Business Blog Writing to Boost Readers’ Brains – and Your Own – Part B

The deeper I delved into that delightful little book. Brain-Boosting Challenges, the more I realized how right I’ve been about the “training effect” of a business blog.  As you’re busy describing your accomplishments and reviewing the benefits of your products and services, you’re keeping them fresh in your own mind, constantly providing yourself with training about how to talk effectively about your business.

The many brain-boosting ideas and memory “hooks” the book offers hint at techniques business blog content writers can use, including this one:  “A useful technique when learning facts is to contrast them in some way.”  Compare-and-contrast is one of several structures we blog writers can use to help customers and prospects derive the greatest use out of the information we’re presenting. Use what they know, comparing your ”new” solution to traditional “old” solutions to the problem your company solves. Compare unfamiliar things to things with which readers are already comfortable.

“Chunking” is a memory device that binds sequential digits or words into groups. Telephone numbers, for example, are usually both written and pronounced in groups, the Brain-Boosting authors explain. Chunking is one way business bloggers can offering technical information in “chewable tablet form”, because it breaks down information into bite-sized pieces so the brain can more easily digest it. The “reverse” form of chunking is to take individual pieces of information and show how they are related, perhaps in ways readers hadn’t considered.

Bullet points represent a graphic way to organize information, and it seems content writers either love or absolutely abhor them.  Myself, I’m kind of partial to those little black dots as a way to keep readers’ attention on track. Like anything else, of course, bullet points can be overused, but they’re certainly visually attractive.

The idea, of course, when it comes to marketing a business or practice through blogging, is not to have the readers memorize your content, but to have them find it – and by association – you, memorable. If the writing style is clear and simple, triggering familiar associations in the readers’ minds, those memorable business blogs can improve their memories, and, quite possibly, your own bottom line!