What Can Bloggers for Business Learn From a hair-Drying Chain?

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"Hollywood loves concepts that can be pitched in a few words…Unfortunately, simple hair dryersconcepts are also copy-catnip."  That’s why Drybar, an L.A. startup franchise selling shampoo/blowdrys only, decided to make their mark with exceptional service."

As a professional ghost blogger and corporate blogging trainer, I realized that a good part of the advice Inc. Magazine‘s two customer service experts offered to Drybar co-founders Michael Landau and Allison Webb is directly applicable to blogging for business.

Have them at Hello.
"First impressions carry outsize importance because of how memory works," the experts advised Drybar.

In Say It For You corporate blogging sessions, I tell blog content writers that the the first sentence of a blog post is the "downbeat" (think band leader or orchestra conductor).  That sentence needs to be strong and definitive, assuring online searchers they’ve come to exactly the right place for the kind of information, products, and service they need.

Keep them pumped. 
"Do the right thing.  Then do it again, ad infinitum… Consistent service is, by definition, repetitious."

I tend to get repetitious, I’m sure, about the drill-sergeant discipline it takes to maintain the kind of frequency and longevity needed by blog content writers to win online search rankings.  But, more than merely "keeping on keeping on", excellent blog content writing  means making each post read as if this is the first and only time you’ve ever blogged (think actor in a long-running Broadway show performing to a new audience on night #117).

Have them at Goodbye.
"Make sure the last moment they are with you is not the signing of the bill," Drybar owners were advised by Inc. experts. "What you want them to remember is people thanking them for coming."

While SEO marketing blogs are most likely being read by potential clients as opposed to existing ones, the blog posts need to help readers put themselves into the scene, envisioning the savings, the satisfaction, the pride, the increased health and improved appearance they’ll enjoy after using your product or service.  And, you don’t want to say "Goodbye" at all, rather "See you on the website!" So, business blogs’ parting lines should never be a sales pitch, but a picture painted in the prospect’s mind!


"With service," says Inc., you have to be obsessive…Excellence is a pain."

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Business Bloggers Need to Make it Human

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human"Make it human," advises Paul Gillin, author of Secrets of Social Media Marketing.

As a professional ghost blogger and corporate blogging trainer, I think Gillin’s rules of good writing should be the gold standard for blog content writers:

  • Good writing is conversational, using terms like "I" and "you" (not third-party dialect).
  • Good writing speaks in declarative terms.
    In offering business blogging help, I refer to the first sentence of a blog as a "downbeat" (like the start of a piece of music and  the ending sentence as a strong "parting shot".. 
  • Be passionate, or at least committed, adds Gillin, or you’ll run out of things to talk about. Since this is Say It For You blog post #450, I guess I’ve passed the passion test!) Passion can be conceptual, not necessarily directed by a particular product or service, explains the author.

There’s a very common-sense, practical reason for writing in language real people use, says Gillin.  In the "new world" of the Internet, it’s no longer human beings sitting in ad agency rooms making decisions about what information people consume.  Search engines fulfill that role, working from words that consumers themselves specify.

As every freelance SEO copywriter knows, it’s the keyword phrases in the title and opening sentences of blog posts that help search engines make the match between the consumer and the provider of information. But when I offer business blogging assistance, I must constantly remind blog content writers to live up to those "implied promises" by delivering the appropriate, valuable information in the body of the blog post.

Gillin adds is that bloggers need to deliver that information in human terms – "Write like a person!" he says, reminding readers that social media are, after all, social.

That doesn’t mean you need to be a humorous writer, Gillin concedes.  It’s perfectly all right to take a thoughtful, serious approach to your topic.  Just write as if you were having an actual conversation!

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Is Your Blog Helping Readers Ask the Right Questions?

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Idea generation comes from asking the right questions, according to consulting firm questions marksowners Keven and Shawn Coynes, whose brand-new book Brainsteering is a must-read for blog content writers.

"Right Questions," say the Coynes, "are ones that make you take a different perspective on your problem than any you’ve taken before."  As a corporate blogging trainer, I realized that’s precisely what really great blog posts are designed to do.

Blogs, as I so often stress to business blog writers, are not advertisements or sales pieces (even if increasing sales is the ultimate goal of the business owner).  Whatever "selling" goes on in effective blogs is indirect and comes out of business owners sharing their passion special expertise and insights in their field.  When blog posts "work", readers are moved to think, "I want to do business with him!" or "She’s the kind of person I’ve been looking for!"

As a professional ghost blogger offering business blogging assistance to corporate owners, I especially liked the "101 Right Questions to Spur Breakthrough Ideas" listed in the appendix of Brainsteering. Here are a couple I believe can stimulate the sort of reader interest that could lead to sales without making the blog post itself at all "sales-y".

  • (Under the category of Right Questions for new products and services):
    What’s the biggest (avoidable) hassle that our customers have to put up with?

Gillette became rich through realizing the inconvenience of sharpening a safety razor after each use, and coming up with a solution to that "hassle" People are online searching for solutions – your blog needs to remind readers of the need and be right there with the solution!

  • (Under the category of Exploring Unexpected Successes):
    Who uses our product/service in ways we never intended or expected?

Stories of unusual uses of a business’ products and services help emphasize to potential buyers how they might benefit.


  • (Under the category of Finding the Perfect Gift):
    What event or accomplishment are they (the recipients of the gift) most proud of in their lives?

    A well-tempered blog, says Paul Gillin in "Secrets of Social Media Marketing", should be written mostly in first person.  The passion of the business owner will come across most powerfully that way. What are you most proud of about your business and your industry?

"We all need good ideas.  Breakthrough ideas.  All day.  Every day, " claim the Coynes.  Brainsteering takes all the creative energy normally associated with traditional brainstorming and steers it in a more productive direction." Corporate blog writing at its best presents breakthrough ideas to online readers.

Do your blog posts help readers look at things from a different perspective? Try brainsteering your blog posts!
 
    
   

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Dynamite Business Blogging Tips from the Top

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Boy, you get a panel of six passionate online content creation experts, all at the top of their game, to the top of the One America building  – and you get one heck of a "Bang!" for your networking!
 
That’s precisely what happened at the strategy session I had the privilege of hosting as part of Ron Sukenick’s At the Top Networking meeting March 22, called Online, Content is King.
At the Top Networking
You know how, in corporate blogging training sessions and in these Say It For You blog, I’m always talking about "leitmotifs", themes that carry through all your different blog posts?  Well, some principle themes that emerged throughout the hour of the strategy session included:

You can’t have too much content. Yes, as Lorraine Ball of Roundpeg brought out, you can Tweet too often, or overdo Facebook, or put the wrong content in the wrong medium, but bottom line, as Chris Baggott, co- founder of Compendium Blogware and Exact Target emphasized, you have to constantly gather, encourage, rework, and build up a store of content.  We’re in a time of multiple-use, rather than single-use content, he added.

No one tactic for marketing your company is the answer to all your needs.  Chuck Gose highlights all forms of social media in the popular Social Media Breakfasts he hosts. Rocky Walls of 12 Stars Media explained how video content enhances the value of written content, and vise versa. Jenni Edwards of Indy Spectator showed how promoting to a local market differs from marketing nationally or worldwide.

You’ve gotta be in the know about your analytics.  It’s an absolute must to include within your business marketing strategy and tactics development thorough – and ongoing – measurement, stressed Adam Hays, partner in Excellim.  In fact, Ryan Cox, who helped me select and connect to the panelists, is founder of the award winning Stats Squared social media analytics tool.

Another point I stress when I offer business blogging assistance is the importance of keeping business blog writing personal and conversational in tone. My panelists agreed, reminding blog content writers to tell about "Joe", rather than about "Joe’s Dry Cleaners". "Use email to solicit content from existing customers and clients", and "Remember the power of the ‘similar situation story’" were just two of many other valuable tips offered by the panelists.

As I said, you get a panel of eight passionate content providers (six panelists, assistant moderator Ryan Cox, and "moi") at the top and in front of a roomful of eager business owners – Ka-boom!


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It Takes a Downbeat to be Upbeat in Blogging for Business

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conductor's batonThe conductor raises his baton. A hush falls over the audience.  And then – the "downbeat", the opening bars of the music, sets the mood for the concerto to come.  The equivalent in  blog writing? The opening sentence of each blog post.

I thought about opening sentences and downbeats when reading the first sentence of a recent Indianapolis Business Journal article about potholes:
 
"Alignment shops and dentists started celebrating last September." IBJ reporter Chris O’Malley goes on to explain, "That’s when contractors hired by the city began milling worn-out asphalt on downtown streets."

As a freelance SEO copywriter, of course, I want to use keyword phrases in the title and first sentences of each blog post to help search engines match my content with the search terms online readers used.  Blogging, after all, has an element of "science" to it as well as art. Diane Corriette of Mindsetofablogger.com uses the 80/20 rule, with keywords in the title and opening sentence at least 80% of the time.

But search engine optimization aside, the press release aspect of writing for business
dictates that the first ten words of any post be effective in engaging interest.  And, when it comes to writing in general, Ruth Belena of Helium.com takes this idea one step further: "The importance of an opening sentence," says Belena, "is so great that many writers wait until they have completed a book, or finished a piece of writing before they focus on the first few lines. Some writers spend more time," she adds, "writing, reviewing, and revising an opening sentence than on the rest of their writing." 

So how can blog writing for business make the most effective use of all this advice about amazing opening sentences?  The Happy Freelancer says opening sentences can:

  • Raise questions in readers’ minds
  • Illustrate a provocative scene
  • Connect with readers

    In doing corporate blogging training, I think I can use the IBJ opener to add a fourth item to the list: Startle readers. (What on earth do dentists and alignment shops have in common?)

Naturally, blog content writers are going to be upbeat about their own businesses.  And naturally, companies are going to use their blog posts as part of their marketing strategy and tactics development.

But, in offering business blogging assistance, my Say It For You  question has to be: 

                     Do your blog posts begin with a "downbeat"?

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