Do you know how to sell any product, just through good content and a call to action?
Folks don’t take blogs seriously – they think blogs are for stay-at-home-moms and amateur cooks with good cameras. And those are certainly the folks winning at Pinterest. Heck, my amateur cooking blog gets 50K unique visitors per month … and most of that traffic comes from Pinterest.
But if you’re a business, and you still think your blog is for fun – just a place for your employees to write a few silly posts or to get something off your chest about your industry – then you’re doing it wrong.
Think of every blog post as a landing page.
You can only have so many sales pages on your site, but you can have thousands of blog posts.
And every blog post can be optimized individually for search.
How to Sell Any Product Without Looking Like a Jerk
Swipely is a Point-of-Sale (POS) system for local merchants. Their POS system strongly ties in customer data, analytics, and loyalty marketing. Their product is built to help Main Street restaurants, shops, and other merchants process transactions and boost customer loyalty at the same time.
For about four years, I worked with Swipely to generate daily content that attracted – and continues to attract – their target audience and converts that traffic into leads for their software.
For example, if you want to attract restaurateurs, write a post targeting the keyword “how to hire a chef,” which also targets that larger, more competitive keyword “hire a chef.”
The goal here is to attract restaurateurs who are searching for “how to hire a chef” or “hire a chef” in a search engine, and then satisfying their search with these useful tips. Voilà! Swipely is the hero. At the end of the article, if we’ve delivered content interesting enough to bring them from beginning to end, we leave them with a call-t0-action that offers even more free help: a downloadable ebook. From there, the lead is captured and the sales process begins for Swipely.
The best part about blogging for sales and leads is that this content works while you sleep. You publish the content, and then it continues to send you traffic today, tomorrow, and three years from now.
For example, that post was written last March and it’s still ranked #2 organically in Google for “how to hire a chef” and #6 for the even more lucrative keyword, “hire a chef.”
How to Sell Any Product Without Trying to Sell a Product
Still think blogging is a waste of time? Or think that you’re in an industry with nothing to blog about? Those are our favorite premises to prove wrong!
If you run a construction company or sell anything related to construction like The Porch Company or the Tumbleweed Tiny House Company, blog about different types of construction designs and options while showing off your work in the process. Read our construction blog ideas.
If you sell accounting services or accounting software like Bench.co or H&R Block, write posts for the millions of people out there that are searching for better ways to budget, run their business, and file taxes. Read our accounting blog topics.
If you sell insurance or insurance software, appeal to those who need your services by writing about the topics you get consulted on most often. Become a resource for your vertical of insurance, it will also soften the rep that anyone in the insurance industry automatically inherits. Read our insurance blog ideas.
If you’re a property manager or work in the industry like RentPrep or HappyInspector, write about topics that attract landlords. Write about topics like landlord liability, property management horror stories, or even property management essentials for new landlords. Read our property management blog ideas.
If you’re in the niche of recruitment or staffing like Aerotek or Murray Resources, write about how to use social media for recruitment, or how to retain staff – anything an employer might be searching for when they’ve lost an employee or may be starting to recruit. Read our recruitment blog ideas.
If you sell fitness or health products like Fitbit or MyFitnessPal, you can easily attract those who would be most interested in your product by writing content that helps them get healthy and fit. There’s a huge universe of keywords out there for health and fitness that send millions of people to websites just like these every day. Read our fitness blog ideas.
If you offer a service or software that simplifies HR like Indeed, TribeHR, or TSheets, you can attract HR professionals who can benefit from what you sell by attracting them with content that helps them do their jobs better. Read our HR blog ideas.
If you sell jewelry or custom-made accessories like Pura Vida or Satya, tell stories on your blog for each piece that make every one more meaningful, like how the necklace is made, or what inspired the design on a new ring. Read our jewelry blog ideas.
If you sell furniture or home accessories like IKEA or California Closets, you can sell each product individually with unique blog posts that inspire people with interesting ways to use or showcase it. Read our interior design blog ideas.
If you sell real estate or are in the business of cataloging properties like Trulia or Zillow, try to write about topics that attract those in the process of house hunting. Some topics might include moving with kids, the most affordable cities to live in, the best neighborhoods in Denver, or the best schools in New Orleans. Read more of our real estate blog ideas.
How about now? Just think – you can write hundreds or thousands of blog posts, each attracting new customers who will learn about your product and hopefully be driven to buy.
These are some pretty steep niches, but as you can see, there’s plenty to write about, plenty of keywords to tackle, and lots of sales to make. Are you ready? Hire us.
