Blogging the Whys, Whats, and Talking Points

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Carmel Rotary and the City of Carmel, I learned from the Carmel Monthly magazine, are preparing to host the Deputy Mayor of Cortona Italy, Carmel’s new sister city. As part of an “authentically Italian experience”, titled Arte d’Italia, Attesti, a world-renowned pianist, will perform at the Palladium and at the Carmichael.

Exciting cultural news, but as a content marketer, I was quite impressed with the way writer Janelle Morrison presented that news, including the three elements that need to be included in blog posts designed to inform readers about new developments in a business or practice:

The Whys
The typical website explains what products and services the company offers, who the “players” are and in what geographical area they operate. The better websites give at least a taste of the corporate culture and some of the owners’ core beliefs. But, as we stress at Say It For You, it’s left to the continuously renewed business blog writing, though, to present new developments, as well as giving readers a deeper perspective with which to process the information and show why it’s important. The first part of the Carmel Monthly article explains the various ways, according to Mayor Brainard, any city that is a member of Sister Cities International benefits in terms of international goodwill, student educational exchanges, and expanded business relationships.

The Whats
Morrison then went on to detail the “whats”, meaning the details of the upcoming plans, representing opportunities to “showcase some of Carmel’s finest and most beautiful venues and organizations”. Hotel Carmichael’s Chef Jason Crouch have curated “an amazing menu focused on the rich culinary influence found in this region of Italy”. Carmel Symphony Orchestra Artistic Director Janna Hymes worked via Zoom with Attesti to design a whole new program featuring Italian and American pieces. In blogging for business, it’s simply not enough to provide even very potentially valuable information to online searchers who’ve landed on a company’s corporate blog. The facts (the “whats”) need to be “translated” into relational, emotional terms that compel reaction – and action – in readers.

The Talking Points
Prepare talking points for each interview, is the advice offered by Sally Cates to financial advisors in Financial Planning Magazine. Business bloggers need to prepare talking points as well, curating and properly attributing materials from different sources to support the points and add value for readers. Some of the powerful talking points included in the Carmel Monthly piece are these: Music is a universal language. Mayor Attesti explained that the Italian legislation, more restrictive than that of the U.S., makes approaching sponsors for cultural activities a challenge; he hopes to learn about economic sustainability of cultural initiatives. On the other hand, he hopes to suggest ways to increase tourism and cultural life in Carmel.

In blogging for business, all three elements are important for success – the whys, the whats, and the talking points!

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Being Heard, Not Only Seen, in Your Blog

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In this week’s Say It For You blog posts, I’m sharing insights from the October issue of Poets&Writers magazine. An insightful profile of CelesteNG’s new book, Our Missing Hearts offers valuable concepts for business blog content writers. Poet Maggie Smith believes NG’s book should be required reading for all, “grappling with big questions such as art, freedom, and ethics”, but there is one particular line in the book that resonated with me as a content writer: “We talk a lot about being seen, but I think we also want to be heard. Everybody has stories inside them but not always someone to tell them to.”

Social media maven Neil Patel agrees, One sure way to sabotage your own brand on social media, he says, is talking without listening. “Users want something real. They want real people, real interactions, and real, unbridled human connection…The real human essence of the brand is what users want to see come through loud and clear.”

“Who doesn’t want a personal fortuneteller?” Tom Searcy writes in Inc.com. Customers are looking for people who “hear” their concerns about upcoming regulations, technology trends, mergers and acquisitions, and modern day issues. “Remember,” Searcy says,”When you talk to the buyer about the buyer, you increase his or her engagement.” Potential customers want great products, outstanding service, and a competitive price. But, according to According to research from HubSpot, there’s something else they want even more: listening.

Over these years creating Say It For You blog content for different business owners and professional practitioners, I’ve come to realize that, in addition to wanting to be heard, blog readers actually want to “hear”. Unfortunately, I came to realize, most blog writing was being devoted to describing “what we do”, describing all the services and products the company or organization offers. Too little space seemed to be devoted to “what we believe” and to “who we are” as citizens of the community. For that very reason, when I’m offering business blogging assistance, I emphasize that the best website content – and the best corporate blogs – give online readers a feel for the corporate culture and some of the owners’ core beliefs about their industry and the way they want to serve their customers.   Those “we believe” statements can turn out to be the business’ most powerful calls to action.

A provider’s blog may not, at least not on a level similar to CelesteNG’s book.”grapple with big questions such as art, freedom, and ethics”, but the content must clearly demonstrate that the owners “hear” their customers’ concerns, and that, in return, their prospects and customers are able to “hear them!

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White Meat or Dark? Carving Up Blog Content

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Uncle Ned prefers a thigh, while your sister Julie has first dibs on a drumstick. Very much like your Thanksgiving turkey, any blog content topic can be approached in a variety of ways.  Like guests at the Thanksgiving table, within your target market, each reader’s need for information, products or services was born in a slightly different space and has traveled a different path. Not every approach is going to work for every reader.

In fact, in order to add variety, at Say It For You, we like blog content writers to experiment with:

  • different formats – how-to posts, list posts, opinion pieces
  • different vantage points, “featuring” different employees and different departments within the company.
  • different segments of the customer base

In fact, what I’ve learned over the years of freelance blog content writing, is that most business owners have more than one target audience for their products and services. And, while there may in fact one market segment or demographic that has proven to yield the greatest number of raving fans for them, they also have “outliers” who bring in just enough revenue to matter. What can be done with a business blog, then, is to offer different kinds of information in different blog posts. There is, of course, one over-arching topic (just as all the guests are around your thanksgiving table), but there’s something on your blogsite to satisfy each one’s tastes.

Just as, at most Thanksgiving dinner tables, relatives “catch up” on each other’s doings, on their opinions about what’s going on in the world, and about what they’ve been doing, reading, and thinking – a business blog is a forum of sorts. Providing information about products and services may be the popular way to write corporate blog posts, but blog visitors want to know what differentiates that business, that professional practice, or that organization from its peers. And, just as Dad might tell those gathered at the table about a great documentary he’s seen or a book he’s just read, you can “borrow” the wisdom of others to reinforce your point and add value for readers by aggregating different sources of information in one business blog.

White meat or dark? At your thanksgiving table or in your blog, carve up the content to offer something for everyone.

 

 

 

 

 

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Blogging What You Are Not

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“I photograph weddings, but I am not a wedding photographer.,” asserts Marty Moran, owner of Whitehot Headshot. “I photograph headshots, but I am not in the headshot business,” he adds. “I am a relationship builder, strengthening my tribe as I help others strengthen theirs. Give them quality and support, and they will make return visits,” Moran believes.

My networking colleague Ron Mannon often needs to explain that his company, Combustion & Systems, Inc., an industry leader in powder coating systems, does not actually do powder coating or paint finishing. Instead, they provide the equipment and training so that their customers can do their own finishing rather than farming out that part of the manufacturing process.

At Say It For You, we create SEO-conscious content, but do not focus on the science of Search Engine Optimization, believing that blogging is about much more than back-links and “authority”. What do you want to say to your customers today? What will get them excited enough to choose you over the competition? How will you keep them coming back for more information in the future?

In the Harvard Business Review, Madelaine Rauch and Sarah Stanske write about “the power of defining what your company isn’t”. There are times when having an “anti-identity” can be useful in communicating with customers, employees, and investors,” they explain. “We suspect,” the authors say, that companies might experiment with an anti-identity approach, analyzing who they really are and what that implies about what they are not. “No business – particularly a small one – can be all things to all people. The more narrowly you can define your target market, the better,” the staff of Entrepreneur Media, Inc. say.

Of the top 10 mistakes new business owners make, Gene Marks of the Hartford says, #1 is trying to do things you’re not good at. Translating that very sage advice into the field of blog content creation, that means defining in your blog not only the successes and strengths of the business or practice, but defining precisely which products and services you provide – and which you don’t. After all, Since exceeding customer expectations is such a worthy goal, clarifying those expectations and aligning them with reality is a key part of the marketing process. “It is vital,” smartkarrot.com advises, “to put parameters upfront, so that you can honor them time and again.”

Blogging, in short, clarifies what you are, but it is equally important to clarify what you are not!

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Helping Readers Organize Their Perceptiions

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Helping readers organize their perceptions of your industry and of the services and products you offer is one of the core functions of blog marketing. An article in Forbes, “5 Cybersecurity Strategies for a Riskier World“, is an excellent model of how to present information in a well-organized, easy-to-digest format. For each imperative, a statistic is presented, followed by a piece of advice.

  1.  (Imperative) Balance innovation and security.
    (Statistic) 41% of executives say cyber risk initiatives at their organizations have not kept pace with digital transformation.
    (Advice) Don’t invest in cleanup for legacy systems – bake in security with new efforts.

2.  (Imperative) Inventory your highest risks.
(Statistic) 4 in 10 organizations now take a risk-based approach to cybersecurity.
(Advice) Get your technical teams, partners, and suppliers on the same page.

3. (Imperative) Safeguard remote work.
(Statistic) 67% of business-impacting cyber attacks target remote workers.
(Advice) Offer security awareness training for employees and their families, paying for the use of family password stories and                          antivirus protection for home devices.

In marketing a business or practice, organizing relevant and useful information in a structured format can be very useful to readers. Bullet points and numbered lists help readers’ eyes move quickly through the material. And, when the blog content “walks” readers through logical steps to a conclusion, that can increase the likelihood of them staying around to read all your key points.

Statistics can actually serve as myth-busters; if there’s some false impression people seem to have relating to your industry, or to a product or service you provide, you can bring in statistics to show how things really are. Statistics can also serve to demonstrate the extent of a problem (which is precisely how they are used in the Forbes article).  Once readers realize the problem, the door is open for you to show how you help solve that very type of problem for your customers!

In terms of offering advice, I’ve often mused that, out of all the possible advertising and marketing tactics a business or professional practice might use, blogging’s way ahead of the pack because it attracts customers who want to be sold. In fact, it’s the close match between the type of advice the searcher wants and what you know about that accounts for your meeting them in the first place!

It’s important that the entire format of the Forbes article is built around numbers, both in the “listicle” format and in the statistics. . In an analysis by HubSpot of their own blog posts to see which titles had performed the best in terms of search results, the top eight each included a number. In blogging for business, numbers are a great way to be specific about your accomplishments.  They also show that you pay attention to benchmarks and concentrate on setting and meeting goals.

Organizing the material offered in your blog post helps readers organize their perceptions.

 

 

 

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