Month: September 2022

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Create a cosy home with beautiful scent

Guest blog by Jules Baines of Just Jules - create a cosy home with beautiful scent

Autumn is definitely on it’s way and, even if you love it, it brings the kind of weather that makes you want to stay inside in the warm. You can make your home cosy with soft furnishings, but why not go further? Filling your home with scent adds to the atmosphere. You can lift your mood or make your bathroom feel like a luxury spa. Here’s how you can make your home cosy with scent.

Wax melts

If you’ve never tried wax melts before, you might be wondering how they work. They’re created in a similar way to candles, with wax poured into a mould. I fragrance mine with essential oils to give them a subtle and natural scent. You use them by placing a single melt into an oil burner and then lighting a tea light underneath. They gradually melt, creating a background scent that changes the whole atmosphere of your room.

Melts are a good choice if you prefer not to look at a naked flame. Most burners have a solid side so you can turn them and have the candle facing away from you. They’re also ideal if you sometimes find the scent of candles overpowering as they’re very subtle. The wax melts and stays in the burner so you can relight the candle and reuse them once or twice too.

Candles

You don’t need me to explain what a candle does. I think they’re ideal for creating a cosy atmosphere. They give a more powerful scent than wax melts so one scented candle will be plenty to fragrance your whole room. If you love the light that a candle produces you could cluster your scented candle together with some unfragranced ones to create a beautiful display. Candles can be a lovely feature even when they’re unlit, particularly if you choose containers that fit the style of your home. I always find candlelight so calming, even meditative, so they’re perfect to help you wind down at the end of a busy day.

It’s important to choose good quality candles. The best candles will give you a clean burn and a pleasant fragrance. My candles are made with 100% vegetable wax of soya, rapeseed and palm, mixed with pure essential oil. They’re also packaged in a metal container, which looks great. I avoid glass containers as there can be safety issues.

Choosing the right fragrance

Creating a lovely ambience with scent depends on choosing the right fragrance. There’s a huge array of scents you can choose from. I use my candles in my own home and have different fragrances for different rooms. They become part of the overall feel. I find myself grouping candles into upstairs and downstairs fragrances. The range includes everything from fresh citrus scents to an evocative musk.

I love using lime and ginger in the kitchen. It’s a fresh scent that tones down cooking smells while also complementing them. (I also think that my rhubarb and ginger candles and melts smell like pudding!) If you’d like to create a spa feel in your bathroom Moroccan Rose or Black Oud are ideal choices. Black Pomegranate is perfect for a bedroom and has quite a masculine scent. You can experiment with different fragrances in different rooms to decide what works for you and your lifestyle.

Can I help you to make your home cosy with scent? Call me on 0789 446 4098 or visit https://www.justjules-jewellery.co.uk/

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Why you still need to write marketing content

Image shows a woman with black fingernails and a 'be happy' mug using a pen to write marketing content in her notebook.

When it comes to marketing, video is everything, right? You might be getting amazing results on TikTok and Instagram is showing Reels to more people than static images. Why would you need written content when you can put everything you want to say into a video? It won’t surprise you to hear that I think you still need to write marketing content. Here’s why.

Social media doesn’t belong to you

Social media platforms are amazing marketing tools and definitely need to be part of your strategy. The trouble is, I’ve seen too many people who only use social media and find themselves with a massive hole in their marketing because they get hacked or banned.

When you have an email list or website, you’re in control because it belongs to you. You can use video but you’ll get better results by using good writing as well.

Sometimes you need more depth

Social media videos need to be short and snappy to hold people’s attention. They can still help you to build a relationship with your audience, but what about the times when they need more than that?

Sometimes you need to write a long post to go in-depth on a subject to help your audience understand what you offer or how you help them. That’ll work better on your website, not just because there won’t be room in a social media caption, but because your audience will be more willing to read.

Your audience might just like reading

Believe it or not, some people prefer to get their information by reading. They might avoid videos because they find the sound intrusive or want to absorb something at their own pace.

There’s also the fact that you can’t skim-read a video. If your audience is looking for a quick answer to a question they can probably find it in a couple of minutes by skimming a blog post. Your one-minute Reel might give them what they need but they’re less likely to search on social media in the first place. By using a mixture of content types you can talk to a wider range of people.

Written content is good for SEO

If you want to rank highly in a Google search, you need words. Google’s search bots can’t scan videos and rely on your written content to decide where your site should rank. Even YouTube likes a reasonably long description to help your video rank.

Having a wide variety of keywords on different platforms will help your content rank more highly so your ideal customers have a better chance of finding you in a search and other content creators are more likely to link to your site.

Writing can help you to make sales

If you have a low-cost product that your customers will buy on a whim, a short video will probably get you some sales. You’ll get even more if you’ve already built a relationship with your audience so they know they can trust you and they’ll get something good for their money.

That starts to change if your product or service costs more. People are less likely to take a chance so you need to make sure they’ve got all the information they need. When you write that down you help them to refer back, check details and then decide. There’s also a chance that they’ll take written content more seriously than a video.

Don’t have the time or the inclination to write your own content? If you want some help writing in a way that speaks your customers’ language, let’s have a chat.

Alternatively, if you’d like to get blogging and content writing hints and tips straight to your inbox every month, subscribe using the form below. I’m a vegetarian so I hate spam and you can unsubscribe any time you like.

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Does grammar even matter anymore?

The image shows a woman in a black t-shirt writing on a notepad, probably wondering if her grammar is OK.
Photo by picjumbo.com: https://www.pexels.com/photo/person-holding-blue-ballpoint-pen-writing-in-notebook-210661/

Every so often, a conversation will crop up in my social media feed about grammar. The person writing the post wants to know how much we all care about it and whether mistakes bother us. Aren’t we all talking more informally now? Does grammar even matter anymore? Here’s what I think.

Your audience matters

When I write my content, I’ll be thinking about you. Not in a weird way, of course. I’ll think about how you balance running a business with everything else in your life and the marketing challenges you might face. It’s the same when I write for my clients. The type of language I use depends on who we’re talking to.  It’s not so different to having a conversation when you think about it.  A chat with your friends is very different to a meeting with the bank manager.

Think about the kind of person you’re talking to and what image you want to put across. Do you need to be professional but approachable? Could you have a chat with your customers over a cuppa?

Speech vs writing

It can be easy to get the right tone when you’re speaking but writing it down can prove a bit more difficult though.  I’ve often advised people to record themselves speaking if they’re struggling to write. The trouble is, they often find that their sentences suddenly look wrong on paper.  We start to wonder whether that word is spelt right or if there should be an apostrophe somewhere.

I’ll admit that I’m a grammar pedant. Even if my clients are relaxed about grammar, I want to get it right. Having said that, there are times when bending the rules can make your message more effective because it’s the sort of language your audience would use. At the same time, I’m not going to judge anyone for getting it wrong. I know some highly intelligent and creative people who struggle with grammar and spelling. In the grand scheme of things, it’s more important to get the message across. 

When does grammar matter?

There are forms of communication where every comma matters.  Legal and financial documents must be precise.  They have a language all their own.

It’s important to strike a balance.  Say, for example, you’re a financial adviser who wants to start a blog.  You need to create the right impression.  You’re intelligent, experienced and (most importantly) you know what you’re talking about.  However, none of that will matter if your potential customers don’t understand a word you’re saying.  Your tone needs to be formal but accessible.

If you’re a mum making baby clothes to sell to other mums, they’ll still want to hear about the quality of the product but your tone can be much more conversational.  You’re having a chat with someone who shares your experiences.

Listen to people talk

Conversations are going on all around you.  Some involve you, others don’t.  If you want to start tailoring your language to your audience, start listening to how people speak.  You can start with your customers and the people you meet at networking events but eavesdropping can help too. Think about how the language you hear in a business-focused setting differs from the conversations you overhear in coffee shops or on public transport.  Ask yourself whether the person you can hear could be a potential customer. Different groups of people have very different speech patterns and learning about them can help you to write for your audience.

Is grammar important to you? If you want some help writing in a way that speaks your customers’ language, let’s have a chat. Alternatively, use the form below to receive writing and marketing tips straight to your inbox every month. I won’t share your details with anyone else and you can unsubscribe whenever you like.