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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Blog Readers Want A Hole, Not A Drill!

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Three marketing mavens, one message:

  1. Marketing expert Theodore Levitt told his MBA class at Harvard something bloggers for business would do well to heed: "People don’t want to buy a quarter-inch drill; they want a quarter-inch hole."
  2. "Truly successful marketers use reverse branding," blogger Ryan Karpeles emphasizes.  "People rarely think of your actual brand first.  They think about what they want.  Then they decide who, specifically, can fulfill that desire."
     
  3. Ron Karr, writing in Speaker Magazine, advises, "Sell the outcomes.  When someone’s deciding how to spend her limited budget, she will invest in services that help her achieve her goals. In other words, she wants results."

Consumer Electronics retailers, says Karpeles, are constantly telling customers that they have "all the best technology" at "prices you can afford". The lesson here:  Customers don’t want technology.  They DO want to have an incredible home theater experiences.  They DO want to capture family memories.  They DO want to print documents from any computer in their home.

Are you describing products and services in your blog posts, or are you selling outcomes?

Do your blog post titles convey the message, "Positive outcomes can be found here!"?

 

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Leitmotifs For Blogs

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Blog posts tend to be more effective when they focus on just one idea, I’ve found.  That idea might be:

  • Busting one myth common among consumers                  
     
  • One testimonial from a user of your product or service
     
  • On special application for your product
     
  • One common problem your service helps solve
     
  • One new development in your industry

Focus is what helps blog posts stay smaller and lighter in scale, and much more flexible than the more permanent content on the typical corporate website.

What helps the separate posts fit together into an ongoing business blog marketing strategy are the blog "leitmotifs".

Leitmotif means "leading theme" in German.  In music, "the leitmotif is heard whenever the composer wants the idea of a certain character, place, or concept to come across," explains Chloe Rhodes in A Certain "Je Ne Sais Quoi",

Whenever I’m sitting down with business owners as they’re preparing to launch a blog for their company, I find that one important step is to select 1-5 recurring themes that will appear and reappear over time in their blog posts.  The themes may be reflected in the keyword phrases they use to help drive search, but themes are broader in scope than just key words.

A residential air conditioning firm, for example, might blog using keywords such as "air conditioning", "air conditioning repair", "air conditioning service in Peoria".  A theme for that company’s blog, by contrast, might be "Room comfort".

What leitmotifs will unify your blog posts?

 

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But What Does It DO In Your Blog?

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Develop Indy expects its rebranding effort to offer real results, says CEO Scott Miller.  Under the old name, Indianapolis Economic Development Corporation, he explains, the organization was often confused with the state’s IEDC, frustrating staffers and customers alike.

Freshbooks CEO Michael McDerment lists five characteristics he thinks good company names need:

 

  1. It’s easy to remember
  2. It’s easy to spell and requires no explanation
  3. Its describes your business category
  4. It describes your benefit
  5. It describes your difference

As examples of names that fit that five-point bill, McDerment points to three well-known companies:

  • PayPal
  • BestBuy
  • QuickBooks

McDerment’s own company name, Freshbooks, is intended to convey a fresh approach to "something as tired as accounting", he says.

As a professional ghost blogger and business blogging trainer, I think McDerment’s rules apply to blogs in at least two ways:

Blog post titles:  The title needs to be a pretty good indication of what the post will be about, serving as a strong clue to what the reader can expect to find.

URLs:  "If your business is online, you don’t want to have to explain how to get to your domain," says McDerment.  Your domain name should reinforce what you do.

Develop Indy aims to develop company expansion and attraction to Indianapolis.  What does your company blog aim to do?  Give it a name that says so!

 

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