“Why To Buy A Piano” Is Good Advice For Blogs

A couple of weeks ago, I browsed through an advertising supplement to the Indianapolis Star named “Why Buy a Piano Now”.  The supplement contained pages upon pages of information about all kinds of products and services.  Since, at the top of each page, the words “advertising supplement” were prominently displayed, everyone reading the material knew the goal was to get new customers for the businesses who had bought the space.  Nevertheless, because the information about each product or service was so helpful and so well-written, there was no hard-sell advertising at all to the section.

As a professional ghostwriter of blogs, I couldn’t help finding a parallel here.  When people go online to search for information and click on different blogs or on different websites, they’re aware of the fact that the providers of the information are out to do business.  But as long as the material is valuable and relevant for the searchers, they’re perfectly fine with knowing there’s someone who wants them for a client or customer.  The secret of successful business blogging, I found, is just that – not coming on too strong.  A blog is not an advertisement; you might say it’s an advertorial.

The Indianapolis Star supplement is a perfect example of what I mean.  The piece provided some valuable quick tips on the ABCs of Piano Shopping, explaining three basic decisions facing a piano buyer (digital vs. acoustic, upright vs. grand, used vs. new).  But the big lesson to be learned for business blogging comes in the final paragraph of the piece: You don’t have to make the ultimate piano decision the first time, it tells us.  You can choose a piano that will accommodate a child’s entry into the piano world.

Think about how reassuring that statement might be for a potential piano buyer (They’re trying to help me, not sell me the most expensive instrument in the store). Now, think about someone searching the Web for information on a product or service that costs a lot of money (home remodeling, for example), or that is quite complex or scary (think bankruptcy or cosmetic surgery, for example).  If, in your business blog, you can convey the idea that there are different levels of involvement possible, and that ultimate decisions need not be made the moment the potential client of customer steps into your website, visitors to your blog will be reassured there’s a comfortable place for them with you!  In other words, before selling them the piano, help visitors to your blog understand “Why To Buy A Piano”!