If you sell services via your website or blog, there are 7 types of promotional blog posts that work well. Now, let's be upfront about this… Writing these posts and then publishing them back to back isn't a good idea, you need to be careful with promotional posts. Your editorial calendar should include blog posts for traffic and blog posts for a deeper personal connection as well as details about your special offers. Your reader shouldn't feel overwhelmed with your sales message.
1. Comparison Posts
This kind of post compares the features and benefits of your product or services to similar solutions available on the market. Be honest and objective when producing such content or you risk chasing away some of your followers. Contrary to popular belief, customers are not sheep and they won't buy without question or often, consultation. If you don't tell them the truth in comparisons, they will find it out elsewhere and you will have lost the sale.
For the best results, include a few instances when your product is not the best solution. I'm often asked how this works, well think of your worst possible customer, the one that sucks the life and energy from you. How would she use the product/service? Then send her to the competition. Life is too short to work with people who don't like or respect you.
2. Project Showcase Posts
Use your blog to showcase some of your business projects. Show the process, share the results and mention some of the issues you faced while you were working on it. This post from Rosanne Berry is a great example as she showcases her shop's makeover.
These are usually very visual posts containing a lot of photos, and/or a video. These kinds of posts can be really aspirational, and if the images are good and the headline catchy, then it will pull in a lot of social shares and increase your visibility.
3. Income Report Posts
If you are an online marketer there's no faster way to build trust and credibility with your audience and using the income report post. When you show your readers a breakdown of the income you are generating, they start to see all the aspects of marketing their business online. Make sure to add a little bit of humor and self-irony to juice up the post, and remember to include your expenses in your report or people will really think you can earn 10k a month pure profit 😉
Take a look at Alexandria's income report here as a good example.
4. Product Tips Posts
Product tips posts are a great way to promote services and products to your readers. Consider writing articles that help your customers take full advantage of what you are selling. The product tips post also helps affiliate marketers promote their recommended products quickly and easily.
5. Best-of Posts
Best-of posts pull together the most liked and commented blog posts you have written over a period of time. They are a good way to drive traffic towards “old but gold” posts that newcomers to your blog could be unaware of. If you also add in a section for your comparison posts and your product tips' post you're onto a winner.
6. The Case Study
This is possibly my favourite way to sell a product or service online. A detailed case study shows your customer as the hero, and how you have supported them on their quest. When you outline the problem, the solution, and the journey on the way, you'll generate new leads and prospects for your business. When a reader can view a case study and picture themself in the same position, you have a powerful lead generator. These can be difficult to create for a small business blogger, so they're often outsourced to copywriters.
7. The Testimonial
Sometimes product creators don't share enough of what works well and how customers feel about that product. I'll admit that my testimonial posts are few and far between, and that's a shame as they tend to be the piece of content potential clients ask for. Don't make this mistake. In the blogging challenge, we encourage the participants to add a testimonial to a blog post and then publish it.
Here are two of my recent testimonials:
What I really like about working with Kevin is his deep understanding of not just marketing a business, but how to actually run a business successfully. This knowledge has helped me to make considered decisions about what I need to do in order to prevent myself from wasting a lot of time and money. I especially value Kevin's honest approach to giving advice, which has always been spot on even if it is not always what I would like to hear. If you are looking for someone to tell you what you want to hear about marketing and business, then go elsewhere. If you want to know exactly what you need to do to be successful then speak to Kevin. His knowledge and experience is vast
Susan Marot – Succeed At Selling
Kevin is highly skilled at helping businesses generate leads and sales through digital marketing. He has been instrumental in helping me form a strategy for my business. I've also thoroughly enjoyed going through the 30-day blogging challenge which Kevin and Sarah run together which has helped me build traffic to my website
CJ Sohal – Business Owner
There it is, 7 blog posts that help you promote your products and services.
PS if you like this post you might like to join us on the 30-day blogging challenge. It will help you get more from your blog posts 🙂
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