Today’s episode is another solo episode where I’m going to teach all about writing a blog for your business. Whether you already have a business blog or you haven’t yet set yours up, blogging is a great way to publish informative and relatable content for your audience. Today, I am going to take you through a blogging checklist, which consists of all of the things you need to think about when creating your own blog posts for your business.
KEY TAKEAWAYS COVERED IN THE PODCAST
- Blogs are incredibly to set up and if you want to post regular content, it’s a great place to start. Both the cost and barrier to entry are really low.
- If you’re posting a blog post, the first thing you need to think about is what you’re going to be writing about.
- When it comes to thinking of ideas, batching is a great approach to take. Although you may not write them in batches, writing down lots of ideas at once can be really effective.
- If you’re looking for ideas, try taking a look at what other people are posting or Google things in your area. Answerthepublic.com is a great place to do this.
- Once you know what you’re going to be writing about, you need to think about the keywords you’re going to be using in your post. As you write your post, you can drop these keywords in.
- When it comes to writing your blog post you need to find a method that suits you. Whether that means writing it yourself or outsourcing to a content writer, you need to ensure it is something you’re comfortable with.
- Come up with your blog post title last as this will ensure it is as relevant as it can be to the content you’re sharing.
- When creating content, you need to try and link to as much of your own content as you can.
- To make creating images easier, having a drag and drop framework you can use is a great way to speed things up. Canva is a great resource for this.
- Once you have created your image, you need to start scheduling it on each social media platform you use. Think about whether or not you can repurpose it and post several times.
- Create a short link that will make it easier to access your content.
THE ONE THING YOU NEED TO REMEMBER ABOVE ALL ELSE…
A call to action doesn’t always have to be about sales. A call to action could be say hi on social media, comment down below or sign up to my newsletter.
HIGHLIGHTS YOU SIMPLY CAN'T MISS
- Why Should You Be Creating Blog Posts? – 07:01
- Starting Your Blog Post – 08:25
- Choosing Your Keywords – 11:20
- Writing Your Blog Post – 13:00
- Proofreading Your Blog Post and Coming Up with A Title – 14:20
- Make Sure You Have A Call to Action – 17:45
- Linking to Related Content – 19:00
- Do You Have an Image for Your Post? – 20:47
- Social Media Scheduling and Email Marketing – 22:30
Transcript below
Speaker 1: (00:32)
Hello and super welcome to this week's episode of the podcast. How are you doing? So I've seen recently that I've had some lovely new listeners reach out to me and say that they've just found the podcast. So if you are new to the podcast, welcome and I am your host Teresa Heath-Wareing. And if you are struggling with social media and digital marketing trying to work out how to manage all of this mindfill your business, then you are absolutely in the right place. Every week I deliver a podcast episode to you. I normally do one that is solo followed by one that's an interview and the solo ones tend to be kind of a bit teaching. And then I interview some amazing people and have been very lucky to interview some phenomenal people in not only just in this industry, but also general other industries.
Speaker 1: (01:22)
So if you haven't seen, do go back and have a look at the likes of when I interviewed Amy Porterfield, Pat Flynn, Rick Mulready, Jasmine Star, I loved that episode. She was so, so good. Michael Hyatt, that was a phenomenal episode. And honestly, James Wedmore, too many. I can't even name them all. But basically I've been very, very lucky to have some phenomenal people on the podcast. So do go check it out if you're new. So this week you might hear that my voice is a little bit of funny because I think I'm coming down with something and I am praying that's not the case because actually I'm recording this only a week before it's coming out. And November for me is absolutely crazy. So August I had at home, September I had a few a speaking events and then was I away in September? No. Speaking events in September. October, I had speaking events and I was away in California doing some other events and then November is just back to back speaking every single week and I've just found out that I'm, well I've been asked to speak in Istanbul, which is super cool because I, I've never been to Istanbul but it's in a few weeks time and I'll have to move a few things around and yeah, I like to be organised.
Speaker 1: (02:40)
I like to know where I am and right now because I feel super tired and my voice is going about, I am panicking a little bit. That may be overdoing it but I'm sure I'll be absolutely fine. I will make the most of trying to look after myself and the only problem with today is that I have a podcast interview this afternoon. I say this afternoon, it's actually 10:00 PM UK time because obviously I do interview quite a few people who aren't based in the UK and therefore I have to interview them with all sorts of different times. So tonight I am interviewing, I'm recording this, it's about a, it's really four o'clock in the afternoon and I'm interviewing them at 10:00 PM tonight and I have a coffee sat next to me, which I wouldn't normally have at this time in the afternoon. I don't drink coffee past about two because I don't sleep brilliantly and obviously that can help not help as it were.
Speaker 1: (03:29)
So, but I've got a coffee cause I'm hoping that that'll help me stay up and keep me lively until 10 o'clock this evening. But we, we'll see. Anyway, today I want to give you a teaching episode again and I want to talk about blogs, which is kind of funny because whenever I speak and I've been doing a lot of, like I said, speaking recently and a lot of the speaking I've been doing is talking about how you choose to do the content that you do. So obviously you should all be doing regular content. This is where you nod your head and say, yes, Teresa, I am doing regular content. And if you're not doing really content, you kind of think, well, okay, I promise I will anyway. And blogs is one of those things that you could use as your regular content. And I often stand on stages and say, the reason I do a podcast is because I speak way better than I blog because I don't write well still, I don't write brilliantly.
Speaker 1: (04:20)
If you're on my email list, you might, well, you might agree or disagree. I'm not entirely sure, but I don't find writing as easy as I find speaking. So for instance, I have put together, I always put together different ideas of things I'm going to speak about on the podcast. And then I literally have a rough list of things that I'm going to talk about. And that's it. I don't write it down. I don't prep it any more than that. But I know as long as I know the subject, which luckily most things I talk about it do. I know I can literally just hit record and start talking, which is what I'm doing right now. Whereas if I was going to write a blog, Oh man, it would take me forever and I'd really struggle with it. However, saying that I have done blogs in the past and in the Academy, I create content every single month where I give a full lesson.
Speaker 1: (05:10)
So when I say less than it's like several videos long. There's downloads and there's various lessons, sheets and things to help about how to do all the different things I talk about on my podcast. All the different things we need to think about when running our business in terms of marketing my Academy members so that let's say one of them wants to do a blog, they can go and watch the full course and do the all the lessons in that blog course and therefore they can then be completely well versed with how to create a blog. So it's kind of odd that obviously I can happily do a course on how to do a blog, but I may not necessarily like writing blogs. So this seems a little bit funny for me, but anyway, we're going to go with them. So today I'm going to take you through the blogging checklist.
Speaker 1: (05:54)
Now, like I said, I've taken this out of the Academy. This is part of the PDFs at the end of the PDF, which kind of helps break it down and everything I've talked about in the lessons cause my lessons are videos that they can watch when there's a slideshow and I'm talking. So it's almost like I'm presenting these things to you and then I always do some kind of action type workbook or step workbook that they can then follow as they go along or they can use as a reminder later. And at the end of this workbook, I've put them my blog checklist of things that you might want to do or that you need to think about when you're creating a blog. And I thought, why not share that with you guys today? It's a super easy one, super simple, but hopefully it might help you if you've got a blog already, then it might just kind of help you find the gaps in maybe where you're doing your blog or if you're struggling with things.
Why Should You Be Creating Blog Posts?
Speaker 1: (06:42)
And then if you haven't got a blog, then pretty much this is going to help you start to finish how to do your blog and kind of all the steps you need to consider when you're doing it. Now, like I said, I'm not a massive fan of writing, but blogs are brilliant. They're really, really great. They're really easy in order to set up content as you go forward. So if you are sat there on with one of those people that hung your head in shame and said, I haven't got any regular content. Oh Teresa uh, I know what it's like. It's hard work doing this. I promise you. Hence why I'm recording this on a week before it's due to go out. And if you're sat there thinking, I need to produce some content, what shall I do? Blogs are one of the easiest things that you can do.
Speaker 1: (07:23)
So in terms of setup and barrier to entry, it's really low in terms of costs, it's really low. So really in terms of creating content, this is one of the easiest and simplest things that you can do. Now the other bits of content like podcasts and blogs and going live, are they saying that live is is again low barrier to entry and super kind of easy, no cost. However, most people don't actually like to go live and I know it's something that people do struggle with. However, if you are sat there thinking, I need to go live or I want to do, go back and listen to episode 84 Overcoming the Fear of Going Live with Tiffany Lee Bymaster. It was really, really good, really helpful. But anyway, today we're talking about blogs. So if you're sat there thinking, I want to create some content or I am doing a blog, but I'm not entirely sure I'm making the most of that blog, then this episode is going to be perfect.
Starting Your Blog Post
Speaker 1: (08:18)
So let's start right at the very beginning. Now the very first idea you're going to need when you're doing a blog. So if you're setting up a blog, and I'm not talking about the logistical or the technical how to get it on your site, if you are using a WordPress site though that is virtually built for blogs, if you haven't got a website, then at the very least you can put those on LinkedIn and you don't even have to have a website. You can just use LinkedIn to do it if you wanted. So, but I'm not really going to go into that. I'm going to go into actually once you say yes, I've got a blog and you know roughly what your blog is going to be about and that sort of thing. Obviously if you are this a business that is going to be about the thing you are selling or your product or service or whatever it might be.
Speaker 1: (09:01)
So the first thing you're going to think about is what are you going to write about in this blog? So I E you've come to sit and write a blog for today or that's going to go out this week. What is it you're going to put on that piece of paper? So the first thing I do is come up with your blog ideas. Now I would try and do these in kind of in a batch way so that even if you don't batch your blog as in you don't sit down and write three or four at a time, even if you're only writing one or two at a time. I would definitely think about trying to come up with lots of ideas at once and then just keep going back to those ideas and finding one. So I'm sure I've talked about this before, but some of the places I look for ideas are go and see what other people are writing about.
Speaker 1: (09:46)
Go and see. And by the way, just on that, it's not that you're going to go and copy their idea. It's not that you're going to go and copy their blog, but it's just the fact of your take on something. So let's say there's been a really good blog in your industry or done by your professional body or whatever it is, then it can be your take on that. It's just a case of actually that's really interesting at the moment and lots of people are talking about that or a lot of people are speaking about that thing that changed that idea, whatever it might be. So go and have a look what other people are writing. Google things in your area. So have a look at what people are Googling for and I've talked about this site, it's so many times, but answerthepublic.com is a really good place to do that.
Speaker 1: (10:30)
You'd go in, you type in a couple of the words that relate to your industry and it comes up with lots of questions that people are asking. The other thing to do is what do people ask all the time. So one thing I do is if I speak, if I, especially in the Academy and lots of the questions I answer in the Academy, I might then turn into a podcast episode. The same with the fact that this is a course in the Academy and I'm using one elements of this course to do a podcast episode. So the really has lots of options for you to come up with ideas. And what I tend to do is I use Evernote and on Evernote I just keep jotting down ideas as they come to me and I'll do a brainstorm in there as well so that when I come to do an episode of the podcast, and obviously let's pretend that's a blog, I will then look to and go, Oh yeah, I'll talk about this today.
Choosing Your Keywords
Speaker 1: (11:18)
So then I want you to think about, so let's see. You've picked your blog idea. I want you to think about what are the key words you want covered in that blog post. Now when I tell talk about keywords, all I'm talking about is if someone was to search for that thing, that blog post, what is it they're going to be typing into Google? And I don't necessarily mean a really long title. I mean what kind of keyword would they put in? So, for instance, I don't know what the title of this episode's going to be yet because my lovely team member, Kirsty decides what they're going to be called. But I might use the keywords for this episode talking about blog checklist or something like that. So think about what those keywords are, and I want you to bear that in mind right at the beginning because the idea with the keywords is you're going to keep dropping them in through the whole post.
Speaker 1: (12:10)
And I don't mean subliminally or, or just keep throwing the word and I mean you're going to try really hard to add in those keywords as you go along, but obviously it still needs to read. Okay. It still needs to make sense. So the reason you're going to be putting those keywords in is because you're going to be using, and one of the reasons people use blogs is because of the fact that it helps with your SEO, helps with your search engine optimization. And actually in a few weeks I'm recording an episode about search engine optimization, about really the basics and getting started because hand on heart, I know very little about it, so I'm actually really excited about that one. But I do know that having regular content go on your site and regular keywords go into your site through things like blog posts will be a really big benefit.
Writing Your Blog Post
Speaker 1: (12:57)
So the next thing you're going to do is you're going to start to write that blog post. Now I would love to sit here and give you advice and funny enough in the course I do put a bit of advice, but in terms of actually writing, I guess it does come down a lot to your own style and how you want to do it. Now what I tend to do is if I'm writing, I will almost like do sections and then fill it out. So for instance, let's say I was going to write something that had five points to it, so five ways in which you can do X, Y, Zed, whatever it is. Then I would make sure I put each of those five things down first because otherwise I need to know what five things I'm going to mention and then I kind of fill out around it and then I would do an intro later.
Speaker 1: (13:40)
But that's me. That's how I write. I, like I said, I'm not sure I'm the most successful at that, but you're gonna write your blog post. The other thing you can do, and again, I mentioned it in the course, is you can actually get someone else to write it. If you don't want to write it, then you can brief a copywriter and the copywriter can write your blog posts for you. Now, there's a lot more into that. Obviously you've got to find someone good who can do it, someone who can get your tone of voice, someone that will know what they're talking about, but that is an option. If you're sat there thinking, I really need to do a blog. I don't have time, but I've got loads of ideas, or I'm not very good at writing, then that might be an option for you.
Proofreading Your Blog Post and Coming Up with A Title
Speaker 1: (14:17)
So once the actual blog posts is written and the next thing you're going to do is you're going to proofread it. Now me, I can proof read other people's work. Absolutely fine. I cannot proofread my own work. Again if you've ever had an email from me, my you spot a typo or two, they always sneak in there. No matter how many people I get to proofread stuff, I promise you, I don't know how they do it anyway. Get someone else to read it. Now, in all honesty, my Wednesday email, it's either my assistant or it's my husband. If he's here, you just need another pair of eyes on it cause they can see something that you, it doesn't really matter at this point whether they're an expert in the field or industry or not, unless it's proper technical. However, what matters is that you know, your grammar is right and your spelling's right.
Speaker 1: (15:05)
And I used to be so embarrassed that I was rubbish at that and that I couldn't spell brilliantly and I wasn't brilliant at grammar. My nine year old comes home with homework and I am honestly like, let me just Google what that grammar thing is because I think in my year they must have skipped it or something because I am terrible at it and I used to be really embarrassed and now I'm not embarrassed at all. I just think it is what it is. We all can't be brilliant at everything, can we? So I try and get someone else to check these things for me. Okay. Once you've got them to check it and once you're happy with it then come up with your title. Again, this might sound a little bit backwards that you do the whole blog post first, then the title. But that's exactly what I do with the podcast.
Speaker 1: (15:47)
I don't decide the title, I talk, I record it and then Kirsty listens to the episodes while she's putting together the show notes and she comes up with a really good title. Now there is a skill in coming up with titles and she always seems to do a really, really good job. So whether you need someone who's got that skill, I don't know. But really the title should be one of the last things you do in terms of the writing, just because then you know what your blog pieces about and you can maybe then have a much better idea in terms of what that title should be. And again, I want you to write down lots of options. I want you to think about different titles and then which one sums up perfectly, which one grabs your attention? Which one would you read if you were your customer?
Speaker 1: (16:31)
So the title shouldn't just be like an after thought. It shouldn't be just chucked on at the end. It should really be considered about, okay, because the title is like your shop window. That's the thing that's going to make people come into the blog and wants to read more. Be careful you're not to click baity if you don't know what I mean. So you know, Hey, when you're on social media, there's like genuine. The one I always get, and you might not get the reference if you're not British, but I always get, you should see Susan Boyle now or the other one I've seen lots is a can't believe how much weight she has lost. And sometimes I click on it, just have a look and then you click there and you go, it doesn't know Pinterest, Susan Boyle at all, and it's some other random bit.
Speaker 1: (17:13)
So that's click bait. Click bait is like desperately trying to get you to click on it. Now I obviously have too much time on my hands that day. I can assure you I try not to do that now, but it's only clickbait if it's not real. So if you have got some amazing, crazy, brilliant headline or some awesome kind of, you know, blog posts that you've put together, which does share something phenomenal, then absolutely put that down as a headline. But just try not to be too much like, like I said, just not to click baity. Okay, so you come up with a title.
Make Sure You Have A Call to Action
The next thing I want you to think about is your call to action. Often people write really good blogs and they're really informative and then they don't tell people what to do. So I'm not saying it's always about selling because I know none of us like being sold to, but genuinely if you've created a blog post that's brilliant and is really helpful and you know that if someone signs up for your X, Y, Zed or buys your product, it's going to help them even more than why wouldn't you add that call to action?
Speaker 1: (18:16)
And like I said, it doesn't necessarily have to be a sales call to action. It could be let me know what you think. It could be. Don't forget to say hi on social media. It could be leave a comment. It could be, tell me an example of when you did this, but I would definitely definitely add some type of call to action. You want some interaction of some sort. Really so, and like I said, often that's the bit we forget now. There's nothing wrong with adding a call to action halfway through. It doesn't just have to be at the end, but obviously it needs to make sense for your actual post. So when you put your blog together, you don't just want to shove a random call to action in the middle. You do want it to make sense within your blog, so you're going to put that call to action and you're going to have them do something.
Linking to Related Content
Speaker 1: (18:59)
Then the other thing I want you to think about is can you link it to any other posts? So if you've done blog posts in the past, can you link them to any of the posts that relate to the thing you've just written about that goes on from the thing you've written about. Now I do it in most episodes and sometimes, well actually every time I do it through sheer while it's never plans. That's what I'm trying to say. I don't sit here and go right today I'm going to advertise this episode, but for instance, I was just mentioning the fact of going live and a few weeks ago we had that episode, so therefore I mentioned it. Now I have to stop the recording. I have to go back and see what episode it is. I can never remember. And that's how I know I'm not really kind of strategically going, right, we're going to mention this episode, but of course because I mentioned doing a live video, then why wouldn't I say, Oh by the way, if you are interested, go and check this out.
Speaker 1: (19:52)
So that's what you're doing. You're trying to not only support their learning by going, Oh, and there's this here and this here, but also you're trying to get them to engage in more of your content. Because again, the more your content people consume, the more they start to trust you and like you and want more. So you really want to try and include something else. But like I said, I don't tend to do it purposefully. I tend to just always somehow bring in another episode. But I want you to think about when you're doing your blog, can you mention another episode, not episode and other blog posts. And also, you know, almost the case of if you like, so this one, you might like this one. I mean that might be your call to action. It doesn't have to be, you know, it doesn't have to be a different call to action to a different link to a post.
Do You Have an Image for Your Post?
Speaker 1: (20:37)
Okay, thank you. You answered that. I felt like I went on of it. Next thing on the list is an image. Now image for your website image for your social media. Maybe you're going to need some kind of visual representation for that blog post. Now ideally you want to create some kind of templates or a framework in which you can sort of drop in the details every time. Now, if you've seen me post the podcast on social media, you will see that almost all of the posts are not identical, but they all follow the same theme. We just drop in a different picture. We drop in the different texts, the different episode, and we have two colours, so it's either blue or the pinks that are my brand colours and therefore that's pretty much same for everyone. Well, not only does that help make it super quick and simple when we're creating those bits of social media, but also it means that there's a consistency and a look and feel that hopefully as you look through my social media, if you see a post come up with me, you'll know it's my stuff.
Social Media Scheduling and Email Marketing
Speaker 1: (21:42)
So I want you to think about that. Now you can use stock images and as always a told you about lots of different websites that give absolutely free stock images, so Unsplash, Pexels, Pixabay. We'll link up to all these in the show notes, but I want you to think about is that necessarily the best thing for me personally, I think creating something saying Canva that you can then replicate or duplicate for me is better than just picking a random stock image, but you do want there to be a slight difference between each episode. You don't want it to look exactly the same, so have a think about that as well, but you're going to want an image maybe for your website and or for social media. Then once you've created your social media images, you want to schedule that blog post on every site that you're on, on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn, wherever you are, you want to schedule those blog posts.
Speaker 1: (22:38)
Now I think I've talked about this before and we are definitely to talk about this in the future cause I've got an interview coming up about repurposing content. I have done an episode in the past, I will link to it. I can't remember what it is. So what I do here with the podcast is we immediately post that on a Monday saying, Hey, new podcast. And then during that week we post probably three, four, maybe five times on Twitter, two or three times on Facebook. You know, Instagram, I'd probably put up a couple in my stories a week. So we don't just post once, we post several times, but we have different images and different copy that goes along with that post. So we're not just putting up the same image and the same copy. So here we go. I've got some examples. I've just stopped the recording and went and found them.
Speaker 1: (23:23)
So I could give you proper examples of how we do it. So a couple of weeks ago I interviewed Natalie from Hot Content talking about how to make the most of content that you've already produced. So on the day that the podcast went live, the post that went out had a, was the video that we normally stand and we normally have two or three clips so the audio will different on them. So the content for the first post said for this week's episode, we're interviewing my lovely friend and then we tag them in where she'll be sharing all of her top tips for using content. It's full effects, her tried and tested re-purposing process and much more. Listen to the full podcast here and then it's a link. Then a few days later with a different image and a different clip. We post again saying when creating new content, make sure you're thinking about whether or not you link back to the content you've previously created.
Speaker 1: (24:15)
Maximise your content by repurposing it in several platforms. Listen to this week's episode of marketing and that converts and we put the link and then later on in a few days after that we write again. So have you written a blog, filmed a video, recorded a podcast. Now what if you want to know how to make sure you're using every marketing opportunity to get your content seen, then listen to this week's podcast with an and she's tagged in. So as you can see, we've talked about that episode three times, but we've taken a slightly different angle on it each time. And we've used different images, different clips. So I don't want you to just think, right, I'm just going to do one post and that's it because you've got to make the most of this content. And then what we do is several weeks later, or every single week we do at least one, we do an in case you missed it and she might be an in case you missed it.
Speaker 1: (25:04)
And we'll talk about her episode again. So I want you to think about that. That's the case of get those ready for your posters, as your creating your blog and you're getting ready for your blog to go live. So then the next thing you do is you obviously make your blog live on the site cause you need that link. You schedule all those social media posts. Now the other tip I want to give you is if you are numbering your blogs, like I number my podcasts, one thing I do is I use a plugin called pretty links. I'm on WordPress and that pretty links means that I can go in and I can put in the link to my episode and then I can create a link and it all my episodes are Teresa Heath wearing.com forward slash then whatever the number is. So for instance, this week's will be teresaheathwareing.com/91. 91 as in nine and one and you can go to that and it'll take you directly to that episode.
Speaker 1: (25:57)
So again, if you're numbering your blogs or you're numbering your content, then that's definitely something you're going to want to think about. If you can do that sort of thing, it'll just help. It's super easy and it means I can schedule stuff ahead of it being live on the sites because I know where I can send people to. And then the other thing you might want to do is you might want to email your list with your new blog details. So obviously when you are setting up the blog, you're going to tell them once you've done your episode or done your, I keep calling it episode. You know what I mean? Once you've done each blog, you might want to email out to your list and say, Hey, there's a new blog post out. We talk about this, that and the other. Now if you are on my email list, you will know that I don't necessarily tell you about what episodes are out on the podcast because I like to view that content is different content.
Speaker 1: (26:45)
However, I'm not saying it's wrong to and maybe once in a while I should and do do it, but for me, I just don't want to do that. That's not why I did my email list or that's not how I use my email list. But absolutely nothing wrong with that. Absolutely make the most of it, and especially in the early days where your blog is new, you really want to be taking every single opportunity in order to get that blog out there. Okay. My voice is starting to commit now and need to give it a rest before I interview later, but hopefully I've taken you through all those points and hopefully you've understood them. And I know I've talked about blogs and the check this or blogs, but obviously some of this stuff is really gonna work for any content that you're producing. So I really, really hope this has been helpful no matter what content you've got.
Speaker 1: (27:32)
Now, if you have enjoyed this episode and you've liked what I've been talking about, then obviously in the Academy there is a full course about this where I literally go into detail around every single point of this checklist. If you want to know more about the Academy, I would love to have you in there. My Academy members are my world. I love them daily and I love sort of answering their questions and helping them grow their businesses. So I would love to have you in there too. You can find out more about the academy at teresaheathwareing.com/academy. There we go. Another pretty link that basically, and the great thing about that is if I ever changed the landing page for the Academy, I can just keep putting it to the same, same pretty link, which is helpful anyway, so yet do go and check that out because like I said, that's one of the many courses that are in the Academy and I go into detail on all those bits if you need help with that. Okay. I hope you've enjoyed today's episode. I will be back next week, hopefully sounding a little bit better. We'll see how quick I record the next one and I will see you next week with another interview. Until then, have an amazing week.