There’s often more complexity to a sale in a service-based industry, and it’s a function of having a great service. There are more variations that might be offered or many different ways to apply your service to clients. As you know well, your clients are probably looking around and investigating first – have a content marketing plan in place that gives them what they are looking for: more in-depth information about what you do and why you’re the best at it!
Thinking of the different ways to appeal to your target market, we’ve broken down a quick way to create a content plan that educates prospects and creates leads.
Your Content Marketing Plan Starts with Your Services:
- List your services on your website using a feature & benefit style of approach. Some prospects will be looking for those technical aspects of what you do, while others will clearly need to see a business application that meets one or more of their key performance indicators (KPIs). Focus on how you can add value that your competitors don’t – you know how your customers respond and what wins you business. Use this to your advantage.
- Create informative blog posts that are created by talking more in-depth about 3-5 features and benefits of each service you have to figure out what content works best for you. You might feel that this is duplicating your services page content, yet the blog post gives you more freedom to build out ideas and sometimes be a little more casual with your writing. Aim for 500-1000 words for each post.
- For each of the features/benefits, create an educational blog post that explains the benefits in an individual situation, case study, or client that your service is being used. Each of these blog posts will lead back to the services page where you can capture leads. Since these are more storytelling, the words can add up quickly, don’t spare the details (unless they would identify your client negatively) as each additional detail makes your blog post more relatable. While you’re not capping the word count, think about getting between 1000-2500 words as a guideline here.
How Much Content Will You Create?
Let’s do the quick napkin math.
If you have 3 different services that you offer…
- You will have 3 informative posts (3 services x 1 informative post for each = 3)
- You will have 9-15 educational posts (3 informative posts x 3 features = 9 or 3 informative posts x 5 features = 15)
This adds up quickly, and they are easier to write in batches – the more efficient way to write your posts. With 15 posts into your content calendar, that’s over 25% of the year covered when posting once per week.
Keep this process going, as the stories will keep fueling the educational posts with more client activity and the informative content will continue to be fueled by the questions that prospects and clients ask.
Is this the Content Marketing Plan for My Business?
We’ve seen this style of content marketing work well for many different industry professionals including:
- Home Builders and Renovators
- Realtors and Real Estate Brokerages
- Accountants and Financial Advisors
- Landscaping Teams
- Plumbers, Electricians, Roofing and Masonry Companies
- Disposal and Recycling Companies
- Architects and Engineers
- Car Dealerships and Leasing Companies
- Home Services including Cleaners and Handymen
If you’re looking for a fresh approach to your marketing and are wanting your website to make more of an impact on your business, let’s talk. We’ll be able to quickly determine the approach needed to have your marketing be an authentic extension of your brand and help you stand above your competition.
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