Finding the Flossiest Blog Topics

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Downtown St. Paul, MN

Mental Floss Magazine, always masters at making unlikely connections among seemingly unrelated topics, did it again in “25 Flossiest Cities in the World”.  The term “flossy”, the editors explain (lest we envision dental care), means “exhibiting qualities of charm, quirk, and brain-boosting power in equal measure”.

The article is all about places that don’t come to top of mind, steering readers’ minds away from the tried and true and introducing them to new ways of looking for travel destinations.

I explain to newbie content writers in Indianapolis that steering away from the tried and true gives business owners the chance to showcase their own knowledge and expertise. Even more important, the technique of myth busting helps engage interest. A different approach can serve to answer readers’ concerns, as in the following examples:

  • Dentist’s blog:
    Do amalgams used for fillings cause mercury poisoning?
  • Beautician’s blog:
    Does makeup cause acne?
  • Internet security firm blog:
    If you don’t open an infected file, can you get infected?
  • Home décor firm blog:
    Should small rooms be painted in pale neutral colors?

Visitors arrive at your blog to find information on specific topics.  But, once your opening lines have reassured them they’ve come to the right place, it’s a great idea to use some unlikely connections to give them the sense of being ahead of the crowd, having some unusual “inside information”…

  • Giethoorn, Netherlands, Mental Floss advises, is flossier than Venice, with four miles of canals dug in the 13th century.
  • Lavenham, England is flossier than Pisa. Many of its buildings were constructed in the 15th and 16th centuries, are crooked because they used green timber which warped as it aged.
  • Huizhou, China is flossier than Austria.  China’s duplicature craze resulted in Austrian,  English, Swiss, Italian, and Spanish copycat cities.

What flossy topics can you use to unexpectedly engage blog readers’ interest?

 

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Don’t-Worry-We-Organized-Them-For-You Blogging for Business

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Cleopatra

“Turns out someone left a whole world of ridiculously interesting facts out there. Don’t worry! We organized them for you,” Mental Floss magazine editors assure readers. How? Well in the May-June issue, seemingly diverse pieces of information are organized by tens:

“10 Ways Beauty Gave History a Makeover: covers topics ranging from pharma discoveries based on ancient Egyptians’ eye makeup to Winston Churchill’s meeting with women’s magazine editors to frame the wartime rationing of textiles as the new stylish and patriotic fashion in dress; “10 Services You Never Knew You Needed” discusses gift certificates for unusual services, from lawn-mowing goats to grandma rentals.

Using a unifying theme to organize different pieces of information is called chunking. Chunking is, in fact, a good way for business bloggers to offer technical information in easily digestible form.

Just as the Mental Floss editors took separate anecdotes from history, and separate units of product descriptions, relating them to a unifying theme, bloggers can use chunking to show how individual units of information about their industry or business are related, perhaps in ways readers hadn’t considered.

Mental Floss is also using the “list” technique that is so very useful in freshening up blog post content: Starting with one idea about your product or service, put a number to it, such as “2 Best Ways To …,”  “3  Problem Fixes to Try First….”, or “4 Simple Remedies for…”

The point of the “lists”, of course, is to demonstrate ways in which your product or service is different, and to provide valuable information that engages readers and makes the information easy to grasp and retain.

In every business or profession, there’s no end, it seems, to the technical information available to consumers on the Internet. It falls to us business blog content writers, though, to break all that information down into chewable tablet form, helping readers make sense out of the ocean of information available to them.

Looking for information on a particular topic? Don’t worry, business owners can reassure their blog readers – we organized it for you!

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Business Blogging More Than a Matter of Facts

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facts“While most organizations believe they must safeguard all data and treat it as an invaluable corporate asset, the truth is that data has no intrinsic value. Data isn’t an asset at all; the real value lies in the information behind the data,” writes Pedro Cardoso of Enterprise Apps Today.

Instead of focusing on “managing data”, Cardoso concludes, it important to look at what types of information will be game changers for the business and your customers. When you start leading with solutions that focus on delivering business value, something magical happens, he says. What any business wants is “a lineup of anxious customers who want some of ‘what that other customer is having’”.

Typically, websites are used to provide data – what products and services the company offers and in what “packages”, who the players are, in what geographical area the company operates, and (on the better sites), data pertaining to the owners and the history of the company. All this is valuable stuff from a searcher’s standpoint, to be sure.  The real value, though, just as Cardoso expresses, is in the information behind the data, which is the stuff that makes any enterprise stand out from its peers.

One excellent technique for departing from the facts, yet staying on topic is storytelling. When you get right down to, the information behind the data is best absorbed through emotion rather than through logic. One Oscar-winning producer liked to put it this say: “Hits are made in the heart, not the head.”

To harness the power of that emotional appeal and direct it towards the marketing strategy of a business or practice, there’s no better way to tell series of stories than the blog. The stories actually serve as calls to action for readers.

Business blogging is more than a matter of facts!

 

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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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