We all start out with the best intentions. Which is exactly how you should start anything. With gusto. But sometimes, and especially for those business owners who daily juggle the role of accountant vs marketer vs sales person vs customer service delivery, best intentions often get replaced all too quickly by business-of-today – the stuff that simply has to be done in order to make money.
That’s ok. It’s happened to all of us.
The only thing that’s different is how long it takes before business-of-today becomes the number 1 priority, and marketing and other “nice-to-haves” become the things we save for a rainy day.
And then we sit, when we have a lull in business, and we start to find that initial creative excitement that once ignited your business into being – and you realise that you have horribly neglected that one thing that you swore you’d never neglect.
For almost all my clients, the notion of creating content is daunting – which is why they use me to help them. Having a solid, consistent, regular content stream (in whatever shape or size) is essential to any business – especially if you want to
So, if you’re reading this and you’re feeling pretty rubbish that you’ve neglected something that you feel you should be doing more regularly, don’t feel that way. It happens to the best of us. It just means that your business has been moving – and you’ve been driving it.
Finding yourself some quiet time to get your focus back in check is the first way to get things back on track. Here are a few tips that may help.
I am forever making notes – on my phone or on a random piece of paper – about things that resonate with me, throughout the day. I may be walking my Spaniel and have a thought about a cool blog idea, or I may be having a chat with my best friend, and realise the importance of something else – and make a note to come back to it later to explore it in a blog. I may read an interesting article in City A.M. which sparks a discussion on a client’s blog, or I may see a picture that is simply worth sharing. Whatever it is – I make a note of it (mental, or otherwise) and when I’m ready, and in the right frame of mind to turn that into an idea, I develop that (usually into a blog) into something that I can use in my marketing activity, social media or emails.
Things don’t get done, because you let them. Yes, that does make sense. Scheduling time to get things done is one way to ensure that you get to everything on your to-do list – including blogging. So, whether it’s taking a Friday morning in your favourite coffee shop to write a blog and schedule some social activity, or whether it’s a first thing, every day, mission – whatever it is that works for you, identify 1 (or more, if it works) time in your diary, every week, where you focus on getting a piece of content together. You’ll soon see yourself looking forward to these focussed little meetings with yourself, and the excitement of getting something done.
It’s easier to spot mistakes in other work than our own – especially if you’ve read and re-read your content so many times. If you’re worried about grammar and spelling, or if you’re worried about simply getting your train of thought across, test your piece of content on someone that you trust – a co-worker, a friend, a business mentor. Do it for as long as it takes you to build up your confidence and start pushing out promising content that delivers even more traffic to your website.
If you don’t know what the point is, then how will your reader? Often, we start out with a great idea, and then once you’ve written the opening paragraph – you’re faced with a “but what’s the point” dilemma. That’s ok too. Sometimes we (and our message) gets lost in our excitement of delivering it in a compelling way. It just means that you need to strip it back. Try this:
Then – break your thought down into sections.
Intro
Tip / Thought 1
Tip / Thought 2
Tip / Thought 3
Closing
CALL TO ACTION (ie: Call us to talk about your query, today / Email the team for more / Take our survey today)
If you need some help building a content strategy that works – and finding out the best way to get your brand echoed through your website, then get in touch.
When we speak about our “Content Services” – people often think it’s this blanket statement that covers mostly marketing blurb, and self-proclamation. But here’s a little fact that you probably didn’t know about us.
Fresh Brew’s founder, Katy Roberts, also has extensive ESL Teaching experience – having lived in Taiwan for a couple of years, teaching English to learners of all ages and all abilities – from A-a-Apple through to business negotiations in a bank. Just recently, Katy was asked to pitch for a project where the purpose was to create a set of lesson plans for ESL teachers and to come up with new and interesting ways to teach a vocabulary set, a specific grammar structure and to enable learners to be equipped in real-life conversational scenarios.
Fresh Brew is not just about creating what we think works – but very much about creating what you need, to drive business, towards YOUR business.
So – in the interest of sharing and caring – here’s a lesson plan (LessonPlan_BookingAHoliday ) she drew up a few years ago for a specific class looking to develop their conversational ability in a particular situation.
Along with the lesson plan, she also created the comprehension test, recorded an audio interview and created the vocabulary test cards required.
If you have a specific content requirement – but just don’t have the time – get in touch. Whether it’s a white paper, or a blog, an invitation or a Press Release – we can help create that for you.