01 Apr 3 Reasons Not to Blog About Your Brand (all the time)
Luke Cope’s recent post on the Content Marketing Institute blog explaining why your branded content should not always be about your brand was spot on.
He offers sound advice, advice I find myself echoing to our clients: Don’t make your business blog all about you; make it about your target customers and write about issues they care about.
A business blog operates in a different mode from traditional advertising and PR. The direct connection your company’s blog provides allows you to communicate with your audience on a more personal level
Creating content that does not promote your brand gives your blog a balanced voice and helps build your business in the long run. Here’s why:
You Need to Build Trust and Authority
Blogging about issues that affect your target customers without mentioning your brand allows you to display empathy and expertise without sounding promotional, which builds trust. Your readers need to feel you care about their needs more than simply trying to sell them a product.
Think of the way you feel when a trusted store sends you to a competitor down the street if they’re out of your favorite product, or has a product that’s better suited to your needs. That’s the feeling you’re trying to engender.
Brands You Endorse Build Your Brand
Your blog can (and should) be a reflection of your brand in all its complexity, and not offer only a direct sales message. The essentially infinite digital space gives you the opportunity to display much more depth than any ad ever could, so take advantage and use the opportunity well.
Consumers often judge brands by the other brands they promote or are promoted by. Having a retailer like Barney’s stock your line means so much more than the sales you gain in their stores. It’s a validation of your brand from a style leader who consumers look to for fashion advice and trust to know the best and latest.
Promoting another brand you respect is great for your brand – and good form, too. It’s also a great way to get your content shared and promoted on their blogs and social media, which presumably speak to a similar target audience.
People Buy For Emotional Reasons
We know stories make the most effective content. They allow the reader to relate to your brand on an emotional level. The most detailed list of product features and benefits cannot do nearly as much as a simple heartfelt story can to close a sale or overcome an objection.
Classic narrative structure dictates that a story needs drama, a character faced with a quest and challenges to achieving their goal.
Use your blog to tell stories about issues that excite and challenge you. Pay your readers the compliment of trusting them to continue to support you when they know what it took to build your business or manufacture your product – the good and the bad.
Share your whole story with the people you’re trying to sell to. It’s what makes your content authentic — and it’s your most powerful tool.
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