If you sell professional services such as consulting coaching, professional speaking or publishing, it might be difficult to see how a blog could help you sell your services, particularly when there tends to me more talk about selling products, either physical or digital, online.
However, if you provide a professional service then YOU are your product. Therefore, your services can be sold using a blog in much the same way as selling a product online can be sold.
One of the great things I love about blogs and blogging is the credibility that you can build over a relatively short period of time.
You may feel that marketing online is like planting a needle in a haystack and expecting your perfect prospect to find it. But I want to give you two personal examples of my sites being found on the expansive world wide web over the years and the benefits for me.
The first isn’t related to selling my professional services but has much to do with the credibility factor …
My then Christian Women’s website (the domain has since been sold) had been online since February 2006 and it was hard, though not impossible, to maintain it as a keyword focused blog because of the limited keywords, so I just “spoke from my heart!” 🙂
And the sad truth is, my blog posts were not as consistent as I would have liked so, apart from writing the occasional blog post, I did little else to market the website. But then one morning in late April of 2006, I walked into my office to find an email that said,
“Trish, we want to publish your story.”
Well, I thought it was another one of those general emails sent to a list of 60,000 people until I read further and realized that the email was written specifically to me. A company called GMA Publishing had come across my website and was looking for contributing authors for their upcoming Refined By Fire book series.
Naturally, I was intrigued to know why they didn’t want me to complete an application but later they told me they had visited my website and my vision resonated with what they were trying to accomplish. In essence, before they asked me to become a contributing author, they felt as though they already knew me through my website and blog.
Hard to do this on a website that tells the reader how wonderful you are and how long you’ve been established.
My story was submitted to GMA Publishing in May 2006 and the book, Refined by Fire Women was published and released on July 1st, 2007.
As a result of that website, I’m now a published author.
Another example comes from the early days of setting up my consulting business. I had a telephone call from a man in the US (I live in the UK) who wanted his blog built for him. This was a person whom I would regard as quite technical (he works in IT) but he had attempted putting up his own WordPress blog and after struggling decided he would get someone else to build his blog for him.
Did he pick up the yellow pages to find someone who could build his blog? No, he went online and found a blog that told him about blog building. He then telephoned me on the other side of the world to ask me – not interview me –
No, he went online and found a blog that told him about blog building. He then telephoned me on the other side of the world to ask me – not interview me – to ask me if I would build his blog and how much would it cost. Deal done, blog built and we were both happy.
So, I want to urge you, if you’re selling your professional services, whether online or offline, don’t wait another day to start blogging. Demonstrate to your prospects
Demonstrate to your prospects through your content how your services can help solve their problem. It will attract targeted prospects, therefore, attracting more clients. And who knows what other opportunities are awaiting you if only your prospects, joint venture partners and people willing to promote you knew your services exist.
If it’s the technology that scares you, let me help clear the fog around marketing your services online.
To your online success,
