The 13 Business Blogging Master Post Templates You Can Use, Part 4 – Vision/Stance Posts

You have a vision for the world. You feel strongly about making that vision a reality through your work. There are things you stand up for… and things you stand against.

But are you telling anyone about this on your blog?

If not, you’re missing out on one of the most powerful ways to seduce your ideal clients into falling in love with you, keep away unfit clients and score tons of traffic and enagement on top of it all.

I call these Vision/Stance posts. They’re designed to polarize your audience into for/against around a topic. Remember, polarization is power. You want to constantly be filtering so that your content only appeals to the people you love to work with… and nobody else.

Communicating your vision is a great way to do just that.

From Wound to Vision

You may have started your business because once upon a time, you went through some bad shit. You learned from that and now you help others avoid what you went through. What you want to see is a world where nobody should ever have to go through that bad shit you went through ever again: that’s your vision.

Even if you didn’t go through a bunch of trauma to get where you are now, your experiences and values still shape your decisions–what you’re willing to do, and perhaps more telling, what you’re not willing to do, and why. Your values form the basis for vision posts, no matter how you arrived at those values.

Invoking King

Whenever you write a vision post, it’s like giving your own version of Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream” speech. You want to do more than just tell people what you want the future to hold, you have to describe it in detail. You have to create word pictures that bring it to life in the imaginations of your readers. So that your readers can “see” your vision as a potential reality. One that is tantalizingly close to being made manifest. Just as King did.

I say to you today, my friends, that in spite of the difficulties and frustrations of the moment, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.”

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a desert state, sweltering with the heat of injustice and oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day the state of Alabama, whose governor’s lips are presently dripping with the words of interposition and nullification, will be transformed into a situation where little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls and walk together as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.

This is our hope. This is the faith with which I return to the South. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

This will be the day when all of God’s children will be able to sing with a new meaning, “My country, ’tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim’s pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring.”

Damn! Now that’s a vision! No matter how many times I read it or hear it or watch King deliver that speech, I still get all chokey. Powerful stuff. And you may not even believe this at first, but it’s also some of the best copywriting in existence.

Problem, Agitation, Solution… Wait a Minuite, This Sounds Like Copywriting!

If you’re familiar enough with King’s speech, you may recall that all that vision stuff–the solution, if you like–actually comes at the end.

What came before it?

Painting a terrible picture of the problem. And then agitating the discomfort brought up by thinking about that problem.

But one hundred years later, we must face the tragic fact that the Negro is still not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. So we have come here today to dramatize an appalling condition.

In copywriting, when you want to persuade someone, you present the problem, agitate the reader over its consequences if left unchecked and then you offer your vision for a solution.

But What are You Selling?

If I compare vision posts to the problem/agitation/solution copywriting formula, what, then, are you “selling?”

You.

You’re selling yourself as a representative of a better way along the lines you describe in your vision posts. You could say you’re selling an ideal for a better life, and that’s true, too, but people need a person to attach that idea to. And since you’re the one talking about it, they’re gonna attach the ideas to you. You represent and embody those ideas. Being conscious of what ideas you embody and represent is part of being smart about your brand, by the way.

Woops! Looky There, I Just Wrote a Vision Post

One of the easiest ways to write a vision post is to riff off of current events (and I’ll cover News & Opinion posts next). Because just regurgitating news isn’t enough. You need to tell your people what that news means for them. Best and easiest way to do that is to check it against your values, your vision. And then come out in support… or come out with both barrells blazing in righteous attack.

Either way, you’ll polarize people: you’ll draw the faithful to your side and kick away the non-believers (you bet your ass I’m using religious terms, here–that’s no accident). The reason why you want to do this is because the faithful will buy.

Show Me What You See

Have you ever written a vision post? Try it. If you’re not sure you even have a vision, try writing down what you believe is right and wrong with your field or industry. Then take those ideas and write a problem/agitation/solution vision post around them.

Don’t worry about offending people or losing readers. Understand me, here: you want to offend and lose the wrong readers. You want to strengthen the bond you have with the right readers, because they will become customers.

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