Inspire and engage your audience by creating consistent content. Is blogging a word that glazes your eyes over, maybe brings out a bit of a cold sweat and even creates some anxiety? We promise it doesn’t have to be that stressful.

Who are you? What do you do? Why do you do it?

Understanding who you are, what you do and why you do it is the key to what will make YOUR blogs interesting. Do you feel like you don’t have anything to share that people will want to read? We bet you’re wrong! Have you ever heard the snowflake analogy? It is so very important(we really can’t stress this enough) to clearly identify, then always be mindful of, your differentiator(s) and unique value proposition(s), and not just when we’re talking about blogging…but as the base of everything you do in your business!

Know your audience?

We’re not just talking about your potential clients here (though of course that is a major part of the audience you want to be in front of) but we also recommend you stretch a bit and think about who might refer clients or business to you. Do you have strategic partnerships or collaborative and complimentary business relationships that might be prone to sending business your way? Don’t forget about friends and family too. Having a clear understanding of ‘who’ needs to know exactly what you do and why you’re special is crucial.

Help them help you!

We are always using this simple phrase ‘help them help you’. Think about it, how many times have you read an email, a blog or an article that you’ve wanted to share with a friend, family member, colleague or your network(s)? Do you share? Have you shared? If you did or do share content, think about how easy or difficult it was. If you wanted to share with your network(s), was the email, blog or article enabled with easily sharable links - like Twitter, Facebook (to personal or a page you manage), Google+, LinkedIn, etc…? If you wanted to share with an individual, how did you do it? Did you forward if it was an email? Did you just copy and paste the URL if it was a blog or article? Make your content easily sharable! Remember that old Vidal Sassoon commercial “and she told two friends, then she told two friends…” help them help you!

How often? How much?

We usually recommend you write at least 2 blogs per month. We also usually recommend you utilize these blogs in your email campaigns, post to social media and so on. As for length…that depends on what we’re talking about, but for blogs the basic rule of thumb is 500-600 words - although you can do as little as a few sentences or much longer. When you use your blogs in your email campaigns we often recommend you share the first two paragraphs then have a link back to the website so they can read more, which increases traffic to your website!

What should you write?

You’ve identified what you do and why you do it. We’re guessing there are all kinds of things you can write about that your audience will find interesting. Can you put together a list of FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions)? Maybe keep a note pad near by and jot down ideas as they come to you. We promise that it’s a lot like exercise… hard at first, then it starts to feel good and gets easier the more you do it. Check out some tips for dreaming up content here. We guarantee that the more prepared and committed you are, the more successful it will be. Consistency pays off BIG time!

Happy blogging.