Adding Background Color in Your Blog

Most business blog posts make claims.  The claims may be understated, exaggerated, or exactly on the money, but still – a claim is a claim. The problem is, often blog visitors don’t know how to "digest" the claims you’ve "served up".  They simply don’t have any basis for comparison, not being as expert as you are in your field.

What I’m getting at is that every claim needs to be put into context, so that it not only is true, but so that it feels true to your online visitors.

As an example, I found a paragraph in a news magazine talking about Subaru.  The piece starts out with a fact: "A report released this week by Subaru of America shows the company sold 23,667 vehicles last month." (As my grandmother used to ask, "So, do I eat this with a fork or a spoon?")  Since I’m not in the car sales business, I had no way of judging how good our how bad 23,667 sales was for Subaru – compared with what?

Fortunately, the report went on to put the number into context in two ways:

• 23,667 cars sold represents a 35% improvement over the same month last year.
   
• 23,667 cars sold is the best May sales total in Suburu company history.

Now I, as the reader, can begin to relate to the number 23,667, because it has a background context. 

As a professional ghost blogger and blogging trainer, though, I know there’s more to do with claims.  After the claim has been given background "color", readers must be shown how that claim has the potential to help them with their problem or need! (It’s the old sales maxim about how customers don’t care about the features and benefits of a product or service until and unless they know how much you care – about them!

There are something like ten million blog posts out there making claims of one sort or another as you’re reading this one. Based on my own experience as an online reader, I’d venture to say fewer than 10% of them put their claims in context, and only the very top few manage to convey to their blog visitors what the claims can mean for them!

Add some winning background color to the claims in your blog posts!