You’ve heard me say this many times: You should write for your business. Writing for your business is a tool to showcase what you do. I know that it is easier said than done. Who has time to write? It’s challenging enough being business owner, bookkeeper, manager and marketer of your own business. The last thing you want is to try to squeeze in some writing time. Am I right?
But here’s the thing — writing for your business can mean a lot of things if it gets you started on talking about your business beyond just phone calls, emails, regular old ads or just dreaming about more ways to market it. Writing for your business can take on many forms and lead in many directions. The important thing is that you write. Just starting the process daily or weekly will take on a life of its own and help you shape how you market your business. Here are some ideas.
Pick a topic.
This may be a daunting task at first, but ask yourself this: What do you want your customers to know?
Next time you get a common question from a customer or prospect, write a blog post about it. Now you can reuse it
- Do you have a new product for sale? Post a quick description and a photo to a newsletter, to Facebook or Twitter or to your homepage with a caption.
- Do you have a discount on a product? Write about that discount and send it along.
- Do you have a change to a service or a promotion? Write about it one sentence at a time and post it so that your customers can see it.
- Or perhaps you are really proud of your business and want to share that pride with your customers. Maybe you have a direct customer quote of appreciation that you can add to it. Put a list together of things that you might like to share or discuss and with whom, then choose one and get to writing.
Write about it.
Now that you have your topic, start writing and start small. Your goal here is to write two to three paragraphs. It does not have to be stellar, but it has to be relevant: Your words should inform or solve a problem for someone. Know your audience and have a focus. A photo for each post, if possible, will go a long way, or as I mentioned above, a testimonial. It will have a greater impact and complement your message.
Share it with your customers.
The reason you are writing is to inform your audience and maintain a relationship with them. But there are so many options, so how do you know where to share that information? Know your audience and you will know how to share.
- Publish to your blog, syndicate everywhere. Don’t have one or don’t use the one you have? Dust it off and start typing. Writing is therapy and will help you articulate your thoughts.
- Twitter is a great way to write and share, especially for those that lack a lot of time. Twitter’s audience is global and the sharing instantaneous. It is also a great research tool. In 140 characters or less, you can share your URL, a few words and a photo about your business. It literally couldn’t be easier or more fun. Writing for Twitter is actually a great way to begin writing regularly.
- Facebook is also a great place to share. The Facebook community is more familiar and loves images and shared content. Paste in the page address (URL) of that blog post you just wrote, and the image and excerpt will automatically be pulled in. Pretty slick.
- Perhaps you use Pinterest, Google+ or LinkedIn. Same thing applies. Syndicate what you just wrote and repurpose it to any social channel you remotely care about; master one at a time. Don’t tackle too many at once. It can be overwhelming.
- Newsletter – Repurpose the content for your newsletter. Not all posts are relevant to your customers, because some might be tailored to onboarding clients. Pick what works and reuse from there.
- Email – Ah, yes. Email. The old stand-by. Despite the hype, email is not dead. Start using your blog posts and share them in your email. It will save you time when crafting each email.
- Reuse what you have.
No matter your marketing outlet, let your writing speak for your business by writing with purpose. Customer conversions and relationships will be better with direct communication. Use an email to share it and get direct, personal feedback. The feedback will fuel the next step.
Rinse and repeat.
Now that you wrote, do it again. When I talk to my customers about content, I tell them that repetition will ease the pain. It can be difficult to get started, but it feels great when you have something to show for it. Once you get into a flow, you no longer will be thinking about how to do it; writing will come naturally and will feel great. Choose one day a week, or 10 minutes every morning, or three times a week after lunch. Just get into a habit of writing. Your ideas and energy for writing will gain momentum.
Keep following these steps so that you no longer have to think about it. As you post your content in various formats, the technical hurdles will become easier, too. You can look forward to creating the content of your writing and what problems you can solve with your articles. Use your content as a tool. It works!
Writing can be challenging, mostly because it takes time and a commitment, but you can do it. Once you do it and see the benefits, you will do it again. With repetition, you will succeed. Post something, then post something else. When you do, please share it with me!
