How to convert more customer service professionals into subscribers of your help desk software
Thing I’ve learned: There are very few help desk startups and veteran customer service companies who have blogs. And many of the ones that do have blogs have them hidden.
Why? Why are you hiding this valuable sales tool?
Digging through page after page of Google search results, past the companies with updated blogs, beyond the multitude of “8 Best Help Desk Software” articles, and through a few scattered remnants of online forums, there stood dozens of help desk software company websites.
We’re not talking the bottom of page 2 here, either, people. Page 4 and beyond is littered with companies that either don’t have blogs, or do, but, in one case, haven’t posted since 2009. Seriously, people? Who goes to page 4 on a Google search? I mean, really, once you hit that Wikipedia article about customer service software, you’re kind of done.
As a content marketer, this hurts me. It does. There is so much opportunity here for help desk startups that want to make their product more visible. Yes, writing a good blog post takes time. Writing good blog posts on a regular basis takes even more time. And I know you think you don’t have time, but if your product isn’t selling, you’re going to have a whole lot more time in short order. (Incidentally, if you truly don’t have time, we can help you out.)
The ten help desk blog examples we list below are near the top of Google search results for help desk and customer related queries, and they’re driving strangers to their website through blog posts. At the very least they’ve made it to page two, or in one case, the tippy top of page three.
We took a look at what’s out there, and came up with some suggestions you can use to pump up your own blog. Oh, and if you are one of the companies represented below, please know that any critique comes from a place of good intentions. You all are doing a lot of content marketing very well, and you have a lot to offer other help desk startups, so thank you for participating.
Below are some great ideas for you to use on a new or existing blog if you’re a help desk startup. Your content marketing goal is to attract people who work in customer service by answering the questions they Google in relation to their jobs, and then convert them into buyers. The keywords we’re suggesting are in red, along with title ideas and a potential call to action. Just remember, blogging and getting a good spot on Google search isn’t a one and done task. You gotta work it, work it, work it. (We can help you with that, too.)
10 blog post ideas for help desk startups
1. Improve your customer relationships
Title: How to turn your customer horror stories into sales
Suggested Call to Action: “We’ve all got customer horror stories, but with our help desk software, you can reduce yours. Call us today for a free 30-day trial.”
It’s true. If you’ve every worked in customer service, you have at least one customer horror story. In their blog, GrooveHQ points out that most customers are great, and I would agree. That doesn’t mean you can’t take steps to reduce opportunities for bad experiences. Or rather, for you, my help desk startups, that translates to a sales opportunity.
Your help desk software is precisely what Flippy Phone Cell Service needs to improve their customer service and make more customers happy. In fact, Flippy Phone’s head of Customer Support is probably searching for you right now. You do have a blog so he or she can find you, right?
2. Be busy and support your customers
Title: How to Make your Virtual Customer Service Hit the Mark
Suggested Call to Action: “When your business has customers all over the world, your virtual customer service has to be efficient AND effective. Try our help desk software free for 30 days, and watch your customer service ratings skyrocket.”
The Zendesk blog hits a lot of marks. Most posts are a good length, and they provide useful information for their customers. In effect, they are modeling help desk behavior, which is something you could do on your blog to make your help desk software more usable for your customers.
But, Zendesk, why do you hide your blog? You have a link to another company’s blog on your home page, but I had to search for yours. Content marketing through a company blog can be prime virtual real estate if you take advantage of it.
Even so, Zendesk does offer some great examples for other help desk startups who want to take advantage of content marketing.
3. You can’t win them all
Title: How to Handle Angry Customers
Suggested Call to Action: “No matter what you do, no matter how hard you try, you will still make mistakes. You need to know how to handle angry customers when those mistakes do happen. Our software can make that job easier. Contact us today for a free 30-day trial.”
Y’all, Freshdesk got it goin’ on! They post regularly, the posts look like they all hit the recommended 600+ word threshold, and they’ve got the SEO down. I did three different searches for related topics, and guess who’s on page one each time? That’s right.
What can you learn from the Freshdesk blog? Think about this, if I run a help desk call center, and I need to figure out how to make my job more streamlined, what am I going to do? I’m going to look for solutions on Google. What am I going to do when I see your company come up on page one several times? You got it. I’m going to check you out.
4. Your headlines are everything
Title: 10 Sales Closing Techniques That will Win Customers
Suggested Call to Action: “You’ve made it this far. Don’t lose the sale because you don’t have a quality help desk. These sales closing techniques, along with our help desk software will help you boost your bottom line. Call today for a free 30-day trial.”
Zoho, is a little bit help desk, a little bit CRM, and a little bit record keeping. As a result, their blog is heavy on the instructions and support for using Zoho’s software. In some ways, this is positive. If you already use Zoho’s software, there is plenty here to keep you busy learning about new integrations or ways other customers use Zoho.
But a company blog is also an ideal space to attract new customers, and Zoho could take more advantage of this. Mixed in with the promotional posts are valuable posts for sales, customer service, and billing, but you’ve got to scroll down a bit to get to it.
Spinning some of these headlines could potentially turn some of these “how-to” posts into opportunities to attract new customers. For instance, I might alter this headline:
Shift base from Intuit Quickbase: Free Migration to Zoho Creator quicker than ever?
to
What to do when your QuickBase software leaves you stranded
How does this example help you? Zoho posts very regularly, and their posts include good information for users and visitors. These are both critical for successful content marketing.
5. It’s not about you
Title: What do Customers Want from your Customer Service Team
Suggested Call to Action: “What do customers want when they call your help desk? They want more than a pleasant conversation. They want results. But they’re offering you something, too: data. Our help desk software can help you track and use that data. Call us for a free 30-day trial.”
I like the Kayako blog because it is clearly focused on the reader. They want to help you help your customers. This makes sense. Kayako is a help desk software company. The writing is informative, intelligent, and offers helpful tips to help you write better emails, learn from their experiences, and to retain your customers and your support staff.
They also end their blog posts with a call to action to sign up for a free webinars and downloads. Nice work, Kayako!
What can you learn from Kayako? Focus on the reader. No one wants to read a hard sell blog; your reader wants to get some benefit from investing their time with your thoughts. That doesn’t mean you can’t offer them a soft sell, too.
6. Help those who help you
Title: Managing Remote Employees is Fine until This Happens
Suggested Call to Action: “Your customers aren’t the only ones who need your help. Managing remote employees requires the same attention to solving problems as you give your customers. Call us for a free 30-day trial and see how our help desk software can help you succeed.”
Your customers aren’t the only ones who need help; sometimes it’s your staff that needs help. The blog by samanage offers regular posts on how you can support your help desk team – which, by default, helps your customers. In your blog, it’s important to consider your audience, and the different solutions they may be searching for. At Buzzfarmers, we like to set up customer personas to help us direct our writing to a specific audience.
Can I also just point out that Samanage does something awesome with their blog? They have it in the navigation bar at the top of their website. This means I can find it without having to scroll down to the fine print directory at the bottom or go back to Google to search for it. This makes me so very happy!
7. Focus on content
Title: Better Customer Service Skills Make You a Bigger Profit
Suggested Call to Action: “Any help desk should have good customer service skills. But when you have better customer service skills than your competition, you stand out. Call us for a free 30-day trial and start getting noticed.”
These guys! inContact won my heart because they, too, have their blog in the top navigation bar of their website. Swoon! (Seriously, you all, this is a big deal for those of us in content marketing.)
Alas, “the course of true love never did run smooth.” Overall, inContact does an excellent job with their blog. The writing is easy and enjoyable to read, and it’s informative. If I wanted to be picky, though, some of their posts seem to be on the short side for SEO purposes, and they could also probably pull in more organic search traffic by posting two or three times weekly rather than once.
Still, the content itself is there, and the importance of quality content cannot be overstated.
8. Nip it in the bud
Title: Customer Complaint Management: Don’t Let the Snowball Grow
Suggested Call to Action: “Some issues need extra attention. Get the jump on customer complaint management with automated notifications that will help you, your team, and your customer all have a better experience. Try our help desk software free for 30 days, and watch the tension fade away.”
IssueTrak posts often, which is great. New content is good for your customers and your Google search rankings. IssueTrack does pretty well in Google search for a few of their keywords, so they’ve got a good thing going.
There are two actions that could probably improve their rank in Google, one of which is longer posts. The minimum length for what Google deems a worthwhile post is at least 600 words. This doesn’t mean that the shorter posts on IssueTrak’s blog aren’t good, but great content doesn’t matter if no one can find you.
I also think IssueTrak could spin their posts to be more customer-centric. Think more along the lines of “how to solve problems” instead of “how we can solve your problems.” It’s a slight shift, but you still have your call to action to use for the sales pitch.
Those points aside, IssueTrak does focus very much on the audience in their Twitter feed, which is part of a successful blogging strategy.
9. Make a list
Title: 10 Ways to Reduce the Time on Your Help Desk Tickets
Suggested Call to Action: “No one wants to spend dinner chatting online with a help desk. These tips will help you lower the time on your help desk tickets, so your customer can tell their dinner companions how great you are. Call us for a free 30-day trial, and find out for yourself what our help desk software can do for you.”
Mojo Helpdesk is nothing if not fun. Their blog is easily accessible through the top navigation bar (Yay!!!), and it is brimming with personality. And lists. Everyone loves a list, and Mojo Helpdesk more top 5 lists than you could shake a stick at.
What could they do to improve? More frequent posting. Mojo Helpdesk does pretty well already in Google search, so an increased posting schedule may only make minor improvements in their ranking, but it could bring more repeat visitors to their site looking for new information. And, of course, more visitors leads to more sales – or at least the chance of more sales.
Overall, though, the Mojo Helpdesk blog is a winner.
10. Use best practices
Title: How to Master Customer Service
Suggested Call to Action: “There’s one thing every business has to do if they plan to succeed: master customer service. It doesn’t matter how great your product is, if you don’t have the customer service to back it up, you’re going to have some significant challenges. Don’t worry, though. Try our help desk software free for 30 days, and let us help you become masters of customer service.”
I’m not sure what happened with the HappyFox blog. Perhaps there was a change in staffing, but they used to post about once per week. Then the end of April rolled around and silence…… until early September. So why is HappyFox here?
Like some of my other favorites, their blog is readily available via the navigation bar. They shout out other companies, pointing them out as examples of good customer service or efficient business models.
They also have a call to action known as a freemium – sign up for their email list and get a free download. They make it easy to share their posts through Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Buffer, or Gmail. These are all considered best practices in the world of content marketing. There is a lot to learn here for help desk startups that want to model not only good content but also good business blogging practices.
I am curious to see if HappyFox continues to use their blog to support their business. I certainly hope so.
The 10 things you can learn from other help desk blogs
- Offer solutions to common problems.
- Model the behavior your customers can get with your software.
- Help your readers figure out the next step when things go wrong.
- Keep an eye on your headlines. Make them enticing.
- Focus on the reader. Why should they read your blog?
- Focus on the reader. Who is reading your blog?
- Your content has to have value.
- Keep it fresh. New content breathes life into your sales.
- When in doubt, make a list.
- Take full advantage of your blog space with business blogging best practices.
It’s OK to have fun on your blog. Share your personality, your successes, your new product, and make your blog unique. But remember, ultimately, your blog is not about you, it’s about your audience. They are your customers and your future customers, and if your blog doesn’t speak to them, you’re wasting money and time.
Did you make it this far? Cool! If all this seems like a bigger task than you care to take on, get in touch. We love blogging for businesses like yours to help you increase your audience and sales.
Email us: patrick@buzzfarmers.wpengine.com or give us a call at 866-561-2899.
