When to Slice Your Blog Content in Two – or Three….

“There’s a trend in web design you need to know about, writes Peter of roundpeg.biz. The typical simple web design pattern with one main message followed by 3-4 blurbs works great when you sell one thing to one type of customer, he explains.   But you might have two or more groups you’re equally interested in talking to. And in that case, Roundpeg recommends, create a distinct landing page for each type of customer, immersing each in what they care about.

The same basic concept of targeting more than one type of reader applies to blog content creation, I believe. Matt Bailey, author of Internet Marketing: An Hour a Day. Bailey has a theory about longtail keyword phrases and how the choice of words a searcher uses relate to buying decisions. General search terms are used in Stage One, at the point of need, the very beginning of the buying cycle, but whenever customers use highly specific search phrases, they tend to be looking for exactly what they are actually going to buy, he says.

Just as you can “slice” your web design, you can “slice” blog content by inserting different calls to action that take ready-to-buy customers directly to the detailed information they need, while readers at the “weighing-the-evidence” stage are directed to a page with   a demo video, a question/answer page, to a list of testimonials or of case studies.

Not only are blog readers likely to be at varying stages of their decision-making process, readers are of different personality types. To make sure you’re offering “slices” that will appeal to each of those types, consider offering different types of content:

• For “Drivers”, who are most concerned with results,  blog about how your products and services helped solve problems, how long that took, and how much it costs to get there.
• For “Expressives”, who care most about how they’re perceived and about feelings,., emphasize the prestige that comes with using your products or services, and how customers can use those to express their own creativity.
• For “Analyticals”, who tend to be preoccupied with details, offer lots of statistics, measurement, steps in a process, and lists of product ingredients.
• For “Amiables”, who are interested in relationships and in pleasing others, blog about how your product helps others and helps build and strengthen personal relationships.

Slicing is indeed a trend you need to know about and use in blog marketing!