Earlier, I got your creative juices flowing (I hope!) with eight ideas for blog posts for your business blog.

But what if you get started on a post and just keep writing … and writing … and writing … ?

That’s when you may want to write a series of posts rather than a single long post.

Ideally, you want your blog posts to be fairly short and to the point.  (These days, I tend to limit mine to about 1,000 words, but that’s a rule of thumb rather than an absolutely non-negotiable limit. Around 300-500 words seems to be a good length.)

So if a topic is more complex than can be covered adequately in, say, 600 or so words, think about breaking the topic up into a series of several posts.  (For an example, see my “Ten Commandments” series.)

Here’s one way to plan a series:

1. Brainstorm your post list. Take your topic and break it out into logical sub-topics.  Use an outline if that works for you.  Then go back and add a one-sentence summary for each major heading.  Now — you have a structure in place.
2. Do rough drafts. You don’t have to draft these in order, nor do you have to finish one article before you start another.  Go ahead and start making notes for each one.  Start writing posts in the middle if you have to.  You can always save the drafts and edit later.
3. Plan your release strategy. You’re probably not going to want to post your entire series at once.  Part of the beauty of setting up a blog is you can embargo posts (that is, schedule the release of your post to your blog for a date and time you choose) within the blog software.  You can schedule post #1 of the series to be available tomorrow, post #2 to be available three days later, etc.  Just choose a post frequency that will suit your readers.
4. Ask for feedback. At the end of every post, invite comments — ask questions, solicit ideas, etc.  You may find that reader comments give you great ideas for revisions to existing posts and/or future posts in the series.
5. Tease and link. Link backward to previous articles in a series, and leave a “teaser” in the end moving people forward to the next post in that series for continuity.  (Here’s a great link on the technical aspects of interlinked series for those using WordPress.)
6. Create a “sneeze” page. If your blogging software supports it, create a static page that links to all the articles in that particular series as a courtesy to readers (and a convenience to you when you want to link to that topic in the future).

Now — start thinking about topics you can build a series on.  What about those “10 questions” topics I referred to in the previous post?

A friend of mine — a consultant — is starting to blog at the behest of her company’s webmaster.  “But I don’t know what to write about,” she said when we had lunch recently.

So, for anyone out there who’s just starting to blog for business and doesn’t know where to start (content-wise), here are a few memory-joggers that’ll get your creative juices flowing:

• Ten questions your customers/clients ask. I’ll bet if you sit down with a pencil and paper for 5 minutes, you can jot down ten questions that you’re always being asked.  Now you’ve got ten 300-500 word blog posts right there.
• Ten questions your customer/client ought to ask. I’ll also bet there are some areas of ignorance that your prospects have that you’d like to clear up.  There’s another ten 300-500 word blog posts.
• Ten myths about your professional area. Granted, there may be a thin line between this one and the one directly above, but surely there are a few persistent myths you’d like to clear up.  Here’s your chance.
• Seasonal issues. Are there any issues you deal with on a seasonal basis?  For instance, tax preparers are always busy giving advice at calendar-year-end and during tax season.  You probably have at least one of those issues as well.
• “I wish you’d talked to me before you did that” moments. These are the forehead-slappers, the “doh” (think Homer Simpson) moments when you want to tell a prospect/customer/client, “If you’d only come to me first — I could have saved you time/money/frustration!”  Jot those down as they happen.
• Editorial commentary. If you keep up with news in your field, either with a tool like Google Reader/Alerts or by trolling various websites and blogs in your professional domain, you’ll probably find items you want to comment on.  Go ahead and link to the source, then comment away.  Your regular readers will probably appreciate the heads-up, and you’ll add to your reputation as a thought leader in your field.
• Case studies. If you’ve been in business any length of time at all, you’ve got some success stories to tell.  Get the subject’s permission, then write up the story of how you solved their problem.
• Product/service reviews. Has someone published a particularly good (or bad) book in your field?  Is there a related service you want your readers to know about?  Review it in your blog.

And if those 8 ideas aren’t enough to get you started, here’s one of the most comprehensive blog post idea lists I’ve ever seen: 20 Types of Blog Posts.  (The whole “Battling Blogger’s Block” series on ProBlogger.net is here.)

Get writing!

No, it’s not just you.

Other B2B marketing professionals are getting the same results.  Calls are going straight to voice mail.  Phone messages aren’t being returned.  Sales appointments are harder to come by – when you can actually get past that Rottweiler of a gatekeeper.

And that’s just your direct contact strategies.  But even your networking and advertising efforts seem to keep hitting some invisible barrier.

The “same old, same old” techniques for reaching prospects aren’t getting the same results they used to.

You and everybody else are asking the same question: What the heck happened?

What’s happened is this: Technologies and attitudes have converged into what one marketing expert calls a “perfect storm” of prospect inaccessibility.

That’s the new reality.  So how do you succeed in it?

That’s the bad news — but there’s good news, too.

If you’re going to survive this “perfect storm,” you have to understand not only its origins but its opportunities.  You need to know:

• How changes in technology and psychology are fueling the storm
• What common characteristics marketing-resistant prospects share
• Where those characteristics create “white spaces” you can strategically insert your company into

Once you understand these phenomena, you can create marketing communications that slip past the barriers marketing-resistant prospects put up and get your company’s products and services on their radar.

To learn more about marketing communications that reach even marketing-resistant prospects, go to www.savadra.net/marketingresistance.html and download the new special report, “Reaching the Marketing-Resistant Prospect.”  It will give you new and more effective marketing tools and ideas to help you not only cope but succeed in the new marketing environment.

Advertising is risky and expensive.  Networking can be time-consuming and downright exhausting.  And Caller ID has all but killed cold calling.  What’s a small business to do?

Anyone who’s been in sales and marketing for long can tell you the game is changing, and in a lot of ways. 

Consider these factors:

Technology is making it easier for prospects to hide. The bright, shining promise of communications technology was supposed to be greater accessibility.  Communication without limits, they called it.  Everybody will be reachable all the time, they cheered.

It never happened.

Instead, prospects are using technologies like email filters and Caller ID to block interruptions to their already overcrowded schedules.  Potential vendors are screened ruthlessly.  Gatekeepers are reluctant even to give out decision makers’ names and job titles, which makes pre-sales due diligence that much harder.

It’s now okay to lie to salespeople.  Sales trainer Ari Galper tells the story of a phone conference he once had with what he thought was a serious prospective client.  At the end of the call, Galper was about to hang up when he heard the prospects talking amongst themselves after they thought they had disconnected. 

“Okay, so we’re agreed,” one man said to his colleagues.  “We’ll string this guy along until we get the information we need from him, then we’ll go with [Galper's competitor].”

Galper was floored.  It was one thing for prospects to do competitive research and seek bids, but this was a new low. 

Advertising cynicism is at an all-time high.  According to marketing expert Jack Trout, the average person is bombarded with over 4,000 marketing messages each day.  Much to the chagrin of advertisers, people are now reacting in self-defense.

They fast-forward their DVRs through ads.  They visit the Internet armed with pop-up blockers.  And they subscribe to “commercial-free” satellite radio. 

People are willing to pay good money just to be left alone.

The Internet has created unrealistic expectations.  The biggest battle that the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) faced in its quest to stop illegal music downloading wasn’t legal but psychological.  The generation that had grown up with the Internet, with its vast store of free stuff, simply expected that all media should be freely available. They didn’t understand violating a copyright as depriving an artist of compensation for his/her work.

Similarly, prospects scour the Internet for free information on you, your competitors, and your industry.  Why should they take your calls or give you face time when they can Google you instead?

The convergence of these factors creates what sales consultant Jill Konrath calls a “perfect storm” of marketing resistance.  Is it any wonder that, according to her research, 75% of all small businesses close because owners spend too much time generating too little revenue?

Aligning yourself with the new reality

Fortunately, there’s good news in all this.  The same “perfect storm” that makes it so difficult to market your business the old way is opening up a new way to reach marketing-resistant prospects. 

The silver bullet?  Information-based marketing collateral.

How to work with (not against) the marketing-resistant prospect

If you’re going to prosper in this new environment, you have to understand not just its origins but its opportunities.  The marketing-resistant prospect has several key attributes that create “white space” you can strategically insert yourself into.

They want to buy, but they don’t want to be sold.  Marketing resistance doesn’t necessarily mean sales resistance.  Prospects’ need for your products and services didn’t evaporate — just their tolerance for traditional marketing approaches. 

Marketing communications that take an informative rather than “salesy” approach are more effective with this audience.  Tone is everything.

They need to know what you know. The new marketing-resistant environment often makes it look as if prospective clients aren’t open to new ideas.  Don’t believe it for a second. 

Globalization is forcing decision makers at every level to do everything better, faster, cheaper.  New ideas aren’t just tolerated, they’re sought out as critical competitive advantages.

Prospects may not have time for a sales pitch, but they’ll make time for research.  And if you’ve got the right information presented the right way at the right time, you’ve got your foot in the door.

They often value convenience and credibility over all else.  If you’ve positioned yourself correctly, their time constraints can be your friend.  Several small but well-received information pieces, distributed over time, will keep you on the radar screen, increasing your chances of being “top of mind” when strategic decisions have to be made quickly.

For the full special report, “Reaching the Marketing-Resistant Prospect,” go to www.savadra.net/marketingresistance.html.  You’ll be able to download the full report complete with strategies for creating information-based marketing materials that reach this elusive (and growing) market.