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Starting the Year with Same-New, Same-New Blog Posts

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One concern I hear a lot from business owners or professional practitioners is that sooner or later, they’ll have depleted their supply of ideas for blog posts. “What else is left to say?” is the common thread in the questions I’m so often asked. Well, won’t we? (Run out of new ideas, that is.) But, wait! Isn’t that precisely what business blogging is, continually approaching the same core topics from different angles?

Smart blog marketers know there are many subsets of every target market group; not every message will work for every person, and online searchers need to know we’re thinking of them as individuals.

“If you’ve told the story before, explain why you’re repeating it now,” Elizabeth Bernstein advises in the Life & Arts section of the Wall Street Journal. There may not be the need to repeat stories, but there is a need to be alert for anecdotes about customers, employees, or friends who are doing interesting things or overcoming obstacles. Real-people stories of you, your people, and the people you serve are always a good idea.

Just like the recurring musical phrases that connect the different movements of a symphony, business blog posts are centered around key themes. As you continue to write about your industry, your products, and your services, you’ll naturally find yourself repeating some key ideas, adding more detail, opinion, and story around each.

In writing for business, as blog content writers soon learn, the variety comes from the e.g.s and the i.e.s, meaning all the details you fill in around these central “leitmotifs” . Different examples of ways the company’s products can be helpful, along with examples of how the company helped solved various problems.  It’s these stories and examples that lend variety to the blog, even though all the anecdotes reinforce the same few core ideas.

Start your year with “same-new” blog posts!

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The More We Blog, The More We Learn

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The secret of good writing, according to Richard Harding Davis, is to say an old thing in a new way or a new thing in an old way. For us blog content writers, “saying old things in a new way” means that each time we’re preparing to compose content for a blog, rather than asking ourselves whether we’ve already covered that material and how long ago, we ought to plan content around key themes. That way, we can be using the same theme while filling in new details and illustrations. This precise thing is a concern, I’ve found over the year, of many business owners and professional practitioners. Even if they understand the marketing value of the blog, their concern is that, sooner or later, they (or their writer) will run out of things to say. I need to explain that it’s more than OK to repeat themes already covered in former posts. The trick is adding a layer of new information or a new insight each time.

When saying new things in an old way, conversely, introducing new information or suggesting a new attitude towards an issue, behavioral science tells us to create a perspective of “frame”, presenting new data in a way that relates to the familiar. Perhaps some information you’d put in a blog post months or even years ago isn’t true any longer (or at least isn’t the best information now available in your industry or profession). Maybe the rules have changed, or perhaps there’s now a solution that didn’t even exist at the time the original content was written.

“Links – you need ‘em,” writes Amy Lupold Bair in Blogging for Dummies. On a blog, the author explains, links are part of the resource you are providing for readers.  Collecting links around a topic or theme helps to inform or entertain your blog’s readers. If you’re not only providing good content yourself, but also expanding on that content by using links, she adds, “you’re doing your readers a service they won’t forget.”

Thing is, as long as I keep learning, I stay excited and readers can sense that in my blog. Being – and staying – a lifelomg learner means “reading around” – reading other people’s blogs and articles, plus “listening around” paying attention to everything from broadcasts to casual conversations,

The more we keep learning, the better we blog, and the more we blog, the more we learn.

 

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Back Matter Blogging

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“Writing the end of a story isn’t always the end of the book,” explains Whitney Hill in Writer’s Digest. “Even if there’s no sequel, there’s more to say, and it goes in the back matter.” The “back matter” offers additional value to those readers who enjoyed and engaged with your work enough to read through to the end. That section  adds content and helps readers look ahead to the next book.

Hill lists some standard things found in back matter:

  • acknowledgement of people who helped in the writing and editing
  • personal information about the author
  • praise – awards won
  • a pitch for the next book
  • commenting on a specific change the narrator undergoes as a result of the experience described in the book

But, in addition to these, the editor suggests, authors might like to “call out” situations or new events that are affecting them and their readers.

The Author Learning Center refers to back matter as epilogues, afterwords, or author’s notes.

Can blog content writers use “back matter”? Definitely.

  1. While, in blogging for business, it’s important to offer enough information in each post to convincingly cover the key theme, in order to cover a topic more comprehensively, the material can be divided into several different blog posts relating to that one issue or problem. The “back matter” would explain that a discussion of other aspect of the issue will be covered in future posts
  2. Certainly personal information about the business owner or practitioner might be included in the back matter as well. In addition, suggestions as to where to find more in-depth information on the topic (perhaps linked to landing pages) represent a perfect use for back matter.
  3. Using the back matter to explain how learning the information conveyed in the post actually changed your own (or your blogging client’s) thinking and how that will be reflected in a change in business procedures or in customer service changes.
  4.  At Say It For You, we particularly like the concept of using the back matter to make “a pitch for the next book”. In the age of the Internet, there’s no end, it seems, to the technical information available to consumers. But it falls to us business blog content writers to break all that information down into chewable tablet form! Serving as a “tour guide” or “librarian” for your readers, giving them the benefit of your own searches and information “sorting” is a valuable use for the back matter of blog posts.

The end of a blog post isn’t always the end of the blog!

 

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Food For Thought and For Blog Posts

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As part of positioning your business or practice as a go-to source of information, you want your blog content to arouse curiosity and interest, all the while amplifying awareness of what you have to offer that is unique in the marketplace. Not only do you want your own brand to be perceived as innovative, you want to actually become more innovative in serving your customers and clients. And, while you may not be involved in a food-related industry, this article in Mental Floss Magazine, in which Michele Debczak traces the history of inventions that changed food history, might well trigger some content ideas for your blog….

1874 –
American doctor Samuel W. Francis received a patent for his spoon-fork-knife hybrid. The new utensil didn’t take off until the 1950s, when Hyde Ballard trademarked the name spork and the plastic revolution made it easy to manufacture.  What devices – or what processes – help make your product or service more convenient for users?

1905 –
Robert J. Barkley of Kansas had created an egg carton, obviating the necessity of counting and of the danger of breaking the eggs by frequent handling. The Bartender’s Guide to Batching describes an efficient way to make sure that in busier times, every customer receives a quality and consistent drink. Streamlining your delivery service can increase your website’s sales, SellerExpress advises. What steps does your business or practice take to make things convenient for users?

1928 –
In 1928, Iowa inventor Otto Rohwedder filed a patent for a machine that sliced entire loaves of bread at once. Kleen Maid Sliced Bread debuted on July 7, 1928. The day before, the Constitution-Tribune published a glowing endorsement calling the product “the greatest forward step in the baking industry since bread was wrapped”. (That copy is believed to be the origin of the phrase “the greatest thing since sliced bread”.) Consumers prioritize saving time, effort and money. A “tutorial” in your blog can suggest ways for readers to accomplish a task in less time and at a lower cost.

1933 –
As Dow Chemical lab worker Ralph Wiley was cleaning equipment, he noticed a thin plastic film had formed inside a vial. The material naturally adhered to surfaces and blocked water and oxygen molecules. Originally used to protect military fighter planes and car upholstery, the product was renamed Saran Wrap after Wiley’s boss’ wife Sarah and daughter Ann. An “innovative blog” describes trends in your industry, handy statistics, and useful advice to readers, as well as highlighting innovations your own business or practice is introducing.

1945 –
Raytheon Company engineer Percy LeBaron Spencer was visiting a lab testing microwave-producing magnetrons when he noticed that the candy bar in his pocket had melted. His dry-cleaning bill ended up being a small price to pay for the flash of inspiration he had that day. As the story goes, Spencer sent out for some uncooked popcorn, and when it popped in front of the active magnetron, Spencer realized that microwave radiation could be used as a quick and convenient heat source for cooking. Later that year, he filed a patent for the microwave oven. By introducing readers to the people behind your brand, you “humanize” your blog content, helping readers feel a connection to your company or practice.

Your business or practice may not be directly related to food, but these tidbits about inventions that changed the food industry might well trigger some blogging “food for thought”!

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Your First Job is to Communicate a Beautiful Idea

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“Caught up in the difficulty of mystifying, magicians often forget that the first job of any artist is to communicate a beautiful idea,” is a quote from Raymond Joseph Teller in Joshua Jay’s book How Magicians Think. One idea that audiences find irresistibly beautiful is that they are being given access to “secret”, or at least little-known, information. That is precisely the tactic Penn & Teller used in demonstrating the age-old cups and balls trick, but using clear plastic cups, demonstrating that it is the magician’s skill rather than the props that create illusions.

“The idiom ‘inside scoop’ particularly refers to information that is only known to people who are among a select group”, grammarist.com explains. In the book Craved, author Kel Hammond notes that people love behind-the-scenes video footage, which makes people feel like they’re in the know. Showing people a more personal side of who is behind the brand is a powerful marketing tool. In other words, it’s the idea of being empowered with “inside info”, rather than the information itself, the accomplishes the marketing goal.

Researchers at the University of Bath, working with Nielson, came up with two ways to score ads.

  1. Information Power Score – measures what the consumer perceives as the value of the message
  2. Emotive Power Score – measures if the emotion is going to change feelings about the brand

    At Say It For You, our business is blog marketing, which means connecting professional practitioners and business owners with prospective clients and customers. And, while I continually preach and teach that blog posts are not ads, but more like advertorials, establishing connections is the name of the game for both advertisers and content marketers. The first job of content marketing is, in fact, to communicate ideas that online visitors will find “beautiful”, making them feel as if they are part of a well-informed “inside group”.

    Sometimes, the “beauty” of the blog content is that it simplifies and unifies diverse details into central concepts.. Other times the “beauty” lies in linking “conversation-piece” tidbits of information to concepts that help readers better understand complex processes. Caught up in the difficulty of online marketing, let’s remember that the first job of any blog content writer is communicating beautiful ideas.

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