This week’s post is from Lorna Sixsmith of Write On Track. Lorna is an avid blogger who started out blogging for her Interiors and gifts webstore Garrendenny Lane. Write On Track is her latest venture, partnered with Marie Ennis O’Connor she offers blog coaching and ghost writing services. She’s also become quite a sought after speaker on the subject. Lorna also co-founded KLCK Bloggers Network and Bloggers International with myself and Beatrice Whelan.
What is blog coaching?
We all know that blogs are useful for businesses for many reasons – from working as an effective search engine optimisation tool to personalising your brand to engaging with customers. There are so many businesses losing out on traffic to their website and resulting sales because they don’t have a business blog.
- B2B companies that blog generate 67% more leads per month than those who do not. Source: Hubspot, State of Inbound Marketing Lead Generation Report, 2010
- 69% of B2B marketers are shifting their budgets toward social media. Source: MarketingSherpa, October 2010
- 41% of B2B companies are acquiring customers through Facebook. Source: Hubspot, State of Inbound Marketing Report, 2011
Why don’t some business have a blog? The reasons seem to be a mixture of fear, reluctance, writers block, scepticism, not enough time, worried about their writing style …….
Many people are nervous of writing and that includes business people. It is one thing to write a report where you are following a template but a blog requires more personality, writing that is more fluid and also requires different styles and formats.
Options include outsourcing your blog writing but businesses often prefer to write their own posts, feeling they know their products best and they want to devote the time to do it right but are still nervous to start.
Engaging a blog coach could be the answer. A blog coach will provide the mentoring to give you the reassurance and expertise you need. That’s the real beauty of it – you can utilise the coaching according to your individual needs.
What might blog coaching involve?
Well, blog coaching sessions could include any of the following – depending on your own knowledge and the needs of your own business.
A blog coach can:
- Show you examples of good blog posts in your business area
- Show you blog post formats that would suit your products or services
- Help you come up with topics and how to write good titles
- Show you how to incorporate a ‘call to action’ in an appropriate tone
- Demonstrate how to include images and links within your blog post
- Explain how to use the google keyword research tool to ensure your blog posts are well optimised
- Show you how to use the ‘SEO all in one’ plug in and how to utilise other widgets and plug ins .
- Explain how to best categorise your blog posts and how to use tags.
- Demonstrate how to ‘share’ your blog posts
- Show you how to inject some personality into your writing to encourage feedback and engagement from readers.
- Show you how to find complementary business blogs, how to comment on those blogs and build a community.
- Help you come up with a realistic blogging schedule.
- Give you tips for thinking of topics for your business blog.
- Measure your success. Your blogging coach can provide you with a blogging strategy with goals to meet. The success of your work can be analysed and measured.
Having a blog will help to position you as an expert in your field in addition to helping many more potential customers find your website. A blog coach can give you the confidence and knowledge you need to make it happen for your business.
