Learning to Blog for Business Owners

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You may think that learning to blog isn’t important to your business. You’re a coach or you sell things you make, why should you blog? The internet has an insatiable appetite for information. Billions of searches are conducted every single day looking for everything from how to bake an apple pie to why zebras have stripes. For anyone who conducts business online, these searches represent a steady flow of potential customers who are looking for what you have to offer.

You can use a blog to present yourself as an expert in your field or as the authority in finding the best deals on clothes – whatever your niche is, a blog can help get more eyes on your website. A blog is an easy, cost-effective method of being found by the exact people who most need, want, and are willing to pay for your services. But only if you have a good strategy in place first.

Know Your Keywords

These are the search terms your ideal client is using to find answers to their questions. When you know what your keywords are, you can easily create blog posts that will:

  • Attract the right visitors to your site
  • Position you as the expert in your niche
  • Make it easy for your ideal client to find—and get to know—you and your services

Write for People

Keywords are great for SEO and making search engines like your blogs. And while it’s important to know and use keywords in your blog posts, it’s even more important that you write your content with people in mind. Your blog should be engaging, informational, and even entertaining, but above all else, it must be readable. When learning to blog and choosing what to write remember this: if you wouldn’t read it, neither will anyone else.

Be Consistent

Content marketing—and blogging, by extension—is very much a numbers game. The more content you produce, the greater your results will be. That means setting—and sticking to—a content production schedule is a must. For most websites, a weekly schedule is both attainable and sufficient to build a steady stream of traffic. If that seems daunting, start with something easier like monthly or bi-monthly. One important lesson to learn when learning to blog is that there are no one-size-fits-all answers. Make a production schedule that works for you and make it something that you KNOW you can stick to.

Keep Long-Term Goals in Mind

Blogging is not a fast business-growth strategy but it is excellent for long-term sustainability. Those posts you write this month will continue to work for you many years from now, bringing in more and more traffic and potential clients. Evergreen content, or content that will last for a long time to come, is one of the best investments you can make in your business. Learning to blog also means learning to re-blog. Once your production schedule has been up and running for a few months, set aside some time to review your past blog articles and see if there’s anything you can reuse. You can also go back to old articles and check if there are any natural places to drop in some links to more recent blog posts to increase internal links.

Use Good SEO Practices

Aside from keywords, great bloggers know there are many techniques you can use to bring in more readers, including:

  • External links to relevant sites from within your blog
  • Internal links to other, related content on your site
  • Use of graphics and headlines to break up long text passages
  • Compelling meta descriptions
  • Good HTML practices such as ALT tags

Get the Word Out

Each new blog post is an opportunity to be seen, so take the time to share your content socially, and encourage your readers to do the same. Share your post on your Facebook page, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and anywhere else your ideal client is likely to see it.

You can also join social media groups for topics related to your industry and periodically share relevant content from your blog. Just make sure this doesn’t go against the group’s policies and remember to always add value – the goal of this is to promote your website and your business, not annoy group admins.

Mix It Up

Not every post has to be a 3,000-word article. Include other types of content as well, such as:

  • Videos
  • Infographics
  • Curated content
  • Short opinion pieces
  • Audio

Have Fun with It

Above all else, the most important thing to remember when learning to blog is to have some fun. Inject your personality into your blog. Not only will you more easily attract your ideal client but you’ll enjoy blogging a lot more if you use your authentic voice. And the more you enjoy it, the more likely you will remain consistent as well.

Anatomy of a Landing Page: How to Improve Your Conversion Rates with Three Simple Changes

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Your readers have short attention spans. I’m sure that’s no big surprise to you. In fact, you probably browse the Internet at lightspeed too, scanning titles and subheads, skipping to the bottoms of landing pages, and fast-forwarding through videos just so you can get to the next thing. The same is true for your readers, and if you want to capture their attention long enough to entice them to opt-in to your mailing list, then you have to keep that in mind.

A Tip From Newspaper Publishers

Have you ever noticed that everything you need to know about a news story is in the first paragraph? Journalists are trained to answer all the questions—who, what, where, when, why, and how—in the first few sentences, just in case the story gets cut off when the paper goes to print.

In today’s online world, where column inches no longer matter, this type of story formatting isn’t quite so critical anymore, but it’s still a useful tip to use when you’re writing an opt-in page.

Think about it: If your readers are skimmers (as most of us are) then making sure you include the most important information right at the top of the page is going to greatly improve your conversion rates.

For landing pages, that means putting the biggest benefits in your subject line and following it up with two or three sentences that build on your headline. That’s it. Keep it short, sweet, and benefit-driven, and you’ll have greater success than you would with longer content.

Graphics Matter

Whether your opt-in incentive is an eBook, a video, or even a simple checklist, having a graphic representation of your offer is an important component of your landing page.

Typically, you’ll need to create a visual representation of your offer, and the more interesting the visual, the more likely you are to get your readers to opt-in. You can easily outsource the design of the graphic (we can help with that), but whether you make it or self or outsource it, it’s a good idea to follow these simple guidelines:

  • Bold fonts and short titles will make your graphic more readable.
  • Use high-contrast colors for more visibility.
  • Be true to your brand. Stick with colors and fonts your readers expect.

Crafting a Compelling Call to Action

While it seems as if you can expect readers to know what to do when they land on your opt-in page, it’s just not true. You have to invite them to take the next step. Give them specific instructions and you’ll have higher conversion rates than if you just leave it to chance.

Your call to action should tell a reader exactly what to do, like this:

  • Click here to download
  • Enter your name and email for instant access

Watch the text on your form buttons, too. After all, “Subscribe” or “Sign Up” doesn’t exactly make you feel excited, does it? Consider using a phrase that matches your call to action instead, such as:

  • Get the Checklist!
  • Send Me My Free Video!

Final Thoughts

Take a look at your existing landing pages. Do they follow these strategies? If not, consider making some changes to your copy, your images, and your calls to action, then watch your results. You’ll more than likely see a boost in conversion rates if you do.

How to Create Sharable Content That Goes Viral

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Ever wonder what makes some posts, videos, or blogs “go viral,” while yours are lucky to have 7 shares and two comments? While it might seem like some well-kept secret, the truth is it’s easy enough to create shareable content, if you put some thought and creativity into your efforts.

1. Everyone Loves Infographics

Whether you want to know more about how coffee is grown, or you’re looking for ways to boost your blog traffic, you’ll find a variety of infographics to fill you in.

These colorful, easy-to-read graphics share vast amounts of data while still entertaining an audience. By condensing numbers and stats down to easily digestible bite-sized pieces, you can make valuable information highly understandable for any audience. Even better, your market will be happy to share (and share and share).

If you’re not artistic or don’t have the skills required to create your own, we can help you make infographics your audience will love.

**Pro tip: create an embeddable link for your infographic and encourage other blog owners to share it on their sites. You’ll automatically drive traffic from every site that posts your content. If you don’t know how to do that, reach out to us for help!

2. Create Valuable Posts

Writing a blog post? Don’t just skim the surface of a topic. Dig deep. Provide as much information as you can on the topic.

While some bloggers will tell you that shorter is better, the truth is, posts of 3,000 words are more likely to be shared than their shorter cousins. So don’t worry about attention spans. Readers have proven they want good info and they don’t mind digging into a long post to find it. The bottom line – more detail = more shareable content.

3. Let Your Personality Shine

No one wants to read or share another post that just agrees with the masses or doesn’t share any new ideas. Not you and not your audience.

What they do want—and what they’ll happily share with their friends and fans—is personality-driven pieces that aren’t afraid to take a stand.

That’s what makes many bloggers and coaches so popular. You know, simply by reading their content and watching their videos, that what you see is exactly what you get. Nothing is hidden; there’s no “corporate speak” to be found.

It’s easy to form a connection with someone like that because you feel like you know them personally. And what do you do with your friend’s content? You share it, of course!

 

It doesn’t take much to create shareable content. Just be yourself, be transparent, and be valuable. In short, just do what you’re already doing, only with a little bit more oomph!

Getting More Clients by Thinking Like a Farmer

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Think all a farmer has to do is wait until fall to harvest truckloads of delicious tomatoes or corn or squash? We all know that’s not how it works. That farmer has worked hard all year long to prepare for that week or two of reward.

He prepared the ground following last year’s harvest. He planted seeds in the spring. He watered and fertilized and protected his fragile crops from pests and drought and poor weather. And finally, after months of work, he enjoys the results.

Your business works the same way, and if you take a page from the farmer’s playbook, you’ll soon be reaping the rewards, too – in the form of getting more clients.

Preparing the Ground

This is your brand, your voice, your very presence in your market. If you’re just starting out—like that farmer after his harvest—you’ll spend your time simply becoming known.

Hang out with other coaches in your niche. Join forums where your ideal clients spend their time. Build a website and start your mailing list (we can help with this part if you need it!) This is the prep work that will form the foundation of a solid business in the future.

Planting the Seeds

Your seeds are your content and products. With each blog post you write, every product you create, you’re planting a seed you can harvest later. But unlike the farmer, your seeds will produce over and over again, endlessly.

In fact, you’ll likely find that blog posts you wrote years ago will continue to bring in new clients year after year, with no further help from you. Products can be sold over and over again or reworked into new offers. Podcasts, videos, ebooks, and more all continue to work for you, getting more clients on your site month after month, year after year.

When you think about it that way, it’s easy to see that planting seeds is a critical part of every business.

Nurturing Your Crop

Wouldn’t it be nice if you could just “set it and forget it”? Unfortunately, that style of business rarely works.

Instead, you must spend time nurturing.

  • Stay in touch with your email list
  • Update old blog posts with new ideas
  • Study your stats to improve your traffic and conversions
  • Improve your products

It doesn’t take much effort to update your blog posts or tweak your products, and the rewards can be fantastic.

Of course, being a farmer is a long-term investment. The work you do today may not pay off for weeks or months to come. But with a strong history of consistent “farming” in your business, you’ll soon see that those long-term rewards are paying off, getting more clients to your site consistently.

Pain Points: What You Must Know About Your Potential Clients

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How well do you know your potential clients?
Chances are you’ve developed at least a simple client avatar. You know their business, their age, their income, and education levels. You know where they live and how many kids they have and what their biggest dreams are.
But do you really know what drives them?
We’re not talking about just what they want (we all want more money and free time) but more importantly, you need to know what their biggest pain points are. Figure this out, and you’ll not only be able to better create programs to help them, but your sales copy will dramatically improve as well.

What are Pain Points?

Think about it—if you’re uncomfortable with technology, and once in a DIY mood you destroyed your website during a simple update, then website management becomes a huge pain point for you. Now imagine you find a VA who not only works with WordPress but who calmly shares examples of how they’ve rescued client websites after such disasters.
They’ve clearly addressed your biggest pain point, and you’re sold!
The same is true for your potential clients. Show them you can help them avoid those pain points—or better yet, eliminate them completely—and you’ll forge an instant bond.

How to Identify Pain Points

Now you may already have a good idea of what causes your clients pain, but if not, you have plenty of ways to find out.

  • Talk to them. What do they most often ask or complain about?
  • Listen in on forums, on social media, and other places your audience hangs out. What are they struggling with?
  • Reader surveys. These can be a rich source of information in any market. Pay special attention to the words and phrases your readers use to describe their troubles.
  • Keep an eye on your competition. What pain points are they addressing?

Once you’ve uncovered your ideal client’s biggest pain points, you’ll have a powerful tool that you can use not only in your sales copy, but to also help define your programs and service offerings. If you can help your clients overcome the most painful issues they face—whether it’s a lack of self-confidence or a fear of public speaking—you’ll instantly become a more valuable resource in your niche.
And when you incorporate those same pain points in your sales copy, your conversions will dramatically increase as well.

Copywriting 101: Features vs. Benefits in Sales Copy (And How to Know the Difference)

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If there’s one thing that confuses and frustrates new (and even seasoned) copywriters when writing sales copy it’s the not-always-obvious features and benefits. (Are you thinking “I’m not a copywriter, so why should I care?” Trust me, if you’re an entrepreneur, you’re probably a copywriter.)

For example, say you’re a coach and you want to share all the great things about your new coaching program, so you say things like:

  • 6-week self-study course
  • Includes workbooks and live training
  • Members’ only discounts

While these are all good points, they’re pretty bland. That’s because they’re features, not benefits. They tell us about the program but not why we should buy it.
Benefits, on the other hand, tell us the “so what” of features.
“6-week self-study course.” So what? Why should your reader care?

  • Because they’re busy and need to work on their own schedule, not yours.
  • Because they’ve already studied shorter, less comprehensive courses and need more in-depth information.
  • Because they prefer to learn on their own, not in a group.

“Includes workbooks and live training.” So what? What are the benefits of workbooks and live training?

  • Your student can put what they learn into action with workbooks.
  • They can get their specific questions answered during live training.
  • They can work through complex issues with the help of the group.

As you can see, benefits go much further than simple attributes, such as length and format. They show your prospective client not only what’s in the program, but why the product is exactly right for them, at this specific moment in their life and career.

Use Features and Benefits to Compliment Each Other

Features and benefits work together in sales copy as two halves of a statement, like this:
“6-week self-study course so you can learn at your own pace when it’s convenient for you.”
In fact, this powerful feature/benefit combo is often the basis for the bullet points you see in sales copy, and the format of them makes them easy to write, too.

How to Write the Feature/Benefit Combo

Simply list all the features of your product, then for each one, ask yourself “Why?” Why should the reader care? But don’t stop there. Dig deeper to uncover “the why behind the why” and you’ll soon be crafting truly irresistible sales pages that convert far better than you expect. In the above example, the why behind the why might be, “so you don’t have to spend family time on webinars that have been scheduled to benefit someone else.”
Now not only is your prospective client working at their own pace but they’re also freeing up time to spend with her family. That’s a great benefit they won’t find with most courses.

It’s easy to list all the features of your product or coaching program, but far more difficult to uncover the benefits that will drive sales. When you truly understand the difference though, it will become easier, and your sales will reflect the change in your copy.

7 Surprising Places You’re Using Copywriting (And You Probably Don’t Realize It)

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When you hear the word “copywriting” do you immediately think of long sales pages, squeeze pages, and unwanted bulk mail?
You’re not alone in that thinking, but the fact is, copywriting is more than just sales messages. In fact, as an online business owner, most of the content you produce could be called copywriting at least in some sense. After all, if you’re creating content with the ultimate goal of selling something, that is by definition copywriting.

  1. Facebook

    Sure we all like to hang out on Facebook and chat with friends, catch up on the latest funny videos, and enjoy a mindless “quiz” or two. But for business owners, Facebook is much more than that. It’s a place to connect with potential clients, and that means that when you’re sharing your latest blog post or program with your business friends, you have to keep good copywriting in mind.

  2. LinkedIn Profile

    What makes you stand out from the other business owners in your niche? Your LinkedIn profile is where you share what makes you the best person to solve your ideal client’s problems. It’s where you shout about your credentials and let your ego run the show. Think of your LinkedIn profile like a resume, and be sure to list your most impressive credentials.

  3. About Page

    Here’s your chance to have some fun while blowing your own horn. It’s important to know that the about page is often the most visited page on a website, so it’s a critical piece of your overall brand and message. The purpose of your about page is to entice people to want to learn more about your services, so be sure to include a call to action on the page. Have some fun with this page too. It’s the perfect place to let your personality shine!

  4. Blog Posts

    All blog posts have a job to do. Maybe they’re meant to lead your reader to a sales page. Perhaps you’re asking for readers to subscribe to your mailing list. Maybe your blog post is designed to start a conversation. Or maybe it’s just sharing great content and inviting readers to learn more by clicking on related posts. Whatever the job, it’s copywriting that entices your reader to take that next action.

  5. Twitter

    Two hundred and eighty characters is precious little space for creating compelling content, yet that’s exactly what you must do if you hope to use Twitter as part of your overall marketing strategy. Think of tweets like email subject lines, and craft them to convey as much information as possible while still enticing readers to take action.

  • Email

    Whether you’re sending an email about a new product or service or simply letting readers know you have a new blog post up, your email definitely qualifies as copywriting. In fact, even the personal emails you send to prospective clients contain what we would call copywriting.

    • The fact is, copywriting is everywhere in your business, from your sales pages to your invoices. Whenever you ask a reader to take some action, you’re writing copy, and the more comfortable with the idea of it, the better (and more natural) you’ll become.