What is Your Reader’s Deal?

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“What’s the deal here?”

Amy Collins, who represents both publishers and authors, says writers need to know “the deal”.  Writing a plot summary involves figuring out the goals and motives of both hero(ine) and antagonist.

  • What situation do we find the character in at the beginning of the story?
  • What do they perceive as their biggest enemy or problem?
  • Who or what is actually their biggest enemy or problem?
  • What is the biggest thing in the story that changes the situation?

The message for marketing content writers? Even if your (or your blogging client’s) products and services are highly differentiated from the general market, that’s not enough to keep content fresh and make conversions happen. It’s knowledge of the target audience that must influence every aspect of your content. “Great business stories are rarely aimed at everyone,” marketing guru Seth Godin stresses.“Your opportunity,” he tells marketers, “lies in finding a neglected worldview, framing your story in a way that this audience will focus on.”

Learning about your target customers includes gathering intelligence, not only about

  • their gender
  • their average age
  • their marital status
  • their educational level
  • their employment
  • their outlook on life
  • where they get their news

but also, just as Amy Collins explains to authors, about what that group of individuals perceives as their biggest enemy or problem. (Is that, in your perception, the biggest problem?) How can your insights, along with your products and/or services, help solve the “real” challenges they face?

There are two sides to the coin: content writers need to understand their clients’ own “deals”, too. Business and practice owners cannot be positioned within the marketplace without studying their surroundings, formulating their own position statements, then making their “deals” clear to readers. Each “visit” to the blog should conclude with readers understanding exactly what the owner’s unique philosophy or mission is, and why that approach can be beneficial to them.

One concern business owners have expressed to me is they don’t want to come across as self-serving or boastful in their blog posts. I explain that it’s crucial for prospects to find real reason to work with you rather than with your competition.

They’ve arrived at your blog site, in large part, because you’ve nade clear you understood their “deal”‘. Now that they’re here, help them understand yours!.

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Examining, Not Eating, Our Words

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“Every day, we eat our words,” Richard Lederer writes in the San Diego Union-Tribune. “Both our food and our language are peppered with salt,” he adds as an example. Before artificial refrigeration was invented, salt was the only way to preserve meat. Therefore: A portion of the wages paid to Roman soldiers was “salt money” with which to buy salt. The term was “salarium” (today we say “salary”). Other words derived from salt include salad, salsa, sausage, and salami. Good, plain people are called “salt of the earth”; a good worker is “worth his salt”.

Many of our words have to do with bread, Lederer explains. The term “companion” is derived from the Latin “com” (together) and “panis” (bread). We “break bread” with company. Wage earners are breadwinners. Cake is also an important root word, with the cakewalk being a 19th century dance meant to make fun of the rigidly stiff formal dancing of White plantation owners. Winners of dance contests were awarded a cake, possibly the origin of the expression to “take the cake”.

When it comes to language choices in blogging for business, I often recall the 1998 memorandum from President Bill Clinton: “The Federal Government’s writing must be in plain language. By using plan language, we send a clear message about what the government is doing, what it requires, and what services it offers. Plain language saves the Government and the private sector time, effort, and money.” Four specific characteristics of logically organized, easy-to-read documents,, Clinton said, include common, everyday words, “you” and other personal pronouns, the active voice, and short sentences. With “easy-to-read” a quality much to be desired in blog marketing, all four of these recommendations apply to blog posts.

“Examining” the terminology relating to your business or profession is a very good idea for business blogs. But, while helping readers “examine” the background of terms is a great way to stimulate interest, what we would not like to have to do is “eat our words”. Just how can content writers communicate an owner’s strong opinions without offending? “When you communicate a strong opinion, you automatically divide the audience into three parts: those who agree, those who disagree, and those who haven’t yet decided, crystalclearcomms.com admits. In a KRC Research survey asking whether CEOs have the responsibility to speak up about issues that are important to society, only 38% said yes..

At Say It For You, what I’ve learned over the years of creating blog content for dozens and dozens of clients in different industries and professions is that, in order to turn clients and customers “on”, we must incorporate one important ingredient – opinion. Taking a stance, I’ve found, clarified what differentiates that business, that professional practice, or that organization from its peers.

The trick is to examine words, express our own opinions in words, but avoid using words to mock others. After all, we want to enjoy reading words, hearing words, and using words, not “eating” them!

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The First Blog Post Shows the Palette

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There’s an exercise artists can do to break through their equivalent of “writer’s block,” my friend Phil read in an urban sketching book about using watercolor. Deciding what to put on the first page of your sketchbook is the hardest, the author understood. A new artist might experience inhibitions about opening the paint wrappers. But if the first page is used to give the artist a better idea of what the colors will look like on paper, the rest will follow naturally.

Beginnings are hard in any field. The first day of class, for example, gets a lot of attention from pedagogues, because what happens on that day shows students what to expect from your instruction, Alicia Alexander and Elizabeth Natalle explain in a text on interpersonal communication.

A second friend, book writing coach Myra Levine, says that each author’s first question should be “whose eyes do we see through?” Point of View, Levine says, determines every word you write. In Levine’s webinar offers writing “prompts” to help writers envision the “palette”.

Business owners and professional practitioners launching their blog often experience the same feel of “opening the paint wrappers” or putting the first words to web page. At Say It For You, we explain that the opening post will set the tone for the ongoing blog series, letting readers know:

  • They’ve come to the right place – this blog promises to be a good source for the type of information I want and need?
  • They can tell the author/company/practice is likeable, resonating with their own belief system.
  • They understand there’s a reason you’ve decided to use a blog as an ongoing communication tool.

Fear of flying is an anxiety disorder, and some of the elements of that fear have nothing to do with the actually risks associated with flight. In Fear of Blogging, David Meerman Scott says many business owners fear:

  • looking silly
  • not having important things to say
  • lack of computer savvy
  • blogging “won’t work” for their industry

Of course, from a business standpoint, fear of blogging can be a fearsome business mistake, since, in the time it’s taken you to read this far into my blog post, thousands and thousands of new blog posts have been introduced, some by your competitors!

So, go ahead – open up that new sketchbook. Peel the plastic off the paint tubes. Try writing the answer to this question:

If you had only 10 words to describe just how you ended up in – and why you’re
still in- your present industry or profession, what would those words be?

There’s your business blog “palette”!

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Knowing What They Want Lets You Give it to Them in Your Blog

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Persuasive presentations move smoothly through four stages, called the AIDA pattern: (A= attention, I= interest, D=desire, and A=action), explains Kenneth R. Mayer in his book Well Spoken.

Calls to Action in persuasive blog posts, as we know at Say It For You, can succeed only if the content writer has tapped into an underlying need or “desire” on the part of the reader. Mayer provides an extensive list of possible “wants”, or persuasive appeals, as he calls them, that might help presenters help listeners be willing to move forward and take the desired action: .

  • appreciation/approval by others
  • beauty/attractiveness
  • cleanliness/comfort
  • convenience
  • health
  • good reputation
  • peace of mind
  • protection/safety
  • savings

“The call to action is where your blog makes money,” asserts crazyegg.com. “All your idea generation, research, writing, editing, posting — it all boils down to a call to action — a CTA.” Blog CTAs are different, the author concedes, but they are still important, and the best ones are unobtrusive, although noticeable.

Neil Patel cites Modernweb, who realized unusual success in their blog because:…”They identified their audience, understood what they were struggling with, then presented them with content that explained how similar individuals handled the same problem.” But in order to understand which of those “persuasive appeals” is most likely to appeal, you have to know your target audience.

No blog – and certainly no blog post – can be all things to all people. Each post must be targeted towards the specific type of customers you want and who are most likely to want to do business with you.  That way, the appeals, as well as the way they are presented, can be chosen specifically for that customer – the words you use, how technical you get, how sophisticated your approach, even the title of each blog entry.

Knowing what they want lets you give it to them in your blog.

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Does Unconscious Awareness Play a Part in B2B Blog Marketing?

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The discovery of unconscious meanings attached to products and services allows advertisers to design appeals to tap those motivations, the authors of Persuasion in Advertising explain. In our last Say It For You blog post, we explored ways in which unconscious awareness plays a role in both the blog marketing of products as compared with using blogs to market professional services…
Is there a difference in the way blog marketing should best be sued to market B2B as compared to B2C marketing? Joshua Nite of TopRank makes a number of observations concerning business-to-business marketing, four of which are very much in keeping with practices we teach at Say It For You:

1.  It’s never been more important for brands to show purpose.
For blogs to be effective, they must serve as positioning statements. The “visit” has to conclude with readers understanding exactly what your particular philosophy or mission is. Effective blog posts must go from information-dispensing to offering the business owner’s (or the professional’s, or the organizational executive’s) unique perspective on issues related to the search topic.

2. On a chart ranking traits that B2B buyers value in salespeople, problem solving is near the top, while creativity is at the bottom of the list.
Business executives (or their staff members) are online searching for answers to their questions or solutions for dilemmas they’re facing.  Or, they might need a particular kind of service and aren’t sure who offers that.  Or maybe they need a product to fill a need they have.  Don’t think of it as business blogging; think of it as providing solutions to someone’s problem.

3.  Business customers see value in maintaining relationships with influencers.
In blog marketing, therefore, the content writer must “interview” the influencer, asking the right questions so as to elicit thoughtful, detailed responses, positioning the company owner or practitioner as a thought leader, someone who defines purpose in a marketplace craving direction.   In a face-to-face (or Skype) interview with a business owner or executive (or professional practitioner), I am able to capture their ideas and some of their words, then add “framing” with my own questions and introductions, to create a blog post more compelling and “real” than the typical narrative text.

4. With news about the COVID-19 pandemic dominating the internet, B2B marketers must be careful not to sound too opportunistic.
Even though today’s most searched-for topic may not be what is most often talked about tomorrow, I teach at Say It For You, you can benefit readers by tying your blog content to popular topics. While the focus of your business blog will be on the business owners and the services, advice, and products they offer, the content can reflect current happenings and concerns.

On the other hand, “content has to contribute value and fit organically within the cultural context of your target audience. Otherwise, you risk appearing opportunistic and losing their trust,” skyword.com cautions. COVID-19 is a perfect example of a topic that must be incorporated in blog marketing only to the extent it is relevant to the solutions the marketer is offering.
At Say It For You, where we create content to market to both businesses and to consumers, we know that in both cases, our main goal is to raise prospects’ awareness of solutions to the issues that drove their online search. Just as, in marketing to consumers, we are not aiming for an immediate sale, the same is true for B2B marketing. We blog content writers keep on telling our client’s story in its infinite variations over long periods of time, knowing that the readers (whether consumers or businesses) who end up as clients and customers have self-selected rather than having been “sold”.
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