Be a SME, Not a Salad

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Both of this week’s Say It For You blog posts represent my reaction to Ryan Law’s very provocative piece “The Four Forces of Bad Content”. The first big negative “tell” of poor quality content, Law asserts, is a “bait-and-switch” approach, in which product Calls to Action are ‘smuggled” into an ostensibly informational article…. 

The Think eBiz Blog agrees with Law’s point about CTAs. “The blog should not be sales oriented… Provide good useful information and establish trust and credibility – sales will follow.” In this Say It For You blog, I keep coming back to the idea that business writing needs to be conversational and informational, not sales-y. Readers understand you’re writing for business purposes. Ironically, the very reason they have made their way to your site in the first place is that what you sell or what you do is a good match for their needs. It is not necessary – in fact, it will defeat your purpose as a content marketer – to punctuate the text with a “salad” of Calls to Action – either overt or disguised.

According to About.Com, “a Subject Matter Expert is an individual who understands a business process or area well enough to answer questions from people in other groups who are trying to help.” Actually, the term SME (pronounced “smee”) is not new to me.(When I was a developmental editor for Pearson Education, the course writers would turn to the SMEs for specialized knowledge to put into student textbooks.)  At Say It For You, “SME development” is all about presenting our business owner and professional practitioner clients as experts in their respective fields, a way of translating the bad advertising “noise” to which Ryan Law refers into well-considered courses of action for readers.

The “salad” concept, on the other hand, need not be considered a “force for bad”. “Cutting” or “chunking”, breaking down information into bite-sized pieces so the brain can more easily digest new information is a very good teaching technique, as e-learning coach Connie Malamed explains. Still, Ryan Law is absolutely correct in that a “salad” garnished with poorly disguised CTA s represents a bait-and-switch approach doomed to fail.

In their fact-finding mission, online readers have arrived at a particular site, looking specifically for information about what that business or that practitioner does and knows about. The tone of the blog content should assume that with complete information, readers will translate that information into action.

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Content Writers as Newscasters

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“Your social security log-in may change,” Elaine Silverstein warns in Kiplinger Personal Finance, explaining that the change is to both simplify sign-in and make the process more secure. For social security recipients, the headline is a grabber.

According to Social Bee, a “hook” is designed to entice readers to keep reading, and might consist of:

  • a credible statistic
  • an inspiring quote
  • an open-ended question
  • a bold statement
  • a figure of speech
  • an emotional connection

At Say It For You, one way content marketers can engage readers is by keeping them up to date with news that has the potential to directly affect them. Like newspapers, business blog content writing can balance feature stories with news. When it comes to content marketing for a business or practice, readers need to know about:

  • new products and services they can now obtain through you
  • any new partners or employees you wan tot introduce
  • your recent or upcoming activities in your community
  • any changes in company (or practice) policy, procedure, or rules that might affect customers, clients, and patients.

It’s very important, I explain to newbie content writers, to present this “news” in a way that appears to be “all about them” – is this going to demand action on their part?  Will their convenience be enhanced or diminished?

 If, in fact, the new information is likely to be perceived as ‘bad news”, offer alternatives that can help readers meet their goals.  End with a goodwill statement focused on the future, Jennifer Kahnweiler, Ph,d. says.

Showing that you are keeping abreast of the latest thinking and developments in your field is the key to earning “expert power”, showing readers that you are in a good position to spot both threats and opportunities. What’s more, as content writers, we must position our practitioner and business owner clients as leaders – not only are they “up on” on the latest developments in their fields, they themselves are helping bring about positive change and growth.

For readers, content marketers serve as newscasters

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So What’s My State’s Insect?

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Imagine – up until five years ago, Indiana was one of only three states with no state insect! Chronicled by the Indiana Department of Natural Resources, legislation was signed by Gov. Eric Holcomb rectifying the situation, naming the Say’s Firefly our insect of choice after students in several Posey County and West Lafayette schools wrote proposals and collected signatures while learning about the legislative process. As things turned out, not only is the Angled Candle Firefly native to Indiana, it’s named after Hoosier Thomas Say, father of American Zoology.

Ever on the search for fascinating factoids to spice up marketing content, I found mention of Firefly in the book What Makes Flamingos Pink by Bill McClain. (The cover describes the tome as “a colorful collection of Q & A’s for the unquenchably curious”, which is precisely the trait we treasure at Say It For You ).Fascinating tidbits of information lend variety to blog posts, and can be used to spark interest, to help describe the products and services offered by the business or practice, and even to clarify owners’ point of view.

The thing about tidbits, though, is they need to matter to the reader. Plus, I’ve learned over the years, there needs to be a back story. Skimming through the McClain book, my eye was caught by the statement “Every state in the United States has a state insect.” So, what’s my state’s insect? I immediately wanted to know. Still, absent the wonderful back story about students gathering signatures to support their choice of a name to propose to the legislature, I would have lost further interest in the subject of state insects.

I often recommend including interesting information on topics related to your business (or, if you’re a freelance blog content writer, related to your client’s business). If you can provide information most readers wouldn’t be likely to know, we teach at Say It For You, so much the better. But there has to be a “back story” showing a) why the information matters to the owner or to the history of the business and b) showing how the information might matter to the reader..

Tie In Tidbits and “So What’s” in Blogging for Business

So what’s MY state insect? And, what was “the deal” with MY state finally getting on board?

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Interviewing Questions for Blog Posts

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Interviews are a vital aspect of nonfiction writing, Don Vaughn explains in Writer’s Digest. and freelancers often turn to subject matter experts or to everyday people with unique experiences, perspective, or opinions. Vaughn suggests five key questions be posed to interviewees:

  1. What was your inspiration for…..?
  2. Why is your accomplishment important?
  3. What were the greatest challenges you faced?
  4. What do you get personally from your work?
  5. Who else would you suggest I talk to?

In a sense, blog posts might be viewed as “reverse” or “flip-flopped” interviews, with prospects interviewing the business, rather than the other way around. At Say It For You, we teach content writers that searchers are recruiting help, evaluating the content in light of their own needs. But, as a blog-content-writer-for-hire by business owners and professional practitioners, I’ve found that actually interviewing the founders or principals of a business or practice can make for very effective marketing content, often more compelling than the typical narrative text. How does that work? In a face-to-face (or online) interview with a business owner, executive, or professional practitioner, I capture their ideas and some of their words. I then add “framing” to the post with my own questions and introductions.

Interviewing subject experts will give your content depth, credibility, and perspective, explains Dawn Wolfe of thesimonsgroup.com. For one thing, industry experts are in a better position to make a topic meaningful for non-insiders. As a side benefit, Wolfe suggest, the experts you interview are more likely to share the content with their own networks, increasing your reach. In fact, Wolfe recommends providing interviewees with “teaser copy” they can post to their own social channels, making sure to include relevant hashtags. Wolfe has practical suggestions for locating subject matter experts to interview, suggesting analysts, authors, consultants, government agency and nonprofit personnel, universities and professional associations.

The STAR method of conducting a “behavioral” interview has become quite popular, The interviewee is asked to describe a Situation they were in, a Task they needed t accomplish, the Actions they took, and the Results. But, whatever format our Say It For You content writers select for an interview with a SME (subject matter expert), the goal is to elicit new insights into the subject matter. Whether it’s business-to-business blog writing or business to consumer blog writing, the blog content itself needs to contain opinion and insight, not only information and products.

 

 

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Blog Content to Counter Those Second Thoughts

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A humorous little poem in the 2023 Almanac for Farmers & City Folk is a good example of the challenge we blog content writers face in trying to get readers to take action:

The strain of work has zapped my zest;
The doctor says I must have rest;
He ordered me to get away
And forgo everything but play.
But where to go? How near or far?
By plane or train or boat or car?

As the potential traveler struggles to decide among the myriad of destinations and travel packages, she thinks of all the preparations she’d need to make in order to embark on the trip – find someone to walk her dog and feed her cat, purchase luggage, defrost the fridge, stop the mail, get new prescriptions, etc, etc., etc….. The no-longer-interested-in-travel customer concludes:

In checking off what must be done,
The chores outweigh the future fun.
Before I even make a start,
I’m too exhausted to depart.

“Problems arise when, instead of caring for their existing customers and treating new ones respectfully to win their business, businesses force both to jump through hoops during even simple interaction,” lament Mike and Blake Dubose. “Most customer service issues boil down to a simple problem: a failure to give customers what they want, when they want it, and in an outstanding way.” The same make-it-easy-to-buy concept applies to B2B customers – the more overwhelmed customers are, the less likely they are to buy, and the more likely they are to regret any purchases made. A prescriptive approach guides customers through the buying process with the greatest level of ease, identifying the customer decision roadblocks that must be overcome.

Blogs don’t make up an entire marketing structure, as I wrote years ago, but blog posts serve as bricks in the “decision-making architecture”. Readers might be a different stages in the sales cycle, so it’s a good idea t structure your Calls to Action so that those ready to buy can do that right away, but still providing for those not quite ready for even a phone conversation (who might be guided to watch a video or read an article). Remind readers of the annoyances and hassles they’re experiencing with their present providers and products, then go on to describe the perfect, hassle-free solution to their problems.

Making a business’ or a practice’s products and services accessible and easy to acquire or use has to be at the top of our best best practices list when it comes to writing content for business blogs!

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