Indianapolis Blog Writers Should Count Flying Elephants

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flying elephantsWhether that’s an accusation or a compliment, my friends tell me that ever since I became a professional ghost blogger and corporate blogging trainer, I’m spending a lot of time reading. I need to, because reading gives me ideas, and, for us blog content writers, ideas are nothing less than the vital fluids that keep SEO marketing blogs alive.

One little treasure of a book I discovered can be of business blogging assistance is Dance First, Think Later by Kathryn and Ross Petras., a compilation of rather offbeat quotes from famous figures on how to live life. A gem of a quote I found in that book, one that’s inordinately applicable to business blog writing, comes from writer Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

If you say that there are elephants flying in the sky, people are not going to believe you.  But if you say that there are four hundred and twenty five elephants in the sky, people will probably believe you. 

In blogging training sessions, I often stress, numbers are valuable tools in corporate blogging for business because they add both interest and credibility to any factual material.  So, in order to freshen up blog post content, I teach in corporate blogging training sessions, start with an idea about your product or service, then put a number to it:

          2 Simple Haircuts for Frizzy Hair
          3 Knottiest Problems of Home Repair and the Best Way to Tackle Them
          4 Tips to Add Color to Your Wardrobe

Whatever your business, the real point of the numbers is to offer valuable information, showcase your expertise, and demonstrate ways in which your product or service can help solve those knotty problems, provide color-adding wardrobe items, or coif their problem hair.

To add additional weight to the argument for using numbers as business blogging helpers, at least some Search Engine Optimization experts believe numbered lists are a favorite food for search engines and ought to be part of every SEO marketing blog.

In writing for business, are you remembering to count flying elephants?


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As a Blog Content Writer, What “Wires” Can You Remove?

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Bose music systemThree negatives – no tangle of wires, no dials to adjust, no stack of components – equal one very positive selling point for the Bose Wave® music system, as I was reminded the other day in a magazine ad.  Now there’s an idea I, as a corporate blogging trainer, can embrace – turning negatives into positives in business blog writing!

Apparently, authors Kevin and Shawn Coynes agree, because their new book Brainsteering (a must-read for anyone providing blog writing services) lists, as a key question for marketers to ask themselves, "What’s the biggest (avoidable) hassle that our customers have to put up with?" (That’s a question I can ask each business owner client to whom I’m offering business blogging assistance.)

As an Indianapolis blog writer, then, I need to urge each business owner client to pinpoint avoidable negatives that can turn into positive reasons compelling enough for online readers to respond to Calls the Action in their SEO marketing blog.

The Coynes take note of the fact that "the Gilette Corporation became rich realizing the inconvenience of sharpening a safety razor after each use, and then coming up with a solution to that ‘hassle’."

In writing for business, it’s crucial to help "remove the wires from your music system" and the need to repeatedly sharpen your razor, reminding readers of the annoyances and hassles they’re experiencing with their present providers and products.  Presto!  Your blog posts go on to describe the perfect, hassle-free solution to their problems.

One form of business blogging help would be asking the question, "What wires can you remove for readers of your blog?"

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Don’t Have it Today? Don’t Write it Today in Your Business Blog!

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A funny anecdote I read in Reader’s Digest makes a point blog content writers need to remember.

I’d just sat down at a Manhattan diner when I noticed schav on the menu.  I ordered some.
restaurent menu"We don’t have it today," said the waitress.
"Oh, you have it only on certain days?" I asked.
"No, we never have it."
I was confused.  "Then, why is it on the menu?"
"Well," she said with a shrug.  "Some people like it."

Corporate blogging for business is about what you do have – what you do sell, what you do know, and about what you do well.  Unfortunately, I’ve see blog writers in Indianapolis and elsewhere try to "fatten up" their "menu" of website and blog content by ranging far afield from the core mission of their business.

Promoting a public speaking business, for example?  Better, in your SEO marketing blog, to list two or three main speaking topics than a smorgasbord of twenty topics.

Far be it from me, of course, to imply in Say It For You corporate blog training sessions, that being a generalist in your field is undesirable or less marketable than being a specialist.  It’s simply that the more focused the business blog writing, the more effective it’s likely to be in terms of eliciting response and action from readers.

Jakob Neilson, who offers guidelines for Web content usability, says that the actual information on any web page is the design component with the highest impact of website profitability. A second teacher of good writing,Matt Duffy, guides content writers on a similar track: "Above all," he says, "writing should make sense."  Corporate blog writing will make the most sense to readers if it’s focused around central themes – core beliefs of the business owners, and cor products and services offered by that business.

In blog content writing for business, or on menus in restaurants, don’t talk about schav if you don’t serve schav!

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Business Blog Writing – Why Blog? Why Blog Now?

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opportunity costAt the recent Financial Forum in Indianapolis, I picked up an “Advantage Calculator”, a handy little retirement planning device distributed byIndiana Investment Watch.  On the calculator is a cardboard pull tab that investors can manipulate to see how large a retirement account they might have at age 65 were they to invest a certain number of dollars weekly beginning now.

As a freelance blog writer offering business blogging training, I’m always interested in different options for presenting material to readers or to a live audience. The fact that there were two sides to the “advantage calculator” gave me an idea that I think could be useful in corporate blog content writing. You see, I noticed that, while the first side of the Indiana Investment Watch device is titled “Why Save For Retirement?”, the flip side is titled “Why Save NOW?” focusing on the cost of waiting to begin the savings process.  In other words the Advantage Calculator was showing me compelling, positive reasons to take action.  But, on the flip side, I was being shown the opportunity costs of putting off action.

Blog content writing needs to address those two aspects, as well.  One function of any SEO marketing blog, of course, is to provide valuable information to consumers highlighting the benefits to be gained by using a certain product or service or by following a certain plan. But writing for business needs to draw attention to the “flip side of the calculator”, meaning the costs of consumers waiting to take action.

In offering business blogging help, then, I need to help business owners figure out exactly why their potential customers and clients should act now, and what benefits those customer and clients stand to lose by not taking advantage of the products and services sooner rather than later. At the same time, in providing business blogging assistance, I want to steer Say It For You clients away from the kind of order-now-or-lose-it sales tactics we see on late night TV or coupon web sites.

In Tell to Win, sales expert Peter Guber teaches the use of purposeful stories.  “If you can’t tell it,” Guber says, “you can’t sell it.  Blog content writers should incorporate stories that are, in and of themselves, calls to positive action, and deterrents to deferment!.

 

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Applying the Churchill Rule to Business Blog Writing

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Hitting precisely the right "advertorial" note is the big challenge in corporate blog Winston Churchillwriting. In fact, one point I’ve consistently stressed in these Say It For You blog content writing "tutorials" is how important it is to provide valuable information to readers, while avoiding any hint of "hard sell".

Of course there was no such thing as an SEO marketing blog when statesman Winston Churchill was alive.  I suspect, however, that Churchill wouldn’t have advised Indianapolis blog writers to take the soft approach. "If you have an important point to make," Churchill taught, "don’t try to be subtle or clever.  Use a pile driver.  Hit the point once.  Then come back and hit it again.  Then hit it a third time – a tremendous whack."

I find it interesting that Churchill used a pile driver image, because Rober Bly, in The Persuasion Manifesto, talks about “key copy drivers” which business content writers should use to enhance audience response. (The “drivers” are fear, greed, guilt, exclusivity, anger, salvation, and flattery.)

As someone providing blog writing services and business blogging assistance, I have to add that how much “driving” or, to use Churchill’s term “whacking” is just the right amount to use in your blog posts depends on your target market.

But one aspect of Churchill’s “tremendous whack” theory should be taken to heart by every Indianapolis blogger, and that is deciding what one important point you want to make in each post.  In fact, when it comes to blogging, Say It For You firmly believes in the Power of One – one message, one outcome, one audience, one writer, and one client. Each post can have a razor-sharp focus on just one story, one idea, one aspect of your business.

Once you’ve decided on the focus of the blog post, I teach attendees at corporate blogging training sessions, leave the rest of the “whacking” for another day!


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