Attention Executives and Small Business Owners: Blogging Every Day for Your Business should be like brushing your teeth. Seriously.
When you were a kid, you were scared of brushing your teeth, and you hated it, and let's be honest, that's how most of you feel about creating and publishing business content every day in the form of a blog.
But aren't you the same people who for the last 10 years have asked people like me "how can we get to the top of Google?" and "how can we grow our web traffic" and "how can we get more people to convert on our website?"
Well, some of you haven't. Some of you have simply asked me how I do it (blog every day that is).
Regardless, I'm breaking it down here.
Why? Because I work 60-80 hour weeks just like you, running my own small company, and for the last year, I've created content and blogged every single day.
Not only that, but I've repurposed the blog content into video, audio in the form of podcasts and daily tips, so as to have a presence on:
MEDIUM
LINKEDIN
FACEBOOK
INSTAGRAM
YOUTUBE
SNAPCHAT
PODCAST
TWITTER
So What? Well, these efforts have helped grow our web traffic by 525%, with Google, Medium, LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter all leading the way at driving the traffic.
And see that increase since July 2018 all the way through October 15 (today)? Yep, blogging every day is like writing a small check into your top returning investment account every day.
(For more on how blogging every day drives web traffic, click here.)This means a lot of new eyeballs have been on our business, and as a result of these efforts, combined with others, such as building out an amazing team of course, Gross Revenue has doubled. Yep, doubled.Isn't this what every business wants?So that takes care of the WHY. Now, do the HOW.
And for just an hour or so every day, you all need to take care of your halitosis, plaque and prevent cavities. BRUSH YOUR TEETH.
Ahem, Blog.
Here's how executives (CEOs, COOs, CTOs, CMOs) and small business owners (who I believe are the ultimate executives and marketers) can blog every day.
1. Check your ego at the door. Let me explain. Stop caring what people think. You know your business needs to do this, so just do it. For example, your audio and video quality don't matter. Your amount of followers on Instagram or subscribers/views on YouTube or whatever don't matter. How you look on camera doesn't matter. How your voice sounds doesn't matter.
What matters is that you are passionate about your business and your job. You're passionate about your employees, co-workers, board members, family, clients, customers, products, services, etc.
You know your differentiators, and you're here to talk about them. Some of you reading this are already bought into this concept.
It's going to be hard at first, but you have to understand that if you dwell on any of this little shit, you won't end up creating anything. You'll just be frozen, which is stressful.
Growth is exhilarating. And it starts with building momentum. That's what you're doing.
You didn't get to this point in your career by being underwhelming or boring. You are dynamic. Get over yourself and just start creating content regardless of what people say about your freaking audio or video quality.
More on this here.
2. Identify Your Pillar Content. Pillar Content is a concept I've stolen (but executed well) from Gary Vaynerchuk, CEO of VaynerX and VaynerMedia.
Pillar Content is Explained well in this video, so I highly encourage you to watch it all the way through, as it breaks down how to use Whitepapers, Speaking Appearances, Meeting Notes and Frequently Asked Questions to repurpose them into daily pieces of content (blogs, as well as Instagram Posts, Podcasts, Facebook Posts and even audio for Alexa Flash Briefings).
Our top examples of pillar content, from which we've derived several blogs and social media posts are our whitepapers like our 2018 Data Download, and our speaking appearances like Data Driven Academy, and various events like Red Letter Day and workshops with the Nashville Fashion Alliance.
3. Execute. So this is the part where you can't just read about the diet plan or the workout plan, you have to actually prepare the meals and do the push-ups. You can't just hope for business growth or hope for pearly whites with no cavities. You've got to get over yourself and your excuses and just get to creating the content. Start with a piece of pillar content from the past and resurrect it.
And I know you have a lot of follow up questions, mainly about what tools to use to create your content and where to publish your blog. I get that. But don't be fancy. Just start writing. And if you're not a writer, just start recording, then transcribe it. If you're not good on camera, write it out first. Practice it. Delete your bad ones and keep going.
Like learning a language, you'll get faster each day. As your efficiency grows and your speed increases, you'll be excited about doing it rather than dread it. You'll be like Jerry Seinfeld, constantly coming up with ideas for "new material" and writing it down.
But, since I know you insist, here is an initial breakdown of "how" you should post your content.
Question: Where should your blog be?
Answer: It should be on your website. You either have a WordPress website or a Shopify Website, right? I mean, a few of you have BigCommerce or Magento or even Drupal or whatever, but if you're reading this there's a 95% chance you have WordPress or Shopify.
WordPress and Shopify have built in blog functionality. So do the others. They all have "Categories" and "Tags" which are ways of organizing your content. Look to the righthand sidebar of this blog to see what I mean.
Question: Should I also post my blog on Medium.com?
Simple answer: YES. Here's why. Again, DATA.
Question: Should I also post my blog on LinkedIn.com?
Simple answer: 100% YES. Much like Medium, but with a built in audience and and easy way to grow your audience by searching for people and sending them an invite to connect. If they accept, they will see your content in their feed. This is the #1 way to get in front of people all day every day for free.
Question: Should I post natively on platforms or use automated tools?
Answer: I put this next because I know you're already thinking: "Paul, you mean to tell me I have to blog every day AND post it to multiple places?" Haha, yes. Exactly. You're copying and pasting your blog into Medium and LinkedIn. It's easy. Do it. It will drive traffic to your website, like I said. Your LinkedIn articles may need to have more of a B2B slant, but don't worry about that, just post it.
The answer to this one is, don't use an automated tool. Actually post it yourself. It's an important exercise to understand the mindset of the user on the platform you are posting on. It gives you a checkpoint to always make it relevant to your audience.
More on this here.
Note: when posting on all platforms, copy and paste your byline with a link back to your website, under your article (see mine below each of my posts).
Question: How do I create a podcast?
Answer: Read this.
Question: How do I create an Alexa Flash Briefing Skill?
Answer: Read this. (And this is where you start to see that there's some efficiencies gained, etc.
Question: How do I get "unstuck?"
Answer: I know there will be days where you can't figure out what to write about. In spite of 4-5 pieces of pillar content being something that should help fill up 2/3 of the year, there's still more than 100 days to account for. I like to also weave in...
Question: What About Instagram and Facebook?
Answer: I've prepared this video for you to see how to create nice imagery to post on Instagram and Facebook. They should honestly be some of your favorite quotes or one-liners from the blog you just wrote. I've also sprinkled in a few examples into this post. 🙂
Also, exploring features in each tool can easily get you unstuck. For example, the Questions Sticker is an example of a fun feature of Instagram Stories. Use the platform and learn. It can even give you more blog material. Just because it's different, it doesn't matter. Keep posting and you will get better. Here are plenty of Instagram How-Tos for Executives and Small Business Owners who are insta-beginners just like you.
Question: How to I edit video?
Answer: Do you have a Mac? Then you have iMovie for free. Use it. Don't get fancy. Just produce. Don't have a Mac? YouTube has the ability for you to record and edit content on it before you publish. Start that way, produce content daily, then after 100 straight days of putting out content, look around for ways to improve the quality of the post-production.
Thanks for reading, watching and listening, and have a great day!
KEEP MARKETING!
Paul Hickey, Founder / CEO / Lead Strategist at Data Driven Design, LLC has created and grown businesses via digital strategy and internet marketing for more than 10 years. His sweet spot is using analytics to design and build websites and grow the audience and revenue of businesses via SEO/Blogging, Google Adwords, Bing Ads, Facebook and Instagram Ads, Social Media Content Marketing and Email Marketing. The part that he’s most passionate about is quantifying next marketing actions based on real data.
