How to make your blog stand out from the crowd
Are you delaying your blog launch because you’re struggling to find a point of difference? Or you’ve started blogging but finding it hard to get traction or stay interested in the writing process? Sometimes we overcomplicate things because we want things to be just right. Whether it’s self-doubt, perfectionism or feeling overwhelmed about where to start, these are all common experiences when it comes to launching a business blog.
3 tips to make your business blog stand out from the crowd
One of the main reasons why blogs fail to launch or gain traction is due to a lack of purposeful, engaging content. We need to care about what we write. And for this to feel authentic both for us as writers but also for our audience, we need to write what we know, draw on our own experience and have a clear focus for our content.
I will share with you my three tips on how to make your blog stand out from the crowd.
Write what you know
This is the number one advice given to all writers. Start with what you know and write about that. When we start with a topic that we know like the back of our hands, that we don’t have to do strenuous research on, then this will come through in the writing. It will feel relaxed, concise and be easy to read.
When we try too hard or tackle complex topics that we ourselves are still trying to wrap our heads around, then the writing will come across confused, formal or too academic.
If you’re at the very beginning of your blog journey, start writing what you know. Think of the common questions your clients have or the things you tend to repeat to many clients who present to your practice. Or, if you have a professional audience, then consider the questions they may have about what you do or what you teach and the typical answers you’d provide.
You may need to back up your blog post with statistics or links to research publications but do that once you’ve got your draft down. Write what you know first and layer the research in afterwards. This will keep the article in your voice, rather than becoming an academic read.
2. Draw on your professional (and personal) experience
One thing we have at our advantage as health professionals is our professional knowledge and experience. This is something that no hired writer will be able to access no matter how much research they do (yes, I am putting that out there despite being a writer for hire!). What we hold in our brains and our clinical experience cannot be found in a text book. Psychologists and therapists are taught standard clinical presentations but in real life we see people from all different backgrounds with complex histories that affect their everyday lives. What we learn in clinical practice is unique to our personal experiences, our professional experience and this intersects with the clients we work with.
To make your blog stand out from the crowd: use your experience! Now, you don’t have to use any client identifying information and you don’t have to share anything private about yourself, but you can lean into some personal details about your clinical experience or the nuanced presentations you see.
Put yourself into your writing. In the content I write for my perinatal practice, I draw on anecdotal evidence and my clinical experience. I make personal connections to the content I write, I am present in my content. It’s often written in first person, which means I use “I” instead of an authoritative narrator voice in third person. This approach places me at the forefront of my business. And it makes my content stand out from other articles out there about the same topics.
For example, in a recent blog post on medications in pregnancy, I could’ve just stuck to what the research says about medications in pregnancy. Instead, I had a clear target audience: other professionals (rather than the pregnant women), and I drew on my experience of what I saw happening in my clinical practice. I wrote about how GPs sometimes err on the side of caution and tell women to stop taking medications in pregnancy without accessing specialised advice or taking into account the woman’s past and present circumstances. I wrote what I knew in a way that highlighted what I see in practice. This may not be everyone’s experience but it is mine and I was then able to explore how that may be detrimental to a perinatal woman’s experience. At the same time the article was educational and informative.
See how you can draw on what you know to lead the conversation in your blog posts? To add a point of difference? The article that I refer to is by no means perfect! But it doesn’t need to be perfect to connect with your target audience.
3. Niching
Now, I know I do harp on about niching quite a bit but hear me out. Many people believe that niching will limit your growth when actually the opposite is true. When your content has a clear focus you will attract the right people to your audience. When you go too broad you are likely to attract people who aren’t entirely invested in what you offer. You don’t necessarily have to niche your business but you can niche your content. It might feel as if you’ll run out of things to say about a topic (I feel that way sometimes!) but once you get into a good writing habit, you’ll find the ideas will continue to flow. You’ll never run out of things to say!
When you have a clear focus for your content, people will learn what you are about. You’ll become the ‘go-to’ person when it comes to this area of practice. So, choosing something you're passionate about is essential.
I’ll relate this back to my perinatal practice. My niche is Perinatal and Infant Mental Health. This is a very specialised area of work and on the surface does appear very niched. However, there’s a lot that comes under this umbrella. My clinical practice is niched, yes, I do see only perinatal women from conception through to two or three years postpartum. But my content is wide and varied within the scope of this niche. Some weeks I’ll write about “perinatal,” focusing more on pregnancy experiences and clinical practice. This may appeal more to those in my audience who work primarily with pregnant women such as perinatal clinicians, midwives, doulas or birth educators. Other weeks I write about “infant mental health” and ways in which clinicians can support parents to strengthen their bond with their babies. This is likely more appealing content to clinicians who work in perinatal, or work with families, young children such as psychologists, child and family nurses, child care educators etc.
Now there is some overlap between my “perinatal” audience and my “infant” audience and there are also clear distinctions. I will not connect with my entire audience on every piece of content I create. And that’s okay. When you make it clear to your audience what you’re about, most of them will stick by you. I don’t get hoards of unsubscribes from half my audience when I write about a topic they aren’t particularly interested in. We just have to trust what we put out there connects with who we want it to connect with.
Make your blog stand out
To make your blog stand out from the crowd, write what you know, infuse your personal experience into your writing and have a clear focus or niche that you write in. Above all, trust the process! You may find that you take one direction with your writing and that doesn’t really resonate with others or you just don’t feel the passion for it, so try something else instead. When you come back to writing what you know and what you have an interest in, this will show up in your writing.
Content Coaching Support
Need help with workshopping ideas, clarifying your niche or how to launch your expert blog?
I now have month-to-month coaching packages available by request. I know paying upfront can be a big financial commitment and sometimes it’s hard to gauge just how much support you may need. I’m now providing 6 month coaching sessions with one hour zoom sessions per month at $220 per hour. Think of it as a coaching and supervision session that helps you brainstorm, work through any challenges you may have and get you on the path to blogging for your business. No lock in contract.
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