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In the midst of all the lockdowns there’s a theme that I keep seeing. The one thing that everyone seems to have struggled with at some point is not having anything to look forward to. There’s been a huge emphasis on learning to live in the moment because that’s all we can do. It’s a great idea – if you’re constantly looking back or planning for the future are you really living? At the same time, studies have shown that anticipation can be even more pleasurable than reward. I think it’s why I love crime fiction so much. I know there’s going to be a resolution and can spend a whole book looking forward to it. My main frustration at the moment is not knowing when change is going to happen. All I can do right now is to think about the things I’m looking forward to getting back to. Lots of us are thinking about the lockdown changes that are worth keeping. I’ve started thinking about the things I can’t wait to add back in. Here’s my list of things I’m looking forward to. What’s on yours?

Hugs

Yep, I’m a hugger. Even socially distanced meet ups were hard because I just wanted to run over and hug people. I know I’m lucky because I live with people I love and my kids are huggers too. Thing is, I’m looking forward to having a bit of variety again. There are some absolutely amazing people in my life that I haven’t hugged in nearly a year. I’m really looking forward to having that again. Just an advance warning – it might get awkward. Sorry about that.

Rugby

I’m a massive rugby fan and Leicester Tigers season ticket holder. Watching them with my friends has been a massive part of my life for the last 20 years. I my rugby family, some of whom I met on the terrace. We’ve bonded over drinking, cake and trips to matches from Twickenham to Rome. There’s nothing quite like the atmosphere at a live game. That said, when England won the World Cup in 2003 I was in the bar at the Tigers ground, standing on a chair and cheering my head off. I’m looking forward to having that back.

New entertainment

TV box sets and new films on Netflix has kept a lot of us sane through lockdown. We’ve had virtual tours of museums and galleries. Truth is, I’m missing the sense of occasion that comes with a proper outing. I’m looking forward to heading to the cinema, getting my popcorn and settling in as the house lights go down. My kids will probably want to see the new Spiderman movie (who am I kidding, I can’t wait either). Plus, they’ve got to release the new Bond eventually – haven’t they?!

Pottering about

If you’d told me the rules of lockdown a year ago, I’d have made a few solid predictions about things I’d miss. Simply pottering wouldn’t have been one of them. Pre-lockdown I had pockets of time when everyone was out and I could do whatever I felt like. Even if I chose to do something mundane, like folding laundry, I could always accompany it with the TV show that no-one else likes. I used to have solo trips to London where I’d decide what to do when I got there. I’m looking forward to the day I can get on a train and just head out.

What’s on your list? Let me know in the comments.

So, here we are again. Just when we all thought we’d put the whole home school thing behind us, we’re back into it. Except, this time it feels different. Proper school is still happening for key worker children and there seem to be more of them now. The government is expecting schools (and, by extension, us) to provide real learning as opposed to just child care and things to keep kids going through a crisis. There’s a sense of worry that children at home will fall behind. In the meantime, we all still have to keep earning a living. January is traditionally quieter for me so I’m not panicking – yet. I took stock of how things were going at the end of last year but I find myself doing it again. Here are the things I’m struggling with about home school and what I’m learning to appreciate. I’d love to hear yours too.

I want to be alone

I’ve come over all Greta Garbo. Before my two started school Fridays used to be Mum and son days. When my youngest started in reception I found myself at a loose end. I soon adapted, of course. I mostly just luxuriated in having the house to myself. The same applied to weekends when the husband took them to the park so I could fold laundry whilst watching TV shows that no-one else likes. It’s such a small thing, but I really miss that. I know we can still go for a walk but it’s just not the same.

Changing the routine

During the first lockdown I tried to do actual work alongside home school work. Big mistake. This time I’m saving myself the stress and focusing on one thing at a time. Unfortunately my kids take after me and concentrate best in the morning. If we’re not into school mode by 10am, I’ve lost them. It means that I’ve shifted my working day so it starts at 3pm. My brain has normally shut up shop by 5pm so I don’t get as much done, but it’s enough. It demands focus and I’m adapting my usual habits so it doesn’t feel too odd starting work when I’d normally be stopping.

What are they doing now?!

I find myself saying that sentence a lot, normally because a child has vanished. It makes me laugh when I hear other parents long for virtual lessons so they can get work done. I consider it a full time job getting mine to sit still for more than 30 seconds. At the same time, seeing the work that they’re getting has given me a whole new insight into how they learn. I’ve been to phonics and maths workshops where teachers explain how everything’s changed since I was at school, but hearing my kids explain the solution to a problem has deepened my understanding and I’m really grateful for that.

My clients are brilliant

I have amazing clients and that’s been a huge plus in all of this. I’m still working is and every single client understands that things have had to change. In fact, I talked to a new client the other day and we spent the first 20 minutes discussing how lockdown had affected us and what the impact on family life had been. Even when you’re on a discovery call, those details are still important. I sometimes get frustrated when marketing feels like a slow burn, but at times like this I appreciate the fact that it leads to the best clients I could have.

If you need a bit of support to help get you through home schooling and keep your business visible, I’m currently offering 10% off your first month on my regular, growth, executive and VIP blog packages. Visit my website to find out more or book a no obligation discovery call.

Believe it or not, there are those who think that people who talk about strategy are out of touch with their clients’ lives.  They probably think that a strategy is created somewhere off in cloud cuckoo land. I disagree.  You can use whatever word you like for it, but a strategy is basically a plan.  You’ll probably have seen a meme that says something like “a goal is a dream with a deadline”.  If you have a goal, you need a plan to make it happen.  That’s all a strategy is.  So the question is, does your strategy match your goals?  If not, here’s how to make it happen.

What are your goals?

Goal setting can be a tricky beast.  Even when you have an amazing vision of what your life could be with a successful business your own brain can start getting in the way.  It doesn’t help that there are eleventy billion gurus out there chucking around terms like ‘6 or 7 figure businesses’ as if it’s commonplace.  Some people have no problem visualising themselves there.  Others feel that they’re somehow unworthy.

I struggle with the ‘6 figure’ talk because it isn’t specific enough.  To me, achievable goals need to have meaning.  I don’t want a mansion in the middle of nowhere because I’m part of a great community where I am.  Plus, I like being able to walk the kids to school.  I base my goals on what’s going to make life better for my family.  If you need some help with this bit I’d highly recommend talking to a good coach.  I’ve worked with an amazing coach who somehow took my vague waffle and helped me turn it into a plan.

Get specific

Once you’ve set some goals, it’s time to get down to the nitty gritty.  If you want to earn £x per month to get the house you want or afford a holiday, what do you need to do?  Do you need to sell a certain number of products or sign up new clients? What’s the easiest way to do that?  If you have a high ticket item or service you might only need to sell one or two. Conversely if high ticket is hard to shift is there something smaller that you can sell more of?

You might decide that you’re going to focus on one product for a month or two then switch.  If you’ve read my last blog you’ll know that focusing on one thing is great because it helps people to get to know you. Once you’ve worked that out you’re ready to plan your marketing strategy so that it aligns with your goals.

Find your focus

If you want to hit your goals you don’t just need to get specific with your business aims.  You need to apply it to your marketing too.  For example, say you’ve decided to focus on selling smaller items in January.  People are feeling a bit skint after Christmas but want to cheer themselves up.  Equally, lots of people are making New Year’s resolutions and are willing to spend money on the right help.

Work out what is going to appeal to them about the service you’re offering.  Is it a fresh start or something inexpensive to make January bearable?  When you’ve worked that out you can start planning your content.  But that’s a subject for another blog.

Does your content strategy match your goals? If you need some help developing a strategy that you can implement yourself, click here to find out more about my content planning and strategy service.

I’ve found that there are two types of business owner.  The ones who love strategy and planning and actively seek out tools to help and, well, the other kind.  To be fair even they could be split into two camps.  People who know they need a strategy but just can’t quite bring themselves to do it and the ones who would happily wing it forever.  Ultimately, guess which businesses have greater success long term? Yep, the ones with a plan.  So why do you need a content marketing strategy? It’s an important piece of the overall puzzle. Here’s why.

A focused message = better results

When you plan your content marketing strategy in advance you can work out which products or services you want to focus on.  I’ve talked before (a lot) about focusing on your ideal customer and your content strategy planning should be an extension of that. The TL;DR version is – trying to market to everyone just makes your content bland and boring. Equally, you could sell any product or service at any time, but it’s better to focus on one.

If you’re building a relationship with your customers, focusing on one service helps them to get to know you. Your posts and blogs over a couple of weeks or a month can give them in depth knowledge of that service and what it can do for them.  They might not need that particular thing but it helps them to get to know you and keep following.  If you jump about that trust could be lost.  If you’d like some help identifying where your focus should be, I can help.

Less stress for you

Have you ever sat in front of your computer and thought ‘I need to post something today’. Or ‘I should get a blog out there this week’, without the faintest idea about what you want to say?  A content marketing strategy helps you to overcome that.  You’ll have a theme or product to focus on and you can get everything planned in advance.  Rather than panicking and posting something random, you’ll have time to really think about what you want to say.

It also means that you can get blogs written and social media posts planned and scheduled during quiet periods. Then they’re there and ready to go when you get busier.

A consistent content marketing strategy

I’ll be talking more about aligning your content marketing strategy with your goals in a future blog post, but identifying which products or services you want to focus on is a good first step.  By doing this you can get relevant marketing out there when people are most likely to be looking for it.  It’s why you see loads of holiday adverts on Boxing Day and wedding industry promotions around Valentine’s Day.  Timing is key.

Of course, it’s also important to have a consistent message.  When your content marketing strategy is planned in advance you can ensure it all makes sense.  You can have a theme running through each month’s marketing like a golden thread.  It shouldn’t be exactly the same message every time, but it should all tie together.  As you might have guessed, this month I’m mostly talking about strategy and planning. It’s a good way to start the year. I’ll be writing blogs like this one and sharing tools and resources that have helped me to plan so you can use them if you want to.

Do you have a plan for this year? If you don’t and you need some help, click here to find out more about my content planning and strategy sessions.

Further reading

If you’re wondering why you need content marketing anyway, here’s a great piece from marketing legend Neil Patel.

As I write this we’re heading towards Christmas and I know that a lot of you are starting to wind down.  I’m always reluctant to write off the end of a year but I understand the impulse.  This year seems to have flown by.  There’s political turmoil that’s making everyone feel tired. There have been a lot of changes in my personal life this year too.  I’m ready for some time off.  But that doesn’t mean I’m switching off altogether.  This is a good time for reflection and thinking about the year to come.  So I thought I’d give you some Christmas themed food for thought.  There’s something about Christmas stories that really hit a nerve and I think it’s something we can learn from and carry through our marketing for the rest of the year.  So I asked myself a question. Why do Christmas stories resonate with us?

Here’s what I think lies behind it.

We’re tired and emotional

Yes, I know that has another meaning.  Come on, I’m a writer.  Maybe we will all be tired and emotional after a few Sherries on Christmas Day, but that’s not the point.  By the time we get to the end of the year we’re exhausted.  Not just by the things happening in our own lives, but everyone else’s too.  The news is grim and we’re constantly bombarded by social media messages making other people’s lives look better than they actually are.  I’m about ready to gather my family around me and snuggle under a blanket, hoping it all goes away.

To me, it explains why Christmas stories with a bit of magic in them are so appealing.  It’s comforting to believe that there is help out there if you need it.  Of course, I’m a pragmatic sort so still take the view that if you want help you need to ask for it. But Christmas stories help us to tap into the idea that the world isn’t all bad.

Family time

Trying to achieve a good work life balance has been at the top of a lot of priority lists for a while now.  It seems as if everyone has their own definition but when you have children time with them is always in there somewhere.  This year’s BBC One short, ‘Wonderland’ capitalises on this beautifully.  The idea of a stressed mum and son desperately needing time together is incredibly powerful.

It’s easy to feel that we’re short changing our children sometimes. Running a business can consume every waking minute if we let it.  We’re often told that we ‘should’ want more time with the family, but that misses the point for me. The Christmas stories that celebrate the true meaning of the season tend to be about putting people first. Even Scrooge learned to be charitable.

How Christmas stories help us throughout the year

Christmas stories tap into some pretty powerful concepts. Things like helping those in need and spending time with the people you love. They’re ideas that your marketing can evoke all year round.  You might not believe in magic, but encouraging people to ask for help is no bad thing, especially if you’re the one making your living by offering it.  It can be hard for a small business to build trust with their customers, but people love the idea that they’re supporting the little guy.  Those memes that talk about small business owners doing a happy dance when they get a new order are popular for a reason.

These themes might resonate more strongly at Christmas, but they’re there all year round. How can you use them in your business?

This is my last blog post for 2018. Whatever you’re doing I hope you have a happy and peaceful Christmas and I’ll see you again in 2019!  If you’d like to start the New Year with a new marketing strategy, visit my website to find out more.

At Christmas it’s easy to feel as if everything has become overly commercialised.  When you’re running a business you might feel as if you’re just contributing to the problem.  After all, the run up to Christmas is often referred to as the ‘Golden Quarter’ because of the increase in sales.  The good news is that you can evoke the true spirit of Christmas in your marketing.  You just have to work out which Christmas stories you’re telling.  Thankfully there are plenty to choose from…

Bah humbug

I’m not saying that you should tell your customers they remind you of Ebenezer Scrooge. Although, running an advert that says “I know you’re not going to buy anything from me at Christmas because you’re a modern day Scrooge” your customers could take umbrage and spend loads of money to prove you wrong. Thankfully ‘A Christmas Carol’ and ‘How the Grinch stole Christmas’ are tales of redemption.

However, we all have our ‘bah humbug’ moments and your marketing could tap into that.  A joke or even a poll featuring mince pies in November could work really well.  Alternatively, if you provide a gift that needs advance planning you could send out a funny early warning.  You know it’s ridiculously early but Christmas photo shoots book up quickly or your order book closes at the end of November.

Christmas magic

If your customers can’t start celebrating soon enough, the world is your lobster (sorry, family joke). You can take inspiration from any number of Christmas stories that bring back childhood memories. ‘Twas the Night before Christmas’ evokes the excitement of potentially bumping into Santa when he comes down the chimney. ‘Polar Express’, ‘The Snowman’ and ‘The Nutcracker’ all tap into our dreams of adventure.

Using these kinds of stories in your marketing helps your customers to revisit their childhood. One word of warning though; use it carefully.  If it’s overdone it could be a bit too cloying so keep it light.

Christmas spookiness

Why do we tell ghost stories at Christmas? I’ve read that when the Pagan festival of Yule was co-opted by the church and turned into Christmas, some ghosts lingered. Yule acknowledged the darkness as well as celebrating the lengthening daylight.  It makes sense for us to hold onto some scary stories for the long winter nights. Plus it means you can watch ‘Nightmare before Christmas’ with the justification that you’re celebrating your Pagan heritage.

You can use this type of story even if you aren’t in the business of sending a chill down your customers’ spines.  Whilst Christmas is all sweetness and light in theory, it can be a tough time of year for a lot of people.  Admitting that there is darkness could help your audience to feel less isolated and that can be a very positive thing.  Of course, Christmas is also becoming known for tales of murder.  Those might be worth sharing if any of your customers need help getting through Christmas with their nearest and dearest.

The true meaning of Christmas

All of this talk of magic and mayhem is all very well, but at its heart Christmas is about giving.  That doesn’t have to mean an enormous pile of presents under the tree. It could mean one present that’s chosen with care. Time can be a wonderful gift if you don’t often get to spend it together.

Again, this is the kind of message that could make your audience want to throw up. However, it’s very powerful if done well.  It doesn’t always have to be jolly either.  ‘The Little Match Girl’ is heart-breaking but still recreates Christmas through the little girl’s visions. If that’s too unbearably sad, think of stories like ‘The Elves and the Shoemaker’ or ‘The Snow Queen’ where love and friendship win the day.

Christmas stories like these have stood the test of time for a reason.  They all evoke something primal that we can connect with at Christmas. What story are you telling? Leave a comment and let me know.  Or, if you need some help getting your story out there, sign up for my email series taking you through blog writing step by step.

Further reading

A few examples of the stories I mentioned:

The Little Match Girl

‘Twas the Night Before Christmas

Plus one of my own: A Christmas Deirdre