A funny thing happened the other day . . .
I was talking with a client and he mentioned how much he enjoyed reading this blog. “I never know what you’ll be writing about, but I always enjoy it.”
I thanked him and turned the discussion back to his own business blogging needs. He told me that he just couldn’t get excited about it. “The same damn thing over and over again.”
“Why is that?” I asked him. “Why does it have to be the same thing all the time?”
He looked at me with a completely blank expression. “I don’t understand what you’re saying. It’s a business blog. It can only be about our product.”
“That sounds boring,” I told him.
“Well, yeah, it is, after a time.”
“So don’t do it,” I told him.
“Do what? Quit blogging?”
“No, stop doing the same thing over and over. Stop being boring.”
He shook his head. I could tell he and I were not connecting, on the same page, communicating.
“Let’s step back a moment,” I said. “What is it that you like about my blog?”
He gave me some compliments on my writing and I thanked him. But then he said, “You always give me something to think about.”
I didn’t say anything, just bowed my head a bit.
“Hmmm,” he said. “OK. How do we do that too?”
“Stop writing about the same thing all the time. That’s boring.”
We talked about his industry. We talked about the problems facing his customers and how they over came them. We talked about other interesting solutions outside his industry. And in twenty minutes we’d written out an editorial schedule and plan that covered the next six weeks.
“That’s exciting stuff,” he said, “but it’s all over the map.”
“Yes,” I said, “and people will want to read it.”
Time will tell, but from what I’ve seen with others customers and my own blog that with this approach at the end of six months this business blog will have ten times the readership they have now. They’ll have a new, respected standing in their industry. And they’ll have prospects contacting them.
If you’re bored with your business blogging, you are boring your potential prospects and customers, too. Stop it. Stop being boring.
Start by telling them “A funny thing happened the other day . . .”
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