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Blogging What You Are Not

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“I photograph weddings, but I am not a wedding photographer.,” asserts Marty Moran, owner of Whitehot Headshot. “I photograph headshots, but I am not in the headshot business,” he adds. “I am a relationship builder, strengthening my tribe as I help others strengthen theirs. Give them quality and support, and they will make return visits,” Moran believes.

My networking colleague Ron Mannon often needs to explain that his company, Combustion & Systems, Inc., an industry leader in powder coating systems, does not actually do powder coating or paint finishing. Instead, they provide the equipment and training so that their customers can do their own finishing rather than farming out that part of the manufacturing process.

At Say It For You, we create SEO-conscious content, but do not focus on the science of Search Engine Optimization, believing that blogging is about much more than back-links and “authority”. What do you want to say to your customers today? What will get them excited enough to choose you over the competition? How will you keep them coming back for more information in the future?

In the Harvard Business Review, Madelaine Rauch and Sarah Stanske write about “the power of defining what your company isn’t”. There are times when having an “anti-identity” can be useful in communicating with customers, employees, and investors,” they explain. “We suspect,” the authors say, that companies might experiment with an anti-identity approach, analyzing who they really are and what that implies about what they are not. “No business – particularly a small one – can be all things to all people. The more narrowly you can define your target market, the better,” the staff of Entrepreneur Media, Inc. say.

Of the top 10 mistakes new business owners make, Gene Marks of the Hartford says, #1 is trying to do things you’re not good at. Translating that very sage advice into the field of blog content creation, that means defining in your blog not only the successes and strengths of the business or practice, but defining precisely which products and services you provide – and which you don’t. After all, Since exceeding customer expectations is such a worthy goal, clarifying those expectations and aligning them with reality is a key part of the marketing process. “It is vital,” smartkarrot.com advises, “to put parameters upfront, so that you can honor them time and again.”

Blogging, in short, clarifies what you are, but it is equally important to clarify what you are not!

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Content Writers Can Never Cease to Learn

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This is the fourth in a series of Say It For You blog posts in which I’m sharing valuable content writing tips from current magazine issues…

In this month’s issue of Mystery Scene, Linda Castello writes, “I became obsessed with learning about the Amish.” Castello, author of 14 mystery books about the Amish, has no Amish family background, nor any background in law enforcement. In fact, her work history consists of managing franchise accounts for Domino’s Pizza! Obsessed with bringing reality to her suspense novels, she:

  • participated in 12-week Citizens Police Academy courses
  • went on ride-alongs with police, often during the graveyard shift
  • went through firearms training
  • spent time in the burglary, K-9, and coroner’s departments of the Texas policeThe article about a franchise account manager writing suspense novels about the Amish answers a question often asked of me and of my writers at Say It For You: How can we ghost bloggers write for business owners and professional clients without being trained in those fields ourselves?

    The answer is constant curiosity and learning. We may not be doctors lawyers, auto mechanics, travel guides, gourmet chefs, or  tax experts – but we can still “play one”! Of course, we are specialists – in writing, and in particular, writing for the Web, posting short, engaging pieces using keyword phrases with consistency over extended periods of time. As content writers, we offer our clients’ blog visitors a more personal and even a more analytical perspective on the information they might find on the company website.  Often, precisely because we’re industry “outsiders”, learners, we are actually better able to approach the subject in ways online searchers will understand.

    Just as Castello was able to sustain excitement and suspense in 14 different Amish novels, sustaining an engaging business blog (your own or as a content writer for clients) over the course of years is very do-able – so long as you stay engaged.  What I’ve found over the years is that, as long as I keep learning, I stay excited and readers can sense that in the content. Just as Costello goes on “drive-alongs” with police, my team and I do “reading around” – books, blogs, articles, magazines, almanacs – you name it, all to stay aware of developments, cultural changes, even controversies in our clients’ fields.

    Good content writers never cease to learn!

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Helping Readers Organize Their Perceptiions

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Helping readers organize their perceptions of your industry and of the services and products you offer is one of the core functions of blog marketing. An article in Forbes, “5 Cybersecurity Strategies for a Riskier World“, is an excellent model of how to present information in a well-organized, easy-to-digest format. For each imperative, a statistic is presented, followed by a piece of advice.

  1.  (Imperative) Balance innovation and security.
    (Statistic) 41% of executives say cyber risk initiatives at their organizations have not kept pace with digital transformation.
    (Advice) Don’t invest in cleanup for legacy systems – bake in security with new efforts.

2.  (Imperative) Inventory your highest risks.
(Statistic) 4 in 10 organizations now take a risk-based approach to cybersecurity.
(Advice) Get your technical teams, partners, and suppliers on the same page.

3. (Imperative) Safeguard remote work.
(Statistic) 67% of business-impacting cyber attacks target remote workers.
(Advice) Offer security awareness training for employees and their families, paying for the use of family password stories and                          antivirus protection for home devices.

In marketing a business or practice, organizing relevant and useful information in a structured format can be very useful to readers. Bullet points and numbered lists help readers’ eyes move quickly through the material. And, when the blog content “walks” readers through logical steps to a conclusion, that can increase the likelihood of them staying around to read all your key points.

Statistics can actually serve as myth-busters; if there’s some false impression people seem to have relating to your industry, or to a product or service you provide, you can bring in statistics to show how things really are. Statistics can also serve to demonstrate the extent of a problem (which is precisely how they are used in the Forbes article).  Once readers realize the problem, the door is open for you to show how you help solve that very type of problem for your customers!

In terms of offering advice, I’ve often mused that, out of all the possible advertising and marketing tactics a business or professional practice might use, blogging’s way ahead of the pack because it attracts customers who want to be sold. In fact, it’s the close match between the type of advice the searcher wants and what you know about that accounts for your meeting them in the first place!

It’s important that the entire format of the Forbes article is built around numbers, both in the “listicle” format and in the statistics. . In an analysis by HubSpot of their own blog posts to see which titles had performed the best in terms of search results, the top eight each included a number. In blogging for business, 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.

Organizing the material offered in your blog post helps readers organize their perceptions.

 

 

 

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One By One Problem-Solve in Blogging for Business

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This week, our Say It For You blog is sharing insights gained from the book The Writer’s Resource , by Day and McMahan….

“Analysis is always a part of effective problem solving,” the authors assert. Take any topic, isolate the parts, and think about them one by one, they advise. Why is it so hard to study English? Think of the component parts: a) You have not bought the textbook. b) The light bulb in your desk lamp has been burned out. c) You turn on the TV the moment you come home from school. Tackle each of those three, then think up three more rationalizations and deal with those, the authors say. Eventually, you’ll get to the heart of the problem, and the breakthrough will be due to your growing analytical prowess.

At Say It For You, we realize that our clients’ blog readers are not their students, and it’s going to be up to us content writers to “solve” readers’ issues, answering their questions, engaging their interest, and moving them to take action. The secret may lie in the story Day and McMahan tell about the composition teacher who told her students: “If, after writing the opening paragraph of your paper, you find you’ve run out of ideas of what to say next, begin the second paragraph with the words ‘for example'”. Even if you’re not writing about something difficult or abstract, the authors say, you still need examples to prove your point, as well as “to add verve and interest”. All good writing, the authors conclude, uses examples and illustrations.

But, in order to follow that opening-paragraph-followed-by-examples format, it’s important to first isolate one small aspect of your topic, focusing on just one idea in each blog post. Not only will that add more “punch”, but it allows the content writer – and the reader – to focus on that one central point. Remember, that opening paragraph is there to make clear not only what need, issue, or problem is to be discussed, but also what “slant” the business or practice owner has on the issue.

Then, the “for example” content might be based on real customer experiences, an issue with which the founders had wrestled before discovering the solution.

In blogging for business, it’s a good idea to tackle problems one by one!

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Different Strokes for Different Folks in Blogging for Business

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Is your business blog reader’s tummy rumbling?

In this month’s Writers Digest, ten winners were announced. Contestants had been given a photo prompt showing a grocery store aisle and asked to write the opening line of a story based on that prompt. My personal two favorites were these:

  • “My tummy rumbles as I walk past all the things I cannot buy with the seven dollars in my pocket, the seven dollars for her cigarettes.
  • “We fell in love reaching for the same tea and fell apart picking different ice cream.”

I think this exercise illustrated two concepts related to business blog content writing:

The importance of your opening line

  • The first sentence of a blog post functions as “a hook:” and, next to the title, it’s the most important set of words in the post, creative-copywriter.net explains, advising writers to “say it fast, strong, and well”, right into the action and addressing their deepest problem instantly.
  • Readers are looking for connections. The challenge is to get the reader to nod his or her head, thinking “Yeah, that’s me.” Ann Hanley says in orbitmedia.com.

  • Writer’s Digest wasn’t talking about online content, but for blogs, the opening lines are where it’s important to incorporate keyword phrases to help with Search Engine Optimization.

The same general topic can be approached in a myriad of ways.

  • In order to add variety, I teach blog content writers to experiment with different formats, including how-to posts, list posts, opinion pieces, and interviews.
  • Different posts can present the same business from different vantage points, “featuring” different employees and different departments within the company.
  • Individual blog posts – or series of posts – can be tailored to different segments of the customer base.
  • Remember that, even within your target market, each reader’s need for information, products or services was born in a slightly different space and has traveled a different path. Not every message will work on every person.

From the very opening line and continuing throughout the blog post, remember – there are different strokes for different folks in blogging for business!

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