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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Is There Something Your Corporate Blog Readers Should Know About Your Best Practices?

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mothsSometimes it seems that no matter what business you’re in, and no matter how well you run it, there’s some organization or person out to prove your industry and all its practitioners are cruel, uncaring, wasteful, and in for the money only.

As a content writer in Indianapolis offering business blogging assistance and corporate blogging training, one thing I suggest stressing in blog posts is best business practices.  While one goal of any SEO marketing blog is to help your business "get found", once that’s happened, the goal changes to helping the online readers get comfortable with the way you do business.

Mental Floss Magazine highlights the making of the 1991 movie "The Silence of the Lambs", in which the serial murderer is obsessed with collecting rare moths.  Animal rights groups might have protested the exploitation of harmless insects just to make a film, but, thanks to animal wrangler Raymond Mendez, the 300 tomato hornworm moths traveled first class, were kept in a room with special heat and humidity settings, outfitted with tiny harnesses during high speed stunts.  As an Indianapolis blog writer, I was amazed to learn that once the filming was concluded, Mendez housed the moths and cared for them in his own apartment for the rest of their lives.

Blog content writing is the perfect vehicle for conveying a corporate message like this one. Think about your own business.  Is there anything that might be considered unsafe, cruel, or environmentally non-friendly about your industry or your business? What are you doing to mitigate those factors? Certainly, the content on your website can deal with the subject and offer reassurances, but there’s nothing like the cumulative effect, spread over time, of stories, testimonials, tidbits, and information delivered through corporate blog writing.

Negative criticism, say authors Doug karr and Chantelle Flannery in Corporate Blogging for Dummies, is an incredible opportunity for your company…Consumers want to see what happens when your company is faced with its own imperfections.

Take a Say It For You tip straight from the Mental floss Magazine story about the Silence of the Lambs – Don’t stay silent about your best practices!
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Warning to Blog Content Writers: Don’t Assume!

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As a content writer in Indianapolis, I give web designers’ and marketing directors’ Rothko paintingdifferent views about writing for business a serious listen. Most of the time, I must say, I gain valuable insights into the best ways to offer business blogging help.

Occasionally, though, I realize that a false assumption lies behind the advice of the person pontificating about corporate blog writing.  Remember the old sports coach’s saying "Don’t assume. It makes an a-s-s out of u and me." Well, as an Indianapolis blog writer, every so often I find that saying right on the mark when it comes to blog writing services.

I read a great, true story in Mental Floss Magazine that perfectly illustrates what I mean.  In the 1940’s and 50’s, painter Mark Rothco used the Multiform art style, consisting of huge abstract rectangles of color, intending for his paintings to invoke a "religious experience" in viewers.

When collectors began buying his paintings as investments, Rothko was devastated, and started to purposely create bad art, knowing collectors would buy whatever he put out. 

In Say It For You corporate blogging training sessions, I stress the importance of putting out only quality work to represent the high quality of your business. So, when I hear a business owner being advised that, in an SEO marketing blog, only keyword use matters (to the exclusion of high quality writing), I fume. After four years of studying – and, in my capacity of ghost blogger – writing thousands of blog posts, I never consider quality dispensable. Yes, blog writing is more casual and personal in style than the typically more static website text, but I never advise disrespecting online searchers, thinking "They’ll read whatever I put out."

A second erroneous assumption is that corporate blog writers don’t want them to read it! Isn’t the goal, after all, to have readers scan, then click through to the shopping cart?

The best possible business blogging service I can bring to any entrepreneur is to repeat that old saying about assumptions making a you-know-what out of you and me.  To the extent there is a sure-fire strategy when it comes to blog content writing, I believe it’s this: In writing for business, aim content towards a reader who is intelligent, on the search for information, products, and services.  You’ll end up getting found based on what you look for!


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