Un-mixing Them Up In Your Blog

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If you think the Indiana University School of Law-Indianapolis is a branch at the IU campus in Bloomington, or that it’s IUPUI’s law school, you’re not alone – just about everyone confuses the two law schools, explains Norm Heiken of the Indianapolis Business Journal in "The Other Law School". Law school dean Gary Roberts has the burden of forging a separate identity for his law school:

  • Mail is often misdelivered.
  • Students apply to the wrong admissions office.
  • The media mix the two schools up.

As a professional ghost blogger and business blogging trainer, I’d have to say all businesses face somewhat the same challenge of differentiating themselves from their competitors. Your website can begin the task by describing in some detail ways your business is unique.

A business blog can "flesh out" the distinguishing details:

  • Special pricing or fee structure
  • Additional services that are part of the package you offer
  • Your unique approach within your industry

I remember my grandmother repeating (today we might consider this sexist, but the saying made perfect sense to her) "A woman’s work is never done." It occurs to me that, in a very positive sense, a blogger’s work is never done, because there’s time in other blog posts to chisel, to hone, to correct, to add, to differentiate. As you continue to work on your business brand, your blog can keep up with your evolving mission and image.

 

 

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Blogs Are What You’ve Done For Them Lately

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Just the other day, a business owner prospect, B. posed a question I’d heard many times before:

 If my website is already showing up at or near the top of Page One on Google
and Bing, what value would having a blog add to the mix?

This question of what value a blog might bring to a business is the sort to which stock answers rarely apply. As I’ve mentioned often in earlier Say It For You blog posts, business blogging must be considered a single tactic in an overall marketing strategy. At the same time, it’s just the sort of question to kick off a discussion of the role a business blog might play in converting "clickers" to customers.

My friend Damon Richards, owner of Port to Port Consulting, would say B. has won the first set of a three-set match, in that he’s "won search". In fact, B. has "won search" without blogging.  B. performs a specialty service in a niche market, and his business name describes the service he provides. It stands to reason online searchers looking for that service will find B.!

Is B. winning the set and losing the match? Apparently so.  "Why am I not getting more business out of my website?" he asks, frustration creeping into his voice.

The second "win" B. needs is to have searchers click on the link to his website, so they can learn more about his business and how he solves problems for his clients. In fact, B. doesn’t know to what extent the second "click" is happening, because he has not set up analytics to give him that information.

Setting aside any judgment on the quality of B’s website itself in terms of content or graphics, adding a blog would keep the material current, offering readers a sense that they’re getting "the latest scoop". It’s much less cumbersome and much less expensive to add new, up-to-date content on blogs than on most traditional websites.

"What Have You Done For Me Lately?" is the title of an article about the Small Business Administration, about new services the SBA provides in addition to business loans. Bloggers for business, take heed. Your loyal customers may know what your core services are, but you can use your blog posts to tell online searchers what your business has been doing lately and what you can do for them!

 

 

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How Much Can A 10-Gallon Blog Hold?

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"Alas, the 10-gallon hat falls 87 percent short of its promise," laments Mental Floss Magazine (Mar-Apr 2010). "The discrepancy is the result of poor communication, not poor measurement," the article is quick to clarify.

Early versions of the cowboy hat came from Mexico, we learn, where the hats were decorated with colorful braids called "galons".  The taller the hat, the more galons it could hold.

Ever on the hunt for hints about effective communication to improve business blogging, I found at least five galons’ worth in the Mental Floss piece:


  • The sales mantra "Underpromise; over-deliver." holds true in blog marketing.  Go light on heavy claims of results from using your product or service to avoid falling short on your promises.
     
  • Blog posts are the perfect vehicle for myth-busting (clarifying, for example, that the average Stetson holds 3 quarts, not ten gallons).
     
  • Clarity is paramount in blogs.  Say less in each post, but take pains to ensure readers unfamiliar with industry jargon still get the point.
     
  • Questions in blog post titles help capture interest:

                    How much…?
                    How far….?
                    How long….?
                    How little….?
                    How true is…..?

  • History tidbits engage readers’ curiosity, evoking an "I didn’t know that!" response.

So, how much can a 10-gallon blog hold? Just enough to assure searchers they’ve arrived at the right place to find what they need!

 

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Businesses Bloggers: Who DO You Want In Your Rear View Mirror?

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Three things Casey WIlliams never wants to see in his rear view mirror, he says in IndianapolisStar.com, are the new Ford Taurus, the Chevy Caprice, and the Carbon Motors police cruiser. all models driven by Indiana State Police.

In business blogging, by contrast, your "rear view mirror" is exactly where you’d like to see your competitors. Continuing to post blog content consistently and frequently, using keyword phrases in your titles and sprinkled liberally through the content of each blog post – all those things raise your chances of rising in search engine rankings.  Add extra engine power from links, social media, and even videos, and you’ll be on track to leave rivals in the dust.

"Great content," says Chris Baggott of Compendium Blogware, "depends on understanding the keywords that drive your business." Beggott suggests using online tools to understand the keyword phrases that drive not only your business, but traffic to your competitors’ websites.

Once you’ve gathered this critical intelligence, he explains, you can use it to create pages (blog posts as well as "landing pages" on your main website) titled with those key phrases. 

A police cruiser, whatever the automobile model, in your rear view mirror, would probably prove  to be a less-than-pleasant experience.  The sight of online competitors’ "grilles", on the other hand – now that would be a sight for any business blogger’s eyes!

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Blogs Are Not Scrabble

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"Regardless of what you’re writing, whether it’s a sales letter, blog post, company history, or proposal, the golden rule of clear communication should be communicating clearly," Indianapolis Business Journal’s Jim Cota reminds us.

At an annual National Press ceremony, the Center for Plain Language (whose goal is to get government and businesses to communicate more clearly with citizens and customers) presents two awards: ClearMark (the best), and WonderMark (the worst), the latter so named because the judges were left wondering what the writers were thinking!

Cota’s conclusion: In the interests of clarity, "Save the long words for Scrabble!".

The author I featured earlier this week in my blog, Lynne Truss, might add, "Use punctuation". As a professional ghost blogger and business blogging trainer, I’d have to say both pieces of advice are rock solid for writing blog posts to drive business.

Save the long words for Scrabble:
If the purpose of your blog posts is to welcome prospects who’ve found you online and convert them into customers, the language you use must be easy to understand. Always keep them and their needs in mind.

Use punctuation:
The last award you’d want for your blog is the WonderMark.  Minding your commas and apostrophes in blog posts will avoid having online searchers wonder what, exactly, you were trying to say (or, worse, where – or if – you learned eighth grade English)! 

There’s only one kind of wondering you’d like for readers of your blog to be doing:
wondering if there are even more reasons why what you have to offer is what they need to have!

 

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