Smaller Might Be Better For Radio Stations And Blogs

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"Making things happen, meaning sales, web hits, engagements, etc. is not just a function of how many people you reach; it’s also a function of how many times you reach them, and how much you spend reaching them,". Bryan Farrish explains to speakers trying to get radio interviews.

The idea of blogging for business is an almost exact parallel to Farrish’s idea about radio interviews: You want to hit as many people as possible, several times, and do so for the least amount of money as possible, he says. In reaching these goals, he goes on to say, you’re going to have advantages with small stations in smaller markets.

Each one of the advantages Farrish mentions relative to radio fits for blogging, I found…

  • Most listeners need to hear something several times before they act.  (Since smaller stations are more likely to ask guest back, you’ll have several "shots" at your audience). With short, focused blog posts appearing with frequency, you’re more likely to not only "win search", but gain repeated opportunities to spread your message. Through links and archives, your Individual readers are easily able get back to earlier posts, or navigate to other sources you’ve found.
  • Small stations are more likely to put you on their website, plus announce your website during the interview, Farrish tells speakers. Readers are more likely to leave comments on your blog rather than communicate with you through a traditional website.  Its simple for interested readers to sign up for an RSS feed to your blog, and even list it on their blog roll. Traditional websites are not flexible – or small – enough to move with ease among online conversations.
     
  • With smaller radio stations, you’ll reach a larger demographic of listeners (with fewer stations in small cities, each station has a broader spectrum of people listening to each). With blogs, the reach is basically unlimited!
     
  • Smaller stations’ advertising rates are less. You can’t get lower advertising rates than the zero space-cost for blogs!

    When you think about it, smaller might be a lot better for both radio stations and blogs!
           
     

 

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Blog Comparisons To Explain Your Business

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It was a sign post, not a blog post, that caught my attention during a recent visit to the Indianapolis Zoo.  Whoever wrote the copy for that placard promoting the zoo’s new cheetah exhibit, though, would make a great blogger for business!

The sign itself, I might mention, was affixed alongside a 30-yard track where visitors were invited to try running as fast as cheetahs.  In other words, the zoo was engaging its audience, rather than merely having them gaze passively at cheetahs. That mini-promotion serves as an excellent model for Commandment One of blog marketing: Thou shalt engage thy readers!"

The title of the signpost used two "keyword phrases" (as every good blog title should), creating a tie with a current happening (the Indianapolis 500):

Like a Race Car, a Cheetah Is Built For Speed

Race Car                                     Cheetah
Chassis                                      Skeleton
Tires                                           Claws
Paint Job                                     Spots
Brakes                                        Footpad
Engine                                        Heart      

This "post" discusses cheetahs in scientific terms, (explaining, for example, that cheetahs have extra-large heart chambers), but makes the information easy for "readers" to understand by comparing the unfamiliar with the familiar and the timely.

One core function of blogs for business is explaining yourself, your business philosophy, your products, and your processes.  An effective blog clarifies what sales trainers like to call your "unique value proposition" in terms readers can understand. And one excellent way to do just that is by making comparisons with things with which readers are already comfortable and familiar!

Like a racecar, a cheetah is built for speed.  What is your business "like"??

 

 

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White Noise For Your Blog

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"White noise", produced by combining different frequencies, can be used to drown out or mask distracting sounds. Students use white noise machines with headphones to help them concentrate on homework; hotels provide white noise machines to help guests fall asleep. White noise devices are used in psychiatrists’ waiting rooms to protect patents’ privacy.

Bloggers for business need help drowning out all the "noise" created by their competitors. Sleep Well Baby white noise machines, for example, needed to "drown out" the "noise" of 1,599,000 competitive websites made in order to appear on Page 1 of Google (Sleepwellbaby.com ranked #1 on Page 1 the day this post was composed).

In fact, business blogs are favorably positioned to eclipse noise made by both traditional websites and pay-per-click online advertising.

Website "noise":

  • Frequency:
    Since search engine algorithms appear to assign "value" (what I like to call "indexing Brownie points") to pages that are frequently updated, traditional websites simply can’t compete with the much more frequently changing content of blogs.
     
  • Keyword phrase use:
    A well-designed website page might be very keyword-rich.  Still, there’s no way a website can complete with the cumulative use of keyword phrases in blog posts over weeks, months, and years.

Pay-Per-Click Ads:

The third way (besides blogging and websites) to use search as an acquisition tool is buying "AdWords" in the hopes of ranking among the top results for a percentage of words purchased. (Every time a searcher clicks on your listing, you pay a fee, hence the Pay-per-click name.)  According to the Marketing Sherpa Search Marketing Benchmark Study, PPC users typically target as many as a thousand keywords as compared to the couple of dozen bloggers use to win search.

White noise is never noise for its own sake. The real goal in using a white noise machine might be better concentration on homework, better sleep, greater privacy. In much the same way, when bloggers for business use white noise tactics, it’s never for SEO’s own sake.  Drowning out competitors’ "white noise" can help business owners and online searchers focus on the conversation at hand, matching up the products and services with precisely the people who need them! 



 

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Need-Meeting Through Blogs

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Advertising maven Donny Deutsch looks for the human, emotional connection between a product and its audience. "The market is not an abstract entity," says Deutsch, but "real people with real desires and needs". Pointing to the "great fiasco" of the New Coke, Deutsch says the product failed because it was attempting to solve a problem that didn’t exist.

On the other hand, he points out, "every revolutionary idea predates the public awareness of a need… Every visionary’s dilemma is convincing people that they needed something they didn’t know they needed."

As a professional ghost blogger for business, I realize blog marketing doesn’t attempt to create a new market where one doesn’t now exist at all.  On the contrary, blogging is "pull marketing", designed to attract searchers who have already identified their own need for a particular product or service. 

That is not to say that, through your blog posts, you can’t introduce readers to a solution they hadn’t known was an option for them. In fact, because an effective blog is part of an ongoing conversation (as compared with the more static content on traditional websites), there is the chance to introduce your unique approach to satisfying customers’ needs.

No matter whether you’re using traditional push marketing (mailers, ads, commercials, etc.) or blogging, at the end of the day, as Donny Deutsch emphasizes, "if a product doesn’t meet a need, all the marketing in the world can’t sell it." On the other hand, he points out, "some of the most successful businesses are new twists on old ideas".

Blog posts, I’ve found, need to be written for the customers of the right kind, the ones who need what you’ve got to offer. Your unique combination of

  • Art (engaging content about your special approach to your field)
  • Science (winning search through frequent posting of relevant content with strategic use of keyword phrases),

has gotten you "found" by your target audience. Now is when that human, emotional connection between the product or service and the audience Deutsch was talking about can begin!

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First “What”, Then “Who” In Blogs

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"Start with a brief description of the news, then distinguish who announced it, not the other way around" is one of the 10 Essential Tips For Writing Press Releases.

Writing about the "what" before the "who" is good advice for blogging as well as for press releases.  The opening sentences of each blog post must make a clear connection between what the searcher needs and the "what" your business has to fill that need.

That means writing about them, and only then about you and your business. Describe the issue or problem to show you understand what brought the searcher to your site:

  • Even with air blowing through the vents, your room still feels stuffy….
  • With an important presentation coming up, John feels terrified….
  • Dressing for a business interview is a matter of following three simple rules….

Once you’ve "hit the need on the head", your blog post can go on to describe your solution in the form of a product or service you offer.

Writing about the "what" can take the form of describing how readers will feel after using your product or service. The other day I heard the most wonderful Michigan.org radio ad that was designed to evoke listeners’ feelings :

    When was the last time you stopped to taste an apple, not just eat it….
…the rich smell of pines in the morning
…the laughter of children coming off the lake
…the echo of the wooden deck under our bare feet…
…a place that remembers the taste of fresh ice cream dripping in the sun…

(www.Michigan.org won the Travel Industry Association’s Mercury Award for best state tourism radio advertising campaign.)

Help readers begin reading each business blog post with the end in mind.  The details can follow. Make the connection through the "what", and the "who" will be sure to follow!

 

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