Blogging to the Smarter Buyer

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”Smart buyers want to gain as much as possible while spending as little as possible,” Tom Sant teaches in his book Persuasive Business Proposals. “If you don’t show them how much they gain by choosing your recommendations, they will inevitably focus on the other half of the equation, spending very little.”

Several of the elements Sant stresses concerning proposals can be especially important in blog marketing:

1. Smart buyers want a business proposal to address their issues or problems right away, giving them assurance that the recommendations will be relevant.
At Say It For You, we emphatically agree. Corporate blog writing for business, will succeed only if two things are apparent to readers, the first or which is that the business owner or professional practitioner understands online searchers’ concerns and needs. That assurance need to find expression early in the blog post content.

2.  Smart buyers want clear, specific recommendations tied back to solving those problems.
Buyers need to understand that you and your staff have the experience, the information, the products, and the services to solve exactly those problems and meet precisely those needs. Since, other than the clues offered through the words searchers have chosen to type into the search bar, their individual needs are as yet unknown to you, include anecdotes as examples of common issues that have been solved using your products and expertise.

3.  Smart buyers want evidence that the vendor can deliver on time and on budget.
At Say it For You, we realize that having a specific audience in mind and choosing the best evidence for that target audience is crucial.. It’s specific evidence that will resonate with the right audience, including:

  • statistics about the problem your product or service helps solve
  • your years of experience, degrees, newspaper articles written by or about your business or practice
  • testimonials

Choosing the best blog marketing evidence is crucial!

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In Blogging for Business, the Operative Word Isn’t “Anyone”!

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“What do you notice when you visit a model home in a new development? Often you will find wonderfully furnished and decorated rooms that anyone could live in.” So begins an article I received the other day from my realtor friend Gadi Boukai, stressing that “the operative word is ‘anyone’”. Professionals who set up a model home make it anonymous for a reason, the article goes on to explain. They want buyers to view it as their potential home, not someone else’s. Those professionals know – based on decades of experience, that this strategy helps sell houses faster and at a better price.

Interesting, because, at Say It For You, we realize that with blog content writing, the exact opposite might be the case. Your blog can’t be all things to all people, any more than your business can be all things to everybody.  The blog must be targeted towards the specific type of customers you want and who are most likely to want to do business with you.  Everything about your blog should be tailor-made for that customer – the words you use, how technical you get, how sophisticated your approach, the title of each blog entry – all of it.

The home viewers my friend Gadi is describing are clearly already interested in buying a home; they know what overall indoor and outdoor space and amenity needs they have, and they are looking to “match” those needs with the home they’re viewing. The “blanker’ the canvas, the easier it will be for that “match” to take place. Similarly, the only prospects who are likely to visit your blog are those searching for information on precisely what you sell, what you know, and what you know how to do.

The difference is, the blog content needs to ‘hit the spot” with visitors in a very targeted and individual way, differentiating your products or services from those offered by your competitors. With millions of other blogs out there for searchers to find, it’s only highly specific evidence that will resonate with the right visitors. Not only is having a focused topic important in each blog post, writing content with a specific audience in mind (rather than appealing to anyone) will make the difference between success and failure.

Gadi’s customers need to “see themselves” living in the home they’re touring, making their own mental and emotional “match” with those surroundings. With blog visitors, it’s the same, yet different. Your website content and blog posts can demonstrate that you’re offering all the right products and services, the ones your online visitors need. Despite that, you might still be experiencing a very high “bounce rate”, meaning that visitors to your blog are thinking to themselves “No, that’s not what I meant!” As part of their visit to your site, you have to appropriately signal to your visitor that you understand, serve, and most important, understand the situations and challenges they have faced in prior situations of  using your type of product or service.

Home buyers (at least it was that way pre-COVID-19!) are typically are left to roam the home on their own, “seeing” if this is the place for them. In contrast, with blog marketing, the content needs to put out targeted ‘prompts”. The business owner or professional practitioner is in essence telling the visitor -“To me, you’re not just anyone – I see you. I really see you!”

 

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Guest blog post: The Buyer’s Guide to Choosing a Differentiator

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Today’s blog post was contributed by networking colleague Karen Sullivan, founder of Sullivan Solutions, which helps entrepreneurial companies augment their in-house marketing. Many of the insights offered here are useful for blog content writers…

In a world of so many choices, shopping can be harrowing. Whether you are shopping for the perfect pair of athletic shoes or for the best professional service provider for your growing business, you have so many options.

The shopping experience as education

Shopping is essentially education. Of course, in the case of an afternoon at the mall or a late-night binge on Amazon, it can also be largely entertaining. It’s exhilarating to find something that we didn’t know we needed. Maybe we buy it on impulse or make a mental note to consider it in the future.

In the case of buying professional services for your business, it’s often hard to understand the differences between providers. You don’t shop for bookkeepers or web developers very often, so you may feel you need to educate yourself by interviewing several. You might be frustrated because you get a different sales pitch every time. It’s never an apples-to-apples comparison.


The buyer has the biggest role in identifying a differentiator

In the age of the internet, there’s no reason not to do your homework before you start your shopping. You’ll find a wealth of good information with a simple and thoughtful Google search. Don’t be afraid to ask even casual business colleagues for some guidance or referrals. There’s no need to start from scratch.

1. Do start with a budget.
Don’t worry, your budget can be a broad range. However, you’ll waste everyone’s time, especially your own, if you start shopping features without some budgetary guidelines.

2. Identify your 3-7 key deal breakers.
These are only the absolute must haves. Keep them simple because these are the first things you will use to qualify or disqualify candidates. Don’t forget some deal-breakers may be soft-skills like “prefers to communicate by phone rather than email”.

3. Your short list probably should be more alike than not
When you finally invite sales pitches, your candidates should look pretty similar. They should certainly all be capable of meeting your deal-breakers. If they are vastly different in features or benefits, you may not have done enough homework.

4. Transparency is two-sided, too.
Don’t come to the table with the intention of getting free consultation buried in the pitch. That may be a pleasant bonus. However, healthy relationships are built on mutual respect. Be honest and open with your expectations and your budget. At the same time, you have every right to expect the same honesty in the pitch.

5. Ask for clarification.
Proposals shouldn’t surprise you. If you receive competing proposals that look significantly different in terms of deliverables and costs, consider whether you’ve been misunderstood or simply over-sold. Regardless, if you don’t ask for clarification, you may miss your best choice and your best, unsolicited learning opportunity.

Karen Sullivan may be contacted at Karen@sullivansolutions.com

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Choosing the Best Blog Marketing Evidence is Crucial

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In the Complete Middle School Study Guide, students are asked to read a story by Joshua Slocum called “Sailing Along Around the World”, and then to choose ONE piece of evidence, from the story which makes Samblich seem most generous:

Samblich was greatly interested in my voyage, and after giving me the
tacks he put on board bags of biscuits and a large quantity of smoked
venison. He declared that my bread, which was ordinary sea-biscuits and
easily broken, was not nutritious as his, which was so hard that I could
break it only with a stout blog from a maul. Then he gave me, from his own
sloop, a compass which was certainly better than mind, and offered to
unbend her mainsail for me if I would accept it. Last of all, this large-hearted
man brought out a bottle of Fuegian gold-dust from a placed where it had
been cashed and begged me to help myself from it, for use farther along
on the voyage.

The point of the lesson was for students to learn the difference between explicit evidence (things explicitly stated in the text) and implicit or implied evidence. “Most nonfiction texts are full of evidence, the author explains, but choosing the BEST evidence is crucial, selecting the details “that will get the point across quickly and convincingly.”

At Say it For You, we realize that’s precisely the rule blog content writers ought to follow. Having a focused topic is important in any blog post, but have a specific audience in mind and choosing the best evidence for that target audience is crucial. As I tell newbie blog content writers, everything about your blog should be tailor-made for that customer – the words you use, how technical you get, how sophisticated your approach, the title of each blog entry – all of it.

And since we are ghostwriters hired by clients to tell their story online to their target audiences, we need to do intensive research, as well as taking guidance from the client’s experience and expertise. But with millions of other blogs out there for searchers to find, it’s specific evidence that will resonate with the right audience. What kinds of evidence can transform your blog into a powerhouse?  Fellow blogger Michel Fortin believes that mamy blogs miss the mark due to lack of proof.

Fortin lists several kinds of proof that may be used in blog marketing:

  • Factual proof:  statistics about the problem your product or service helps solve
  • Reverse proof: comparing your product or service with others that are on the market
  • Credentializing proof: years of experience, degrees, newspaper articles written by or about the business owner or practitioner
  • Evidential proof: clinical trial results, testimonials

Choosing the best blog marketing evidence is crucial!

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In Holding Blog Readers’ Attention, Contrast is Critical

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contrast in blogs
Contrast is critical to holding an audience’s attention, Nancy Duarte advises professional speakers in her book Resonate. To demonstrate that point, Duarte points to California Institute of Technology physics professor Richard Feynman. In teaching, Duarte explains, Feynman moves back and forth between fact (mathematics) and context (history).

In blog content writing, with the goal being engaging online visitors’ interest, we can learn from Professor Feyman’s ability to create contrast between analytical content and emotional content.

Analytical content can include:

  • diagrams
  • case studies
  • facts
  • supporting documentation
  • statistics

Emotional content can include:

  • biographical stories
  • shocking or scary statements
  • evocative images
  • humor
  • surprises
  • props and dramatizations

Another way speakers can create contrast, Duarte notes, is varying the delivery method between traditional and less traditional methods. Speakers might vary among:

  • speaking from behind a podium to free ranging among the audience
  • alternating between a business tone and humor and enthusiasm
  • minimizing disruptions and planning disruptions
  • using a one-way delivery of information with discussions

I agree. One thing I’ve learned over the years of Say It For You blog content writing is that most business owners and even most professional practitioners have more than one target audience for their products and services. Different blog posts, therefore, might slant in different directions in terms of style and tone. Analytical content can be interspersed with emotional content; a “one-way” instructional tone can be interspersed with biographical stores, humor and “surprises”. In fact, in business blog posts, I teach, it’s a good idea to toggle back and forth among varieties over time, keeping repeat visitors engaged (and content writers from getting bored!).

One blog styling “menu” suggested by socialmediaexaminer.com includes:

  • reviews
  • lists of resources
  • interviews
  • stats
  • personal stories
  • tutorials

It’s true – in holding blog visitors’ attention over time, contrast is critical.

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