7 Tips to Writing Blog Posts That Attract New Clients
If you like writing and have something to say, blogging is an amazing outlet to express your voice while attracting more clients into your practice. But if you approach blogging without any technique, you will spend a ton of time writing with almost no audience to read it. Blogging is different than other types of writing. Learning how to do it well will help you get your voice heard, build an audience, and attract the type of clients you want in your practice.
Here are 7 Keys to Writing Blogs that Will Get More Readers and Attract More Clients:
1. Blog Titles Matter
If you want people to click on blog posts from social media outlets, read them in your newsletters, get shared by friends and families and generate interest, you’ll want to focus on the title of your blog.
I recommend using a blog title that’s more of a working draft, write the entire article, and go back and refine the title. Make the title catchy and concise. Include how to’s when you can, numbers, what results the reader can expect from reading the article and keep the title relevant to your audience that would read it.
This matters so much that it can be a difference between a two percent click-through rate on your following all the way up to a thirty-five percent click-through rate.
2. Length of Blog Titles Have an Impact
There is no perfect science to a blog title length, but it’s a good rule of thumb to keep them under 70 characters. Most phones will only show 40 to 60 characters in a subject line. This means you generally want your blog titles in this range if you’re sending the blog through email.
3. Don’t Use Long Form Paragraphs
Blog writing requires a different paragraph style than other types of writing or else your reader will lose interest quickly and move on. We generally read online by scanning our screen quickly for content that we like. Large paragraphs clump too many ideas together, which is counter to how we generally take information in online.
Blog paragraphs typically range from one to four sentences. Make sure to create new paragraphs whenever a concept can hold its own weight. This keeps the reader engaged, leading them through concepts fluidly. It also allows for easier reading on smaller devices.
4. Offer Amazing Value to Prospective Clients
Sometimes, therapists worry about giving away their most valuable content in blog posts, thinking people won’t have the need to visit them in their office.
In many ways, it’s quite the opposite. When you give prospective clients valuable information in your blogs, you help them make a positive change in their life. They will want more and more of the services you have to offer because they already feel positively impacted by you.
5. Simple Words Go a Very Long Way
Don’t get too technical with your clients. A lot of therapists can make this mistake and lose readers. Clients benefit most from very organized, simply worded articles.
If you go deep into jargon they will most likely feel lost. Clients are generally reading a therapist’s blog as a way to improve their life. They’re not reading a blog to expand their vocabulary or learn clinical skills.
6. Choose Topics Based on Your Target Audience
Make sure you are writing about topics that are based on your client’s needs. The more consistent you are writing to your target audience, the more you keep a group of readers engaged who will eventually turn into clients.
For example, if you like working with depression and anxiety, focus a large portion of your blogs on depression and anxiety. Prospective clients who need help with depression and anxiety will continue to follow your blog and eventually seek out your services. If you write about too many different subjects, it’s very difficult to establish a readership.
7. Don’t Shy Away from Collecting Email Addresses
If you are going to go through the trouble of blogging regularly, you will only have a consistent audience if you have a list of emails to send your blog to. That means you will need a way to collect emails on your website when they visit your site or blog page.
Make sure you put some thought about how you are going to accomplish this. With no intention and a simple form, you’ll be lucky if you get .05 percent of website visitors to give you their emails. Unfortunately, at that rate, you won’t be able to build an email list. However, when done correctly you can get between 6-8 percent of visitors to your website. That will build your list quickly.
Blogging is an amazing way to creatively express yourself as a therapist and help people along the way. With a little attention to detail and some specific blogging techniques, you can turn a creative outlet into a way to attract clients into your practice in an ongoing manner. If you feel you have something to say, go for it! There’s so much to gain and so little to lose.