Selling 102 for Business Blog Content Writers
“Your ability to constructively attract and engage a customer in relevant dialogue requires a conversational style as well as substantive content,” cautions Jeff Thrull in his book Exceptional Selling.
Thrull might have been offering advice to us blog content writers, I couldn’t help thinking. What I like to call the “I/you conversational style” is precisely the approach most effective for business blogs. At the same time, there is so much internet content proliferation that it’s definitely becoming a challenge to get noticed online. If the hard-sell technique ever worked, it certainly doesn’t work any longer!
Thrull describes the new reality of selling:
- When customers are engaged, they learn.
- When what they learn is compelling enough to make them want to change, they will buy.
In short, he’s advising – don’t push!
The good news in blog marketing is the same as the good news Thrull describes as operative in direct selling: Customers have negative stereotypes about salespeople. That makes it easy to differentiate ourselves by acting against type. “When in doubt,” he says, “do the opposite of what a salesperson would do.”
Applying that very logic to blog copywriting, I advise using blog posts to demonstrate the business owner’s or professional practitioner’s expertise, and to offer valuable tips to readers.
The goal of each post continues to be providing those who visit your site with a taste of what it would be like to have you working with them!
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