Blogging for Business with Sympathy and Service: 4 “Amens”

/0 Comments/in , , , , /by

“Instead of selfish mass marketing, effective marketing now relies on sympathy and service,” Seth Godin posits in the book This is Marketing. What marketing is, the author explains. “the generous act of helping someone solve a problem. Their problem.” “Getting discovered”, “getting found”, and “getting the word out” are no longer the first things to consider, but come last. As marketers, Godin is firm, it’s our job to watch people, figure out what they dream of, than create a transaction that can deliver that feeling.

In planning how to market your product or service, Godin suggests, start by filling in the blanks in this sentence: “My _________ will be exactly the right choice for people who believe that_______ and who want to feel_________.”

Four Say It For You “Amens”:

  1. Belief and trust, we have found at Say It For You, are in large part a function of familiarity Precisely because blogs are not one-time articles, but conveyers of messages over long periods of time, they serve as unique tools for building a sense of familiarity (and ultimately trust) in readers.
  2. In blog content writing, ask yourself: Which psychological fulfillment does your brand support most? Exactly as Godin is expressing, blog readers will self select and become buyers only to the extent your content has focused on creating experiences that align with their values. Business blogs should never be rated “E” (intended for everyone).
  3. As content writers, we’ve also come to understand over the years that face-to-screen is the closest we will come to the prospective buyers of our clients’ products and services. Even when it comes to B2B marketing, we know that behind every decision, there is always a person, a being with feelings they have and feelings they want to have.
  4. Through the pandemic we became familiar with the phrase “social distancing”, which is the precise opposite of what we must try to do in blog marketing, which is to create connections with our audience and make them feel supported and in turn receptive to our message. As writers, we must present the business or practice as very personal rather than transactional.

In blog marketing, aim for sympathy and service!

 

Facebooktwitterredditlinkedintumblrmail

Advice-Column Blogging for Business

/0 Comments/in , , /by

You wouldn’t imagine consulting the Farmer’s Almanac for tips on blogging for business, but, hey, ideas are everywhere, as we assure readers of Say It For You. In fact, the two articles “7 Ways to Water Wisely” and “8 Top Water-Saving Tips” might serve as perfect models for what I call “advice-column blogging”.

  1.  Both these articles are in “listicle” format, with titles heading up paragraphs explaining how to use that tip. The listicle visually organizes the page, making the information easy to digest. Under the heading “Create a sprinkler-friendly lawn”, for example, the author advises adjusting the lawn’s shape so the sprinkler waters the lawn without dampening the driveway, porch of bare ground.
  2. An odd number of tips is presented. As Blue Orchid Marketing explains, studies have shown that odd-numbered lists trigger better responses from readers, perhaps because they’re perceived as more ‘decisive”.
  3. The tips are practical and doable by readers, with no direct tie to product “pitches”.
    There’s a reason “how-to” blog post titles work, marketing gurus Guy Kawaski and Peg Fitzpatrick show in the Art of Social Media. The best “How-to’s, they explain, are neither too broad nor too limited. They have a “news-you-can-use” feel. At Say It For You, we sometimes encounter resistance from business owners when it comes to starting a blog. Owners of personal service businesses, in particular, voice fears of giving away valuable information “for free”. (What happens in the real world is that readers don’t want to do it all themselves and turn to the source of the advice they’ve been offered.).
  4. The language is personal and direct: “You can….” “Your garden… “Select hoses for your needs.” “Good soil is your partner….”
  5. Both articles are compact, with well-organized information confined to a single page.
    Opinions differ on the optimal size for a blog post, with one “rule” I have read being to keep the post short enough so that the reader needn’t scroll down the page. Unlike purchasers of Farmer’s Almanac issues, online searchers tend to be scanners more than readers, and it’s important to engage attention quickly.

In creating advice-column blog posts, you might want to start with the Farmer’s Almanac!

Facebooktwitterredditlinkedintumblrmail

Should Blog Titles Tell All?

/0 Comments/in , , , /by

Besides being an absolutely fascinating read, Popular Science Magazine‘s special collector’s edition “Journey to the Future” offers a course in creating interesting titles (a topic of extreme interest, as you may imagine, to any blog content writer).

Of course, when it comes to blogs, the very first piece of information readers are going to receive is the title of the post. We want the searcher to click on the link, and of course we want search engines to offer our content as a match for readers seeking information and guidance on our topic. More than that, though, a blog post title in itself constitutes a set of implied promises to visitors. In essence, you’re saying, “If you click here, you’ll be led to a post that in fact discussing the topic mentioned in the title.

Here are some very straightforward titles from Popular Science Magazine:

  • Quantum Computing: the Future of AI
  • Will Robots Help or Harm? That’s Up to Humans
  • The Future of Transplants
  • Boosting Memory

    In blogs, as we teach at Say It For You, even the tone of the title constitutes a promise of sorts, telling the searcher whether the content is going to be humorous, satirical, controversial, cautionary, or simply informative. Then, for SEO (Search Engine Optimization) purposes, the title needs to contain keyword phrases, which each of these titles does. At the same time, an important purpose of marketing blogs is inducing searchers to read the post, and for that, the title must arouse curiosity and interest.

Curiosity-piquing titles in this Popular Science issue include:

  • Get Ready to Sniff Disease
  • Engineered for Ethics
  • Running on Reckless
  • Eyes on the Earth
  • Re-defining Meat
  • Always on Duty

(Fascinating, curious titles, but you don’t really know what sort of content to expect in the article to come.)

One compromise is what I call the “Huh?-Oh!” two-part title, in which the first part is an attention-getter, with more of an explanation in the second part.

Examples of two-part titles from Popular Science:

  • All Together Now – Human Societies are the Technologies of the Future and Cooperation is the Fuel
  • The Extra-Dimensional Artist – When Visual Art and Augmented reality Merge

One popular misconception I run into as a business blogging trainer is that blog titles need to be what I would call “cutesy”, meaning they must have an enticing “ring” to them that arouses attention. My opinion – Cutesy belongs in baby clothes. Yes, blog post titles need to capture attention, but when readers click on a link, they need to find material that is congruent with what the title promised would be there.

Facebooktwitterredditlinkedintumblrmail

What Are They Afraid Of? It’s Important to Know

/0 Comments/in /by

 

In planning your novel, Moriah Richards advises authors in Writer’s Digest, knowing the broad strokes of history will help you determine what details to include in your story:

  •  What’s the worst disaster these people ever faced?
  • Are they afraid of that happening again?
  • What would they do to prevent it from happening?
  • Is there something that made them feel ashamed?
  • Is there something they’re proud of?

Richards is alluding to the fictional worlds writers create, but the same questions can help blog marketers understand their target readers’ concerns, fears, and collective memories.

“Some common advice for beginning freelance writers is to read sample copies of the magazines they wish to pitch, Robert Lee Brewer notes, suggesting freelance writers study the “voice” and “tone” of articles in their target magazines.

Similarly, at Say It For You, we advise blog writers to get a sense of “worst disaster” perceptions by studying blog posts on the subject, looking for slants that haven’t been covered and drawing on their own memories and experiences.

Author Steven James teaches budding novelists to maintain suspense in their writing. “Building apprehension in the minds of your readers is one of the most effective keys to engaging them early in your novel and keeping them flipping pages late into the night. ”Of the six techniques James suggests writers use to create suspense, the one that appealed to me most as a corporate blogging trainer was this: “Put characters that readers care about in jeopardy.”

There are many things readers care about that can be put in jeopardy – health, self-confidence, safety, career, appearance, property, the proper education of children. On the other hand, while I agree that allaying readers’ fears is a powerful tool, I believe too many marketing blogs are meant to scare consumers into action.

At Say It For You, we advise taking the middle ground, identifying the need, and assuring searchers they’re not alone in this dilemma or need. The message is that you have the experience and expertise to deal with their “worst thing that’s ever happened”. 

 

Facebooktwitterredditlinkedintumblrmail

Single-Topic Publications and Ghost Blogs: Sisters Under the Skin

/0 Comments/in /by

Don’t eschew specialty magazines, is Don Vaughan‘s advice to writers looking for assignments. You don’t have to be a subject matter expert to write on specialty topics, he says – all you need is an innovative idea specific to the topic.

At Say It For You, we agree. Since our blogging clients are guaranteed exclusivity in their marketplace, we often find ourselves writing content on topics in which we’ve no prior experience or training. I couldn’t help chortling at Vaughan’s remark about the Portable Restroom Operator publication, which has been “chugging along since 2008”. (One might wonder, Vaughan observes, what there would be left to write about after two or three issues on the subject of toilets!)

Most specialty magazines, Vaughn explains, are eager to receive pitches from skilled writers with intriguing ideas that:

  1. touch on unexplained aspects of the magazine’s them
  2. offer new approaches to frequently reported topics

Specific tactics that Vaughan recommends for non-specialist magazine writers can be useful for blog writers:

  • profiles of innovators in the field
  • aspects of the topic’s history
  • reflections on important anniversaries of the industry (or, in the case of blogs, of the company or practice)
  • new product reviews
  • profiles of prominent people who have benefitted from the product or service you offer
  • news about developments in the industry

“On rare occasions,” Vaughan observes, “good story ideas may arise from not being knowledgeable about the publications’ topic (bloggers, read “client’s topic”). He shares the story of one writer who broke into writing for Guns and Ammo Magazine with a pitch about the first and only time he’d ever shot a gun. Human interest stories can be a source of out-of-the-box story ideas, showing how professionals addressed a very ordinary situation.

In blogging, as in writing for specialty magazines, creativity and intention count more than technical expertise!

Facebooktwitterredditlinkedintumblrmail