Ghost in the Blog: Putting Words in the Mouths of Experts
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How do you work with a variety of subject matter experts to manage a business blog that your name will never appear on? How do you show passion for a technical subject that you know only a little about? And how do you make all of it compelling for readers while benefiting the company’s larger objectives?
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Ghost in the Blog: Putting Words in the Mouths of Experts
- 1. Ghost in the Blog Putting Words in the Mouths of Experts @brockray | #MNBlogCon
- 2. I’m not an engineer… @brockray | #MNBlogCon
- 4. Writing for a Brand • Complicated • Confusing • Boring @brockray | #MNBlogCon
- 5. How to Write about Things You Don’t Understand (Yet) @brockray | #MNBlogCon
- 6. A word about SMEs @brockray | #MNBlogCon Before we begin…
- 7. 1. Research A Blogger’s Best Friend @brockray | #MNBlogCon
- 8. Where to Begin? • What’s new and exciting in the industry? • What are the biggest challenges facing the industry? • Why does this matter? • What happens without this? @brockray | #MNBlogCon
- 9. Can you explain it to me in layman’s terms? @brockray | #MNBlogCon
- 10. There are no dumb questions @brockray | #MNBlogCon
- 11. Don’t nod your head when you don’t understand @brockray | #MNBlogCon
- 12. 2. Find an Angle The Heart of the Story @brockray | #MNBlogCon
- 13. Ask “Why?” five times @brockray | #MNBlogCon
- 14. Inspire, but don’t suggest @brockray | #MNBlogCon
- 15. Dig deeper! • What surprises you about this area? • What are the unanswered questions? • Why now? • What does everyone else get wrong about this area? • Supporting data or examples? @brockray | #MNBlogCon
- 16. 3. Advocate for the Audience @brockray | #MNBlogCon You’re Here for Them
- 17. Don’t assume things about your audience @brockray | #MNBlogCon
- 19. How would you explain this to a friend? @brockray | #MNBlogCon
- 20. Push back when needed @brockray | #MNBlogCon
- 21. 4. Connect the Dots Explain How It Really Works @brockray | #MNBlogCon
- 22. Your job is to tell stories @brockray | #MNBlogCon
- 23. We are wired for causality @brockray | #MNBlogCon
- 24. 70% of buying decisions are based on emotion @brockray | #MNBlogCon
- 25. Help them feel confident with logic and data @brockray | #MNBlogCon
- 27. “As a _____, I need to _____ so I can _____.” @brockray | #MNBlogCon
- 28. Not everything is a “brochure” @brockray | #MNBlogCon
- 29. Add clarity without removing nuance @brockray | #MNBlogCon Your Job:
- 30. 5. Use Their Voice Not Yours @brockray | #MNBlogCon
- 31. Check your ego at the door @brockray | #MNBlogCon
- 32. Signature Words or Phrases @brockray | #MNBlogCon
- 34. Thank You Brock Ray | @brockray @brockray | #MNBlogCon
Editor's Notes
- I'm not an engineer. The memories of high school math class still haunt me. In fact, I use a calculator just to add up my put-put golf score.
- But, as it turns out, none of that matters. In my role as Manager Product Marketing for OATI, I take the most complex topics from the energy industry — the world of power systems engineers — and make them more readable, engaging, and understandable for both engineers and business audiences. In most cases, that involves things I never thought I'd do: poring through engineering white papers, technical product descriptions, and electrical engineering diagrams, pondering them, deciphering them, and simplifying them for case studies, blog posts, videos, solution briefs, and web content.
- Any good journalist will tell you that you don't have to have a degree in a topic to write about it well, and confidently. It just takes time, practice, and enough self-awareness to know when you don't know what you don't know. But writing for a brand is a different beast still. You're telling (and selling) the story of an organization, something you're supposed to know a thing or two about, but sometimes that story is buried in a complicated topic. Or a confusing one. Or a boring one. Sometimes it's not easily told or understood.
- It's hard to serve the brand if you can't serve the story, and it's hard to serve the story if you don't know the context (and all the context) surrounding it. It's hard, but not impossible. Here's how to write clear, compelling content about things you don't yet understand.
- [Picture of Smee from Peter Pan] Working with Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) is not always easy. Just like anyone else, some of them are great and eager to help you. Others, not so much. They are almost certainly busy on other projects — which they often view as being much more important than your blog post. And they can really struggle with explaining their expertise to people who aren’t in the industry. Studies show [name of this?] that, once you know something, it’s hard to remember what it was like to not know it.
- Before you even reach out to your SMEs, however, you need to do your own research, to even know what to ask them about. Start your online research in trade journals, other blogs, white papers, webinars, and even competitor’s websites. Learn everything you can about the subject before you talk to your SMEs. That way, you won’t be starting from scratch with them.
- How do you even know what to write about?
- [Dilbert cartoon?] I’m usually talking to PhD electrical engineers. I typically ask whether they can spare a few minutes to clear things up. Prepare your questions in advance, and if you ask nothing else, ask this: Can you explain it to me in layman's terms?
- It may seem cliché (OK, it definitely sounds cliché), but there are no dumb questions. Making a mistake that could have been cleared up at this stage—that's what's not smart. You’re doing more than taking transcribed notes and editing them to make a post. Good ghostwriters ask dumb questions, play devil’s advocate, and probe to make sure the reader is getting all they need on a topic.
- Don't nod your head when you don't understand Your job is to cover the topic accurately and in a way that fulfills the objectives that have been set forth for the content, so there's no time to pretend that you know more than you do. "Fake it until you make it" has no place here. Admit when you don't understand something, and ask for clarification when needed. And never nod your head in understanding if you didn't actually get the point well enough to write about it later.
- 1. Find crickets, consensus, and controversy Find out what's already out there, and identify what's not: Gaps in coverage can flag big opportunities. See whether there's consensus or controversy. Either one makes a good angle.
- This is my daughter, Bonnie. She’s in that phase where she just asks “Why?” over and over and over again. It’s a good lesson for getting to the heart of the matter.
- I don’t mean to say that I never give SMEs suggestions. But I try to start with questions that spark their imagination. I push the SME to think harder about the post. Try having a 10-minute conversation guided by these questions. As a ghostwriter, the coaching you provide on the front-end can often save you time revising the story after the fact.
- What surprises you? As much as I hate to admit it, many, if not most, of the stories that journalists produce are written in a predictable way. Asking about “surprise” can help the writer shed his or her journalistic mantle, at least for a moment, and just react to the story’s events as a human being. What are the unanswered questions? Bloggers aren’t always good at spelling out what we don’t know in a post, especially if it’s a breaking story. Oftentimes, we try to write around the holes. Better to be clear and ’fess up in the post about what remains to be explained and clarified. This question also prompts the writer and editor to compile a list of questions for any follow-up posts.
- In ghostwriting for SMEs, a big part of your job is to be the voice of the audience. Identify who's affected by this content, and what is it like to be them. Entrench yourself in their perspective, and work to fully understand—from every angle—why this topic matters.
- Too often, knowing that their customers are smart and experienced industry veterans, B2B marketers assume their audience will be able to make the leap between feature and benefit or between benefit and value. I’m here to tell you they won’t. Not because they aren’t smart, but because they haven’t yet drunk your Kool-Aid. For them, you’re just another vendor trying to grab a piece of their budget. But you have to earn that budget, and the quickest way to do so is to show exactly how your product will make their life better.
- Resist the temptation to puff up the corporate view. It's hard not to talk about how advanced the product is or the caliber of the staff's talent. But the post isn't about those things, not really. It's about the reader. It's about those who are affected, now and in the future. It's not about how innovative the product is, or how talented the team is. It's about how the customer solves her problem—and moves on with her life.
- How would you tell this story to a friend? I like asking this question because it encourages me to think about the most interesting and relevant nuggets of the story. We’re good at considering the content of a post, but we’re not always as good pondering the “Why should the reader care?” part. Imagining telling the story to a friend can help you think about why that person should care. This approach can also help you move away from any jargon and bring a conversational tone to the piece.
- Even though you’re being hired by someone else to write because of your expertise, your customer may occasionally have feedback that you don’t agree with. If you feel something should stay the way it is to help the audience understand the topic, say so. Likewise, you have to feel comfortable pushing back when the SME feels that what they’ve given you is pure gold.
- One of the most critical parts of B2B marketing is also one that’s most often overlooked—clearly connecting your audience’s values and needs to your company’s product or service offering. It is not enough to simply explain the facts of the situation. It’s not even enough to explain the benefits, to use marketing lingo. Your posts, your stories, have to unmistakably show how they matter to your audience’s lives. This is one of the most important skills you bring to the table in ghostwriting.
- More than just entertainment, stories provide a sense of meaning to the world. Good stories — whether pure fiction or “factual” accounts of real events — are based on a belief in cause and effect: Action A leads to Event B. This belief, that actions cause results, helps us to feel we have some measure of control when, far too often, our lives seem like nothing but chaos. The idea that events are just coincidental, however, can leave many of us feeling insecure. Arguably, this is why we are so fascinated with creation myths. We do not want the origins of human life and our seemingly unique status in nature to be “explained” as merely the culmination of random events. If such important things are the product of simple chance, then we can never be certain of anything. So we are drawn to stories that tie together cause and effect — including narratives of things that actually happened. As Bill Waterston had his famous six year-old Calvin say: “History is the fiction we invent to persuade ourselves that events are knowable and that life has order and direction.” This desire for meaning — for a rational explanation to irrational events — is what makes stories so compelling to the human brain. It is why, as blogger and marketers, we must do more than simply state facts or list off features and benefits. We must tell stories that show real value to our audience.
- The human brain is wired to search for cause-and-effect relationships. And we’ve evolved to be really good at it. Sometimes too good, as when we invent elaborate conspiracies to explain simple coincidence. Our brains actually release little bursts of dopamine when we recognize a causal relationship — that ecstatic feeling of “Aha!” when you finally get it. As a B2B blogger, then, you need to lead your audience on that journey of discovery, explaining the problem and connecting the dots to show how it can be solved. When you can clearly explain the cause-and-effect behind your solution, you will literally make your audience’s brains happy. That little bit of pleasure is critical. Buying decisions — even for B2B purchasing committees — are rooted in emotion. That’s why humor — the unadulterated pleasure of laughing — is such a common tool, even when selling to businesses.
- Unlike simply telling jokes, though, making well-defined causal connections pulls double duty. It makes your customers’ brains happy, but it also helps them justify their decision-making. While 70% of buying decisions are made based on emotion…
- …the brain feels more confident in its decision if it can justify the purchase in terms of its needs and values.
- When selling to businesses, your customers tend to know just as much about the industry as you do — if not more! To get their attention, you have to show something new, something they don’t already know. This means connecting industry trends, statistics, and examples to the benefits of your product or service. By relating one fact or anecdote to another — showing how two familiar ideas are interrelated — you shed new light on a well-known subject. Unlike B2C products, which are often created merely to satisfy the aesthetics or tastes of a given audience, B2B products are generally made with a genuine (or at least perceived) business need. One of the easiest ways to connect that perceived need with your product is to use an “if-then” argument. “If” certain facts or trends are true — things you can show evidence for — “then” what follows from that? That is, how are the benefits of your product and service a direct result of provable facts and trends your customers will recognize?
- Likewise, you can borrow from the world of user experience. UX designers and product developers will often define user types, actions, and outcomes with a storytelling frame: “As a ________, I need to ________ so I can ________.” For B2B marketers, this framework nicely connects the dots between your customer needs and product benefits. And there’s a bonus: it keeps you focused on your customers rather than your internal company bragging points.
- Often, SMEs will object if they feel your writing misses important issues. Sometimes this is unjustified, but it may signal that you have missed some of the nuance of the issue. Let me give you an example: I had a meeting recently with one of our SMEs. He wanted to know where he could find a specific brochure, but it wasn’t one I recognized. After reviewing through a host of options, we finally discovered that he wasn’t discussing a brochure at all. He was looking for a PowerPoint presentation we had made. But in his mind, they were all just “brochures.” Same difference, right?
- Add clarity without removing content or nuance. Remember: not everything is a brochure.
- Ghostwriters need to write in someone else’s voice — that’s key. Everyone has their own style and pace of communicating, their own preferred vocabulary.
- Understand, from the very start, that the work is not yours. The argument of the piece should be determined by your SME, no matter what your personal take on the issue. Bear in mind that it’s going to be published under their byline, not yours. Also, I don’t care what anyone says, writing is a form of art. Even a simple blog post can have a beautiful turn of phrase or startling insight that comes from hours (even years) of stewing in a writer’s head. In fiction, these are called our “darlings.” When you’re writing for someone else and you deliver amazing work that includes beautiful phrasing, impressive insight, or expert-level knowledge, you must be able to give these things away like tiny little gifts. You need to be prepared to kill them if the SME doesn't like them. Likewise, you need to be able to feel pride when the SME is complimented for them.
- A while back, I was forced to come to grips with something terrible about myself. I use the word “definitely” a lot. More than any human being should. If I had to ballpark it, I’d set the over/under on daily utterances at fifteen. I’m not proud of this. I’d prefer to be a guy who can say that something is “unquestionably” or “emphatically” or even plain old “certainly”, and who doesn’t go around saying definitely over and over again. But that’s not me. It’s one of my words. There’s also “exactly” and “simply”. And I’m always talking about how things are “more than” a certain amount, rather than “over” that many. We all have our own fingerprint words. One of my colleagues constantly uses “simplistic”. The worst part is, he means “simple”, but no one ever corrects him. The point here is that when you’re writing under someone else’s by-line, you need to respect these words and phrases and be sure to include them whenever appropriate. Even if you don’t care for them yourself.