Blogging can at times seem overwhelming and another thing to add to the To Do list but if you plan and organize ahead of time, it will take you a couple of hours to put together a solid plan, that will authentically and routinely share your ideas, product or service with the world stress free.
Step 1. How often will you share something with your audience?
- Once a week, twice a week, three times per week?
- Every Day?
- Once a month?
There is no right or wrong answer, I do recommend keeping yourself in front of of your ideal client at least once a week, but it depends on your audience, your topic and your time.
Step 2. What do you want to share with them at the interval rate that you chose in step 1?
So I will build on this in next weeks post with an extensive brainstormed list of ides but there millions of ideas for what you share- Here are some:
- Video tutorial or inspiration
- Quote relating to what you do
- Fact or Educational Information about your service, topic or product
- Testimonials- Why it works, is helpful or a need to know— very personal reviews/ testimonials
- Inspirational images
- Guest Posts from someone that is expert in your field or topic
- Specials, Discounts, Announcements, Events
Step 3. What can your audience expect- Creating the Routine.
In Websites and Blogs that I design, I install and provide a tutorial for a blogging editorial calendar, Using this you can plan out all of your posts ahead of time. All posts will then automatically post and share on social media on the day and time that you choose.
I recommend clients set a day aside and create your blog plan & gather resources. Click To TweetBlogger A. Consultant
Chose to share something 3 times per week.
Her blog plan might look something like this:
- Mondays: Inspirational- themed around beauty quotes
- Wednesdays: Educational: A focus on a product and how it can improve the clients life
- Fridays: Testimonial-A quote shared from a client and picture- about product they are using and love- or about how much they love the consultant and why, etc.
Blogger B: Law Firm
Chose to blog once per week. on Wednesdays late afternoon
Her blog plan might look something like this:
- Post Week 1 of every month-A post about what the firm can do for you – case study and outcome
- Post Week 2 of every month– From the Client- how the law firm changed my life
- Post Week 3 of every month– an inspirational quote and nature scene image (Just keeping the firm in front of audience)
- Post Week 4 of every month: Guest Blogger on a topic that they teach you more about- educational- an expert
Step 4: Prepare the blog posts and your to do list for the next 6 months to be stress free and provide authentic content for your subscribers.
(Using the same sample bloggers)
Blogger A Consultant’s To Do List:
- Create a 6 month blank calendar or use google cal or similar digital calendar (I like to be able to see the whole month at one time) you will want to write this out in this first planning stage
- 4 Monday posts each month X 6 Months= 24 Quotes Prepared
- See this link to Canva tutorial to make beautiful image quotes that could be shared OR
- Share the quotes in normal text form with a cool featured image
- 4 Wednesday posts each month X 6 months Educational posts= 24 Topics or Products that you can teach about and images to accompany text.
- 4 Friday posts each month X 6 months = 24 Testimonials from clients, other consultants, corporate level quotes- whatever you can gather that will be a first hand account of your business and it’s success- sharing personally what it can do for your clients.
Blogger B Law Firm’s To Do List
- Create a one year blogging plan, print blank monthly or yearly calendar out for planning.
- Week 1 of the month X 12 per year= 12 Case study- outcome posts- What the law firm can do for you
- Week 2 of the month X 12 per year= 12 Testimonials from the client, How the law firm changed my life
- Week 3 of the month X 12= 12 Inspirational Quotes and 12 Images of Nature to accompany quote
- Week 4 of the month X 12= 12 Guest Bloggers- the topic of guest bloggers will be a future post, examples might be:
- attorneys within your office- if each could write one short post- about an area of expertise that would benefit readers-use bullet points and lists to keep it interesting- give them guidelines for writing. Include an image that correlates to the topic.
- People in the community that are experts- this is very valuable because you can they share links to their sites and they can link back to yours!
- On a bigger scale- national or international experts- write and ask their permission to share an article- for a link back to their site- or for sharing a link a publication of theirs- no payment necessary they will love it that you are linking and sharing their knowledge and giving them credit
- This does not always have to be new content, they may have an essay or content that just needs to be reformatted so it draws the readers in-
You get the idea now I hope- and the flow- this gathering part could take a week to complete- BUT then you have 6 months or a year of blogging ready to roll! If you in that time want to post additional posts, announcements, etc- you can but at least you are all set to stay in front of your audience consistently through the year.
At Kim Critz Design I provide a blogging service to clients if this is something you are interested in email me at [email protected] I offer 2 services:
1. I can prepare a one year blog plan for you based on your topic, service or product and your ideal audience
2. I can prepare a blogging plan and do the blogging for you if you want a blog but don’t want to manage it, I can do the work for you
Step 5: If you feel stuck find inspiration from other bloggers! (Even if it is not in your line of work)
Here is an GREAT example from another blogger, Gro Social sharing how they always know what to post and when
