Aiming for the “Me, Too!” Effect in Blog Marketing

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“All salespeople present themselves as problem solvers yet most never ask clients to vividly describe the problems they are experiencing,” Paul Cherry maintains in the book Questions That Sell. An outstanding salesperson, the author teaches, will offer clients the opportunity to open up and vent their frustrations. “You will have success building a relationship with your potential customers only when you can get into their world and identify the forces at work in their lives.”

In blog marketing (where prospects are meeting you before you’ve had the chance to meet them), as Jeremy Porter Communications teaches, the goal is to create a connection with your audience that makes them receptive to your message. He names seven emotions and their opposites that marketers can tap into to get an audience “from where they are to where you want them to be”:

  • anger/calmness
  • friendship/enmity
  • fear/confidence
  • shame/shamelessness
  • kindness/unkindness
  • pity or compassion/indignation
  • envy/emulation

At Say It For You, we understand that, in blogging for business, face-to-screen is the closest we blog content writers will come to our prospective buyers of our clients’ products and services. On the other hand, we’re conscious that behind every decision, there is always a person, a being with feelings. One of the most direct access paths to prospects’ feelings is through stories. “Consumers are used to telling stories to themselves and telling stories to each other, and it’s just natural to buy stuff from someone who’s telling us a story,” observes Seth Godin in his book All Marketers Tell Stories.

The thing to remember is that people are online searching for answers to problems or solutions for dilemmas. If, in encountering a blog post about a customer who went through a sort of pain and suffering akin to theirs (and who has now come out the other side), readers’ natural and highly emotional reaction might well be “Me, too!”.

Far sooner and more directly than descriptions of features and benefits of your offer, an emotionally charged story of suffering solved might well result in a “me, too” sale!

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Blogging for Window Shoppers and Tire Kickers

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“Many of the folks who come to see me aren’t necessarily looking for a new plan or a new planner,” financial advisor Zach Fox, AAMS®, says. “They may just be looking for confidence in their existing plan.”

Diane Wingerter, certified grantwriter and owner of GrantWriting for Goodness™, agrees. “Yes”, “no”, “maybe”, or “not now” are all possible responses by people who are seeking funding – or, indeed, by funders themselves, she notes.

Blog marketers need to approach readers with a similar mindset. Will blog marketing “close deals” in the same manner as a face-to-face encounter between a prospect and a sales professional? Of course not. Hubspot blogger Corey Wainwright lists some of the indirect selling benefits of blogs and their place in the sales process:

  • If you’re consistently creating content that’s helpful for your target customer, it’ll help establish you as an authority in their eyes.
  • Prospects that have been reading your blog posts will typically enter the sales process more educated about your place in the market, your industry, and what you have to offer.
  • Salespeople who encounter specific questions that require in-depth explanation or a documented answer can pull from an archive of blog posts.

Blogging is what marketing firm pardot.com calls stage-based, meaning that prospects move through different stages of the sales cycle. In one study, Pardot found that B2B consumers started their research with Google, then returned two or three times for more specific information. For prospects at the top of the “funnel”, the most effective content will be light, educational and product-neutral. Later in the cycle, readers who are already sold on your industry, just deciding among vendors or providers, need more specific information.

The “maybes”, the “not nows”, and readers looking only to bolster their confidence in their existing plans or product choices will come away with a positive experience and valuable information. On the other hand, readers who have reached the final decision-making stage might just be ready to consider your unique value propositions and to follow one of your Calls to Action.

In blog marketing, don’t ignore the window shoppers and tire-kickers!

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Introduce Referral Partners in Your Blog

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“By establishing yourself as a source of assistance, you train others to come to you with referral opportunities,” Chuck Gifford and Minesh Baxi advise in the book Network Your way to $100,000 and Beyond. “Learning to promote to those in your sphere of influence is hundreds of times better than buying from a referral partner. You must learn to talk about your referral partners often, asking questions to uncover leads.”

At Say It For You, I’ve always taught that reading competitors’ blog posts is a great form of market research for business owners launching their own blogging strategy.  Even repeating what established bloggers have said (of course in each case properly attributing the material to its source) forces “newbies” to think about what they might add to the discussion.

But, rather than merely summarizing what others are thinking, or ways competitors have chosen to handle problems, why not invite “thought competitors” to express their ideas on your blog site? That can be a way to use blog content to present conflicting views about a particular subject (your guest blogger’s view and your own), leading readers to think more deeply about a topic.

A guest blog post, of course, needn’t be about a controversial topic, but might serve as enrichment content for the host’s readers. A realtor might invite an interior designer to comment on “staging” a home for sale. An estate planning attorney might invite a long term care insurance agent to contribute content. “Guesting” can take the form of interviews or of actual content by the referral partners themselves.

“The most powerful phrase in marketing,” Gifford and Baxi assert is “I have a friend in that business. Would it be okay if I have them give you a call?” It’s interesting to note that the book was published in 2007, a year before Say It For You was started. Fourteen years later, it could be that one of the most powerful forms of referral marketing is introducing your referral partners to your audience of blog readers!

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Blogging, Like Design, is About Creatively Solving Problems

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“Design is often misconstrued to be a luxury. Yet, at its core, design is about creatively solving the problems we all face at any scale,” Tom Gallagher writes in the Indianapolis Business Journal. “…practitioners often downplay the importance of beauty, but aesthetic must not be dismissed”. In urban design, Gallagher continues, fashion addresses who we are and how we respect others. The quality of materials speaks to our shared values.

“What we see has a profound effect on what we do, how we feel, and who we are,” Mike Parkinson of Billion Dollar Graphics asserts. Parkinson quotes famed psychologist Albert Mehrabian, who demonstrated that no less than 93% of communication is nonverbal. “

In fact, the aesthetic element must not be dismissed in blog content creation, either. Images are one of the three “legs” of the business blog “stool”, we teach at Say It For You, along with information and perspective or “slant”. Not only is it true that articles containing images get more total views and higher ratings, images help explain and emphasize concepts. The visual presentation of a blog post – the type font, the bolding, italics, spacing – all the details work to support the words and ideas and contribute to the general impression left with online readers.

So, if design is so important, does all that mean video blogs are going to supplant text content?

As a Say It For You blog content writer and trainer, I appreciated a 2017 fourdots.com blog post discussing that very question, and making a four-point case for textual content as a primary driver of online communication:

  1. Text gives you the option to stop exactly where you want to, wrapping your mind around a certain piece of information.
  2. Text can be easily updated and upgraded.
  3. B2B buyers consume informational pieces and case studies, looking for industry thought leadership.
  4. Text stimulates the mind and is more focused.

Just about ten years ago, I published a blog post titled “Shoes and Business Blogs – Some People Care if They’re Shined”. The post touched on aesthetics, advising marketers to “dress your blog in its best” by preventing “wardrobe malfunctions” such as grammar errors, run-on sentences, and spelling errors, avoiding redundancies, and tightening up those paragraphs.. Avoid redundancy; tighten up those paragraphs, I cautioned.

Yes, blogging, like design, is about creatively solving problems, but aesthetics must not be dismissed!

 

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Guest Post: CMO Skills Essential for Marketing

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Since our Say It For You writers often work under the direction of a company’s Chief Marketing Officer, this insightful guest post about effective CMOs is of interest. Author Dana Harris is a writer and a freelance marketing specialist. She has been writing articles on marketing tips and strategies for over five years.

CMOs are invaluable members of any company. However, their role constantly grows and transforms due to the continuous evolution of the marketing world. From new tactics to the latest trends, there’s no shortage of skills and tools for marketers to master. But which strengths are truly essential for a chief marketing officer? This blog discusses what you need in a good CMO.

This Chief Marketing Officer resume guide details the top five common traits of a competent CMO:

  • good leader
  • quick adapter
  • customer-centered
  • great communicator
  • excellent data analyzer

A CMO needs each of these fundamental skills to fulfill all of the responsibilities of their position.

However, these are not the only desirable traits. A CMO’s role is so influential that it can make or break a company’s brand image, sales, and overall profit. It’s critical to prevent a decline in any of those areas. Here are five more skills your CMO should possess to boost your marketing efforts and impact.

Goal Setting

Knowing how to set goals is a significant marketing skill. As the leader of a company’s marketing department, it’s certainly a must-have skill for a CMO. They should know how to implement marketing tactics that align with the company’s goals. Not only that, they should continually aim for a stronger brand and a greater product reach. Even the best marketing strategy risks failure with no guiding goals in mind.

Understanding of UX & UI

Technology is a critical element for a marketing campaign to reach its full potential. This reason is why a company’s CMO and technical team must work together. However, a CMO with knowledge of basic UX/UI design skills is extremely valuable. These skills allow the CMO to build a consumer experience that supports a company’s marketing goals and strategies. Also, the technical team can achieve much more when the CMO has a basic working knowledge of their design skills.

Creativity and Innovation

The ability to be both creative and innovative is essential in the marketing field. Marketers should constantly look for new methods and inventive ways to execute marketing plans to keep up with the latest trends. A creative CMO has a better understanding of consumers and can deliver a valuable experience to them. The combination of data-driven insight and creative thinking is the perfect recipe for actionable campaigns.

Content Management

Did you know that 94% of consumers go to the internet to research products? People often go to Google to look for information and resources during the purchasing process. This fact shows the importance of content marketing. Content marketing covers the constant development and optimization of blog posts, videos, eBooks, whitepapers, and other content pieces. Content management skills have become essential with so much centered on the internet.

Excellent Storytelling

Every effective marketer should be a good storyteller. They should be able to use data to weave a compelling story and put the company’s name on top. Customers typically buy products based more on emotion than logic. A CMO must appeal to the audience’s emotional side and compel them to buy into the brand. Powerful storytelling speaks into the lives of customers and connects a product directly to a solution. It’s a balance of both emotion and logic.

Wrapping Up

Indeed, a chief marketing officer is a very complex and diverse role that is constantly evolving. Companies seeking a capable CMO shouldn’t overlook these essential skills, and neither should those seeking to be the next CMO. Regardless of marketing or technological advances, these skills will take both the CMO and the company confidently into the future.

 

 

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