To the Blog Writer, It’s One Thing; To the Reader, It Might Be Another

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blog marketing
If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it dozens of times in this Say It For You blog – blogs are not ads.  Still, always on the prowl for good ideas, I happened upon a full page ad (for sleep chairs, of all things!) that could actually serve as a model for us blog content writers. 
The headline consisted of a quote from a customer:
“To you, it’s the perfect lift chair. To me, it’s the best sleep chair I’ve ever had.”

Then, beneath a picture of the lift chair, there was a three paragraph article.  “You can’t always lie down in bed and sleep. Heartburn, cardiac problems, hip or back aches, dozens of other ailments and worries. Those nights you’d give anything for a comfortable chair to sleep in.”
It’s a good idea to build the occasional blog post around a customer success story. Good testimonials give prospective customers peace of mind, providing proof that people have tried your products and services and approve of them.

The second paragraph went on to highlight some special features of the product – heat and massage settings, battery backup, and a lift mechanism that tilts the chair forward.
In one of my favorite books about selling, Mitch Meyerson’s Success Secrets of the Online Marketing Superstars, the author points out that features tell us two things about a product or service:  what it does and what goes into it. In this ad, of course, the benefits (what the product does for the customer) are emphasized first, with the features described second.

The third paragraph highlighted “white glove delivery”, with professionals unpacking the chair in the customer’s home, inspecting and positioning it, even carrying the packaging away.
Since at Say It For You, our content writers serve the needs of both product vendors and professional practitioners, I was very interested in this paragraph about extra services associated with the product. Blog content writers should make lists of ways their business individualizes and personalizes services to customers and clients.

The bottom of the page had the phone number (with a special code), along with a color and fabric chart.
While blogs are not advertisements, I often explain to content writers that a Call to Action does not at all invalidate the good information provided in the piece. As long as the material is valuable and relevant for the searchers, they’re perfectly fine with knowing there’s someone who wants them for a client or customer. In fact, the Call to Action in the form of a phone number to call or a link to click makes it convenient for readers who are ready to buy.

To the blog writer, the product or service might represent one thing; to individual readers, it might represent another, all the more reason to vary the approach in different posts. 
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Blogging About Your Five

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Most businesses are good at 95% of what they do, says billionaire restaurateur and hotelier Tilman Fertitta in his newest book Shut Up and Listen. It’s the remaining 5%, he says, that determines whether the business excels or not. That 5% is the difference driver or tipping point, the author explains, offering examples from restaurant settings. 

On the negative side, that 5% difference can be made by a server bringing a drink without a napkin or a four-person table with one mismatched chair. A positive “fiver” could be knowing the names of repeat customers and where they prefer to be seated
Fertitta’s firm message for success: “Aim for a culture that puts the five percent at the forefront of your thoughts, decisions, and acts.” 

Blog titles and content, we emphasize at Say It For You, need to focus on the positive aspects of your business or practice, and primarily on the positive results customers can expect from selecting to work with you. Fellow blogger Michael Fortin agrees.  “Leave out the ‘buts”, he advises, and substitute ‘ands”.

 

And, while one approach in blogging is to compare what you have to offer with competitors, avoid devaluing other companies’ products and services. Focus on demonstrating what you value and the way you like to deliver services.

 

Behavioral science introduced a term that can be very useful for blog content creators: framing. Even a slight alteration to the way something is presented can result in a completely different response or decision, the authors of the digitalalchemy.global blog explain.

 

It’s interesting that when customers have a bad experience, they are four times more likely to dump your brand, as ZCNet reminds us. What’s so ironic is that the bad experience almost always relates to the 5%, not to the usually satisfactory performance that results in customer loyalty to providers whose overall performance is just OK. Psychologists refer to this phenomenon as “negativity bias”, which explains our tendency to make judgments based on negative far more than positive information.

 

In your business or practice, you’re probably on top of your 95%. The 5% tipping point is what you need to clearly convey in your blog!
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Annoyance- Minimized Business Blog Writing

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“Annoyance may well be the most widely experienced and least studied of all known human emotions,” writes Joe Palca in National Geographic. “Traffic. Mosquitoes. People who snap their gum. People who crack their knuckles. There are so many things in the world that are just downright annoying.” True, a vast literature exists on anger, aversion, and social anthropology, Palca and co-researcher Flora Lichtman admit, but few scientists have used those things to explain the mild anger we call annoyance.

Website content can be annoying, too, Patti Podnar points out. Don’t you hate it when you take the time to read a business’ home page, their about page, and a few blog posts, and you still have no idea what the heck they do, she asks? Sites that aren’t user-friendly are annoying as all get-out. Writing over your customers’ heads. Not addressing obvious questions and objections. Solving your own pain points rather than your customers’ pain points. Annoying. Annoying. Annoying, Podnar stresses.

You can blog about your business without annoying readers, Patrick Dodge advises.
In the awareness stage, a person has recognized he or she needs information for a specific challenge, and if your content is focused on helping them (not self-promotion), Dodge says, you might engage them on the next stage of the journey, which is the consideration stage..

“Inundating your audience with multiple messages at inconvenient times isn’t helpful,” cautions Neil Patel. People can easily recognize when your intentions aren’t authentic. It’s important to educate your customer, but don’t overload your audience with too much information at once. When people see lots of text, they wonder how long it’s going to take to read the post. And, Patel adds, visitors must know immediately how your product or service benefits them.

“”You’ve just clicked the ‘Publish’ button…Now what?” asks quicksprout.com. Publishing a blog post and quickly moving on to the next one is a waste of your efforts, minimizing the impact of your content and its true potential, the author explains. A number of to-dos can avoid that result:

  • Proofread, looking for spelling and grammar errors.
  • Insert a link to old posts.
  • Add a question to spark discussion.
  • Post on social media.
  • Send to email subscribers.
  • Comment on other blogs.

One thing that annoys readers is lack of readability, Neil Patel explains. Large chunks of text scare readers away, he says, while charts, images, and quotes from industry experts all help maintain interest. End with an actionable conclusion.

In blog content writing, aim for annoyance minimization!

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Blog Stuff I Can Be Proud of In 2019

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There are 5 things Darren Rowse of ProBlogger wishes he’d known earlier about writing content for a blog. My list (of things I wish I’d known) would be much, much longer than that, I realize. Still, looking back at 2019, I’m proud to say that in this 12th year of writing this Say It For You blog, I did remember to incorporate some of those five blogging “axioms”.

The Power of Titles

“The title has the ability make or break a blog post. It impacts how (and if) it’s found….and is vital in whether people actually read what you have to say.” Of the 101 blog posts I created during the calendar year, each had a unique and original title.

The viral nature of Lists
“I find that when writing the same content as a list that you write as an essay, the list will almost always get more attention.” While I wrote few pure “listicles”, I incorporated numbered or bullet-pointed lists in fully half of the 2019 posts.

The importance of being original
“People are drawn to others who speak their mind, who have something unique to say.” One important way in which Say It For You stresses originality is by taking on one client per type per market, avoiding conflicts of interest and creating original content focused exclusively on that client’s business or profession.

The Value of Well Formatted Content
“Online readers tend to scan content, and visual clues in your posts draw the eye to important points.” Dividing the content into sections headed by bold titles (as I’ve done here) helps readers follow the logic of the blog, even if they do not fully read every word in every section.

The Impact of a Good Image
“Images have the power to communicate in ways that words cannot.” Every Say It For You post was headed by, or incorporated, an image.

For every writer, there’s room for improvement, and, in 2020, that’s what we aim to do. The mission hasn’t changed – create content that is accurate, current, consistent and dependable, based on understanding each client’s business, or practice.

Meanwhile, allow me my brief moment to look back and be proud. Happy NewYear!.

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Blog Boasting of the Right Kind

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“High levels of confidence, even if unwarranted, can make people appear more attractive to potential collaborators,” A.M. Hammond writes in Psychology Today, explaining the importance of the way confidence is expressed. One tip about confidence offered by the American Marketing Association in Business Writing Tips for Professionals is relevant here: “Phrases like ‘We’re #1’, ‘We’re the leader in our field’, or ‘We provide the best service’ aren’t going to get you anywhere.”

Ironically, a concern many new clients of Say It For You express to me is that they don’t want to come across as boastful in their blog.  At the same time, they know they need to convey the reasons prospects ought to choose them over their competition.

Let the facts do the boasting, I explain. The whole idea behind blogging is that, rather than running traditional ads for your brand of hats, or vitamins, or travel, you provide lots of information on the history of hats, on why vitamins are good for you, and about exciting places to go on safari.  Consumers interested in your subject, but who never even knew your name, will come to see you as a resource.

When trying to make a compelling argument, besides putting thought into your choice of words, you may employ paralanguage, A.M. Hammond suggests, meaning modulations of volume, pitch, or speed in your speaking, which have been shown to add persuasiveness to an argument without eroding sincerity.

How can blog content writers add persuasiveness when they are communicating without sound??? Equivalents to “paralanguage” in written pieces include bolding, italics, and repetition of key phrases. Images also go a long way to help reinforce core concepts in each blog post.

Bullet points are mini-headlines, explains copyblogger.com, and they help focus attention in the same way a speaker’s change in pitch and speed might. Italics in a written piece serve to draw attention to a word or an entire line, similar to a speaker’s slowing down and enunciating each word to stress a particular idea. “Your imagery should act as a further explainer of your main point,”advises Neil Patel.

With the right kind of “boasting”, business owners and practitioners can project the kind of confidence that inspires trust.

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