Selling 102 for Business Blog Content Writers

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Exceptional Selling

“Your ability to constructively attract and engage a customer in relevant dialogue requires a conversational style as well as substantive content,” cautions Jeff Thrull in his book Exceptional Selling.

Thrull might have been offering advice to us blog content writers, I couldn’t help thinking.  What I like to call the “I/you conversational style” is precisely the approach most effective for business blogs.  At the same time, there is so much internet content proliferation that it’s definitely becoming a challenge to get noticed online. If the hard-sell technique ever worked, it certainly doesn’t work any longer!

Thrull describes the new reality of selling:

  • When customers are engaged, they learn.
  • When what they learn is compelling enough to make them want to change, they will buy.

In short, he’s advising – don’t push!

The good news in blog marketing is the same as the good news Thrull describes as operative in direct selling: Customers have negative stereotypes about salespeople.  That makes it easy to differentiate ourselves by acting against type. “When in doubt,” he says, “do the opposite of what a salesperson would do.”

Applying that very logic to blog copywriting, I advise using blog posts to demonstrate the business owner’s or professional practitioner’s expertise, and to offer valuable tips to readers.

The goal of each post  continues to be providing those who visit your site with a taste of what it would be like to have you working with them!

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Blog Writing With the Oxford Comma

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punctuationWith the Say It For You focus this week on proper grammar and spelling for blog writers, I couldn’t resist mentioning the Oxford comma. The who? you ask.

Wherever there’s a list of things, you’ll find commas to separate the items.  Provided you’re a believer in the Oxford or serial comma, you’d include it right before the final item in the list.

Newspaper reporters (and I was a newspaper columnist for many years) typically don’t use that last comma. The AP Style guide we use in the two colleges where I work does not require the Oxford.  As for me, I do prefer to use that last comma, for the simple reason that it helps avoid confusion.  The absolute last thing blog content writers want is to create confusion.  To the contrary – our whole purpose in life is to clarify the situation so that online readers feel comfortable and see themselves using our clients’ products and services.

Ann Edwards, writing in grammarly.com, appears to agree with me. Edwards offers an example of how a reader might misinterpret matters in the absence of a clarifying Oxford comma:

“I love my parents, Lady Gaga and Humpty Dumpty.”

(Without the comma, the sentence might be interpreted as meaning that you love your parents, who are Lady Gaga and Humpty Dumpty, rather than your loving four people – your parents, Lady Gaga, and Humpty Dumpty.)

Another example is offered by grammarbook.com:

 Her $10 million estate was split among her husband,   daughter, son, and  nephew.”

(Without the last comma, you might imagine that the son and nephew had to split one third of the estate, rather than understanding that each relative got one fourth of the whole estate.)

The Oxford isn’t always necessary to make the meaning clear, I explain to blog content writers. Here’s a sentence where you’d understand, even without the comma, that there are four pool care activities being mentioned:

“You’ll need to add chemicals, monitor chlorine levels, scoop out debris
and prepare the pool as the seasons change.”

Still, I was happy to learn, the Chicago Manual of Style, MLA and US Government Printing Office all advocate the use of the Oxford comma, even though the Associated Press advises against.

Anyway, my own thought about using the Oxford Comma is, “Above all, create no confusion!”

 

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If You Could Use Proper Grammar and Spelling, That’d Be “Grate”

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proper grammar in blogs

Kimberly Joki, in her grammarly blog, lists some of the “worst writing mistakes you can make at work.” Even if you are someone who isn’t bothered by a misplaced comma, she says, there will inevitably be coworkers and clients who will notice and who will judge your quality of work by your mistakes, she points out, adding the advice to “Be smarter than you were in primary school.”

Joki offers a list of pairs and triplets which are often mixed up:

  • There/ they’re/ their (“They’re” means “they are”. “There” refers to a place. “Their” refers to something owned by more than one person.)
  • Your/ you’re (The difference, Joki explains, is that “Your” talks about you owning something, while “you’re” talks about you being something.)
  • Effect/ affect (When you’re talking about the change itself, use “effect”; When you’re talking about the act of changing, describe how that thing “affects” you.)
  • Between/ among (“Between” refers to two entities sharing something, “among” to three or more sharing something.)

Christina Wang of Shutterstock.com agrees. “No matter where you work or what you do, everyone needs to know how to write effectively for business these days,” she says.  “And yes,” she adds, “that includes paying attention to grammar.”

Wang’s no-no list includes a couple of others:

  • Using “I” instead of “me”.  Don’t say “Thanks for meeting Steven and I for lunch yesterday.”  (It should be “Steven and me”.
  • Using unnecessary apostrophes.  “That company’s presentation is full of great idea’s.” (Apostrophes show possession, not plural.)  “You’ll love it’s strategy.” (“It’s” means “it is”’ “its” is a pronoun.)

As blog content writers, if we could use proper grammar and spelling, that’d be just g-r-e-a-t!

 

 

 

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Showing You Know a Thing or Two

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Portrait of majestic red deer stag in Autumn Fall

Indiana blog content writers can take a big tip from Farmers Insurance’s new “We Know From Experience” ad campaign. The new TV spots and interactive website use humor to get across to consumers that Farmers has the knowhow that comes from long and unique experience. “Through this new campaign,” explains Mike Linton, CMO for the insurance company, “we hope consumers realize that we know a thing or two…”

Business owners and professional practitioners (and the professional copywriters who work on their behalf) are striving for the same effect sought by Farmers’ agency of record – positioning the company as having “consumer-centric knowledge and insurance smarts”.

As a freelance copywriter, I couldn’t help thinking that if the power of story is to be directed towards the marketing strategy and tactics development of any business, there’s nowhere better than in corporate blog writing. Blog posts have the power of harnessing the emotional power of story in order to positioning the business owners as “knowing a thing or two” in their fields.

When Speaker Magazine posed the question, “Why do audiences want more stories, regardless of the topic, in the presentations they attend?”  Robert McKee was ready with the answer: “Story fits the mind.  It is how the mind absorbs, sorts, and structures reality.”

The Farmers TV ads use that very principle to make potential customers comfortable with getting on board.   They’ve seen it all, and have handled it all – and have covered it all, including the bear breaking into a customer’s vacation home and the deer getting stuck in a customer’s swimming pool.

Success stories and client testimonials play an important part in any blogging-for-business strategy. Webcopyplus.com explains that testimonials help your business in two ways. Customer success stories and client testimonials boost your credibility with new prospects, helping them decide to do business with you. But website testimonials “also foster commitment from those providing the testimonials.”

Business blogs, I’m fond of saying in corporate blogging training classes, are nothing more than extended interviews.  Just as in a face-to-face job interview, searchers who read your blog evaluate the content, judging whether you’re a good fit for them. And those visitors, I’m convinced, are “testing” your company or practice for the same ideal qualities job interviewers are interested in: Can you (the “candidate” in this scenario) quickly and effectively solve challenging problems?

Show them you know a thing or two because you’ve seen a thing or two!

 

 

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Helping Blog Readers See the Rest of the World

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Point of view

Back in March of 1976, Saul Steinberg created a cover for the New Yorker Magazine that’s become a classic.  The image shows how New Yorkers might see the rest of the world if they faced west on 9th Avenue; the image became so popular that parodies of it ending up being challenged in court.

What made the map funny was the way it portrayed New Yorkers as totally self-absorbed, centered around a few New York City blocks, with Washington, D.C. depicted as a remote location near Mexico. National Post journalist Robert Fulford described the perspective of the map as “one in which the entire world is a suburb of Manhattan.”

Business owners and professional practitioners need to avoid that narrow perspective at all costs. And for us blog content writers engaged in telling their stories, we need to keep in mind that, for every piece of information we write, each reader will be asking “So what?”

Potential buyers want to know about Radio Station WIIFM – What’s In It For ME. Simply put, buyers care about benefits, not features. Remember, there are millions of blog posts out there making claims of one sort or another. Each claim we puts into a corporate blog needs to be put into context for the reader, so that the claim not only is true, but feels true to  our clients’ online visitors.

Steinberg had it right – everything’s a matter of perspective. We can use blogging to offer searchers the relevant, up to date information they came to find, giving it to them in short paragraphs and in conversational style, then leading them to take action.

But in all our content, it’s crucial to present information from the customer’s perspective, not ours. Our “9th Avenue” represents the ending point to which we aim to draw the client. Where we are is never the starting point!

 

 

 

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