Sean Romanoff Communications

What’s in it for me?

That’s the classic question audiences everywhere ask before they sit down to listen or read whatever it is you’re saying. The phrase is so popular it has it’s own acronym (WIIFM), and all good teachers of communication skills have told people they’re teaching to think of that question as they prepare to speak or write. Most good presenters and writers diligently comply with that advice.

And almost all of those people get it wrong.

It’s not their fault, though.

Why do people misunderstand WIIFM?

The problem is that most instructors don’t explain that you truly have to address the question from the audience’s perspective. Usually when a person thinks about the WIIFM question it’s with the assumption that what they’re about to communicate has value. Of course it has value, otherwise why would a person take the time to tell others about it? But that assumption forgets that your audience has to be convinced what you’re about to tell them has value.

They are skeptical, and rightly so.

Business professionals everywhere are deluged on a daily basis with messages all along the “truthiness” spectrum. As a result, they tend to disbelieve first and ask questions later. Even those who have taken the affirmative step to read or listen to your message do so with a certain degree of hesitation.

So how do you overcome your audience’s natural apprehension?

You truly think about what’s in it for them.

In very tangible ways you explain how what you’re communicating benefits them. In what ways will their lives be better? If the goal is to help them write stronger emails, explain how that will improve their work performance and what the result of that change could be for their careers.

Make sure you differentiate your message so it’s clear what makes you unique. But that’s not enough either. You need to substantiate it as well so your information appears credible. Do you have facts from reputable sources to back up what you say? If you’re using your own data, explain how you compiled it and what you did with it, so the information makes sense and you don’t appear to mislead them in any way. And connect the dots to make it clear how these facts prove what you say.

Do all these things — explain the benefits, differentiate your message, and substantiate your information — and you greatly increase the buy-in from your audience.

Well, at least the blog title is new.

For the past few months my blog has been known as Marketing Rocket Fuel. I’ve used that title because I believe that online marketing is one of the most effective methods you can use to grow your business, both in terms of new clients or customers as well as in reducing your costs. But during this time I realized I had a problem.

The title didn’t really reflect what I was trying to convey or what I was about. It was a disconnect that would hamper my future growth of my blog and my writing and consulting business. I needed to better define my niche (more about the importance of that in a future post).

By redefining my approach more accurately, readers will know what my approach to marketing is. Plus search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing will better understand what I offer as well. So when people use search words and phrases that apply to what I do, they’re more likely to find me.

So today I am rectifying that problem.

What will change for you? Not that much. You’ll notice that I’ll write about business blogging from soup to nuts. And I’ll also look at other aspects of business marketing that relate to blogging like web sites, article marketing, social media, success stories, and long form pieces such as special reports, white papers, and ebooks.

I hope you’ve like what you’ve heard so far. Just know that at Effective Business Blogging you’ll get good tips and honest information about what makes an effective business blog and how to make one work for you.

Sean Romanoff is a copywriter and online marketing consultant. He specializes in blogging, article writing, social media, and all other aspects of creating an effective web presence. To contact Sean, just click here.

A picture is worth about…oh, 350 words.

 At least it is on this blog. That’s because my typical blog post is about that length. And I make sure to have some kind of image with every post. But why do you need one in a blog post and how do you pick the right image?

 An image can do something words can’t do — it can become associated with an idea and stick in the minds of readers. Think of word, any word. It can be anything — dictator, corn, flag, whatever. More than likely you have a strong image that you connect with that word. That’s what a picture can do that words can’t. It connects with people in a way that is immediate and permanent.

 But in the best case, it’s not just the picture itself. It’s also the words. Words get more specific than a picture can by itself. Pictures can enhance the meaning and impact of your words which makes your words more powerful and your ideas more influential.

Of course, you can’t forget that images simply make your blog posts more attractive. You can have the best ideas written with flowing prose, and if it just looks like a giant block of text, you’re not likely to get very far. By making your posts more attractive, your blog has more appeal and so you’re more likely to get people to read what you write.

 Picking the right image can be tough though, especially if you need a picture that evokes an idea. It’s easy to pick a picture of a tree when you’re writing about trees. But it’s not so easy to pick one when you’re writing about a topic that’s intangible – like freedom. When you do choose an image make sure there is an obvious and strong connection between it and the words. This is more art than science, so practice a bit to get the hang of it.

 One important tip though: be sure you have the right to use the image. Pictures and other images are copyrighted just like words are, and you don’t want to illegally use someone else’s hard work. It’s not good business ethics and it can get you into trouble.

 It’s really this simple, though. Images help you communicate better and have more attractive blog posts. Make sure you give the choice of what image you want to include the time and energy you should.

How do you create a successful newsletter?  Regardless of whether you choose to have an electronic or print newsletter, you want it to be a success. But most businesses have no clue about how to do that or how easy it is.

The biggest issue for most newsletter publishers is failure to follow through. And the easiest way to ensure that is to plan out an editorial calendar. If you have a print newsletter that probably means a quarterly schedule of articles makes more sense, while with an electronic version you’ll probably want to have a monthly schedule of articles — although the number of articles will be far fewer than in a print newsletter.

When clients object to planning it out, most say they want to be flexible about what will appear. But having a plan doesn’t exclude reaction to timely issues or newsworthy events. In fact, you want that kind of material. The editorial calendar gives you a plan, so you’re not caught trying to figure out on the fly what will end up in it. It gives you a rudder. And a rudderless ship can’t steer or change direction — and that’s the very thing you want to avoid.

By creating an editorial calendar, you actually give your newsletter more than a chance for success.

In my other blog, Freelance Copywriter’s Resource, I talked today about the value of a newsletter to generate and convert leads. It’s still the best way to increase the visibility of your business too. But where do you get content?

These days there are two common methods that can only do bad things for your business.  The first is to go to a content or newsletter mill. They sell you on a cost-effective way to produce a newsletter, and if the cost of the thing is all you care about that’s a reasonable option. But it looks generic – because it is. And when you use generic content you risk seeing it pop up elswhere, including in the competition’s newsletter.

Another way people get content is to advertise for cheap posts on web sites geared toward getting inexpensive posts and articles. But it’s a classic “you get what you pay for” situation. You have to spend so much time turning the copy into something you can use it’s not worth the low-ball price you paid.

The best way to get content for your newsletter is to hire a professional writer to create it for you. Most good writers will give you a price for the entire project, so you’ll know in advance how much the entire project will cost. Plus you’ll have input into what that writer does for you because you’ll have an editorial calendar for each issue. Despite the sales job you may have gotten it’s better to have control over your content.

If your web site isn’t saying what you want it to say, it could actually be costing you clients or customers.  The question is, how do you know? One key is to look for how often you talk about yourself.

The temptation with any web site is to talk about what YOU do, YOUR expertise, and things YOU’RE doing. Of course you have to give some information about you. But you should spend most of your time talking about your potential client or customer. By doing this you let them see that you care about and understand them. You also let them see how you’ve helped others who have similar problems or needs. And you begin to earn their trust by not making every issue about you.

Go through your site and see how many times you refer to yourself. Generally all you have to do is look through your site and see how many times you say the words “I,” “we,” or use the name of your business as the subject of a sentence. Now do the same thing but instead count the number of times you use the word “you.” If the first number is bigger than the second number, you have a problem. And a site audit may be needed to discover other ways your web site may be under performing.

If you’ve stumbled upon my little corner of the web, you obviously are somewhat familiar with blogs – the shortened version of the term web logs. But if you’re a business you’re probably wondering what one can do for you. Believe it or not, a blog helps you market yourself in several ways.

Help others.  A blog is a place where you can talk about the things you sell or do. That gives you a free and open forum to talk about how you can improve the lives of others. But don’t make the mistake of thinking your blog is about you. This isn’t a vanity project – it’s a place you can provide information. And that information should be valuable to your customers or clients.

Keep your web site in motion. Search engines prefer sites that have activity. They don’t like static, unchanging sites. They want to see some action. So give your site some action with a blog. That could be a simple one like mine with just text and pictures, but you could also add video to really give your blog some energy.

Be a leader. Thought leadership is a valuable asset in business. By giving information through your blog, people think you know what you’re talking about. In fact, they’re very likely to think you know more about your field than the competition – because they may not have a blog, or they may not give of their expertise the way you do.

And these are just three simple benefits to blogging. A blog can also be used to generate and qualify leads, or lengthen the life of your typical customer. And that’s not even including the synergy you can create with other social media.

Information – it has become the lifeblood of our age. That’s why most businesses tend to protect it like a mama bear and her cub. But you can get and keep more business if you share your expertise more often than not.

You don’t have to give away the cow. But by giving people a glass of milk they’re much more likely to come back for more.

So what should you give?

Well the classic giveaway is to explain “what” a person needs to do without explaining “how” he needs to do it. This way you can build up the desire to get something done without giving all the details of how it is done. You can even give some of the details in a very general way and keep the specifics for paying customers. Either way, the answer for what the person needs to do must be the product or services YOU offer.

For example, an accountant might offer a free report on how to pick the right one to do your taxes or a lawyer could do a similar thing for picking the right attorney. This is important information for a lot of people. You could even do something more specific about the nuts and bolts of filing your own taxes. And some people will take your report and do it themselves. But many more will be too anxious for that and turn to you as a trusted expert – all because you gave away some of your information.

One of the great tools of the trade can be the great albatross around your neck when it comes to writing quality copy.  The beloved thesaurus can help you come up with just the right word …when the time is right.

But all to often the time is wrong.

To understand this you have to first think about the object of your communication, which is to communicate an idea. And the best ideas penetrate the market place with their simplicity. Even the most complex products or services benefit from simple, direct writing.

In an effort to be either too flowery or too complicated, many writers grab for the thesaurus to find unique ways to explain things. But the result either sounds phony or confusing.

So how do you do it?

Put the thesaurus aside. Most of the time you want to use common language. Your ideas can be very complex, but only use the thesaurus if you think you’re being too repetitive or you need just the right word…which is always the goal. You want the right word, not the fanciest one.

It’s a habit we get into at a young age. And it helps us a lot of the time. By following the crowd we have the protection of numbers. That means collective wisdom, and it means collective strength. When our ancestors roamed the savannahs and we viewed as a tasty lunch by other creatures on the food chain, staying with the group was essential to survival.

When it comes to your marketing…eh, not so much.

Countless times I’ve tried to get a client to focus on what makes his or her business unique and to advertise that quality to a targeted audience only to hear, “Well my competition isn’t doing it that way.”

That’s true.

But your competition may very well be repeating what someone else has done. And that person probably did the same thing. And the person he saw did it too. And so on, and so on, and so on. Everyone in the market is saying the same thing in essentially the same way.

How can you possibly expect to stand out? What makes you different from anyone else in your field if you’re all saying the same thing? The answer – you can’t stand out and there isn’t anything different.

But if you start thinking about what makes you, well, you, a new vision starts to take shape. One that has you, not as a face in the crowd, but as one who stands out from the crowd. You’re easy to find. You’re easy to understand. And you’re customers will choose you instead of you having to search for them.

So if you’re considering doing the same old thing, try looking at your business in a new way and see what’s there.