There is no question that creating content for a website is a worthwhile use of time. Enterprise marketers try to show the value to their team of advisors on why it’s a good idea to write articles and post them on their website. Some of the reasons why advisors resist blogging include:
– They don’t see the value
– They say they don’t have time
– They don’t think they have anything to write about
Let’s run through these quickly. The value of blogging can be seen by advisors who commit to it as part of their business. When someone blogs about a topic they can be seen as an expert in the area they are blogging about. An advisor’s target audience can relate to them easier. People want to work with people they like and they can relate to. Secondly, if advisors are not blogging because they don’t have time, it goes back to not understanding how it can help their business. In today’s digital world, not having an online presence can do more harm than good. These 10 reasons why advisors should be blogging can help them see the value and incorporate it into their schedule.
Lastly, the reason for not thinking they have anything to write about goes back to having confidence in their knowledge and experience. Topics advisors could write about could be seasonal related to tax planning or life planning such has planning to start a family or estate planning. If there is an area that an advisor is particularly passionate about than sharing and giving tips is a great place to start. Many concepts that might seem straightforward or obvious to an advisor that has been in business for a long time might not be as clear to others.
Now that we’ve discussed some of the excuses that advisors often give for not blogging let’s explain how to get started and make this a consistent activity that adds value. There are 6 steps that I recommend to make writing articles and posting them to your website a consistent activity. Let’s get into it.
Steps Advsiors Can Take To Start Writing Blog Content:
1. Set a goal
Take some time to identify and what the blog should accomplish. Understand and outline who it is that your content should be trying to reach. Who is your ideal target client? What do they care about? What do they struggle with? It’s great to know the problems and challenges your target audience faces so that as a content producer you can write on topics that are important to them. Each time a new blog is written, the question should be asked, “does this meet the goal of our blog?”
2. Brainstorm Topics
Based on the planning completed in step 1, you can brainstorm a list of relevant topics that your target audience will care to read about. Having a long list of topics makes writing time all about writing and not about thinking of what topic to write about. These topics should be listed somewhere that is easy to access and easy to edit. This could be a word document or note-taking tool. If there is someone that helps with the blogging, this person should also be shared on the brainstorm list of topics as well.
3. Schedule when you will write a topic
Pick your first topic and schedule a time in your calendar to write the blog post. If the thought of this is overwhelming it doesn’t need to be. Open up a word document and start writing whatever comes to mind. Another option for getting a blog written is to sit with someone on your team that can take notes as you vocalize your ideas. Someone can either record the conversation or take notes, then take it back and create the blog post.
4.Stick to that time when it pops up in your calendar
When the time comes up on your calendar, don’t ignore it. It’s easy to reschedule it or continue working on whatever is currently on your plate but that’s when it becomes harder to make blog writing a consistent action. As a bonus, when you schedule it, make it a consistent time and day in the calendar. For example, every Tuesday morning is committed to creating content. While this would be ideal, of course, things come up but knowing in your mind that each week at the same time is when an article will be written is great for productivity and commitment to something new.
5. Schedule it to go live
When the blog has been reviewed and edited, it’s time to schedule it to go live. Ideally, it’s great to work a few weeks ahead so you don’t need to publish an article that was written right away. Having a content calendar is a good idea to keep track of what topics have been written, which topics have been published, and which topics are scheduled to be published. There are many templates available to do this or using a simple spreadsheet is also an option.
6. Promote It
The last step in the process is probably the most important. If you write the most amazing blog article but then no one sees it or reads it then it was all for nothing. The last step is about promoting and telling the world to read your article. The article should be shared on social media channels, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter. It’s not absolutely necessary to be on every social media platform. It’s more important that you pick one or two and have a presence on them than to try to have a strong presence on all of them. The second important place to promote is to your existing clients and prospects. If you have their email address, you can send it to them through an email newsletter. Email marketing and sending an email newsletter is a great way to promote new content and stay top of mind with clients and prospects.
There’s no question that blogging is a valuable activity that anyone in business should incorporate into their routines. Once you get over the roadblocks that have been holding you back from creating your own content and follow the six steps listed in this email you’ll see the benefits through greater website traffic and you’ll find when you have client meetings they might actually mention reading articles that were sent to them.
