Thinking of starting a blog but not sure how you will fit in and compete with the thousands of existing blogs in your topic area? You already have a secret weapon, a competitive advantage that other bloggers don’t possess – your own personal story. That’s right! Your story is your blog’s competitive advantage.
Tell the story of your entrepreneur journey
If you own a service or product based business one of the biggest challenges will be to grow your business with limited resources (during the beginning stages) and to differentiate yourself from your competitors.
Your story is your blog’s competitive advantage.
How do you, an entrepreneur, compete with the Fortune 500 brands that spend billions on advertising, branding, and marketing each year? YOU TELL YOUR STORY. You give the consumer some insight into who you are as a business, what your business stands for, and some personal information to humanize the business so that the consumer feels they’re buying from YOU, the human behind the business.
Strike an emotional chord
Strike an emotional cord by sharing your unique story and increase your likeability and differentiate yourself from the competitive giants with big budgets and little human connection.
I logged onto Psychology Today and found some great information on how emotions guide consumer purchases.
- MRI neuro-imagery shows that when evaluating brands, consumers primarily use emotions (personal feelings and experiences) rather than information (brand attributes, features, and facts).
- Advertising research reveals that emotional response to an ad has far greater influence on a consumer’s reported intent to buy a product than does the ad’s content – by a factor of 3-to-1 for television commercials and 2-to-1 for print ads.
- Research conducted by the Advertising Research Foundation concluded that the emotion of “likeability” is the measure most predictive of whether an advertisement will increase a brand’s sales.
- Studies show that positive emotions toward a brand have far greater influence on consumer loyalty than trust and other judgments which are based on a brand’s attributes
Make your next blog post your best one yet. Tell your personal story from a number of different angles and you will differentiate yourself from the competition in a number of ways. Remember: you already have a secret weapon, a competitive advantage that other bloggers don’t possess – your own personal story. That’s right! Your story is your blog’s competitive advantage.
I’ve got lots more blogging tips on Stilettos on the Glass Ceiling where I have a branding & social media category with great tips on how to get started in this online marketing world.
YOUR TURN: What’s your compelling personal story? How have you woven it into your blog, your brand, your business? Share your experience in the comments below or connect with me directly at @MarneyReid.com.
