Help Blog Readers See Themselves in the Scenario

This week’s Say It For You blog posts are based on wisdom gained from friend Robby Slaughter’s new book, “The Battle For Your Email Inbox”.

“When information is elevated to a scenario, it becomes more obvious what to do with it,” the author explains.  “Matching elements to groupings is fundamental, he adds, so when you encounter a fact or suggestion, attempt to classify it.”

That same concept applies to blogging for business, I’m convinced.  Each claim a content writer puts into a corporate blog needs to be put into context for the reader, so that the claim not only is true, but feels true to online visitors.

I think Robby Slaughter’s description of email –“water on the open seas, everywhere and totally inescapable” – is true of blog posts.  There are literally millions upon millions of posts out there making claims of one sort or another. If we can’t help readers in their attempt to classify all that stuff, we’re not likely to be of much help at all to them.

It wouldn’t be exaggerating for me to say, based on my own experience reading all types of SEO marketing blogs, that very few manage to convey to visitors what the blogger’s claims about that company’s or that practice’s products and services can mean to them, the readers!

In fact, meaning becomes super-important when we’re blogging to describe the features of a product or service.  Sometimes I tell content writers, “Try using the phrase ‘which means that…’ to explain ways that product or services will be of help to users. Imagine those readers asking themselves, How will I use the product?  How much will I use? How often? Where? What will it look like?  How will I feel?”

I absolutely agree that information needs to be elevated into scenarios. My way of describing the process to newbie content writers is this: Painting the picture is only Step #1.  What comes next is putting the reader into the picture!