Marketing success isn’t just about how good your message is. It’s about catching your audience at the right time and in the right mood. If you think about what season it is and what’s happening in their lives you can include references to the things you can help with at the right time. Here’s my handy guide to help you write your blog to suit the season (and bring the rest of your content in line too).
Your customers
When you’re planning your marketing, think about your customers first. If you want your message to resonate it needs to be targeted (for more on that, read this. When you know who you’re talking to you can identify the things they’ll be thinking about at any given time of year. If your customer is a mum with her own business she’ll be thinking about Christmas in terms of the family logistics, present buying and school activities. She’ll also be wondering how she’s going to market her business in the run up, particularly if Christmas is peak sales time. Other times of year will bring different concerns and understanding that helps you to talk to your customer in a way that makes sense.
Blog topics
I use blogs as the central point in my marketing. You can choose a suitable theme that relates to your business and the time of year. I talk about blogging and writing all year round, but I sometimes have topics that I can tailor to suit the season and you will too. For example, a travel agent could talk about their top 5 family summer breaks then top 5 skiing holidays later in the year. Winter skincare is going to be different from summer so you can write different blogs for each.
Of course, not every blog has to be seasonal. Even if a blog isn’t talking about a specific occasion you can schedule it to suit what’s going on with your customers. For example, I might write a piece on learning to blog to go out in September when the kids are back at school and there’s time to focus on the business.
Planning ahead
I plan my overall marketing a few months in advance, then work out the details a month or two before I send it out. It’s also worth thinking about when your customers will need your help. I started talking about Christmas marketing in July. I know, ridiculously early, but if my customers want my help with their Christmas campaign that’s the ideal time to start. I can still help further down the line but it makes things a bit more stressful. If your customers won’t want to hear about Christmas until December, you can adjust the timetable.
I use my blog posts to inspire as many of my other social media posts as possible. (Read this blog to find out why.) Of course, that doesn’t mean that I don’t do posts about specific services, I just make sure that they fit with what I’ve been talking about for the rest of the month. Doing it this way means that I can schedule as much as possible in advance so I’m not panicking about what I’m posting.
So, if you want to try working seasonally, here’s how to do it:
- Work out what your customers will be thinking
about at different times of year. - Plan your blog topics a few months in advance to
talk about those topics. - Plan the rest of your marketing posts around
your blogs.
If you haven’t thought about your Christmas marketing yet, there’s still time. Sign up to my mailing list and receive your free copy of ‘Your complete guide to Christmas content’. I won’t spam your inbox or share your information with anyone else.
One of the many benefits of writing a blog (if you want to know the others read this) is that it helps your future customers get to know you. You can talk to them about the stuff they’re interested in like a human being rather than a corporate cardboard cut-out. A lot of people love the idea of buying from a small business but they’re wary of being ripped off. The end result is that they go and buy something from a reliable big name brand and not you. A blog helps you to overcome that by letting them see the person behind the business. Of course, the downside of this is that you have to put yourself front and centre. The idea of sharing your story is all very well but what if there are still parts of your life that you want to protect? The good news is that you can write a blog and still maintain your privacy. You just need to follow a few simple steps.
This week has a bit of an end of an era feeling for me. I’d only been in business for about 6 months when a friend got in touch to ask if I’d do some consultancy work for her. She worked in the legal department for a large company and they needed some support as one of the team was on maternity leave. It had left a gap that my expertise could fill. It was one day a week for about 6 months or so, which meant I could still build my business and work around my family.
I’m generally not a fan of stating the bleeding obvious. I don’t like it when people talk down to me so there’s no way I’m going to do it to anyone. The trouble is, sometimes it leads me to credit people with knowledge that they don’t already have. This is not a criticism. When you’re a small business owner there’s a massive amount of stuff to learn. Even if marketing is towards the top of your list of things to get to grips with, the benefits of writing a blog could still be a long way down. If that’s the case for you, here’s why a blog could do wonders for your business.
Every so often you get a little flurry of articles about blogging and they all ask a variation on the same question. Yup, you guessed it. ‘Is blogging dead?’ Now, obviously I have a bit of a vested interest here. Writing blogs is a core part of my business so if everyone suddenly decides that blogs aren’t worth bothering with I might have a bit of a panic. Only a small one though. My granny was a farmer’s daughter and always taught me never to put all my eggs in one basket, so I do 
If you’re a larger organisation it can be easy to think of marketing as part of someone else’s job description. It’s easy to understand why. If your business has invested in employing marketing professionals why not rely on them to do the heavy lifting? Leave the marketing training sessions to small business, sole traders and network marketing companies. The truth is that even when marketing isn’t your primary responsibility it doesn’t mean that you can’t play your part. After all, as far as your customers are concerned, every employee represents your brand. The question is, what do you need your team to do and what marketing training do they need?
Businesses come in all shapes and sizes, from the sole trader working at home to massive multinationals. The main differences in their marketing strategies tend to come down to budget. If you’re a one person business you’re unlikely to be able to afford to plaster your message on a city centre billboard or nab an ad slot in the middle of ‘Coronation Street’. On the other hand, creating written content is accessible to everyone. Any business can create a blog, but a lot of the people I talk to tell me that they don’t need to as they’re already writing articles. The fact is, while there are similarities they aren’t the same thing. Here’s why.
When you first start marketing your business it’s all trial and error. You might find that one post is a hit then something similar completely flops. Over time you can start to build up a picture of what your audience responds to and where your customers are coming from. Of course, it’s never quite that simple. Your customers’ needs change over time and external trends have a big part to play in that. Sometimes it’s hard to tell what’s having an impact on your business and what changes you might need to adapt to in the future. Getting a fresh perspective on your marketing content can help you to stay relevant and grow your business. Here’s why.
There’s a world of difference between wanting to start a blog and actually doing it. You might like the idea but when it comes to it you don’t know what to write. Perhaps you’re looking at your already packed schedule and wondering where on earth you’re going to fit it in. Maybe you’ve even tried writing your first blog and got stuck. You spend hours on it and get nowhere or think what you’ve written is rubbish. Sometimes all you need to get started is a bit of education. Thankfully there are lots of different ways that you can learn about blogging. Here are just a few.