How to make your business’ blogs sell

We were recently tasked with a blog ghost-writing assignment in which we interviewed a subject-matter expert (SME) about a detailed technical solution that his company provided. It was kind of a case study, but was purposely genericized for a wider audience. 
 
Boy did we get into the weeds with this SME. The jargon and acronyms were flying. By the time we were done, we could’ve pitched this story to yet another in-the-weeds SME and impressed the heck out of him or her. 
 
But that wasn’t the assignment.
 
The SME in this case—and pay attention, because you’ll immediately see the parallels to your own business’ situation—was merely serving as a gateway. A translator. A guide. Importantly, he was not an avatar for the target audience.
 
Aim high, avoid distractions
 
Know that we went into this SME interview with our eyes wide open. Indeed, before we even booked the interview, we asked our client the crucial questions: 

• “Who is the target audience for this article?” 

 

• “What do we want them to do after they’ve read it?” 

 
Turns out that the target audience is effectively the manager of teams of technical specialists like the SME we’d interviewed. This manager must ensure that the entire shop runs smoothly; our client had a unique solution to achieve it. But its initial interface was at the desks of these tech toilers, solving their daily problems in a novel and creative way. 
 
See where this is going? When those tech specialists are happy, then the manager is happy. This, then, was a way into telling the story, and crafting the article. 
 
It also involved a healthy dose of simplification. Yes, after getting all that in-the-weeds info from our SME, we needed to translate it into terms that the manager would not only understand, but drool over. That’s not “dumbing it down.” That’s “writing the executive summary.” See the difference? 
 
Push all the right buttons
 
Of course our SME, in his daily life, reports directly to a manager who is similar to the person targeted by the article. So we asked the SME: “What keeps your manager up at night? What ‘buttons’ of FUD—that is, fear, uncertainty, and doubt—can we push?”
 
The answers may have been hard for us to guess at, but for the SME, these were softballs. That’s why SME interviews, done right, are a goldmine. 
 
In fact, this SME interview was more than a goldmine. It was an embarrassment of riches. We got enough, from one phone call, to write two articles for this client. One was the setup: “How many times has this happened to you? Wouldn’t it be nice if...?” The other was the payoff: “Imagine a solution that could deliver...” The “payoff” article, incidentally included what we likened to a “drool-worthy Christmas list” of real-life examples to get those managers thinking, outside the box, about just what was possible in this exciting to-be world. 
 
Importantly—and make sure you take this lesson to heart—these two articles were not presented as “Part 1” and “Part 2.” Each was, necessarily, a standalone. Never flatter yourself into thinking that your target audience is reading every single one of your articles, let alone in order, hungering for the next installment like it’s “Breaking Bad.” 
 
Go for the CTA
 
A thought-leadership blog, like the one we ghost-penned for this client, or that you would create for your business, is not merely fodder for the sake of feeding SEO bots or edifying your audience. Done right, it’s a well-crafted buildup toward a rewarding call-to-action, or CTA, for the reader.

• “Want to get the technical specs of this solution? Download the data sheet.” 
• “Want to see a screen-share demo of those items on the drool-worthy Christmas list? Click here!” 
• “Want to book a complimentary call with one of our SMEs? Click the link below.” 

 
While the CTA is the last thing you’ll mention in your article, it’s actually the first thing you should think about before you write it. 
 
Tease
 
The way that websites and social-media platforms are structured today, a blog article rarely stands alone. More often than not, there’s a brief teaser at the top of it/the link to it. You need to write this one, too—and take the assignment seriously. It’s been said that “you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover,” but people do this all the time. So wrap it with a great tease. Go for shock-and-awe. Tantalize with the impossible or improbable: 
 
“Everyone assumes that cost-cutting and improved customer experience are mutually exclusive goals. What if you could do both, at the same time, using an ingeniously simple and counterintuitive solution? Get the details that will change the way you think, in this essential new two-minute read from ABC Associates." 
 
You get the idea. Note that we mentioned "two minutes.” Sadly, it’s an increasingly important element to include. Our collective attention spans have atrophied down to nothing. 
 
Of course, you can use all the tips above to craft that killer message. Or you could save time and turn to us. We tackle these kinds of assignments all the time—and they really pay off, because our clients keep coming back to us for more. Contact us today to get started! 

---