decorate the wrapping with enticing facts, hints about the plotline, or our favorite, the books’ first lines”.

To get patrons to want to pick up these blind dates, Carlton advises librarians and book store owners, you need books with attention-grabbing first lines.

  • “Don’t look for dignity in public bathrooms” (Big Machine by Victor LaValle)
  • “It was the day Grandmother exploded” (The Crow Road by Iain Banks)
  • “All stories are love stories” (Eureka Street by Robert McLiam Wilson)

Between Shakespeare’s Juliet asking “What’s in a name?” and father-of-advertising David Ogilby’s emphasis on headlines, there’s simply no contest when it comes to blogging for business – titles matter. Just as those first lines enticed readers to buy “blind date” books without seeing the covers or reading the blurb, blog titles set the tone and arouse curiosity in online searchers.

There are a number of different approaches in choosing a title for a blog post:

  • titles with an agenda (making clear the writer’s point of view)
  • emotional “grabber titles”
  • how-to titles
  • “truth about” titles

Blog post titles have two seemingly contradicting jobs to do – arousing readers’ curiosity while still assuring them they’ve come to the right place, I’ve often explained to blog content writers at Say It For You. Unlike the case with the blind date book promotion, where bookstore customers and library patrons are looking for “a good read”, online searchers are looking for specific answers to questions and specific solutions to problems they have. Searchers who’ve found your blog site won’t linger longer than a couple of seconds if what they see doesn’t reassure them they’ve come to the right place for the information they need.

In a blind-date-with-a-book promotion, the book jackets are covered with plain brown wrapping, so that appearances play no part in readers’ choice of their next read. In contrast, images and photos need to be part of any business’ blog marketing, because, as digital marketing maven Jeff Bullas points out, articles with images get 94% more total views. In fact, at Say It For You, we try to use images the same way, selecting one for each post that gives readers an idea of what to expect in the post.

If you’ve recently gotten out of a long relationship or have lost confidence in yourself, a blind date can really encourage you to get back into the dating arena. Blind dates with books are a fun promotion libraries and bookstores use to attract customers. In general, though, one is forced to conclude, blind dates with blogs tend to be a bad idea.

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Great Beginnings for Business Blogs

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“Set the hook with great beginnings,” Sharon Short teaches in Writer’s Digest. Standard pieces of advice include:

  • Immediately grab attention
  • Don’t start with description – especially weather!
  • Don’t jump right into dialogue or action

Take some pressure off yourself, Short advises writers – openings will emerge when the theme of the project becomes clearer, she says, noting that there are 5 characteristics of a great story beginning:

  1. Immediacy (readers need an immediate reason to care)
  2. Tone (light-hearted, wry. Comedic, serious, informational)
  3. Suspense (teasing readers’ curiosity)
  4. Specificity (provide context right away)
  5. Fair play (consistency of style as the piece progresses).

It is the five specific techniques that Sharon Short describes that I believe are especially applicable to business blog content writing:

1. Dialogue – We all love to eavesdrop just a little.
Any good narrative should contain some dialogue and sensory details. In blog case studies, incidents from the news, folklore, including actual quotes and dialogue makes the material more real for the reader.

2. Superlatives – Describe an event or item as the least, biggest, most, smallest, first or last.
Superlatives in headlines “sell”. “The most successful people”, “The happiest people”, “The most interesting people” – these are people we want to know more about. Readers enjoy discovering, learning, and challenging the details behind blanket assertions.

3. Thematic statement – State the premise or thesis of the entire book – what you are about to prove.
Putting a summary or conclusion at the beginning of a piece of writing certainly sounds like a strange thing to do, but the pow-opening-line idea I teach in corporate blogging training session focuses on that very sort of “descending” writing structure.

4. Voice – Hook readers’ empathy with a compelling voice, making each reader feel as if you’re in a conversation with her alone.
In your business blog, while viewers are reading, not hearing, the “voice”, it’s important to have “voice variety”. That can come from writing some of the content in I-you format, with other posts written in third person. If a company person or a customer is being interviewed, the can be written in the “voice” of the interviewee or that of the interviewer.

5. Surprise – Shock the reader, even in a small way.
Beginning with a startling statistic is certainly one tactic blog writers can use to bring a point to the forefront of readers’ minds, then illustrating that point with specific examples.

Set the hook to each blog post with a great beginning!

 

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Brand Names and Blog Post Titles

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When naming something, it is human nature to want to describe what you are naming, entrepreneur.com states. Examples of well-known company names that describe what they do or make include International Business Machines, Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing, and Kentucky Fried Chicken.

Despite that logic, there’s no denying non-descriptive names have value. In fact, Statistica lists the leading U.S. brands for 2021, showing brand value in the millions of US. dollars for companies whose names do not allude to their products and services:

  • Apple 262.38
  • Amazon 254.19
  • Google 191.22
  • Microsoft 140.44
  • Walmart 93.19
  • Facebook 81.48

Those startling performance statistics for non-descriptor names notwithstanding, at Say It For You, we advise making clear in the title of each blog post – to both searchers and search engines – exactly what that post is going to be about. Here are three important reasons why:

  1. A blog post title in itself constitutes a set of implied promises to visitors. In essence, you’re saying, “If you click here, you will read information about…..”
  2. Since an important purpose of marketing blogs is attracting online shoppers, blog post titles are a crucial element in the process.
  3. The keyword phrases in the title are the way you “get found” by search engines; one keyword phrase is your brand name.

 

All that is not to say titles can’t be true to their topic and still be creative enough to entice searchers to want to read the content. You can, for example:

1. Create a title with an “agenda”, so readers have a clue as to your point of view on a topic before reading the article

2. Create an emotionally grabbing title “How Exercise Keeps You Young”

3. Create a how-to title

4. Create a “truth about” title with a hint of mystery

SEO company Yoast questions to ask in creating a brand and then executing a keyword phrase strategy:

– What does your brand stand for?
– What values does it represent?
– What’s the main message of our business?

While non-descriptive brand names such as Apple and Amazon have value in the billions, in titling blog posts, we’ve found at Say It For You, it’s best to tell ’em what you’re going to tell ’em and then – deliver!

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Blog to Put Objects into the Conversation

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“Florist Larry Becker and architect Roger Crowley are educators as much as antiquarians,” Martha Stewart writes about the two men who, last year, opened an antique shop in Hopewell, New Jersey called Welbourne Robinson. Crowley describes his partner’s artistic instincts in putting together collages by saying “Larry puts objects into conversation with one another.” In turn, Crowley strives for a “balance of lightness and heaviness” in his own floral arrangements.

When it comes to blogging for business, different “objects”, or types of posts, can present a pleasing and informative overall impression. James Parsons of contentpowered.com. for example, has determined that there are as many as12 primary types of blog content that can be juxtaposed or “collaged”, including press releases, personal content, news content, local content, roundups, and evergreen posts.

Shaun Pinney of Hubspot likens blog posts to cooking, describing:

  • Raisin Bran posts (basic, everyday posts that are educational)
  • Spinach posts (healthy and thoughtful establishing you as a thought leader)
  • Roasts – big projects with extra research r analysis
  • Chocolate Cake posts – humor t diversify your blog
  • Tobasco – controversial statements and opinion pieces

    At Say It For You, I’m always on the lookout for different “templates”, not in the sense of platform graphics, but in terms of formats for presenting information about any business or professional practice. Here are just a few possible “templates”:

    How-to Post
    This type of post aims to teach the reader something, taking them through a step-by-step process. Variations include “How I _____and How You Can, Too.” And “Why ____ Matters and How To Do it”.

  • List Post
    The list post offers readers a selection of ideas, tips, suggestions, or resources.
  • Review Post
    Review posts offer an informed opinion about a particular product or service.
  • OpEd Opinion Post
    This post states a point of view about a particular topic (the blog author can then add his or her own commentary.)
  • Interview Post
    The author interviews a client, an employee, or an outside source.

One way to put these different “objects into conversation with one another” is to refer back and forth among different posts through internal linking. In fact, Neil Patel advises, “Your old posts are the key to growing your blog.”

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Listicles Make Life Simple for Blog Content Writers and Blog Readers

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The AAA Crossroads Magazine knows a good listicle when they see one. In “How to Make Travel Count”, TV host Samantha Brown lists five tips plus one “bonus tip” for getting the most out of even the shortest travel experience.

  • Tip #1: Take a walk.
  • Tip #2: Explore the side streets.
  • Tip #3: Create a ritual.
  • Tip #4 Talk to people.
  • Tip #5: Identify the emotional value.
  • Bonus tip: Put the map away, put down the phone, and just go down street because you think they look good.

Each one of these titles heads up a paragraph explaining how to use that tip. Not only does that visually organize the page in an attractive way, it makes the information easy to digest.

Still, in the online world, Caroline Forsey writes in hubspot.com, the list post (otherwise known as a listicle) commonly gets a bad name. In fact, she admits, “you can easily drown in a sea of particularly low-quality low-value listicles”. Nevertheless, Forsey explains, readers love listicles – for a number of reasons:

  • They are easy to scan.
  • They outline specifically what the reader will learn in the post.
  • Complex content is broker into bite-sized pieces.
  • Readers can skip to sections most applicable t them.

Listicles feed into our brain’s drive to categorize information and give us a sense of satisfaction when we correctly predict patterns, Neil Patel points out, citing a study out of Ohio State University showing how humans try to detect patterns in their environment.

To avoid adding to the “bad name” side of listicles, Toman of checkflow.io advises, don’t add more points just to fill up your list. Add interesting details to each item (Samantha Brown’s article is the perfect example). In order to make your angle unique, read what the competition is saying on the subject, then write from a personal perspective. “Going for a walk is the very first thing that I do at any destination,” Samantha writes.

I noticed that, even though it’s a listicle, Samantha Brown writes in first and second person, using the pronouns “I” and “we” and “you” throughout her piece. “I know what you’re thinking – Enjoy the mundane?” “I feel that talking to people is something that has been slowly going missing from our daily lives.” In blog marketing, I stress first person writing because of its one enormous advantage – it shows the people behind the posts, revealing the personality of the person or the team standing ready to serve customers.

At Say It For You, our content writers are always seeking to vary the ways we present information on a single topic in many different ways. Not only are we on the lookout for different “templates” in terms of platform graphics, but different formats for presenting information about any business or professional practice.

Listicles, when done well, make life simpler for both blog content writers and their readers.

 

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