How to Write All Your Business’ Marketing Copy by Only Writing Your Weekly Blog

What if you could write everything you needed for your small business at one time each week? Imagine all the time you could spend actually running your business if you didn’t have to worry about your next blog post topic or how many more times you wanted to post on Instagram that week. Oh, and don’t forget about your weekly email newsletter!

Small businesses require a lot of content. From blog posts to social media posts to email newsletters, the words you write to promote your business directly affects your business. Small businesses also require a cohesive content strategy that helps potential customers get to know, list and trust you before and after they buy your products or services.

Implementing a cohesive content strategy can sound like an upheaval battle. But it doesn’t have to be.

Running a business is hard enough. Here is how you can make your words work for you.

1. Create a content calendar.

During the last week of every month, write down your business goals for the next month. Ask yourself:

1. What’s happening in my business that I want people to know about?
2. What am I working on next month that will be available to customers soon?
3. What lessons have I learned recently that I think other people could benefit from?
4. What do clients ask me about the most?

Write down everything that comes to mind. The more ideas, the better! Looking at your answers, you might see a few patterns. Maybe you are prepping for the holidays, creating new products or services or adjusting how you do business to become more efficient?

Congrats, you found your blog post topics for the next month. Make a plan to tackle one of these answers each week.

Next, slot these topics in a calendar. And that is that. You’ve created your content calendar!

2. Write your weekly blog post.

Whether you write a blog post a week or devote one night each month to knock out all four of them, make sure you at least write your weekly blog post one week in advance. Not only will this relieve some of the pressure from your schedule, writing ahead of your “last-minute plan” will help you create a cohesive content strategy and brand for your business.

Because blog posts are longer, more detailed than email newsletters and social media posts, they are an excellent outlet to share your thoughts, experiences and tips with your readers, without character or formatting restriction.

So write your heart out!

Your weekly blog post will be your content’s home base. Be sure to optimize your blog post for SEO purposes.

3. Turn your blog post into the body of your email newsletter.

Your weekly (or biweekly or whatever weekly) newsletter tends to be the second-longest piece of content you send to your readers/clients/customers regularly.

The good news is you’ve already written the body of the email you’re sending to your email list! By tweaking the introductory paragraphs and summarizing (or teasing the readers) with the body of your blog posts is a quick way to repurpose your blog post as your email newsletter.

Here are some ideas:

• If your blog is talking about a lesson you learned last week, your email can focus on how you are solving that challenge with new products or services.
• If your blog is about a new service you’re launching, your email can promote how that new product can help your clients.

Link to your weekly blog post at the bottom of your newsletter. Not only will that get more eyeballs on your blog post, but you could increase your number of subscribers to your blog!

Just be sure to make sure you highlight exactly what you want your readers to know is happening in your business that week. Don’t forget to include any sales/specials/new products you want your customers to know about!

4. Convert your blog post into social media posts

Social media posts can be short, quick reads, or they can be longer and elaborately set a follower up to read a more in-depth piece of content such as your blog post.

You can easily turn your weekly blog post into engaging social media posts. You can do this by breaking down your blog post into bite-sized pieces of content that allow readers to easily digest your business’ expertise and knowledge without feeling overwhelmed.

Here are some ideas:

• create “microblog” posts by dividing your blog post into bite-size posts
• ask your followers about their experience with what you’re talking about
• do a behind-the-scene (BTS) post on the topic you’re focusing on
• make graphics from quotes in your blog post
• promote your blog in one post (create a graphic in Canva to promote your new post!)

5. Tweak and repeat.

Every small business is different. From customer/follower preferences to business goals, what works for one business might not work for another.

And that is great. There is always time to tweak your content approach to better suit your business’ needs.

Before you create your content calendar for the next month, review your social media posts’ Insights (likes, comments, shares, etc.) and keep listening to your customers about what they want to read and learn about.

If you need help creating a cohesive content strategy for your small business, shoot me an email, and we can get to work.

Originally published at https://www.marykatemcgowan.com on October 19, 2020.