Providing Value In Your Blog Attracts Readers Who Are More Likely To Become Customers
In today’s world, professional services blogging ultimately comes down to providing tangible value for the reader.
This is an extremely competitive landscape, and it’s quite normal for companies to feel pressured to illustrate their value before customers are willing to sign on.
Here Are Five Ways Blogging Can Help You Demonstrate Your Value And Expertise:
1) Identifying Clients And Problems
A good blog is written with a specific target audience in mind. It doesn’t have to be everyone who could possibly be one of your customers – focusing on one demographic is good enough for each post. Once you’ve identified your target audience, focus on a problem they have that you can help solve.
Ask the members of your team to write these, with each blog providing specific information and examples about how you solved such problems for other clients.
People are far more likely to convert into customers if they believe you can actually help them solve their problems.
You can (and should) use software like Google Analytics to identify demographics and interests.
Never assume you truly know your online audience.
People are complicated. By using data to analyze them, you can better understand who is most likely to engage, and ultimately hire your company.
2) Using Case Studies To Showcase Specific Examples
A case study blog is longer than normal, diving deep into exactly what services you provided to one or more clients in your target market.
This type of blog is an opportunity to show new clients the ups and downs of what you’ve done in the past, and how your team used tools, data, experience, or techniques to solve challenging and unique issues for other clients.
Don’t shy away from any problems that occurred.
Your readers want to know that you’re a problem-solver, and if you pretend there were no issues at all, then you won’t have a chance to showcase your expertise.
3) Talking About Current Events
One of the best uses of professional services blogging is talking about current events that apply to your target market and offering your thoughts as an expert in your industry.
You can have an in-house expert weigh in on the issue, discussing how it could affect your clients and what they should do in response.
Remember to keep the focus on the reader – the majority of readers only care about how the news impacts them, and showing a connection is one of the best ways of getting their attention.
For example, if new legislation governing the services you provide has been passed, you can use professional services blogging to explain how this will change what you do and what your clients should expect in the future.
Last year, Facebook announced big changes to its algorithm and we published a blog with our thoughts on how it could impact businesses who use Facebook for marketing as well as some recommendations on how to work with the new system. The purpose was to provide relevant and helpful information to our current customers as well as our target audiences.
If you can’t explain why something is relevant to your customer, don’t blog about it. Yes, it really is that simple.
4) Share Your Best Practices
Does your team have any tricks or guidelines that seem to work better than anything else you’ve tried? Share them!
Customers like hearing about best practices, especially if they’re easy to implement and will result in an immediate benefit.
This demonstrates your expertise on a more personal level – and helps show clients that your entire company is a well-run, problem-solving machine.
5) Share Your Culture And Values
Specifically, these blogs should relate the things you care about to your clients.
For example, if you offer a generous time-off policy for customer support personnel, you can explain how this helps improve their performance and reduce the time it takes to solve the problems your customers are having.
Or, if your company participates in local non-profits or organizations by donating time, goods, or other services, it’s great to write about that too. It’s important to remember that, even though people are searching online for most things, they still like to know the story behind your business. Showing the real, human side of your company allows visitors to establish a connection with you and your brand.
Content is important – but so is the structure, set-up, and SEO. Learn what every blog should include to maximize its SEO value!
Providing Value Attracts Readers Who Are More Likely To Become Customers
Professional services websites and blogging are a natural fit. By providing value though your blog to potential clients, you will drive traffic to your website, engage readers, turn them into leads, and ultimately customers!
Thanks for stopping by,
Laura
