Blog Topics Have Ninety-Nine Lives

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“How often do we celebrate the life of a cat?” asks Kostya Kennedy in the special LIFE issue of Cats – Companions in Life. Drawn by the pictures of adorable kittens to purchase the magazine, I found quite a number of valuable blog content writing pointers. The entire issue, with all the articles focused on cats, is proof of the fact that the same general topic can be approached in a myriad of ways. In fact, in order to add variety to a blog, I teach content writers to experiment with different formats, presenting the same business or practice from different vantage points, purposely tailoring the content to different segments of the customer base. We need to remember that, even within smaller segments of a target market, individual readers’ need for information, products or services was born in a slightly different space and has traveled a different path.
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The History of the House Cat
Once upon a time, we learn, the ancestor of today’s domestic feline was a wild creature prowling the deserts of the ancient Middle East. As hunter-gatherers turned into farmers, the found cats useful in getting rid of mice. The calmness of cats made them good house pets. In a blog, introducing the readers to the history of the brand, using stories about founders, current employees and alumni to “humanize” the content. Sharing history makes the focus less on what the company does and more about what it is. What’s more, sharing memories of the “good old times” that weren’t really so good in terms of efficiency and convenience, you have the ability to share with blog readers a sense of look-how-far-we’ve-come togetherness.

Secrets of Cat Behavior
What is a cat trying to say when it purrs? Why do cats like catnip? The blog content should share with readers the owners’ unique point of view within their own profession or industry and within the community. Myth-debunks are a great use of blogs, I’ve found, because many of the misunderstandings about a product or service present themselves in the natural order of business, in the form of questions and comments from readers and customers. The very word “secrets” is a draw in a blog post title, and shining the light of day on that misinformation shines light on your own expertise.

Shelter-Cat Success Stories
LIFE highlights stories of seven cats who, despite illness and injury, somehow beat the odds. Thanks to a network of compassionate humans… In your blog, customer success stories and client testimonials boost your credibility with new prospects, helping them decide to do business with you. Perhaps even more important, website testimonials foster commitment from those providing the testimonials and sharing success stories around using your products and services.

Just as the LIFE issue on cats takes a single topic, dealing with it many different ways, in blog content writing, today’s post can slant in one direction; tomorrow’s can take the same theme and highlight different aspect, perhaps appealing to different segments of the business’ (or the practice’s) audience. Blog topics can have, not just nine lives, but as many as ninety-nine!

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Blog Marketing and Network Marketing – Sisters Under the Skin

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Network marketers who ask themselves the question “Who do I talk to next now that my original list of names has run out?” might find answers in Bob Burg’s The Last Prospecting Guide You’ll Ever Need: Direct Sales Edition. While Berg discusses salespeople’s face-to-face and telephone encounters with their prospects, blog content writers can take some tips from him as well.

  • Mega-successful networkers are active givers, “constantly on the lookout for a piece of information that will interest someone in their network. They recommend great books, make lots of introductions.

I’ve spent more than a decade now putting together a collection of books that serve as blog writing resources – books about writing, “tidbit treasure” books, books about marketing, books about sales, and books about corporate blogging. Many Say It for You blog posts are built around content from specific books, with links to help readers order the book for themselves. I often recommend books to my Twitter followers as well.

  • Successful networkers are “connectors”, realizing that everyone they meet might turn out to be a valuable contact to someone else in their network.

When I’m creating content for a business, I need to keep up on what others are saying on the topic, on what’s in the news, and about what problems and questions have been surfacing that relate to what my client sells and what that business or practice does for its clients. By staying alert, I often find problems best solved by networking colleagues rather than by myself or my blogging client. 

  • Successful networkers enjoy the challenge, the learning, and the people with whom they interact.

In the business world in general, I find, we get tied up in making our products or in providing service to our customers and clients, and sometimes forget how much help the right words can be. The challenge is that often business owners and professional practitioners remain “unblogged”, mostly for lack of time.  The ultimate challenge for content writers is to make that connection between them and all the searchers who need their experience and knowhow.

  • Successful networkers are always on the lookout for things that can help others improve their business.

At Say It For You, we advise content writers to find complementary businesses or practices.  Ask those owners (or cite their blogs) for tips they can offer your readers.  Pet care professionals can share tips from carpet cleaning pros – or the reverse! If you’re a carpet cleaning pro, you can share tips from allergists as well.  If you’re an insurance advisor, offer tips from car dealers about accident prevention…

Blog marketing and networking – sisters under the skin!

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Blog What the Best Have in Common

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“We’ve become experts in identifying what draws a person’s eye to a cooking space,” Sarah Weinberg writes in delish.com, and we’ve noticed that the best ones have things in common.

  1. Smart and accessible storage
  2. Countertops that are easily cleaned and that don’t absorb food particles and odors
  3. Smart appliances
  4. Attractive, bright lighting

Quality is always defined in the eyes of the customer, Simple-PDH.com notes. Different groups of customers might define “best” in different ways, and we can group customers into “target markets” to better understand their needs and preferences. “Quality is defined by two elements: customer satisfaction and customer expectations.” Meeting customer expectations is what defines success.

For that very reason, it’s a very good idea to blog about “what the best have in common” when it comes to your category of product or service. Learning about these “commonalities” helps prospects define their expectations of you and of what you have to offer them.

In working with Say It For You business owner and practitioner clients to create blog content for them, I often encounter resistance to the what-the-best-have-in-common model. Reluctant to suggest that they have things “in common” with some of their competitors, they prefer to focus only on aspects that prove they (and only they). are “best”!

” An informed consumer is capable of making sensible decisions by gaining an insight about a product prior to its purchase.” Based on that belief, one of the primary objectives of the European Union has been the provision of information to consumers. The opposite effect happens with “choice overload”, which can lead to behavioral paralysis, KelloggInsight points out.

At Say It For You, we know that consumers know: whatever your business or practice, there are other out there, and realize that some of those are worthy competitors of yours. But, when visitors to your website find answers to their questions, updated information about your type of product or service, and social proof offered by clients and customers, you won’t need to be “the only one” to be “the one” with whom they choose to do business..

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Blogging to Share Your Process

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If you do something unknown, unfamiliar, or unexpected, your clients are going to feel their security is in jeopardy, Luke Agree cautions financial advisors. And, no matter how you slice it, Agree adds, that’s not good for business.

Financial advisors who share their process with their clients are able to avoid that risk. Sharing must include not only your value proposition (what makes you different or better than other professionals in your field), but also your process of operating the business and delivering client services.

What are your “habits”? How frequently do you report progress? Do you prefer email, phone calls, texts, or letters? What updates will you be providing and how frequently? How will you provide continuing education – seminar? Podcasts? Newsletters? A blog? How responsive is your office set up to be to inbound inquiries?

In sharing your process, Agree makes clear to his audience of financial advisors, you’re really sharing promises.

Blog marketing is also a matter of making – and keeping – promises, we teach at Say It For You. Over my years as a freelance blog writer, I’ve seen many companies launch a blog marketing strategy with great expectations, but poor implementation. Just as in the world of finance, value is based on a the market’s perception of whether a company is likely to keep its promises about future growth, it is essential for any practitioner, product or service provider to keep promises and deliver predictable and consistent results.

In creating a content marketing plan, I like to begin by challenging the owner of a business or professional practice to answer the following question: “If you had only eight to ten words to describe why you’re passionate about what you sell, what you know, and what you do, what would those words be?” In other words, whether the business owner him or herself is doing the writing, or whether they’re collaborating with a writer, the first steps I creating blog content involve clarifying, and then sharing, the “process” and the promise to follow that process.

Blog to share your process!

 

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In Blog Marketing, Know Their Until and Unless

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At the quarterly meeting of the Financial Planning Association I attended earlier this month, a highlight was attorney Brian Eagle’s two hour lecture on estate planning. After describing each strategy available under our gift and estate tax laws, Engels would pose the question to the audience – So why don’t clients use this strategy? Why don’t they make big charitable gifts? Why don’t clients reduce their taxable estates by using some of the many ingenious trust arrangements available to them?

It’s because, Engels explained, before any clients (no matter how wealthy they are), make decisions to part with assets, they must first feel confident that they will have enough to take care of their own needs for the rest of their lives. Until and unless any client has that feeling of security, he or she is simply not going to make any big decisions or implement any complex asset transfers….

What stands between your prospects and their decision to become your customers? What assurances do they need about your product or service before they make their move? Until and unless what are they not going to make a buying decision?

“Unless you’re intimately familiar with the psychology of your target market, any demographics you claim are mere semantics,” Entrepreneur.com cautions. Some recommended steps include reading up on case studies and analyses by industry reporters, conducting question-answer sessions with a small sample of audience members, looking at products and services your audience is using (unrelated to your own industry), and reading what potential buyers are saying online.

Jeffrey Gitomer, author of The Sales Bible, advises step-by-step risk elimination. There’s some mental or physical barrier, real or imagined, Gitomer says, that causes a prospect to hesitate about ownership. The salesperson’s job is to identify that risk and eliminate it. Some of those fears include:

  • Financial – am I spending too much? Is this a budget violation?
  • Quality – does something better exist?
  • Is salesperson lying – (risk of nondelivery or overstated promises)Until and unless your blog readers feel sure their fears are unfounded, nothing is likely to happen..
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