Jeff Korhan
This is for you.
That’s the voice of online content that connects with its ideal audience. It speaks from a place that says, “We think you are going to like this.”
My research for presenting social media and content marketing programs at several different green industry (landscape companies) this year revealed some good news: More companies are blogging. Yet, their purpose for doing so seems to be a mystery.
You already know the most common blogging mistake of using your blog, newsletter, and social media to promote your business, as opposed to helping your audience. That’s not what this is about.
This problem is much more chronic.
Remove Barriers of Engagement
You may be familiar with this joke. What did the yogi say to the hot dog vendor? “Make me one with everything.”
You don’t necessarily need to be one with everything in this universe to succeed in business, but you do need to commune with your ideal audience to learn what’s important to them.
Most buyers are stuck. In fact, they are probably in pain because they desperately want a solution. Show your audience you care enough to know what those pain points are. Then address them in a way that makes you one with them.
What should your business publish online? Here’s a fact. Your competitors are not so much other companies, but the collective habits and practices of your industry that consumers have come to believe.
Here are a few examples.
- Attorney’s charge too much
- Contractors can’t be trusted
- Airlines don’t care
- Chiropractors aren’t real doctors
- Landscapers are unskilled laborers
Obviously, I’m making generalizations, but you know these stereotypes exist to a degree, so they need to be addressed.
One of the company blogs I researched was well written, very detailed, and complete with with beautiful examples of landscape designs. This is where many blogs miss the mark. Those details are for the company to know. Customers simply want a result, typically a solution.
This common blogging mistake is like discussing the fine points of nutrition with someone that hasn’t eaten in days. They just want you to feed their hunger, and so it is with blogging.
When your content satisfies a hunger for relevant solutions, it removes the barriers between your business and its ideal audience.
You’ll discover what holds buyers back from working with your business, or any other like it, has something to do with trust. Therefore, what you do is not nearly as important as why you do it, and that often relates to who you are.
Solution: Take a risk and tell your story as honestly as you can. It will humanize your business and begin to melt away those perceived barriers.
If you need help with that, I’m happy to help.
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