At a recent Tammy’s Table meeting we were discussing newsletters, social media and blog posts and lamenting on how much time it all took. Running a business isn’t the same as it was 20 years ago. We don’t pay to advertise somewhere and just wait for the phone to ring. Gone are the days where you could just make the product or do the service. We now need to be content creators and tech wizards to reach and snap up the customers and clients needed to stay in business.
It’s exhausting, and it sucks sometimes, but it won’t be going back to simpler times so we have to be smarter about it. Here is some great tips on multitasking your content to get the most out of your time and effort.
WordPress is a blogging platform even though MANY uses don’t use it as such. If you’re already using WordPress as your website platform then use the Posts section instead of the Pages section and just start typing away. You might need to get your website developer involved to have the Blog page added to the menu or to have the latest articles automatically being added to your font page but its generally pretty easy to DIY once you get these things setup.
Wix and Squarespace also have systems to add blogging to your website. I don’t use those platforms at all as a WordPress purist so I have no tips or advice on how to get it going but Google and YouTube are your friends.
There are other website platforms that I have not talked about, adding blogs to them might be harder but still doable if you’re not interested in changing to a simpler system. There is also other blogging platforms that are seperate form your website that you could utilise if you don’t have a current website to add to. However I would only use this temporarily to get yourself started because giving your traffic to another website other then your own is a waste of your resources long term (I want to write another blog post of this subject, stay tuned!)
You probably already have a lot of content, but you just don’t see the worth it in. Before starting the big journey of writing blog posts, consider what you have already that can be reused, expanded or combined.
Newsletters – If you have written articles or advice for a newsletter, copy and paste it into a blog post. You can add to it now or later if you want to make it longer. It doesn’t need to be perfect, it just needs to be done. What you can do in the future is include your blog posts in your newsletter. For example you might write an article about cats for your newsletter. You can put an excert in the newsletter (a few paragraphs) and then a “read more” link to the blog post with the full article. You can then add links to some complementary articles.
Social Media – I’m not talking about short “look at me” type of posts. Have a look through your feed and see if you have posts sharing information or advice. You can combine a few into a blog post, or you can start some short blog posts and stretch them out later. You can then repost your social media content and send them back to your website to read more.
Emails – It’s amazing how many times you say the same thing to the same client. The number of times I have said “you are not your ideal client!” is NUTS so I made a blog post on it! Have a look through your sent emails, have you been explaining things multiple times? Have you be sharing the same information with your clients? Could you turn that information into a blog post and next time you just include the link to a reply email. Or add the link to your FAQ to interupt the email chain.
Coming up with things to blog about can be challenging, but that’s mostly because you are other thinking it. Yep I said it!
Consider your ideal client, what will help them have more faith in your business? Being an expert in your field provides social proof and what better way to show that you’re an expert then by helping your clients out! Yes for FREE!
If you’re a makeup artist, write a post about the benefits of cleaning their make up brushes. If you’re a naturopath, write an article about the benefit of a certain family of vegetables. If you’re a real estate agent, write an article about how to dress your house up for sale. This information isn’t new, there so many articles about these things online, so you’re not really giving anything away that they can’t already get themselves from searching. But write it in your language, add some more personal opinions and have it available for your customers to access so it keeps them coming back to you.
Take a good look at some of the activities in your calender. What things have you read or studied? Is there a topic or trend that you are loving, or hating? Can you write about them in a way to increase the interest and trust in your brand? Try some of these:
Are you one of those people who schedules your social media content a month in advance? Or do you wing it when you have the time or the brain power for it? Either way, include blogging into your normal rhythm so it’s easier for you.
Posting to your website regularly works best for your SEO, but it doesn’t mean you need to write regularly. You can write many of them in one sitting and then schedule the release, just like you do with your social media.
Your blog posts don’t always have to be the same format. For an informative post, aim for around 1000 – 1500 words. A shorter update post would be around 600 – 800 words. You can have a post with all text, or you can add images and links. Mixing it up actually makes it more enjoyable to do.
If you write a blog post which is about 1000 words, you probably have 5-10 social media posts worth of already written content. Take out small snippets from your blog and do reels and posts with that content.
Knowing how to do it is only part of the process. Knowing why is important too. When the topics get harder to find and the mood to write dries up, knowing why you are doing it will motivate you to keep going.
Keywords make the world go round. Like really. Google and other search engines use the words from your website to evaluate and score the page before delivering the results to the searcher. Blog posts about a certain topic would generally use the keyword and many related to it multiple times. While my home page doesn’t list the word SEO, I still get hits to my website for people searching SEO because I have blog posts about it which list the keyword multiple times. I have the word SEO in sentences and headers, normal and bold, in the top half of a page and all throughout.
Think about what keywords you want people to search for to lead them to your website. Write articles that include that keyword. And you don’t need to write articles that include ALL of your chosen keywords. Concentrate on one or two per article. Writing posts that include your location or nearby locations are also really great for reaching your target client.
And using the same theory, if you don’t want people to find your website using certain keywords, then try to avoid it. Back in the day when I and I had a wedding floristry business, I did not want people to find me by searching for “cheap wedding florist” so you wouldn’t find the word cheap anywhere on my website.
Adding new content to your website regularly also helps your website appear more current then one that has no regular changes.
Often newbies in a business protect all their knowledge, they are afraid someone will take that knowledge and start their own business with it instead of engaging them. They don’t want to give it away for free. But experts don’t care, because they are successful enough to know giving away some of their knowledge won’t hurt their business.
Sharing your knowledge also shows that you have the knowledge and experience to have a successful business. It’s social proof that you know what you are talking about, making you a business that people show engage with.
Realistically there isn’t much information that doesn’t exist somewhere on the internet already. There are a million videos on how to buy a vinyl cutter and make your own t-shirts, yet business selling these products still exist and are still making decent profits. Some people love DIY, some people don’t have time, some just would rather throw money at something for it to be done by someone better. If someone wants to do something themselves, they are going to engage your business anyway.
Now this one won’t instantly apply to every business type, but it’s something to open your mind up to and consider adding to your future.
Advertising – Adsense with Google is the most common. You place banners and links on your page, which your readers may click on. It’s small but is adds up, especially if you combine it with other methods.
Affiliate marketing – there are many type of affiliate campaigns you can join. You can go about this two different ways:
Digital Products – Can you create something that might help your clients? Some popular choices are worksheets, guides, journals, courses and ebooks. You make it once and sell it over and over again.
Physical Products – Do you have something that you can sell to your clients? Link them into your blog posts if they are relevant. There is many POD business that you could utilise if you want to have products available to your clients but don’t want to keep stock and do postage (Blog post – What is POD and can it help my business? – see what I did there!)
Sponsorship – now this is the rare one. Don’t count on this making you rich because you really have to already have a popular and successful business with a big reach to even be considered for this opportunity. But getting sponsored by businesses to make content or write reviews can be lucrative if you ever get that chance!
You don’t need to be an author to write blog posts. There is lots of resources out there to help you (even the dreaded AI) but make sure you write it in your voice so that you connect with your audience in an authentic way.
Blogging can help you save time by having content that you can refer to and link in email, private message and social media posts. Even more if you use the content in multiple ways like social media and newsletters.
Being knowledgable in your field is never a bad thing. Help your clients or customers feel safe in the decision to engage with your business.
Just do it. Give it a go. If it succeeds or fails, write a blog post about it anyway! But trying something different is almost always more successful than doing nothing. I’d love to hear about your blogging journey, shoot me through your page if you give it a go 🙂
