“I want to start a blog for my business,” said my newest writing coach client.
I had just received an initial batch of sloppy copy for her book and had assumed we would be talking mostly about that. On the other hand, she had mentioned that she wanted to focus on her real estate business as well, so I wasn’t totally surprised.
The ensuing conversation about starting a blog was as efficient and promising as any I’ve had with a wannabe blogger.
“I was out with my contractor yesterday who’s fixing up this total wreck of a house,” she said. “I want to do a blog post about him and the work he’s done.”
“I love that,” I said.
“I see stories everywhere,” she added with barely a pause.
We talked about the fact that she was definitely on the right track since people resonate most with stories, and then began to discuss what she wanted to achieve with her blog. Before long I suggested that she should consider adding success stories to the line up of posts about her business.
“I have a colleague who sends me her blog posts and I hate them,” my client announced. “She always is talking about how she closed this $400,000 deal or other. It makes me sick.”
“That’s not the kind of success story I’m talking about,” I said. “Write success stories based on your clients: the newlyweds who found their first house, the family that found a dream home, the retirement couple who happily downsized. The subtext is that you’re the one behind these successes. But by focusing on their successes, you show potential clients how much you care about the people you work with and that you deliver.”
To switch things up a bit, I also suggested that she provide maintenance tips that most people either don’t know about or don’t remember to do. Somehow the conversation swung around to my recently forgetting to change out the batteries in my smoke alarms and having to perch precariously on a ladder that was too short for the job at 4 a.m. just a few hours after I’d taken a sleeping pill for the first time in my life. So yes, humor will feature prominently in her tips.
We concluded with the fact that she needed to create an editorial calendar based on important dates for her business, which she would use to plan and schedule blog posts.
One blog, signed, sealed and well on its way to being delivered in style.
Are you starting a blog? I hope this story gives you a few ideas and inspires you to get going without further delay. Let me know how you fare. I look forward to reading your stories.
Sorry, comments are closed for this post.