Archive for category: the Say It For You blog

Since my loyal fans patiently explained to me that I’d failed miserably in explaining my idea the first time, I’m trying this again and extending the challenge through the middle of June. You can:

• E-mail the link to your blog post to me and I’ll mention it here in my own Say It For You blog.
• If you don’t yet have a corporate blog site, simply email a document to me and I’ll publish it here on my blog.

What I call a "triggering tidbit" is nothing more than a piece of unusual or little-known piece of information bloggers for business can use in their posts.

Help me prove the point that ideas for a business blog may be found everywhere. I challenge you to take a tidbit of information (either one of the four I’ve listed here or any tidbit you’ve found), and develop a 250-350 word piece about your business using that tidbit. 

• You can use that tidbit of information to explain your special way of doing business. 
• You can use it to clarify the way one of your products works. 
• You can use the tidbit to show why one of the services you provide is particularly effective in solving a problem.

Tidbit #1:  "Redheads require 20% more general anesthesia than non-gingers before going under the knife."

Tidbit #2: "About one in every 4 million lobsters is born with a rare genetic disease that turns it blue, which makes it easier for predators to spot."

Tidbit #3:  The "Poems in the Waiting Room" charity was founded in 1998.  The organization distributes cards with poems to the waiting rooms of medical practices in the British National Healthcare System (and, since 2010, in the U.S.).

Tidbit #4:  The myth of the 5-second rule syas that if a treat spends less than 5 seconds on the ground, it doesn’t collect germs.  Dr. Paul Dawson of Clemson University showed that "bacteria such as salmonella transfer onto food instantly upon contact."

I’m just curious to see how different businesses can come at the same information from different angles.  And of course I’m anxious to verify my theory that good ideas for writing for business are all around us all the time.  We just need to keep our ears and eyes open.

Won’t YOU rise to the Triggering Tidbit Challenge?  This Indianapolis blog writer will be looking forward to your e-mails with examples of creative writing for business!

As a freelance blog writer, I subscribe to blogs of many types. One recent post that caught my attention was by friend and sales coach Jack Klemeyer .  Jack had overheard a conversation about the mess often created in the ladies’ room when ladies put water on their hands first and only afterwards reach for the soap.

Do you wet your hands and then add soap, or squirt soap in your hand and then add water?  Well, Kleimeyer uses that question in his blog as an example of the proper way to prepare for a sales presentation. Many of the points stressed in that blog post are relevant to corporate blogging for business, because after all, a company’s SEO marketing blog is part of its effort to generate sales.

“Too many times when a person is selling (or trying to convey an idea or attempting to influence), they haven’t done all the prerequisites needed to ask for the sale,” Klemeyer explains.  The coach is referring to things such as establishing rapport and gaining a complete and mutual understanding of the client’s needs and how the salesperson’s product or service can be of benefit to the prospect.

According to Mike Gegelman, a financial planner in Florida, prospecting comes down to three things: the right message to the right market at the right time. That’s in line with Klemeyer’s advice that successful sales are the result of prior preparation and research.

Speaking of prior preparation when it comes to business blog writing, in the early stages of creating a new blog, the blog content writer and the client (the business owner) are trying to strike precisely the right “tone” for the blog.  I’ve discovered one very interesting thing I’ve in dealing with different content writers in Indianapolis and with the client businesses they serve.  Whenever there’s a “disconnect” between the two parties, it’s almost always about how “sales-ey” the blog should or should not be. 

Generally speaking, as I often stress when I offer corporate blogging training, blog posts are not ads, and there should never be a hard-sell or boastful tone to the content.  When asked to provide business blogging help, I explain that blogs are closer in nature to informative “advertorials”, positioning the company or practitioner as helpful, well-experienced, and knowledgeable.

And that, of course, comes right back to the prior preparation and research Jack Klemeyer correctly calls such a crucial part of the sales process. One particular form of preparation I encourage anyone providing business blog writing to do is reading OPB (Other People’s Blogs). Repeating what other, established bloggers have said and then commenting on that forces  business bloggers to think about what they might add to the discussion.

As Klemeyer says, a complete and mutual understanding of the client’s needs is crucial in sales. In corporate blogging for business, there’s a double load of “homework” that needs to be done, because, in a way, there are two clients to understand – the blogging client (the business owner or manager), and the buyers of that business’ products and services.  Putting water on your hands and only then going for the soap can result in a big ladies’ room mess.  Writing for business without doing your homework first will probably have a parallel outcome!