Does Your Blog Answer This Question: What Problem Do I Solve?

(Circular posting by way of Newt Barrett of Content Marketing Today, who posts about Michael Katz E-Newsletter Success, by way of by myself on WritingontheWeb.com...)

Does Your Marketing Answer This Question: What Problem Do I Solve? Newt Barrett says we know too much. In an effort to showcase our expertise, we confuse readers of our marketing materials, including our blogs and newsletters.

He says, "Basically, we’re asking our prospects to work too hard to understand how we can help when all they want is a precise solution to an urgent problem."

"For those of us who provide professional services, we know a lot about a lot. Even worse, we want to share as much as we can about our skill set with prospective clients."

Take a look at the number of categories on your blog, if you don't believe me. Heck, look how many categories we have on our own blog here!

I think Denise and I do a pretty good job, nevertheless, with the focus of this blog: it's all about how to build a better business blog. But I look over at my Writing on the Web blog and I'm not sure it's clear that the problem I solve is how to write better blogs and e-newsletters on the Web.

Read Newt's post and the reference materials to Michael Katz on how to laser focus your writing in your content marketing materials.

Newt says:

Simplify your brand position: Make it all about fixing one big client problem

It boils down to a logical extension of the content marketing imperative of developing a deep understanding of your target customers so that you can provide relevant and compelling information.

Michael takes it an important step further:

Determine a specific problem that you can solve and describe clearly and concisely how you can solve it. 

Think about common problems that your prospective clients have and align yourself with them:

• Don’t be just a real estate broker … be someone who helps middle aged kids sell the homes of their elderly parents.
• Don’t be just a life coach … be someone who helps divorced men change careers.
• Don’t be just a carpenter … be someone who turns dreary basements into beautiful home offices.

You get the idea. Make it as easy and obvious as possible for people to think about you, remember you and find you in connection with a particular problem that they need solved. Because when the problem first arises, that’s what they’re looking for.

To learn more about content marketing focus, read Content Marketing Today and subscribe to Michael Katz' E-Newsletter on E-Newsletters.

Comments

[Diana]

I agree with you all the way. Thirty years of wide expertise is not helpful for blog traffic!

When I started working with clients to get their blogs up and running I have found the problem is to keep them specifically focused and on topic.

My categories are not too far behind yours (24 or so) but people do use them...and I have defined the early problem situation and now just have to modify!

[Business Opportunities]

Hello everyone,
I'm a newbie to website design and being a this site. I'm stopping by a few sites to pick up tips and get answers from people who know a lot more about this that I do!

[Joan]

This is always a good reminder. Towards that end I have started a new blog which I will dedicate only to bone health and related bone diseases and solutions. Problem-solution, problem-solution. Thankx. Joan