Motivating Others Through Our Blogs

“Motivating others requires a connection to people’s deep desires. It’s not just about loading them up with a lot of how-to information,” write Steve Chandler and Scott Richardson in 100 Ways to Motivate Others.

Since as blog content writers, we’re trying to motivate readers to take action, what lessons can we learn from this book of 100 ways? I’ll choose just a few pointers offered by the authors that I found most relevant:

1.  “You can’t motivate someone who can’t hear you….In order for someone to hear you, she must first be heard…Tune in before you turn on.”
I remember, years ago, listening to a speech by radio host Michael Medved in which he told us that we need to listen to our clients with “three ears”.  That’s because we need to hear what they say, hear what they’re not saying, and even discern what they don’t even know how to say!

If we as blog writers can go right to the heart of any possible customer fears or concerns (which we’ve learned through deep research into our target market!) we have the potential to breed understanding and trust.

2   Stop criticizing upper management. “Maybe you do this to win favor and create bonding at the victim level, but it won’t work…The word ‘they’ solidifies the impression that we are isolated, misunderstood, victims.”
The authors are talking about managing employees, but the same lesson can be applied to the attitudes we convey about our competitors. Other providers are viable alternatives for our customers, and readers don’t like to be “made wrong” for checking out what our competition has to offer.

Although one approach in a business blog is comparing your products and services to others’ it’s important to emphasize the positive rather than “knocking” a competitor.  That means that, rather than starting with what the competition is doing “wrong”, use the power of “We” to demonstrate what YOU value and the way YOU like to deliver your products and services.

3.  “ Do the one thing… The truth is, there is only one thing to do, and that is the one thing I have chosen to do right now. If I do that one think as if it’s all I have to think about, it will be extremely well done.”
In blogging, doing the one thing takes the form of what I call “the Power of One“ –  addressing, in each blog post, one message, to one audience, targeting one outcome.

It’s here that blog posts have a distinct advantage over the more static website copy.  Each post can have a razor-sharp focus on just one story, one idea, one aspect of your business.  The more focused out efforts are on connecting with a narrowly defined target audience, the more successful the blog will be in converting prospects to clients and customers.

There are, no doubt, at least 97 other ways to motivate readers through our blogs, but these three make for a good start!