In my welcome sequence for people who sign up to my email list, I start out by asking them what they’re struggling with to create a blog and website that does the hard work for their business.
I get all kinds of answers to this question, but one that comes up again and again goes something like “what can I write on my blog to gain more customers?”
I’m not going to tell you there’s any magic formula to this. The biggest thing you can do is have something that people want. But besides that, I have a few tips.
1. Build trust through providing value
Giving is really the best way to build trust with your audience. Displaying what you know is a great opportunity to prove yourself and your knowledge.
Providing that consistent value will also encourage your readers to come back for more! If others find value in what you do, they’re likely to check back regularly to see what new content you’ve created.
And then, the more people come back for your new content, the more opportunities you have to teach them about your offerings.
Someone who is great at this is Caroline of Made Vibrant. Through her weekly emails that later turn into blog posts she provides a ton of content for her loyal followers. I dare you to check her out and not want to go back for more 😉
2. Teach the first step so people want the second
The next way to attract your clients is to give them the first step towards what you do. When people see the value in something, they want to keep doing it and improving to move forward.
As a recent example in my mind, just last week a friend pointed out a course on streamlining your client process. I’ve been paying a lot of attention to my client process lately and even though I knew about 80% of what was listed in the modules of that course, I still felt like I *needed* it, just in case I missed something.
One thing you can do here is to give your readers a quick win so they’ll want to take that next step.
Kory Woodard did an amazing job of this in her post from last week. Not only did she write a high-value post, but she created an epic content upgrade with a year’s(!) worth of content ideas for your email list! Anyone who had been on the fence about starting their list likely got excited about the idea of creating new content and wanted to take the next steps to get started.
3. Display the benefits of what you offer
Something important that’s often missed is showing the benefits of your offerings, whether they’re products or services. And rather than just talking about the benefits (which is nice and easy), you need to show them off.
There are a variety of different ways to do this.
- If you’re a designer, you can do portfolio updates like Fran does.
- If you have testimonials to show off, consider making graphics and showing them off on social media.
- Write case studies of your client successes on your blog like this post I wrote last week.
- Have other people write about their experiences with your products and services in a way that still provides value to your readers.
There are a lot of different ways you can show off the benefits of your offerings without talking about it yourself. Do some brainstorming of what could work well for what you have to offer!
4. Show off your personality
My last tip may seem simple, but I’ve recently seen what a big difference it can make with my video reviews (here and here). You need to let people get to see and know you.
There’s a reason video content is on the rise and it’s not because it’s fun to make. I’m not a big fan, to be honest.
Giving people the chance to see you speaking and providing value is huge. Much more effective than a blog post or email.
But if video isn’t your thing, you can still allow your audience to get to know you by infusing your voice into your content. Let your personality shine when you’re writing and consider reading your posts out loud once you’re finished. If something you’ve written isn’t something you’d actually say, change it up to make it match your voice.
What can you do to attract more clients and customers?
Go back through the above tips and do some brainstorming about what changes you can make to the content you post on your blog.
- Do you need to provide a little more value, rather than saving it all for your paid products?
- Can you teach the first step to prepare your audience for your services?
- How can you display the benefits of your offerings without just talking about them?
- And how much of your personality is your audience seeing on your blog?
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