Different Strokes for Different Folks in Blogging for Business

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Is your business blog reader’s tummy rumbling?

In this month’s Writers Digest, ten winners were announced. Contestants had been given a photo prompt showing a grocery store aisle and asked to write the opening line of a story based on that prompt. My personal two favorites were these:

  • “My tummy rumbles as I walk past all the things I cannot buy with the seven dollars in my pocket, the seven dollars for her cigarettes.
  • “We fell in love reaching for the same tea and fell apart picking different ice cream.”

I think this exercise illustrated two concepts related to business blog content writing:

The importance of your opening line

  • The first sentence of a blog post functions as “a hook:” and, next to the title, it’s the most important set of words in the post, creative-copywriter.net explains, advising writers to “say it fast, strong, and well”, right into the action and addressing their deepest problem instantly.
  • Readers are looking for connections. The challenge is to get the reader to nod his or her head, thinking “Yeah, that’s me.” Ann Hanley says in orbitmedia.com.

  • Writer’s Digest wasn’t talking about online content, but for blogs, the opening lines are where it’s important to incorporate keyword phrases to help with Search Engine Optimization.

The same general topic can be approached in a myriad of ways.

  • In order to add variety, I teach blog content writers to experiment with different formats, including how-to posts, list posts, opinion pieces, and interviews.
  • Different posts can present the same business from different vantage points, “featuring” different employees and different departments within the company.
  • Individual blog posts – or series of posts – can be tailored to different segments of the customer base.
  • Remember that, even within your target market, each reader’s need for information, products or services was born in a slightly different space and has traveled a different path. Not every message will work on every person.

From the very opening line and continuing throughout the blog post, remember – there are different strokes for different folks in blogging for business!

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Sharing the “We” in Blogging for Business

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In a Say It For You blog post last week, I mentioned the ongoing debate about the use of the two pronouns “you” and “we” in marketing messages. While many respondents to a Corporate Visions survey had said they used we-phrasing deliberately to position themselves as trusted partners with their customers, a set of experiments reviewed in the Journal of Consumer Research showed that sometimes the use of “we” arouses suspicion rather than trust, because prospects and brand-new didn’t yet have reason to feel a congenial relationship with the company.

My own feelings on the matter, as expressed in my monthly newsletter, are that “we” is a valuable syllable. In communication with the public, and particularly in blog content writing, there’s a very special purpose to be served by using first person pronouns – they help keep the blog conversational rather than either academic-sounding or overly sales-ey. When the owners of a business or practice use phrases such as “we think”, “we believe”, “we see this all the time”, they are offering their unique slant or opinion that differentiates them from their competition.

Much to my delight, as I read through my copy of this week’s Indianapolis Business Journal, I saw that editor Lesley Weidenbener’s Commentary column was titled “we’re listening; we’re focused on business” The article  presents an extremely personal accounting of the way Weidenbener and her editorial staff had wrestled with the decision about whether, as a business-focused publication, they should include breaking news stories about criminal and social events that affect businesses. How would they avoid sensationalism or “yellow journalism”? The newsroom staff met, readers’ advice was considered, and “WE” (the editor shares) “decided that WE will maintain our focus on business news and on how crime….affects business.”, There’s no “royal ‘we'” here; in fact, Wedenbrener tells readers “We want to know what YOU think…”

As blog content writers, we represent those business owners and professions who are – and should be – the “we”, the ones with the ideas, the knowledge, the products and services, and the ones who have the experience and the unique “slants” to share. Those real people behind the “we” are sharing their stuff with YOU, the online readers receiving the good advice and answers to their questions. Blog posts, to be effective, can’t be just compilations or “aggregations” of information, even when that information is extremely valuable. There has to be human connection.

The “oomph”, I’m now even more firmly convinced, comes from sharing the “we” in blogging for business.

 

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Not That “We”, This “We” in Blogging for Business

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In using the pronoun “we” in blog posts, I asserted in a recent newsletter, we keep the blog conversational rather than academic-sounding or overly sales-ey. That isn’t pompous, I wrote – “it just works”. My point was that in conversing with readers through blog content writing, using “we” calls attention to the real people behind the company or practice brand.

One thing for sure is that not everyone agrees. “Cut the word ‘we’ wherever you possibly can,” Joanna Wiebe advises in copyhackers.com, That should apply even to “About Us” page, she says. Why? Your visitors don’t want to hear about you. They want to hear about themselves – about their problems, their needs, their futures.

In a survey by Corporate Visions, more than 47% of respondents said they use we-phrasing deliberately to position themselves as trusted partners. On the other hand, the survey revealed, the audience felt much more strongly that they must take action when you-phrasing was done rather than we-phrasing. Meanwhile, a set of experiments by the Journal of Consumer Research examined messages from banks and a health insurer, concluding that the pronoun “we” doesn’t work if it’s inconsistent with the actual relationship. In other words, if customers don’t expect a congenial relationship with a particular type of company, “we” arouses suspicion. True, existing customers responded favorably to the “we” verbiage.

All this research made we realize that I had been thinking of one type of “we”, while these other articles were referencing another. I like to use the word “we” to refer to the people owning the company or professional practice. The real people behind the “we” pronoun are taking ownership of their opinions and of the particular ways in which they choose to serve their customers. I was not recommending the use of the “we” to mean we-the-owners-and-you-the-customers, in a very fakey and patronizing “Let’s-try-on-these-shoes-shall-we?” way. The “we” to which I was referring describes the business owners/practitioners as the writers of the blog, with the readers remaining the “you”.

Business owners and professionals are the “we” with the ideas, knowledge and experience to share. The online visitors are the “you” receiving the good advice and the answers to their questions.

 

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Putting Questions in Readers’ Mouths

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Putting words into someone’s mouth is generally a bad thing, merriam-webster.com explains, because it suggests that person said or meant something that he or she did not actually say or mean. When it comes to blog marketing, though, putting questions into someone’s mind might be a very good thing for all concerned, we’ve discovered at Say It For You. In Writer’s Digest, Peter Mountford encourages writers to “make your character explicitly ask for the the thing they want.” That’s because, Mountford asserts, a request creates an explicit, as-yet-unfulfilled desire, in turn creating tension (and therefore interest).Instead of having the protagonist’s sister say “Hey, why don’t you borrow my car?”, have Sarah urgently ask to borrow the car for an urgent errand – despite her history of car accidents.

Questions are central to blog marketing strategy. As Team Kapost of uplandsoftware.com writes, “Questions create intrigue, serving as an invitation to participate in a conversation”. At Say It For You, we’ve certainly found this to be true. Keeping in mind that people are online searching for answers to questions they have and for solutions for dilemmas they’re facing, it’s also true that searchers haven’t always formulated their questions. What I suggest, therefore, is that we do that for them. After all, we’re out to engage our blog readers and show them we understand the dilemmas they’re facing.

What’s more, sales trainers often stress that being able to ask questions satisfies prospects’ need to control the situation. So if we as blog writers can go right to the heart of any possible customer fears or concerns by addressing negative assumption questions (before they’ve even been asked!),  we have the potential to breed understanding and trust.

As business blog content writers, we need to impress readers even before they’ve had the chance to ask us their questions. While those readers are online because they’re searching for answers to questions they have and for solutions for dilemmas they’re facing. I really believe that blog writing for business will succeed only if two things are apparent to readers, and in the order presented here:

  1. You (the business owner or professional practitioner) understand their concerns and needs.
  2. You and your staff have the experience, the information, the products, and the services to solve exactly those problems and meet precisely those needs.For blogs to be effective, they must serve as positioning statements. The “visit” has to conclude with readers understanding exactly what your particular philosophy or mission is. Even though the encounter is taking place online, prospects are always mentally posing the “What’s In It For Me?” question. What’s the benefit in this for ME? How will MY interests be protected and served if I choose to do business with you or become your client or patient? What will you do to keep ME “safe” from risk?

So, by all means, go ahead and put questions into your blog readers’ mouths!

 

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Telling Them What It Means

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I always enjoy receiving my copy of The Zulu Group’s Home News from realtor friend Steve Rupp. This month, I thought the article “What Does that Mean” would have particular relevance for blog content writers The following three explanations were taken from Jeff Rovin’s book The Unbelievable Truth,,,

  • Pulling the wool over someone’s eyes…In earlier times, thieves would yank their victims’ wool wigs over their eyes, so that the victims couldn’t identify the perpetrators.
  • Blackmail… In 16th century England the word mail meant “rent”. Debts that had to be paid in silver were called whitemail; those that could be paid in livestock or other property were “blackmail”. Since blackmail had no ascertainable value, debt collectors could extort any amount they chose from the debtors.
  • Red tape…It was the custom, in England, to seal important documents with red wax and tape. The only way to read those documents was by cutting the tape.

Interesting….almost exactly ten years ago, I published a Say It For You blog post called “Which Means That” Business Blogging. Al Trestrail, a networking colleague of mine at the time had just produced a brochure offering marketing tips. Trestrail suggested to salespeople that they should develop a list of benefits, and then, after each item, add the words “which means that….”, going on to explain how that benefit helped the buyer of the product or service. Adapting that rule to the world of blogging means answering your readers’ question “so what?” before it’s even asked, I realized.

We’ve all heard it – buyers care about benefits, not features. Content writers need reminding – there are millions of blog posts out there making claims of one sort or another.  But what do those claims mean to the customers and clients reading that blog post? It’s true for both existing customers and clients and the new ones we’re seeking to win over – to win hearts and dollars, you need a strategy in place to demonstrate “what it means”, which might include describing how your “it” is: rarer easier to use, safer, more compact, more water-resistant, more beautiful, greener, or fresher.

A big part of blogging is simply telling them what it means!

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