Should you write a book? Or focus on your blog? What about your email newsletter? Should you focus on that next? Do you need a lead magnet? Or should you write for high-visibility publications? What about social media? How does that fit into the mix?

If you’ve ever asked yourself these questions, then you already know writing helps you build your reputation, increase your visibility, and reach the right audience. It is an exceptional authority-building technique that showcases your perspective, insights, and approaches to solving problems. It allows readers to get to know, like, and trust you.

It also differentiates you from your peers.

Over the course of your consulting career, you will use various forms of writing, such as social media posts, email newsletters, blog posts, articles for third-party publications, and books, to share your perspective and demonstrate your expertise. Each form of writing serves a distinct purpose. Understanding how they work together is essential to knowing which to use at each stage of your consulting career. Here, I offer a step-by-step approach to help you focus your writing efforts.

First, write to develop your perspective.

You must develop your perspective before you can share your perspective. If you are an early-stage consultant or you have recently shifted your focus to serve a new industry or offer a new service, start by posting on LinkedIn and writing for your blog and email newsletter.

Use this time to learn about your audience’s biggest challenges, how they’ve tried to address those challenges, why those attempts failed, and where they turn for guidance. Understand the counsel your audience is receiving and where other experts in your field are oversimplifying or overcomplicating the solutions they offer. Note where you can add some nuance, fill a gap, or offer a different perspective.

According to data on the lifespan of online content compiled by Scott Graffius, a post on LinkedIn receives half of its total engagement within 24.3 hours while a blog post receives half of its total engagement within 1.95 years. GetResponse reports that the lifespan of email newsletters is even shorter than that of social media posts, with half of all opens occurring within the first 8 hours.

Writing helps you interrogate your own thinking, and when you share your writing, you invite others to offer their perspective so you can refine your thinking. These vehicles are perfectly suited to experimentation and the development of your perspective:

• LinkedIn. LinkedIn posts have a short lifespan. However, they also have a high likelihood of engagement and great potential for building your network. This makes LinkedIn an excellent place to offer up ideas even when they aren’t fully formed and to invite and actively engage in discussion. Those types of posts have the potential to help you see your idea from a new perspective, thus refining your thinking, and are great ways to build relationships with others in your field.

• Newsletter. Email newsletters have a much shorter lifespan than LinkedIn posts, but go directly to people who have opted-in to receive your newsletter and are interested in what you have to say. You may choose to share ideas in which you have a great deal of confidence, or you may invite the recipients to test developing ideas with you. Because your newsletter community is easy to reach, you have plenty of opportunities to share your thinking as it evolves.

• Blog. As is the case with email newsletters, your blog is a platform you own and control, so it is more secure than sharing your ideas on social media. Blog posts have the longest lifespan and greatest flexibility because they can be revised, updated, or deleted at any time. You can also expand the lifespan of a blog post by repurposing it and intentionally sharing it over and over again. Because your blog can be accessed by anyone, you want to have confidence in the ideas you present at the time you present them. Think of each blog post as a snapshot of your thinking at a particular point in time.

Your blog and email newsletter serve as the foundation of your authority-building efforts and are enhanced by your presence on LinkedIn. Regardless of what other forms of writing you employ, make sure your foundation is solid and reinforced throughout your consulting career. A solid foundation will position you for future growth.

Second, write to build your network and authority.

As a mid-stage consultant, you have a strong point of view and experience-based expertise to share. You have an excellent reputation, a strong network, and a steady(ish) stream of projects. However, you may find that your reputation is confined to a small circle of clients and colleagues and your network lacks focus. You may also find that you are doing too much of the wrong kind of work.

This is when you want to consider writing for high-visibility publications.

A high-visibility publication is any publication that helps you achieve your business goals and allows you to share your ideas with an already-established audience populated by the people you most want to reach. Writing for these publications helps you share your message with more of the right people and expand your audience. It also provides social proof — the publication vetted you and decided you have something important to share with their readers. They recognized you as an expert in your field.

In most cases, your articles will be published online. These articles are similar to a blog post, with a long lifespan that can be expanded by promoting and repurposing the article again and again. It is rarely possible to update these articles, so you want to have confidence in the ideas you present. That being said, these articles are dated, and you can always stop sharing them when they no longer accurately reflect your thinking, and they will fade into obscurity.

Articles written for third-party publications are remarkably flexible business assets that offer readers a detailed examination of a very specific topic in a format that is easy to digest. In most cases, you can syndicate these articles, publishing the same piece on your blog with a link back to the original, thus reinforcing the foundation of your reputation-building effort. Unlike your blog and email newsletter, however, writing articles for high-visibility publications gives you access to an already-established audience, making it easier to build your network.

Third, write to share your hard-earned wisdom

As an established consultant, you have a strong point of view, extensive experience, and a reputation as an authoritative expert and leading thinker in your field. Your sphere of influence is vast, and your network includes other recognized experts, clients, and emerging leaders. As you start to transition from a mid-stage consultant to an established consultant, consider writing a book to share your hard-earned wisdom.

While you may choose to write a book earlier in this process, keep in mind that writing and promoting a book requires a significant investment of time, money, and effort. You want to undertake that effort when you can afford to focus your attention on your book — when your pipeline is full and you don’t need to worry about where your next project will come. Writing a book can be a fun distraction, when what you really need to do is the hard work of business development.

You don’t need to write a book to build a successful consultancy.

If you do write a book, the return on your investment will probably not come in the form of book sales. Your book is much more valuable as a marketing asset than as a stream of income.

As a published author, you will be seen as an authoritative expert simply by virtue of the fact that you have published a book. If that book stands on its own merits, your reputation as an authoritative expert will be confirmed. If the book lacks insight or is poorly written, it could damage your reputation — at least with those who read it.

A book is a stable marketing asset, and it must stay relevant and resonant over time to be valuable. You have a better chance of writing a book that holds up over time and opens the door to more opportunities if you have an established audience and a solid reputation. Use articles — published on your blog or in high-visibility publications — to test and refine your ideas and make sure they stand the test of time.

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To learn more about how articles and books work together, download my infographic on The Relationship Between Articles and Books.

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Articles and books work very well together. Don’t be afraid to start with articles and use the articles you’ve written as a foundation for your book. Not only is it easier to write a 750 to 1,250 word article than it is to write a 35,000 to 65,000 word book, but those articles can help you build your audience for the book you intend to write.

Once your book is published, you can repurpose your research and writing into published articles that continue to build your audience and generate further excitement for your book. Breaking each chapter of your book into articles is a great way to repurpose your book and reinforce the foundation of your reputation-building effort.

The first step is simple.

No matter where you are in your consulting career, writing will help you build your authority, increase your visibility, and reach the right audience. Whether you focus on your blog, write for high-visibility publications, or start work on a book depends in large part on your current priorities and whether you have a solid foundation in place.

Writing never goes to waste. Even when your writing is not published, writing helps you think deeply and improves your ability to communicate highly complex ideas. Sharing those ideas allows you to refine them even further.

Are you ready to take the first step?

Just write.

And if you’d like some extra support, consider joining the Writing Practice community.

Before you pitch your idea for an article or column, you need to select the publications that will help you reach your goals. Hundreds of influential blogs, trade journals, and business magazines seek contributed content. And each one has a different set of guidelines.

You may have a few publications on your list already. Some of the most popular publications include Harvard Business Review, Entrepreneur, and Inc. These are well-respected, prestigious publications with loyal audiences. So they should be on your list of publications to consider. But don’t be surprised if not all of these publications stay on your list — or that none is your top choice.

You want to be recognized as an authoritative expert, and you want to raise your profile by publishing articles that build your authority and increase your visibility. But to be effective, your pitch strategy must be grounded in research and a deep understanding of your goals and objectives.

Create your pitch strategy by answering these five questions.

​Writing articles for third-party publications is one way to share your ideas with a broader audience, demonstrate your credibility, and cultivate your community. But knowing which publication to pitch requires you to think more deeply about your goals. To create your publication roadmap, answer these five questions:

1. What is your primary purpose for publishing on third-party platforms?

Are you publishing articles on third-party platforms because you want to promote your business and inspire readers to signup for your newsletter, download a resource, or register for a webinar? Or are you publishing articles for the links to your website that improve your SEO (search engine optimization)? Or are you publishing articles to share your expertise, build your authority, and increase your visibility? You may be publishing articles for all three of these reasons, but what is your primary purpose?

Knowing your purpose helps you establish filters so you can choose the right publication. For example, if your primary purpose is to improve SEO or inspire readers to signup for your newsletter, you want to look for publications that allow you to have a contributor bio and backlink at the bottom of each article you write. Entrepreneur and Inc. only offer a simple byline with a link to your author page. But Harvard Business Review includes a contributor bio and backlink at the bottom of each piece.

2. Whom do you want to read your articles?

Who is your primary audience for your articles? Are you writing to connect with prospective clients, colleagues, or industry leaders? What publications does your intended audience read regularly? If you’re trying to connect with prospective clients, you might want to consider industry trade journals and association blogs.

3. What do you want to write about?

Do you want to share your insights and expertise? Or do you want to interview other experts and incorporate their perspectives into your articles? Writing for a third-party publication can help you secure an interview with people you admire, but not every publication welcomes these types of profile pieces. Entrepreneur prioritizes your stories and lessons learned. They allow you to quote other experts, but only if they are well-known business leaders. Other publications, including Inc., are more flexible and are happy to accept actionable and informative profile pieces, so long as they are not overly promotional.

4. How often do you want to publish articles?

Do you want to publish articles regularly or more sporadically? Some publications request that you pitch an idea for a column. For example, Inc. asks contributors to make a six-month commitment and encourages them to publish an article every two weeks. Entrepreneur also allows you to have a column, but you don’t need to establish a schedule. Harvard Business Review requires you to pitch each piece individually.

It’s worth noting that while most publications require original content, content that has never been published to your blog or another outlet, many allow you to republish your article (with a link back to the original) after a short waiting period. Keep this in mind as you seek to balance writing for publication with writing for your blog, newsletter, and social media.

5. How many publications do you want to be affiliated with?

Do you want to write for one publication? Or do you want to write for several publications? Or would you prefer a hybrid approach, where you write primarily for one publication but occasionally pitch articles to others? Finding the right balance can be tricky. Pitching articles takes time, and not everyone enjoys the process. So choose a strategy that fits your personality and plays to your strengths.

Once you’ve answered these questions, you can create a shortlist of publications for further consideration. You’ll want to study each of these publications closely, reading several articles and reviewing their contributor guidelines to determine which ones are a good fit. You’ll find that each publication has a particular personality — a voice and tone that is unique to that publication. Industry leaders, colleagues, and prospective clients will make assumptions about you based on your affiliation with a publication. Your reputation is the most critical asset you have in this business, so make sure you protect it.