As a service-based business, people usually aren’t just browsing on my website. Normally, my website is visited when (and only when) someone is looking to hire me for a service I provide. I wanted to change this. I thought, what if I could establish trust and start a conversation with my audience before there’s any chance for purchase?
To solve the problem, I started blogging. It took me a long time to get on the blogging train (15 months to be exact), and I wish I would have done it sooner. Now, I’ve been blogging for 6 weeks and counting, and the benefits are endless.
What originally held me back was that the thought of blogging about anything besides recent client work was stressful and overwhelming. After all, I don’t consider myself a writer, and I’m already slammed with client projects. Who has the time?
I was stuck believing the lie that there’s no room for me in the blogosphere. That everyone else has already said anything I could say. What I’ve discovered is that just isn’t true. If you’re like me, your clients are not in your industry, therefore they don’t see everything you see, and they don’t follow the same podcasts, blogs, or Instagram accounts as you do. As Marie Forleo says, “The world needs that special gift that only you have.”
I started my blog with a few goals in mind:
- To connect with potential clients and establish trust BEFORE they ever need my graphic design, branding, or website design services.
- To answer the questions I’m commonly asked by my current clients in an in-depth, public manner.
- To promote growth in my business. I have big visions for where I want my business to go, and blogging can play a huge role in this. You can’t grow without change, right?!
Within a month of my blog going live, my site traffic had increased by 350% compared to the previous month!
In addition to traffic, people are staying on my website longer and engaging with more pages on each visit. A couple things that make this even more exciting:
1. I do not have a large following on social media. Both my business Facebook and Instagram are in the 1,300-1,650 follower range. On Pinterest, I have just over 700 followers. These numbers were all even lower when I started the blog. Although, I used social media to draw attention to my new blog. I didn’t need a large following to gain traction.
2. I don’t blog daily. Right now I blog 1 to 3 times per week.
3. I haven’t spent any additional money to start blogging.
You don’t need a huge following to gain traction on your blog. You don’t have to blog like a crazy lady to get results, and you don’t need to drop a ton of cash (or any cash) to get started.
Still not convinced you’ve got the skills to run a blog? Check out these tips to help you get started blogging for your business!
