Launch With Words

One of the blocks small business owners have with blogging is with overwhelm. One of the misconceptions is that just because you start blogging, you need to have the same volume as the New York Times. It’s simply not true.

Blogging is about establishing yourself as an authority in you field while showing some personality and helping your SEO efforts. In this episode, we’re going to focus on realistic goals.

"SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Bound) goals are established using a specific set of criteria that ensures your objectives are attainable within a certain time frame." Atlassian

https://www.atlassian.com/blog/productivity/how-to-write-smart-goals

(00:03):
Welcome to the Launch With Words podcast, with your host, Bridget Willard. We're going to talk about all things, content, blogging, articles, videos, whatever has words and goes on your website.

(00:22):
Hey, thanks for joining me today. In this episode, I get the question a lot, "How often should I publish content on my website? Or how often should I publish a blog post?" That question is kind of a loaded question. It comes with the answer we all hate, which is "it depends." So some companies publish four times a week, some publish once a month, some publish once every quarter. The answer to the question and why I created Launch With Words based upon my ebook, If no one, "If You Don't Mind Your Business, Who Will?" --Sorry -- is that you need to publish consistently. Okay?

(01:12):
So how often should you publish a blog post let's aim for once a month? Let's aim for once a month and see what you can put out there. It gives you something to share on your social media channels. It gives something for your customers to look at for validation, right? We talked about validation and discovery in season one, episode one. So, how often should you publish? Why not start writing for once a month? That should take you about two hours a month. All right. And then when you feel like there's something extra, you can always publish extra, right?

(02:06):
A good, healthy cadence for SEO -- for search -- is once a week. Um, so try setting yourself some actual achievable goals. A lot of marketers call them SMART goals, specific, measurable, whatever. Okay. So there's an acronym. But what I learned from the construction industry is there are sometimes suicide bids, right? Suicide bids are bids that are under-scoped under priced. There's no way they can finish that job. So you don't want to suicide goal, right? You want something that you can actually achieve. Can you, as a small business owner, put in your calendar two hours on the first Friday of every month to sit down at your computer and write?

(03:01):
Now you have options. And we're going to talk about that in episode three. What if I'm not a good writer? But the point is you have to set that time aside. Now, this is the perception that you, as a business owner or someone on your staff is going to do this. So then in order to achieve a goal, a reasonable goal, right, is to actually set that time aside in your calendar and treat it as if it's just as important as a client meeting. Those client meetings, you would never be late for. You would not give yourself excuses. And why shouldn't you -- as the business owner -- care about the blog on your website? Because a website without a blog is an empty, empty storefront. Okay?

(03:57):
So set aside those two hours. Now, as you have budget to dedicate to marketing, you could always outsource and hire writers. Okay? But for you to care about your business in this way is so important. You can always have an editor. We're going to talk about that next time, but, but do that. Get the ideas out of your head. I have great prompts in either my ebook, "If You Don't Mind Your Business Who Will," or within the starter pack for the free Launch With Words WordPress plugin that installs on your website as 12 blog drafts. And you fill out the answers; it's just like me sitting next to you.

(04:45):
But this whole podcast, isn't supposed to be an infomercial. The point is that if you have specific goals, okay? So your specific goal is to publish once a month. It's measurable. You did it, or you didn't. Right? Um, "S M Art." Uh, I forgot what "A" is. I forgot actually forgot what is a reasonable and timely, uh, achievable. I think it is specific, measurable, achievable. "R" uh, relevant. Um, good grief. See marketers have all these acronyms. I can't even remember them.

(05:25):
Here's the deal: set time aside. Get it done. Put it on your website. Put it in your calendar. You can do this. I know you can do this. I've been training people for decades. So what blog posts are you going to write this month? Send me an email at [email protected]. I want to read your blog post. I'll be your accountability partner. How about that? You just send it to me and say, Hey, Bridget, I heard this podcast. I'm writing you at [email protected] to say thank you for being my accountability buddy.

(06:04):
And you know what? I appreciate you spending time with me today. And I hope that you feel encouraged and, and knowing, knowing in your soul that nobody knows your business better than you. So why shouldn't you position yourself as the expert that you are? Thank you so much for joining me.

(06:26):
Thanks for listening to Launch With Words, a podcast by BridgetWillard.com. If you liked this podcast, why don't I go ahead and share it with your friends, small business owners, peers, your brother. [laughs] I really appreciate your attention. If you have any ideas, contract me on my website. Follow me at @BridgetMWillard on Twitter. And I hope to see you on the next episode or the next season.

More Episodes

https://launch-with-words.castos.com/ 

Get the Launch With Words Plugin for free on WordPress:

https://wordpress.org/plugins/launch-with-words/

You have a website for your small business but what about the blog? That's what most people refer to as "content" in "content marketing." Don't worry, blogging isn't a four-letter word and you can definitely do it. But for this episode, we're going to focus on why content matters for small business websites. 

(00:01):
Welcome to the Launch With Words Podcast with your host, Bridget Willard. We're going to talk about all things, content -- blogging, articles, videos -- whatever has words and goes on your website.

(00:19):
Hey, thanks for spending some time with me. We're going to talk about why, why content matters for small businesses. So when we talk about content, we're talking about the words. That's why this is called Launch With Words, because we think of these words that marketers give us and they feel overwhelming and it feels like we don't know exactly what they're talking about. We're talking about articles. We're talking about your about page. We're talking about your biography, right? We're talking about articles. We're talking about page content.

(00:57):
Content matters to small businesses because they -- you -- are needing to reach out to your customer base. Of course. So for your website, your website is used for two things, validation and discovery.

(01:17):
So sure somebody might discover your website doing a search, uh roofing contractor near me, for example. Or, um, your friend down the street might say, "Hey, go check out my vendor. And this is what they do." And give you the website, right?

(01:39):
And then you look at that website as a customer. And you, you think is this the kind of person I want to work with? Do I like the personality they have? Am I impressed with their skillset? And then that's the validation. So you're, you're getting discovered from social media, from a referral, from a search on Google, Alexa, Siri. And then the person is going to look at your website and see. Hey, does this person know what they are talking about? Do they really know about standing-seam metal roofs? Do they really understand architecture in Texas? What is it that we can get from this website to see if I kind of like who you are and your, and your personality?

(02:36):
And as a bonus, it answers any questions the customer might have about procedures or things that are confusing, the premium content pack for Launch With Words.

(02:49):
For example, for roofing includes a blog post about, um, oh, would you call it? Uh, I just lost. I just lost my train of thought. Cause whatever that's what happens, right? Words, words, words, get focused. So here's the thing [laughs] you want to know. Am I going to get a change order for this plywood, sheathing? And why am I getting a change order for this? Well, because you don't know if you have to replace plywood sheathing, unless you remove the roof first. Right?

(03:24):
One of my most famous content pieces back when I worked at Riggins Construction was a video about a poxy injection and how it was welding the concrete together. That it wasn't solely cosmetic. All of those words give your audience, both robots and humans, something to learn.

(03:51):
So, thank you for listening to season one, episode one. Why does content matter for small businesses? I feel like the answer's right there, you need to communicate your website is that extra sales person. And when you treat it that way, you're going to be more successful.

(04:15):
Thanks for listening to Launch With Words, a podcast by BridgetWillard.com. If you liked this podcast, one, I go ahead and share it with your friends, small business owners, peers, your brother. Oh, I really appreciate your attention. If you have any ideas, contact me on my website. Follow me at @BridgetMWillard on Twitter. And I hope to see you on the next episode or the next season.

More Episodes

https://launch-with-words.castos.com/ 

Get the Launch With Words Plugin for free on WordPress:

https://wordpress.org/plugins/launch-with-words/