125 Ways You Can’t Tell The Difference In Cars (But You Can Tell in Blogs)

Taped to the reception counter at the Tom O’Brien Chrysler dealer’s showroom was a poster that immediately caught my eye: "125 Ways You Can’t Tell the Difference", the headline read, referring to pre-owned autos versus new vehicles. Having just this month blogged about the power of using numbers in blog post titles to engage readers’ interest, I thought this poster at the dealership a perfect example of the concept I’d tried to convey in my blog post. It was the number 125 on that poster that I found so arresting – could there really be that many ways?

Speaking of numbers, there are a number of ways that car poster can serve as 
a good tutorial for business blogging:       

Titles count (play on the word "count" intended)

A blog post title what draws an online searcher to progress to the content of the blog, because the title hopefully broadcasts two signals to the searcher:
 

1. They’ve come to the right spot to get the information/products/services they need
2. This blog post is going to be interesting reading.

The title counts with Google and friends from a Search Engine Optimization standpoint as well. In fact, that’s why it’s so important that you use the key search terms and phrases in the title of each blog post.

Focus counts.

Did I read through all of the 125 ways listed on that poster?  Of course not.  The title had already focused my mind on the concept of pre-owned cars. The very fact I was able to discern an actual list on the poster was enough for me.  Later, I thought, I might actually skim through the items, but the truth is, that poster had me at "hello".

Putting on my professional ghost blogger hat, I imagined how things might be if we were talking about a blog post, rather than a poster.  To engage online readers once they’d found the blog, I wouldn’t go for the big numbers except in the title.  Instead, I’d:
 

• Focus on just a few of the pre-owned cars from the dealer’s inventory, complete with photos (or even a video).
• Focus on just a couple of reasons you’d never know the difference between pre-owned and new without a Car-Fax report.
• Throw in some valuable hints on savvy car buying, showing readers how much the Tom O’Brien folks know and care about cars. 

Much more important, the blog post would need to convey how much the Tom O’Brien folks care about their customers’ safety and comfort!