Blogging has been an excellent way to boost your SEO and maintain the attention of your clients. It shows off your brand, your images and your writing. However have you thought about how blogging can hurt your business if you lack consistency? If you have been stumped with new ideas on what to write about simply ask your clients to write for you.
Keeping your blog up to date with fresh new content can be difficult some months. Maybe you have been overloaded with the busy season, or the kids are out of school so sitting down to come up with a new idea plagues you. Not staying consistent can hurt your site not only by losing your search rankings but also by not staying in the prospective clients mind. Some may come to read out of routine. Some may read getting a feel if you are the right fit for them. Then some may just love looking at your images. But if you stop for six weeks this trusted consistently will fall off and lose your audience.
That is the time to turn to your most trusted business partners for help. No, I do not mean hire someone to write for you (although if this works for you it can be a great help if you have the financial means). I am talking about your trusted clients. They are the ones who came to you for their session, they trusted you with their most intimate portraits and if you did your job right they will be bragging about you to all their friends.
This is the time to capture that elated moment they feel and ask for a testimonial. You can either sit down with them and write down their experience or even use a form sent out to them after their image reveal. Using a few questions you can get some quick quotes to use along with her images. This will bring a real face to the testimonial helping other potential clients see the value in using you for their session.
- How did you feel during your session?
- How did you feel after seeing your images?
- How did you feel about the photographer and makeup artist?
- What would you tell others who are thinking about having a boudoir session but are nervous?
These simple questions can help write the blog itself. I use jotform and send it with a thank you email after their orders. I have also put it into my private forum for past clients to jump on the chance to be blogged about. You will be surprised just how many are excited about having their images shown.
Jenn Smith of Boudoir by Jennifer Smith feels testimonials are very powerful. "They remind potential clients that the people I show are regular people." She uses them in her newsletters with her drip email campaign.
Image with permission and courtesy of Jenn Smith
Brooke Summer sends her clients a feature questionnaire after their session. She feels it works very well in giving the clients a platform to share their story. "With boudoir, we learn intimate details of someone's life, and having them tell their story also gives me a chance to know what they're comfortable sharing or not" Summer wrote.
Image with permission and courtesy of Brooke Summer
Image with permission and courtesy of Brooke Summer
Brad Walsh keeps his SEO consistent by blogging his client sessions in-between other posts. This is great when you need to schedule quick posts ahead of time.
Image with permission and courtesy of Brad Walsh
Image with permission and courtesy of Molly Mckenzie
Keeping your SEO consistent does not have to be hard. Many of us will choose one day out of the week just for writing. Others do their blog posts one month ahead of time and use a scheduling system. As long as you stay consistent with timing, it does not matter how you are writing, just as long as you are writing. Using client testimonials has proven to be one of the best ways my site has stayed at the top of searching, as well as on top of my prospective client's minds.
