Tell More To Sell More!

When reading any “how to” about blogging, we often come across instructions urging us to make our writing concise. Use fewer words because people’s attention span online is limited. Make use of bullets or numbered lists to help your information stand out.

While these ideas certainly come in handy for many blog posts, brevity may not work if you’re trying to sell something.

Charles Edwards

In fact, Dr. Charles Edwards who once served as commissioner for the US Food and Drug Administration offered these words of wisdom pertaining to effective advertising copy:

“The more facts you tell, the more you sell. An advertisement’s chance for success invariably increases as the number of pertinent merchandise facts included in the advertisement increases.”

I would say that the words “pertinent merchandise facts” should be placed in bold, as you don’t want your “telling more” to include irrelevant and therefore distracting information.

Ad Copy

Admittedly, advertising copy isn’t my area of expertise. However, when I write a review of a new luxury car, I weave in certain highlights noted by advertisers to gain my reader’s attention.

French-stitched leather seating. Bluetooth connectivity. 12-way heated/cooled power seats. 60/40 split fold down rear seats. All sorts of interesting information that might appeal to my readers.

Of course, if I know that I’m writing for more of a Mommy audience, I’ll generally emphasize important attributes such as built in child booster seating, expandable storage area with luggage nets, twelve cup holders, optional refrigeration unit, side impact curtain airbags, front crumple zones and more. Big on emphasizing convenience and safety, but less so on horsepower, towing capacity and handling. Then again, I add these facts in to reach a wider audience.

Strong Headlines

When I am personally shopping for a product, I’m attracted to a strong headline. That makes sense because as writers we know that headlines are the key to pulling in our readers.

After the headline, I want to see some facts. If the top facts are listed with bullets, that’s okay provided that as I scan down the page I find the “pertinent merchandise facts” which tell me more about the product.

Sell It!

The beauty of featuring content this way is that you have more than one chance for selling your product. The first chance is through the highlights; the second and subsequent chances can be found in the details which follow. Using this method people who don’t like to read much can get the gist of what you’re pitching quickly while those people who don’t mind reading on will find more information which can persuade them to buy your product.

That means your readers will look closely at pricing, payment options, shipping information, product warranty, return policy, and certain other minutiae to help them make their decision. Leave something that you don’t think is important out and you could lose the sale. Include it and you’ll find someone who appreciates your thoroughness.

Tell more to sell more, but start off easy on your readers while saving the fine details for later on.

Should You Abandon Your Blog For Twitter?

Analysts have correctly noted that the internet has disturbed traditional media to the point where old ways of communicating are dying while new media is thriving. One of the newest forms of media communication is blogging with the blogosphere itself only finding sure footing around the turn of the millennium.

Emerging Blogosphere

Print media is dying, but blogging is thriving. Unless, of course, you fall for the hype where some are calling people to abandon their blogs.

Since then, blogging platforms such as WordPress, Movable Type and Typepad have matured making it easier for millions of people around the world to create their own sites and, in many cases, allow relatively unknown citizenry to emerge as authoritative voices in their respective niches. Blogging is a great equalizer, giving the person who works at home in her jammies just as much of a chance at succeeding as a beat reporter, perhaps even more.

Oddly, the blogosphere is already being threatened by external sources including social media sites which have been established to pull web users together under one roof. Friendster and MySpace were two of the earlier sites of this kind, but have since been eclipsed by Facebook and Twitter, if not so much in the number of users but in rapidity of growth.

Abandon Blogging?

And it is that growth which is making some bloggers wonder if their blogging is all for naught. After all, if everyone you are communicating with is on Twitter, Facebook, StumbleUpon, et al, maybe you should abandon your own blog? It can be very tempting to do so when you soon realize how valuable and powerful your tweets are, bringing instant responses from other Twitter users, some of whom might even pay you to tweet on their behalf.

Honestly, I would hate to see capable bloggers move away from controlling their own web presence to allowing a third party — social media — do that for them. After all, once you tweet, leave a message on a wall or post a comment to a stumble, you really don’t have full control over what becomes of your message.

Hold Fast

Consider these three points if you’re tempted to sink your blog:

Your influence – Inasmuch as your tweet gets attention and “everyone” is reading your wall, neither step impacts your personal authority apart from these sites. Google hasn’t yet figured out a way to value tweets and 140-character messages have only so much of an impact while a carefully crafted and intelligently written 400- or 500-word article gives your customers more information and gets your page indexed and ranked.

Your marketing – Twitter can and should be a wonderful tool for you to market your products, connect with like minded people and to extend your brand. Your Twitter profile should be an extension of your blog, providing a link back to your site with helpful information to draw people over. Brand your Twitter presence by adding in a customized Twitter background page.

Your knowledge – I’ve found some very helpful tweets that have made a difference for my business. But it wasn’t the tweet alone which did that for me, rather it was the link provided to the blog article which explained in detail that person’s marketing strategy, business tools, or imparted some other valuable information. Consider Twitter to be the public square, but people still need to come to your house (blog) for a full reception.

Juiced Up

I shared mostly about Twitter in this article but much of what I have said can be applied to other social media sites. Blogging alone or tweeting alone provides only half of the juice you need to connect with people. Do both, and you’ll get the full benefit of what the internet has to offer to you today.

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