Convey powerful ways to ensure your messaging punches above its weight and sticks in the mind of your intended audiences. Using an unusual choice of channels and media while telling, repeating, or segmenting your story in a variety of ways might differentiate your storytelling and improve retention.

There are many reasons why one should seek to write a blog. One is to prepare a welcoming landing place for more important follow-up messages. That may be, say, a high-profile product launch. Another might be to show your company’s grasp of a particular technology, especially if it’s something that has a bandwagon behind it and that you’re pretty good at.

Further, you may want to generate interest in new marketing techniques where the medium, in fact, becomes the message. For example, combining the worlds of blogging and podcasting to use your in-house experts to bring the story to life through discursive means. The trick is to keep the programme short. Takes a bit of practice, that, but once you’ve got the hang of it, it can be a powerful storytelling technique.

In doing that, you can ride the virtual wave. For a start, think about the number of subject matter experts in your company. Some may even be famous. Multiply that by the influential people they could invite to share their expertise. Add to that the guests those people might bring with them. So, if you’re looking to boost your thought leadership and reach new audiences, the perfect time is now.

Having chosen your topic, manoeuvre yourself into a position from which to build your blogging base. If you don’t know them already, look on your website for someone with that topic against their name. Make an appointment to see them. Identify others in similar roles. Talk to them. Switch your networking on. LinkedIn is a great place to identify and reach out to subject matter experts. Check for mutual connections, do you know someone who can make an introduction? Ensure they can speak fluidly on the subject. Build yourself a fanbase.

And then there’s the technique of organising your blog as a series, ideally suited to streaming environments. Perfect also for websites, where SEO techniques can be used to strengthen the blog’s appeal to targeted segments. The audience can be encouraged to eagerly await the next edition by placing a trailer towards the end of the current episode. Pick up the story through a short fulfilment piece at the start of the next.

Think also about a blog as a method of building a story around a growth enabler like merger and acquisition activity. It’s common that incompatible systems can be the root cause of M&A failures. If you offer discrete solutions such as professional services, systems integration, or IT service management you’ll find ready-made openings to help the putative partners seamlessly start to operate as a single entity.

Think about using a series of, say, four M&A blogs to convey the way to avoid or rectify mistakes. For example, telling a story about using as-a-Service technology to replace or integrate an ill-judged legacy estate. Similarly, if improving customer experience seems to be the problem, tell a story about how you corrected (or can correct) the situation in an M&A scenario.

Today, with channel proliferation like various flavours of social media, SMS text messaging, email, and your own website – to name but a few – broadcasting and distributing blogs has never been easier or potentially more enjoyable. You can open the conversation in one medium and offer to continue the conversation in another.

Or pose a question in one channel and offer valuable fulfilment elsewhere, in the process leading the customer to an intended conclusion. Or a crucial message. Even if this doesn’t work every time, you will have established a significant point of differentiation.

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