As a content marketer, I’ve gotten this question a lot both from other marketers and clients:
Why do you always use blogs as the foundation of your service model?
The truth is, blog writing has always been critical to the work I’ve done with clients from the day I started freelancing in 2016. Part of my motivation back then was that, as a Creative Writing major, I was excited to leave my 7-5 sales job to start writing again. I knew how important writing was, and I was dedicated to helping my clients capture their voice through blog content and website copywriting.
As time went on and I went from freelancer to founder of Perfectly Planned Content, blogs have remained at the core of what we do. While capturing voice and a passion for the art of writing are both still motivating factors, our reasoning for leveraging blog content for our clients has now grown into a strategic marketing angle.
Let’s talk about why blog post writing is one of the most high-value pieces of marketing you can outsource in your business.
Benefits of a Blog
The rewards you reap from having a business blog are countless. When I first started my business, blogging helped me to clarify my goals and values, as well as what I could do to help my clients. Now, I see that blogs are so much more than a way to share ideas for your business.
- Build relationships. Your blog content is long-form and, ideally, it captures your voice and ideas. When people read your content (and yes, I promise people who visit your website or know you are reading your content occasionally), they’re getting to know you. If current clients are reading your blog, you’re reminding them of the reason they signed on to work with you in every post. If colleagues and referral sources are reading your blog, you’re amplifying the reasons they should trust you with their professional relationships. Most importantly, if your prospects are reading your blog, you’re creating a foundation for a future relationship – all before they pick up the phone.
- SEO and keyword optimization. When you write blog posts that are targeting keywords you would like to rank for, you’re creating evergreen content that will continually contribute to your Google ranking and drive traffic back to your website.
- Amplify your why. Every business owner has a “why.” Writing blogs gives you a platform to communicate, educate, and connect with others through the lens of why you do what you do. You get to showcase your passion and expertise in a permanent way that goes beyond an initial conversation or prospect call.
These are just a few of the core benefits of having a blog on your business’s website. Even if there were no other marketing benefits to blogging, these would still make a fairly sufficient case! However, writing blog posts provides so much more value to your business’s growth strategy than just these key points.
How Our Clients Use Ghostwritten Content
We have worked with many clients over the years, and each of them leverages our ghostwritten blog content in a variety of different ways.
Increasing Referrals
Most financial advisors we speak to have a clear front-runner when it comes to sources of new business – referrals. Still, business owners feel awkward asking for referrals or leaning into generating even more referrals from favorite clients or centers of influence. One way to sidestep this awkwardness is by giving your referral sources something easy to send on to people who might be a good fit.
Let’s be honest – I don’t pass out business cards unless I’m at a conference. And I certainly never keep other people’s business cards on hand to pass out to a friend who mentions they need a financial planner. Sending someone’s website link out to a friend or colleague also feels kind of cheesy.
Remove these barriers for your referral sources by sending them your most recent blog posts. Use an email blast, newsletter, or even just send a one-off email to a friend who you think would find the content interesting. It’s much more engaging, keeps you top of mind, and is easy to forward on to someone who might be interested in working with you.
Building Presentations
Many of our clients at Perfectly Planned Content use our ghostwritten blogs as an outline for presentations. Whether they do virtual webinars to increase their prospect pool, or are planning to speak at an in-person event, having a fully written blog post (or several) helps them to tee up talking points, outline their slide deck, and more.
Using Blog Content as a Script Starting Point
Modern marketing is always evolving. Recent studies have shown that podcasts and video are both incredibly engaging forms of content marketing. There’s just one problem – knowing what to talk about can be exhausting. For advisors who want to explore this marketing strategy, there is no reason not to repurpose previously written blog posts as script starting points. Our clients have:
- Tweaked our blog posts and read them word for word.
- Used the high-level blog headings as talking points.
- Strung together a variety of bullet points from several of our ghostwritten blog posts to cover.
Creating Lead Magnets and Paid Content
Long-form ebooks, checklists, or lead magnets can be time-consuming to write and put together. However, if you have several blog posts written on a particular topic, you can easily string them together to create:
- A checklist.
- A free ebook or guide on a specific financial planning topic.
- A free email course where each blog is a lesson.
- Content for a paid book or course.
Writing Email Campaigns
Not sure what to plug into your newsletter? Our clients pull out the introduction of our blog posts to create an email that directs people back to your website. Or pull together several blog posts on the same topic to send out in a “content round up”.
Custom Social Media Graphics
Taking snippets of a ghostwritten blog post to create social media graphics is a fantastic way to repurpose your content. Historically, clients have sent blog posts to their virtual assistants to create graphics in Canva that feature:
- The blog title.
- A quote (or two!) from the blog.
- A key takeaway or financial tip.
Every blog post is a gold mine for social media content – don’t miss out on the opportunity to create 3-5 posts per blog!
Supplementing Client Conversations
When you track your blog analytics, you can see what topics are viewed the most often. Many of our clients use this information to guide client meetings. or to add an additional touchpoint with current clients. If people visiting your site, whether they’re clients or prospects, are gravitating toward specific topics – there’s a good chance they need more guidance on those elements of financial planning.
How Will You Use Your Blog?
Are you ready to repurpose the content in your business blog? Start by outsourcing the most time-consuming piece of the puzzle – coordinating a content calendar, writing blog posts, and posting them to your website. Our Blogging Boss package helps clients create two custom blog posts tailored to their unique audience and their pain points each month. Ready to learn more? Reach out! We’d love to hear from you.
