Are You Writing Advertorials or Blogs?

You may think that you are writing blogs for your business but you may actually be writing advertorials instead. An advertorial is an advertisement that is masquerading as an editorial. It is very promotional.

Choose the blog every time

Your objective is to increase business, of course. You are definitely going about it the right way if you believe that the way to achieve that is by generating valuable content. However, you should be writing content that is top-notch. 

If you are indeed writing and posting advertorials, there is a possibility that you are not aware of it. The issue with advertorials is that they have an extremely promotional tone although they seem to be purely informational at first glance. How deceptive is that! And how clever at the same time! In fact, advertorials are meant to promote a product or service. They are basically the online version of an infomercial on television.

Unfortunately, advertorials detract from your professional credibility because of what they are.

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The necessity of credibility

Credibility is an absolute necessity for you and for your business if you have any hope of succeeding. If the readers of your content suspect that you are communicating with them online with the sole purpose of promoting your products and/or services (directly, which means that you are giving them a hard sell), they will not continue to stick with you and they will certainly not become loyal to you. That is a very high price to pay! You know that giving anyone the hard sell is a very bad idea and it will always be a bad idea. The unfortunate consequence of an advertorial when it comes to your credibility is that it not only hurts your relationship with your existing customers but it can also hurt your relationship with future customers.

If you are not sure whether you are actually writing advertorials (accidentally) in place of blogs, there are some ways to tell.

• Only posting content if you are introducing a new product and/or service: If this is the case,  you may be sharing an advertorial. That is definitely not a good thing if that is the case. If you think about the reaction that people have to traditional marketing efforts that business make to try to obtain customers, you will understand. People on the receiving end of traditional marketing have several sophisticated ways to block the information. They can fast forward past the information, block it, delete it, etc. In that case, people will not want to interact with you and they will not buy whatever you are selling (eventually).

• You aren’t producing the evidence behind the words: In an informational blog, you offer all sorts of interesting, unusual information that will pique the interest of the reader. You may go into the history of how that particular product or service came to exist and why. That information will definitely be of interest to your readers. They will learn something from what you are sharing with them. On the other hand, an advertorial will only speak about what you have to offer, including all the information that your reader will need to purchase that product and/or service. It doesn’t hold much value to the reader.

• Practice your listening skills: It is extremely important for you to be able to listen to what your customers and prospects want and need. If you are listening, you will give them what they are asking for. On the other hand, if you take the promotional route, you will probably simply communicate in a more generic manner and your readers will not feel that you are actually speaking with them directly. Big mistake! This all goes back to the fact that you must have a relationship with them as human beings. If you have any hope of developing that relationship, you will have to speak directly with that person and give him or her what is needed.

• Place your call-to-action (CTA) at the end of your article: If it appears that your CTA is the entire article, you are in trouble. If that is true, it is an advertorial. Your CTA should only appear once or twice throughout the article, at most. If you truly understand the value of a blog, which means that your only goal is to educate your readers, you should have a good chance of providing appropriate content for your readers.

• Solve the other person’s problem: The concept of WIIFM (What’s In It For Me?) must always be top of mind for you. In other words, you are second in importance. The other person is first. No matter what, you must demonstrate the ability to solve the other person’s problems. You can’t do that if you present that person with screamingly promotional material that doesn’t benefit him or her at all.

Conclusion

Advertorials should have absolutely no place in your online marketing strategy. If you are publishing advertorials instead of blogs, you need to go back and rethink your online marketing strategy, and fast! Nobody wants to be sold on anything. Your only purpose is to share valuable information with the other person and to help them make progress in their business because of that information. That information is free. You may be tempted to use an advertorial sometimes to discretely sell your offerings. Resist the temptation.

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