Advertising Marketing Brand Agency Indianapolis

The true stories of injured construction worker Ralph Orlando and fever-delirious middle-aged railroad dispatcher John O'Connor capture the history of Mass General hospital, along with the role that teaching hospital has played in the development of medical technology, better than any textbook ever could.

In his book Five Patients, best-selling author Michael Crichton uses a teaching technique that bloggers with a business message to convey would do well to imitate. Good business blogs, of course, offer valuable information to online readers. But, the technique Crichton used in his book can be bloggers' ace in the hole:

People want to do business with people.

People relate to stories about people, not to facts and statistics.  As a professional ghost blogger for business and business blogging trainer, I realize that's one lesson we bloggers all need to tape to our computer screens: Let stories about people tell the story of your company, your products, and of the services you provide.

And who are the "people" to tell those stories? 
 

• Your workers and service providers:  
  In blog posts, feature individual boots-on-the ground employees of your company who deal with the customers and solve their problems. 
  
• Your customers:
  Use customer stories to show (rather than tell) exactly how problems and challenges were overcome step by step, using your expert advice or with adapting the products you sell to unique situations. 
  
• You:
  Tell stories to illustrate how you came to choose this line of work, why you care so deeply about serving customers in this particular way, and showing some of the obstacles you've needed to overcome.
  
  Whether it's politics or business, there's no denying the power of storytelling. In Tips & Traps for Marketing Your Business, authors Scott and Birk Cooper and Fritz Gruntzner confirm: "Customers don't want to feel like they are being told a brand story.  They want to tell themselves the story.  They want to be part of the story."

Michael Crichton offers valuable information about the ongoing progress of medical research, including the fact that surgical advance has been in great part dependent on increasing the effectiveness of pre-operative and post-operative procedures.  But he shows us that with people stories, like that of 22-year old Peter Luchesi with the nearly severed hand.

So go ahead - in your blog posts, tell stories people to people.  Get down and human!

“Just how big is the oil spill in the gulf?” read the Indianapolis Star article headline, going on to offer “a little mathematical context” to put the Gulf of Mexico catastrophe in perspective.

While there’s no really positive perspective on the oil spill, as a professional blogger for business and blogging trainer, I have a really positive perspective on the technique the Star journalist used to make matters clearer to its readers. Helping online searchers take your “measure” could be considered the main mission of each of your blog posts.

The Star used several unlikely comparisons concerning the oil spill’s first two months:

• The Mississippi River pours as much water into the Gulf of Mexico in 38 seconds as the BP oil leak in two months.

• The amount of oil spilled would fill 9200 average-sized living rooms.
   
• Were the oil to be poured into gallon milk jugs, the lined-up jugs would stretch 11,000 miles.
   
• Converted into gasoline, all the oil spilled in two months would be enough for all American drivers combined to travel for three hours and 43 minutes.
   
• Divided among all Americans, the oil would fill four soda cans for each person.

Online searchers may know what they need.  They may not know what to call that need. They almost certainly lack expert knowledge in your field. That makes it difficult for potential customers to know if your prices are fair, how experienced you are relative to your peers, and where you “place” in the big “scheme” of products and services.  Is your business “small”? Compared to what? In what ways is “small” better for this particular service or product? Is your approach to your field different from most others?  Is that good?

Remember, your website explains what products you offer, what services you provide, who the players are in your company, the geographic areas where you operate and what type of clients you have. The reader, though, may have difficulty translating all the data into the “Why-is-that-good-for-ME” terms.

How big is your big? How small is your small, how local your local, how fast your speed?. How special is your special way of serving customers?

How many average-sized living rooms will your customer satisfaction overflow fill?

 

Randy Michaels could have made an excellent blog trainer, but the CEO of the Tribune is far too busy training his news anchors not to use newspeak.

We bloggers for business tend to be preoccupied with words we should be using (those keyword phrases that help our blogs get found by the search engines), but Michaels has come up with a list of words and phrases to avoid. With the idea of delivering news in a down-to-earth, conversational manner, he trains his newsmen and women to pretend they are "speaking knowledgeably to one person".  By NOT using what he calls "newspeak", they enhance their reputation as communicators, he teaches.

What a great standard for blog-writing for business, I thought while reading the article. Write copy that reads as if you (or your ghost blogger) were sitting down talking to readers one at a time. (The expression "all of you" is near the top of Michaels' no-no list; others include "flee", "seek" "aftermath", "alleged", "area residents", "at this point in time", and "behind closed doors").

One question I pose to business owners prior to beginning a corporate blogging project is this: "If you had only 8-10 words to describe why you're passionate about what you sell, what you know about, and the services you provide to clients, what would those words be?" (If you're really being passionate, you're probably using words from Michael's approved list!)

In Personal Branding with Social Media, Spinweb CEO Michael Reynolds wrote something that really connects with Randy Michael's rules about using conversational language:

"People want to do business with people they like and trust.  All the business branding in the world will not close a sale if the prospect does not like and trust the person with whom he is doing business….Social media allows us to deliver those trust factors," concludes Michael Reynolds.

Next time you're composing a blog post for your business - shoot for the one-on-one style!

 

It was a sign post, not a blog post, that caught my attention during a recent visit to the Indianapolis Zoo.  Whoever wrote the copy for that placard promoting the zoo's new cheetah exhibit, though, would make a great blogger for business!

The sign itself, I might mention, was affixed alongside a 30-yard track where visitors were invited to try running as fast as cheetahs.  In other words, the zoo was engaging its audience, rather than merely having them gaze passively at cheetahs. That mini-promotion serves as an excellent model for Commandment One of blog marketing: Thou shalt engage thy readers!"

The title of the signpost used two "keyword phrases" (as every good blog title should), creating a tie with a current happening (the Indianapolis 500):

Like a Race Car, a Cheetah Is Built For Speed

Race Car                                     Cheetah
Chassis                                      Skeleton
Tires                                           Claws
Paint Job                                     Spots
Brakes                                        Footpad
Engine                                        Heart      

This "post" discusses cheetahs in scientific terms, (explaining, for example, that cheetahs have extra-large heart chambers), but makes the information easy for "readers" to understand by comparing the unfamiliar with the familiar and the timely.

One core function of blogs for business is explaining yourself, your business philosophy, your products, and your processes.  An effective blog clarifies what sales trainers like to call your "unique value proposition" in terms readers can understand. And one excellent way to do just that is by making comparisons with things with which readers are already comfortable and familiar!

Like a racecar, a cheetah is built for speed.  What is your business "like"??

Three marketing mavens, one message:

1. Marketing expert Theodore Levitt told his MBA class at Harvard something bloggers for business would do well to heed: "People don't want to buy a quarter-inch drill; they want a quarter-inch hole."
   
2. "Truly successful marketers use reverse branding," blogger Ryan Karpeles emphasizes.  "People rarely think of your actual brand first.  They think about what they want.  Then they decide who, specifically, can fulfill that desire."
    
3. Ron Karr, writing in Speaker Magazine, advises, "Sell the outcomes.  When someone's deciding how to spend her limited budget, she will invest in services that help her achieve her goals. In other words, she wants results."

Consumer Electronics retailers, says Karpeles, are constantly telling customers that they have "all the best technology" at "prices you can afford". The lesson here:  Customers don't want technology.  They DO want to have an incredible home theater experiences.  They DO want to capture family memories.  They DO want to print documents from any computer in their home.

Are you describing products and services in your blog posts, or are you selling outcomes?

Do your blog post titles convey the message, "Positive outcomes can be found here!"?

Develop Indy expects its rebranding effort to offer real results, says CEO Scott Miller.  Under the old name, Indianapolis Economic Development Corporation, he explains, the organization was often confused with the state's IEDC, frustrating staffers and customers alike.

Freshbooks CEO Michael McDerment lists five characteristics he thinks good company names need:

 

1. It's easy to remember
2. It's easy to spell and requires no explanation
3. Its describes your business category
4. It describes your benefit
5. It describes your difference

• PayPal
• BestBuy
• QuickBooks

McDerment's own company name, Freshbooks, is intended to convey a fresh approach to "something as tired as accounting", he says.

As a professional ghost blogger and business blogging trainer, I think McDerment's rules apply to blogs in at least two ways:

Blog post titles:  The title needs to be a pretty good indication of what the post will be about, serving as a strong clue to what the reader can expect to find.

URLs:  "If your business is online, you don't want to have to explain how to get to your domain," says McDerment.  Your domain name should reinforce what you do.

Develop Indy aims to develop company expansion and attraction to Indianapolis.  What does your company blog aim to do?  Give it a name that says so!

 

If you think the Indiana University School of Law-Indianapolis is a branch at the IU campus in Bloomington, or that it's IUPUI's law school, you're not alone - just about everyone confuses the two law schools, explains Norm Heiken of the Indianapolis Business Journal in "The Other Law School". Law school dean Gary Roberts has the burden of forging a separate identity for his law school:

• Mail is often misdelivered.
• Students apply to the wrong admissions office.
• The media mix the two schools up.

As a professional ghost blogger and business blogging trainer, I'd have to say all businesses face somewhat the same challenge of differentiating themselves from their competitors. Your website can begin the task by describing in some detail ways your business is unique.

A business blog can "flesh out" the distinguishing details:

• Special pricing or fee structure
• Additional services that are part of the package you offer
• Your unique approach within your industry

I remember my grandmother repeating (today we might consider this sexist, but the saying made perfect sense to her) "A woman's work is never done." It occurs to me that, in a very positive sense, a blogger's work is never done, because there's time in other blog posts to chisel, to hone, to correct, to add, to differentiate. As you continue to work on your business brand, your blog can keep up with your evolving mission and image.

Three things Casey WIlliams never wants to see in his rear view mirror, he says in IndianapolisStar.com, are the new Ford Taurus, the Chevy Caprice, and the Carbon Motors police cruiser. all models driven by Indiana State Police.

In business blogging, by contrast, your "rear view mirror" is exactly where you'd like to see your competitors. Continuing to post blog content consistently and frequently, using keyword phrases in your titles and sprinkled liberally through the content of each blog post - all those things raise your chances of rising in search engine rankings.  Add extra engine power from links, social media, and even videos, and you'll be on track to leave rivals in the dust.

"Great content," says Chris Baggott of Compendium Blogware, "depends on understanding the keywords that drive your business." Beggott suggests using online tools to understand the keyword phrases that drive not only your business, but traffic to your competitors' websites.

Once you've gathered this critical intelligence, he explains, you can use it to create pages (blog posts as well as "landing pages" on your main website) titled with those key phrases. 

A police cruiser, whatever the automobile model, in your rear view mirror, would probably prove  to be a less-than-pleasant experience.  The sight of online competitors' "grilles", on the other hand - now that would be a sight for any business blogger's eyes!

"Regardless of what you're writing, whether it's a sales letter, blog post, company history, or proposal, the golden rule of clear communication should be communicating clearly," Indianapolis Business Journal's Jim Cota reminds us.

At an annual National Press ceremony, the Center for Plain Language (whose goal is to get government and businesses to communicate more clearly with citizens and customers) presents two awards: ClearMark (the best), and WonderMark (the worst), the latter so named because the judges were left wondering what the writers were thinking!

Cota's conclusion: In the interests of clarity, "Save the long words for Scrabble!".

The author I featured earlier this week in my blog, Lynne Truss, might add, "Use punctuation". As a professional ghost blogger and business blogging trainer, I'd have to say both pieces of advice are rock solid for writing blog posts to drive business.

Save the long words for Scrabble:
If the purpose of your blog posts is to welcome prospects who've found you online and convert them into customers, the language you use must be easy to understand. Always keep them and their needs in mind.

Use punctuation:
The last award you'd want for your blog is the WonderMark.  Minding your commas and apostrophes in blog posts will avoid having online searchers wonder what, exactly, you were trying to say (or, worse, where - or if - you learned eighth grade English)! 

There's only one kind of wondering you'd like for readers of your blog to be doing:
wondering if there are even more reasons why what you have to offer is what they need to have!

The same philosophy of simplifying a marketing message that's behind your elevator speech (that 15-20 second description of your company's product or service that you could rattle off while in an elevator with a stranger) works for print and electronic marketing, advises Julie Williams of Green Jays Communications.

"Don't try to say too much", Williams went on to explain at the All Things Marketing and Sales  seminar I attended last month. "Better to stick with your elevator speech and keep repeating it - verbally, in print, and on your Web site."  The idea is that eventually people will come to recognize the message as yours, which builds your brand.

Sticking to elevator-speech simplicity and using repetition are both absolutely excellent pieces of advice for business bloggers. In order to win search, it's crucial to maintain frequency and consistency in posting content on the Web; both of these are measures search engines use in ranking a blog, and a higher ranking makes it easier for you to "get found" by your potential customers.

After more than one year of building muscle at weekly weightlifting sessions at Exercise, Inc., I can certainly relate to the metaphor of building blog muscle through repetition. The benefits of the Exercise, Inc. program come from lifting significant weights and doing that consistently.

Elevator speech or weightlifting - choose your metaphor. Building blog muscle takes simplification and repetition!

“What’s the biggest problem Facebookers are confronting?” asks Scott Harris in Reader’s Digest. Parents signing up, he says.  Since his mom befriended him on Facebook, Harris laments, his status updates read:
 

• Scott is making good, well-informed decisions.
• Scott is going to bed at a very reasonable hour.
• Scott is making large, regular contributions to his savings account.
• Scott is drinking only on occasion, and even then, it’s just one or two.

If “Scott Harris” were the name of a business, an appliance repair company, for example, Mom-like comments on the Scott Harris blog might read:

• The Scott Harris Appliance Repair technician came to my house at 5 AM to fix my washing machine. 
• Scott Harris Appliance Repair employs only experienced, skilled technicians who know how to repair all brands of appliances.
• My telephone conversation with the scheduling representative from Scott Harris Appliance Repair was friendly, quick, and efficient.

(“I only wish…” is probably your first thought. Getting any sort of conversation going through comments on your business blog posts is a challenge, and getting the sort of devoted parent-like testimonials even more so. )

Comments are actually more likely to be either negative or posted to promote the commenter’s business rather than yours.  That’s because visitors to your blog are on a mission – to find a product, service, or information – and are little interested in chat.  Often it’s the disgruntled customers who are most likely to vent through blog comments. According to Roger Nunley of Customer Care Institute, though, that could turn into a positive for your company.  Quickly responding to complaints or dissatisfaction will make customers even more loyal than those who have not complained, Nunley emphasizes.

Business blogging is ideal for quick reaction time. As Kyle Lacy of Brandswag explains, social media, including blogs, help business owners control their message and exercise damage control.  Depending on the situation, he advises, the conversation can be taken offline or dealt with through a direct response in the blog.

If you’re unwilling to get wet, you won’t be able to enjoy swimming, as my grandma used to say. If your blog isn’t “out there”, you won’t get negative comments, to be sure, but neither will you be able to use your business blog to attract online customers and clients! 


 

The Wall Street Journal's observation about the hobby of "sweeping" is right on target for business blogging, I think. While sweepstakes have been around since the 1700"s, WSJ points out, they're more popular now.  Why? (Here's the reason, I, a professional ghost blogger and blogging trainer am so interested in the article) "…because online entry forms are so easy to complete."

Unfortunately, I've found, the same is too often not true of many business blogs - nor is it true of many business websites, for that matter.  Sites that make it difficult for online searchers to navigate make it easy for those searchers to "bounce away".  You see, the crucial moment in any online reader's encounter with your blog is that very moment when he/she decides to "do something about it"!  The searcher wants to:

• Call your company (Is the phone number in plain sight?)
• See more (Is it easy to click to a page of product pictures?)
• Know more (Are there easy-to-find links to landing pages or other sites?)
• Ask a question or submit a comment (Is that an easy process?)
• Request information (How easy is that to do?)
• Buy (Supposedly a result every business blogger covets, but how easy is this to do on your site?)

FutureNow's Brendan Regan rightly stresses that effective websites and blogsites "optimize a marketing outreach from the driving point to the landing page and on through to conversion."

According to Clare Rosenzweig of the Promotions Marketing Association, when companies like Coca-Cola run a sweepstake, their bottom line is that consumers have a positive experience with their brand.  Are your online readers having a positive experience navigating your business blog?


 

Once again, my friend Lorraine Ball and I are trading guest blog posts.  Lorraine's company is Roundpeg, a full service marketing firm serving the Indianapolis small business community,  that helps small business become big business….

I have often used the farming metaphor when teaching classes on networking, but now Chris Brogan channels the same concept with regard to your blog. Drawing a comparison to farmers, Chris lists 11 "chores" which should be part of your daily routine if you are serious about writing a blog.

His list included things I do on a regular basis, (not every day, but fairly often):

• Get your blog post up. Make it helpful, worthy of comments and unique.
• Comment on other people’s blog posts.
• Share other people’s blog posts.

• Read something not related to your market.
• Connect with five people not in your vertical or your geography.
• Reconnect with people who matter. Drop an email or call. Don’t ask for anything.
  
  (This is fun!  I enjoy learning new things and meeting new people, and following these suggestions I get a chance to do both!)

• Look at the map of where you think things are going for your business. Anything change?
• Read the “weather” from the blogs you follow. Anything there?
• Think about what seeds you might plant for future projects.
• Share at the farmer’s market your best yields.

--Lorraine Ball
 

A favorite lunch spot for me is the Illinois Street Food Emporium in Indianapolis. Well, the other day, besides a very tasty salad and soup lunch, I got something extra in the form of ideas about ways to use blogs to drive business.

Here's how it happened: Waiting for my number to be called, I noticed something.  Fastened low on the wall near the door of the restaurant was a metal thing-a-ma-gig with coloring sheet handouts for kids to color.  That day's handout had an outlined picture of a snowman talking with some penguins.  There was space on the paper to fill in the child artist's name, age, and phone number, and a pocket in which to deposit the finished work.

My first thought was how simple, yet ingenious a tactic those coloring sheets were - keep the kids occupied while Mom or Dad finish up a conversation. (As a professional ghost blogger, I'm always alert for ways business bloggers can engage readers.) Then I realized there was even more to it than that - some kid was going to win the contest and get his picture posted up there and want to keep coming back to the restaurant, perhaps bringing Auntie or Grandma to see the beautiful job he'd done on the penguins! (One benefit of engaging blog post readers is they want to come back to your site, or bring your site to them in the form of an RSS.)

There was one thing missing about those coloring sheets, I realized. As so often happens, even the best of business ideas falls short in some detail when it comes to execution.  I saw snowmen and penguins, but nowhere on those coloring pages did I see the name, address, or phone number, or email of Illinois Street Food Emporium!  Coloring's a great way to keep the kids happy while they're in the restaurant (maybe they come back to show off their winning entry or claim their prize). But at least a third of the page was white space that might have been used for advertising.  Uh-oh - a business blog page with no Calls to Action! 

FutureNow's  Brendan Regan teaches business owners to "optimize a marketing outreach from the driving point to the landing page and on through to conversion." In other words, for any business blog to enjoy bottom-line success, there needs to be a smooth process, a navigation path,  that begins when a customer first becomes conscious of your existence to when you're closing a deal.  The CTA's, or Calls To Action on your blog page, even sometimes in the text of the blog post itself - need to be there and be square!

"The best way to win an argument is to avoid it," advises Reginald Adkins in his Elemental Truths blog, admitting that "you could be perceived as a pushover who won't stand up for his beliefs."  Barring avoidance, Adkins offers tips to increase your chances for winning battles in which you've chosen to take part. 

• Your product (as compared to those of your competitors)
• Your service (as compared to services offered by others)
• Your point of view relating to your industry (contrasted with opposing viewpoints) 

So, carrying the example one step further, thinking of individual business blog posts as "battles" in an ongoing "war", it's certainly worth remembering that your goal as business owner is to keep winning hearts and gaining customers over the long run, and not just winning points today.

Several of Reginald Adkins' tips are actually very appropriate for bloggers:

Never accuse a person of being wrong. 
Think about a competitor or perhaps an online reader who's left a negative comment on your blog. "You should express your disagreement subtly," advises Adkins, "making it clear that your opinion diverges from theirs."

Let them talk. 
When it comes to presenting your side of an argument in your business blog, be sure to present the other side as fairly and completely as possible before explaining why your point of view is different.

Back it up. 
"Bring in concrete examples and supporting numbers to illustrate your point", says Adkins. Not only do statistics in a blog grab online visitors' attention, serve to demonstrate the extent of a problem or issue, but the numbers strengthen the credibility of the points your trying to make in that blog post.

Chill Bill. 
"Arguments can be emotional.  Be calm and don't let your feelings take over." The most important thing you have to sell in your business blog is you. The tone of your blog reassures readers they've come to a place where "nice guys and gals" live, people who play nice with competitors and customers alike.

Business branding expert Tony Fannin defines your brand as "an emotional collection of impressions your customers have about you." In your business blog, then, it's not winning the argument, but the way in which you won that counts!


 

My children have children of their own, all older than kindergarten age, so what made me feel compelled to read that Indianapolis Star article about teaching kindergarteners? It was the number that aroused my curiosity: "9 Problems We Must Overcome".
 
The O Magazine title this month is "100 Things That Are (Actually) Getting Better". Somehow
I doubt that, minus the number 100, the title would have been as much of a grabber.  I know it was the number 100 that made me pause (It's hard, these days, to avoid the perception that a lot of things are actually getting worse, not better, and I just had to know what 100 things I might be missing!)

To freshen up blog post content, start with one idea about your product or service. Then try putting a number to it:

• 2 Best Ways To Eliminate Unpleasant Room Odors…
• 3 Discipline Problem Fixes to Try First….
• 4 Simple Home Remedies for Headache…
• 5 Home Décor Tips…
• 6 Knottiest Financial Issues in a Marriage….

The point of the "lists", of course, is to demonstrate ways in which your product or service is different, and to provide valuable information that engages readers, helping them see you as a go-to guy or gal to solve their problem or fulfill their need.

Who's on your list? Ted Demopoulos suggests you ask yourself, referring to other blogs and online resources in your "space".  Listing different viewpoints or tips from others, then clarifying your own position is one way to make your blog be the go-to site. 
"4 Different Viewpoints on Rearing Money-wise Kids…" is somehow more enticing than just "Viewpoints on Rearing Money-wise Kids", wouldn't you agree?

To top off the positives of using numbers in blog post titles, at least some SEO experts believe bullet points and numbered lists earn "Brownie points" with search engines.

Just one more reason to count the ways…

 

The Goodwill TV commercial sums it all up: there are four kinds of clothes in your closet, and if you give three of those to Goodwill, there will be room for the only kind worth keeping, meaning clothes you wear - and should. The other three categories:

• Clothes you don't wear
• Clothes you shouldn't wear
• Clothes you can't wear

The Goodwill four categories of clothes closet contents might apply to creating content for your business blog posts as well.
 

• Telling how you skillfully solved a common problem for a consumer
• Describing an unusual use or application for your product or service
• What your business core values are and how your "corporate culture" reflects those
• Explaining what's special about your product or service and what you're trying to achieve

• Employee posts, composed by real people actually doing the work and talking to your customers
• Testimonials from customers and clients
• True tales and anecdotes of problems solved and successes
• Recognizing other bloggers and sources on your topic
  

• Topics too big and broad that are outside the scope of your expertise. Your business blog is there to win friends and do business, not convert the world.
• Information that is not "on brand". 

• Negatives against competitors - accentuate the positive about YOU.
• Posts that are too long and wordy
• Posts that are too technical for the average readers to relate to him/herself
• Posts that are too general, with nothing new to add that showcases your expertise and unique viewpoint

Even experienced business bloggers need to clean out and reorganize their content "closets" in order to continue earning the "good will" of online searchers!

 

“A (business) blog is a form of web communication allowing companies of all sizes to reach new audiences…, says Darrell Zhorsky. But, “allowing” and actually “reaching” are two different things, as many a new business owner discovers to his/her dismay. The reality, as ProBlogger’s Darren Rowse points out, is that “many blogs produce quality content that doesn’t get read.”

Once you taken the big step of getting consistent about posting content on your business blog (or hiring a professional ghost blogger like me to do it for you), the necessary next step is promoting your blog so people know it’s there.

One obvious, but often overlooked tactic, is simply letting your clients and customers know about the “Birth of the Blog”. The blog’s URL should occupy a place of honor on your business cards, flyers, ads, brochures, and website.  And, if there’s one particular post where you really “nailed” the message you want to convey about your business – print that one up on postcards or little laminated handouts to have handy at networking meetings, trade shows, letters or invoices.

Just created a new post? Tweet it, Facebook It, “Link it in”.  Or, capture one essential idea from your blog in a Tweet, linking back to the blog itself. As Jason Falls points out in The Beginners Guide To Promoting Your Blog “Twitter is a place to have conversations with people”, (not an advertising billboard).  That means you need to provide links to other interesting and informative sites, so that your blog becomes the “go-to” spot for information in your field.

In using social media to promote your blog, don’t forget to “stay on brand”, is a reminder offered by Entrepreneur. “Go ahead and announce sales and specials, but also give your fans, friends, and followers something more.”

Blogging is an incredible way to connect with customers  who are searching for exactly what you sell, what you do, and what you know about.  But they have to find you first.  Bottom line is:  you can’t just blog there – you have to promote your blog!

The larger a pepper, the less “hot”, is just one of the interesting tidbits I learned from a Whole Foods representative at the Indiana Health Expo the other day.  Peppers, in fact, could serve as a metaphor for blogs and websites, with shorter, “spicier” blog posts packing more immediacy than their longer, more formal website cousins. The typical website offers more detail and a broader spectrum of information on a company’s products and services, while blog posts focus on one idea with more intensity.

The first three ingredients listed on a food container, I learned at the Health Expo, are the most important, because ingredients are listed in descending order of how much of each is in the product. When it comes to business blogs, it’s important to use key words and phrases in the title and early in the text of each blog post. Those key words indicate to the search engines what the main idea of the post is going to be.

I found the Whole Foods presentation particularly engaging because it offered information I’d never heard before.  Offering information that is new to the typical online reader is a key principle of business blogging. The Health Expo speaker captured my attention with information new to me. I learned about a food called Quinoa (pronounced “keen wa”), which is a rice substitute high in dietary fiber, and about Greek Yogurt. New information is a winner for business blogging.  If you can’t offer brand-new information, your unique approach or “slant” shows searchers you’re far from run-of-the mill.

One of Suzanne Gunelius’ six tips on turning a business blog into a sales tool is “Provide Exclusive Information and Tips.”  A great example of that is a blog I read called Breathe Easy, which talks about about dog food. The blogger warns that comparing ingredients can be tricky, because, although two labels may have the same ingredient name, there can be a world of difference between two brands.” The recommendation is for buyers to look for the words “human grade” on the dog food label.  That’s the kind of valuable and detailed advice that distinguishes “human grade” blogs from the pack!