Do you want to use blogging as part of your small business’ marketing strategy, but unsure where to start and how to blog effectively?
Here are 3 hot tipsto improve your small business blog. So you too can share your brands, services, knowledge and skills in an informative way, while optimising your visibility across various platforms.
First let’s discuss – Why blog?
It’s proven that marketers who prioritize blogging efforts are 13x more likely to see positive ROI. That’s a big deal.
There are some key benefits of blogging:
1) Blogging is important in business to engage with customers on a personal level. Blogging is an inbound marketing method that builds a long-lasting relationship and a loyal customer base. People buy from people, and they need to know like and trust you before they will do this.
2) It builds your brand, helping you to position yourself as an industry influencer, while creating key pieces of content for your business, addressing customers frequently asked questions, pain points and demonstrating your unique value proposition.
3) It improves your search engine optimisation (SEO) – This simply means it increases your chances of organically (not using paid advertising) being seen in search engines like Google.
TIP 1 – Know your business mission/vision.
Do you have a crystal clear vision of why you’re in business? How you operate and present the brand? And who you want to do business with? If you answered “yes” to this question, fabulous! If not, then it’s likely you need to write or re-write your mission statement. But what has this got to do with blogging?
Your mission statement can offer inspiration and guidance for your business’s content and brand voice. It communicates the direction and values of your organisation. Clear and inspired mission statements communicate to customers, investors and employees the solution you will provide to them by identifying the problem you solve.
Let’s look at a couple of examples.
IKEA
Our vision is to create a better everyday life for the many people. The Brand states “our business idea supports this vision by offering a wide range of well-designed, functional home furnishing products at prices so low that as many people as possible will be able to afford them.
There is no uncertainty who IKEA’s audience is, nor the problem they solve for their customers. I mean… who here doesn’t own a piece of Ikea furniture? Their blogs can address sustainability, design, who the designers are, feng shui, product benefits and so much more.
VERSATILE MARKETING
Our mission is to provide caring, flexible and customised virtual business management and outsourced marketing support services to established small to medium business owners. We offer our clients a collaborative, behind the scenes secret weapon, providing the trust, structure, tools, and expertise that allows business owners to confidently outsource their work. We do this to create the space for our clients to increase productivity, reduce overwhelm and scale their business.
Before I plan out my content for the next quarter, and before I write the blog I ask myself one question… How does this help my audience/customer avatar?
I look to my mission which addresses my customer avatars pain points:
Do they feel they can confidently outsource?
How can they increase their productivity?
How do we help to reduce the feeling of overwhelm?
What can we do to help to scale their business?
Does the tone show care, demonstrate trust, look structured and share useful tools and expertise?
If I answered YES to any of these, then the blog is aligned to the business mission. By addressing my audience’s needs and pain points, I’m providing them with a solution, and hopefully information valuable to them. The blog will also reveal my business brand and unique value proposition (with hope!).
TIP 2 – Dedicate time to blog.
Did you know that according to WordPress, nearly 409 million people view more than 20 billion web pages each month? So clearly blogging is a clever and relatively inexpensive marketing tool, which helps level up small business in the online world.
But a successful blogging requires time, commitment to blog consistently, and some strategic planning. According to a survey of more than a thousand bloggers, a typical blog post takes nearly four hours to create.
As a blog takes some strategic planning, it’s important to allocate and block out time in your calendar to draft blogs with purpose. There’s no point writing a sub-standard piece of prose to keep your web page current… it needs to be useful, well written and speaking directly to your audience.
Or if you have no time to allocate a minimum of 4 hours a month, then consider outsourcing your blogging. We would love to assist you!
TIP 3 – Consider the blog structure.
They say ‘content is King’, which is fair, it IS important, but you don’t want to let it down by having it be too text heavy. Readers absorb content quickly these days, if it doesn’t capture their attention with a catchy heading, and easy to digest content, it doesn’t matter how amazing the content is, it will not be consumed. So you don’t just need the king, but the whole royal family!
The aim is to make it as easy to read as possible. Here are some ways to do this:
1. How easy is it to read?
Did you know it’s best to write at an 8th grade reading level? Leave out the jargon, abbreviations, complicated words and long sentences. Writing a blog at a simple reading level isn’t to insult anyone’s intelligence, it simply helps make your point quickly, efficiently, and effectively. I use the Hemingwayapp, which is free, to ensure my writing isn’t a challenge to read.
2. How visually engaging is the post?
There are several ways to make your blog visually engaging and easy to read, here are a few:
Images We read with our eyes first, so we tend to look at images before we read the text. A feature image is vital – it will be the visual that will be seen on your website before someone clicks into your blog, or on socials and other platforms. For WordPress, the optimal featured image size is 1200 x 628 pixels. Consider adding high quality, clean and simple, consistently sized images every 400 words or so, into your blog. Ensure the image supports the written content. The image should have a purpose and add to the written content. Ensure the images are consistently sized. Consider an infographic, or a picture enhancing the tone or feeling you’re talking about. Compress the images to optimise SEO and name them with keywords and descriptive titles.
Headings Are you put off by big blocks of text? If you answered ‘yes’, you’re not alone. Short paragraphs, separated by headings are easy to digest. So break them up with headings and sub-headings.Heading 1 is for your blog post title. Heading 2 for the next sub-heading. Then if you nest other sub-headings under that, you’d use Heading 3 and so on. This not only helps with readability, but with SEO.
Lists and bullet points By breaking your content into lists or bullet points, they become easier to digest, creating more white space on the page. This blog is a case in point – pun intended.
Links and statistics By placing inbound hyperlinks to your blog, it adds diversity to the text. What I mean by that is; firstly, a hyperlink is a different colour on the page, so visually it will draw the reader in. More than that, someone can read further on a particular topic that interests them by following the link to either another blog post or page on your website, or to a third party site.You can see in this blog post, when I reference statistics, there is a link to the source. This is polite, and ethically the right approach to acknowledge your sources. It also adds credibility and shows your audience that you refer to other industry leaders and information relevant to the topic.
When you’re writing your blog, or outsourcing it, it’s important to remember that blog writing isn’t simply putting words on a page. There’s actually a lot to consider when planning content and drafting a blog. We didn’t even really touch on the importance of SEO. So prepare your time accordingly, write the content so it’s easy to digest and relevant to your service offerings, while adding value to your existing and potential customers. Blogging is an awesome way to build trust with your target audience, and increase your visibility.
Looking for someone to plan content and write your blogs for you?
Deb and her team at Versatile Marketing support small service-based Allied Health and Wellness businesses with copywriting and outsourced marketing support. Book in a complimentary consultation today, so we can become your behind the scenes secret weapon.
Nick’s passion in both work and life is growth development; he is continually looking for and finding ways to growth hack and build success for both companies he works for and himself.
If you run a business, you know how important an online presence is. Even if you’re not necessarily selling products or services from your website, it’s still a good idea to give customers and potential customers a way to find you – and to find out about you.
So, how do you ensure your company is visible online and ranks higher than the competition? Well, it comes down to three words: Search Engine Optimisation (more commonly known as SEO)
What is SEO?
SEO, or Search Engine Optimisation, is an important digital marketing tool. It allows your website to increase its visibility online. That translates to more traffic and more opportunities to turn prospects into clients.
It’s also an integral tool in terms of brand awareness, relationship building, and positioning yourself as an authority in your industry.
SEO uses various techniques to help you move up a search engine’s ranking so that you begin to appear on the first page when anyone searches using keywords related to your service or industry. With over 3.5 billion searches performed every day on Google, customers and prospective customers are clearly using search engines to find what they need.
Why is SEO Important?
A staggering 67% of all people who perform a Google search only check the first page of Google when seeking out information. Meanwhile, as high as 92% of clicks happen on the first page of Google search results, leaving a mere 7% of clicks for all remaining search results pages.
That means it’s very important to work to improve your company’s ranking on key search criteria. If you want to be seen, you need to try to get to the first page of the search results. This will not only improve your visibility, it will help with the likelihood of people clicking through to your website, driving traffic onto it, and helping you get one step closer to converting clicks to customers.
Organic search is also a very big portion of a company’s website performance. Chances are, your clients aren’t finding you through business cards or email signatures. They’re seeking you out by Googling words related to the products or services they need. There are a few easy SEO strategies you can put into place to help grow your business and increase your online presence.
Are there benefits to SEO?
While SEO isn’t a magic bullet, it is an important part of a larger overall branding and marketing strategy, mostly because it dramatically improves your company’s visibility. Visibility is just one aspect of why SEO is important, however. There are many benefits to implementing SEO into the bigger marketing picture. For example:
It gives you and your business credibility
Whether you like it or not, searchers are making mental notes in terms of the rankings they see. Psychologically, they feel search results that are closer to the top are “better”. A higher ranking is like an extra vote of confidence from Google and people tend to click on the first few ranked results. At the end of the day, higher rankings translate to more credibility, whether it’s real or perceived.
It’s one of advertising’s best ROIs
SEO rewards those websites that are highly ranked – more than any other form of on- and off-line advertising. The reason? It allows your business to market itself to people who are looking for the products or services your business provides. In a sense, customers are already specifically searching for you. You just have to convince them that your business is the right one to choose, and a high ranking due to SEO does most of the work for you because, as mentioned above, your higher rank already lends you more credibility.
It gives you insights into your customers
SEO gives you an invaluable opportunity to learn more about your customers. By using Google Analytics to track your traffic, you’ll be able to unlock data and metrics to learn:
How they search
The language they use
The technology they use for browsing
The region they live in
The dates and times they are most active
These insights can help you make more informed marketing decisions, like when to offer sales and to whom, both on and offline.
With 91% of people checking reviews online before they buy, it won’t be long until virtually everyone is searching for products or services online. That means it’s more important than ever for your business to be easily located online as well. If people have a hard time finding you, they’ll end up spending their money with the competition.
As you can see, SEO is an important aspect to branding and marketing, and, as mobile usage rises, will continue to grow in importance. Making sure you’re visible allows you to source new customers and gives you an edge over the competition. More importantly, by ensuring you’re visible locally, you’ll be improving the chances of landing customers that are close at hand. At the end of the day, SEO continues to be an important part of an overall holistic digital marketing strategy.
Versatile Marketing takes great pride in their professional blog writing service, Deb and one of her Associates specialises in blog writing. Utilising your brief, we provide quality researching, blog topic brainstorming and planning and drafting a well constructed blog, with your key audience in mind. So, if your business needs assistance with blog writing , utilising some of the important SEO factors, book in a discovery meeting today.
Creating a healthy balance in your business and your life
For those of you who I yet have the privilege of meeting, I wanted to share a little bit about myself. Why?
Because stress, overwhelm and mental health issues should be spoken about. There can be a certain stigma around admitting that you’re struggling – almost as if it’s a sign of weakness. I’m here to tell you that you can share your vulnerabilities with others, remain strong and know you aren’t alone. You can grow from your challenges, implement new techniques and create a healthy balance in your business and your life.
What happens if we don’t get the balance right?
I’m but one of 1000’s of Australian working Mum’s, who has suffered from workplace stress and overwhelm. It lead me to dream and create Versatile VA so I could become an advocate for work life balance. Not only to create balance for myself and my family, but to support women in business who juggle so much. To let you know you’re not alone. When we support each other and build each other up, we all achieve amazing results.
Becoming a Mum changed me
No one can adequately prepare you for the mass of emotions, ridiculous tiredness and life altering changes becoming a Mum can do to you.
When I became a Mum, I was working for a large organisation, with a passion to make a positive difference. When baby Jess was 6 months old, my maternity leave ran up. I just wasn’t ready to leave her, we were only just getting to know each other, she needed me, and I her. So I extended my leave for another 3 months, which was all I was permitted to do without losing my job. When Jess had been in this world the same length of time she’d been inside my womb, I returned to work.
My first day back to work, I rang day-care twice to see how she was. When someone was kind enough to ask how I was coping, I burst into tears. People stared, and I was told to take 5 minutes and go and pull myself together. I went through the motions, attending a few meetings and typing away at the computer with a longing in my heart. When I collected baby Jess that afternoon my anxiety immediately lifted, I was so relieved my little girl who was crying and reaching for me, while I walked away from her in the morning was smiling and contented. she’d had a good day, but I had not.
Time passed by, and whilst I was working part-time, the workload was the same as my full-time job (just squished into part-time hours). I found myself finishing work by 9pm when reports and deadlines were due. Clearly this was having an impact on my whole family. I hadn’t realised the impact it was having on me , I was overwhelmed. When I stopped being able to be structured and organised in my approach, I knew something was wrong, I ended up taking stress leave, feeling ashamed and like a failure, as hours and hours of additional work and a commitment to ‘make a difference’, whilst sacrificing family time and self-care, went unnoticed and unappreciated.
I had no more to give. I was stressed, overworked, unhappy and burnt out, I’d lost myself. I didn’t realise at the time, but I was suffering from post-natal depression. After seeking the proper support from a psychologist and slowly implementing self-care techniques, it became abundantly apparent that work-life balance wasn’t achievable in this job and I resigned.
Jess is now 9 years old and since then I’ve had another gorgeous daughter – Abby. I’ve had some amazing business opportunities in various organisations and one year ago, I proudly launched Versatile Marketing. Continually practicing and forever seeking to enhance the harmonious work/life balance.
Running your own business can be hugely rewarding, but for many small business owners wearing all the hats and having sole responsibility for the company’s success or failure can take its toll. Knowing how to reduce stress at work by proactively looking after yourself, learning to say no and establishing good habits should be things we all practice in our working environment.
Let’s take a look at some methods you can try to help overcome stress and anxiety in your working day and regain your passion and purpose for the business that you’ve built.
1. Create business and personal goals
If we ‘begin with the end in mind’ – step 2 of Steven Covey’s book 7 Habits of Highly effective people. We can remain focused on our big goals. Without setting goals, we can often jump around putting out one fire after the next. Or we action tasks in an ad hoc style, which in turn creates overwhelm.
Challenge yourself to set business and personal goals. Set yourself 5 personal goals and 5 business goals for the year or for the next 6 months. Everything you do, should fall into the achievement of one of the end goals. Remind yourself of your goals on a daily basis.
Reflect upon the achievements at the end of that period. See what worked and what didn’t. Then shoot for the stars again, either resetting the same goal, or creating new ones.
2. Create healthy routines – they’ll become healthy habits
Simple habits and routines free up willpower for where it is needed most. They minimise decision fatigue, so you have a more productive day. This is most applicable in the morning. So, if you plan your morning effectively the day before, you’re setting yourself up for success.
Let’s look at a healthy morning routine:
It might start with a warm lemon water first thing after you wake
A prayer, gratitude, affirmation or a 5-minute yoga exercise to pay respects to your body, mind and higher purpose.
A review of your calendar and to -do lists so you are well-prepared for the day ahead.
A warm shower
A cuddle in bed to spend a few quality moments with each of your kids before you rush them around getting sorted with clothes, hats, breakfast and bags.
You pack the lunches you prepared the night before into your bag as you head off to start your workday on the front foot.
Reward yourself with a coffee or whatever it is that sets you into a happy work mode.
If you can eliminate decision-making from your mornings, you’ll have more energy and time to have the most productive morning you can! All because you’ve set up some healthy routines and prepared the day before.
3. Create healthy boundaries – Say ‘no’!
Learning to say ‘no’ to some work requests is particularly challenging if you are a people pleaser like me. But it’s important to remember that there is only so much time in one day. What you say yes to now, will create a ‘no’ to the next possible opportunity, you can’t say yes to everything as there just isn’t the time. So, unless you are asked to do something in alignment with one of your goals, it’s important to start practising some healthy boundaries and say ‘no’.
By saying no, it doesn’t mean that you aren’t good at time management, the contrary, you are valuing your time to achieve the goals you have set for yourself and your business, it’s a smart way to fast track your success and reduce burnout.
4. Self-nurture – Take time for you!
As a small business owner and parent, self-nurture is often one of those things that falls to the bottom of the long list of ‘to-do’s’. It is vital to schedule time out in your calendar for some rest and relaxation. You can’t be your best without giving to yourself.
This may mean that you’re:
honouring your knock off time each day to go for a walk and unplug
turning off the computer at 830pm nightly, so you relax and get some good sleep.
treating yourself once a fortnight to a massage or getting your nails done.
>soaking in a bubble bath with a book and a glass of wine
going out with your friends or on a date
Whatever it looks like for you. Pick up your diary right now and schedule it in. Block out time in your calendar on a regular basis and honour it, you are honouring you!
So please know, if you’re feeling overwhelmed, you’re not alone. Implement at least one step in the right direction today, it will assist you to achieve a healthy balance. Set meaningful goals, plan your time based on your goals, set healthy habits in place, learn to say no and practice self-nurturing on a regular basis. Unless we get the balance right, we are not living into the purpose of our passions.
Versatile Marketing has been created to support business owners doing the juggle, just like you!
Our goal is to provide valuable support and guidance to you. Our blogs, Facebook page and soon to be launched Group (stay tuned) and our website resources are all intended to support you. Creating genuine heart-centred, supportive and longstanding business relationships with Australian small business owners.
TIP 2 – Dedicate time to blog.
TIP 2 – Dedicate time to blog.
Jess is now 9 years old and since then I’ve had another gorgeous daughter – Abby. I’ve had some amazing business opportunities in various organisations and one year ago, I proudly launched Versatile Marketing. Continually practicing and forever seeking to enhance the harmonious work/life balance.
3. Create healthy boundaries – Say ‘no’!