Examining, Not Eating, Our Words

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“Every day, we eat our words,” Richard Lederer writes in the San Diego Union-Tribune. “Both our food and our language are peppered with salt,” he adds as an example. Before artificial refrigeration was invented, salt was the only way to preserve meat. Therefore: A portion of the wages paid to Roman soldiers was “salt money” with which to buy salt. The term was “salarium” (today we say “salary”). Other words derived from salt include salad, salsa, sausage, and salami. Good, plain people are called “salt of the earth”; a good worker is “worth his salt”.

Many of our words have to do with bread, Lederer explains. The term “companion” is derived from the Latin “com” (together) and “panis” (bread). We “break bread” with company. Wage earners are breadwinners. Cake is also an important root word, with the cakewalk being a 19th century dance meant to make fun of the rigidly stiff formal dancing of White plantation owners. Winners of dance contests were awarded a cake, possibly the origin of the expression to “take the cake”.

When it comes to language choices in blogging for business, I often recall the 1998 memorandum from President Bill Clinton: “The Federal Government’s writing must be in plain language. By using plan language, we send a clear message about what the government is doing, what it requires, and what services it offers. Plain language saves the Government and the private sector time, effort, and money.” Four specific characteristics of logically organized, easy-to-read documents,, Clinton said, include common, everyday words, “you” and other personal pronouns, the active voice, and short sentences. With “easy-to-read” a quality much to be desired in blog marketing, all four of these recommendations apply to blog posts.

“Examining” the terminology relating to your business or profession is a very good idea for business blogs. But, while helping readers “examine” the background of terms is a great way to stimulate interest, what we would not like to have to do is “eat our words”. Just how can content writers communicate an owner’s strong opinions without offending? “When you communicate a strong opinion, you automatically divide the audience into three parts: those who agree, those who disagree, and those who haven’t yet decided, crystalclearcomms.com admits. In a KRC Research survey asking whether CEOs have the responsibility to speak up about issues that are important to society, only 38% said yes..

At Say It For You, what I’ve learned over the years of creating blog content for dozens and dozens of clients in different industries and professions is that, in order to turn clients and customers “on”, we must incorporate one important ingredient – opinion. Taking a stance, I’ve found, clarified what differentiates that business, that professional practice, or that organization from its peers.

The trick is to examine words, express our own opinions in words, but avoid using words to mock others. After all, we want to enjoy reading words, hearing words, and using words, not “eating” them!

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Blogging This or That

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For the same amount of money, Jeana Harris explains in Indianapolis Monthly, you could have a four-bedroom Roaring Twenties foursquare in Meridian-Kessler or a sleek two-bedroom downtown condo just five blocks from Mass Ave. Would you prefer a view of peaceful streets sheathed with mature trees, or a sixth-floor view of the city coming alive at night?

Unlike upselling, which involves encouraging the purchase of anything that would make your customer’s purchase more expensive with an upgrade, enhancement, or premium option, Sophia Bernazzani explains in Hubspot.com, cross-selling pitches other products or services that work together with the ones already owned by the client or customer. Investopedia.com points out that both methods are “suggestive”, requiring only marginal effort on the part of the sales professional compared with the potential additional revenue.

“Having a larger number of choices makes people feel that they can exercise more control over what they buy. And consumers like the promise of choice: the greater the number of options, the greater the likelihood of finding something that’s perfect for them,” Sheena Iyengar and Kanika Agrawal assert in The Art of Choosing. But not everyone agrees. “More Isn’t Always Better”, says Barry Schwartz in the Harvard Business Review. Research now shows that there can be too much choice, inducing “choice paralysis”, with consumers less likely to buy anything at all.

Can business blogs help potential clients and customers make better, sometimes complex, decisions? A possible path to achieving that precise result, we have found at Say It For You, involves suggesting questions readers can ask themselves while choosing among many options. (Do they want ease of use? Current functionality? Future capabilities?)

No, more isn’t always better, but companies that get the balance right will be amply rewarded, Schwartz concludes. Due to the natural “drip effect” of blogs .consistent posting of informational “this-or-that” content can help consistent marketers achieve that Goldilocks “Mmm…just right” result.

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Resisting the Urge to Repeat? Not!

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Ask a question and wait for a response, no matter how long it takes, is one piece of advice given to newbie salespeople. In other words, resist the urge to repeat your question, instead waiting- wait for an answer. Your prospect will inevitably feel moved to fill the silence, is the theory. Some health experts agree, citing repetition compulsion, or called trauma reenactment, which involves repeating physically or emotionally painful situations that happened in the past.

Not all sales trainers are on board with the advice about waiting for prospects to respond. “The mistake many people make–including me–is not following up often enough,” Minda Zetlin writes in Inc. Magazine. “When customers don’t hear from you for a while, they’re liable to forget you just at the moment when you want to be top of mind,” she says. Ask yourself, Zetlin advises, if there’s a follow-up note you can send with additional metrics or other information that will help your potential customer make a decision. Meanwhile, the trainer adds, “You don’t want to make the classic mistake of losing customers you already have while you’re busy landing new business.”

Hubspot agrees with Zetlin’s approach, saying that following up on a sales call or email significantly increases your chances of getting a response. Research shows that if you add just one more follow-up email, you can increase your average reply rate by eleven percentage points. In fact, first followup emails show. a 40%-increase in reply rate in comparison to the first email.

At Say It For You, after years of being involved in all aspects of blog writing and blogging training, one irony I’ve found is that business owners who “follow up” with new content on their websites are rare. There’s a tremendous fall-off rate, with most blogs abandoned months or even weeks after they’re begun. Blog marketing maven Neil Patel reminds business owners and practitioners that “Google isn’t shy about rewarding websites that publish regular, high-quality content.” The “frequency illusion”, Mark Zimmer adds, means that each time a customer is exposed to the message there is a sense of omnipresence.

At least when it comes to blogging for business, resisting the urge to repeat is not the way to go!

 

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Blogs are About Value, Not Pricing

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An article in Mental Floss magazine about a 300 year-old Stradivarious violin reminded me of an ongoing discussion having to do with whether product or service pricing should be mentioned in blog content….

In discussing the upcoming auction of the Strad, author James Stewart makes some salient observations about pricing and how it relates to value. Factors that add to the value of this particular violin include:

  • the fame of the violin maker family
  • the identity of former owners of the instrument (Seider taught violin to Albert Einstein using this violin)
  • the association with the 1930’s filming of The Wizard of Oz at MGM Studios

Due to this combination of value-enhancing factors, it’s estimated that the violin might fetch $15 to $20 million in the upcoming auction.

“Today’s consumer is bombarded with advertisements in all media, direct mail offers, and telemarketing offers,” observes Dr. Richard Murphy of Jacksonville, University. “There are numerous factors involved when we begin to discuss the issues of value, cost and price. The value of anything is perceived by the customer, not the manufacturer or the vendor.” A Forbes article mentions one of Warren Buffett’s most famous quotes: “Price is what you pay; value is what you get.”

One question facing blog marketers is whether prices should be mentioned at all in the content. Ten years ago, Marcus Sheridan of social media examiner.com observed that, instead of addressing the No. 1 consumer question up front, business owners often decided to wait until a later stage of the sales process. “People like to know how much stuff costs,” Sheridan warned.

At Say It For You, we don’t think price is the No. 1 consumer question on the minds of web searchers who land on our clients’ blog posts. Instead, what your business blog writing needs to do is answer questions, offer perspective and thought leadership, while giving searchers a “feel” for the desired outcomes of using your products and services.

Think about it: When you visit an online shopping site, or even when you go into a local store to buy something, often all you can see are products on the shelf (or, in the case of an online visit, pictures of products) with names and prices.  Too often, there’s nobody to talk to and no other information available, (there may be customer reviews online).

At our content writing company, here’s how we view the issue of “putting price first”: Buyers want more than just product and service descriptions and prices. Blog content writing is about introducing readers to business owners, explaining the owners’ specialty or niche within their field, their special “philosophy” about their area of practice or their industry, and their unique approach to providing client services.

Blogs are about value, not pricing!

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Letting the ideas Do the Work in Your Blog

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“By the end of three minutes, your audience will already be leaning yes or no on your proposal”, Brant Pinvidic writes in The 3-minute Rule. You know your product, service, or company is amazing, but they don’t know how it works or why it’s so great. You need to give them more knowledge in less time, the author explains, not selling, but letting the ideas do the work. 

Given the concern today about the rising price of oil, I was particularly taken by the story Pinvidic shares about an oil company executive. (This was taking place back when oil prices were one quarter what they are now.) Pindivic was coaching the presenter, whose goal was to show investors that his company, unlike others, had found a way to keep drilling even if oil were to fall to $32 a barrel (the price was $40 at the time) The problem – it was only after 17 minutes of presenting (by which time the audience had fallen asleep) that the speaker explained how his company could keep drilling at $32 a barrel of oil..

The revised presentation began with the most important idea, the essence of the proposal: Our company can keep drilling profitably even if crude prices drop below $32 a barrel. Next came the “why” and the “how”: We have clear leases on proven wells with ample reserves. The valley location gives takers quick access to major highways to the Port of Houston. The new presentation ended with perspective and context: Our competitors must stop production below $37 a barrel.

In a nutshell, Brant Pinvidic is urging marketers to stop selling and to let the ideas do the work: “Don’t state and prove. Inform and lead.”

At Say It For You, I often refer to blogs as the sound bites of the Internet. In short segments, business owners convey to readers the essence of their accomplishments. Corporate blog writing, I explain, isn’t advertising, Blog content writing means telling readers about the essence of your special knowledge, insights, and beliefs, as well as about the products or services you offer. However, just as Pindivic stresses, the most important idea (and there should be just one core “thesis” for each blog post) needs to reassure readers they’ve come to the right place for the solution to their problem or the answer to their question.

While your topic may have little to do with oilfields, your audience needs your help “drilling down” – and quickly – to the essence of what you know, what you do, and how you can be of benefit to them. Stop selling and let the ideas do the work!

 

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