Business Blog Tidbits Far From Useless

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love and togetherness
So, why do I find seeming “useless” tidbits of information so very useful when it comes to blog content writing? Let me count the ways:

1. Tidbits can be used to describe your way of doing business, to clarify the way one of your products works, or explain why one of the services you provide is particularly effective in solving a problem. It’s interesting when business owners or practitioners present little-known facts about their own business or profession.  In “Keep It Cool,” for example, Mental Floss magazine reviews the history of air conditioning, telling the story of how, when President Garfield was shot and lay dying in the White House, inventors rushed forward with devices they hoped would help, using a contraption to blow air over a box of ice into a series of tin pipes, eventually using a half-million pounds of ice. History tidbits in general engage readers’ curiosity, evoking an “I didn’t know that!” response.

2. One thing I suggest stressing in blog posts is best business practices.  While one goal of any SEO marketing blog is to help your business “get found”, once that’s happened, the goal changes to helping the online readers get comfortable with the way you do business. Mental Floss Magazine highlighted the making of the 1991 movie “The Silence of the Lambs”, in which the serial murderer is obsessed with collecting rare moths.  Animal rights groups might have protested the exploitation of harmless insects just to make a film, but, thanks to animal wrangler Raymond Mendez, the 300 tomato hornworm moths traveled first class, were kept in a room with special heat and humidity settings, outfitted with tiny harnesses during high speed stunts. Blog content writing is the perfect vehicle for conveying a corporate message like this one, starting with a piece of trivia, presented to make a point.

3. Common myths surround every business and profession.  If you notice a “factoid” circulating about your industry, a common misunderstanding by the public about the way things really work in your field, you can use a little-known tidbit of information that reveals the truth behind the myth. In Mental Floss Magazine, I found a cute myth-debunking article about the “Eskimo kiss”. Popular wisdom claims that Eskimos rub noses (because kissing on the lips would cause their mouths to freeze together). The myth started in Hollywood when the director of the 1922 movie “Nanook of the North” saw Eskimo women giving their babies “kuniks”, pressing their noses against their babies’ cheeks and breathing in their scent. Truth be told, Eskimos kiss on the lips just like everyone else. That Eskimo kiss debunk would be perfect for the blog of a lip balm company, a lipstick manufacturer, or a candy company around Valentine’s Day.

For clarifying and debunking, and to add variety and fun, tidbits of information are far from useless!

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Putting Some Fun Into a Business Blog

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laughing Puppy“You might think that humor only works for inherently funny businesses, but any business blog can become more interesting and relatable by lightening up,” KeriLynn Engle of Business2Community reminds blog content writers.

Leyl Master Black of Mashable agrees: “Do you like to laugh? Guess what: so do your customers,” he says. “To breathe life into a complex (or even boring) product, consider putting a humorous spin on how people use it.”

As a corporate blogging trainer, I admit to having mixed feelings about humor in business blogs.  Sure, I like to laugh as much as the next guy or gal, and I’ve no doubt about the humanizing effect of a chuckle.  But I agree with Mark Ivey, who advises, “Be funny at times.  But be careful in doing so.”

“Good humor works because it connects with people at an emotional level,” Ivey says. “But humor has to be handled right,” he cautions. “Just being funny online is not enough, and there are risks.” Tips Ivey offers:

  • Be direct and swift – (avoid long stories leading up to punchlines).
  • Make sure the humor is consistent with your brand.
  • Poke fun at yourself, the weather, and other innocuous subjects.
  • Stay away from political or religious issues.
  • Don’t target any race, gender or group such as senior citizens.

Bill Faeth of Inbound Marketing Agents names at least two good reasons for using humor in a blog:

  1. Humor builds connections because it’s a shared experience that builds trust.
  2. Humor is memorable marketing, creating “aha!” moments in prospects’ minds.

Faeth is in agreement with Ivey in terms of being pithy and creative when using humor, but adds a strong caution about using sarcasm, which he names the most likely form of humor to backfire entirely.

There is a strong tie between humor and marketing, Hannah Kaufman of Savvy Panda points out. But, she cautions, “Before you even think about creating a funny marketing campaign, make sure you align your humor with your target audience. Remember, it’s not about you, it’s about them.”

Putting fun into a business blog is a good idea, but it must be done with finesse!

 

 

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Effective Blog Writers Establish Structure

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glass and steel structure

 

“Now that you’ve created meaningful messages,” Nancy Duarte cautions professional speakers in Resonate, “they must be arranged in order to have impact. It’s unwise to merely dump a pile of unstructured information onto the laps of your audience.” That’s advice business blog content writers need to keep in mind as well, I couldn’t help thinking.

While our first instinct might be to follow a linear structure, that’s not the most effective way to present ideas in every situation, Duarte explains. To help your audience “see the overarching structure, move out of the linear format and ‘cluster’ content,” she advises.

Duarte, of course, is addressing presenters about offering spoken material to a live audience, using Power Point slides. Blog writers, though, can adapt the technique of varying organizational structures by:

  • spreading a message across a series of blog posts
  • using subtopics with a “read more” format, so readers can select those aspects of a topic most applicable to them

Some of the different ways to structure content – for both speakers and blog writers – include:

  1. Chronological (arranged according to time progression)
  2. Sequential (step-by-step instructions)
  3. Climactic (arranged in order of ascending importance)
  4. Problem/solution
  5. Compare and contrast
  6. Cause and effect
  7. Advantages/disadvantages

A blog itself is a web page made up of short, frequently updated posts that are arranged in reverse chronological order. Complex topics can be broken down into several parts and presented chronologically, sequentially, or climactically. Compare/contrast, cause/effect, advantage/disadvantage structures all help customers and prospects derive the greatest utility out of your information about the products or services you offer.

In creating effective and impactful business blog content, establish structure!

 

 

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A Tale of Two Ad Titles – Part Two

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Yellow sunglasses isolated on white background
The second of two advertisements that appeared in Science News Magazine illustrates a second set of lessons about blog titles and blog content writing in general.

(The first, “It’s Enough to Make You Blue in the Face” was an advertisement for the Stauer Urban Blue® wristwatch.) That ad was overloaded with features, benefits, a testimonial, even a giveaway offer. And, while the title made a “cutesy” use of the color blue of the watch and the expression “blue in the face”, it had no keyword phrases in it that would work for SEO.

The second ad,

“But When Driving, These Sunglasses May Save Your Life”
(advertisement for Eagle Eyes® Navigator sunglasses)

used a very different approach, called “fear marketing”, centering on the dangers of not using the product:

  • “Driving in fall and winter can expose you to the most dangerous glare…do you know how to protect yourself?”
  • “Some ordinary sunglasses can obscure your vision by exposing your eyes to harmful UV rays, blue light, and reflective glare.”

Like the Stauer® Urban Blue wristwatch ad, this ad lists product benefits:

  • “The TriLenium® Lens Technology offers triple-filter polarization to block 99.9% UVA and UVB
  • A 60-day money-back guarantee

And, like the wristwatch ad, this one offers a giveaway – an extra pair of glasses, with two micro-fiber drawstring cleaning pouches.

In place of a customer testimonial, this ad cites the official recognition given its product by the Space Certification Program of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

What are some takeaways for corporate blog writers?

First, while fear is one of the seven emotions that marketing writer Courtney Mills calls key drivers for successful ad copywriting, my view is that scare tactic marketing is not the best approach in blogs. To appeal to a better kind of customer – the kind that buys for the right reasons and then remains loyal, Calls to Action  should appeal to readers’ logic and positive emotional appeal.

The blog title does contain the keyword “sunglasses”, but might be more effective placed at the beginning, “These sunglasses may save your life”.

The connection with research done at NASA makes for interesting “backstory”content that could have been made the focus of the blog post. Alternately, the focus might have been on helpful hints for protecting your eyes.

As I like to remind business owners and professional practitioners, it’s interested people who are showing up at your blog in the first place. Now the task is to help those searchers get to know you and your company. Keep it informative and go easy on the hard sell.

 

 

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A Tale of Two Ad Titles – Part One

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wristwatchTwo advertisements, both appearing in Science News Magazine, illustrate two different approaches to blog titles and blog content writing in general, I realized, resolving to use the pair as examples in my next blog writing training session.

It’s Enough to Make You Blue in the Face
(advertisement for the Stauer Urban Blue® wristwatch)

This ad covers every base you can think of:

Features:

  • sturdy stainless steel caseback and crown
  • genuine leather
  • simple, clean lines
  • striking metallic blue face
  • cotswold™ mineral crystal
  • 60-day money back guarantee
  • water-resistant to 3ATM

Benefits:

  • high end performance
  • style
  • on-trend  (quote from WatchTime: “Blue watches are one of the growing style trends seen in the watch world in the past few years.”)

Testimonial:

“The quality of their watches is equal to any that can go for ten times the price or more.” Jeff from MicKinney, TX.

A giveaway:

“We’ll even throw in a pair of Flyboy Optics® sunglasses with purchase.”

 Takeaways for bloggers:

1.  The title? Cutesy use of the color blue and the expression “blue in the face”, but doesn’t have any keyword phrases in it that would work for SEO.

2.  An even more important blog writing takeaway from this ad is that it’s a little (no, a lot) too much! You don’t want your blog to be an all-in-one marketing tool that forces a visitor to spend a long time just figuring out the 87 wonderful services your company has to offer and the 92 benefits of your product.  No, your business blog should offer just a “peek”, enough to convey to the individual searcher that he/she’s come to the right place, and to invite him/her to move on to your website to learn further details.

3.  On the other hand, what you can do with the blog is offer different kinds of information in different blog posts.  In a way, each time you post (or have your ghost blogger post), you’re offering some valuable information or advice relating to just one aspect of your business. another day, your blog post can highlight a different benefit or feature.

Don’t overload your posts with content to the point of making your readers “blue in the face!”

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