Maintaining a blog on your firm’s website is a great way to showcase your expertise. But if no one knows about your blog post, all of the blood, sweat, and tears you pour into it could be in vain. Don’t let this happen! By actively promoting your blog posts, you can increase the likelihood that your clients and prospects will recognize you—and your firm—as a valuable thought leader.
Whenever you write a new blog post, we recommend promoting it at least five to seven different ways to maximize its impact. To help you get started, here are seven clever ways to promote your next one.
1. Follow best SEO practices when uploading the blog post to your website
This includes adding the appropriate meta title, writing a short meta description, adding relevant keywords, and shortening the URL so it can be easily posted across your social channels (see #3). Make sure your keywords are used in all of the above and within your blog post’s subheadings. Don’t forget to add an image, too.
2. Include an “author archive” on your website bio
Bio pages are one of the most frequently visited pages on a professional services firm website. Including a link to your blog post(s) here will give them extra visibility, and will also help to give clients and prospects additional insight into your capabilities.
3. Share it across social channels
Promote your blog post to your social network by posting a link to it on your LinkedIn and Facebook timelines and to your firm’s timelines, too. If you authored a blog post on how the recent tax reform could impact charitable giving, for instance, you might write the following status update to accompany the link: “The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act has significantly altered the tax benefits traditionally associated with charitable giving. To help you better understand how this change could impact you, I’ve written blog post on the topic. I hope you find it helpful as you consider year-end charitable gifts.”
4. Include it in your firm’s e-newsletter
If your firm sends out a regular e-newsletter, be sure your blog post is in the mix. If possible, include the title of your post along with a short “teaser” (i.e., a brief introduction) and a link to the full post on your blog.
5. Include the blog post in a personal email to your A-list clients, prospects, and referral sources
You could simply say, “I thought you might be interested in this blog post I wrote on XYZ topic. If you have questions or would like to talk further about it, please don’t hesitate to give me a call!”
6. Develop a presentation around it
If you build a presentation around your blog post, you could present it at an association meeting or offer to conduct a free “lunch and learn” for a group of referral sources. You could give your audience a link to your blog post as a compelling follow-up.
7. Give it to clients and prospects as reference material
If you have a client or prospect who has a question about a topic that relates to a blog post you wrote, send them a link to it! Not only will this promote your post but it will also serve to enhance your credibility.
You could have the most well-written, engaging blog posts out there, but if no one knows about them, your blogging efforts won’t do much good. By promoting your blog post in several ways, you will increase the number of people who read it—and (hopefully) reach out to you for help.