Being visible to your ideal customer is what your marketing strategy should be all about. It’s all part of that “Know, Like and Trust” relationship building process. But as a new business owner or freelancer how do you find the time to consistently show up for your audience and deliver valuable content which resonates with them? Publishing content which your ideal customer can easily find and digest is crucial to building your brand awareness and reputation as an expert and trusted advisor in your field. Content such as blogs are a fantastic way to speak to your audience. Often we hear our clients say “I haven’t got the time to write a blog.”, or “I just don’t know what to write about.” Well, we are going to show you how to organise your blogs so you can easily plan, create and publish them without getting stuck or overwhelmed.
The Planning
You know we both love working in time-blocks. The best way to feel in control of your content creation is to have time set aside in your calendar. Give yourself the space to write and develop your unique and valuable content without the pressure of trying to squeeze in this important task amongst other things on your to-do list. There is nothing better than giving yourself a few hours to get into the content creation zone. It’s the perfect way to develop and organise your blogs. Ensure you are in a place where you can think and write without interruption. Set up your workspace to help you find inspiration and a creative flow. What makes you happy and helps you get in the zone? Set yourself up in a place that you love working in. Start the session with your favourites – water, coffee, music, a candle, chocolate(!), a clear desk, pen, paper, whatever works for you.
ACTION
Look at your calendar right now – Block out half a day each month to spend writing your blogs for the following month/quarter. Make it a non-negotiable. Content creation is part of your marketing strategy and essential to building your brand awareness and growing your business.
Choosing Your Topic
When it comes to writing your blog, sometimes it’s hard to find the inspiration. A good idea is to have a Google doc where you can braindump ideas for future blogs. Always have in mind what your audience would find the most valuable and interesting right now. Remember it’s not about you! It’s about your ideal customer. By writing content that your audience enjoys and looks forward to reading, you are establishing yourself as a leading authority in your industry.
ACTION
Start a Google doc titled ‘Working Blogs’. Break down the content you want to share with your audience into categories. You can then add your blog topics to these categories as you think of them. This will give you a fantastic foundation to your blog planning for the whole year! Consider the following ideas when coming up with a topic to write about:
- Frequently asked questions from your customers
- Different ways that your ideal customer can work with you
- Case studies, customer interviews and success stories
- Get personal! Your backstory, mentors, influencers, business plans and behind-the-scenes snippets
- The products/offers you sell and the solutions you give to your customers
- Industry insights, reviews, opinions and news
- Any relevant events/festivals/seasonal/Awareness Days
TOP TIP
Make sure you use your tone of voice, the language your customers use and keywords and phrases relevant to your industry. All these things make your blog authentic, more readable and more searchable!
Your Blog Framework
You want to explain in the first paragraph what your blog is about and why the reader must keep reading! No matter what the topic, you need to incorporate a problem your ideal customer has and a solution for them. Ensure you have some keywords within those first couple of sentences.
Readers like to hear stories of people like them. You need to show them you sympathise with their problems but you also have the solution. Give examples of other happy customers. Explain how working with you can make their feelings change from X to Y. People like numbers! For example –
- How to Work With Me in 3 Easy Steps
- 7 Ways you can stop feeling X and start feeling Y
- 10 Top Tips for XYZ
- 3 Mistakes (your ideal customer) Must Avoid
- 5 Things you can do now to ***
As humans we process visual content much faster than text-based content. That’s why taking the time to source/create stand out images will help pull in your reader and can help boost your engagement. (We have a fab resource of professional free-image websites as part of our Content Creation guide here).
TOP TIP
Do a quick google search. Find out what the optimum image size is for your blog featured image and also the smaller images you share within the text. Make a note of the image sizes on your Working Blogs doc. Resize your photos using Canva.
Have a Call To Action within the blog. What do you want the reader to do once they have read your article? Ideally you would like them to give you their email address in exchange for something of use to them (ie a Lead Magnet that you offer), but you can also ask them to do something like:
- “Follow me on Instagram”
- “Email me with your comments”
- “Share this with a friend who you think might be interested”
- “Click on this link for more info” (this could be another blog)
- “Join my newsletter here”
How To Promote
Once your blog is written, your images have been sourced, a feature photo has been chosen and you have loaded it all on to your website (remember to take the time to optimise your SEO with keywords, phrases and metadata), you now need to make sure you fully optimise the reach of your content. Here’s where you need to make sure you are promoting your blog and pushing people to your website:
Send a newsletter to your email list with a link to your blog and a reason why people need to go and read it right now! (We always alert our email list to new content before anyone else …. After all they have actively signed up to hear our news!).
Announce the new blog on any Facebook Groups that you run.
You can publish a shorter version of your blog in a LinkedIn Article and post about it on your feed too.
Post a link to your blog on your Facebook Page. You can do this a couple of times over a two week period. Just alter the copy that goes with the link to mix it up a little.
You can direct your Twitter followers to your new content multiple times over a 2-3 week period.
We recommend scheduling 3-4 Instagram posts over the next two week pointing people to your blog. These posts can be broken down into:
- A quote from the blog
- A statistic from the blog
- A question pointing your reader to the answer within your blog
- A snippet – which details a problem and the answer with the promise of more valuable information in the blog.
If there are Facebook Groups that you belong to you may well find a weekly post which gives you the opportunity to share your blog.
Go one step further and share news of your blog post on your IG Stories and Reels.
Create some Pins and add to your Pinterest Boards.
TOP TIP
Think about the different types of visuals you can use on your social media. Resize the feature image, use a quote from your blog, create an infographic on Canva.
ACTION
Make up a spreadsheet or checklist for each Blog you create. List where you will promote it. Tick off when you have scheduled these posts etc.
And There’s More
As part of our online course Systemise Your Content Marketing – we cover blogs in one of our modules. We share with you how to create the perfect blog, how to repurpose your blog to make the most of your unique content. We also give you blog title ideas which will entice your reader to click to read more!
Our Free Resource Just For You
If you are a new business owner, freelancer or entrepreneur who needs to be more visible with your digital marketing we can help! If you need to write a blog, but you’re stumped for ideas on what to write let us relieve your writer’s block and get you a few social posts and a newsletter in the bank too! Click here to download our fab free resource – Plan, Create and Schedule Your Digital Marketing Content in 3 Easy Steps. It’s the quickest way to get your blog writing and other content marketing organised, written and scheduled!
Nina & Sarah xx
