Grow Your Blog & Your Audience
Preparing for 2023 was something that Annie and I took very seriously. We dedicated an entire day-a few times a month for months, to be exact. And in each session we sat down and built the plan piece by piece. And to be real? I’ve been in business for 10 years and it's the first time I've ever done anything like that for ALC. Sure, I’ve done versions of the exercise each year, but never so extensively. And I can honestly say that it's made all the difference.
It was the best gift I gave to my future self because it laid out a detailed map to follow. We got crystal clear on what we're doing, why we're doing it, who we're doing it for, and what we needed to create (or toss).
Something that I can't stress enough is making time to work on your business instead of in it.
But when you're just starting out? The bucks stops with you. YOU are the person who wears all the hats. It’s a very difficult task to carve out the time. I 100% get it. But make no mistake: it is critical to your success that you make time to set goals and map out the steps you need to take action on in order to to achieve them. You can’t afford to open your inbox and get swept away. Because it’s this thing, then that thing, and the next thing you know, your whole morning is spent ping-ponging from one thing to another.
As the leader of your company, you have to be the person who is very skilled at getting the right things done.
Every day, without fail.
There are so many things that compete for our attention and it takes discipline and focus to rewrite the script and nail it down to tasks that center on these questions:
What do I need to be focusing on to move these things forward?
What do I not have the time to do?
What can I delegate and what are the things that only I can do?
I hate to break it to you but one of the things that only you can do and do well is create content.
Creating content is a grind and there is no way around it. There's no way to sugarcoat it, but it does get easier when you develop a habit around it. AND, you'll see big rewards almost immediately (which we love, of course!). The biggest content ROI is right under your nose: the blog on your website. For a lot of us this feels like Mount Everest. A lot of work, blank pages staring back at you, and way outside of your comfort zone. Do I go vulnerable? Do I go expert? What do people want to hear? Let’s pause for some wisdom from Phil Stutz before we carry on:
“The comfort zone is supposed to keep your life safe, but what it really does is keep your life small.”
I realized that my limiting belief about blogging was that it felt exposing. It felt, well, shouty almost. But we know that no one pays attention like we do and if we have services and products worth a damn then it’s our DUTY to share those things liberally with the world. If we aren’t doing that, then we’re playing small. And business these days, especially in the quasi-recession times we’re living in, require us to go big or go home.
So, we all know by now that blogging is not really simply putting words on the screen. Blogging is a critical SEO and sales tool in your business and you're probably not utilizing it the right way (I definitely wasn’t).
For ALC, blogging was something I knew that I needed to do all along, but I also could never make the time for it. But once I set up the structure and routine and did it long enough, it became a lot easier and it’s now almost automatic. Don’t get me wrong, it’s tiring to produce content, but it’s the building block that all of our marketing scaffolds from and it can’t be skipped. Week after week we blog without fail before we do any other marketing. Let’s break down some tips on how you can do the same for your small business.
Tips for Building a Great Blog
Change the way it “has” to be done to whatever will actually GET it done. For example, I voice dictate my blogs. My first draft is always a voice memo. After that, I put it up in an editing tool and write the first draft. I let it sit for a day (don’t skip this!) and I come back to it and ruthlessly edit it and add things in and take things out. There is a whole workflow I follow that has changed everything when it comes to publishing these behemoths and I would love to help you do the same to energize your blogging, too! We’re covering all the steps in video form in our Blog Boot Camp launching this Friday, and I could not be more excited about it.
Own your expert cap. Your blog is your place to shine, not play the wallflower. It allows you to dive in longform with what you are an expert in and what you do best. AKA what your clients need and want to hear from you. Again, you are the only person who can really do this the way that you do it. There are about a few hundred thousand folks saying they know email, and that’s cool. We don’t care about them. Your audience cares and trusts YOU and your readers want to hear your take on it. I promise.
Don’t leave them hanging. It's critical that once you start blogging, you do it well and you do it consistently. It has to be worth the read every.single.time. It can’t be fluff and it can’t be unhelpful or base level. There are blogs that simply skip to get the freebie, or get the alert for a new one and don’t click the link until they get the time (if at all). We don’t want that for you. We want people EXCITED and ANTICIPATING your fresh content every week, or every month-whatever cadence you choose. Don’t show up only to ghost.
Track your results for motivation to keep going. Is there any greater motivator than to know that people are actually listening? We've seen our site ranking improve month over month since we started consistently blogging. Our RSS subscribers went from 0 to 35 last year—and that was with a haphazard plan. The FIRST month of 2023 when we started blogging with an actual plan, consistency, and intention? We surpassed 35 in January alone. Our whole last year in one month. That’s some exciting news! Our overall website analytics are trending up too. Our on-page time is over ten minutes and our most popular pages are our blogs, after our About page. All this adds up to: people are reading. They’re actually reading! And honestly, it makes the load so much easier to carry when you know there are people following along (and hopefully being helped) by the content you work so hard on.
What are some of our biggest blogging wins? We've improved our reach. We've expanded our audience and we have developed a habit and discipline that serves us across all channels, not just blogging. We release our newsletter every single week-without fail. Last year? Once a month if we were lucky. We are doing strategic launches of marketing initiatives. We’re building new products.
And honestly– it all stemmed from finally getting our blog situated and flying straight.
If this is something you’re struggling or need help with because you don't know what to say or you don't know where to start? We can help you! Our Blog Bootcamp kicks off this Friday and we'd love to have you join us. Friday AM we’re delivering a series of videos and a framework that we use to build our blog, week after week, with consistency.
We're also going to implement an Open Office Hour next week where you can come and talk to Annie and I to discuss whatever you’d like in blogland. If you want us to live copyedit something, we can do that. If you want us to look at a headline, we can do that. Bring your questions about your unique situation and we’ll help you the best we can.
We would love to hear about your business and how you can make it even more amazing than it already is. But no matter what, whether it's a weekly blog or whether it's a monthly blog, just the fact that you're here and investing in yourself and your business is extraordinary. So hats off to you.
See you at Bootcamp!
