Use Your Business Blog to Show What it Takes – and Why It Takes YOU!

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taxiFour years ago, despite having been a writer for more than 25 years, I found that, in order to prepare for my new work as a corporate blogging trainer and professional ghost blogger, I needed to study up. The learning process, which continues to this day, includes attending quite a number of seminars, lectures, and panels, even paying for many hours of "private tutoring".

Until I read "10 Things About Britain" in Mental Floss Magazine, though, I never dreamed that, in order to become a certified taxi operator in London, drivers must study up for an extraordinarily difficult exam that involves detailed recall of 25,000 streets, along with the locations of clubs, hospitals, hotels, parks, theaters, schools, restaurants, government buildings and churches.  I was amazed to learn from Erica Rex’s article that most drivers take at least three years to master all this knowledge.

From now on, I vowed, I would cite that article in corporate blogging training sessions to make a very important point about blog content writing for business. That article reminded me that online visitors searching for a product or a service typically have no idea what it takes to do what you do and how much effort you put into acquiring the expertise you’re going to use to their benefit.

Just to clarify, what I am not telling blog content writers to do is to "wave their credentials" around just because they are writing posts for an SEO marketing blog.  As Lee Goeller.com puts it, competence trumps credentials every time. But what I do think needs to come across loud and clear in business blog writing is what preparation and effort it takes – on your part and on the part of your employees –  to be able to deliver the expert advice, service, and products  customers can expect from you.

I absolutely love the opening line of the "10 Things About Britain" piece:

            Cabbies are smarter than Google Maps.

As a business owner in today’s click-it-yourself, do-it-yourself world, your content writing  needs to demonstrate to online searchers that, in your field, you ARE smarter than Google Maps, or eHow, or Wikipedia.  What’s more, your corporate blogging for business must make clear, you’re a lot more caring for your customers!


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Freshen Up Your Business Blog Writing

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women's lifeDawn Bertuca and Tina Bishop warn readers of Women’s Life Magazine not to take their relationships with their girlfriends for granted.  As a freelance blog writer offering blog writing services to many different types of businesses, I couldn’t help thinking that the authors’ tips for making sure "girl time" stays fresh are a very good fit for blog content writers.

Understand quality time.
"Don’t spend your girls’ night listening to a sales rep try to sell you kitchenware or makeup," warn the authors. "You need time to truly connect with your girlfriends without the distraction of a sales pitch."

In offering business blogging help, I need to stress avoiding direct sales pitches in blog posts.  Let the valuable information you supply demonstrate your expertise and your core beliefs about your industry, I explain.  Even in an SEO marketing blog, you need to let the quality blog content writing sell itself.

Be specific.
Instead of suggesting to friends that "We ought to get together soon.", invite them to a specific time and place, advise Bertuca and Bishop.

In Say It For You corporate blogging training sessions, I advise focusing each blog post on just one specific topic or idea.


Build on meaning.
Experiencing new activities together is a classic bonding technique, explain the authors.

In blog writing for business, share client comments and testimonial stories, and invite readers to share their thoughts and experiences through comments or surveys. Indianapolis blog writers can share local stories that have meaning to local readers.

Review the evening.
After each girls’ night, Bertuca and Bishop suggest, it’s a good idea to evaluate. Did you get what you wanted out of the evening? What might you do differently next time?

One suggestion I make when offering business blogging assistance is to "review" by capturing the essence of the blog post in one pithy sentence at the end. In general, as part of providing blog writing services, I like to begin each post with a "downbeat" (like a conductor’s baton), and end with a parting "shot"!


When it comes to corporate blogging for business, just as with Girls’ Nights Out, it’s important to find ways to freshen up the experience!

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Blog Content Writers’ Tidbit Challenge Goes Head to Toe

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It’s satisfying to prove one’s point, wouldn’t you agree?  I’d used my Say It For You blog high heelscontent writers’ tidbit challenge to illustrate the point that ideas for business blog writing are to be found everywhere.

One of four facts I’d found in Mental Floss Magazine was that, according to research published in the Journal of the American Dental Association, redheads are genetically predisposed to be more sensitive to pain than other people, and therefore require more anesthesia during dental procedures.

Taking me up on my challenge to relate a tidbit to aspects of her own business, friend and fellow blogger for business Kathy Carandang, owner of the WalkEZ Store, explained in her blog that, just as genetics can play a role in pain sensitivity, it can also be important in the development of hammer toe foot conditions.

In her blog post, Kathy follows many of the guidelines for businss blog writing that I stress in corporate blogging training sessions. In just a couple of sentences, the writer sets the stage by explaining just what the hammer toe condition involves. Carandang describes some aggravating factors to help readers "see themselves" in that situation, then follows up with a series of suggestions for finding relief.  As a freelance blog content writer, I always recommend "populating" any SEO marketing blog with valuable, usable, information.  This builds credibility and trust for the business.

Carandang demonstrates knowledge of her target market, which includes women who like to be fashionable in high heels, by assuring readers that ezWalker Performance Insoles can be worn with all kinds of shoes, from workboots to designer heels.

Every Indianapolis blog writer – and everyone providing blog writing services – needs a constant supply of new ideas.  Kathy Carandang’s post shows that even blog writers’ own feet can be a source of inspiration!.


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I-See-You-Here Blog Content Writing

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BillboardsThe billboard at the side of the highway read simply 1-866-YOU-HERE, a Call to Action if ever I’ve seen one. The question, of course, was whether or not I, driving my PT Cruiser up I-465, would see myself there on that billboard. 

In fact, as a professional ghost blogger offering corporate blogging assistance, I’d say the ultimate challenge blog content writers face is getting readers to "see" themselves using the products and services described in the blog posts.  Can readers, from your words, "feel" how much safer, healthier, financially secure, and more attractive they’ll be, once having availed themselves of your help?

The giant rectangle with the "I see you here" message that I viewed from the road was obviously a billboard.  By contrast, the majority of traffic to any business blog, as author/speaker Debbie Weil points out, comes from first time visitors, many of whom might not realize that what they are reading is a blog!  In corporate blogging for business, therefore, the I-see-you-as-a-customer message is, by definition, indirect, with Indianapolis blog writers painting pictures in readers’ minds through words.

To facilitate viewing, the billboard was positioned quite a number of feet above the highway level.  A Weber Communications blog advises doing the same think with Calls to Action in blog writing, positioning those CTA’s above the "scroll" line.  That, advises Weber, "gives you the opportunity to draw response from more subscribers…With your Call to Action up high, they can just glance and click.". 
 
The billboard’s simple CTA of 1-866-YOU-HERE was the entire message.  In blogs, though, Weber advises providing multiple calls to the same action.  What I like to remind business bloggers in corporate blogging training sessions is to provide several different options for readers, including

  • read more
  • subscribe to an email newsletter or to the blog itself
  • download something
  • contact
  • answer a question
  • take a survey

Importantly, the billboard fell directly into my visual path as I drove north on the highway.  As a freelance blog writer, I try to put Calls to Action in readers’ line of vision by using bolding, linking, or italics, and by separating content into short paragraphs. In offering business blogging help, I stress this rule:

Call attention to your Calls to Action!

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In Weddings or in Writing for Business, the Questions Are: What Will You Say to Each Other? To Your Guests?

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wedding vowsReal Simple Weddings Magazine warns couples not to get so caught up in the concrete details of wedding planning that they leave their vows to the last minute. 

As part of corporate blogging training, I’d like to issue the same warning to business owners who’ve decided they need to add business blogging to their overall SEO marketing strategy. 

In the case of writing for business, the "vows" are the promises owners and employees make to themselves, and the promises they make in marketing to prospective clients and customers.

"Borrow wedding videos from other couples," advises Real Simple. "Think about what you like best and least and what you can adapt for your own vows." Great idea for blog content writers.  Reading others’ blogs, those in your own industry and those in related industries, can help you narrow down your content planning to "leitmotifs", general themes you plan to emphasize in your business blog posts.

Talk to each other, Real Simple advises the future bride and groom. As a content writer in Indianapolis offering business blogging assistance,  I have similar advice for owners and to the workers who create the products, take customer orders, provide services. If you had only one or two sentences to describe the essence of what value you add to customers’ lives, what would those sentences say?

"What will you say for your guests?" asks Real Simple, advising couples to consider integrating the guests in the ceremony.  In blogging for business, too, it’s important to incorporate content provided by  your visitors and "guests" through inviting comments, testimonials, and requests, and even through encouraging complaints.

Over my years of offering business blogging help, I’ve seen it again and again.  Business owners, particularly if they’re intimidated by the terminology and technology involved in selecting blog platforms, and planning SEO marketing strategy, become so caught up in the details, they forget that the most important question is "What shall we say to each other and to our online guests?"



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