Show ’em the Juice is Worth the Squeeze

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Touting the tax planning advantages of tax-deferred annuities at our Financial Planning Association meeting, Tim Hays of Jackson National Life Fresh Oranges and Juicetalked about the relatively high fee structure that kind of investment typically carries. Is the juice worth the squeeze, he asked, going on explain why, in fact, it is.

Hays’ presentation made me realize how important it is for us blog content writers to focus on helping readers arrive at that same conclusion after considering the costs and benefits of the products or services described in the content.

Of course, in business blogs, it would be wonderful if all we needed to do was write about positive developments in our business or practice and about all the benefits that come from using our products and services. Problem is, prospects, are skeptical, having been exposed to the barrage of advertising messages that’s become part of our everyday existence. How can you demonstrate that the “juice” is, in fact, worth the “squeeze”?

Remind readers of their own concerns, calling to mind the costs, the risks, and the problems that drove them to seek information in the first place.  In other words, remind them they’re already suffering from a “squeeze”.  Only then can your blog content offer the “juice” and demonstrate that you and your staff have the experience, information, and the familiarity with the newest and most effective solutions available.

To be sure, there’s a little more “squeeze” to come for them (in the form of whatever time, expense, and trouble your new buyers will need to incur (in making the switch from their current provider to you). You might say your focus as blog content writer is to keep their focus on the end result, showing that the juice really is going to be well worth the squeeze!

 

 

 

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Shocking-Use Blogging for Business

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Glowing light bulb in row of switched off ones on yellow. Front viewRebecca O’Connell, writing in Mental Floss Magazine, has put together a list of 10 Shocking (Mis) Uses for Electricity. While I always tell newbie blog content writers to include lists in their blog posts (good for SEO, I’m told by my tech-savvy friends), I particularly like the idea of comparing the way things were and the way they are today. Blogging about those changes helps readers understand how to get the maximum benefit out of today’s version of the products and services you offer.

When it comes to electricity, some of the old applications O’Connell brings to light in her list are downright shocking.

  • In the late 18th century, those suffering from dental problems were treated with electric shock. Doctors would take a metal wire, encased in glass or strung through a feather, and apply it to the throbbing molar, she explains.
  • Also in the 1700s, an English entertainer used electric conductivity by strapping an orphan boy into a harness, suspending him in midair, and giving him a charge with an electrostatic device. The boy appeared to acquire mystical powers: Small objects floated toward him. He could turn book pages without touching them. When people tried to poke him, sparks flew.
  • Around that same period of time, an early generator was invented called an electropholus. An insulated plate would be rubbed with cat fur from a dead cat. That plate was then put together with a metal one, generating static electricity which could be transferred to a jar.  That early generator was called an electrophorus.
  • After Benjamin Franklin and Prokop Divis  independently invented the first lightning rods, it became the fashion in Paris for men and women to don top hats and umbrellas with personal lightning rods. Designed by Jacques Barbeu-Dubourg, the rodware featured a tall wire with a coil that trailed to the ground.

The rewards for blasts-from-the-past blogging for business might include:

  • Reader engagement – the “I never knew that!” response
  • You come across as knowledgeable and committed to learning everything about the history of your own field
  • Readers are moved to take advantage of all the new technology and know-how now available.

Can you compile a shocking-use list for your business or profession?

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Different-Strokes Blogging for Business

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eLooking for ways to help your blog content appeal to different segments within your market? Look no further than the very different presidential marriage proposal tactics chronicled by Jeff Wilser, in Mental Floss magazine’s “10 Presidential Marriage Proposals”.

As a blog content writer, strive for subtlety. Harry Truman snuck in his proposal to Bess while talking about the weather:  “I guess we’ll all have to go to drinking whiskey if it doesn’t rain very soon.  Water and potatoes will soon be as much of the luxury as pineapples and diamonds.  Speaking of diamonds, would you wear a solitaire on your left hand should I get it?”

The art of writing a good advertorial, write.co explains, is getting the right balance between story and sale. Use a subtle touch in your sales message and in the calls to action in your blog.

Persistence is a virtue:
After meeting Lady Bird in Austin Texas, Lyndon Johnson needed to return to D.C. where he was working as a congressional aide. Over the next ten weeks, the couple exchanged no fewer than 90 letters before Johnson returned to Texas to give his love her ring.

A good blog requires persistence to maintain frequency. Even years ago, in the process creating my company Say It For You, I realized that the main key to business blogging success was going to be simply keeping on task.

Research your target audience, finding out what they need and like.
Richard Nixon hated ice-skating, but went skating with Thelma “Pat” Ryan and her friends because he knew she loved it.

We’re there to engage those blog readers and show them we understand the dilemmas they’re facing.  In fact, a business blog is the ideal vehicle for going right to the heart of any possible customer fears or concerns and laying the groundwork for understanding and trust.

Offer a taste of the benefits:
Dwight D. Eisenhower gave Mamie a miniature version of his class ring from West Point.  That made her want a full-sized rock.

By offering a “content-tasting” on your blog, and doing that regularly and frequently, you’ll be earning the right to convert at least some “tasters” into buyers!

In the art of business blogging, it’s important to use different strokes for different readers!

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Blogging Your Failures

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As a blog writer and coach, I liked what Stav Ziv had to say in Newsweek about The Moth, a nonprofit dedicated to the art andDepressed businessman sitting under trouble thought boxes craft of storytelling, now in its eighteenth year of bringing to the world “true stories told live”. Moth founder George Dawes Green believes the success of the organization comes from two elements:

  • There’s no “wall of artistry” or stage curtain between the storyteller and audience.
  • The storytellers share their own human failures and frailty.

Who are the storytellers? Over the years they’ve included big-name figures (Molly Ringwald, Malcolm Gladwell, Ethan Hawke, and Al Sharpton, to name a few).  What makes for great storytelling? Green learned early on that the most important ingredient is vulnerabililty. “There can be success in the stories, but they have to be grounded in failure.”

Millionaire entrepreneur Alexis Neely agrees, explaining why she shares her own failures, and how it helps others when she does. “If the person you are learning from doesn’t share their failures,” Neely cautions, “run the other way. Now. I want you to learn the truth from me,” she adds, “and then operate your business with your eyes wide open.”

Beccy Freebody of realisingeverydream.com agrees. It’s easier to connect to someone who is or has been where you are, she explains. Seeing YOU overcome the worst parts of your life will be just the thing someone else needs to make a change in their life.

So how does all this apply to blog marketing for a business or professional practice?  It brings out a point every business owner, professional, and freelance business blogger ought to keep in mind: Writing about past failures is important.

True stories about mistakes and struggles are very humanizing, adding to the trust readers place in the people behind the business. What tends to happen is the stories of failure create feelings of empathy and admiration for the entrepreneurs or professional practitioners who overcame the effects of their own errors.

Knock down that “wall of artistry” between you and your readers by blogging your failures!

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Catalogs and Blogs – Not To Sell Product, But to Inspire

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Catalog iconIn our digital age, you’d think hard-copy product catalogs would have become obsolete.  But, as Molly Soat explains in Marketing News, catalogs are still very much alive and well.  That’s because, Soat explains, companies are “leveraging the content marketing power of catalogs to offer customers ideas and inspiration extending well beyond a brand’s product portfolio”.

The catalogs of today are really magazines, often personalized to the recipients’ purchasing habits.  The pages of today’s catalogs “are filled with artistically styled photography and expertly penned information”. Modern catalogs (and this is the part so relevant for us business blog content writers) contain ”ideas and inspiration extending well beyond a brand’s product portfolio”.

The typical website, I believe, is more like the catalogs of an earlier era, explaining what products and services the company offers, who the “players” are and in what geographical area they operate. Of course, the better websites give at least a taste of the corporate culture and some of the owners’ core beliefs.

Where the continuously renewed business blog writing comes in is parallel to the modern-day catalog, offering ideas and inspiration. For every fact about the company or about one of its products or services, a blog post addresses unspoken questions such as “So, is that different?”, “So, is that good for me?”

Another way in which blog writers can use posts to serve a “New Catalog” function is by condensing website/newpaper/magazine/trade journal wisdom into bite-sized pieces, keeping readers up on industry trends and discoveries.

Yet a third function of the “new catalogs” and “new blog posts” is to debunk common myths. Business owners can use their blog not only as a way to dispense information, but to address misinformation.

For business blogs, just as Molly Soat points out about catalogs – the purpose may not be to sell product, but to inspire!

 

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