Painting Blog Posts With a Narrow Brush

“WISH-TV Channel 8 and WTTV-TV Channel 4 are at the center of the biggest shakeup  the Indianapolis TV market has seen in 35 years,” observes Anthony Schoettle of the Indianapolis Business Journal.  It’s a long story, with IBJ using almost 1 ½ full pages of text to comment on the situation.

But for us blog content writers, the takeaways from this article are to be found in the one small section titled “Differentiation Key.”  As WTTV and WXIN General Manager Paul Rennie made clear to both staffs, “we don’t want to be delivering the same news to the same people.” That could hurt both stations, he explains. The plan is for WXIN to go after the 25-49-year-old audience, he explains, while WTTV targets the 45-plus segment.

In talking with reporter Schoettle, Rose Durbin, media director for Hirons & Co. ad agency, describes the challenge as follows: “The stations absolutely have to keep the news fresh….  If they start recycling stories, advertisers will run from that.”

My “Rockstar” friend and fellow blogger Thaddeus Rex talks about four tactics to help “stuff” can differentiate itself:
1. Features – your product or service can do something your competitor’s can’t (or yours does it better).
2. Location – your product/service is available someplace your competitor’s is not (or yours is more easily available)
3. Service – the buying experience you provide sets you apart
4. Cost – you’re the cheapest or the most exclusive.

But even if your (or your blogging client’s) products and services are highly differentiated from the general market, that’s not enough to keep content fresh and make conversions happen. Your knowledge of the target audience has to influence every aspect of your blog. “When you define your market, really define it. Draw an indisputable border around it, and then own that market with a message that will make all other less focused competitors disappear in the fog of clutter,” says business coach and author Jim Ackerman.

Whether you’re a radio reporter or a business blogger, paint your posts with a narrow brush!