Don’t Blog In Armani Or In Cut-Off Jeans!

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Blog marketing maven Seth Godin says the first question every website designer must ask is "Do you want the people visiting this site to notice it?"  That’s a subtle but essential question, says Godin, and the answer for most business owners, he says, should be a definite "no"! That’s because, if the user notices the site, as opposed to the story on the page, the business owner has lost.

Godin’s talking about websites, but essentially the same principles apply in business blogging, I think.  Keeping the "story line" paramount is indeed crucial.  I’m talking about the content being more important than not only the interface of the blog page itself (what I like to call the "masthead" on the top and the side of the page), but more important than the photos, videos, graphics, the font you use, or any bolding or italics in the posts.

Essentially, visitors found your blog because you sell something, do something, or know about something they need.  The main "job" each post has to accomplish is telling them "Welcome! You’ve come to just the right place!", telling them why that’s so, and then possibly generating some action on their part.

Amazingly, says Godin, (if you don’t want to draw attention away from the content), the site itself can’t be too cutting edge, clever, or slick.  It also can’t be too horrible, garish, or amateurish, he adds, comparing the effect you want to the clothes you’d want the person giving a eulogy to wear.  "No Armani, no cutoff jeans".

A quote I’ve used in these blogs posts before is a favorite motto of sales trainers: "Solve a problem, own the customer." My work as a professional ghost blogger is focused first and foremost on helping each business owner client give "voice" to their story about how they solve customers’ problems.  But, no matter who is composing the blog posts, keeping the problem-solving story at the top of the priority list – that’s what blogging for business is really all about! 
 

 

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Blogging For Business – Are You Ready?

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Barbara Weaver Smith of The Whale Hunters suggests business owners ask a lot of questions before putting time and effort into social media. "These tools require an investment of time, which translates into money – at least in opportunity cost.." It’s important to ask ciritical questions of yourself and your team, Weaver Smith concludes.

As I was reading through the list of questions businesses should pose about tools such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter, I couldn’t help thinking that at least three of those questions might be asked before any company embarks upon blogging for business. (That’s true whether business owners intend to compose their own blogs, or whether they employ a professional ghost blogger like me to help them create the content for the blog.)

Are you ready?

Your website should be up to date, accessible, and refreshed, says Weaver Smith. One thing I often find myself pointing out to business owners is that the navigation page from the blog to the main website will be smoother and more direct if new "landing pages" are added to the website top match the different search term categories that attract searchers to the blog. (As a blogger, I become part of the company’s marketing team, which, hopefully, includes a web designer and SEO expert.)

How much of your marketing time or budget should you invest?

Make your decision a deliberate, well-informed, strategic one, advises Weaver Smith.  I couldn’t agree more.  Research what your competitors are doing.  Weigh all of the costs, both dollar costs for content writing, incremental SEO and branding work related to the blog, and the time and opportunity costs. You need to set in place quality controls, Weaver warns, because your presence online represents your brand.

How will you measure results?

80% of all web interactions begin with search, which is what makes blogging "a fantastic and legitimate marketing tool", according to Chris Baggott, co-founder of Compendium Blogware.  But, without a system for gathering and analyzing information about the visitors to your blog, you’re operating in the dark.  You’re going to be putting time and effort into your blog, but you need to know precisely what it’s bringing back to you. At the recent Blog Indiana conference, I learned how many resources are available for website analytics.  Tracking the ROI of your business blog is a must!

What Barbara Weaver Smith says about social media is oh-so-true about business blogging.  "Whether you participate, and how and when, are important strategic questions for your business."  As a professional writer focused solely on business blogging, all I can say is, "Amen!"

 

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The best product without marketing is a loser

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by Tony Fannin, president, BE Branded

"Beta format is superior to VHS, but it was VHS that won the marketing war. That’s why your VCR uses VHS tapes and not Beta." I’ve used this example many times when talking with clients who believe in the myth that if their product is superior, they will succeed over their competitors without having to invest much into marketing. The "superior product will win" mantra is especially prevalent in techie circles (especially software boys). This same group that believes in the superior product myth also believes in the first to market also almost guarantees you win. Again, that’s not true either. History is full of "second mover advantage". (VisiCalc came first, but lost out to Lotus 1-2-3, Remington Rand had the first large computers, but lost out to IBM) Being first is not a sustainable advantage either. In a lot of these cases, the initial leader leveraged their first mover advantage and created early success. Their blind spot was marketing. The products that came in after the pioneers put much more effort and resources into marketing and eventually dominated the category.

Here is a fresh example of where the pioneer lost out to the new entrant into the market category all because of marketing, or the lack there of.

Sony e-reader was revolutionary. It turned paper books into digital formats that could be read on a large screen device. It could hold hundreds of books that could be read on a 6" display screen. Many tech experts thought the features and craftsmanship was of superior quality. They introduced the product at the Consumer Electronic Show in 2006 with a big splash that got attention. Their fatal flaw was they never followed up with any type of marketing campaign. Then came along Kindle. It wasn’t as technical advanced or the features as superior as the E-reader. But Kindle put a lot of marketing muscle behind their product by strong advertising and PR. They got a great PR boost from Oprah who named it one of her most favorite things. Kindle has captured share of mind like the iPod did over the Walkman.

Now Sony’s E-reader is playing catch up even though it was the pioneer and had a technically superior product. They aren’t going down without a fight. Michiko Araki, Sony’s director of marketing, has stated they are going to focus on expanding to a more mass audience through TV and online advertising to drive customers to retail outlets. And that is one of Sony’s advantages. They can offer in-person experiences Amazon can’t offer. Through interactive kiosks, demo sites at retailers, and hands-on trials, Sony was able to reach over 2 million people in the last three months. This resulted in both awareness and purchase-intent increases. The battle has just begun, but it really shouldn’t have been this close to begin with. Sony had the early advantage, but failed to capitalize on it by not having a marketing follow up to the initial launch. This opened the door for competitors to win the hearts and minds of consumers by marketing to them and not relying on superior product to carry the day.

This is not to say you can have a crappy product and still win. The old saying is still true, "Bad products fail quicker with good advertising." What I am stating is a superior product alone will not guarantee you will win. By not supporting a great product with equally great marketing, in the end, you become a loser.

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Business Blogging – All About You?

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According to David Meerman Scott, blogging at webinknow.com, one of the top five corporate blogging mistakes is failing to realize the importance of the "About" page. David finds that more than half the blogs he looks at for the first time lack a well-crafted place on their blogsite to tell the world who they are, what they're blogging about, and what their company does.  "If you care enough to blog," Meerman concludes, "you should care about letting people know who you are."

One way to do just that is to post photos as well as text, WebInkNow goes on to say.  I agree, especially since, as I explained in  a former blog post of mine (see "In Blogs, 350 Words Are Worth One Picture"), scientific research shows that when our brains deal with a combination of words and pictures, more neurons fire, and we pay more attention to the information. You might post photos not only of yourself, I might add, but of your storefront, employees, or signature products.  The idea is that, as people get to know your company better – and seeing is believing – they are more likely to engage.

There were a couple of comments posted on Meerman Scott's blog I found interesting.  One reader pointed out that, since most companies already have an "About" page on their main website, the blog "About" page doesn't need to be as intense. A second comment brings up a point I often emphasize in these Say It For You blog posts, saying that many companies maintain a "build it and they will come" perspective when it comes to blogging.  But what matters in blogging is whether or not they'll stay!

Remember that, as the Concept Company blog puts it, "We've become a society of scanners". When searchers arrive at your company blog (your fresh, relevant content, using key words and phrases helped you "get found", they need confirmation – and quickly – that they've come to the right place to get the information, products, and services they were looking for.

In a way, I think David Meerman Scott's right on target in recommending that a business blog have a well-crafted "About" section.  But I'd want to add that the blog isn't truly meant to be all about you and your company – it's meant to be about those searchers who need what you do, what you have, and what you know.  It's really all about THEM!

 

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How Short Will This Blog Take?

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"Creativity is a process", explainsVicky Earley of Artichoke Design, "and you need to give it the time necessary." Custom design, by definition, is created to the specifications of the project on hand, she adds, so that "How long will this take?" is the wrong question to ask.  Creativity often "meanders, considers, ponders, and only then delivers".

ProBogger says something on the same order about the process of delivering well-written blogs.  Researching and composing an excellent blog post for a business "can use up the better part of a day".  Having been a writer for more than thirty years, with two years of blogging and blog-ghostwriting under my belt, I can attest to the truth of that statement about the time effort that go into customized blog posts.

Some of the "meandering" Vicky Earley mentions in describing the creative process in design takes the form, in business blogging, of reading, including web-surfing to read what other writers are saying and what the latest thought trends are in that business field.

The "considering" part includes finding just the right photo or clip art to capture the theme of the blog post.

"Pondering" might involve formatting the text with short and snappy paragraphs to make it more readable.

Speaking of short and snappy, blogs, by definition are shorter and less formal than website pages.  There’s been much debate about the most effective length for blog posts.  The rule I’ve arrived at is "Make your post as short as possible, but not shorter!"

There is such a thing as a too-short blog. For one thing, you want to offer enough valuable information to searchers to make them realize they’ve come to the right place.  In addition, you’ve got to have some length to make your use of key words and phrases flow naturally and make sense.

It could be that neither "How long will this blog take?" nor "How long will this blog be?" is the right question to ask. Try, "How can this blog deliver the most relevant information – and the greatest ROI to the business?" 


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