Raise Your Hand If You Read Blogs

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Passing a bulletin board in a hallway at Ivy Tech, I noticed that, while the board was literallyIvy Tech flyer covered with flyers and notices of all sorts, only the flyer pictured here caught my attention. Since, as a freelance SEO copywriter, I’m in the business of attention-capturing by offering business blogging help, I analyzed the flyer to find out what there was about it that drew my eye.

The look
The picture of all the different hands being raised is only part of the answer, I think. In corporate blogging  training sessions, I  emphasize the importace of graphics in blog posts, including font, bolding, and visuals (videos, charts, and photos). The first impression a reader gets once having clicked on to your blog – counts.

The headline
The first words the reader (and the search engine) sees are in the title of each blog post. In the case of the Ivy Tech student flyer, the first words involve the reader – raise your hand if you…:  Making business blog content about them (your potential customers) rather than about you and what you have to offer is simply smart business blog content writing. 

Targeting the audience
The flyer was “targeting” students from different countries and students interested in international culture. Each of the bullet points was geared towards someone that fell into one of those categories, but rather than saying “If you’re from a foreign country…”, the text is geared towards arousing curiosity and relating to students of different origins.  Wear lederhosen? Eat pain perdu? Call soccer football? Everything about this flyer shouts, “You’ve come to the right place” (meaning the International Students Association).

In corporate blogging training, that is precisely the message blog content writers want to convey to online searchers who have found the blog.  You’ve come to exactly the right place for the information, products, and services you’re seeking.  You’re home!

Calls to action
Even in the calls to action, the creators of the student association flyer followed best practices of business blog writing, I thought, offering not just one, but two ways to do something about it if you liked what you’d been reading:  Readers are invited to join the Int’l Students Association at their next Wednesday meeting, but if they can’t make it, they’re told how to email the organization to find out more.

Glancing over the flyer one final time, I realized that, in a way, blog posts have a big advantage over flyers. Remember, online readers “self-select” by typing search terms on their computers or digital devices. When they’re directed towards your SEO marketing blog, it’s because they already have an immediate need or interest in your type of product or service.  The proverbial iron’s already hot – all you need to do is have engaging, informative content ready for visitors to find!   

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A Penny For Your Business Blog

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pennies"Since 2006, the production cost of a penny has actually exceeded one cent," Clay Wirestone reports in Mental Floss Magazine. What’s more, according to MIT biophysicist Jeff Gore, "The time we spend searching for and paying with pennies costs the American public some $10 billion a year."

As a freelance blog writer, I’m on constant alert for interesting tidbits and ideas to include in writing for business. But never having devoted much thought to being either pro-penny or anti. I was amazed to find there’s even a Facegook group of Citizens for Retiring the Penny. Bottom line – the sum of the value of the zinc (which makes up 97.5% of a penny) and the value of the half percent copper in the coin exceeds the value of the penny itself!

Reading all of this eye-opening trivia, I couldn’t help comparing the penny, our smallest unit of commerce, with the word, our smallest unit of blog content writing. And words, of course, are what I talk about in corporate blogging training sessions and what I use as tools in providing blog writing services.

See, according to the anti-penny faction, pennies no longer facilitate commerce, now that inflation has decreased their value so much. (‘Course, had my Grandma been alive to view the video, she’d have been quick to point out that saved up pennies DO have value when exchanged for a dollar, which still does facilitate some commerce!)

So, going back to the parallel with blogging, as you continue to "save up" words, and particularly words in keyword phrases, you not only exceed the value of that single blog post, your entire SEO marketing blog gains incremental value. Lindsey Bailey of Compendium Blogware lists reasons why corporate blogs are great for organic search (recent, fresh content, keyword density, and age. in other words, as you add each new post to your existing corporate blog, the older posts remain, so that you’re literally adding to your "equity" in each of those keyword phrases.  (Grandma, you’d love this.) If you’d saved up 100 pennies and exchanged them for a dollar, then spent the dollar, you’d get a dollar’s worth of value.  But with keywords and blogging for business, your business benefits from those older incidences of keywords again and again and again.

Yahoo!small business explains there are three categories of keywords:

  • Generic – these keywords are the most basic words that describe a product or service (such as "digital camera" or "accountant".
  • Descriptive – these keywords have adjectives to narrow the focus, such as Indianapolis accountant, or "two-mega-pixel digital camera".
  • Targeted – these keywords apply to only one product or service, such as "tax accountant" or "Coolpix 2100".

Beginning to see why my comparing words in blog content writing to pennies isn’t quite as far-fetched as you first thought?

Penny for your blog?

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How To Leverage Your Blog Content in Other Media (and Vice-Versa): Special Guest Post by Susan Young

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Susan YoungToday, friend and fellow blogger Susan Young and I are exchanging guest blog posts. Susan is president of AimFire Marketing, an Indianapolis marketing consultant specializing in websites, copywriting, PR, search engine optimization and Internet marketing.

SUSAN:

Many businesses now see the value of incorporating blogging into their online marketing and communication strategy. However, companies that integrate their blogging efforts with their other marketing and advertising tactics will have a greater impact.  Here are a few ideas:

Your Company Website: Make sure your website includes a prominent link to your blog on every page. This will not only provide your website visitors with fresh, interesting and educational content, but you’ll boost your website’s search engine optimization efforts too. Many companies are actually developing their websites using blogging platforms such as WordPress to seamlessly integrate their company blog with their website.

Your Social Media Accounts: If you are offering valuable content to your prospects and customers via your blog, you should also share this information via your social media sites, such as your Facebook fan page, your LinkedIn company page and your Twitter account. This will give more people the opportunity to read your blog posts and thus become exposed to your company and its products or services. If you don’t have time to spend communicating on social media, you can hire a social media marketing firm to post updates for your business for a nominal monthly fee.

Your eNewsletter: A weekly or monthly eNewsletter is a great way to reach a broader audience, while leveraging your existing blog content. And the best part? You’ve already got the content for your newsletter within your blog posts. Provide a sign-up form on your website, and include a brief intro, closing and special offer, in addition to a paragraph preview of one or two blog posts, and you have a personalized eNewsletter to send to prospects, partners and colleagues. Again, a marketing firm can assist you with setting this up and sending it out if needed.

Your Press Releases: If your company currently has a PR firm or an in-house PR effort, consider posting your press releases on your blog to expose your message to your blog audience. Alternatively, you could re-purpose information from your press release into a blog post to make it more conversational or personal.

Your Case Studies and Testimonials: If you are currently using case studies or testimonials as sales material, these are great topics for future blog posts. Or if you have posted a customer success story on your blog, format this into a printed piece to use in your sales and marketing kit, or as part of your print literature.

Advertising and Direct Marketing: Share your most recent ad campaign in an upcoming blog post to solicit feedback. Use content from a recent blog post in a direct mail piece, or vice-versa. Often the headlines and copy that you would consider for your ad campaigns would make great blog titles and content for your blog post. It’s all about positioning you and your company as an expert in your field through the creation and use of valuable content, sprinkled with a few marketing messages.

Having a consistent message across your blog, website and other media will ensure that you have a cohesive marketing effort. Now you have some ideas for leveraging your blog content across other media. Implement a few of these suggestions, and you will save your company valuable time and resources, while ensuring your message gets heard.

Thank you, Susan, for such a thorough discussion of all the ways to build business through social media along with corporate blogging for business. In corporate blogging training, as a matter of fact, I need to stress the importance of blog content writers leveraging their efforts with other social media. Any business’ marketing strategy and tactics development needs to incorporate more than one vehicle. Writing for business is the perfect jumping-off point, from where to gain exposure in all these different ways.

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Telling to Win in Your Business Blog

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Tell to Win book"Today everyone – whether they know it or not – is in the emotional transportation business," says Peter Guber, author of the new book Tell to Win. Guber’s title refers to what he calls "the hidden power of story".  

As a freelance SEO copywriter reading that intro to the book, I couldn’t help thinking ,"Bingo!"  If the power of story is to be directed towards the marketing strategy and tactics development of any business, there’s nowhere it’s a better fit than in corporate blog writing.

I’ve written about Peter Guber before. As a professional ghost blogger and corporate blogging trainer, I’m fascinated by the way Guber studies stories as business tools.  What Guber calls a "purposeful story" is exactly the sort of story begging to be brought to life in corporate blog writing.

"Simply put," asserts Guber, "If you can’t tell it, you can’t sell it." In fact, while business blog posts are part of a company’s marketing plan, they are not advertorials, billboards, or what Guber calls "soulless Power Point slides". That means blog posts must be effective by presenting stories that in themselves are calls to action for readers.

What can stories do, asks Guber?  His answers need to appear in any manual about blogging for business:

  • Capture your audience’s attention first, fast, and foremost.
  • Motivate your listeners by demonstrating authenticity.
  • Build your tell around "what’s in it for them".

"Your story is your ‘secret sauce’", concludes Guber.  Are YOU using blogging as a key tool in your marketing strategy?  Are YOU using corporate blog writing to tell YOUR business’ great story?  What is YOUR secret sauce?


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Pink’s Tips for Women Entrepreneurs Can Keep Business Blogging in the Pink

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Immediately upon hearing Daniel Pink address the Butler College of Business Freshman pink ladyConvocation last fall, I decided the man belonged on my Favorites list when it comes to good business ideas. One very good recent Pink idea was inviting Butler pharmacy professor and entrepreneur Erin Albert to pass along advice from some of her subjects to Pink’s blog readers.

Although my own Say It For You blog writing services are not targeted specifically towards women entrepreneurs, the Albert business tips are simply good ideas when it comes to corporate blog writing, period. Here are just three of the ones I like and which illustrate points I stress in corporate blogging training:

Do your homework, be a sponge.
In corporate blogging training, I teach the importance of keeping an "ideas" folder to collect word tidbits, clever sayings, articles, and thoughts – all fodder for future blog posts. The more you can be a sponge, soaking up information from everywhere and everyone, the richer and more compelling your blog content writing will be.

Fire clients if they aren’t the right fit.
In business blog writing, of course, it’s not about "firing" anyone, but about attracting clients of the right kind.  Targeting blog content towards "that segment of society that your product or service is perfect for" is the job blog writing is designed to accomplish.

Take action.
Writing for business is one area where action per se beats inaction.  That’s because business blogs, through sheet frequency, are favorably positioned to drown out all the "noise" created by your business competitors.  The cumulative use of keyword phrases in blog posts over weeks, months, and years, is a powerful force when it comes to company branding and corporate identity.

Balance knowledge of facts with gut feeling.
Sometimes I find that business owners are so focused on writing about the facts and features of the products and services they offer, they forget to use their blog posts to reveal who and what they are. People do business with those they like and trust, and your corporate blog writing (even when posts are written by a professional ghost blogger like me!) must reveal what kind of person customers will be getting along with the products and services. 

See what I mean about keeping your business blog writing "in the pink"?



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