Blogging For Business – Show ‘Em A Gun

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Preparing good speeches, says National Speakers Association President Lou Heckler, quoting NSA founder Bill Gove, means using all three of the "3 P’s".  As a professional ghost blogger and blog trainer, I’d venture to say, the 3 P’s can serve as a perfect template for blog posts.

Premise
What is this blog post really going to be about? The title and opening paragraph of your blog post are for introducing the "cast" (what you’ll be discussing) and "showing ’em a gun" (meaning a controversy, myth, or statistic) to arouse interest and curiosity in readers.

Problem
In films, the tension derives from the hero or heroine encountering obstacles and setbacks.  What problems and issues are your readers encountering?

Payoff
In this "third reel", you offer your unique proposition for solving the problem.  This is where you use the "gun" you showed ’em at the beginning of the blog post.

As you’re planning your speech, Heckler reminded us at NSA, you need to decide what your goal is.  What do you want your audience to think, feel, or do? In blog posts, this is the basis upon which you design your Calls to Action.

Brian Halligan, co-author of Inbound Marketing points out some key mistakes for business bloggers to avoid.  One of the lowest- converting (meaning least effective at gaining new buyers for a product or service) is "Contact us." That’s too general, says Halligan. (What exactly do you want your reader to think, feel, or do?) Have people fill out a form instead of just emailing, he advises. That way, you capture users’ contact information in a database of people who may not be ready to buy just yet.

Whether it’s a film or a blog post you’re planning, the 3 P’s is a good template for delivering a concise message with emotional appeal, and…some bang!

 

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What Do You Get When You Pit A Blog Against A Lexus?

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I’m no car buff, but that TV commercial really caught my ear.  "What do you get when you pit a Ford Escape against a Lexus?" the announcer asked. The answer, unexpected as it was arresting: "Bragging rights."

So I’ll give you one better:  What do you get when you pit business blogging against pay-per-click advertising?  Bragging rights again. According to Chris Baggott of Compendium Blogware, "There are two basic ways to use search as an acquisition tool" (referring to acquisition of new customers): Pay-Per-Click and Search Engine Optimization."

Pay-Per-Click (PPC) is a form of paid advertising on the Web. (You the business owner bid on keyword phrases.  Every time an online searcher clicks on your listing, you pay a fee.) According to the Marketing Sherpa Search Marketing Benchmark Study, marketers using PPC typically target more than 1,000 of these keyword phrases in an attempt to rank among the top results for a dozen out of the 1,000 they’ve selected.

By contrast, blogs need to target only 1-2 dozen total keyword phrases (with the blogging company paying no fee when the sties get "found" and clicked on) to achieve comparable search results.

What if the "Lexus" isn’t a PPC but a website?  How do blogs stack up against traditional websites?  Since search engines assign value to pages that are frequently updated, traditional website pages simply can’t compete with more frequently changing content on blog pages. While a website page might be very keyword-rich, the cumulative use of keyword phrases over months and years , and over pages and pages of relevant content builds up the kind of "equity" that leaves traditional web pages in the dust.  Again, bragging rights for blogs.

As with any tool, blogging for business works only when – and if – it’s used.  Good corporate blog posts may earn bragging rights when compared with other marketing tactics, but only if business owners actually keep up the pace.  The fact is, few entrepreneurs, even given the help of talented and passionate employees, can spare the time to post relevant, new material with enough consistency and frequency to improve search engine rankings.  Often a professional ghost blogger can help those owners earn bragging rights and convert online searchers to new clients and customers!

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Blog Links: Both Clickable And Readable

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"Links are the lifeline of blogging," says homeschoolblogger.com.  Inbound links to your blog are tracked by "web crawlers" and help your blog move higher on search engine pages, SEO mavens explain.

Today, though, let’s talk about different kinds of outbound links, and the different ways those can in fact serve as lifelines to your blog.

Internal links:
a) From your blog post to one of your own website "landing pages".
(You’re using the link to guide the reader along a smooth navigation path, hoping to convert that "looker" into a buyer.)

b) From the present blog post to one you posted at some point in the past.
(If the reader wants more information and you’ve already provided further details on the subject in an earlier post, the link makes it easy for the reader to find.)

External links:
a) From your blog post to a news source or magazine article.
(In your post, you’re showing how some current happenings relate to your product or service, or you’re expressing your company’s point of view about a news development relating to your industry. Linking to news sources lend credibility to your blog and positions you as the "go to" place to find out what’s happening.)

b) To someone else’s blog post on your subject.
(This type of link shows you’re staying in touch with others in your industry and that you’re confident you have special value to offer within a competitive environment. In fact, visiting others’ blogs can help you improve not only your blog posts, but your products and services!)

c) To a website or blog you’ve quoted to illustrate a point.
(Linking to others is a form of networking.  I like to shoot an email to business owners whom I’ve quoted or mentioned.  They’re usually flattered and quite often begin to follow my blog and post a comment or two on my site.)

When homeschoolblogger.com mentions that blog links should be readable as well as clickable, they’re talking about hyperlinking the text.  In other words, rather than writing something like "click here" (which interrupts the flow of thought), you write in conversational tone and simply create a link that the reader can choose to ignore or follow by clicking.

There’s a reason we call the internet a World Wide Web. It’s all about connections and links!

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Blog Titles: Five Times The Benefit

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Five times as many people read headlines as read the body copy, "Father of Advertising" David Ogilby taught.  Blogger and book reviewer Brad Shaw tests headlines against three Ogilby to-do’s:

  • The headline promises the reader a benefit
  • The headline contains news
  • The headline is conversational

Business bloggers can take all three of these tips from the Master to heart.  In fact, headlines may prove even more important for blogs than for ads.  Blog headlines help capture the interest not only of online searchers, but of internet "web crawlers" as well (a compelling reason to make blog headlines key-word rich).

Here are some ways I can think of for using the three Ogilby to-do’s in blog post titles:

PROMISE A BENEFIT 

a) More and better – more miles per gallon, better health, more glamour, more time saved, more comfort, more money.
b) Less of something undesirable – less pain, less cost, less waste, less hassle.   

NEWS  
                                                                                                                                   
a) News of a new product, an improvement on an existing one, a new way to use the product, a new strategy.
b) Recognition of your company in a trade journal or newspaper, an award or honor, a new customer testimonial.


CONVERSATIONAL

a) Asking a question:  "Do you…?"   "Have you ever……?"  "Where can you……?"  "Why would you……?"
b) Reassurances:  "It’s OK to……"  "Everyone likes……….."

In talking about advertising great David Ogilby in one of my earlier Say It For You blog posts, I mentioned his five-point acid tests for ads.  When it comes to blogging for business, headline acid test #4 is the one I think is paramount:  Does it fit the strategy to perfection?

While of course headlines have to make searchers want to learn more of what you have to say, we business bloggers must remember: a blog is only one tactic in an overall marketing strategy, and everything about each blog post, including the headline, needs to be consistent with the "voice" you want your company to project.

Composed with that broader context in mind, that times-five effect of blog headlines will bring benefits not only to the readers, but to the business’ bottom line!

 

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125 Ways You Can’t Tell The Difference In Cars (But You Can Tell in Blogs)

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Taped to the reception counter at the Tom O’Brien Chrysler dealer’s showroom was a poster that immediately caught my eye: "125 Ways You Can’t Tell the Difference", the headline read, referring to pre-owned autos versus new vehicles. Having just this month blogged about the power of using numbers in blog post titles to engage readers’ interest, I thought this poster at the dealership a perfect example of the concept I’d tried to convey in my blog post. It was the number 125 on that poster that I found so arresting – could there really be that many ways?

Speaking of numbers, there are a number of ways that car poster can serve as 
a good tutorial for business blogging:       

Titles count (play on the word "count" intended)

A blog post title what draws an online searcher to progress to the content of the blog, because the title hopefully broadcasts two signals to the searcher:
 

  1. They’ve come to the right spot to get the information/products/services they need
  2. This blog post is going to be interesting reading.

The title counts with Google and friends from a Search Engine Optimization standpoint as well. In fact, that’s why it’s so important that you use the key search terms and phrases in the title of each blog post.

Focus counts.

Did I read through all of the 125 ways listed on that poster?  Of course not.  The title had already focused my mind on the concept of pre-owned cars. The very fact I was able to discern an actual list on the poster was enough for me.  Later, I thought, I might actually skim through the items, but the truth is, that poster had me at "hello".

Putting on my professional ghost blogger hat, I imagined how things might be if we were talking about a blog post, rather than a poster.  To engage online readers once they’d found the blog, I wouldn’t go for the big numbers except in the title.  Instead, I’d:
 

  • Focus on just a few of the pre-owned cars from the dealer’s inventory, complete with photos (or even a video).
  • Focus on just a couple of reasons you’d never know the difference between pre-owned and new without a Car-Fax report.
  • Throw in some valuable hints on savvy car buying, showing readers how much the Tom O’Brien folks know and care about cars. 

Much more important, the blog post would need to convey how much the Tom O’Brien folks care about their customers’ safety and comfort!

 

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