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Blogging to Bolster Your Point of View

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perspektive

“Indiana is growing – but we can’t neglect transit as a quality of life and economic development priority,” Michael Huber CEO of the Indy Chamber and Steve Sullivan, CEO of MIBOR Realtor Association agree. Both are in favor of raising taxes in Marion County to improve transit  services.  Huber and Sullivan use several tactics to strengthen their argument in favor of our investing in a transit system:

Offering details and explanations of the proposed plan:

  • New rapid-transit lines
  • All-day, high-frequency bus service
  • Weekend and crosstown service
  • Tax would be an additional 25 cents for every $100 of income, less than $10 a month for the average household
  • Who will benefit? Low-income households, senior citizens, people with disabilities, healthcare and hospitality workers who have evening and weekend hours, employers who want to attract employees

Statistics:

  • Marion Country gained 4000 residents in 2015
  • Indianapolis is the nation’s 14th largest city, but our bus fleet ranks 84th
  • Brookings Institute ranks Indy as 64th out of the 100 largest metros in transit services

Motivational statements:

  • “It’s a vote to bring new investment to struggling neighborhoods…”
  • “Better service connects people and jobs, and creates self-sufficiency.”
  • “Transit creates upward mobility and independence for those who rely on it most.”

“I just do not get it,” says Mitch Roob, Executive VP of Keramida Environmental, taking a stand on the other side of the debate. “How would a train-like bus benefit more than a very small portion of the community?  Is it equitable to charge someone for a service they likely never will use or for that matter even see?”
To bolster his argument against taxing Indy residents to fund a rapid transit system, Roob employs three tactics:

Statistics: 
Dallas invested more than $8.2 billion in a system that today carries only 4% of the area’s daily work commuters
Atlanta’s transit system ridership is down 15% from 2001

Turning opponents’ arguments against their case:
“Advocates suggest that “transit-oriented development” will spur development in the proximity of the transit corridor”. If so, says Roob, transit will add value to real estate, and the incremental property tax can pay for the service.

Emotional appeal – painting a picture:
“Trains and buses are not happy places.  Somber, hurried passengers cast their wary glance away from the strangers next to them whose personal space they have inadvertently but necessarily invaded.”

Which side makes a more powerful statement.  Truth is, both articles are impactful because both sides take a stand on the issue and then use various tactics to bolster their stance in the eyes of readers. Whether it’s business-to-business blog writing or business to consumer blog writing, the blog content itself needs to use opinion to clarify what differentiates that business, that professional practice, or that organization from its peers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Finding the Flossiest Blog Topics

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Downtown St. Paul, MN

Mental Floss Magazine, always masters at making unlikely connections among seemingly unrelated topics, did it again in “25 Flossiest Cities in the World”.  The term “flossy”, the editors explain (lest we envision dental care), means “exhibiting qualities of charm, quirk, and brain-boosting power in equal measure”.

The article is all about places that don’t come to top of mind, steering readers’ minds away from the tried and true and introducing them to new ways of looking for travel destinations.

I explain to newbie content writers in Indianapolis that steering away from the tried and true gives business owners the chance to showcase their own knowledge and expertise. Even more important, the technique of myth busting helps engage interest. A different approach can serve to answer readers’ concerns, as in the following examples:

  • Dentist’s blog:
    Do amalgams used for fillings cause mercury poisoning?
  • Beautician’s blog:
    Does makeup cause acne?
  • Internet security firm blog:
    If you don’t open an infected file, can you get infected?
  • Home décor firm blog:
    Should small rooms be painted in pale neutral colors?

Visitors arrive at your blog to find information on specific topics.  But, once your opening lines have reassured them they’ve come to the right place, it’s a great idea to use some unlikely connections to give them the sense of being ahead of the crowd, having some unusual “inside information”…

  • Giethoorn, Netherlands, Mental Floss advises, is flossier than Venice, with four miles of canals dug in the 13th century.
  • Lavenham, England is flossier than Pisa. Many of its buildings were constructed in the 15th and 16th centuries, are crooked because they used green timber which warped as it aged.
  • Huizhou, China is flossier than Austria.  China’s duplicature craze resulted in Austrian,  English, Swiss, Italian, and Spanish copycat cities.

What flossy topics can you use to unexpectedly engage blog readers’ interest?

 

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Striving for Online Marketing Stardom

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success secrets

 

“You need writers even if your content is primarily video or audio,” asserts Mitch Meyerson in Success Secrets of the Online Marketing Superstars. Why? Even what looks like free form content, he explains, needs a solid, well-crafted structure of words.

What does Meyerson define as effective content structure?

  • A headline that instantly commands audience attention
  • An introductory few sentences that pull the audience in, making it tough to turn away
  • Useful information that solves a problem the audience genuinely cares about
  • A single, focused point or “moral”
  • Stories, metaphors, and examples to teach that point
  • A  Call To Action that rouses the audience to take the next step

As a blog content writing trainer, I loved this question/response in Meyerson’s  book:

                                                                          “How long should your content be? Like a skirt, short enough
                                                                               to maintain attention, long enough to cover the subject.’

It’s important to understand, really understand, the difference between features and benefits, the book stresses.

  • Features tell us two things:  What it does and what goes into it.
  • Benefits tell us two different things: what it does for the customer and what they get out of it.

A point that I’ve long emphasized to newbie blog content writers is well-stated in the book:

“Content that attracts attention also tends to have a strong, well-defined point of view.  This is no place for wimpy, wishy-washy musings.” Your readers will want to hear a clear “voice” in your blog posts.  Allow your passion – and your (or your business owner client’s) point of view – to shine through, making it very clear how problems can be solved using these services and products and what principles and beliefs drive this business or practice.

Striving for online marketing stardom? Tap dancing around the issues is a no-no.

 

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Sales-Lite for Business Blogs

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cotton balls
Your objective of blogging may be to generate leads, to increase web traffic, or to raise your profile as an authority. But if you use your blog just to spread your sales messages, cautions kissmetrics.com, you may struggle to find readers.

So, how do you get your sales message across through your blog?  This week, my Say It For You posts are devoted to that very question. Here’s what some folks are suggesting:

Kissmetrics: To gain business with your blog you should stop thinking like a salesman and start acting like your reader’s mentor. By providing solid advice on a regular basis, you build authority and trust; and that’s how you win new customers.

B2bleadblog: Automation can help you manage lead nurturing, but you can’t automate trust.
Trust is earned by being helpful, relevant and honest with your prospects. When considering what targeting options to use, you need to know and understand the make-up of the heavy user. Knowing gender and age is only a fraction of the story. You need to also learn about the benefits they seek as well as their motivations for using that particular product or service. Get into the mind of the heavy user. Knowing who they are and what they do every day will help you better decide multiple locations where you should place the message to reach the right consumer and what that message should look like.

Alina Diaz, Center for Sales Strategy: At the end of the day, the marketer is looking to get their message in front of the right audience. Using analytics, pay attention to the characteristics of heavy users.

Jane Sheeba Media of dailyblogging.org:
For online sales, especially through blogs, you should be cautious to provide the information in a logical fashion, addressing all expected concerns from a customer point of view. If the content is provided by careful wording, product images (with front view, top view, left view and right views and other angles) revealing the functional components, there is a great chance to make a sale in the first shot.

For blog content writers, serving up a sales-lite menu can help increase leads that lead to sales.

 

 

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Things-You-Can-Buy Business Blogging

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Luxury Cruise Ship in Port

Yes, I admit it – I tried for the $1.5 Powerball jackpot and lost. Have to add, though, that I really couldn’t relate to that big a dollar figure – couldn’t even imagine dollars in the billions. Billions. Until, that is, I read the USA Today list of “5 Things that $1.5 Billion Powerball Jackpot Can Buy”:

  • A fleet of 23 Gulfstream 6650 jets
  • 42,000 nights’ stay at the Burj Al Arab Jumeirah Hotel in Dubai
  • A flotilla of five “super yachts”
  • A parking lot full of Tesla Model S electric cars, one for each of your 21,097 closest friends.

Ah, NOW, I got it!  And, while I’m not sure Dubai would be my destination of choice, just seeing that list made that humongous number come alive for me.

That same concept applies to blogging for business, I’m convinced.  Each claim a content writer puts into a corporate blog needs to be put into context for the reader, so that the claim not only is true, but feels true to online visitors and in such a way that readers can picture themselves using the product or service.

It wouldn’t be exaggerating for me to say, based on my own experience reading all types of marketing blogs, that very few manage to convey to visitors what the information means to them. Imagine those readers asking themselves “How will I use the product?  How much will I use? How often? Where? What will it look like?  How will I feel?”

$1.5 billion wasn’t real to me until that enterprising USAToday journalist Charisse Jones helped make it real by translating the dollars into stuff those dollars could buy.

Try focusing your blog posts on the results your readers can have as a consequence of using your product, your service, or your know-how:

  • things they could buy
  • things they could enjoy
  • things they could accomplish
  • ways they can feel
  • looks they can achieve

Put your readers in that “Gulfstream jet” of anticipation of wonderful results!

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