Have you heard people talking about having a business blog and are wondering what the fuss is about? How can it help your coaching or consulting business? In this article, I’m going to walk you through what a blog is and how you can use it to be a silent sales person for your services and attract your ideal clients.
What is a business blog?
A business blog is a section of your website where you share blog posts, which are just articles like you would read on a news site or magazine, that relate to your work. There are separate blogging platforms available but to make use of the powerful benefits of your blog for your business, you should write on your own website. This is because your blog will bring people to your website where, if they’re interested, they can find out more about you and what you offer.
You could use your business blog to:
- Share case studies showcasing projects you have worked on
- Share your views on key issues in your specialist area. This is what people mean when they talk about thought leadership
- Provide more details about your services
- Answer questions you’re asked regularly to provide helpful resources for your potential clients
- Share what’s happening behind the scenes in your business
- Share news about developments in your field or industry
Your business blog enables you to give your ideal clients more information about your area of expertise and about working with you. It’s a helpful way to answer questions that people thinking about working with you might have. This article is an example of that. You wanted to know about business blogging and how it helps you as a coach or consultant.
There are no rules about what you can or can’t write on your business blog. The topics and style are entirely up to you. I talk more about that in this video.
When you use blogging, marketing your coaching or consulting services becomes easier
Each article, or blog post, you write is an opportunity to enable people to get to know you and how you can help them.
People searching online for someone who does what you do have more chance of coming across you if you are writing about your specialist area. Rather than your website being static, your business blog turns it into a growing online hub of information.
This means search engines like Google crawl it more often, and therefore, people are more likely to come across your website. This is called organic search traffic and it’s one of the many benefits of blogging. People who never knew you existed can arrive on your website and read what you have to say.
Writing a business blog gives you a bank of material you can share on social media and use to send to your email list. It means you don’t have to spend ages figuring out what to say. Write an article and then come up with ways to turn it into other content. You’ve already done the hard work of thinking what you want to say! Your blog forms part of your Business Resource Library, a bank of material which enables you to easily share who you are, what you do, and how it helps.
You can put a sign up form for people to join your email list in every blog post. That way you’re encouraging people to stay in contact with you every time they read one of your articles.
Your business blog also builds your reputation as a leader in your field. It will be read by your peers as well as prospective clients.
And if you’re thinking about writing a book, your blog is a great place to start sharing your ideas and flexing your writing muscles. Build a blogging habit and you will find it much easier to write an engaging book.
3 steps to starting a business blog
You are an expert in your field with plenty of experience to share, even if you have only just started your business. No-one else has had your life experiences, training, work history, or read the same books, and watched the same talks. Your business blog is where you can share insights about your field, help your clients, and provide additional information about yourself.
Step 1: When you are starting a business blog, think about 3 or 4 key topics you will cover. Everything you write should fit under these labels.
Step 2: Then think about key questions your clients might have. For example, what does someone who does what you do, actually do? What are key issues in your field? How will working with you benefit them? How do they go about working with you?
Step 3: Come up with a list of potential topics you could write about. Then draft at least three articles. This means you won’t set up your blog and find that time slips away without you updating it. Aim to publish a blog post at least once a month. Ideally you would write more but once a month is an achievable target.
As you publish more articles, you will be able to link related ones to each other, enabling people to explore your website in more depth.
How long should a blog post be?
As long as it needs to be. Blog posts don’t have to be really long. If you find you are writing for the sake of it, ask yourself what needs to be in there. Aim for a minimum of 300 words.
If you’re struggling, try dictating what you want to say. We speak at least 100 words a minute so you’ll soon beat that target! In this video, I share how you can use Google Docs’ voice typing function to write a blog post quickly.
Setting up your business blog on your website
If you have a WordPress website, then when you press the ‘post’ button, this will enable you to write a new article that goes on your blog. This is different from the ‘page’ button which is where you write key pages like your homepage, about page, service pages, and contact us.
WordPress will create a ‘blog’ page for you which will display all your posts. You can see this in your list of pages but you edit your articles by going to the ‘posts’ section. For more information, here’s a video from WordPress explaining the difference between posts and pages.
On Squarespace, you will see the ‘blog’ tab under Collections, while on Wix you click ‘Add’ and choose ‘blog’.
Writing articles for your business blog is a great way to promote your coaching or consulting services
As you can see a business blog is a searchable knowledge bank which draws people in to your website, encourages them to look around, and showcases your expertise, experience and personality.
If you would like help writing for your coaching or consulting business then contact me about content coaching or join Kickstart Your Marketing, which walks you through writing 6 essential types of articles and gives you 1:1 feedback on your blog posts.
