Sharing Wisdom from the Greats in Blogging for Business

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How did Chrysler, which not too long before had needed government-backed loans in order to survive, transform itself into a partner coveted by Daimler (the gold standard of European car makers), becoming the most profitable car company in the world? In his book Guts, Robert A. Lutz, Chrysler’s product-development genius answers these questions and many, many more.

For us blog content writers, there are several valuable lessons to be gleaned from this book by a business “great”:

The power of being personal:
Lutz lists his own credentials in the following order: parent, citizen, taxpayer, employer, alumnus. Guts is about Lutz himself as much as it is about his company, and that’s precisely what lends power to the narrative.

One interesting perspective on the work we do as professional bloggers is that we are interpreters, translating clients’ corporate message into human, people-to-people terms.  That’s the reason I prefer first and second person writing in business blog posts over third person “reporting”. I think people tend to buy when they see themselves in the picture, but even more so, when they relate emotionally to the people bringing them the message.

  • The power of recounting past struggles
    The very name of Lutz’s book, Guts, speaks to past struggles, to hardships overcome. At Say It For You, I recommend including some How-I-Did-It posts in the blog marketing plan. There are several reasons that sharing secrets and failures helps readers relate to a business or practice:

    True stories about mistakes and struggles are very humanizing, adding to the trust readers place in the people behind the business or practice.

  • Stories of struggles and failures can be used as a means to an end, using the special expertise and insights you’ve gained towards solving readers’ problems.
  • Blogs also have a damage control function.  When customer complaints and concerns are recognized and dealt with publicly (there’s nothing more public than the Internet!), that gives the “apology” – and the remediation – a lot more weight in the eyes of readers.

    Does it help to share wisdom from leaders in your own industry or profession in your blog?
    When you link to someone else’s accomplishments or remarks on a subject you’re covering, that can have two important positive effects: reinforcing a point you want to make and showing you’re in touch with trends in your own field. Obviously, as with all tools and tactics, “re-gifting” content needs to be handled with restraint.

To me, though, the biggest advantage of sharing others’ wisdom in your own content, is that you’re showing that you’re excited by the insights you’ve gained, and you want your readers to benefit as well.

Sharing wisdom? Go ahead, I say. We can never have too much inspiration.

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Going for the No in Blogging for Business

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There are three kinds of yeses, Chris Voss teaches negotiators in the book Never Split the Difference. There’s commitment, confirmation, and counterfeit. People are most used to giving the counterfeit “yes” because they’ve been trapped by the confirmation “yes” so many times. The way to clinch a deal, Voss, believes, is by understanding the different meanings of “no”.

Negotiation, Voss teaches, means making it about other people, validating their emotions, and creating enough trust for a real conversation to begin. He reminds readers that “No” can have different meanings, including:

  • I am not yet ready to agree.
  • I do not understand.
  • I don’t think I can afford it.
  • I want something else.
  • I need more information.
  • I want to talk it over with someone else.Can the insights offered by Chris Voss be of use in content marketing through blogs? Definitely. In a guest post for my Say It For You blog, Karen Sullivan compared shopping to education. That’s particularly true when a buyer is searching for professional services, and wants to “interview” different providers, she explained. Sullivan asks buyers to respect the sales process; it’s dishonest to come to the sales process to get free consultative services.

Since blogging is part of “pull marketing”, the “negotiation” process is based on the “seller’s” skill in providing valuable, usable information, in essence anticipating all the possible “no” reactions, allowing readers to arrive at a “yes” in their own way and in their own time frame.

A second factor to consider is that blogging for business is an ongoing process, rather than a one-time event. With a blog, you can offer different kinds of information in different blog posts. If readers “are not yet ready to agree”, or need more information, you can convey the idea that there are different levels of involvement possible. They may share the blog post, subscribe to the blog, request a list or informational piece. You’re welcoming them to your website, yet ultimate decisions need not be made just yet. Make sure to provide plenty of valuable information for them to mull over, and perhaps “talk it over with someone else”.

To get to the “yes”, go for the “no” in blogging for business!

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The Magic of 3 in Blogging for Business

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Humanity has had a love-hate relationship with numbers from the earliest times, Ian Stewart writes in Britannica. Ancient Babylonians used numbers to predict eclipses; priests in ancient Egypt used them to predict the flooding of the Nile. Millions of otherwise rational people are terrified of the number 13. In Jewish culture, 18 represents good luck.

Over my years at Say It For You, I’ve come to consider the number 3 important when it comes to writing blog content.

3 elements of a blog post

  1. pictures and charts (the visual presentation of the blog
  2. the content itself (the facts and figures)
  3. the “voice”, the way the message comes across – first person vs. third-person reporting, humorous or serious, casual or formal

3-minute Shark Tank principle
From the time an entrepreneur is introduced to the time one of the sharks says “I’m out”, it is almost always three minutes, writes Brant Pinvidic in The 3-Minute Rule. If you can’t distill a sales presentation down to three minutes or less, the listeners will begin to make their decision without all the pertinent information. Given the very brief attention span of online readers, the essence of the message needs to come across in 3 seconds!

3-legged stool
In business blog posts I recommend a razor-sharp focus on just one story, one idea, one aspect of a business, a practice, or an organization.  Other aspects can be addressed in later posts. Offer three examples or details supporting the main idea of each post.

3 levels of involvement
While having a clear Call to Action is important in blog marketing, truth is, not every searcher is going to be ready to make a commitment. In your business blog, therefore, It makes sense to offer 3 different levels of involvement (subscribing to the blog, submitting a question, taking a survey, for example), and an ”ultimate decision does not need to be made now

3-pronged strategy
Working Mother magazine is an example of a 3-part plan of attack: Compliment-criticism-course correction. In discussing various “Mon” personality types, writer Katherine Bowers would compliment the “Drama Mama” or “Snowplow Mom”, suggesting ways in which that parenting strategy is great, followed be a critique – where that mothering style is off-track, then offering “course correction” options. Those same 3 prongs could be used in a blog focused on financial management, healthy living, pet care, or fashion.
https://www.workingmother.com/content/you-know-type-mom-parenting-styles

The rule of 3 in writing
The rule of three is a writing principle that suggests that a trio of events or characters is more humorous, satisfying, or effective than other numbers. The audience of this form of text is also thereby more likely to remember the information conveyed because having three entities combines both brevity and rhythm with having the smallest amount of information to create a pattern.

How The Power of Three Can Make Your Communication Effective

When it comes to blogging for business, make sure to remember the Rule of 3!

 

 

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What Woodpeckers Know About Blogging for Business

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To hardworking, motivated people, diversification feels like the right thing do – enter a new market, apply for a job in a different area, start a new sport, observes Seth Godin in The Dip. “And yet,” the author continues, “the real success comes to those who obsess.” A woodpecker, he says, can tap twenty times on a thousand trees and get nowhere, but stay busy. Or – he can tap 20,000 times on the same tree and get dinner!

Translating woodpecking into blogging terms, Neil Patel admits that blogging isn’t for the faint at heart. One of the reasons that’s true is that “one thing Google isn’t shy about is that it rewards websites that publish regular, high-quality content that provides real value to users.”

At Say It For You, after years of being involved in all aspects of corporate blog writing and blogging training, one irony I’ve found is that business owners who “show up” with new content on their websites are rare. There’s a tremendous fall-off rate, with most blogs abandoned months or even weeks after they’re begun. Pity, because blogs are startlingly less costly than business print ads, “winning” with content, not cost, and with frequency, not size.

Not to strain a simile, healthcare professionals stress the importance of “regularity” for maintaining digestive health, exhorting us to shun sugar, processed food, alcohol and caffeine in favor of fiber. Harvard Health Letter advocates exercise, emphasizing that is must be regular.

“There’s always been a lot of debate about content quality vs. quantity and frequency in content marketing practitioner circles,” Brock Stechman writes in DivvyHQ. However, he (significantly) points out. It will be difficult to get traction with an inconsistent or slow publication schedule, and frequent, consistent publication is vital for success.

Research on several psychological phenomena supports the importance of frequency in advertising and marketing, Mark Zimmer of Zimmer Marketing explains:

  1. The mere-exposure effect – people show preference for that with which they are familiar.
  2. The frequency illusion – each time the customer is exposed to the message there ia sense of omnipresence.
  3. Information-gap theory – reader feels there is a gap between what we know and what we want to know.

How often should you blog? Blogtyrant.com admits the only correct answer is “It depends” on a number of factors, including your schedule, your topic, and your blog post length. You want your blog to be successful for years to come, but without burning yourself out.

The lesson woodpeckers offer to blog content marketers is consistent tapping!

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Don’t-Do-These-Things Blogging for Business

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“Selling your home? Don’t do these 5 things” is the title of an IndyStar article, and a very good title, at that – for several reasons that should be of interest to blog content writers. For some reason, it’s the ”don’ts” that draw people’s attention far more than the “dos” – readers are drawn to negative titles. It’s that old human fear of failure again, but like it or not, negative titles work.

The article goes on to offer several pieces of very practical, valuable advice, such as warning against doing major remodels to your home to match your own tastes rather than what buyers might prefer, and at a cost that may not be recoverable in the sale price.

“Don’t Do These 5 Things” is an example of a “listicle”, which is actually a very popular type of blog post title. Lists spatially organize information, creating an easy reading experience. By most accounts, search engines like lists as well. IndyStar writer Michael Schroeder is also using “chunking”, a technique for tying different pieces of advice into one unifying theme.

The “listicle” technique can be useful for freshening up old blog post content. Starting with one idea about your product or service, put a number to it, such as:
“2 Best Ways To …,”
“3  Problem Fixes to Try First….”
“4 Simple Remedies for…”

The point of it all is to draw attention to ways readers can use your product or service, making the valuable information and tips you’re offering easy to grasp and retain.

Are there any “Don’ts” about being negative in blog posts? Negatives against competitors are a basic no-no. It’s almost axiomatic that, in writing for business, we want to clarify the ways we stand out from the competition.  How, then, can we get the point across that readers should want to choose this business or this practice, or these products and services over those offered by the competition? Stay positive, is the answer.

Don’t-Do-These-Things titles may work well for attracting readers to your helpful hints. But when it comes to comparing yourself to others, accentuate the positives about your way of doing things!

 

 

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