Recommended Reading for Blog Content Writers – Part A

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Since frequency and recency play such a large role in search engine rankings, what a blog writer can add to the marketing mix is discipline, consistently posting high quality content on behalf of the business. Hiring the extra “brain” relieves the “drain” on the business owner’s (or the professional practitioner’s) resources of times and energy.

So what relieves the drain on the blog content writer? (Years ago, in the process of explaining the way my company Say It For You came about, I talked about the “drill sergeant discipline” needed by blog content writers.  I knew that the main key to business blogging success was going to be simply keeping on task week after week, month after month, year after year.

One question I’m often asked when I train business owners and employees or newbie blog content writers for hire is this: Where do you get ideas for blog posts? My answer is – everywhere!  But that doesn’t mean the ideas are going to jump right onto your page. I like to emphasize that at least half the time that goes into creating a blog post is reading/research/thinking time!

This week I decided to highlight one aspect of the “everywhere” – namely books. I’ve spent almost a decade now putting together quite a collection of books that serve as blog writing resources.  I’m providing links so that you can take a look for yourself at some of these wonderful little books. I’d also love to hear about books you may have found especially useful.

Books about writing:

Of the two types of people who make up the English-speaking world, I find myself among the minority who believe proper grammar and spelling matter on business websites and in business blogs. Because of that, some of my favorite basic resource books deal with writing basics.

Effective Writing in Easy Steps“If your writing is difficult to understand or written in an inappropriate style, it won’t serve the purpose,” points out Tony Rossiter in Effective Business Writing in Easy Steps. “When I’m writing, working as a management consultant or running a training course,” Rossiter adds, “I like clarity, plain English and gentle humor.”

 

 

A second favorite resource is The Little Red Writing Book, by Brandon Royal. This little book presents “20 powerful Little Read Writing Bookprinciples of structure, style, & readability.” Just to offer you a taste, Royal talks about four types of transition words:

 

  • contrast – but, yet, on the other hand, whereas
  • illustration – for example, for instance, in fact
  • continuation – furthermore, on the one hand, undoubtedly, coincidentally
  • conclusion – finally, therefore, thus, as a result

There’s no lack of information for us content writers when it comes to hooking readers and wowing fans, but, with words being our primary tools, it’s important to go back and review fundamentals of writing.

Stay tuned…In coming posts, we’ll offer reading resources for bloggers on marketing and metaphors…

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Blogging to One-Tank Destinations

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kind rijdt autoHave you visited the Basilica of the Sacred Heart in Notre Dame, Indiana? How about the Five Points Fire Museum in Lafayette, IN? I haven’t been to either, but after learning through the Columbian magazine that those would be “one tank destinations” for me (I live in Indianapolis), I’m adding both locations to my vacation day fun possibilities list.

There’s a valuable nugget of wisdom in this for us blog content writers, I realize. Had that article in the Columbian been about two faraway, exotic destinations, I’d probably have simply turned the page. Instead, I cut the item out of the magazine, posting it on my kitchen bulletin board.

Thing is, in marketing, it’s all about accessibility and ease when it comes to triggering action on the part of readers, whether in print or online. Making a business’ or a practice’s products and services accessible and easy to acquire or use has to be at the top of our best practices list when it comes to writing content for business blogs.

What are some ways to make the information in blog posts “one-tank”, meaning easy to access and easy to put into action?

  • Offer answers in a few, short, well-thought-out words, with longer answers to follow if requested
  • Insert Calls to Action at various points throughout a business blog post
  • Remind readers of the annoyances and hassles they’re experiencing with their present providers and products.  Go on to describe the perfect, hassle-free solution to their problems.
  • Don’t just say “Contact us.” (What exactly do you want your reader to think, feel, or do?) Have people fill out a form where they tell you “where they want to go”.
  • Focus on one specific step readers can take. Choose a very specific problem or need, and offer a very clear and compelling solution.

    Are you taking your blog readers to one-tank destinations?
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Bullet-Point Blogging

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“Bullet points, when used wisely, can increase readability and retention by readers,” Michael Bailey reminds us in Internet Ten Blank business diagram bullet liet illustrationMarketing: an Hour a Day. So is that all we need to know?  Not by a long shot, because bullet points can very easily go very wrong.

Bullet points are mini-headlines, encouraging readers to go back into the real meat of your content or go forward with your call to action, says Robert Bruce of copyblogger.com. Bruce offers three bullet-point rules of thumb:

  • Keep them symmetrical (1-line each, 2-lines each, etc.).
  • Practice parallelism (begin each with the same part of speech).
  • Keep them short for greater impact.

“When website visitors read text online, they do not want to work too hard at the task,” says writeraccess.com. Bullet points draw the readers’ eyes to the most important information. Writeraccess reminds blog content writers of some basic punctuation and grammar rules:

  • The text used to introduce a section of bullet points should end in a colon.
  • When the information is a complete sentence, begin with a capital letter and end with proper punctuation.

A “sneaky tip” offered by websitecopywritingservices.com is that the first and last items in a list generally grab the most attention, so use the start and end of the list to convey whatever is most important.

William Green, guest blogging on BloggerSentral.com, makes no bones about the way he feels about bullet points. “They benefit nearly every area of your blog, be it traffic, SEO, Twitter follows, RSS subscribers, I mean everything,” he says.

As a corporate blogging trainer, I particularly liked what Green had to say about finding the right balance between paragraphs and bullet points.  If you can use both, he says, you will be become a successful blogger.

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How Long is Your Blogging Tail?

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Tail“One of the most interesting phenomena to arise in the online marketing world was the labeling of the ‘long tail’,” Matt Bailey points out in Internet Marketing: An Hour a Day.

The long tail concept was initially presented by Wired editor Chris Anderson. What’s the general idea? Thousands of people are searching for things online, and they use thousands of different words in forming their questions. What that means is that trying to be #1 in Google rankings for just one set of words isn’t going to be the best strategy.

Typically, says Bailey, marketing managers look at website statistics and get the list of top referring terms.  However, he explains, this approach does not truly reflect the visitors who come to the website Bailey uses the example of a website whose top 10 keyword terms brought 2,000 visitors to the website.  But the next 4,600 keywords generated 9,400 visits!

Even more important, since the top ten terms tend to be the more general keywords, they bring in the fewest conversions.

Bailey has a theory about this: Buying decisions happen in stages:

General search terms are used in Stage 1, at the point of need, the very beginning of the buying cycle. From here, one of three things happens:

  • The searcher buys the first thing they see from the website that ranks first. (This is NOT the most common result.)
  • The searcher becomes overwhelmed with the amount of information available and realized that further research will be needed.
  • The searcher begins to look through all the available products and information, sees strong opinions from other users, and decides there’s even more research needed.

The “long tail” consists of the millions of refined, deliberately more detailed phrases as searchers drill down during the decision-making process.

Understanding what types of searchers your business is likely to attract can be very important in keyword selection, Bailey explains.  Is your website an “impulse” site, where you can get a quick sale? Or, is it a content-based website where searchers can learn more, leading them gradually to the decision-making point?

What does all this mean for blog content writing?  Whether you’re writing a business-to-consumer blog or business-to-business, searchers come to the website to gather and evaluate information.  Through the blog, they learn about the basic benefits, the expected features, the typical service, and the experiences of others, Bailey explains. “Make sure your information is presented in a way that makes it easy for searchers to do side-by-side comparisons,” he cautions.

According to wordtracker.com, “Whenever a customers use highly specific search phrases, they tend to be looking for exactly what they are actually going to buy.”

How long is your blogging tail?

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Blogging to Get More Done

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Midwest blog content writers should take heed of Nick Usborne’s analysis of the content on the John ?????????????????????Deere website. In Networds: Creating High-Impact Online Copy, Usborne tracks the “before” and “after” of the John Deere page promoting its 4000 series tractor.

Old content:
Underneath their familiar green and yellow exterior isn’t just a redesign of the compact tractor, but a transformation.  Where power is no longer measured by horsepower. Where implements practically attach themselves. And comfort is no longer at odds with productivity. One hundred and twenty improvements. Zero gimmicks.  And countless firsts.  These tractors are ready. 120 Improvements.  Countless Firsts.  Zero Gimmicks.

Usborne’s take on this old content:
“This content has no depth and no benefits.  It’s boring and borderline ridiculous.  The company isn’t selling luxury cars here; it’s selling tractors to people who have very specific needs…Can this tractor tow large objects?  How large? How heavy?”

 

New content:
GET MORE DONE
With 133 attachments available you can:
Mow up to 20 acres
Till up to 5.5 acres
Lift up to 2728 lbs
Dig with a 36-inch bucket up to 8.5 feet deep

Usborne’s take on this new content:
“Now that’s action!…This makes me excited, this allows me to envision the possibilities of what I can do, and this creates the needs for me to own this tractor, and helps me to justify the purchase to my wife!

“As the John Deere website continues to evolve,” says Matt Bailey in Internet Marketing: an Hour a Day, “I hope to see more transition into consumer needs-based content.”

This whole blog marketing thing, I teach newbie content writers, is not really about the technicalities of search engine optimization, although that may be how the story begins. What I believe it is really about is providing those who find your site with a taste of what it would be like to have you working alongside them to help with their challenges and issues. So, whether you’re writing your own blogs or working with a professional content writer, your blog posts are your way to say to each searcher:

“Our services/products can help you get more done!”

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