The First Blog Post Shows the Palette

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There’s an exercise artists can do to break through their equivalent of “writer’s block,” my friend Phil read in an urban sketching book about using watercolor. Deciding what to put on the first page of your sketchbook is the hardest, the author understood. A new artist might experience inhibitions about opening the paint wrappers. But if the first page is used to give the artist a better idea of what the colors will look like on paper, the rest will follow naturally.

Beginnings are hard in any field. The first day of class, for example, gets a lot of attention from pedagogues, because what happens on that day shows students what to expect from your instruction, Alicia Alexander and Elizabeth Natalle explain in a text on interpersonal communication.

A second friend, book writing coach Myra Levine, says that each author’s first question should be “whose eyes do we see through?” Point of View, Levine says, determines every word you write. In Levine’s webinar offers writing “prompts” to help writers envision the “palette”.

Business owners and professional practitioners launching their blog often experience the same feel of “opening the paint wrappers” or putting the first words to web page. At Say It For You, we explain that the opening post will set the tone for the ongoing blog series, letting readers know:

  • They’ve come to the right place – this blog promises to be a good source for the type of information I want and need?
  • They can tell the author/company/practice is likeable, resonating with their own belief system.
  • They understand there’s a reason you’ve decided to use a blog as an ongoing communication tool.

Fear of flying is an anxiety disorder, and some of the elements of that fear have nothing to do with the actually risks associated with flight. In Fear of Blogging, David Meerman Scott says many business owners fear:

  • looking silly
  • not having important things to say
  • lack of computer savvy
  • blogging “won’t work” for their industry

Of course, from a business standpoint, fear of blogging can be a fearsome business mistake, since, in the time it’s taken you to read this far into my blog post, thousands and thousands of new blog posts have been introduced, some by your competitors!

So, go ahead – open up that new sketchbook. Peel the plastic off the paint tubes. Try writing the answer to this question:

If you had only 10 words to describe just how you ended up in – and why you’re
still in- your present industry or profession, what would those words be?

There’s your business blog “palette”!

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Terms to Drop in Blogging for Business

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“Most important business decisions are made with incomplete information and under conditions of uncertainty,” Marketing professors Kim and Todd Saxton write in the Indianapolis Business Journal. Uncertainty permeates decisions about products/technology, market, people and funding. For that reason, the Saxtons believe, we need to change some of the terms commonly used in business planning.

Road Map
What would be more appropriate is a set of sailing instructions. There’s still a vision to motivate and inspire, but everyone aboard is also monitoring winds and currents that create challenges. The entire crew is involved in constant adjustment and adaptation to make sure the ship continues to make progress.

At Say it For You, where we specialize in creating blog content, I couldn’t have come up with a better metaphor for blogging than an ongoing set of sailing instruction adjustments. Unlike brochures, client newsletters, online magazines, and websites, blog posts are more casual and conversational, hence most adjustable to what’s going on in the present moment. 

Think Outside the Box
Most businesspeople are used to thinking within constraints. Give people a new problem to solve inside a box: What’s the biggest hassle using our product and why? What customers use our product in the most unusual ways? Give people structure for their brainstorming, the Saxtons advise.

Very important to successful business blogging is addressing current issues readers care about. A prospect may have a need and not be aware there is a solution. Content marketing raises awareness of solutions and educates consumers about products they may not have considered before. A single blog post can help readers think outside their “box”.

Low-Hanging Fruit
Rather than taking the easy way out by isolating yourself from challenge and competition, embrace the hardest product-development and customer service challenges. Remember, the Saxton’s say, the low-hanging fruit is available to all your competitors as well – dare to be different.

A really important point all blog writers and business owners need to keep in mind is that, whether it’s business-to-business blog writing or business to consumer blog writing, the blog content itself needs to use opinion to clarify what differentiates that business, that professional practice, or that organization from its peers. 

When working with business owners to arrive at the right tone and the right emphasis for their business blogs, I begin by challenging the owner of the business or professional practice to make clear their own opinions about best practices for their own profession or industry. Providing information about products and services may be the popular “low-hanging fruit” way way to write marketing blog posts, but in terms of achieving Influencer status – that takes opinion!

“Road map”, “Thinking outside the box”, and “Low-hanging fruit” may all need to be dropped in blogging for business!

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Blogging for Business in Leitmotifs and Thaumatropes

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Whenever company owners (or sometimes even the blog content writers they employ) express doubt about their ability to keep generating new content for their blog posts, I remind them about leitmotifs.

True, blog posts tend to be most effective when they focus on just one idea. For example, in different posts, a content writer might go about:

  • busting one myth common among consumers of their product or service they’re marketing
  • offering one testimonial from a user of that product or service
  • describing an unusual application for that product
  • describing one common problem their service helps solve
  • updating readers on one new development in that industry or profession
  • offering a unique opinion or slant on best practices

Focusing on one aspect of a topic at a time is precisely what helps blog posts stay much more flexible and impactful than the more permanent content on the typical corporate website. But it’s the leitmotif (a German term meaning “leading theme” often used in discussing music) that helps the separate posts fit together into an ongoing blog marketing strategy.

Just the other day, while waiting in line at CVS, I picked up a magazine named “The Complete Guide to Your Brain”,” intrigued by the title. Once I had the chance to browse the article, I realized that I was looking at a perfect example of the way business blogging can be sustained over weeks, month, and years. Using a “leitmotif”, content writers can continue providing content at once fresh and evergreen, content that is varied to appeal to different readers, yet readers who share a common interest.

Amazing, I found. In just one publication, Brain included more than twenty different approaches to one subject. For example:

  • “Your Brilliant Baby” explained the way in which newborns experience a 64% increase in brainpower during their first three months of life!
  • “Sexes and the Brain” debunks the popular myth that male brains differ greatly from female brains. In fact, “humans with only feminine or only masculine characteristics are extremely rare”.
  • “The Plastic Brain” describes ways in which making and listening to music involves information from all five senses. Listing other activities that can make one’s brain more plastic.
  • “Fuel for the Mind” discusses elements of a brain-healthy diet.
    “”Why We Need Friends” discusses the way social connections make us smarter and strengthen our brains.

A second term that applies to the way individual blog posts work together over time to convey content marketing “leitmotifs” is “thaumatrope”. Thaumatropes were Victorian-age paper toys consisting of a card with a picture on each side. The card would be attached to two pieces of string; twirling the strings made the two pictures appear to combine into a single image. That’s precisely the effect of different blog posts.

As blog content writing continues over long periods of time, there’s a cumulative leitmotif/thaumatrope effect, conveying one central message to readers in all its many permutations and details.

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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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The 4 Things Your Resume – and Your Blog Page – Should Include

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“There are many different opinions on what information you should and shouldn’t include on your resume. But there are certain basics that must be there,” Zip Recruiter advises in an article reprinted in the Indianapolis Star. “Here’s the good news.” The authors say: “You already have all the answers.”

As a content marketing professional, I found this Zip Recruiter advice highly relevant. What’s so interesting is that, while there are articles galore about what elements should be included in a blog post, there’s relatively little guidance on basic pieces of information that need to appear on a blog page.

Forbes offers a list of 8 must-haves for the blog post content itself:

  1. magnetic headline
  2. compelling lead-in
  3. useful subheads
  4. informative body
  5. appealing graphics
  6. powerful call to action
  7. relevant internal link
  8. good meta description

However (and this is the eye-opening aspect of the Zip recruiter piece), as blog marketers, we’re missing the boat if certain key information isn’t right there, in the same visual field as our wonderful content, quickly accessible to our blog readers:

Contact information
“Include your name along with the proper pronunciation if you find that others have trouble with it,” Zip Recruiter advises. Include the phone number you use most, and your email address. (Sure, your website has an “About” page, but what if a blog visitor is moved to act now?)

Work experience
Your blog is a way to assert your authority as a SME (Subject Matter Expert). You’ve successful dealt with – many times before – the problem with which the reader is dealing now. You’ve got this!

Education
Do business blog readers need to know about educational credentials of a practitioner or business owner? You bet. Today’s consumers won’t do business with someone they don’t trust, and “credentializing” is one way to build trust. Degrees and certifications may be listed or shown as logos, and educational experiences can be woven into blog content itself.

Skills
Demonstrating not only what you know but what you know how to do is a crucial function of any business blog. Specific services offered may be listed on the blog page itself (in addition to offering case studies, testimonials, and descriptions as part of the blog content.

The Zip Recruiter article serves as a reminder to us content writers and the business owners who hire us: The visitors you hope to attract to your website may not be in search of a job, but the same four types of information that belong on a resume belong on your blog page!

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