Corporate Blogging Training

“When it comes to writing a love letter, remember: It’s not a card.  It’s a letter,” cautions Tom Chiarella in a wonderfully sentimental Readers Digest piece.

Sometimes, in corporate blogging training sessions, I find myself issuing a similar caution: " When it comes to blog content writing, remember: It’s not an ad.  It’s a blog.”

As a professional ghostwriter of blogs for business, I’m keenly aware of the fact that when people go online to search for information and click on different blogs or websites, they don’t want to “be sold.” Sure, readers know the providers of the information are out to do business, and that the business owners and professional practitioners sponsoring the blog would like to convert them into clients or customers. But, if the material is valuable and relevant, the readers will stick around, so long as the blog doesn’t come on too strong in its Calls to Action.

Blogs, I explain to newbie freelance blog writers in Indianapolis, are more like advertorials than advertisements.

And, while blogs aren’t love letters, either, a lot of what Tom Chiarella had to say, I found, could be applied to writing for business and can be used by anyone who provides business blogging services.

“First, sit. Letters take time.  Writing takes a while.  Three lines can’t do the work of three paragraphs.” Crafting your message when blogging for business takes time and discipline. A website cannot tell your story completely, nor can it engage your potential and current customers with fresh content in real time. Blogging is more effective than any other medium at communicating your story in a timely manner, spread over time.

“Be loyal to the past you share. Use detail to show what you remember and that you remember.” Blog content writing reveals your story.  Why this business or profession?  How did you get started?  What connects you and your readers?

Remember, it’s not an ad.  It’s not a website page. It’s not a long article.  It’s a blog.

 Never one to “nap” when it comes to corporate blogging training, I’m on the alert for ways to keep blog content writers awake and active. Three visits to websites in the blogosphere’s “bedroom community” sparked some great ideas business owners and professional practitioners can use to keep their SEO marketing blogs energized over long periods of time.

Furniture Today blog
“Bedding is an impulse item,” asserts Jim Green of furnituretoday.com. “When you want one…well…you want one… When the consumer gets the impulse to buy a new mattress, he/she will commonly act upon it quickly.” 

(Here’s the part that relates to blog content writing:) “The best merchants put the message out there on a consistent basis to capture the customer’s attention whenever it arises.”    That’s precisely true in blogging for business. To capture online searchers’ attention “whenever it arises”, it’s crucial for you to maintain frequency and consistency in posting blog content.

American Freight blog
“American Freight Furniture and Mattress is excited to announce that the Lakeland, Florida location has moved to a larger space and expanded its inventory.”  One excellent reason for posting  business blog content is to make announcements of news about the business or practice.

Clarifying ways in which you differ from your competitors is another: “American Freight is a warehouse-style discount furniture story open to the public that specializes in furniture obtain through dealer cancellations, factory closeouts, retain chain buyouts, and wholesale liquidations.” American Freight goes on to explain why that’s good for the customer.  As I often explain to business owners, in writing blog content in Indianapolis, always assume readers are asking themselves, “So what?”

Bedroom Furniture Portland blog
Like American Freight, Bedroom Furniture Portland is making use of their corporate blog to make an announcement: “We finally got our store hours up at the store!  Our hours for those who want to stop by and visit are by appointment Tuesday, Wednesday – Friday 10-5, Saturday 12-5, Sunday 12-5, closed Mondays.”

In another post, the bedroomfurnitureportland blog features a testimonial. “With just a few emails and phone calls, Susan was able to answer all my questions…In a couple of weeks after placing my order, the furniture came and I was completely satisfied with the quality and detail of the items.”   Customer success stories and testimonials like this one boost the credibility of your business with new prospects.  At the same time, I explain to Say It for You freelance blog writers who create content for clients, the process of providing a  testimonial reinforces the relationship that client already has with the business or practice.

You may not be selling mattresses, but, whatever the products or services you provide, always imagine that when online searchers want one…well…they want one. 

Will your business blog content be there to tell them you’re there, ready to satisfy their wants?

Social media “should be part of every company’s outreach, because it has great potential for brand-building…”, asserts Linda Mansfield of Restart Communications, who recently served with me on an Indiana Motorsports Association panel to discuss marketing on the Web.

The static problem, explains Mansfield, comes from the fact that “all of the different social media avenues are vying for the same thing: people’s time and attention”. Of course, as we blog content writers in Indianapolis know all too well, “traditional” marketing message are part of the competition for consumers’ eyeballs and eardrums along with new media.

In corporate blogging training sessions, I emphasize that “winning search” through business blog writing is simply not enough.  As Mansfield points out, you have to “make sure that the people who are the ‘face’ of your company are approachable, likeable, knowledgeable, and available.”

Lucky for us freelance blog writers, blogging for business is the perfect vehicle with which to “face the nation”, our very own group of online readers and clients who share our interests.  While there’s more than enough information out there on every imaginable topic, including our own, blog content writing provides a unique and ongoing opportunity to talk about what we have, what we know, and what we do. Most important, we get to share who we are and why we’re so passionate about our work.

Business blogs – they’re where we get to be approachable, likeable, knowledgeable, and available!

Some of the puzzles I love to solve are “quotefalls”. After you finish filling letters into the boxes, you uncover a wise saying. I knew the writer of this one must have been referring to corporate blog writing along with babies:

“A baby is a small creature who soon ceases to be an armful
and grows into quite a handful.”

When it comes to corporate blogging for business, says Rick Short, Indium Corporation’s Director of Marketing, perseverance is the big thing: “If you won’t be able to stick with it once the blogging becomes routine, after you’ve battled with writer’s block, after numerous distractions beckon, then find a new hobby!”

Like childcare, it seems, “content is never done.  It is a process that needs continuous attention,” as Erin Short, Coordinator for Tall Ships America points out. Sad statistics prove Short’s point: 90% of all bloggers for business neglect or abandon their blogs.

That’s why, in corporate blogging training sessions, one of the main lessons I need to convey
to would-be blog content writers is that the real challenge in blogging is sustainability, even more than the content creation part of SEO marketing blogs.

I think Gina speaks for all freelance blog writers along with all business owners when she says, “It is challenging to stay on top of my thoughts and put together relevant blog posts when my daily job often takes up so much of my time, both in the office and out.”

A good blog will drive up your search engine rankings and give you credibility... It all sounds great, except for one thing — you have to write. ... observes fellow blogger Jenni Buchanan.

As that small corporate blog creature ceases to be an armful and grows into something much bigger, that’s when Indiana blog content writers can help handle the handful!
 

 “Your age is your business; your face is my business,” is the mantra for Lisa Nesbitt, director of Mary Kay Cosmetics in Indianapolis.

There’s a similar relationship between me and my Say It For You clients. You’re a business owner or a professional practitioner (doctor, CPA, attorney).  The products and services you offer are your business. As your professional ghost blogger, conveying your message to online readers and clients is my business.

Most business owners and professionals are clear that the potential benefits of corporate blogging are substantial, but for one (or sometimes all) of three reasons, they haven’t been able to make their blog keep happening: no time, no motivation to make it a priority, no talent to apply to business blogging.

This using of professional copy writers to create business blog content, is it smart business?, asks Robin Hale of writers-elite.com, answering her own question in a decisive affirmative. In fact, without delegating the task of bringing your voice and your brand value to a target audience, she warns, you “can’t expect to grow beyond the limited number of tasks you can accomplish on your own. Ghost writers, bloggers, and even ghost tweeters are valued resources that will clear your plate and allow you to further carry out the plan and growth of your business,” she adds.

Does that mean those making use of a business blogging service provider can take the attitude of “Wake me up when it’s over”?  Of course not, as I stress to business owners in the course of Indianapolis corporate blogging training sessions.

Mary Kay asks its customers to select the statement that reflects how they like to express their values:

• I go for earthy shades that reflect nature and add a soft hue to my natural skin tone
• I like a polished look overall with shades that enhance my skin tone
• I like to play with vivid colors that contrast with my skin tone.

Based on the client’s own unique tastes and preferences, the cosmetic professional creates the palette. In similar vein, whenever I’m sitting down with business owners as we’re preparing to launch their SEO marketing blog, together we select several recurring themes or blog leitmotifs to appear and reappear over time in their blog posts. The discussion centers around their expertise and their knowledge of their target market.  I and my writers are merely converting those discussions into business blog content.

The interesting thing I’ve found over the years of business blogging is that the very exercise of thinking through the themes and the ideas for the blog helps train the business owner or practitioner to articulate those same things when they’re talking to their customers!  I call this “magic” the “training benefit” of corporate blogging. In a very real sense, as I handle the blog content creation that is my business, it helps you do your business better!

“Did you know that…?” can be four winning words when starting a conversation – or beginning a business blog post. 

After all, when a business owner (or a professional ghost blogger writing on her behalf) shares a little-known fact about an everyday thing, not only does that showcase the business owner’s expertise, it can bridge gaps and break down barriers. 
 

Why? Tidbits are “neutral ground”, and readers tend to drop their resistance and their fear of “being sold”.

In corporate blogging training sessions, I encourage Indianapolis blog writers to use etymology, (the history of words), to offer interesting information relating to their industry. A florist, for example, could take a tip from Richard Lederer’s piece in the Mensa Bulletin about the anthology of flowery words.

As a homeowner, for example, I’ve looked upon dandelions as weeds. Still, I was fascinated to learn (there’s the “Did you know that…” effect again) the English used to call the yellow, shaggy plant a “lion’s tooth” because of its jagged, pointy leaves.  The French translated “lion’s tooth” into “dent-de-lion”, which, said with an English accent, becomes “dandelion”!

Internet vocabulary has evolved with such speed, its etymology is on steroids. One tidbit I’m fond of sharing with Say It For You clients is (did you know that…?) before the term “web log” became “blog”, writers would refer to their work as “zines”? Today, there are kittyblogs, anonoblogs (anonymous), miliblogs (military), kittyblogs (about cats), and even splogs (spam blogs).

Etymology impacts SEO marketing blogs in more ways than one. As an Indiana blogger working to help clients "win search", I realize that not only may online readers not know the name of my clients’ business, they may not even know the correct terminology for the product or the specialized service they need! All those readers can do is describe the desired result, or resort to “kadigans” such as thing-a-ma-bob or whatchamacallit.

Business blog content writers can anticipate that very problem, working from back (the history and etymology of business terms) to front (the end results that buyers can anticipate).
 

 Whether you’re trying to get your home ready to sell or trying to get a start on corporate blog writing for your business, you’re sure to hear a lot of advice about keeping things “fresh” and “new”. 

Well, paint and flowers may do it for curb appeal, but, when it comes to business blogging, it’s not so easy, is it? In corporate blogging training sessions, I'm constantly hearing that the biggest challenge business owners face is sustaining their SEO marketing blogs over long periods of time.

I couldn’t help relating that dilemma to a humorous Reader’s Digest anecdote I came across the other day:

 My 85-year-old uncle and his wife were sitting quietly in their living room, each in their matching recliners.  After a while, my aunt asked, “How come you never  talk to me anymore?” My uncle replied, “I told you everything I know a long time ago!”

“A simple technique to update the look of your shop is to move things around,” says Karen Lee, “captain” at EcoEtsy. “Take a few items that are hidden away on page 4 of your listings and move them up to the front page….Shift items from the bottom of the page up to the top. Tweak descriptions,” Lee advises. “Seasons change, and so do trends…  Every so often, ensure descriptions are up to date and relevant for shoppers.”

 Indianapolis blog content writers can use the same tactic by calling attention in a business blog to “old” information that hasn’t been highlighted for awhile, reminding readers of an “old” point, but presenting it in a new light.

While building a loyal reader following is a result to be desired, most Say It for You corporate blogging clients, particularly in the early to middle stages of a business blogging initiative, want business blogging help focused on two business goals:  Getting “found” and getting their cash register to ring. That translates into content that is not pnly interesting and engaging, but which immediately conveys the message to online searchers “You’ve come to the right place”, then offers them alternative Calls to Action.

Two of the “8 Tips for Improving Your Memory” offered by PsychCentral’s Editor-in-Chief John Grohol are worth passing along to Indianapolis blog content writers:

“The more senses you involve, the more strong a memory becomes.” Basic information about your business, material you’ve presented again and again in earlier business blog posts, can assume new power when you relate that content to different sounds, sights, or smells.

“Organize it.” Presenting material you’ve discussed before, but organizing it differently, can make a big difference.  Some formats to try:

• Question /answer
   
• Alphabetized lists and glossaries
   
• Surveys
   
• Relating to news items

Sometimes, after months and years of composing content, we business blog writers can feel like that elderly uncle in the Readers’ Digest anecdote –we’re told them everything we know a long time ago. But by adding a few new items, rearranging some old ones, and staying alert to changing vocabulary and trends, we can keep our blogs fresh and new, never running out of things we just can’t wait to say! 
 

Super Bowl Ad Tracker calls it “an ode to the significance of manufacturing”, referring to GE’s commercial, set in a New York pub, in which a worker proudly exclaims, “We make the power that makes the beer.”

I liked the piece, too, and for some of the same reasons Ad Tracker mentions. For one thing, as a professional ghost blogger, I can see a number of parallels between creating that kind of engaging TV spot and corporate blog writing.

“The nod”:
Included in the GE “ode”, there’s a “nod”, notes Dale Buss of Ad Tracker, meaning a nod to Bud Light, official beer of the NFL. In similar vein, blog content writing verbalizes the positive aspects of a business.  Unlike traditional advertising copy, though, blogs take a softer, more “advertorial” approach, with just a “nod” towards the business’ recent accomplishment and its products and services.

Heartstring pulling:
Unlike just about every other major Super Bowl advertiser Buss explains, GE didn’t plan to use humor, but “to pull at our heartstrings instead”. That same idea is expressed by mRelevance, who see blog content writing as a chance for business owners to be real humans, not hiding “behind a slick corporate website”.

In fact, before providing business blogging assistance to any new Say It For You client, I always perform a “reality check” in the form of the following question: “If you had only 8-10 words to describe why you’re passionate about what you do, what you know, and what you sell – what would those words be?”

“Our goal with the ads was to show the pride and passion GE employees have for the products they make,” GE’s spokesperson shared with brandchannel. As blog content writers soon learn, one very important reason behind writing for business is to express that pride and passion is real time.

What about SEO marketing through blogs? Unlike giant GE, who could count of millions of Super Bowl viewers being there to discover their message, local business owners depend on blog content writers in Indianapolis to help them win search.

In the TopRank online marketing blog, Lee Olden summarizes the results of a recent survey of business owners for whom blogs are part of their search engine optimization efforts.

• 87% successfully increased SEO as a direct result of blogging.
• 54% began to see SEO benefits from blogging earlier than expected (0-3 months).

Still, as I caution in corporate blogging training sessions, blogs are not magical, guaranteed search engine ranking magnets. In fact, blog content writing should be considered just one element in an overall traditional/online marketing strategy.  In an Indianapolis pub or networking meeting, we corporate blog writers might borrow a boast from that GE worker: 

We make the power that makes the online marketing strategy!
 

It’s gotten to be a habit of mine - I read signs. We Indianapolis blog content writers can learn a lot from signs, I’m convinced - from how to go about engaging people’s interest, to how to fairly represent a business owner’s or professional’s mission.

One day, driving south on Meridian, I noticed a sign out in front of the Indiana Blood Center. Its message was short and sweet:

                        ”Craving cookies?  Come on in!”

Well, I’ll tell you, I’m a professional ghost blogger, and I offer business blogging training, and… for the rest of that day, I just couldn’t get the message from that sign out of my mind.

First off, the way SEO marketing blogs work was perfectly captured in the two very short sentences on the Indiana Blood Bank sign:

Through the search engine optimization process, potential customers search online for a product or service they’re interested in. Because you have a “sign” outside (the keyword phrases you’ve used in your frequently posted blog content), the search engine has “delivered” those potential buyers to your “digital doorstep”.

They’ve got the “craving”; you’ve got the “cookies”.

 You invite those customers to “come on in” by clicking on the link to your blog post.

Another good thing about that sign is the “bonus”, meaning the cookies. Jimmy Brown writes in incomeondemand.org that offering a bonus that’s both desirable to customers and easy to deliver gets prospects excited and increases the likelihood they’ll take action by buying your product or service. The Indiana Blood Bank is doing exactly that – using an incentive to get extra “sales” (blood donations).

But, arresting as the message was, and, as much as I like cookies, there’s something I didn’t at all like about the “deal”. You see, the Indiana Blood Center sign was doing something that I caution freelance blog writers to avoid – pulling a “bait and switch”.

Remember, the first thing online readers will see on your blog is its title, and largely based on that title, those searchers will decide whether to “come on in” and read your blog content. The title carries an implied promise that “what you see is what you’ll get”. In other words, in corporate blogging for business, the post needs to deliver on the promise in its title. Not that donating blood isn’t a noble cause, but no fair inviting me in on the basis of my craving for cookies, leaving out that I will first need to have my blood drawn!

If ever the Indiana Blood Center asks for Say It For You’s business blogging assistance, I plan to suggest the sign be changed to read, “Raise your sleeve if you crave cookies!”

Zipping points, according to witty public radio host Michael Feldman, are over-used phrases he believes should be kept inside our heads and never allowed to escape our lips – or pens!

Feldman’s warning certainly applies to business blog content writing.  Sure, in Say It For You corporate blogging training sessions, I urge freelance blog content writers to use a less formal and more conversational tone.  But, pu-leeze, I’ll now add, make the Feldman “no-no” list your own, avoiding once-popular expressions such as “going forward’, “operationalizing”, and “low-hanging fruit”.

(Readers, you're invited to comment by sharing your own 'no-no" list of trite expressions!)

Lists have always been basics in SEO marketing bloggers’ tool kit, but they’ve been lists of keyword phrases and of categories. Now, having laughed my way through Feldman’s bathroom reader “What D’Ya Know?”, I plan to refer to two lists in my work as a professional ghost blogger: 

1. Keyword Phrases
2. Zipping Points

What that means is that never again, in my writing for business owners or professional practitioners, will I refer to “ramping up”, “outsourcing”, “getting your game on”, or “knowledge acquisition”, much less “manage expectations”, or “prioritize”.  No longer will I describe any Say It For You client’s product or service as a “game-changer”.

Mr. Feldman, I can tell you your list is going to be of great business blogging help. My professional ghost blogger mouth and pen (keyboard?) are “zipped up”, you will be happy to know!

My Say It For You corporate blogging training company, I discovered, has a sort of counterpart in Australia – Dental Web Strategies, whose motto is “helping Australian dentists become visible online.”

Like me, Dental Web Strategies subscribes to the Hubspot blog, and in this post it’s calling attention to a recent Hubspot discussion on a topic I’ve touched on many times: how very hard it is for business owners to find time to blog on a regular basis.
 
While everyone seems to be in agreement that business blogging content needs to be posted frequently, there’s room for disagreement on just what kind of frequency is called for. Hubspot had pointed out that the schedule for an SEO marketing blog should be determined by the particular business’ “competitive needs”.

“Let’s be straight about this,” Dental Web offers, pointing out that most Australian dental websites don’t even have a blog! So, they conclude, “to decide the best schedule for your blogging efforts, it behooves you to look at the dental websites in your local area and see what the schedule for posting is for your competitors. If no one is blogging in your area, a fortnightly or monthly post would probably be all you need to stand out from your competitors.”

In other words, the recommendation is to develop “peripheral vision”, being aware of what competitors are doing “around” your area, and working to stay just one step ahead of them.

Remember that old joke about two men hiking who come upon a bear?  The first man immediately takes off his boots and starts putting on running shoes.  “What are you doing?” his buddy asks.  “You can’t outrun a bear!”  “I don’t have to,” replied the first guy.  “I just have to outrun YOU!”

In terms of getting “indexed” by search engines, blogging for business means building a type of equity, ”saving your spot” online. Your blog content writing doesn’t have to outrun “the bear” (the entire universe of providers in your field), only your own competitors.
 

When things aren’t going right in business, the natural tendency is to point fingers away from oneself – whatever’s wrong, it’s the fault of that guy or gal over there, that other department, or that other manager.” says Bill Jeffries, President & CEO of Executive Strategies International.

That’s why, in working with employees to develop high-performing teams, Jeffries insists the “senders”, (aka the blamers) come along to the sessions with their “send-ees”. Similarly, in the Israeli Defense Forces, an officer is always expected to lead from the front. The famous cry of the officer is "aharai!" (follow me).

Does all this have anything to do with providing business blogging assistance? I really think so. It doesn’t matter, in my book, whether business owners or professional practitioners are doing their own blog posting or hiring professional ghost bloggers like me to help. The blog’s message might be well-thought out, or it might even be unintentional. Either way, wherever there’s a blog, that blog is conveying the values and beliefs of the owners.  You might say blog content writing is one way of inviting online readers to “come on in” and become part of the process of bringing those values to life.

The business owner offering advice through blogging for business is, in a way, the sender. (He or she’s giving advice, issuing Calls to Action, and “driving” traffic to the website, basically assuming a leadership role.  The online reader searching for information, products, and services is the send-ee in the typical corporate blog writing scenario.

Thing is, the cry of the blogger had better be “aharai!” (the cry of leading from the front), not the cry of either salesperson or movie director. In a blog offering information about health products or services, it needs to be obvious the content writer is a believer in and user of those very products and services. What reader can be engaged in advice about stock trading when the advisor has all her money in CD’s? In corporate blogging training sessions, I stress sincerity and passion over facts and figures when it comes to SEO marketing blogs.

Freelance blog writers in Indianapolis – how many ways can you say “Follow me!”?

An “ice page”, I learned, is a web page on which the primary content has a fixed width, usually set to the left side of the window. (More flexible settings are called “jello” or “liquid”.)

Interesting. Since I train blog content writers in Indianapolis, I immediately realized that “ice” in blog writing can be a time-saving device.  After all, the primary excuse business owners use to explain why their corporate blogs have fallen into a state of disrepair (or been outright abandoned) is lack of time.

While up until a few days ago I wasn’t familiar with the term “ice page”, I am familiar with the general concept.  In fact, when company owners or professional practitioners (or the professional ghost bloggers they’ve employed to help them) express doubts about their ability to keep generating new blog content over extended periods of time, I have been introducing them to an “ice” concept which I call the leitmotif.

Effective blog posts for any company, professional practice, or organization can be planned around key themes.  (Leitmotifs are the recurring musical phrases that connect the different movements of a symphony, for example.) Those themes, like “ice pages”, are fixed ideas that form the basis for blog posts.  But around those pieces of “ice”, blogging for business means filling in new details, examples, and illustrations (the “jello” and “liquid” elements that bring variety and freshness to individual posts).

That’s why, at Say It For You corporate blogging training sessions, our discussions are not about ways to continually find brand-new ideas, but on building “e.g.’s” and i.e.’s around the business’ or the practice’s core themes.

A teacher for many years, I know that every lesson needs to be offered in a variety of formats, because students have different learning styles.  Blog writing services need to incorporate the same principle – the basic messages remain the same, but since online readers have different tastes and needs and learning styles, SEO marketing blogs must offer a variety of styles and material. 

With well-defined “ice” content as the core around which that “jello” is created, that otherwise formidable task becomes a whole lot easier for blog content writers!

“We use our inside voices at school,” I overheard one kindergarten teacher saying in a well-modulated tone, in sharp contrast to her students’ shouts.

Blogger Daniel Scocco (“Skellie”) offers similar advice in “10 Principles of Successful Business Blogging”: “When you take a business-related call with a client….do you use slang, swear, or are you otherwise impolite?” he asks, reminding us blog content writers to think of our writing as an extension of our professional “voice”.

Two more Skellie principles relate to bloggers in terms of use of company manners as well:

• Be personal (that helps establish you has someone clients can relate to)
   
• But don’t be too personal, he cautions, getting into family matters, relationships, stresses, etc.  In other words keep your tone positive, minding those “company manners”.

In Say It For You corporate blogging training sessions, I recommend just that sort of “high road” approach to business blog content writing. Yet, while Skellie tells bloggers to “keep politics, morality, and controversy out of your business blogging”, I encourage business owners and professional practitioners to use their business blog to reveal their core values and corporate culture.  That may mean coming down strongly on one side of an issue, to be sure. Fact is, people want to do business with real people who have real passion concerning their work. 

Think of the most highly skilled corporate blogging for business  as truth-telling with an “inside voice”!

In real life, chances for real “do-overs” tend to be few and far between.  Hopefully, we learn enough from our most terrible mistakes to avoid repeating them – at least not repeating them in exactly the same way.

A recent issue of Mental Floss (a never-failing idea source for me as a professional ghost blogger) related the story of one of the biggest corporate bloopers of all time – VISA.

Before 1958, credit cards had to be paid in full each month.  As Bank of America prepared to launch the first-ever revolving-line credit cards, the company asked each of its Los Angeles bank branch managers to prepare a list of customers who should definitely NOT be issued revolving lines of credit.

Uh-oh…the BankAmericards were issued only to that very group of “no-no” customers! The result – in the first few months of the program, there was a 22% delinquency rate on the new cards, and BofA lost a whopping $20 million in its first year.  Meanwhile, a PR fiasco ensued, with clergy and the press criticizing the company for fostering an “immoral” credit-based economy.

As readers of this Say It For You blog already know, the story of revolving-credit cards continues with a spectacular turnaround, with Bank of America straightening out the problems and changing the name of the card to VISA.

So, what’s my point in calling attention to this business tale gone bad, then great, in discussing SEO marketing blogs? One very important function corporate blog posts can serve is damage control.

As a reader, I enjoyed learning the BofA snafu story because that failure has turned into such a success.  I teach freelance blog writers in Indianapolis to include stories of their clients’ past mistakes and failures. Such stories have a humanizing effect, engaging readers and creating feelings of empathy and admiration for the business owners or professional practitioners who overcame not only adversity, but the effects of their own mistakes!

What’s more, business blogging help can turn out to help with customer relations.  When customers’ complaints and concerns are recognized and dealt with “in front of other people” (in blog posts), it gives the “apology” or the “remediation measure” more weight. In fact, in corporate blogging training sessions, I remind Indianapolis blog writers to “hunt” for stories of struggle and mistakes made in the early years of a business or practice!

Remember the old alchemists who turned junk metal into gold?  When it comes to blogging for business, mistakes and struggles can be “golden” content for blog posts!

Long before corporate blog writing became the centerpiece for conveying a business’ message to potential customers, none other than poet Walt Whitman understood the importance of connectivity in SEO marketing blogs.

“To have great poets,” Whitman asserted, “there must be great audiences, too.”

As I consistently stress when offering business blogging assistance, blog are not only for reading, but for acting, reacting, and interacting. In other words, in the world of corporate blog writing, it’s not enough to be a “poet”.  You have to have readers.  “Your personal brand visibility is made up of your search engine ranking and how many eyeballs physically see your content each day,” explains Chad Levitt (quoted on P. 150 of Branding Yourself).

Great audiences, though, must bring more than just their eyeballs to our clients’ websites, as we Indianapolis freelance bloggers know, and being “influential” online means a whole lot more than being found.  Blogging for business has to mean business, which means “having the ability to push your followers and friends to action”, as Levitt explains, and that action needs to be in accordance with the business’ personal branding plan.

There’s more than one reason for using the blog writing process to build great readership:

Backlinks – The more links pointing back to a blog, the more importance search engines will attribute to that blog.  “Blogging is about community.  Don’t expect people to read your blog if you aren’t reading and commenting on theirs,” tweets @Justheather.  So right – leaving comments on other people’s blogs and writing about those other people will, sooner or later, Heather suggests, get them to write to and about you.

Richer content – The lesson I try hardest to impart in corporate blogging training sessions is: “The more you know, the more you can blog about”.  Business content writing in blogs is the result of a lots of reading and listening on the part of the blogger.

Decades ago, poet Walt Whitman knew that a key element in effective poetry writing was the cultivation of great audiences to enjoy that poetry.  The right kind of readers – (those with an interest in your topic who value your products and services and are willing to pay for them), are the “great blog audiences” every business owner and professional practitioner wants to attract!

“If they’re in your session, they’ve already drunk the Kool-Aid,” explained well-known humor speaker and coach Bill Stainton at our most recent National Speakers Association of Indiana meeting.  Stainton was offering a tip to conference “breakout session” speakers, but he might well have been coaching content writers in Indianapolis.

Conference attendees who choose to attend sessions titled “Better Employee Relations”, “Applying the New Federal Regs on Manufacturing”, or “Orange Growing in Your Own Back Yard”, for example, already have an interest in one of those topics. The point Stainton was emphasizing to us speakers is that in such a situation, long introductory remarks are superfluous;  the session leader needs to get to the heart of the matter straight away.

As a professional ghost blogger for business owners and professional practitioners, I realized that breakout sessions at a conference are an almost exact parallel with corporate blogs. If readers have arrived at your business blog, it’s because they already have an interest in your topic – they’ve already “drunk the Kool-Aid”, and are ready to receive the information, the services, and the products you have to offer. It’s now up to you to assure those visitors, through the words and pictures in your business blog content, that they’ve come to precisely the right place to get what they’re after.

In any talk, not only a breakout session but even a keynote address, Stainton explained, the first five minutes must be indicative of what the audience can expect. What will be the format and presentation style (humorous/ serious, questions welcomed/questions held to the end?) and “stance” (problem-solving/ informational/motivational?). The audience will go along with any number of different approaches, but they want to know “the deal”, meaning what they should expect.

When I’m offering corporate blogging training sessions to business owners and their employees, or talking to freelance blog writers, I’m telling them the same thing.  It’s just that a couple of seconds, not five minutes, describes the “window” of time blog content writers have to “get indicative” and capture readers’ attention.

Yes, online readers who arrive at your business blog may have already tasted the Kool-Aid and apparently are interested in more of it.  Your task is to keep them engaged with valuable, personal, and relevant information, beginning with the “downbeat”,(which is my term for the first sentence of each post).

Yes, those visitors are drinking Kool-Aid, and the only question remaining is – will they be drinking your brand?

“All bloggers would like to get more interaction and participation from their readers and visitors,” says vandelaydesign.com.  (As a blog content writer and corporate blogger trainer in Indianapolis, I found nothing new in that observation.)

Imagine my delight, though, to learn that, aside from the obvious conclusion that engaging readers through our business blog writing helps increase the response to our Calls to Action, we freelance blog writers may be helping protect against dementia in seniors!

Getting social, according to a 15-year study of older people in Sweden, may prevent dementia by providing emotional and mental stimulation. Subjects in a University of Michigan study did better on tests of short-term memory after just ten minutes of conversation with another person.

What are some of the ways Indianapolis blog writers can encourage more interactivity through our corporate blog writing?

Vandelaydesign.com advises displaying the most recent comments in the sidebar of your blog. In corporate blogging training sessions, I go one better by advising blog content writers to periodically compose an entire blog post around a question posed by a reader.

Two other Vandelaydesign suggestions include putting a link on your blogsite that says “email to a friend” and adding a “share on Facebook” link.

Two tactics I often incorporate into my Say It For You blog writing services include using “tests” and surveys to engage readers and help them feel they are part of a conversation with my business owner clients.

Engaging in conversation can provide mental stimulation for people of all ages. It’s nice to know, though, that memorable business blogs can help improve customers’ memory!

My Say It For You business blog writing advice pieces this week were all triggered by items in the latest copy of Scientific American Mind magazine.  One corner of one page features only a headline, which was taken from a CNNHealth story:

“Insomnia costs U.S. $63 billion annually in lost productivity”
 

Citing startling statistics like this one is, without doubt, one tactic blog content writers can use to capture readers’ attention.  But my experience as a ghost blogger for business – and as a corporate blogging trainer – has shown me that statistics, even the startling sort, aren’t enough to create positive results for any SEO marketing blog.

Why not?  The fact that a serious problem exists (even if the searcher suffers from that very problem) is not enough to make most readers take action. And in the final analysis, of course, the success of any blog marketing effort depends on that action. As Health.com puts it, “People who have trouble sleeping rarely see their problem as an illness that requires treatment.”

True, as I stress in corporate blogging training sessions, blog content writing has one enormous advantage over traditional “push marketing” tactics. What blogging does best is deliver to corporate blog sites customers who are already interested in the product or service they’re providing!

While it may not in itself galvanize customers into action, including “startling statistics” in corporate blog writing can serve several functions:
 

• Assuring readers they are hardly “alone” in their need for solutions to their medical, financial, or personal challenges
   
• Assuring readers they’ve come to the right place for help, and that this blog content is being offered by a business or professional practice that knows the field and is “up” on recent developments in it.

Once that basic connection has been established through the attention-commanding statistic, the blog content writing can focus on creating the emotional connection with the reader.  At Say It For You, in fact, we believe that more intense connection is what blog writing services should be all about!

In their new book Branding Yourself, fellow Indianapolis bloggers Erik Deckers and Kyle Lacy observe that the starting point of a personal brand campaign is the “positioning and transaction statement”. This statement, they explain, is basically a tagline, a catchy or memorable phrase or sentence that expresses the uniqueness of your brand.

In corporate blogging training sessions, I like to talk about leitmotifs or recurring core themes to which blog content writers can refer again and again.  The five-question exercise that Decker and Lacy suggest for setting up the P&T (positioning & transaction) statement can be perfect for pinpointing such central themes for any SEO marketing blog:

   Positioning:
   Who is your competition?
   How are you different (3 reasons per competitor)?
   How are you similar (3 reasons per competitor)?
  
   Transaction:
   What does the transaction look like?
   What is the end goal?

Just such a thought process leads to what I’ve nicknamed “the training benefit” business owners can derive from corporate blog marketing. (This holds true, I’ve found, whether owners do their own blogging or collaborate with a professional ghost blogger.)  The very exercise of answering the questions and thinking about your own business practices helps train you to articulate those things to clients and customers.

While the Branding Yourself authors are guiding business owners towards a one-phrase or one-sentence statement, the very same five questions they pose can be of business blogging help. In fact, the big advantage business blog writing has over ads, billboards, brochures, and even static website content is that blogs are, by definition, a work in progress.  Using blogs, the corporate mantra or professional practitioner’s message can continually be honed.

Blog posts, as we see them at Say it For You, are continuous-run positioning and transaction statements!