Pare Down, Don’t Dumb Down, Your Blog

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"A writer should always feel like he’s in over his head," says Pulitzer prize-winning author Michael Cunningham in O Magazine. Cunningham has advice for writers that I think all bloggers need to hear:  "You can’t bore people – ever!"

We business bloggers love to write, but we sometimes forget online searchers don’t generally like to read.  What they like to do is scan. If it becomes quickly obvious your blog content answers their question, shows them how to satisfy their need, and offers a fresh approach, they’ll stick around awhile.  Otherwise, they’re outta there faster than you can say "bounce rate".

Cunningham’s rather rueful observation is that he’s always aware he’s writing for someone at least as smart as he is, "who is busy and has a job, and a mate, and a whole life going on".

Blogging for business shares only some of the challenges of creating a novel, but Cunningham’s observations apply nonetheless.  While technology has revolutionized the way businesses market themselves, writing for folks as least as smart as you is a "keeper" rule for bloggers.

In a number of my earlier Say It For You blog posts, I’ve stressed the importance of keeping blog content short and relevant.  What Cunningham reminds us is that paring down the quantity shouldn’t mean "dumbing down" the concepts presented in the posts.  To the contrary, we want online searchers to get a clear sense of our unique approach to our business and our astute insights into the issues they face. 

Smart bloggers write with smart readers in mind!

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First-Take And Second-Thought Messages In Your Blog

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"We know life isn’t like the movies," says July’s O Magazine, reviewing four "chick flicks".  Still, "O" apparently thought there might be lessons to be learned at the movies after all, going on to ask Philadelphia-based psychologist and author Dr. Judith Sills for her opinion on how the films’ messages hold up in real life.

After a quick summary of the plot of each movie, Dr. Sills offers three types of comments on each:

• First- take message – What’s the main piece of life wisdom the flick offers?

• On second thought…What other ideas come to mind after seeing the movie?

• We wonder… What are some areas we want to explore further after viewing the film?

As a professional ghost blogger for business, I especially liked Sills’ idea that, as people absorb material presented to them, they do it in three stages. It occurred to me that when searchers read blogs, those readers might unconsciously be using the same three steps.   Business blog posts, then, should be aimed at helping potential customers move through all three stages, clicking through to the business’ website and becoming increasingly engaged, eventually becoming users of the products and services the blogger’s business offers.

For blogs, the first-take message is crucial. Key words and phrases need to have lead spots in blog post titles, and be used early in the text of the blog posts, so that searchers will receive a first-take impression that they’ve come to exactly the right spot to find the information they need.

According to blogging mavens Shel Holtz and Ted Demopoulos, while “entire books can be written on search engine optimization, using key words and phrases is a simple technique that words and should not change quickly.”

On second thought, as fellow blogger Erik Deckers points out, “there aren’t that many good writers out there…The best writers are trained professionals who understand language and the written word.”  A good blogger, Deckers explains, must be able to put your business
message  into simple language customers can understand.  To that I’d add that the content needs to warrant “second thoughts” – besides being informative, it’s got to be engaging, varied, and interesting!

We Wonder…In blogging for business, your goal is to induce “wonder” in searchers who find their way to your blog. Your post has served up just enough food for thought to make them wonder if, after all, there are even more ways in which what you have to offer is exactly what they have to have!


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Solve Problems In Your Blog

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Solve a problem, own the customer, sales trainers like to say.  Come to think about it, all the inventions that make our modern lives possible grew out of finding solutions to problems. Mental Floss Magazine reminds us of four examples.

Scroll back the 1830’s.  Elias Howe Jr.’s nightmare about cannibals attacking him resulted in his inventing the first automatic sewing machine. Howe not only became rich himself, but his invention played a big role in the Industrial Revolution. (The sewing machine needle was patterned after the cannibals’ spears, which had little holes at the tip.)

Sixty years after that, a traveling salesman named Gilette became annoyed at the inconvenience of sharpening his safety razor after every use.  Creating the first disposable razor made Glilette a millionaire.  Another problem solved.

Fast forward to 1948. As George DeMestral was preparing to take his wife to dinner, the zipper on her dress jammed.  Walking his dog in the woods a couple of weeks later, DeMestral noticed his pants covered with burrs.  Those tiny hooks that stuck to the threads of clothing gave the inventor the idea for Velcro. The millions DeMestral made on his patent meant, for many, never needing to wrestle with zippers again.

On a picnic in 1958, toolmaker Ermal Fraze realized he’d forgotten his "church key" and had no way of opening the canned beverage he’d brought along.  By next morning, Fraze had developed the tear-off ring pull for cans, and seven years later, 75% of American brewers were using nothing else for their beer.

Had business blogging been available to help these four gentlemen spread the word about the solution each had discovered, they might have realized their profits in a much shorter period of time and with much less effort.  That’s because people are online searching for answers to their problems or solutions for dilemmas they’re facing.  If your business has been consistently posting content, those people are going to find you, because your posts provide the solutions they need.

Shawn O’Donaghue of the Central Indiana Women’s Business Center put it nicely:
"Successful business owners understand that the product or service they are selling is the answer to someone’s problem." 

Providing a powerful online "voice" to solutions to searchers’ problems is the essence of my work as a professional ghost blogger for business!
 

 

 

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More Ways To Blog For Business

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Sometimes I find my Say It For You blog posts taking on a "’Dear Rhoda’-advice-column cast.  (With 25 years of ‘Dear Rhoda’ financial advice columns under my belt, the format has a natural feel for advice on business blogging.)

Today, I thought I’d model the post after the "More Ways To Save" section in last week’s Indianapolis Star, which offered advice on smart grocery shopping and meal preparation.

Here are just a few of the food-related tips business owners can heed when it comes to blog marketing:

Stock up on items you’ll use.

(One customer bought 12 bottles of salad dressing at once, so she’d have it on hand for preparing various dishes.)

The blogging equivalent is to keep an "Ideas" folder.  Jot down any juicy word tidbits or clever sayings, clip articles from magazines, the newspaper, ads, brochures, billboards – anything you believe you’ll be able to later incorporate into a blog post.

Be flexible.

(One shopper first looks for which items are on sale, then plans her meals around those items.)

Bloggers need to be flexible, too, building posts around conversations with other bloggers and business people, and centered around news items and issues of the day. Suppose  you just read about Michell and Barak Obama’s theater date night in New York City. Relate remarks about what you sell or the services you provide to New York, big city life, married life, fashion, theater, babysitting, etc..

Develop some favorite websites.

(Cooks are advised to bookmark their favorite websites, so they can easily go back to find just the right recipe for either a family dinner at home or a big party.)

Business bloggers can do the same thing, bookmarking favorite sources of information on subjects that relate to their business, and favorite blogsites to link to. 

Repackage if necessary.

(If buying a ten-pound package of ground beef or other product saves money, go ahead and buy the larger size, advises the Star reporter, then rewrap into smaller packages you can save in the freezer for later meals.)

"Repackaging" is a way to get more out of your business blog, because the material you developed for your posts can be used for brochures, newsletters, e-books, and as text for video clips about your business. 

As I always say, "Your brand ‘r you in your blog!" Serve up valuable information and they will come!


 

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Blogs Can Carry Heavy Weights On Their Heads

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By the time they are young women, East African girls can carry up to 25% of their body weight on their heads, according to Don Vorhees, author of The Book of Totally Useless Information. The amazing thing is, those young women do this using no more energy than it would take to wear a straw hat.

I like to use this metaphor to illustrate some points about business blogging.  A small business owner’s or professional practitioner’s blogging efforts can have an effect on marketing results that is disproportionately larger than might seem possible from mere short, informal pieces of writing.

For business owners seeking to leverage their blog marketing efforts, it’s worth noting the secret behind the East African ladies’ carrying power: It’s their remarkable posture control, Vorhees points out.  "They form a rigid straight line between their vertebrae and pelvis."  With very little movement of the head, neck, or shoulders, their power is concentrated.  Westerners, Vorhees adds, tend to bob and dip when they walk, wasting a lot of energy.

Blogging is "leveraged" almost by definition.  Internet commentators David Verklin and Bernice Kanner (Watch This, Listen Up, Click Here) say blogging is part of "marketing to the moment of aperture", offering the right product or service at the right time before the right prospect. Because searchers arrive at the blog seeking information on exactly what you do, what you sell, or what you know, there’s a "rigid straight line" between the potential customer and your business!

At the same time, just as the East Africans maximize carrying power through focusing energy in a straight line, you can enhance the power of blog marketing through focusing each blog post on one central theme, then using key words to help direct traffic your way.

Blogging for business has a creative element to it, no doubt, as interesting, well-written content will engage readers and keep them coming back. Along with the art comes the science of blogging.  The science involves focusing on a theme and using key phrases to create that "pull marketing" power. 

The combination of art and science is the hallmark of East African basket-carrying and the hallmark of successful business blogging as well!


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