This is a follow up to yesterday’s post Educate Your Readers, about the four different learning styles of blog readers.
Why this is important: Because you want your blog posts to educate, entertain, and engage readers of your business blog. What do you need to remember when writing a post that’s designed to educate?
According to the 4MAT system on www.aboutlearning.com, when you are educating people you need to appeal to four different kinds of learning styles:
- Imaginative learners
- Analytic learners
- Common sense learners
- Dynamic learners
How does this translate into blog writing for your business? Think in terms of the questions each type of learner would be asking as they read your blog post:
- Why?
- What?
- How?
- What if?
1. Imaginative learners: Why this is post important?
If readers ask “what’s in it for me?” – will they know right away from
reading the first paragraph of your post? Appeal to their pain, needs,
wants, and desires.What’s the problem? Start with the pain and the problem.
2. Analytic learners: Next, in your blog post, address the "What." After you grab attention with the Why, you state what
you’re writing about. This is where you present your solution, the
facts, the data to back up your answers. It is also where you would say
why they should believe you. You’ll need to mention you work with clients on such matters and have experience, maybe include some data that shows this.
3. Common Sense learners: Once readers understand why and what, explain to them how to do it. How would they apply your solution to their work or to their lives? Get them to do it for themselves.
4. Dynamic learners: This type of reader asks the question What if? You can ask
readers to imagine results, or imagine one part being different, and
ask them for their ideas and input. This is where you really engage
with them through telling stories and asking them for participation.
I hope you find this helpful. In my studies to become a doctor of psychology, I never realized at the time how important this stuff actually is. When you think about it, we’re all taking in information all the time, but not everybody looks at the same information in the same way.
We’ll be covering this and more about writing business blog posts that get results in our Better Business Blog Writing Class May 19 & 21, 2008. Stay tuned.
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