Blogging for Experts. Find Your Best Bit.
Our quick idea is: don’t bury the lede. (We nicked this from journalism). You don’t need to lead up to a brilliant denouement in your last paragraph, you need to keep your reader engaged from the outset.
Think about the best thing you have to say. You probably already do this socially. Imagine your readers are standing outside the office local, pint in hand. What are you going to tell your workmates when you turn up? Why do they want to hear it? This is probably your best bit.
It’s likely that your best bit will be the success. If you’ve got a ‘taa-dah!’ statistic or result that you’re building up to, this will be it. In a business-to-business blog things to look for are a solid result, a man-bites-dog opinion or an unusual example.
A solid result.
Like time saved, costs reduced or productivity improved.
‘We reduced service costs by 90%’.
or
‘Our AI model is 99,98% effective’.
A man-bites-dog opinion
The media adage is that if a dog bites a man, that’s not a news story. But if a man bites a dog, that could be. Do you have an interesting opinion (that you can support)? The first is a typical blog headline:
‘How Artificial Intelligence will work in your business’.
It’s more interesting if you turn it around:
‘Why Artificial Intelligence won’t work in many businesses’.
An unusual example
Whilst you don’t want to be totally out there, an unusual example helps to capture the reader’s attention early.
‘We created an Artificial Intelligence model for a marijuana farm’.
You may not be able to find this immediately, but it’s in there. It’s the ‘we did X’ sentence, the part the reader has come for. The news they’ll tell their mates. Well, maybe their colleagues. It’s the information they didn’t know before and that encourages them to read on.
A brief note on proof here. We saved £5m may be a lot of money, or not much at all, depending on the company. Keep your best bit to within the bounds of sanity, or use a percentage to make it more relevant. Your reader wants something that works for them, not an outlandish result.
To help find your best bit, think about what your reader wants to know. This may well be different from what have you got to say. If you’re stuck for ideas, these might help.
An example of how something actually works in practice or a particular industry. Do you have a solid result to share?
Your opinion on a hot topic in your industry. Check out your trade publications for lively issues. Prospects are often behind the curve. How can you get them up to speed?
A challenge your clients face. Is there something they’re always asking about? Could you give a little insight? Do you have an unusual example?
Thinking about your best bit first can make it easier to get your ideas down. It more interesting for the reader, so they’re more likely to act.
The down side is; if it works, Marketing will ask you to write another one.
Have you got questions about this? Would you like to try the ideas out in a session just for your team?
Word Savvy runs blog sessions for experts. We work on your actual blog in the session, so you come out with a good first draft. We’ll show you our Reader, Order, Story, Edit method:
Reader – what do they want to know?
Order – best bit first and your key claims.
Story – add some proof to support your idea.
Edit – to sound like the expert you are.
Once we’re done you’ll have content you can use with prospects; post it on your website, put excerpts on LinkedIn, mention it down the pub. Drop Kate a line to make it work for your team and get a copy of our new guide: Report Savvy. Write well, be understood, look expert.
