Reading Plus Writing Equals Blogging

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We were given two ears and only one mouth." That reminder seems to pop up in every business etiquette or sales training seminar.  The message is a simple one: we would do well to use these organs proportionately, devoting twice the effort to listening as to speaking.

There’s some listening that needs to take place before beginning your blog, as I emphasized last week, in the process of scoping out your blogging niche, in order to target your blog posts to people who need your products and services the most – and the ones most likely to purchase those from you.

We understand the 2:1 ears/mouth listening:talking ratio, but today I want to mention another organ ratio: eyes and hands. The metaphor here, I believe, is that, in order to create a valuable ongoing blog for your business, it’s going to take equal parts reading and writing.  As HomeSchoolBlogging.com‘s Karen Braun explains, "Blogging requires a commitment of time…Your blog should be a reference point for those seeking advice and opinions in your field."

Now, there’s a noble business blogging goal, I thought, reading those words.  At the same time, I reasoned, that "go-to industry authority" status isn’t going to happen without a business owner spending at least as much time reading (as symbolized by the eyes) as writing (symbolized by the hands).  As Braun brings out, "There are things to learn from bloggers who’ve been doing it for awhile."

I’ve been doing it for awhile, but still, when I’m ghost-blogging for a business, I need to keep up on what others are saying on the topic, on what’s in the news, and about what problems and questions have been surfacing that relate to what my client sells and what it does for its clients.  At least half the time that goes into creating a post is reading/research/thinking time.  The writing part can flow only after prep time is complete.

Two-to-one seems to be the smart rule for selling, with two ears to gather information and one mouth to give voice to conclusions based on what’s been heard.   In blogging, it’s two to two.  Reading (magazines, books, newspapers, other blogs), at least as much as writing, is what makes for blog posts that are worth readers’ time and attention.

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Bloggers: When In Doubt – Debunk!

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It takes seven years to digest swallowed gum (Not! That’s just one of those lingering misconceptions one hears.)  According to Mental Floss Magazine, “Despite what you heard on the playground, the gum you swallow doesn’t exactly linger in your gut.” In fact, Mental Floss goes on to explain, your gum shoots through your system towards the “exit” at the same speed as other foods.

For newbie business bloggers at a loss for content ideas, debunking a myth about your industry is a great place to begin. Here’s why: In the normal course of doing business, you’ve probably run up against misunderstandings about a product you sell or a service you provide. 

Not only is addressing misinformation in your company blog interesting to readers, it highlights your own special expertise and knowledge. With doubts reassured, many readers are more comfortable trying out your product or service. What’s more, if you make it a habit to debunk myths in your blog posts, that in itself can go a long way towards making your blog a “go-to” place when people need information relating to your industry or profession.

One myth about blkogging itself is that it’s simply a fad. Truth: The Pew Internet Project estimates that almost 32 million Americans read blogs regularly.

Speaking of big numbers, a second blog-related myth I hear a lot is that you need many visitors and many RSS subscribers to be successful in blogging for business. I love what blogger Rich Brooks has to say about that one: “Search engines deliver over 73% of our traffic, and over 85% of that traffic comes from first-time visitors.” 

Well, then, what is the secret of blog success?  “What we need to do is capture these names by making them an offer they can’t refuse,” answers Brooks, dispensing with overblown claims about the importance of comments with a terse: “Comments aren’t clients.”

If there’s something new in your industry, don’t let your readers find out about it somewhere else, advises HomeschoolBlogger.com’s Karen Braun. I agree.  And, if there’s a persistent myth out there about anything you sell or anything you do, your blog should be the place to go tfor the truth, the whole truth, and nothing "bust"!

 

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Blogging By The Numbers

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Career Rookie Magazine advises students to take their cover letter "to the next level". (I get this magazine because I serve as executive career mentor to students at Butler College of Business.)  In this month’s issue of the magazine, I found an article that can be useful for bloggers as well as for college students.

First off, it occurs to me that blogs are a form of "cover letter" for websites. The website gives information about the company’s accomplishments and the special expertise its owners provide.  But what the cover letter does, as Career Rookie explains, is "state your case" for why you should be selected for the job.

The Career Rookie article lists ten tactics for making a cover letter stand out from the rest.  Two of these, I thought are especially fitting for business blogs: 


Include Enough Contact Information
Assume your resume and cover letter may get separated.  Would the recruiter be left with enough ways to reach you?

The parallel caution for blog posts is to have several CTA’s (calls to action) on your blogsite and in the body of each blog post. Have you made it a snap for readers to find a phone number and an email address to contact you, a place to post comments, and a way to subscribe to your blog? Be sure navigating your site is quick and convenient, or the only direction in which readers will navigate will be "away"!.

Use Numbers
Using numbers may be one of the most underutilized strategies in cover letter writing. Numbers are a great way to be specific about your accomplishments.  They also show that you pay attention to benchmarks and concentrate on setting and meeting goals.
 
There are several strategic ways of using numbers to educate your blog readers and demonstrate your own expertise.  Numbers help debunk myths. If there’s some false impression people seem to have relating to your field or your product – bring on the numbers to prove how things really are.

The Chabot Space and Science Center blog, for example, quotes a statistic from the National Center For Education Statistics.  In 4th grade, 90% of girls believe that anyone can do well in math.  By 12th grade, only 36% believe this is true. (Can you see how the numbers lend strength for the case for teachers encouraging more girls to enter sicence and math fields?)

BazaarVoice, a website offering information about online marketing, includes a startling statistic that relates to blogging.  Despite 71% of CMO’s stating that their marketing budgets had been reduced, 47% of all those Chief Marketing Officers say they plan to increase their spending on social media!

In one of my earlier blog posts, I advised "Use proof in your blogs to build belief." Statistics can provide factual proof, by showing the extent of the problem your product or service helps solve. 

When it comes to using numbers, I agree with Career Rookie‘s advice, that’s for sure. One simple way I can think of to sum up the blogging-by-the-numbers situation is:

Quantify to qualify – and to get the business!

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Artisan Chocolates Are Better For Blogs

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Visiting Columbus, Ohio to give a talk about blogging for business (what else?), I picked up an official visitors’ map for the city. Unfolded, the piece had a street map on one side, with information about the city on the other:
 

  • Accommodations
  • Attractions
  • Food and Drink
  • Shopping
  • Visitor Information

With some time to spare between events, I began to read through the descriptions in the "Attractions" and "Food and Drink" sections of the guide, realizing, as I proceeded, that the set-up had a website "feel" to it.

Many company websites have sections like that, listing categories of product lines or of services the company offers.  The content is relatively static, with its purpose being to show what’s available for purchase. From the visitors’ map, for example, I learned that Schmidt’s Restaurant Und Sausage Haus features "award winning German/American favorites and a full-service bar".

Informative stuff, I thought, but not personal or focused enough to make me want to aim my GPS towards Schmidt’s. Upon further digging, I learned that the restaurant is run by the fifth generation of the Schmidt family.  Now that’s the stuff a good blog would share. Blog posts might include interviews with the oldest and youngest living Schmidts, complete with photos, and let me know Hans Schmidt might just stop to chat, sharing with me and my dinner companions tales of early Columbus days when his German settler ancestors first arrived.  I thought of dozens of ways blog posts could be making that restaurant come alive for searchers by making it more personal.

Further down in the visitors’ guide, I found a listing for Yosick’s Artisan Chocolates.  Besides informing me I could find chocolates, pastries, and espresso at Yosick’s, the listing shared that the establishment is Certified Kosher by the Columbus Vaad Ho-ir. I wasn’t able to locate a blog for Yosick’s, but a blog might have clarified what goes into certifying kosher chocolate, and who the Vaad Ho’ir is. ( As it happens, I know those terms, but would’ve liked to know more about what makes chocolate "artisan"!) 

A blog is the perfect tidbit dispenser. Blog "chats" with potential customers and clients, informal but very informative, make those customers and clients feel welcome.  Remember, too, I was being exposed to Schmidt’s and Yosick’s through a visitors’ map. But, what if I’d been searching online for restaurants in Columbus? Whichever restaurateurs had posted relevant content on the web by bloggin, especially those who’d been blogging more frequently and more recently than their competitors, are precisely those I, as a searcher, would have been most likely to discover!

Another insight I had while glancing through the Columbus, Ohio vistors’ map was that it
had almost too much information to absorb all in one sitting.  The big thing about a corporate blog, in my view, is that it’s made up of lots of little blog posts! In each post, you highlight just one idea, showcase just one of your products, or describe just one special service you provide.  Rather than a resume-like list of all you have to offer, you engage blog readers with several delicious details centered around just one idea. You can get to all the other wonderful things you have to share in future blog posts!

The message your blog conveys, post by post, step by step, is subtle, but that message definitely makes its presence known. 

After all, you and your team are not just "anybodies" – you’re artisans!

 

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Scoping Out Your Blogging Niche

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Earlier this week, I shared an article from Career Rookie magazine about taking a resume to the next level, showing how that advice for job-seekers might apply to blogs.

Today I want to quote an expert who takes speakers to the next level.  In his book, the Complete Idiot’s Guide to Success as a Professional Speaker, Dr. Thomas Lisk teaches methods of "Scoping Out Niche Markets".

Since blogging plays such an important role in any company’s overall marketing strategy, every one of the four questions Dr. Lisk poses to speakers relates to blog marketing as well:

  • Can you list all markets or industry types that could purchase your kinds of expertise?
  • Which of those markets needs your expertise most?
  • Which markets are most likely to purchase your services?
  • Which organizations in these markets have enough funding to afford your ongoing services?

The word "niche", I learned, comes from a French word meaning to nest.

According to Robert Schwart, Dean McCorkle, and David Anderson of Texas A&M University, niche marketing means "targeting a product or service to a small portion of a market that is not being readily served by the mainstream product or service marketers". 

In a way, blogs are the perfect marketing tool for niche markets.  Remember that you, the business owner, are not going out to find anyone! Blogs, after all, use "pull marketing".  The people who find your blog are those who are already online looking for information, products, or services that relate to what you know, what you have, and what you do! Your online marketing challenge is not to seek out the people, but to help them seek you out!

Your blog helps you accomplish that task if you provide up-to-date, frequent, and relevant content which online searchers can easily find.  But that content will need to be tailor-made for people who, as Dr. Lisk so aptly points out,

  • need your expertise, products, and services
  • are likely to purchase from you
  • can afford your expertise, products, and services

I think the most valuable insight bloggers can gain from Dr. Thom Lisk’s book for professional speakers is this: There are no shortcuts to effective marketing. As with any other worthwhile endeavor, niche marketing takes work.  When it comes to researching niche markets, Webster’s Dictionary notwithstanding, "scoping" has to come before blogging!

 

 

 

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