Branding Features You Need
Create mass value with A Professional Blog
Blogs appear to be everywhere, and whether you’re the artist trying to present your work, a baker showing off his bread, or a salesman trying to establish some authority, a blog has a multitude of value that you cannot miss.
What is a blog?
Blogs appear to be everywhere. With hundreds of millions of available blogs online, you’ve probably come across some blogs at times in your life. If you’re still wondering what a blog is, in short, a blog is a regularly updated website where businesses and individuals share ideas and create an online presence. Generally, these blogs cover varying topics, such as food, travel, gardening, business, politics and life advice. This way they can attract a niche-specific audience who they know will be willing to return for more high-value content.
For the artist trying to promote their work, the salesman trying to sell a product, and the business attempting to be known, a blog serves one key purpose bound to create interested prospects: creating high-value content offers. A high-value content offer, often known by its acronym HVCO, is a free piece of content designed to both attract readers, and then provide those readers with something useful. These content offers will often include tips, how-to advice, various ideas and anything else that could hold value to its reader.
And that’s where blogging enters the game, and why so many major corporations will use a blog: as a vehicle for attracting customers and establishing authority with high-value content offers. If you’re serious about attracting valuable customers, they need to be serious about the solutions you have to offer. If your blog content can offer a solution to the burning problems in the mind of the readers, not only have you attracted someone towards a solution, but you’ve also established yourself as a professional in the field, and the authority they will turn to when your reader chooses to become a customer.
How you can start an irresistible blog.
To begin your journey in attracting customers to your blog, the first thing you need is a website. If you’re interested in having complete freedom with your designs, but don’t want to deal with the complex work, you can work with a designer; namely, with my agency, where I both develop professional websites, and, if you’re serious, also offer google marketing services. After a simple call and some adobe designs, you could have your blog up and ready within just one day. To pair with your website, you’ll also have access to a smart dashboard and analytics applications, allowing you to see just how much progress you’re making.
Once you have your website up and running, the first step towards success is to create a post with a worthy headline. This is the first thing your readers will see, and thus dictates whether or not they will choose to give away their time to you. Perhaps you’ve started a blog about home design (a decision IKEA has intelligently made), and you aim to talk about various home layouts, hoping that this will eventually entice readers into looking at your furniture store. If readers are going to click on your headline, you have to achieve one crucial thing. You have to remind readers of a problem (they might not even know they have it) and then be willing to solve it. It is all about them.
Your headline, if you want to entice good views, needs to be bold. Something like ‘twelve great bedroom designs’ is not going to attract many people. You have wasted your time. It neither speaks to them on a personal level nor creates any emotional grasp for them to have to click it. This is both bland and likely to slip past any readers eyes. The most important tip you need to follow is this: the reader does not care about you, they care about themselves. All too often we see businesses talking about themselves “we are a large agency in Britain… enthusiastic about…” With all due respect, nobody cares and so nobody clicks. Why should they care? people have their own lives, their own incomes, their own troubles to deal with. That’s why it is really important that a good blog touches on the fears and desires of its readers and not its writers.
If someone is going to click your article, they have to first see that it is going to benefit their lives. To do this, your headline should use direct address, meaning, just like I am now, it should speak towards its readers using words like ‘you’ and ‘your’. On the surface, this may not look like much but is actually speaking to readers on the subliminal level, reminding them that your blog post is going to help them. Take two headlines: ‘businesses are increasing advertising ROI by 85%’ and ‘how you can dramatically increase your ad ROI by 85%’. Which blog post stands out more is axiomatic; although the first one could have some utility, readers do not care about the ‘other businesses’, they care about their own investments. The second headline also uses another technique, power words, with the use of the word ‘dramatic’, the headline creates urgency and excitement in the reader’s minds.
The purpose of a power word is to provoke an emotion in a readers mind. This could be excitement (words such as ‘success, special, valuable, unparalleled’), it could be urgency (‘alarming, breaking, special offer, rare’), it could represent trust (‘proven, trusted, guaranteed, refundable’), or fear (‘daunting, horrifying, killing, declining’). Used to a responsible level, these techniques make for clear headlines that strike the reader with emotion. Once matched with a direct address, the emotional reward that your headline suggests will be found in the blog post easily becomes a reason for your prospects to click.
If you’re a cooking company, a post titled ‘eight promising dishes bound to give you a thrilling date night’ would have countless readers interested in upgrading their cooking life. Your use of a number (eight) shows the reader a level of clarity and confidence, the word ‘promising’ enforces trust in what your offer, while the word ‘thrilling’ emotionally entices your reader towards the solution you have. If you’re particularly smart, you could even link some of your article towards a cooking store with special cooking ingredients or utensils you offered in the article. Just like that you’ve created a strong fan base looking for more.
As you write your articles, while trying to create as much value to your readers as possible, try to speak to your audience in the same language as the questions they are asking. This way, you’re directly giving them the value – not yourself. During this, you should get each of your points to touch a burning issue. For example, if your article is titled ‘eleven dangerous ways cybercriminals are stealing your data‘, your first point could be ‘think your browser keeps you safe? think again’. If you make an assertion in your title, you should back it up in your text.
If you’ve done a good job trying to point out a problem, don’t be afraid to link your solutions towards your own brand. Once you have readers hooked on the problem you’re trying to portray, if your products and services can directly resolve that issue, don’t be afraid to address it. Not only have you solved the issue for your reader, but you’ve also introduced yourself as the one to resolve it (sell it) for them.
Why you absolutely need a blog.
If you’ve ever considered sales, you will know that the vast majority of people looking for a solution you have to offer will also be looking at all the solutions your competitors have to offer. That’s because the majority of people who buy a product were already looking for it, and so you have to fight with all the competition in the market. This creates great struggle, as ad money can often be over the roof, only for competitors to slide in and steal your prospects.
That’s where blogging changes the game. Much of the audience base you attract to your blog, if you’re using the advice above, will be new to your market. Before seeing your articles, many will have never known about the problem you are offering to solve. But, as a result of your blog which drew their attention to it, they now know, and because you’ve already established a relationship with the reader, you will be the first person they go to. In other words, blogging allows you to turn the 97% of people who aren’t looking for your product into interested prospects, and then be the first to offer them your product.
Ultimately, a well-written blog can guarantee one thing: that your business can develop strong relationships with its readers and then provide them with solutions to the problems they’re having. When you can actively take a reader and entice them towards your blog post, you’re doing two key things. First of all, you’re establishing with the reader that you’re an expert in the field. This makes you appear both trustworthy and approachable. Secondly, once your prospect is screaming at you, wanting you to help them with the problem you have made them aware of, as an established professional in the field, they will naturally go straight to you to help them. That’s a bond you cannot miss out on.