A good reputation boosting blog shares your expertise and shows off your depth and/or breadth of knowledge.
If you’re thinking ‘But that means I’m giving away all my secrets’, that’s OK. Very few people will try to follow your advice – not because they don’t want to, but because it’s not their ‘thing’ and it’s too much hassle. But those people still need the skills you have and, now they know how knowledgeable you are, it’s an easy choice for them to call you.
Of course, there will be people who don’t want (or can’t afford) to pay someone to do the work – and they’re the ones who will try and follow your advice. They’re not potential customers, but could be great advocates for you.
Headlines that attract
The late Ted Nicholas (a massively successful American copywriter) used to say that you should spend 80% of your writing time on the headline! I wouldn’t go quite that far, but your headline is important – it’s the first point of engagement.
Here are a few ideas:
- How to … [solve your customers’ biggest problem]
- The 3 biggest mistakes [your target audience] make – and how to avoid them
- Your [subject] checklist for success
- 27 Hot Tips on … [subject]
- 5 ways to … {do something your target audience want to do]
Questions work well too, e.g.
How do you create a blog that gets engagement?
Content that keeps people reading
Subheadings are good – better still if they’re numbered. If you’ve used a number in your headline, that will give you the subheadings. But if you’ve chosen a ‘how to …’ approach, subhead each step – it makes it easy for the reader to follow and keeps them reading.
Deliver value
Don’t ramble – people like to get to the point. No long explanations, keep everything simple. You don’t have to give all the minute detail, either people will be able to follow it and apply common sense or they need your help – and you’ve recruited a new customer!
Make sure that you give information that your target audience will find useful.
Keep going
One blog article won’t get attention, you need to write them regularly – at least a couple each month. This will:
- Build and confirm your reputation as an expert
- Keep you visible and in people’s awareness
- Position you as the go-to expert in your industry
- Give your website fresh content regularly, to attract the search engines
- Provide material for your newsletter that is of value
- Give you material for good social media posts
3 Top Tips
- Write in short sentences and short paragraphs to give your copy energy.
- Add a good image that enhances your message at the top.
- Say what you have to say and then stop – blogs don’t have to be any particular length.
