Say It For You

“People are more important than ever before,” remarks fellow blog content writer Michel Fortin. That’s because, he explains, “The internet is cold and impersonal.”

What Fortin calls “taking the human element out of the sales process” is actually the polar opposite of what freelance blog writers aim to accomplish, and getting personal is a huge element in the success of any SEO marketing blog.

Practical eCommerce’s Paul Chaney agrees. “Blogging,” he says, “consists of one person – or one company – communicating directly with consumers in an unfettered, unfiltered manner….blogs are a more personal form of communication.”

As a corporate blogging trainer, I liked the specific blog Chaney pointed to as a great example of getting personal: “How Differences With Your Spouse Can Make Your Marriage Stronger”, written by publishing company CEO Thomas Hyatt. “It’s that type of transparent self-disclosure that has made Hyatt both a popular blogger and a respected leader," Chaney observes.

If people are to be more important than ever before, that means Indianapolis blog content writers must focus on personal anecdotes and on the personal values of the business owners and the people delivering professional services.
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“Be intimate.  Be ego-driven.  Above all, be emotional.” Is Fortin’s advice to online marketers. SEO marketing blogs may be writing about business, but it had better be about people as well, and that includes both online searchers and online blog content writers, both buyers and sellers. The message: You’ve gotta get down and personal!

“We are what we write,” professional speaker and handwriting expert Theresa Ortega shared with me almost three years ago, explaining that “all writing is brain writing”. I learned, to my amazement, that amputees who hold a pen their mouths or even between their toes form their letters precisely the same way they used to before their accident!

Of course as an Indianapolis blog content writer and corporate blogging trainer, I use the word “writing” in a context broader than just penmanship.  Still, as Ortega and I concluded about personal branding by business owners as expressed through business blog writing, we are also what we blog.

Just this month, as I shared with my Say It For You freelance blog writers, Theresa Ortega was featured in the Indiana State University Magazine. As part of a study, the school’s recreational sports department compared Ortega’s analysis of the writing by newly hired staff members to results of those same staff members’ assessment tests.

Ortega found one handwriting sample that set off alarm bells, and she enlisted the help an FBI friend, who confirmed her suspicions that the individual’s writing revealed traits found in serial killers. The university was alerted, so that the person’s behavior could be closely monitored.

To a certain degree, all of abusiness’ marketing materials reveal the owners’ attitudes and beliefs.  But as I’ve continued, over the years, to offer business blogging help to corporate owners and professional practitioners, it’s become apparent to me that blogs are most “telltale” of all forms of marketing. That’s partly because of blogs’ conversational, personal tone, and also because business blog content writing continues over weeks, months, and even years.

It doesn't matter whether you’re doing all the writing yourself or collaborating with a professional ghost blogger like me. As the story unfolds, blog post after blog post, about what you sell, what you do, and what you know, the clearer it becomes  to readers who you ARE!

Zits isn’t the only comic strip with lessons to teach Indianapolis blog content writers. Three years ago, I coined a tongue-in-cheek phrase, “accidental organic blog donors” to describe the way organic search sometimes rewards us for the wrong reasons.

In offering business blogging assistance to different companies and organizations, I sometimes need to remind owners that online search is not the most precise of processes.  Every once in a while, there’s a “disconnect” between what a searcher wants and what he or she actually finds.  And, every once in a while, that “mistaken” visit to your SEO marketing blog can result in converting a searcher-gone-astray into an actual buyer.

I was reminded of this not-really-so-rare and sometimes fortuitous source of business blogging help the other day by the comic strip Mother Goose and Grimm.
 

- “What are you reading, Ralph?
- “Learning how to care for the newt.  This manual says that newt hates onions.”
- “No, Ralph, the book says ‘unions’.  Newt (Gingrich) hates unions.”

On the surface, as I point out to business owners and Say It For You freelance blog writers, this is nothing more than a laughable situation: Ralph was searching for information about pets and instead reaches a political “site”.

But, who knows?  Isn’t it possible that the political blog will divert Ralph’s attention to the campaign? And, isn’t it possible that a dad trying to help his kid with a homework assignment on Hawaii happens upon a travel agent’s website about vacations in Hawaii and bookmarks that site to use in planning a vacation?

I think the lesson to be gained from Mother Goose and Grimm is that accidental matchings will happen.  And, at least occasionally, you’ll have reason to be thankful to the search engines for the mistaken identity!!

Zits, as I shared a couple of days ago, is a great example of a comic strip with lessons to teach us Indianapolis blog content writers.

“Jeremy?  What are you doing up?” asks Mom at 6AM, amazed.  “I’m going for a walk and then helping shovel the sidewalk in front of the nursing home,” Jeremy informs his mother. “I can’t even get him to pick up his dirty socks,” marvels Mom to Dad, totally puzzled by Jeremy’s newfound enthusiasm for doing good.

As a professional ghost blogger and corporate blogging trainer, I found myself wondering the same thing about online readers – how can freelance blog writers get them engaged and call them to action?

Israeli researchers Fox and Amichai-Hamburger tell us it’s all in “the power of emotional appeals”. Writing about promoting organizational change, the authors urge emphasizing “not rational arguments, but the emotional elements of persuasion.”

It’s simply not enough, I remind Indianapolis blog writers, to offer statistics in your SEO marketing blog, or to list reasons why what you have, what you sell, and what you know is better than what your competitors offer.

Instead, effective business blog writing involves turning those statistics into emotionally compelling stories. That’s because anyone providing business blogging services needs to find ways to offer readers the chance to become part of something important and worthwhile.

I think the Jeremy clip is particularly apropos when it comes to blogging on behalf of not-for-profit organizations and for employee recruitment efforts.  Picking up dirty socks doesn’t bring a sense of mission – shoveling the sidewalk in front of the nursing home does!

Comic strips have truths to tell, offering ideas I find usable in corporate blogging training.  A particular Zits piece from a couple of weeks ago is a good example.  Mom asks teenage son Jeremy how he’s progressing with his English assignment of composing daily reflections.

Jeremy’s answer reminds me of those I hear from business owners who’ve tackled the task of corporate blog writing on their own: “I had a couple of good thoughts in September,” Jeremy begins, “then sort of fudged it through October, and went straight stream-of-consciousness for November, December, and January…”

Successful blog content writing is about “getting your frequency on”, observes fellow blogger Pat Flynn. If you throw in the towel before success has a chance to develop for your SEO marketing blog, Flynn warns, you’ll have fallen prey to the biggest single reason most people fail at blog marketing.

Jeremy-like “fudging through” or stream-of-consciousness, while certainly not the path I’d recommend to either business owners or to the freelance blog writers they employ to help them with blog content, that would be better than blog abandonment. That’s why the first job of Say It For You professional ghost bloggers is to help clients “get their frequency on.”

“I hope your teacher appreciates the ‘honest’ effort,” says Mom with a touch of tongue-in-cheek.  All sarcasm aside, though, Indianapolis bloggers will find that one thing online readers appreciate is honesty.  Blogger Irene of SoftVoiceofaFreeSpirit agrees: “One thing that draws me to a blogger is authenticity,” she states, listing elements that demonstrate honesty in a blog:

• Being one’s true self with no pretensions

• Showing appreciation for readers
  
• Responding and comments on others’ blogs
  
• Promoting causes you believe in

If you’re not yet a fan, take a look at Zits – it contains valuable business blogging help in a comic strip!

Professor Robert Krull of Texas Tech University studies the way online help systems are designed. Overall, Krull found, the largest problem participants had in using the help systems wasn’t in the information itself, but rather in finding the correct help topic. In other words, the people needing the help and the people providing the help were using different terminology.

Since the work I do as a freelance blog writer and corporate blogging trainer has everything to do with enabling people to search for and easily find the information, products, and services they need, I liked what Krull had to say about the importance of a common vocabulary.

First, Krull pointed out, online users “became lost in the unclear structure of the system”. Because they hadn’t framed their questions in the same terms used in the help programs, those readers became frustrated as they tried to navigate the system to get answers.

Ease of navigation (as I stress when offering business blogging help) is absolutely crucial to the success of any SEO marketing blog. From the manner in which the corporate blog page is set up to the corporate blog content writing, the process must be smooth.  Frustrating potential clients is to be avoided like the plague.

Krull goes on to discuss the way users “frame the search question”. Help system users are unfamiliar with the specific vocabulary used by a computer product.  They may frame their question by using one name for a category, when the program has it under a different label. Or, users may type in an entire sentence or question.

Since search engines “match” the words and phrases typed into the search bar with web pages that continually use those same words and phrases, business blog writing has a significant advantage over static web page content. Freelance content writers must be vigilant – just how is their content getting found?

The goal, of course, is to get the people needing the help (the online searchers who are the potential clients and customers) and those providing the help (the business owners and professionals using the blog writing services) on the same page, and most important, speaking the same language!

“I don’t do companies that don’t have a story,” states brand consultant Lynda Resnick. “If they don’t have a story, they don’t have a business.” Executive consultant Bill Jeffries agrees.  “Leaders,” he observes, are effective storytellers.”

In corporate blogging training, I’ve found, a big, big part of providing business blogging assistance is helping business owners formulate stories.  Every story, Bill Jeffries explains, contains certain elements:

Central characters: The history of the company and the value of its leaders are story elements that create ties between corporate leaders and blog readers.

Corporate blog writing must tell the story of the central characters in that business or professional practice. 

Plot: What do we do? How? Why? What does “success” look like to us?

Online visitors to your blog want to feel you understand them and their needs, but they want to understand you as well. The stories content writers in Indianapolis tell in their SEO marketing blog have the power to forge that emotional connection between company and potential customer.

Setting:  Each business story takes place in a physical setting (Where is the plant, the distribution area, the practice located?) The setting also includes the backdrop of the markets in which that business operates and the complex of problems for which they offer solutions.

Internet organic search is all about settings. Consumers are looking for places where they can feel comfortable and be assured of locating the products, the services, and information they need. The keyword phrases blog content writers use help draw visitors to the site, but the stories they find when they arrive provides the setting for the birth of a relationship of trust..

Learning to tell one’s business story carries special benefits for business owners. That’s true, I’ve learned, whether owners are doing their own blog content writing or working with a freelance blog writer like me.

I’ve called that the training benefit, because in the process of verbalizing positive aspects of a business or practice in a way that people can understand, leaders are constantly providing themselves with training about how to tell their story!

“It’s better to be roughly right than precisely wrong,” observed English economist John Maynard Keynes almost a hundred years ago.  I think that saying holds true when it comes to measuring the effects of SEO marketing blogs.

As a corporate blogging trainer and ghost blogger, I find business owners’ overriding concern is realizing a Return on Investment from their blog content writing efforts. Just the other day I attended a workshop presented by business development consultant Charlie Larson, who explored this very topic (measuring marketing ROI) with our American Marketing Association group.

Since “finance is the international language of business,” (was the message of the meeting), “business owners must understand the financial ramifications of all their marketing initiatives.”

As I look back upon my experiences with the different Say It For You corporations, small businesses, and professional practices, I tell Indianapolis blog writers that ROI is more than “analytics” and charts.

It’s not always possible, for example, to associate a specific ROI measurement to blogging for business without regard to all the other initiatives the client is using to find and relate to customers.  All the parts have to mesh - social media, traditional advertising, events, word of mouth marketing, and sales.  Every effort that “makes the cash register ring” contributes to “marketing ROI”.

Blogging for business carries benefits in addition to helping increase sales, I’ve found. Continuously producing and making available quality content, I teach business owners, helps demonstrate that you care about quality in all dimensions of your business. As they blog, they are constantly providing themselves with training about how to effectively express to customers and colleagues their unique “slant” on their industry.

From an ROI standpoint, getting it “roughly right” when it comes to corporate blogging for business means checking with everyone involved in providing the service or product - those who work in sales, advertising, accounting, production, and distribution.

And, while total precision in isolating blogging ROI may not be possible, the blog’s general bottom line must be clearly in the benefit column.

“Should Environmental Messages Be So Assertive?” was the question raised by researchers for a study published in the Journal of Marketing.  

Since, as a freelance blog writer and corporate blogging trainer, I’m part of each client company’s marketing team, I find my membership in the American Marketing Association very helpful, and often find information in their journal that can be of help to all Indianapolis blog writers.

“Environmental communications often contain assertive commands, even though research in consumer behavior, psycholinguistics, and communications has repeatedly shown that gentler phrasing is more effective when seeking consumer compliance,” this particular article begins.

In any kind of writing, the “tone” of the piece influences how great (or how little) an effect it will have on readers. When it comes to SEO marketing blogs, establishing exactly the right “tone” is crucial.  With the purpose of blogging for business being to cultivate relationships with potential customers, patrons, and clients, anyone providing blog writing services needs to “get it right” and “get” what messages are likely to be turn-offs to the target audience.  

“Many environment/social-related issues are forcefully promoted through assertive slogans such as ‘Use only what you need’ and ‘Stop talking, Start Planting’, I learned. Yet research strongly suggests that assertively phrased requests typically decrease compliance with the message, compared with less assertive phrasing, such as “Please be considerate and recycle.”

“Assertiveness interacts with consumers’ drive for freedom in a counter-persuasive manner”, conclude authors Kronrod, Grinstein, and Wathieu.

Talk about a piece of information blog content writers need to hear! If blog writing for business is about anything, it’s being informative and persuasive, and gentler phrasing can be one of our secrets to success.

Besides being innovative and funny, the Progresso Soup ads are onto something,
I think, that needs to be top of mind for Indianapolis blog writers. The commercial teaches us to tailor our message to those people who won’t be saying “O-kay” in a bored tone of voice.

I confess that I really love all the Progresso Soup ads.  Since I’m a writer of SEO marketing blogs and a corporate blogging trainer, there’s one that really hit me between the eyes. This lady calls a Progresso chef to express her delight that she’s lost weight and now fits into her old jeans.  Each time she tries to tell him how excited she is about this, the chef merely replies “O-kay” in a bored way, like “So what?” – he doesn’t get it. Finally the caller says “Is there a woman I can talk to?”

My point is that anyone who does blog content writing needs to accept that not every reader who arrives at your business blog is going to “get it”.  In corporate blog posts, you target a particular audience and work to address their needs. As time passes, you continually hone your content in light of your own deepening understanding of what makes that group of people “tick”.

Before I write a Say It For You blog post, I noodle around the Internet for info and comments, and, in this one instance, I was thinking about Progresso.  I found a blog post that reinforced my point about not every reader “getting” it. This blog was posted by a lady who absolutely hates the very same Progresso ad I’ve been praising. She says it “grinds her gears” “How $-%-^-&-0-* (don't read her post if you hate bad language) depressing that the commercial lets us know, in no uncertain terms, that men don’t have to go through dieting hell to achieve anything…”

Progresso hadn’t started their wonderful ad series yet, but four years ago I was talking about the same “getting it” idea in a Say It For You post about the Alice Cooper rock band.  When the band decided to have a man dressed in tattered women’s clothing and makeup, their motto was “If the parents hate it, the kids will love it.”

Narrow down your target market, I advise business owners in corporate blogging training
sessions.  Figure out what you have that those people want and need. Then speak to that audience through your blog. If the “wrong” readers hate your business blog, or just say “O-kay. O-kay.” in a bored kind of voice – that’s OK! The right readers will love it!

The best comic strips have lessons to teach freelance blog writers, I've found.

• Timeliness: Business blog material can be immediately created, published, and updated (as compared to the typical corporate website).
  
• Public acknowledgement: A blog post is "public", which means the company's owners are recognizing the customers' complaint or concern in front of other people, which can give the apology more weight.

It’s always great to add that little extra “something” in order to stand out from the crowd, and SEO marketing blogs are no exception. And, with this being a leap year, it’s a particularly appropriate time to discuss how including extra tidbits of information can add value in corporate blog writing.

In blogging for business, is it worth the effort of digging up curious and little-known facts related to your business or Industry?  Make that a big “Oh, yes”!  Readers’ interest is piqued, you’re positioned as an expert in your field, and you’re rewarded with precious extra moments of precious attention.

Mental Floss magazine writers, masters at serving up tidbits and busting myths (both highly effective tools for freelance blog writers), talk about leaplings, kids born on February 29th.

• Kids can have their pick between February 28th and March 1 for parties and presents.
  
• For Social Security, the birthday is treated as Feb. 28th.
  
• Some states make leaplings wait until March 1 to apply for a driver’s license.

As part of corporate blogging training for business owners, I recommend presenting little-known statistics about the history of your industry, the number of people experiencing the problems you help solve, or unexpected applications for your product and service.  You want to evoke an “I didn’t know that!” response in your readers.

“Leaplings”, or unusual bits of information can be myth busters in themselves.  If there are false impressions people seem to have about your industry or product, statistics show how things really are.  If you want to demonstrate how widespread a problem is, statistics can be of great business blogging help.

For anyone offering business blogging services, blog content “leaplings” can help add that little extra “something” that means a lot!

The obituary section of the news is not a place freelance blog content writers would normally go for ideas. Still, there’s something worth noting in articles such as “10 Notable Deaths” by Associated Press – the reporters manage to drill down to the essence of each person’s accomplishments.

As a ghost blogger in Indianapolis, when I offer business blogging assistance, I often refer to blogs as the sound bites of the Internet. In short segments, business owners convey to readers the essence of their accomplishments.  Corporate blog writing means telling readers about the essence of your special knowledge, insights, and beliefs, as well as about the products or services you offer.

In using “10 Notable Deaths” as a model of condensed writing for business, I’d point out that the AP reporter used only 16 words to describe Andy Rooney, 26 for Betty Ford, and 19 for Jack Kevorkian. Still, I found, the obits were hardly impersonal or dispassionate; each managed to evoke a larger portrait, with a taste of the “style” of each notable person.

Elizabeth Taylor is described as “the violet-eyed American film goddess whose sultry screen persona, stormy personal life and enduring fame and glamour made her one of the last of the classic movie starts and a template for modern celebrity.”

Kim Jong IL’s obit lists him as “North Korea’s mercurial and enigmatic leader, whose iron rule and nuclear ambitions dominated world security fears for more than a decade.”

In corporate blogging training sessions I explain that it’s not enough in business blog writing to offer information about the subject.  The information needs to be put into a framework, into context, so that readers can see why it’s relevant to them and to the subject.

Elizabeth Taylor “became a template or model of film celebrity. Jong IL’s nuclear efforts “dominated world fears”. Kevorkian was the “defiant proponent of doctor-assisted suicide”.

Indianapolis bloggers, take a tip from the 10 Notable Deaths.  Online searchers know what they need, but they lack expertise in your industry.  They need your help drilling down to the essence of what you know, what you do, and how you can be of benefit to them.

“The really important stuff is at the top,” Dennis the Menace points out to Santa Claus. In corporate blogging training, I might point out the same thing.

Blog titles, as content writers in Indianapolis know, can be really important stuff. Titles have a triple function – engage readers, offer an overview of the topic of the post, and incorporate keyword phrases to attract search engine matches.

As a fellow blogger puts it in her Nicky Blog, when people read your headline, you can expect two kinds of responses:

- Oh wow, sounds interesting. I want to know more… OR - Ah, boring.

Since the first is obviously the desired response in blogging for business, Nicky explains, catchy headlines are a must. SEO experts say, she adds, that no more than 7-8 words and no fewer than four words should be used, with Google showing up to 69 characters.

As Santa’s looking through his list, Dennis can’t resist adding “But all the stuff in the middle is important, too!” “Let me guess,” says Santa with a smile. “All the stuff on the bottom is also really important.” Of course it is, Santa understands.

Freelance blog writers understand that, too. Even SEO marketing blogs with the catchiest of titles will disappoint readers unless the post itself delivers on the title’s promise, with new and interesting information that readers can use.

Whether you’re creating a Christmas list or blogging for business, the really important stuff is at the top, the middle, and the bottom as well!

“The bunt isn’t a game changer, like a homer or a triple.  Instead, it nudges things along – keeping the ball as far as possible from where your opponent wants it to be,” is just one of many of the lessons from her Dad that Sandy Hingston recalls in FamilyDigest.


When I offer business blogging assistance to Say It For You clients, I often need to remind business owners new to blogging that it isn’t the sort of marketing tactic likely to “hit it out of the park”.  On the other hand, consistent business blog writing, very much like bunting in a ball game, will almost certainly nudge things along.

Sandy Hingston’s dad taught all his kids that bunts are things of beauty, “means to an end, a strategy, brains over brawn.” As a professional ghost blogger offering corporate blogging training, I think Mr. Hingston’s teachings are quite fitting when it comes to writing for business in the form of blogs.

“Remember: control.”
A blog can give a business the ability to exercise journalistic control.  Blog content writers have the ability to put out news about the business with the business owner’s own slant on it! If there’s ever any negative news about the industry or the company, I teach Indianapolis blog writers, the blog is the perfect place to field questions and comments head-on.

“He makes me do it again and again and again.”
Material that is recent and frequently posted is more likely to be indexed by search engines. Like bunting practice with Sandy’s dad, SEO marketing blogs succeed in large part based on continuing to post new content every few days.

“Brains over brawn.”
Blogging for business is one way small business owners with small marketing budgets can compete, using “pull marketing” to meet strangers and increase their customer base without mounting expensive advertising campaigns. According to Chris Baggott of Compendium Blogware, because blogs are specific, relevant, and personal, they tend to be more successful than traditional websites in targeting and attracting the right kind of visitors, those who need and want what you have to offer.

No, as I remind freelance blog writers and their business owner clients who are in a rush to make the cash register ring, blogging for business is rarely a game changer. But as a means to an end, part of an overall, long-term marketing strategy, it can be a thing of beauty!

There are ways to lose in business – even when you’re the best, explains Whale Hunters’ sales trainer Barbara Weaver Smith.  Since SEO marketing blogs are one tactic businesses use to lead to sales, several of Weaver’s observations can be of great use in corporate blogging training.

Your service is too specialized. If your prospects are unfamiliar not only with your company, but with the services or products you provide, explains Weaver-Smith, you have two selling jobs to do!

When it comes to corporate blog posts, online readers likely to find your blog through organic search  will be those who already have a need for what you have to sell and for what you do. On the other hand, at Say It For You, we’re convinced  blogging for business is the perfect tool for introducing readers to newer products and services with which they’re less familiar, but which can solve problems for them.

Your story is too complex. If your service or product is highly complex, says Weaver-Smith, it may turn off buyers, who might seek simpler solutions elsewhere to avoid having to deal with a many-step, high-commitment process.

This is an issue with which freelance blog writers deal all the time.  One recommendation I offer in corporate blogging training sessions is to focus blog content writing on the end results of your process rather than on its steps. “People rarely think of your actual brand first.  They think about what they want,” emphasizes blogger Ryan Karpeles.

Your business blog writing must give online searchers a “feel” for the desired outcomes of using your products and services. While customers may lack experience with the latest processes or technology in your field of expertise, they know what their own needs are. Write about outcomes, I teach Indianapolis blog writers.

You underestimate buyers’ fears. When you’re totally focused on the great advantages that you provide with your products and services, cautions Weaver-Smith,
You forget that 99% of buying decisions are made based on irrational, emotional issues.

Now, there’s a truth every blog content writer needs to keep in mind!  Blogging for business , with its conversational, personal tone, is actually a great way to provide reassurance to buyers fearful of making the wrong choice.  In fact, business blogs take their cue from Joan Rivers, asking “Can we tawk?”

These days, when company owners express doubt about their ability to keep generating new content for their corporate blog posts, I talk to them about leitmotifs and about Steve Jobs. According to Walter Isaacson’s biography of the late CEO of Apple Computer, Jobs owned some one hundred Issey Miyaki black turtlenecks. Jobs, by all accounts, liked the idea of having a “uniform”, not only for convenience’s sake, but because of its ability to convey a signature style.

In corporate blogging training sessions I teach that effective blog posts are centered around key themes, just like the recurring musical phrases that connect the different movements of a symphony.  As you continue to write about your industry, your products, and your services, you’ll naturally find yourself repeating some key ideas - in fact, that's exactly what professionals offering business blogging assistance will say you should  be doing to keep your blogs focused and targeted.

In writing for business, as blog content writers soon learn, the variety comes from the e.g.’s and the i.e's, meaning all the details you fill in around these central leitmotifs.  Indianapolis blog writers might use different examples of ways the company’s products can be helpful, or examples of how the company helped solved various problems.  It’s these stories and examples that lend variety to the blog, even though all the anecdotes reinforce the same few core ideas.

Like the Jobs turtlenecks, freelance blog writers will find, leitmotifs in blogs help develop a company’s signature style, which is part of any company’s branding. Focus (just as in building an entire wardrobe around one type of garment) helps corporate blog posts stay smaller, lighter in scale, and more flexible than the more permanent content on the typical corporate website.

You might say leitmotifs are the turtlenecks of corporate blog writing!

The pointy-headed boss wants Dilbert to show him how to download apps on his new phone. “How often do you expect to download apps?” asks Dilbert.  “It’s hard to say.  I just know I want all of them.  How many are there?” To which Dilbert replies: “Four”.

Comic strip writer Scott Adams is using dry humor to convey a message about non-productive effort.  (Dilbert knows perfectly well that the number of phone apps is closer to fifty thousand than four, but he isn’t interested in spending time teaching phone apps to a man who’s failed to catch on to Excel after Dilbert spent eight sessions teaching him).

There are a couple of messages here for corporate bloggers, too.  As I explain to freelance blog writers and business owners, trying to engage potential customers, anyone with a computer has access to the largest repository of information in human history, namely the Internet. Online readers, though, can absorb only so much in a sitting. Still, the statements in SEO marketing blogs must be correct and truthful - four in place of fifty thousand just won’t do.

What I’ve found in my work as professional ghost blogger is that both sides may need some business blogging assistance.  Blog content writers, on the one hand, need to keep each blog post focused on one main idea, one “app”, if you will, out of all the products and services and expert advice the company has to offer.

Blog content readers, on the other hand need to gain perspective about the information they’re being given. Is that different than what I’ll find with your competitor?  In what way?  What makes your company so special? How will the information you’ve offered benefit me? Assuming the reader understands that you’ve offered technically correct information, that reader may still not know what to make of that information.

Like the pointy-headed boss, readers want an answer to the question “How many are there?”  Effective writing for business serves to reassure those searchers that you can, over time, offer help with all of the “apps”.  But, for today’s corporate blog post, teach just one.

Indianapolis blog writers, particularly those providing content for SEO marketing blogs, need to read what Tim Altom has to say in the Indianapolis Business Journal on the subject of Groupon deals.

“Want hordes of new customers battering down your doors and filling your lobby?” he asks.  “Groupon says it can get you there.” “ Even Groupon’s proponents sing its praises only warily, and its critics can be scathing in their condemnation,” Altom adds, going on to describe the way a Groupon deal is structured and to share some of the best and worst results clients have been reporting..

As a professional ghost blogger who offers business blogging help to various corporations, I have to say there are best and worst results to report about corporate blogging for business, too.

At least a part of the motivation for companies hiring freelance blog writers is the same as the motivation for offering Groupon deals - wanting those hordes of new customers to batter down the doors.  And, in theory, corporate blogging is one way to get you there. ”Blogs are very powerful in terms of search engine optimization, explains webbequity.com, describing several reasons that’s true:

• Blog content demonstrates thought leadership more than vendor websites, and therefore search engines give more authority to blogs.
  
• Blog content is updated much more frequently than commercial website content, providing an advantage in real-time search results.
  
• Due to the informational rather than promotional nature of the content, blog posts are more likely to draw links from news stories and articles. I advise blog writers to “prime the pump” by writing guest posts on other people’s blogs and to invite others to write guest posts on theirs.

So what are the negatives, I’m often asked in corporate blogging training sessions? and why do results vary so much for both Groupon and in writing for business?
“Groupon can pull them in,” explains Tim Altom, “but you have to close the rest of the retention deal yourself.” 

Similarly, searchers looking for information, help, products, and services are drawn to your SEO marketing blog, but there are several things that need to be put into place – smooth navigation to and around your website, capturing of email addresses, and a system of follow-up to convert some of those searchers into customers.
 
“Savvy merchants are adopting Groupon as only part of a bigger strategy for catching new business and encouraging returns,” concludes Altom.

Blogging for business works exactly the same way!