Your Blog is Part of Your Customer Feedback Loop

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According to one Forbes study, 86% of consumers will actually pay more for a better customer experience, Devin Pickell, writing for helpscout.com, reminds business owners and practitioners; one of the best ways to put your customer first, Pickett urges, is implementing a customer feedback loop. Constantly collecting feedback from customers and readers and following up on that feedback allows you to improve areas causing user frustration and do more of what’s working well. Customers need to “feel heard”.

Agreed. As part of the business blogging assistance I offer through Say It For You, I’m always talking to business owners about their customer service.  The challenge is – EVERY business says it offers superior customer service! (Has any of us ever read an ad or a blog that does NOT tout its superior customer service?)  Fact is, individual blog posts can become a valuable part of each content writing client’s own customer feedback loop.

  •  Blog content should include stories specifically illustrating why your company’s customer service exceeds the norm.
  •  Surveys and self-tests can be used in blog content to find out what negative, “pet peeve” experiences may have caused reader to contemplate changing providers.
  • Messaging must offer the opportunity for personalized service – both before and after a purchase (yes, even in the online product purchase world of today).
  • Customers value the ability to gain new insights and learn new skills. Blog posts that take the form of tutorials and step-by-step instructions tend to be valued by readers.
  •  In Journalism 101, I was taught to “put a face on the issue” by beginning articles with a human example  A case study takes that personalization even further, chronicling a customer or client who had a certain problem or need, taking readers through the various stages of how the product or service was used to solve that problem. What were some of the issues that arose along the way? What new insights were gained through that experience, on the part of both the business and the customer?
  • The navigation paths on your blog site had better to be “easy to digest”. I caution new clients. You may have hired us for business blogging assistance, but keep thi important factor in mind: At the very moment that an online reader decides they’re ready to learn more, that they have a question to ask, or that they’re ready to take advantage of your products and services, you must make it convenient for them. They may want something, but not enough to spend extra energy to find it!

Whether you use survey tools, life chat, social media monitoring, or analytics tools, HelpScout reminds owners, what’s important is that you actually collect feedback so that you know what you’re doing well and what to improve upon.

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In Blogging, Don’t Be “Leo the Lip” – Ask for Actiion, but Explain Why

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In my Mensa Bulletin, there was a interesting piece about kindness and meanness, recalling former Brooklyn Dodgers manager Leo Durocher’s famous quip, “Nice guys finish last.”

The article’s author, Garrison Klueck, thinks the Durocher quote stuck because its meaning is consistent with the general belief that strength and authoritarianism is the most efficient way to run things. Authoritarian parenting involves a “because I said so” approach; authoritative parents, in contrast, explain to children the reasoning behind the rules, Klueck adds.

In blog marketing, calls to action (CTAs) often use imperative verbs designed to provoke immediate positive action: find out more, call now, provide contact information, etc. The concept, Tara Horner explained in “Writing a Better Call to Action”, is to show consumers how to take the next step and to create a sense of urgency around the offer.

At Say It For You, I must admit, we agree with Klueck, advocating a nice-guys-finish-first, authoritative parenting-type approach. Of course content writers must create a sense of  urgency, but, the way we figure it, searchers who’ve found themselves at your blog want to know why they ought to keep reading/foll

Durocher, nicknamed “Leo the Lip” did win games, But, as Garrison Klueck pointed out, so did Tony Dungy, the “universally-embraced- as-a nice-guy football coach” who led the Indianapolis Colts to their 2007 Super Bowl win.

“Whenever you tell someone they’re wrong, your mind goes through a series of specific mental steps to come to that conclusion. In doing so, you are actually harming yourself and your relationship with the others, and you’re killing any chance of anyone bettering themselves from the situation,” advises careerconservatory.com. “Stop telling people they’re wrong.”

As a professional blog copy writer, when I’m working with a new business client, our task is to find just the right “tone” and direction for the series of blogs. Today, the challenge is producing high authority content without sounding authoritarian. Nice blog content writers, we convinced at Say It For You, finish first!

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Give Blog Readers Something to Walk Away With – But Add Something to Act On

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“Give your audience something to walk away with,” Lindsay Kolowich Cox advises in a HubSpot piece called “Blogging Tips for Beginners”. “Your goal in creating content should be to provide value to your readers,” Peg Fitzpatrick asserts in another blogging advice piece, suggesting printable checklists and the sharing of expertise. At Say It For You, we suggest adding value by aggregating materials from different sources, then adding the blog content writer’s own unique twist on the concepts presented.

Earlier this month, a networking friend of mine used her blog for the first week of September to recount the history of Labor Day, explaining that the special day had been planned by the Central Labor Union in New York City back in 1882. I enjoyed the material and felt the blogger had offered value – I had “walked away with something”, for sure. What was missing, though, was the Call to Action. In other words, there had been no attempt to tie the subject (the history of Labor Day) to the sender’s own business (investment planning).

In corporate blogging training sessions, I do often recommend including interesting information on topics related to your business (or, if you’re a freelance blog content writer, related to the client’s business). If you can provide information most readers wouldn’t be likely to know, so much the better. Tidbits and “startling statistics” are important in blogging for business, because that information helps engage online readers’ interest. Still, the connection between the material and the business relationship (or potential relationship) between the sender and the reader needs to be related to the information.

So, although the piece my friend had included in her blog post about Labor Day was interesting and appropriately timed, that information was not tied to the reader’s problem or need, nor was there any call to action. No sentence indicated why the writer herself cared about the information, nor was there anything explaining why that information should be of special help to readers.

Blog content writing has an enormous advantage over traditional “push marketing” tactics, because, what blogging does best is deliver to corporate blog sites customers who are already interested in the product or service they’re providing! However, there needs to be an “ask”, and in blogging for business, the “ask” comes in the form of calls to action.

Give blog readers something to walk away with, but add something they can act on!

 

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Business Blogging – Staying Silent is the Wrong Choice

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“The COVID19 pandemic has put much of the world on pause. Blogging shouldn’t be one of them, writes Manish Dudharejia in the Search Engine Journal. Staying slilent is the wrong choice. Dudharejia names several reasons why:

  • People are on their digital devices more than ever now.
  • You have an opportunity to produce messaging that is not about anxiety-inducing topics.
  • You have the chance to discuss what your brand is doing to keep people safe.
  • Continuous communication and support builds customer trust and loyalty.
  • You have the chance to gain followers, even if they are not yet buyers.

“Customers want to know that you are surviving this new normal with them, so taking your customers along for the ride through various outlets of online marketing will ensure you have the support to get to and through these difficult times,” explains Makenzie Walker of topfloortech.com. “Positivity and reassurance are a business’ best friends,” Walker adds.

As a business owner myself, I loved the viewpoint of Karen Lombardo of Put Another Way.
Sales mentality, she says, can be divided into two categories: farming and hunting. Hunters find opportunities to close business; farmers engage with clients and forge and strengthen relationships. “The hat to wear in today’s environment,” Lombardo advises, “is the farmer.” Consistent communication is key right now. You have valuable knowledge and expertise. Put it out there, she says.

Way back in 2009, Tony Fannin, president of BE Branded, commented on the fact that in the economic environment of that time, businesses were cutting back their marketing and advertising. In effect what those business owners were saying, Fannin quipped, is “Let’s put less gas in the car so we can drive further and save money!” Without consistent reminders, brands are easily forgotten, he warned.

At Say It For You, we’re acutely conscious of the fact that it’s never been more important for brands to show purpose, going from information-dispensing to offering perspective on issues related to both the search topic and the times in which we’re living.

“May you live in interesting times” is a translation of a traditional Chinese curse, and we are certainly living in interesting times now. One thing’s for certain when it comes to business blogging – staying silent is the wrong choice!

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Blog Posts May Not Close the Deal, But They Deliver Sales Results

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“Sales professionals are expected to generate the best possible win rates for their effort,” explains Adam Wiggins in a Hubspot blog post. Choosing the right phrases to seal a deal is crucial, because the close is “the final verdict determining whether or not your efforts will amount to anything at all.” Wiggins reviews seven close types:

  1. Now or never close (some special disappearing benefit prompts an immediate decision)
  2. Summary close (reviews value and benefits)
  3. Sharp angle close (prospect asks for price reduction or add-on, but you agree only if they close today)
  4. Question close (“Does what I’m offering solve your problem?”)
  5. Assumptive close (salesperson monitors prospect’s engagement throughout, assuming a close)
  6. Takeaway close (remove a feature or service if customer balks on price)
  7. Soft close (low impact question: “If I.….would you be interested in learning more?)

Will blog marketing “close: deals in the same way as a face-to-face encounter between a prospect and a sales professional? The answer is obviously “no”. Interestingly, a second Hubspot blogger, Corey Wainwright, explains the indirect selling benefits of blogs and their place in the sales process:

  • If you’re consistently creating content that’s helpful for your target customer, it’ll help establish you as an authority in their eyes.
  • Prospects that have been reading your blog posts will typically enter the sales process more educated on your place in the market, your industry, and what you have to offer.
  • Salespeople who encounter specific questions that require in-depth explanation or a documented answer can pull from an archive of blog posts.

In the book Close the Deal, authors Sam Deep and Lyle Sussman suggest that a salesperson faced with a demanding prospect ask “What concession do you need from me to close the deal right now?”

In blogging for business, of course, such an exchange would not be taking place between the business owner/practitioner and the reader/customer. On the other hand, one purpose of the content is to persuade the reader to act. For every fact about the company or about one of its products or services, a blog post addresses prospects’ unspoken questions such as “So, is that different?”, “So, is that good for me?”

The traditional selling sequence of appointment, probing, presenting, overcoming objections, and “closing” may be totally dead, as Jeffrey Gitomer, author of The Sales Bible, asserts. What has replaced it, Gitomer says, is a step-by-step risk elimination, a process for which blogs are well-suited. Business blogs, I “preach” at Say It For You, are nothing more than extended interviews, and blog posts are an ideal vehicle for demonstrating support and concern while being persuasive in a low-key manner.

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