Archive for outsourcing
Blog writing – 11 tips on how to get started
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So you want to write a blog, but you’re not sure how to get started. First things first.
Why are you doing it?
Before you start writing, figure out what you’re doing it for. Is it for marketing purposes? Do you want to prove your business smarts and connect with potential clients? Maybe, you’re just a little crazy and want to do it for fun. Or perhaps, you want to change careers to a hobby you’re passionate about - mine’s marketing, social media and training (sad, I know, but I’m passionate about it nevertheless).
Next think about the audience you’re trying to attract – what do you think they’ll be interested in reading about? What are the hot topics of the day, week, month?
Then start blogging – yes, right now.
Here’s how.
- Head to www.wordpress.org (my preference, but there a lot of others).
- Pick a design free theme – don’t waste too much time at this point – go with something simple (you can always pretty it up later).
- Pick a topic and write 500 or so words.
- Be interesting, have something useful to say, even be provocative.
- Pay attention to your key word tags. Make sure you tag all your posts to your key words
- Spell check – particularly if this is for business or career change purposes. People will think more highly of you if you get the basics right.
- Add the occasional pic (people like the visual stimlation of a good pic or video or poll for that matter)
- Make sure that you publicise your posts on twitter, linkedin and facebook and anywhere else you use. There are plug ins that you can use that will automate that process, but if you’re new – just start with the writing and use social media the ’old fashioned’ way.
If you’re in the writing mood, write a couple of posts and schedule them to be published over a couple of weeks. I usually suggest to clients that they start slow – as their readership will be low and there’s no point wasting good content. But if you’ve already got a good following on social media – you’ll have traffic from the first post. So write away.
The key thing with a blog is consistency. Write one, write another and write one every week or so. Anyone who writes for a living will tell you, it’s 1% inspiration and 99% just getting it done.
9. Keep a list of the random ideas you’ll have (I promise) about great things to write about. It makes sitting down to write so much easier than having to think of your topic AND write at the same time.
Before long, you’ll have generated a raft of great content.
10. Once you’ve got a good body of work, go back and see if you can create links between the pieces – google likes that.
11. Finally, make sure you’ve filled in your ‘about’ page, so people can learn more about you and include some kind of contact details too (just in case that new business, new dream job or hollywood to knock on your door).
Of course, if it all gets too hard, you can outsource.
Happy blogging. My thanks to Drew Barrett who inspired this post with his LinkedIn question.
Kristin Austin is a marketing & communication strategist and trainer who’s been doing the marketing ‘do’ for almost 20 years. She can be found hanging out in social media land – for her clients’ benefit of course. You can follow her @glitteratichic or click on the LinkedIn icon on the right handside to connect there.
Brain surgery & rocket science an e-how to
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Anyone for DIY brain surgery?
Okay so this post isn’t really about brain surgery or rocket science – would you really want to be your own brain surgeon? Or accidently propel yourself into space never to return (with only so much oxygen at your disposal). Nope didn’t think so.
So now that we’ve established that’s not for you – what about DIY accounting and tax returns? Yes, there will be some of you out there. But did you know that you’re statistically more likely to get less in your return if you DIY (that and probably want to stick pins in your eyes long before you finish).
Heck, I wouldn’t even cut my own hair. Ok, well maybe just the fringe bit (but it’s never as good as when a great hairdresser has a go).
And it’s the exactly the same with creating your own website, doing your own marketing or creating your own materials or designs. Why – you ask? When you have a pen, a computer and a host of other technology you’re itching to use? Why shouldn’t you do your own thing?
Well in essence unless you’ve been a marketer for a while, you’re likely to spend (possibly even waste) a great deal of time pfaffing, yes pfaffing about getting frustrated that what you’re doing is not going according to plan. Even if it does go according to plan, maybe and I hate to be the one that says this, but maybe the plan is headed in the wrong direction or missing a couple of vital ingredients – one in particular.
So what might this vital ingredient be?
It’s experience. I did say this wasn’t rocket science.
Experience makes a massive difference to your marketing projects. People who’ve eaten, slept and breathed marketing for a decade or more can offer you so much more than just technology or passing you onto to someone who claims to be able to use the technology. They’ll guide the process, create stuff of value and find that great space between what you want to achieve and what your clients want you to give them.
So, sure technology is sexy, but it doesn’t (and shouldn’t) claim to understand what people (your customers) want, nor how best to give it to them.
You wouldn’t trust your brain to your next door neighbour (unless they’re a qualified neurology surgeon), so why would you risk your business – possibly the lifeblood of your family to have a go yourself.
If you’re now thinking about outsourcing, you might also want to read 7 ways to tell if your marketer is any good (or not).
As always would love to chat further – either in comments below or in person. The number’s at the top of the screen.
Another 3 reasons to outsource your marketing
Posted by: | CommentsIf you’re wanting to move your business forward, you’ll most likely need to up your marketing ante. However, with everything else you’ve already got on your plate, you might be contemplating outsourcing it. But it can seem like a big move. Here are three good reasons why outsourcing could be a good idea for you.
You’ve got better things to do. Unless you’re a marketer with a good lot of experience under your belt, you’re probably going to find doing your own marketing will take up significant amounts of your time, effort and energy. Chances are, that unless you’re planning a career change and could do with the extra practice, you could spend that time doing what it really is that you love doing in your business.
Just like I look at accountants/book-keepers, tradies (my husband laughs at this one), web designers, etc and think I could probably do those things myself – truth be told I can’t and if I tried, I’m almost guaranteed it would end badly. All of these take skill sets I don’t really own. If by some miracle, my dodgy attempts did kind of work, not only would I pull most of my own hair out in the process, I’d probably face issues down the track (any non-web developers who’ve tried doing their own code know this to be true!! Needless to say, I’ve learned my lesson).
An understanding of subtleties and congruence. A key reason why people might not engage with brands the way the owners would like is because something has made the customer feel uncomfortable. Usually they can’t put a finger on it, they just know it’s not quite right – and go searching elsewhere – and that’s bad news for the business. It can be something as simple as hitting a voicemail when calling into an organisation that promises great customer service or something as complex as having the wrong business name.
Recently a client’s business name was quite literally scaring prospects away from the door. The owners were having to work twice as hard to convince prospects that they really could do the job without being ‘hit up’ for the extra services the name implied.
Arm’s length objectivity. The client above, had known for a while there was something not quite right with their name, but they felt a bit stuck. Whilst they knew change was necessary, it was all feeling a bit too hard, so it was easier to do nothing.
A good marketer can not only point out what’s required, but will ease the transition process as much as they possibly can and often, when all is said and done, the change won’t be as hard as you think it’s going to be.
If you need more convincing about outsourcing your marketing, you might want to also read;
