One type of client that blogging works really well for is the independent consultant, who is very often a solo operator. Consultants always have to be networking and drumming up new engagements, and the blog is a skillful way for them to extend their reach at the same time as they enhance their reputation. With a blog, consultants can magnify their investment incrementally post by post, without needing a large marketing budget.
There’s the heavy lifting, and then there’s the light lifting. The heavy lifting of making an impact on this vast, uncaring Web is done by the blog itself, energized by the promotion effort we run it through. But the light lifting, the joyous work of connecting with humans, is done by the blogger.
Consultants are already savvy about their industry, of course, and generally wired into homegrown marketing efforts such as networking, encouraging word of mouth referrals, speaking at events, sending out newsletters, and so on. For this type of business operation the blog is a natural extension, the perfect way to reach out further, and with digital precision.
The useful thing about consultants is that most of them have a body of written work lying around in their portfolio, and blogs do well with words. I’m a writer myself, and a jealous one at that: if I sweat blood to write it, I don’t want it just to get published once and then rot; I need to squeeze more life out of it than that. If you write you can relate to this feeling I’m sure.
One consultant I knew had about 25 articles already written, already sitting published in her website. This to me was gold. Or rather, let’s liken it to bags of flour, each waiting to become a fresh new loaf, crafted with artistry, and sending out its compelling, newly baked smell.
But how exactly to do this? How would you take her created content and use it to best advantage for her purposes? How would you, bravehearted baker, turn this store of flour into plates of crowd-pleasing croissants?
UPDATE: I’ll offer a prize for good answers.
PS..Next week I’ll tell you what we did, and how much it cost her, and what kind of traffic and connections came out of this. But what would you do?
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I have a similar problem, there are several pieces of content I have sitting on my website or on private newsletters that are rotting.
What I plan on doing is to schedule a move of them to my blog over the next few weeks. I like to think of them as a “Weekly post from the vault”.