Posts

Blog Writing for the Rando?

/0 Comments/in /by

“I may be a rando when I cross your field of vision,” says Luc Sante.  Randos, he explains, are people who show up at your party uninvited or who Jumbled wooden letterpatronize your favorite hangout but who have no connection with your crowd. To put it another way, a rando is Not One of Us.

As business blog content writers, of course, we’re trying to target the “right kind” of readers, those with an interest in our topic, value our products and services and are willing to pay for them. But what about all those others, the “random” readers? Shouldn’t your content be structured so as to engage them as well?

When he first began to use the Internet, Sante recalls, his impression was that every time you clicked on a link, it took you somewhere else, “until you were miles and maybe years away from your point of departure”.

FutureNow‘s  Brendan Regan teaches business owners to “optimize a marketing outreach from the driving point to the landing page and on through to conversion.” In other words, for any business blog to enjoy bottom-line success, there needs to be a smooth process, a navigation path that begins when a customer first becomes conscious of your existence to when you’re closing a deal.

Given the way organic search works on the Internet, some of those readers just becoming conscious of your existence might well be “randos”. That’s because, every once in a while, there’s a “disconnect” between what a searcher wanted and what he or she actually finds.  When this anomaly results in bringing someone to your blog who really doesn’t “belong” there, it’s not necessarily bad news.  That “mistake” might even result in you converting a searcher-gone-astray into a buyer!

Am I saying you don’t need to write with a very specific target audience in mind? Not at all.  In fact, your understanding of your target readers has to influence every aspect of your blog.  By doing that, you’ll have an enormous advantage over less-targeted competitors.

Meanwhile, though, welcome the randos who “wander” into your territory.  You just never know…
.

 

 

 

Facebooktwitterredditlinkedintumblrmail

Blog About Both Kinds of Goodwill

/0 Comments/in /by

Fountain pen writing GoodwillWhen you’re looking to buy or sell a business, Troy Patton of Archer Investments explained at the Financial Planning Association, one really important factor to weigh is goodwill.  How much of the business’ goodwill is “enterprise” and how much is “personal”?

Professional business valuator Linton Kotzin agrees. “Segregating the intangible value of a company between personal and enterprise goodwill is becoming increasingly relevant,” he says, explaining that personal or professional goodwill attaches to a particular individual, while enterprise goodwill is derived from the characteristics of the business itself, regardless of who owns or operates it.

Content marketing through blogs needs to consider both those aspects of the company’s – or the professional practice’s goodwill. There are many different possible forms a blog post can take, of course. Hubspot, in fact, lists no fewer than 44 “fantastic types of content”, including:

  • How-to’s
  • Case studies
  • Charts and graphs
  • FAQs
  • Question/answer sessions
  • Guides
  • Glossaries
  • Opinion pieces
  • Surveys
  • Quotes
  • Quizzes
  • Book summaries

Patton’s presentation on valuing a business or practice, though, made me realize how important it is for us blog content writers to focus on creating “goodwill value” on both the enterprise front and the personal front.

Blogging for business has the potential to reach different groups, including new (recent transaction) customers, repeat customers, other companies’ customers, potential customers, and strategic partners (including vendors, colleagues, professional associates).

All of those readers need to know about enterprise value. In other words, have they come to the right place to find the particular kind of service or product they need, and is that product or service competitively priced and of good quality?

But that’s only the half of it. It’s the personal goodwill that’s going to invite readers to “connect” and “buy in”. If you’re to enjoy any success in content marketing through business blogging, I’m convinced, personal goodwill needs to be operative. Not only must searchers see your blog as a go-to source for ongoing information (the enterprise value of the business), but they need to feel engagement with the people who provide the product or service. Of course, the typical website explains what products and services the company offers, who the “players” are and in what geographical area they operate. The better websites give at least a taste of the corporate culture and some of the owners’ core beliefs.

Blog about BOTH kinds of goodwill!

 

 

 

Facebooktwitterredditlinkedintumblrmail

Different-Strokes Blogging for Business

/0 Comments/in , /by

eLooking for ways to help your blog content appeal to different segments within your market? Look no further than the very different presidential marriage proposal tactics chronicled by Jeff Wilser, in Mental Floss magazine’s “10 Presidential Marriage Proposals”.

As a blog content writer, strive for subtlety. Harry Truman snuck in his proposal to Bess while talking about the weather:  “I guess we’ll all have to go to drinking whiskey if it doesn’t rain very soon.  Water and potatoes will soon be as much of the luxury as pineapples and diamonds.  Speaking of diamonds, would you wear a solitaire on your left hand should I get it?”

The art of writing a good advertorial, write.co explains, is getting the right balance between story and sale. Use a subtle touch in your sales message and in the calls to action in your blog.

Persistence is a virtue:
After meeting Lady Bird in Austin Texas, Lyndon Johnson needed to return to D.C. where he was working as a congressional aide. Over the next ten weeks, the couple exchanged no fewer than 90 letters before Johnson returned to Texas to give his love her ring.

A good blog requires persistence to maintain frequency. Even years ago, in the process creating my company Say It For You, I realized that the main key to business blogging success was going to be simply keeping on task.

Research your target audience, finding out what they need and like.
Richard Nixon hated ice-skating, but went skating with Thelma “Pat” Ryan and her friends because he knew she loved it.

We’re there to engage those blog readers and show them we understand the dilemmas they’re facing.  In fact, a business blog is the ideal vehicle for going right to the heart of any possible customer fears or concerns and laying the groundwork for understanding and trust.

Offer a taste of the benefits:
Dwight D. Eisenhower gave Mamie a miniature version of his class ring from West Point.  That made her want a full-sized rock.

By offering a “content-tasting” on your blog, and doing that regularly and frequently, you’ll be earning the right to convert at least some “tasters” into buyers!

In the art of business blogging, it’s important to use different strokes for different readers!

Facebooktwitterredditlinkedintumblrmail

Accentuate the Negative?

/0 Comments/in , /by

“Eliminate the negative an’ latch on to the affirmative” was Johnny Mercer’s musical advice back in 1945.dog food Playing to one’s strengths has, in fact, been a popular fad in management development circles. As a blog content writer, though, sometimes I wonder.

The latest issue of Modern Dog magazine features eight article titles on its cover:

  • How Not to Train Your Puppy
  • Gift ideas galore
  • Big Dogs and their Puppy Counterparts
  • Winter Survival Tips
  • Great Gear
  • I’m Adoptable
  • Find a New Best Friend
  • Why is My Dog Staring at Me?

Guess which one attracted my attention the most – Yeah, gotta admit… it was the negative one telling me how NOT to train my puppy. And guess what? It’s not just me.  People are drawn to articles with negative titles, my friend and fellow blogger Lorraine Ball pointed out a year ago. Posts with negative titles stand out in a blog roll, on a Twitter feed or LinkedIn page, and the negative posts are more likely to be shared, retweeted and read.

What’s with us? Well, “edgy language draws attention”, Lorraine explains. (Lorraine’s title “Why Your Blog Titles Suck” is a bit too edgy for me, but I get the idea. I do.) Fact is, I would’ve picked “Why is My Dog Staring at Me?” before “How to Train Your Puppy”.  It was that How-NOT-to that drew my attention.

But that doesn’t jibe at all with Rich Brook’s advice on socialmediaexaminer: “The how-to is the most powerful of all the blogging archetpyes.”  Your prospects and customers have a problem and you can help them solve it by creating a step-by-step post that walks them through a solution, he says. That may be true, counters Lorraine Ball, but fear of failure is core to who we are as people, and it’s hard to resist reading material about how to avoid it.

Could it be that accentuating the negative, and only then latching on to the affirmative is the best advice for us business blog content writers?

Facebooktwitterredditlinkedintumblrmail

Blogging to Tell Them What to Think About

/0 Comments/in , /by

Thinking manHara Estroff Marano, writing in Psychology Today, says she won’t tell you what to think, but will tell you what to think about.  While in this article the psychologist is offering food for thought in the sphere of dating and self-motivation, I couldn’t help but love that line of hers, realizing how very apropos it is for us business blog content writers.

In fact, a point I often stress in corporate blogging training sessions – whether you’re blogging for a business, for a professional practice, or for a nonprofit organization, is this: you need to voice an opinion, a slant, on the information you’re serving up for readers. In other words, blog posts, to be effective, can’t be just compilations; you can’t just “aggregate” other people’s stuff and make that be your entire blog presence.

On the other hand, if you, as a business owner or professional practitioner, try telling people what to think, that’s a surefire way to lose friends and customers in a hurry. Yes, your blog is your “podium”, meaning you get to showcase your business so customers will want you to be the one to provide them with the product or the service they need. But they need to arrive at that point as a result of their own thinking.  Dr. Marano hit the nail on the head – don’t tell readers what to think; give them all the facts they need to think about.

How can blogs help potential clients and customers make better, sometimes complex, decisions?

  • By suggesting questions readers can ask themselves while choosing among many options. (Do they want ease of use? Current functionality? Future capabilities?)
  • By “mapping”, meaning showing how choices are related to consequences.  How much sooner will your mortgage get paid off if you add $100 each month to your payment. How should the prospect feel about the purchase (Relief? Trust? Premier status?)
  • By offering easy ways to make choices, so that the decisions are not pressure-packed.

You might say the art of blogging consists of In supplying facts, and then putting those facts in context.  As bloggers, we’re giving them the raw materials to think about, but we need to go one step further, demonstrating why those facts matter, suggesting ways readers can use the information for their own benefit.

To the woman concerned that the man she’s been dating has been legally separated for the past twenty years, Marano suggests, “Could it be that your online friend values clinging to the comfort of the status quo?”

What can you give your blog readers to think about?

Facebooktwitterredditlinkedintumblrmail