Blogging has many benefits – sometimes they are quite unexpected!
I shared my Massive List Of Reasons To Blog recently, but in this context I mean the benefits of what you do as a business…
If someone asks me what they should blog about, I’ll invariably tell them to blog about the benefits of what they do.
The job of your blog is to inspire, inform, entertain and educate.
Blog About The Benefits
The core of anything anyone ever wants to know from a business is, “What’s in it for me?”
It’d be lovely to believe that we are above such self-centred instincts, but the reality is, if we are going to spend time reading a blog, if we are considering spending our hard-earned cash on something, we need assurances that we’ll get what we want from it.
We want to know it will benefit us, otherwise, why would we do it (well, we wouldn’t, would we)?
Unless someone can see a benefit in reading your blogs and getting involved in your business, they’ll move on.
So many businesses focus on ‘what’ they do, instead of ‘why’ they do it and how it can benefit their customers.
Don’t beat yourself up about it, it’s an easy trap to fall into (which is why so many blogs fall into it!).
A successful blog doesn’t tell us about the thing you do. It’s not about what you did today in your business and what you’re doing tomorrow (sorry, but no one cares).
A successful blog inspires, entertains, educates, informs its readers. No one cares what it is, what they care about it why!
How do you convey those benefits to your clients?
There’s a Sales 101 concept of ‘Facts, Features and Benefits’.
Often we fall into the trap of giving our readers (potential customers or referrers) the facts and the features, without spelling out the benefits (and you do have to spell them out, even if it seems obvious to you. It may not be obvious to your reader).
Facts = What is it?
Features = How does it work?
Benefits = Why would you want it?
Your WHY is the theme for your blogs. It’s the subtext in your story, and every blog is a chapter in that story.
Don’t tell us what you sell and how it works, show us how it benefits your customers. Why you’re passionate about it and the positive outcomes from using your product or service.
I did a quick Google Search and found this old blog on the difference between features and benefits – Benefits Vs Features – it’s from 2012, but still just as relevant.
I especially like this quote to put it into a context we can all understand…
“You should also never confuse either a feature or a benefit with an advantage. Advantages are like the intermediary between features and benefits; they are effectively what the feature does to eventually result in a benefit. For example, a 4G internet connection (feature) means that you can access web applications in a shorter amount of time (advantage), which means that you can quickly and easily find your way home when you’re lost (benefit). Be sure to make the distinction and understand the relationship between features, advantages and benefits.
The biggest difference between features and benefits is that the latter affect an emotional level that audiences can relate to. The fast internet feature sounds vaguely positive, but on its own, there’s no strong, immediate reason why it’s positive. Meanwhile, almost every audience can empathize with being lost and wanting an immediate solution to the problem.”
What seems to you like an obvious benefit of a particular feature, may not be as obvious to a reader.
Paint a picture show them.
What’s your why and how can you show it to your readers?
Still not sure what the theme should be for your blogs?
Join my free webinar on 26th September for some quick tips. Get your ticket HERE.
Even if you can’t make the live event, all ticket holders will get the recording.
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