Your Blog is Part of Your Customer Feedback Loop

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According to one Forbes study, 86% of consumers will actually pay more for a better customer experience, Devin Pickell, writing for helpscout.com, reminds business owners and practitioners; one of the best ways to put your customer first, Pickett urges, is implementing a customer feedback loop. Constantly collecting feedback from customers and readers and following up on that feedback allows you to improve areas causing user frustration and do more of what’s working well. Customers need to “feel heard”.

Agreed. As part of the business blogging assistance I offer through Say It For You, I’m always talking to business owners about their customer service.  The challenge is – EVERY business says it offers superior customer service! (Has any of us ever read an ad or a blog that does NOT tout its superior customer service?)  Fact is, individual blog posts can become a valuable part of each content writing client’s own customer feedback loop.

  •  Blog content should include stories specifically illustrating why your company’s customer service exceeds the norm.
  •  Surveys and self-tests can be used in blog content to find out what negative, “pet peeve” experiences may have caused reader to contemplate changing providers.
  • Messaging must offer the opportunity for personalized service – both before and after a purchase (yes, even in the online product purchase world of today).
  • Customers value the ability to gain new insights and learn new skills. Blog posts that take the form of tutorials and step-by-step instructions tend to be valued by readers.
  •  In Journalism 101, I was taught to “put a face on the issue” by beginning articles with a human example  A case study takes that personalization even further, chronicling a customer or client who had a certain problem or need, taking readers through the various stages of how the product or service was used to solve that problem. What were some of the issues that arose along the way? What new insights were gained through that experience, on the part of both the business and the customer?
  • The navigation paths on your blog site had better to be “easy to digest”. I caution new clients. You may have hired us for business blogging assistance, but keep thi important factor in mind: At the very moment that an online reader decides they’re ready to learn more, that they have a question to ask, or that they’re ready to take advantage of your products and services, you must make it convenient for them. They may want something, but not enough to spend extra energy to find it!

Whether you use survey tools, life chat, social media monitoring, or analytics tools, HelpScout reminds owners, what’s important is that you actually collect feedback so that you know what you’re doing well and what to improve upon.

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Blogging One Aspect at a Time

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Latest trends
“Make your first blog post all about the latest trends for the coming season and you’ll be providing relevant content,” George Todorv of Thrivemywaycom tells wanna-be fashion bloggers. In fact, whatever your industry or field, blog readers are likely to enjoy learning about current trends. A recent issue of The Old Farmer’s Almanac mentions “flavors we’re craving”, including maple syrup with edible glitter and flash-frozen cups of coffee. In the field of home décor, the Almanac mentions walk-in closets being converted to offices, and multifunctional, flexible rooms. Using your business blog to describe recent trends is especially appropriate for businesses in industries undergoing changes – new legislation, new discoveries, new technological advances.  But, whether your topic is clothing, food, or interior design, readers like to feel “in the know” about what’s popular.

How-tos
“Articles about how to upcycle clothes and use them to create new outfits will always go down well,” Todory continues. In fact, as Neil Patel observes, more than one billion Google searches per day are in the form of a question, so outlining all the steps a reader needs to accomplish what they’re trying to do is a great blog content tactic.

Ideas, concepts, and opinions
“Talk about sustainable vs. fast fashion and you’ll be connecting with what people want,” Todory suggests, alluding to the variety of styles and approaches in any category of business. In fact, blog posts, to be effective, can’t be just compilations of even very useful information. It is opinion that humanizes a blog and differentiates a business, professional practice, or organization from its peers. One aspect of blogging is to put your own unique slant on best practices in your field.

In the news
“Use your fashion blog to deliver a commentary on the latest styles on show at places like Paris Fashion Week and the Met Gala”, Todory suggests, alluding to the tactic of tying blog content to current happenings in the community and beyond, showing readers that you’re “with it”.

These are just four ideas from the list of 21 different types of blogs Thrivemyway mentions. As we well know at Say It For You, there are dozens and dozens more. Just remember to blog one aspect at a time!

 

 

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Don’t Blog Only From a Front Row Seat

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Financial professionals often have a “front row seat”, getting to see up close the how clients transition into retirement, Robert Laura writes in Financial Advisor Magazine. “We get to see how they accumulated their savings, and what their plans are for life after work.” Problem is, Laura points out, like people sitting too close to a high stage in a theatre, many advisors have a partially obstructed view, missing scenes playing out in the background. Just as a good play transports you into another world and into other lives, Laura tells advisors, you must be willing to look at more than what is on “center stage” and notice the backdrops.

“Buyers are 48% more likely to consider products and services that address their specific business and personal issues,” uplandsoftware.com stresses. In practice, the authors point out, most companies don’t dive deeply enough into the concerns and needs of their target customers. Instead, most marketing is based on a “front row” view, using demographics such as age, role, and location. The result is marketing materials that simply don’t resonate with the target audience. Hootsuite summarizes the marketing challenge blog content writers face in an almost brutally “in-your-face” way: “You can’t speak directly to your best potential customers if you’re trying to speak to their kids and parents and spouses and colleagues at the same time.” In other words, you need to go narrow and deep rather than using a broad brush.

I’m fond of thinking of ghost blogging as an art, but, truth be told, there’s quite a bit of science to it as well. Since your blog can’t be all things to all people, any more than your business can be all things to everybody, the blog must be targeted towards the specific type of customers you want and who will want to do business with you.  Everything about your blog, we stress at Say It For You, should be tailor-made for your target customer – the words you use, how technical you get, how sophisticated your approach, the title of each blog entry – all of it. In short, you’re giving up your “front row seat” and mingling with the audience members in the “cheap seat”, offering cues that you understand the situations and challenges they face.

Don’t blog only from a front row seat!

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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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Letting Them Know You Hear Them

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“As you listen to people, let them know that you hear them, value them, and understand them,” Ron Willingham writes in Integrity Selling for the 21st Century. You can offer feedback by nodding approval at key points, giving verbal responses, and through your body language, the author adds.

All well and good for in-person selling, but what about blog marketing? After all, content writers can’t “nod approval” at key points or use body language to cement connection with online searchers. Yet, “the buying process is in the hands of the customer, and marketers must create targeted, personalized experiences for people,” as marketingevolution.com stresses.

Even in face-to-face selling situations, it may be too easy to assume you know the customer’s needs and then move on to offer them solutions or recommendations, Willingham cautions. The pros must not only be willing to talk to you about a solution, but have a sense of urgency about seeking a solution. Of course, the very fact that searchers found their way to your page indicates their interest in the subject of your blog, but now the content writing challenge is to create those “targeted and personalized experiences”.

At our Say It For You content marketing company, we absolutely agree. Stories of all kinds help personalize a business blog. Even if a professional writer is composing the content, true-story material increases engagement by readers with the business or practice. Case studies are particularly effective in creating interest, because they are relatable and “real”. The content must speak to “our shared experience”. I tell newbie blog writers: “Everything about your blog should be tailor-made for that customer – the words you use, how technical you get, how sophisticated your approach, the title of each blog entry – all of it.” Since we, as ghostwriters, have been hired by clients to tell their story online to their target audiences, we need to do intensive research, taking guidance from the client’s experience and expertise dealing with actual customers.

Online visitors to your blog need to find an experience along with information.  Word tidbits, unique points of view, special how-to tips, links to unusual resources, and humorous touches – all these things make your blog post special. Stories – testimonials, real-life successes and failures, help translate corporate messages into people-to-people terms. Metaphorically, at least, the stories in your blog posts can represent nods of approval and understanding.

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