Blog Like a Fundraising Round

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One of the all-time best pieces of advice for blog content writers that I’ve heard comes from an unlikely source – corporate startup fundraising consultant Kristen Copper, CEO of Startup Ladies. “A round is a cycle of fundraising that clearly defines the amount of money being raised and how it will be used within a defined time,” Cooper explains

It’s important for business owners and freelance blog content writers to remember that the title and the actual blog post content must be congruent, so that readers find the kind of information they’ve been led to expect. It’s all well and good to use keyword phrases in blog titles in order to win online search, but the blog post must deliver on that implied promise, by providing content that is on topic and on target for the search terms.

Blog content writers face a challenge when it comes to clearly defining readers’ expectations. Analytics can offer after-the-fact clues (how long readers remain on the page, who many of them click through to website landing pages, email us, or sign up for an RSS, but it is our job to communicate clearly the extent to which our product or service can be expected to deliver results within a clearly defined time period.

On another note, Cooper mentions the importance of a “lead investor”, a person or group working directly with the founder of a company. The “lead” not only makes a substantial initial investment in the company, but makes introductions and connections, putting their own name behind the fundraising effort. The parallel in blog marketing is testimonials.

Client testimonials can boost credibility in two ways: Customer success stories help prospects decide to do business with you. At the same time, the process of writing or posting the recommendation or even being interviewed for a testimonial reinforces the commitment of the “lead customers” themselves..

In blogging for business, content writers can use the model of a fundraising round, clearly defining expectations and using “lead customers”.

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When Blogging, Be Prescriptive, But Be Present

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Understanding how the point of view differs in three different types of personal narratives is crucial in telling a story effectively, William Kenower explains in Writer’s Digest.

  1. A memoir is how we tell a story about something that happened to us in the past.
  2. A personal essay describes a solution to a problem the author sees in the world and lays out how the solution should be brought about.
  3. In a prescriptive, the author is an instructor and the article or piece is an instruction manual.

“Though the author may use stories to illustrate their lesson, in a prescriptive piece, the reader expects and understands that the author will be the one delivering the knowledge. To write these kinds of pieces, the author must feel comfortable in the rule of a teacher or guide,” Kenower says. But even in telling a story, he adds, an author is driven to write because of what experience has taught them.  

“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 latest book All Marketers Tell Stories.

Not all stories succeed, Godin points out, because not all stories have the following essential elements:

  • Great stories are authentic
  • Great stories are subtle, allowing the target audience to draw their own conclusions.
  • Great stories appeal not to logic, but to the senses.

In business blogs, when we tell the story of a business or a practice to consumers, we “frame” that story in a way that will appeal to the target audience. The business owner or professional practitioner is the “teacher”, driven to write because of what experience has taught them.

Blog marketing is prescriptive, offering how-to advice on solving a particular problem or filling a particular need. At the same time, we’ve learned at Say It ForYou, blogging is a very personal form of communication, and our clients’ corporate messages need to be translated into human, people-to-people terms. The blog is the place for readers to connect with the people behind the business or practice.

Because of what experience has taught me, my advice to bloggers is to be prescriptive, but be present!

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Blogging Your Pull Quote

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In graphic design, a key phrase or sentence is sometimes “pulled” from an article and placed in a larger print in a box on the page. The “pull quote” is used to draw interest, but also gives readers a a “preview” of the thesis to be proven or at least discussed in the article.

In a recent issue of Health Magazine, the article “The Digital-Era Brain” (a discussion of whether the Internet is eroding our memory) features the following pull-quote, printed in bold: “In one study, a group of students said they spent 20 percent of class time texting, playing games, and checking social media”. A second article discussing the USA Memory Championship, titled “Battle of the Big Brains”, features the following pull quote: “Though the brain accounts for only 2 percent of the body’s mass, it uses up a fifth of all the oxygen we breathe and burns a quarter of our glucose.”

In blog posts, both titles and images can serve as “pull quotes”.

“Pull quote” titles

When it comes to blogging for business, titles matter, and for two basic reasons: a) Keywords and phrases help search engines make the match between online searchers’ needs and what your business or professional practice has to offer. b) Exactly like the pull quote on the magazine page, the idea is to “pull” in readers by engaging their interest.

If the title is phrased as a question, asking readers if they’re grappling with an issue or a need that you not only know about, but which you’re accustomed to helping solve – that’s perfect as a pull quote tactic.

“Pull quote” images

Adding images to blog posts has been shown to increase readership. In fact, consumers have been shown to be more likely to consider or contact a business when an image appears in search results. What we’ve found at Say It For You, interestingly, is that commercial images, or “clip art”, which don’t depict the actual products, customers, or colleagues of that business or practice, work particularly well as interest “pullers”, capturing the main concept that will be articulated in the post.

In a very basic sense, blog posts themselves function as “pull quotes”. In fact, one of the most important reasons blogs have a distinct advantage over the more static website copy is that each post draws visitors’ focus to just one story, one aspect of the business, practice, or product, precisely in the manner that a pull quote draws attention to just one main concept embodied in the full article.

Use blogging as a set of pull quotes for your website offerings!

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Do-You-Know and Can-You-Guess Blog Marketing

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“Do You Know Who Invented These Life-Saving Vaccines?” the editors of Mental Floss Magazine ask readers. (Who created the rabies vaccine?) “How Much Do You Know About Black Cats?” (Are there more male than female black cats?) “How Much Do You Know About Jeopardy? (How many clues are written for each session?)”Can You Guess the Gadgets Star Trek Invented?” (TiVo was not.) (“Can You Define These Colonial-Era Slang Words and Phrases?” (What does it mean to describe something as macaroni?)

“Interactive content creates a two-way dialogue between two parties, seopresser.com explains. Quizzes grow your list in several ways, Chelsea of herpaperroute.com adds, because:

  1. In order for them to see their results, they must sign up to your list.
  2. Readers will be segmented depending on what answers they click on.

At Say It For You, we’ve found, even if readers are not required to sign up for your list, quizzes are a very good strategy in blog marketing. Blog readers tend to be curious creatures and “self-tests” tend to engage and help readers relate in a more personal way to information presented in a blog.

Another aspect of quizzes is that they offer variety. Since one of the biggest challenges in blogging for business over long periods of time is keeping the content fresh, quizzes help vary the menu.

To me as a content writer, there are three even more important aspects to quizzes in blog posts:

  1. People are looking to their advisors for more than just information; they need perspective. In other words, quiz questions and answers can to offer a different perspective on fact sets readers have forgotten.
  2. When readers strain to remember something and then find the answer, they tend to repeat that fact set in their conversations with others.
  3. Our curiosity is most intense when we’re testing our own knowledge, making tests, games, and quizzes hard to resist.

All in all, “Do-You-Know?” and “Can-You-Guess?” are great tactics for blog marketing.

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Blog Writing Begins with Answering the Question

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In order to grab and keep readers’ attention, writers must answer the questions every reader asks as a story begins – questions that need to be answered if the reader is to relax and enjoy the ride,” the authors of The Writer’s Guide to Beginnings explain. After all, if readers don’t care what happens next, they won’t read on.”

The “big idea” of any story is the “hook” that sells that story to agents and editor, (and, in the case of blog content writing, to online searchers), has to be compelling enough to get your story off to a great start. “The most important thing your opening needs to do is this: Keep the reader reading,” author Paula Munier teaches. “In truth,” she admits, “it doesn’t matter how good your opening scene is if the idea on which your story is based is flawed, either in storytelling terms or marketing terms.”

Making messages deliver impact is, of course, “our thing” as business blog content writers. As both Munier’s book and one by Chip and Dan Heath, Made to Stick, teach, we  can’t succeed if our messages don’t break through the clutter to get people’s attention. Opening your blog post with a startling statistic can be one way to grab visitors’ attention, I often point out to content writers for Say It For You clients.

Just as consumers would not be searching for the right auto shop/ jewelry store/ plumber/ healthcare provider, etc. unless they already felt the need for that service or product type, searchers who land on your blog are already interested in and have a need for what you offer. Now, as Paula Munier cautions, the essential questions on searchers’ minds need to be answered as they decide whether to read on or click away.

Blogs, as I so often stress to business blog writers, are not advertisements or sales pieces (even if increasing sales is the ultimate goal of the business owner).  Whatever “selling” goes on in effective blogs is indirect and comes out of business owners sharing their passion, special expertise and insights in their field.  When blog posts “work”, readers are moved to think, “I want to do business with him!” or “She’s the kind of person I’ve been looking for!”

Before that ultimate “Ah, yes!” effect can take place, readers newly arrived after clicking on a blog title link need reassurance that the title and the actual blog post content are congruent. In other words, readers have arrived at the right place for finding the answers they were seeking.

In a very real way, blog writing begins – and ends – with answering that very question.

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