blogging Archives - Page 8 of 9 - Kirsty France Writes

Posted on 13th May 2019 by Kirsty France — Leave a comment

Why you need to keep your marketing tone consistent

marketing tone consistent This is another one of those subjects where I’ll forgive you for reading the title and saying huh? The question should really be – when you look back over the blogs and social media posts you’ve written, do they all sound like you? When you keep things consistent you’ll get better results from your marketing and your life will get easier.

Getting to know you

The phrase ‘know, like and trust’ comes out of my mouth with alarming regularity. That’s because it’s one of the key things you should focus on as a small business owner. It’s rare for people to see an advert or a post and respond immediately. Generally speaking, you need to build a relationship with your audience.

You’re probably already well aware of the importance of consistent visual branding. Using the same colours and fonts makes it easy for your customers to spot you in their news feed. It’s the same with your copy. People stop and read because they know what to expect. If your posts are generally chatty and fun a sudden run of bland and boring ones will be a real turn off.

Easy outsourcing

Do you have brand guidelines? That sounds very formal, but it doesn’t have to be. It’s basically having a strong sense of how you want to come across. I use the same colours throughout my marketing and choose images that I hope my audience will like. I also aim to write in quite a natural and friendly way. All of my guidelines are in my head but if I was working with a graphic designer it would be quite easy for me to brief them on the style I’m aiming for. They could also get a pretty good idea from looking at my social media feeds.

You might not be ready to outsource your design or writing to anyone else yet. But having a clear idea about how you want to come across will really help when you are ready. You can send a brief that says “I aim to appeal to professional women and want my copy to be chatty and friendly.” Simple, right?

Consistent shouldn’t = boring

The last thing you want is to send your customers to sleep. Just because they want to know what to expect from your posts doesn’t mean they all need to sound exactly the same. Just because you mostly talk about light hearted things it doesn’t mean you can’t throw in something serious now and again. If anything, it gives the serious stuff more impact.

You can keep things varied by telling your customers something surprising. Cover the same topic in different ways. If you find that all of your posts start with the same few words, try some different ones. As long as it still sounds like you, it’ll be fine.

Review your marketing

Are you good at keeping your tone consistent? To find out, one of the best things you can do is to review what you’ve already done. When you read your blogs or look through your social media feeds, do they all blend into one? Maybe you’ve gone in the opposite direction and everything sounds as if it was written by a completely different person. This can be a problem in bigger businesses where content is often written by lots of different people, but sometimes it can just depend on what mood you were in when you wrote it. When you’ve finished, think about how you actually want to sound. What will work for your audience?

If you’d like to get back to basics with your blogging and make it sound like you, no matter what you’re talking about, join me for my last ever blogging workshop on 4^th June. All of your refreshments are provided and you’ll have time to write so you’ll go home with a finished blog and a plan for more. Along with a renewed sense of your own ability to put your personality into your marketing. Click on the image to book your place!

How often should I blog?

how often blog It’s the million dollar question (well, probably). More importantly, it’s one of the number one reasons why people are put off writing a blog for their business. You probably already know about all of the benefits of blogging, like getting your customers to know, like and trust you, but somehow it keeps getting put to the bottom of the to do list.* If you’ve googled ‘how often should I blog?’ you may well have encountered articles that talk about putting a new blog post out once or twice a week. Yikes. The good news is, you don’t have to write a blog every week if you don’t want to. Here are some things to consider when you’re working out how often to blog.

*If your blog is at the bottom of the list because you don’t know where to start, click here to book your place on my last ever full day blogging workshop.

SEO

SEO is often one of the first things that gets mentioned in connection with blogging. It can also be a bit scary, so let’s get it out of the way early on. Blogging is great for boosting your search engine rankings because it gives you regular updates to your website. It encourages the Google spiders to index your site more frequently and helps it to be seen as relevant, so you’re more likely to turn up in a search. There isn’t a set definition about what ‘regular’ posting actually means, but the general consensus is about once a month.

It can help to give your blog posts some longevity too. If your blog turns up in searches people can still find it months or years after you wrote it. That means that you don’t have to post constantly to keep getting new visitors to your website.

Quality over quantity

One of the main objectives of blogging is to offer your audience something they’ll find useful so they see you as someone who knows what they’re talking about. You stand a much better chance of that happening if you give yourself the time to write a good quality post. If people read what you’ve written and enjoy it they’re much more likely to read the next one and the one after that. If you’ve churned out three or four posts without putting much thought into them, people won’t come back for more.

When you’re coming up with topics, think about the areas where you have something valuable to say. (If that sounds scary, read this blog or come along to my workshop.) If you write one blog post a month you only need 12 for the whole year.

Give yourself time

I sometimes feel as if marketing has taken over my life. Thankfully, I’ve now recognised that as a sign that I haven’t got myself organised. Winging it generally ends up with faffing and suddenly an afternoon’s gone with nothing to show for it. Planning ahead, whether it’s for the whole year, the next quarter or even a month at a time, gives you a focus. Then when you sit down to schedule your Facebook posts or write a blog you know exactly what you’re doing.

Only you will know how long it takes you to write a blog post. If you’re writing for the first time maybe block out an afternoon to focus on it. Then make it a regular thing. Put it in your diary once a month – if you’re busy and it’s too much you can reduce the frequency. Alternatively, if you have the funds you can always write a couple and outsource the rest.

If you’d like to learn more about blogging and develop some seriously good blogging skills of your own, join me for my full day workshop at Bawdon Lodge Farm on 4^th June. It’s the last one I’m doing so book now if you’re even remotely curious. Tickets are available here.

Posted on 29th April 201916th September 2021 by Kirsty France — Leave a comment

How I knew it was time to leave

I’ve been along to a few different networking groups since I started my business. You meet an incredible range of different people with all kinds of businesses. These days I find myself speaking to a lot of people who have a job and a side hustle. Some of them want to turn the side job into the main business and others just want a bit of extra money every month. It all means that I’m hearing more and more conversations about the right time to leave a job.

It’s a tough one. Even when you’re unhappy in your work a regular, predictable income is hard to leave behind. How do you decide where the tipping point is? I made the leap so want to tell you about the things that helped me make the decision. If you’re teetering on the brink of a new business adventure I hope they help you too.

The good (but not great) job

I used to be a solicitor. After university it took me a while to get a training post, via a couple of legal secretarial jobs which introduced me to the right people. I qualified as a personal injury solicitor and got a job with a national firm. My team represented the companies that had been sued.

I really enjoyed it to begin with. When you deal with personal injury claims you hear an interesting story every time a new file comes in. I got to know lots of different people and learn about what made them tick. It’s hard for me to pinpoint when the dissatisfaction started to set in. All I know is that by the time I went on maternity leave with my first child, I’d started to wonder whether I really wanted to do this work for the rest of my life. I had ambitions to be a novelist but saw that as a long term prospect at best.

Crisis point

When I returned from my second maternity leave a lot had changed. There had been reforms in the industry which had started to affect the day to day work. I had a meeting with two of the partners who told me that I needed to think about applying for promotion as I was too senior to carry on case handling as I had been. It would have meant managing financial targets and other members of the team. I’d half expected it but somehow it was still a shock.

I went home and sobbed. There was no way I wanted to be a manager. I’d mentored people before and hated it. It was time for me to find something else.

Time to leave

On reflection, the decision to leave was pretty easy. It was a choice between leaving or going through a rigorous application process for a promotion I didn’t want. My husband and I sat down and worked out that we could survive on his salary while I built a business. Even if I’d decided to build the business on the side I would still have looked at the budget. We worked out how much we needed to cover the essentials first, then the things that weren’t essentials but which we weren’t prepared to live without. It helped me to work out what my priorities were.

I suppose that’s the one golden nugget I want you to take from this story. If you’re making the leap, be realistic. How much do you actually need to live on and are you making it yet? Are you at a point where you can’t build your business any more without cutting your hours or leaving your job altogether?

Whatever decision you make, good luck! Let me know how it goes.

Posted on 30th April 2019 by Kirsty France — Leave a comment

How long does your blog need to be?

how long blog post Have you ever asked yourself that question? I hear it a lot and it’s often from people who are hesitant about blogging. I suspect that there are even more people who don’t ask how long their blog needs to be. They assume that they need to write ‘War and Peace’ for every blog post.

The truth is that the answer is ‘it depends’. Sorry if that makes me sound like a lawyer, old habits die hard. There are all sorts of things you need to take into account when you’re writing your blog and before you start each post. There are plenty of experts who’ll tell you that anything under 1,500 or 2,000 words isn’t worth doing as it doesn’t offer enough value. Personally, I disagree. Some posts do need to be that long, or even longer. It doesn’t mean they all do. Here are just a few of the things I think you need to think about when you’re deciding on a word count for your blog.

What’s achievable for you?

Starting a blog is a steep learning curve. When your blog isn’t the main focus of your business you need to fit it in around all your other priorities. There’s no point spending hours slaving over a blog if it means you’re turning away paying customers. It’s also going to get exhausting very quickly.

Writing a regular blog can boost your search engine rankings as Google will index your website much more frequently. The key word is regular – there’s no point writing one or two then letting it fizzle out because you don’t have time. Google likes anything over 350 words (although there are rumours that might change). It’s far better to write a short blog once a month and keep it going.

What’s the subject?

The length of your blog will often depend on the topic you’re covering. I always suggest breaking topics down so you can focus on one thing at a time. Focus on a narrower subject means that you don’t need to write a lot to do the topic justice. It also helps you to stay on track without getting overwhelmed.

Some subjects will still need a longer blog to make sure you cover everything. This is particularly true if you’re offering an in depth guide or describing a process step by step. Often it won’t feel as long because your readers are dipping in and out for reference or following the instructions.

Would a blog series be better?

If you’re covering a big topic in depth, think about breaking it down into a series. I wrote a series of blogs about blogging which covered everything from coming up with topics to the final edit. I could have written one big post but breaking it down made it feel more readable. It also meant that readers who were only interested in one part of the process didn’t have to wade through the rest.

Doing it that way meant that I was able to invite people to subscribe to my mailing list to get the full series. I might eventually turn it into an eBook as well. There’s nothing to stop you doing the same.

What will your audience read?

Of course, the key consideration has to be your audience and what they have time to read? Their needs can vary. They might want shorter blogs most of the time but something longer when they want to learn a new skill or research a topic in depth.

My blogs generally end up at around 500-600 words. That doesn’t just help me to cover the topic properly. I’ve had more than one reader tell me that they read my blogs when they’re drinking their tea. A 600 word blog is just the right length for that so it helps me attract readers. When it comes down to it, that’s the whole point of writing a blog.

Do you need some help and inspiration for your blogs and social media posts? When you sign up to my mailing list you’ll receive a free copy of my eBook ‘Stop hiding your business! 5 ways to be seen online’. You can unsubscribe whenever you like and I won’t share your information with anyone else.

Posted on 16th April 2019 by Kirsty France — Leave a comment

Why you need to know your customer

I’m going to say something that might make you go a bit twitchy. When you’re marketing your business you need to decide who you want to target then focus on them. It sounds fairly logical, doesn’t it? Yet small business owners everywhere get very nervous when they hear it. They say things like ‘but I might make someone feel excluded’, ‘what if I lose a customer because they don’t think it’s for them?’ or ‘but I can sell to anyone’. I understand the worry. As small business owners we need to work hard to attract new customers and build trust. The idea of putting people off just seems counterintuitive. However there’s another important factor to consider. We have limited time so we need to spend it wisely. When you get to know your customer you can do just that.

You can’t market to everyone

A lot of people get hung up on the idea that they can sell to anyone. Mainly because it’s true. You can sell to whoever you like, but it doesn’t mean you should market to everyone. The main issue with ‘everyone’ marketing is that it doesn’t actually speak to anyone. It just sounds bland, generic and boring.

Good marketing tells people that you can solve their problem or provide something that makes their life better. It gives them a lightbulb moment because they’ve finally found someone who not only understands their challenges, they have the solution as well. Potentially it can also have them knocking your door down begging you to take their money. When you get to know your customer you’re not excluding anyone, you’re just focusing on the people who really need you.

Know your customer

How do you get to know your customer? If you’ve got a few already that can make it easier. The product or service that you offer makes a difference too. Think about who you work with now, or who your repeat customers are. Are they male, female, old or young? Are they at a particular stage in their life where they need what you offer? You can also think about who you love working with. The customers who come back time after time because they love the service or the quality of your work. Are there any common features?

It also helps to think about what challenges you can help with, or what your customers aspire to. It helps to focus on what’s happening in their life generally. This can really help when you’re talking about something your customers may not have thought about before. For example, maybe you want to encourage people in their 40s or 50s to make a will. They might think they’re too young but they’ll almost certainly have something that they want to protect. Think about what those things are and your marketing will be much more effective.

Get to the details

Hopefully you’re starting to get a bit of insight into who your target audience are likely to be. You’ve probably got some idea about their gender and what age bracket they’re in. Depending on your business you might also have worked out a bit about their lifestyle, for example their income level, whether they’re homeowners or have children. Next, you need to think about the details.

I’m not a big believer in creating an overly specific profile for your ideal customer. By that I mean the sort of thing that says ‘my ideal customer is called Sophie, she’s 25, works in a shop and only drinks green tea.’ If that works for you, great, but it’s just a bit too detailed for me. However, there’s a lot to be said for working out what types of things your audience are interested in. Do they love fine dining or do they prefer takeaways? Out every weekend or in their pyjamas by 8pm? Who do they follow on social media? Is their parenting style #soblessed or #fml? (if you don’t already know what that stands for I’m not telling you…). Knowing all of this helps you to talk to your audience using language they can relate to which makes them more likely to trust you.

Posted on 8th April 2019 by Kirsty France — Leave a comment

How you can find blog topics at networking events

Blog topics networking There are three questions I always hear when I talk about blogging. One of them sometimes isn’t a question at all, just a statement. “I would write a blog but I don’t know what to write about.” (The other two questions are ‘how long does my blog need to be?’ and ‘how often should I be blogging?’ – we’ll get to those another time.) When it comes to finding topics for your blog, there are hundreds of different ways to go about it. I’ve written about a few in this blog, but this time I’m going to be focusing on how to find new blog topics when you’re networking.

Ah yes, networking. It can strike fear into the heart of a business owner who just wants to be left along to do the work. We’ve all heard the horror stories and probably experienced some as well. In a nutshell, the right networking group with events that suit you is a truly wonderful thing. You’ll meet people like you and get great support, as well as business and referrals along the way. It will also help you to come up with new blog topics. Here’s how.

Getting to know your customer

Networking lets you meet lots of other business owners and find out what makes them tick. If you’ve already identified the kinds of businesses you want to work with you can seek them out. You can find out what their challenges are but also learn more about their life in general. That helps you to get your marketing message where they’ll see it. You can also find out who would be a nightmare to work with so you can avoid them.

Knowing who you’re talking to helps you to choose more relevant blog topics.

Talking about what you do

I know that standing up in front of other people can be scary. It’s worth doing because you get to tell people what you do and how you can help them. I’ve stood up and talked about writing blogs for businesses in front of people who had no idea you could pay someone to do it for you. Equally, you’ll never get any business if people don’t know you exist.

Finding out what surprises people about your business means you can write a blog to educate them.

Hearing about challenges

Alongside the bits where everyone stands up and introduces themselves, there’s the more general chat. That’s where you get to find out what people are struggling with and what’s going well. It could be an opportunity for you to pitch your services, but there’s more to it than that. Your blog doesn’t just have to be about your services. If they’re struggling with something that you’ve experienced too, write about it. It helps you to build a relationship with your audience as they can see that you understand their lives.

Social media

I’m a member of a couple of face to face networking groups that also have active Facebook groups. Of course, I’m also part of quite a few Facebook only groups. They’re a really useful source of blog topics because people can ask for advice outside the regular meetings. Answering questions is a great way to show your expertise, but you can also answer the question in a blog post.

It’s worth remembering that if people are asking a question in person (or in a Facebook group) there are probably others who are typing it into Google. If you’ve written a blog post with the answer they could be finding their way to your website.

Further resources

If you want to take a more technical approach to topics and improve your SEO, Ubersuggest is a fab free tool.

Posted on 1st April 2019 by Kirsty France — Leave a comment

Are you making one of these blogging mistakes?

blogging mistakes Blogging is wonderful as a business marketing tool and a creative outlet. If you’re writing a blog to promote your business it’s important to know what’s going to appeal to your audience so you can tailor the content to them. You can also air your personal views via blogging. There’s loads of scope to talk about whatever you choose.

What you write about (and how you write it) is completely up to you. There are still a few cardinal blogging errors that you’d be better off avoiding unless you want to attract a whole heap of trouble.

Ranting

Its fine to tell a story about something that went wrong in your business. This is especially true if you learned something from it or handled it well. It could be a story that helps your customers understand why you do things in a certain way, or if they can learn from it too.

By contrast, a full on rant is never going to go down well. All it does is show your potential customers that you’re petty, possibly vindictive and prepared to blame anyone but yourself. Your audience don’t have enough information to know whether you’re in the right and could start wondering if they’re going to be your next target. Don’t write until you’ve calmed down and got some perspective on the situation. You never know what you might learn.

Blogging swearing (possibly)

I almost didn’t put this one in. Some people love edgy content and don’t object to a bit (or a lot) of swearing. Unless you want to be deliberately confrontational from the outset, approach with caution. I write blogs for a lady whose speech is peppered with the F word but I’m still not going to put it in her blogs. There are other ways to express your personality. You can be full on and confrontational without pulling people up short with an expletive.

If you want to go for it, it’s up to you but I reckon you need to be very sure of getting a positive reaction before you try it.

Plagiarism

In other words, don’t steal other people’s work. You might be lucky and avoid getting sued for pinching someone else’s copyrighted work, but do you really want to take the risk? If the original creator has a decent online network you could find your social media posts being bombarded with comments where they share the original work for comparison. You’ll get great reach but all it will do is make you look silly.

Read other people’s blogs for inspiration if you must, but don’t copy and paste them outright. If you want to share, give credit where it’s due. Blogging is hard work as it is without someone else pinching your work.

Boring blocks

Paragraphs are a wonderful thing. Subheadings are even better. It’s a sad fact that a lot of people won’t read every word of your blog. They’ll just skim it to find what they need. If they click on the link to be confronted by one big blob of text they won’t hang around for long. Even people who want to read every word will find it daunting and give up.

Subheadings and proper paragraphs make everything easier to read and your

Too much jargon

If you know you’re writing for an audience of industry professionals who use all the same acronyms as you, carry on and use them. If you’re a specialist writing for the general public, keep the jargon out of it. It doesn’t make you look clever. All your potential customers will see is someone who wants to look clever whilst blinding them with science.

A blog is meant to make you more approachable. Share your expertise in language that your customers will understand. You still get to look like an expert and your customers will know that you’re not going to pull the wool over their eyes.

Do you want some help avoiding these cardinal blogging sins and getting some personality into your marketing? Sign up to my mailing list and receive your free copy of ‘Stop hiding your business! 5 ways to be seen online’. You can unsubscribe whenever you like and I won’t share your details with anyone else.

Posted on 18th March 2019 by Kirsty France — Leave a comment

Why storytelling works in your marketing

why storytelling works It’s easy to think of storytelling as being something you do with your children. You can cuddle up at the end of the day and send them off to sleep with a lovely bedtime story. Mine are still young enough to watch CBeebies so we sometimes get the added bonus of a tale read by Tom Hardy. (I even know people without kids who tune in to watch him anyway!) If that’s how you think of storytelling you might be forgiven for having dismissed it as an effective marketing tool. Actually, it’s one of the most effective approaches you can take.

What are stories for?

Storytelling has been around for as long as there have been human beings. Even the earliest cave dwellers painted the walls with images of themselves and the animals they hunted. There’s a basic human need to share information. Storytelling doesn’t have to be about anything particularly exciting. You tell a story when you talk about your day or what you did at the weekend.

The reason we feel the need to share is because stories bring us together. When you meet someone new the conversation you share tells you something about them. It helps you to decide whether they’re your kind of person or not. In your personal life stories help you to forge new relationships. When you use storytelling in your marketing you can bring your customers into your world.

Know, like and trust

You’ve probably heard of the ‘know, like and trust’ factor before. Just in case you haven’t, it’s the idea that your marketing lets your customer get to know you, work out whether they like you and eventually come to trust you. It’s also known as relationship marketing. Brands of all sizes can market themselves in this way but it’s particularly important for small businesses. People find it easier to trust the big brands. They seem solid and reliable in contrast to small businesses that might be run by scammers or have shockingly poor customer service.

When you use storytelling in your marketing you can introduce the person behind the brand. You can share images to show that you’re a real person. Your content, your blog in particular, can share information that helps your customers to understand your values and how you run your business.

How to think about storytelling in marketing

Now, you might be reading this thinking ‘that’s all very well, but what stories do I tell?’ – I’m glad you asked. They won’t be the same ones you share at the school gate or when an elderly relative tells you about their ingrowing toenail. As always, it’s important to remember the first principles of marketing. Namely, your customer cares about themselves more than they care about you. When you tell a story about yourself it really needs to be a story about them. For example, when I tell you that I have to get this blog post finished because it’s nearly time to pick the kids up, I hope you’re nodding. You sympathise with my need to juggle my business and family because you probably do it too. If you share something that you have in common with your customers you help a bond begin to develop.

There are lots of different ways to do this. You can talk about how your business has developed if your customers are going through something similar. If you want to market to parents talk about your own family or why you do what you do. Your story could be a whole blog post, a picture or a couple of sentences. The opportunities are endless.

Telling your story is one of the ways you can inject some personality into your marketing. That’s one of the topics I talk about in my new eBook ‘Stop hiding your business! 5 ways to be seen online’. Sign up to my mailing list using the form below and you’ll receive your copy straight to your inbox. I won’t share your data with anyone else and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Posted on 11th March 2019 by Kirsty France — 1 Comment

Do you need blogging training that’s designed for you?

blogging training designed I suppose the question should really be – are you bored of going to workshops that all blend into one? Or are you the person who’s responsible for organising them? It can be tough to find new ways to make learning more interesting. That applies whether you’re a sole trader looking for some good quality training or part of an organisation where there’s a set pattern to your sessions. When it comes to blogging training, it is possible to find workshops that work for you. I can design a session to include whatever works for you. In the meantime, here are some ideas for things to look out for at your next workshop.

Discussion groups

If you want to get good results from any kind of training, it helps if you have something in common with your fellow attendees. You might all be from the same industry or at a similar level in business. One of the reasons it works is because you can access a variety of potential solutions for any issues you’re having. Of course, I’d love to be the font of all wisdom (who wouldn’t?). But sometimes you get more interesting suggestions by being able to talk about a topic with other people who understand your business. Everyone learns something and it’s great for networking.

The other advantage is when it comes to asking questions. If you’re a brand new business owner it can be intimidating to be surrounded by people with years of experience. If that prevents you from asking a question for fear of looking stupid the only person who loses out is you. Being with people you feel comfortable with means you’re more likely to speak up. Then you’ll get more out of your session.

Walk and talk

Did you know that walking can improve your memory? It’s true. Any type of exercise increases the blood flow to your brain so you remember more. Take someone along for a chat and you can improve your mood and overall mental health. I confess that I haven’t heard of any training sessions that are carried out entirely on the hoof. It might make note taking tricky. However, there are a few walk and talk networking groups out there if you like the sound of that.

I’m currently putting together a group of people to meet up and learn about blogging. It’s going to be a full day with time to write as well as learn. One of the reasons I decided to host it on a farm is not just because it’s one of my favourite venues. It also has the advantage of masses of open space. That means you can go for a walk while you think or brainstorm with someone else.

Blogging training to take away

Have you ever been on a training session, taken loads of notes then never looked at them again? Or even been told that you don’t need to take notes, it’s all on the handouts? The last time I heard that I looked at the notes and couldn’t understand how they related to what I’d just listened to.

I’m a firm believer that you need to go away with a plan, if not a finished piece of work. If you’re looking for good training ask about the notes in advance. Are you going to have work sheets where you can record your own ideas before implementing them? What materials will be available to make sure you won’t forget what you’ve learned?

If you want to get a group of people together for some blogging training, I can help with workshops that are tailored to you. Alternatively, if the idea of getting together with other business owners on a farm sounds good to you, just complete the form below to sign up to my mailing list and hear about my newest workshop group.

Why you don’t have to be a writer to blog

Don't writer blog What springs to mind when someone suggests you should write a blog? Do you think of all of those influencers that you see on Instagram getting wined and dined in return for a good review? Or maybe you think it’s something for professional writers or marketing agencies? It’s true that you can pay a professional to write your blog for you (me for instance). You could even do some blogger outreach to get product reviews or more social media exposure. But there’s absolutely nothing to stop you from writing your own blog if you want to. There are lots of misconceptions about blogging. I’m going to tell you about a few of them – are any of these getting in your way?

I have to be a writer

There are lots of different kinds of writers out there. Novelists, poets, journalists, sales page and email specialists… I could go on (and on). You don’t need to have an in depth knowledge of different writing techniques to write your own blog. All you need to know is what will interest your customers and encourage them to read. I know that a lot of people struggle to make their words flow in writing because that’s often where I come in. The point of a blog is that it feels like a conversation. Your blog doesn’t have to be formal with perfect grammar as long as it makes sense. The more naturally you can write, the better it works.

I have to write loads

Blogs are a great way of helping your website rank well in a Google search. The most important things are having good quality content that is updated regularly. It doesn’t have to be ‘War and Peace’. Generally, Google looks for content of at least 330 words. I’ll have written that much by the end of this sentence. The thing is, when you get into it you can find yourself writing more when it’s a subject you’re passionate about. If you’re wondering what I mean by ‘regularly’, once a month is fine. That’s only 3,960 words in a whole year – does that sound doable?

I don’t have anything interesting to say

You might think that you don’t have anything interesting to say, but you probably do. The trouble is that you work in your business every day. You know all of the day to day tasks and the ins and outs of every service or product you offer your customers. It’s easy to forget that your potential customers don’t know any of it. Tell them about how you work or what they can expect from a consultation. They might have a problem that you can solve, but they haven’t heard of the solution yet.

Sometimes people start a blog then run out of ideas, simply because they’re covering too much ground in each post. You can create a good post out of a relatively small topic. Just start with the big subjects then keep breaking them down.

No-one will read my blog

OK, this is a tricky one. The more visitors your blog gets the easier it will be to find on Google. But how do people find you before you work your way up the rankings? Sometimes writing a blog can feel like a one way conversation if people read but don’t comment. All you can do is keep sharing. Put a link to your latest post on social media, refer to it when you do a video, put it in your email newsletter – there are lots of different ways to use your blog once you’ve written it.

Are you ready to start writing? If you need a bit more help I’m putting together a workshop group to offer help and support. Sign up for my mailing list using the form below to find out more.