Do you blog? If you don’t, you could be missing out on a great business (marketing) opportunity. This is especially true if you run a service business.
Blogging isn’t used as an online journal of life events anymore. If people ask me “Do I need a website?” The first thing I ask is, “What do you do for a living?”
If they tell me that they run some sort of service business like a doctor, lawyer, contractor, carpet cleaner, or even a retired mom who makes beautiful bead necklaces, then I say…”Forget a run of the mill website, you need to start a blog.”
Why?
- Blogs are easy to set up
- It’s FREE in most cases
- Adding your own writing and pictures is soooooo simple
Service businesses are made for blogs. You constantly have new projects and/or clients with problems you helped solve. Why not tell other people what you did to make your client’s life better?
Great Blog Example
The professional photographer that we used to take three-month-old photos of my son had the right idea. Emanuel takes two to ten of his favorite shots and posts them with comments. This not only shows off his best work, but also gets you… excited about seeing the rest of the photos from the shoot. So basically he’s killing two marketing birds with one stone! My wife and I not only bought all the photos he suggested and more, but my parents and relatives did the exact same thing.
I can see this same concept being used for orthodontists or dentists that perform teeth whitening procedures. Of course, you‘d need the patients permission to comply with HIPPA regulations, but I don’t think it would be that difficult especially if the patient was ecstatic with the results.
You can even use your blog to post shinning testimonials with the client/patient’s smiling picture. This same concept can be used for massage therapists, hair salons, spas, hotels, bed and breakfast’s, realtors, chiropractors, insurance agents, veterinarians, and most any type of consultant.
Any other ideas?
Don’t forget about opportunities to blog outside the service business…teachers can give parents an idea of what their child should be learning in class. What if you had a copy of the homework assignments posted so that the class could print it out at home if they lost it? Offer extra credit for commenting on the blog posts.
Extra curricular sports team coaches and captains can use a blog to communicate with team members, volunteers and parents all season. Posting wins, losses, recruiting suggestions, and even game recaps almost like pro and college sports post-game press conferences. This also gives the local press something to write about. Don’t forget to put a donate button on your blog and get your traveling team some help with out of town expenses.
All in all blogging has some excellent advantages. Get out there and tell people how you helped others today, two hours of writing a week can bring in a bunch of business in the future.
Where do I start?
Get started today with one of these online blog services…follow the instructions and be up and running in less than 10 minutes.
- Wordpress (this blog is a Wordpress blog)
- Typepad
- Blogger
- LiveJournal
- Movable Type