Does Your Business Blog Have 57 Varieties?

Does Heinz really have 57 varieties? asks Don Vorhees in the Book of Totally Useless Information. The answer is no! At one point the H.J. Heinz Company produced over twenty times that number of food products, Vorhees explains. Riding the elevated train in New York City, Heinz saw a billboard advertising 21 varieties of shoes.  Catching on to the special power of using a number on a billboard or in a title, Heinz decided that the number 57 had a certain ring to it.  The rest is merchandising history.

Numbers do have that special “ring” when used in blog content writing for business, especially when the numbers are used in the title of the post. One way freelance bloggers can freshen up their content is to start with an idea about the product or service and then put a number to it:

• Two best ways…
• Three problems that often arise with…
• Four simple steps to….
• 25 tips for…
• The eight honest phrases

Not only do numbers add that “zing” to SEO marketing blogs, there are ways you can use numbers to educate your blog readers and demonstrate your own expertise. Numbers help debunk myths. If there's some false impression people seem to have relating to your field or your product – bring on the numbers to prove how things really are.

In corporate blogging training sessions, I advise newbie blog content writers to use proof in the blogs to build belief. Statistics constitute that proof, showing the extent of the problem your product or service helps solve.

An important caution, though:
Even if you do have 57 varieties in your product line, or know 25 tips that could be really valuable to your clients, remember that online readers do NOT want to read about them all in any one blog post!  In fact, at Say It For You, our professional ghost bloggers preach the Power of One:

In fact, blog posts have a distinct advantage over the more static website copy by being narrowly focused. Even if you use a statistic to make your point, or a catchy number for the title, the content itself in corporate blogging is best focused on just a single aspect of your business. Make sure to convey that you have 57 varieties (of information, products, or services), but that today, you’re focusing their attention on just one!