Even marketers have issues blogging

Hello my name is Kristin and I’m a serial offender! I’m a marketer who should know better.

My blogs have been a little few and far between recently because, well, I’ve been busy – writing other people’s blogs. And that’s made me a little blogged out. But that’s really no excuse.

Today I’m leading a workshop where I’m preaching the business benefits of  regular blog writing. D’oh! And I’m writing this so that I can claim a fresh blog – talk about leaving it to the last minute. But really, my lack of regular blogging – is the marketing equivalent of ‘plumber’s drip’.

According to Hubspot, 57% of businesses that blog report that it’s responsible for new business. Anyone who has a blog, knows it drives both their position on google and traffic to their website. Yes, blogging is a great tool to add to your business’ marketing arsenal.

And so back to my recent lack lustre performance. What could I have done – nay, what will I do from this point forward, to ensure a more regular contribution to my community?

4 tips to ensure blogging success

1. Set aside a regular hour once a week or fortnight to write. And do nothing for that hour except write until I’m done – then I can start polishing. Don’t polish as you go, it wastes lots of time and nothing’s ever perfect on the first draft – yes, really – even for those of us who write for a living.
2. Schedule the time in your diary – with reminders – so that you can’t inadvertently do book yourself something else to do.
3. Use my favourite writing tool Write or die  (see note) – which pushes you to keep writing under pain of death – well not death exactly, but nasty consequences just the same. And no, editing your work doesn’t count. Set your time and your word limit that you’re trying to achieve (a good blog is around 500+ words, but not a book please) and go until you’re done. No thinking, just writing. Try it, you’ll soon learn how it works. Polish after.
4. Keep my list of blogging topics near by at all times for frequent updates. Once you get your head into thinking you’re going to engage in blog writing, you’ll be inundated with ideas for the next one. Your task is to keep track of all of them somewhere useful and easily found, so that when it’s that time to write you have a huge source of ideas. actually I keep mine on the notes section of my ipad for handy reference – I just haven’t looked at them for a couple of weeks – hence the delay in getting to this blog.
5. Publicly commit to how often you’re going to do it. Tell someone how often you’re committing to blog. Then have that person be your ‘slient’ partner in crime so that you can let them know you’ve lived up to your commitment to yourself. Their job isn’t to make you feel guilty, it’s just to be there silently in the background. You can send them a simple SMS, Facebook message or email with the word “done”, when you’ve finished. Try it, it works.

So there you are, I’m now publicly committing to writing my own blog posts at least weekly for the next 2 months.  Blogging really is a great tool, when used properly. So go ahead, get started – be you on the page. If you’re not sure what to write, you might want to read one of my previous blogs on blogging. Or sign up on the site to my up coming blog idea of the day (drop me a note or sign-up on the right of the screen).

If you want me to be your silent blogging partner, I’d be more than happy to oblige.

Write or die note: if you set it for kamikaze and stop typing, it will delete words. So maybe until you get used to using it, try one of the more forgiving settings!!

Kristin Austin is a marketing & communication strategist and trainer who’s been doing the marketing ‘do’ for almost 20 years. She loves creating content and campaigns that drive engagement (using WIIFM) and capturing customers for her clients. She can be found hanging out in social media-land – for her clients’ benefit of course when she’s not working on client campaigns, strategy or writing them content. You can follow her @glitteratichic or connect on LinkedIn. If you’re not on social media and still want to connect – she’s happy to talk marketing and business boosting over coffee.