Your Company Blog Isn’t About Your Company
A lot of businesses with a blog end up blogging about their business. It makes me so sad every time I see it. That might sound strange, but believe it or not, buyers aren’t coming to your blog to read about your company. They don’t have any interest in your latest growth or the conference you spoke at, and they don’t really care about your office culture.
If you want a more effective business blog, you’ll need to stop talking about your business.
It’s kind of like the guy at the party who can’t stop talking about himself: how great he is, everything he’s done and how everybody should be his best friend. You don’t want to be around that kind of guy. Or it’s like the sales rep who comes into your company, and all he can do is talk about how great his product is, and he doesn’t spend any time getting to know who you are and what your needs even are. All he can do is talk about how great his stuff is.
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Your Business Blog Is All About Your Customers
Your company blog isn’t about your company – it’s about your customers!
The purpose of a business blog isn’t to talk about how great you are, but to help your customers solve their problem. The reason people are coming to your blog has nothing to do with your company – it only has to do with your customer and their problem. Buyers are extremely self-interested, and they don’t have any room for you to be self-interested as well – especially if they’re in the midst of a painful problem. Your buyers are trying to find a solution to a problem they probably don’t fully understand. They aren’t interested in falling in love with a company or falling in love with a product – they’re interested in finding relief!
First and foremost, you want to think about your customers’ needs when you’re blogging. What’s motivating them? What pains are they feeling, and why? What keeps them up at night? What are their biggest questions, their objections, and their roadblocks? Who are the gatekeepers at their company that they need to get past before making a purchase?
The Buyer Persona
The best way to get into the mind of your buyers is by creating something called a buyer persona. A buyer persona is basically all the information you need to know about who your ideal customer is. It’s a semi-fictional profile of this ideal person.
Your persona should include all of the relevant information about your buyers – notice I said relevant information. You don’t need to include their family history or their favorite vacation, or the car they drive – unless that information is relevant to your buyers’ purchasing decision. But you should include details on this kind of information:
- Overview information – Role/position in the company, situations that cause them angst, fears and pressures, etc.
- Responsibilities – Description of their work life. Who do they report to and collaborate with? How is their job measured? What does it mean to be successful in this role?
- Key motivations – What drives this person, professionally? What are their goals, and what motivates them to persevere? How risk-averse are they?
- Pain points – What problems are they facing?
- Research habits – Where do they go for information? How much vetting do they do?
- Validations – What inputs help this person make a smart decision? Product reviews? Analyst reports?
- Objections – What objections will they have to your product or service?
- Common questions – Typical questions they’ll ask throughout the buying process.
Chances are, your sales people can provide a ton of this information. You can even poll some of your current customers to fill in the blanks.
Anytime you write any content at all, you need to consult your persona. Write to that specific person, and write about the things they care most. Because they’re going to be looking for the best way to solve their problem, not to find out how great your company is.
Need help creating a persona, or figuring out how to get the most out of your personas? Let’s talk – I can help you iron out the wrinkles.