If you must blog to promote what you do, then what should you blog about? Here are 4 ways to find out the content to create that would sell your services.
First, I’d like to clear something up.
A blog is a marketing channel. If you’re not using it to sell something, then you shouldn’t be blogging in the first place.
And with respect to marketing, it can be used to market your products, ideas, courses, trainings, events, etc.
But in this case, I’m referring to services…using your blog to market your services.
Now that we’re clear on that, let’s get to what this post is really about…
Direction!
Being that a blog is also a marketing channel, that means you also need to take it as serious as the other marketing methods you employ.
It’s not just a place for endless rants. It’s actually a business investment and should be taken as such.
So the question is, if I must blog to promote what I do, then what should I blog about?
Let’s get to it…
First, A Mind Shift
People can’t know what you sell unless they become your clients, right?
Even if what you sell is so awesome, no one would really know until they hire you.
If the process with which you render your services to clients is out of this world, no one would know until they enter into your inner circle.
Well, what your blog does is it brings people into that inner circle.
Instead of restricting the experience you create for clients, your blog is a way of extending that experience to non-clients (leads).
Instead of limiting your knowledge to only people who pay you, your blog is a way of extending that knowledge to a wider audience. By doing so, they start to see you as someone worth following.
So, don’t see blogging as something that’s just there to take your time and energy. See it as a way to grow an audience for your business. An audience that you can sell future services and products to.
Now with this new perspective, let’s see what the content of your blog should be.
The 4 Types Of Content To Have On Your Blog
I’ll try to make this as simple as possible.
1. Talk About Your Beliefs To Create A Tribe
Nothing else brings people closer than people having similar beliefs. Your friends are your friends because you have similar beliefs about something. You voted for a particular presidential candidate because you believed his words. You’re in a relationship because you and your partner believe you love each other.
So also, an audience will move closer to you if they believe in what you say.
It is your beliefs that make you human. Your beliefs show your personality — what your brand is about. And as a professional, you are the brand of your business. Therefore, the primary kind of audience you should attract are those with similar beliefs as you.
Take for example, if you run a virtual assistant outsourcing business, what can your beliefs be? You could believe that entrepreneurs should spend more time with their families because life is about relationships and so, should outsource most of their business tasks.
Other entrepreneurs with this same belief would then come over to hear more of what you have to say.
2. Solve Problems To Build Credibility
As a professional, you sell services that helps solve clients’ problems — you’re a solution provider. Going by the way service businesses run, they follow the done for you model where you actually do the service for them. That still remains the most profitable.
How about you showing them how to implement your service themselves? Going back to our virtual assistant outsourcing example, you could show them the kinds of tools they could use to create more personal time with their families. You could show them the different ways or tasks they could outsource to a virtual assistant.
By doing this, you may think you’re reducing the number of potential clients. But no, you’re creating an audience that would see you as an expert at what you do. By also following this model, you create a market for people who would purchase courses on that same subject. Just see your blog as the pilot version of products you’ll create in future.
3. Educate Your Audience To Create Qualified Leads
This is somewhat similar to the point above, but there’s a difference. In the previous one, you’re providing them tips on how to solve their problems instantly. With this, you’re teaching them what they need to know in order to do business with you.
You’re selling to them, but from an educational standpoint. From our virtual assistant outsourcing example, an example of such content would be to show them the parts of their businesses they could outsource to virtual assistants. You could provide them with a checklist of things to look out for when hiring a new virtual assistant. But in the real sense, your virtual assistants would satisfy all conditions on that checklist.
What if you run a creative business that sells design services? You could use your blog content to show your audience the importance of design and why businesses can’t survive without it in this digital age.
What you simply do is move them closer to the category of people ready to buy. And at that point, be ready to sell too.
4. Sell To Your Audience To Convert More Clients
The previous three were more subtle ways to drive your message across. Now, you‘re coming at your clients with your offer.
However, don’t forget the part about giving value. This type of content is good when you’re launching a new kind of service and you want your audience to know more about it.
So take for example, you’re about to launch an infographic design service for clients. You could create series of content on the importance of infographics in marketing and the visual effect it has on customers. You could also share some elements to look out for in effective infographics and then you could refer to some of your infographics designs which must have these elements.
You could compare different infographics from other people based on their effectiveness and show how your own service incorporates these qualities. Look at this type of content as an elevator pitch, but with more words.
I could say you must be a badass copywriter to make this content work for you. But if you can explain your new service in the simplest way possible, then this would be really easy.
This may seem like a lot of content for one person to create, but the truth is it’s your service. If you love what you do, and are actually good at it, you shouldn’t get tired of talking about it.
A blog is just a way of talking about what you do to people who care to hear. This blog post happens to fall in category number 2. If you hired me to create your blog content for you, you won’t need to know all this…I’d just implement while you see the results.
So if you were faced with the problem or question of, “I want to blog, but I don’t know what to blog about”, then I’ve just solved it for you :-). Happy?
What’s your next step? If you don’t have a blog designed, get one. But if you do, get your content marketing strategy up and running by creating your next blog post following the four types of content I just gave.
So, are you ready to use your blog to take your service business to the next level? Share in the comments.
You nailed it again, with this post! Thanks for sharing.
I’m so ready to use my blog to take my service business to the next level. By the way, I’m a user of points 1, 2 an 3, but I’m sort of slow on point 4. So, I’ll likely look it up.
About your request:
I’m a freelance blogger.
So, could you work up an article on “How To Convince Offline Businesses To Start A Blog?”.
And, erm, sorry bro, but can’t find share buttons here. We’re missing your content over there on social media.
Hi Busayo,
Thanks for your comment!
I think selling to the audience is really something to focus on. But it’s only more effective after points 1, 2 and 3 are a part of you and your strategy. So you (and I) are still on the right track :-).
As for the article idea, it’s an interesting one. I’ll take it up as a challenge and give myself a two week deadline for it :-).
I’m surprised about the share buttons. I can see them here on desktop and even on mobile. I’m using SumoMe. What do you recommend?