How to Create the Perfect Blog Post for Marketing and Promote It to Maximize Your Investment

Publishing blog articles and sharing them on social media is one of the best ways to market your business if you are a coach, solopreneur, or entrepreneur. It’s all part of “content marketing”. 

Today, I want to help you understand why writing blog articles is super hot in marketing right now, when to publish your blog articles, when to share them on social media, and how to know whether your efforts are paying off. 

One of the reasons I wanted to write this article is because so many small business owners don’t realize how much leverage they can get out of content marketing. They end up writing a few articles, and then check to see what kind of impact they’ve had on the business. The numbers are inevitably not what they hoped for. 

So, they quit. They just don’t see the value in spending all that time on content when they could be spending it on other things. 

I get it. In fact, if you want to know a secret, this Wise Owl Blog didn’t get a lot of traction in the beginning either. Honestly, it would have been wonderful if one of those first articles had gone viral and drawn in so many clients we couldn’t handle them all. But, it didn’t happen that way because that’s not how this works. 

I’m not trying to discourage you. I’m just being honest so you have reasonable expectations up front. 

In fact, quite the contrary, I want this article to encourage you to really focus on building up your blog. When you do so, you won’t see a lot of traction in the short term, because content marketing with your blog is playing the long game. 

Down the road, it’s going to start doing a lot of your marketing work for you. Once you wrap your mind around how the system works, it will all start to make sense.

The Purpose of Your Blog

Our society is all about instant gratification. We want everything yesterday. Now is too late. 

Is it any surprise that feelings of loneliness are on the rise?  Relationships aren’t things that just happen overnight. You have to put time and energy into them for them to become meaningful.

Think of your blog primarily as a way to build relationships. The goal of marketing is to connect with your ideal clients in a way that helps them to get to know you, like you, and trust you. Just like with friendships and intimate relationships, it takes time to develop. 

Your blog has an additional function: It positions you as an authority in your niche. The importance of this cannot be overstated. 

A blog is a great way to showcase your expertise. Potential clients don’t know how knowledgeable you are about your topic. Each article you write reveals a little bit more about your wealth of knowledge and proves to them you really know what you’re talking about. 

Yes, a blog is a lot of work. And, yes, it will probably take 3–6 months before you start to see any return on your investment. And this is exactly why so many entrepreneurs and coaches give it up early on. 

Remember though, when you’re engaging in content marketing with your blog, you are playing the long game. The effort you put in now will pay off later. 

Right audience, right content, right time

Here’s the thing about blogs: They aren’t about throwing spaghetti against the wall to see what sticks. Too often bloggers start writing for their websites thinking content marketing is really all about SEO. They slap together a keyword-rich article for the sake of getting something up so that Google will notice them. 

That is not what you want to do. 

You want to keep 3 key concepts in mind when you are building up blog content. 

1. Write for the right audience 

Your business serves people in a specific niche. Within that niche, you have your “ideal clients”. You need to know this audience like the back of your hand. 

Your ideal clients are those people who you can help best because they are the best fit for you and what you do. 

Your ideal clients don’t just have personal or business needs. They have personalities. They have budgets. They have a vision that drives them. 

You want to take all this into account when you write your articles. Do you need to be serious for your ideal client to take you seriously? Do you need to be funny so they don’t consider you stuffy and irrelevant? You can’t do both. If you try, you will lose the attention of everyone. 

But, once you dial in your ideal client, you will be able to talk to them as if you’ve known them for years. You will be able to speak to their hopes, dreams, and aspirations, as well as their concerns, pain points, and fears. 

Once you are able to resonate with your ideal client, you will have their attention and they will want to hear more. 

2. Write the right content

Once you have a solid understanding of who your ideal client is and what makes them tick, you can start writing content that speaks directly to them. 

But, don’t start writing yet. You still need to determine what exactly you’re trying to accomplish with your blog. 

Here, I’m not talking about a call-to-action or targeting your messaging to sell something. Rather, I’m talking about an overall strategy. 

Here are some examples of how you can frame the overall purpose for your blog. 

Create a narrative of meaning

Narratives are the way we make sense of the world. The more we buy into a narrative, the more meaningful it becomes. The more meaningful it becomes, the more meaningful things become that align with it. 

What narrative do you want to tell about your business? 

• I’m on the cutting edge of my field
• I’ve been in business for 20 years so you know you can trust me
• I’m the best option in the local area

Once you’ve identified the message you want to communicate, you want to do your research to find out how your competitors fit within the framework of the story. Then, write articles that show how you are a better fit than them. 

Let’s take that first “cutting edge” option as an example. 

If you are truly on the cutting edge, you will need to identify what defines being on that edge and what defines not being on that edge. Literally, list this out. You will probably have several items on both sides of the line. 

Now, identify language for your messaging that enhances the importance of being on the cutting edge. You might refer to what you do as “the most evolved” while that which came before is “old school” or “outdated”. Clearly, it is more valuable (or “meaningful”, remember what I said about stories earlier?) to be “evolved” than “outdated”. 

Once you have your framework and language, look at your competitors’ websites. What are they doing? Can you identify anything there that would be considered “old school”? If so, perfect! You will write a blog article about that topic. You aren’t goint to mention your competitor directly, but you are asserting that (based on the information on their very own website) you are the better option. 

Objection busting

Why do people not want to sign up to work with you?

It’s a hard question to ask because you have to admit to yourself that they may have very good reasons. Nonetheless, if you are brave enough to dig into that, you will find a gold mine of blog article ideas. 

Maybe they…

• Don’t have the time to work with you
• Don’t have the resources
• Don’t believe you have the expertise to help them
• Don’t trust the newbie on the block
• Don’t see the value in your offers

Let’s run with that last one as an example and pretend you are an artist who paints in-home murals. (I am choosing art because it typically is an “I want” and no a service that solves an urgent problem.) 

If people don’t find what you do valuable, let them know all the ways your services are worth the investment. Here are some options:  

• Living room art can increase the value of their home
• Bedroom art can enhance the experience of children in their rooms
• Art in public rooms can turn them into the envy of the neighborhood
• Just the right type of art can enhance memories in a room
• Even the smallest and simplest art can become a conversation starter for visitors

Use their objections to generate content for your blog. 

On top of that, make sure to share the stories of those whose homes you’ve improved (notice I said “homes you’ve improved” rather than “painted a mural in”). Use their words to reveal how happy they are they spent the money on integrating your original art into their home. 

Whatever the objections are that prevent potential clients from taking the plunge, write articles to address those concerns. 

Addressing common (or not-so-common) questions

Anytime someone looks at your website and has questions, each one of those questions is a hurdle they have to overcome before they are willing to work with you. You can use your blog to knock those hurdles down one by one. 

Humans don’t like uncertainty. We shy away from the unknown. Your task is to make the unknown known and eliminate that uncertainty. 

What kinds of questions do they have about your products or services, or even your industry? Maybe they need to know…

• How do I know if I’m beyond DIY and need professional help?
• What are the industry standards for excellence?
• What goes into pricing?
• How do I know what I need?

Each one of those could be turned into a blog article for your business. And, every single article that a reader consumes is a step closer to trusting you enough to work with you. 

Promote products or services

You engage in marketing to make sales. Your blog is part of your marketing. Let’s use your blog to make sales. 

When you start offering a new service (or just want to promote an existing one), you can use your blog to wrap a story around why people should buy. 

This is something you should incorporate into your overall strategy from time to time. Notably, this post picks from all of the previous approaches I’ve listed and fits them all into one piece. 

When you write a promotional article, you want it to…

• Identify to readers why purchasing from you is meaningful, so write a strong narrative to go with it
• Address any objections your reader may have to working with you, so make sure to set key ones up so you can knock them down
• Answer any questions your reader may have that prevent them from buying, so slip them in throughout the article in some way. 

This promotional blog article is a lot more like a sales letter than a standard article. Make sure you have a strong call-to-action at the end. 

If you have affiliate relationships with merchants (such as Amazon), you can also integrate recommendations and reviews into your article lineup. Affiliate marketing on an evergreen blog article can bring in some nice passive, supplemental income. 

3. Present it at the right time

Timing matters, but the “right time” can mean different things. Here are some possibilities.

How ready are they to buy? 

When writing an article, be mindful of where your target audience is in the buyer’s journey: awareness, consideration, or decision. If you do a series, you can cover all of these bases so that your blog functions kind of like a funnel.

What is the best day and time to post your blog article?

Research varies with this. Different companies have come to different conclusions. 

For SocialFresh, it depends on what your goal is. If your primary goal is social shares, then publish between 8:00 and 9:00 a.m. CST on Thursdays. If you want page views, then post at the same time on Mondays.

Meanwhile, BlogTyrant generally agrees on the general time (8:30–10:00 CST), but pushes for Tuesdays and Wednesdays instead.

According to KissMetrics, most people read blogs in the morning, with Monday around 10:00 am being the sweet spot for blog traffic.

Overall, it is hard to pin down a day, but it appears that they all agree that you will get the most bang for your buck if you post in the morning. 

The importance of consistency

Publishing a blog article every six months is not going to help you with your marketing. 

Once you start to connect with your audience through your blog articles, you need to keep it up to maintain momentum. Consistent posting helps you by…

• Influencing the narrative that frames decision-making for business purchases.
• The more your readers hear your voice, the more they start to identify with it and your brand, which strengthens the bond of trust.
• Keeping you in front of your audience so they think about you when they actually reach a point where they are willing to pay for help. 
• Promoting an image of reliability, since your content provides consistent value on a schedule. 
• Signaling to Google that you have an active website, which is great for SEO because it encourages Google to come back to crawl your site more frequently. And more content means you have more chances to rank in the search engine results. 

I recommend you write one piece of long-form content at least once per week. According to HubSpot, the ideal is actually 3 to 5 times a week.

So, if you want to become a thought leader in your niche (and you do), keep those articles coming!

Leveraging social media

Want to know a secret?

It’s not really all that important when you post your blog. What’s really important is when you blast it out to your audience. 

Most people aren’t going to be sitting at their desks and suddenly think, “Oh, I bet my favorite coach just posted their blog article, so I should go to their website and read it!”

No, they’re busy. They struggle to keep track of their own schedules, and they aren’t going to try to keep track of your publishing schedule. Instead, they’re going to sit back and wait for you to tell them that the blog article is live. 

This is where your distribution channels (email and social media) come in. 

When to post your blog article on social media and email

Ultimately, the best time to promote your blog articles comes down to your audience. And, the nice thing about going through email and social media is that you can experiment and measure which times are the best. 

Here are a couple of ways to think about your options…

Everybody’s doing it, yay! When you look at when marketers send out their content for consumption, they have probably tested and determined that this is a great time for it. So, if “everybody’s doing it” then there’s probably a good reason for it. You just might want to let their research guide you and follow suit.

Everybody’s doing it, ugh! If everybody’s doing it, that means you are likely to have stiff competition for audience attention. That makes it a lot more difficult to get eyeballs on your content even if you are waving in front of people’s faces. A crowded field will make getting any traction difficult. 

Here’s what I recommend…

Start with what is generally recommended for blogs above (so mornings seem to be best). Then, commit to letting your audience tell you what the best time to receive it is.

After you’ve sent a few out to get a baseline for your metrics, treat it like a fun game and start playing with it. 

For example, maybe begin by posting your blog article to your Facebook page on Monday morning and Monday afternoon. After a few weeks, look at the data to determine which gets the best traction. Keep the best-performing timeslot, and then try posting your second blast on a different day. Again, watch which one “wins”. The winner stays, and the loser gets posted at different time. Rinse and repeat. You should start to see your social posts improve over time. 

Don’t forget, you can do the same thing with your emails. Get your baseline, and then try different timeslots. 

Overall, don’t be afraid to experiment. Sometimes marketing is about trying something and then measuring the results. If it works well, great. If it doesn’t go so well, that’s also great because you now have information you can use for your future marketing. 

Bypass SEO

Part of what I love about using social media and email is that you can actually bypass the SEO challenge. 

Yes, creating blog content is important for SEO. The more articles you have on your site, the more SEO juice you have to drive traffic. 

But you don’t have to sit back and rely on Google to find people for you when you have an audience. Your email and social media can actively drive traffic to your blog. And, even better, if you are testing performance for your social media as I recommended, you are not only getting your content out to your audience, but you are also strategically posting at the best time for the most impact. That’s something Google can’t do for you. 

Measure for improvement

Brace yourself for a hard truth: Not every article you write will go viral. 

I know, you probably didn’t really think that, but I wouldn’t be surprised if you secretly hoped it. 

So, if “going viral” isn’t your primary measure for success, what is?

That depends on what your goals for your articles are. Here are a few options:

• Pageviews (this will typically be your number one)
• Time on the page (did they see the beginning and leave, or did they read all the way to the bottom?)
• Clickthroughs (this is especially important if you are promoting products or services)
• Social shares (this is the same as a word-of-mouth referral)
• Returning visitors (these are people who are really warming up)

Once you have measured performance against your goals, you’ll notice that some of your articles perform better than others. 

But why? 

That’s the million-dollar question. If you can decipher why your best articles are doing well, you can intentionally replicate their success. 

Here are some things to look at for continual improvement.

• Timing of delivery. It’s possible that your blog article became hot because you got it out there at just the right time for people to consume it. This is why you want to send out the same content at different times. If the content is the same across your test times, you know the only variable is the time, so you can start to leverage that timeslot in the future.
• Headlines. If you can’t get people’s attention, you can’t expect them to read your article. When an article gets a lot of traffic, that could be because you nailed the headline formula for the email subject line or social media post headline. Some email platforms help you leverage this automatically. They will allow you to A/B test subject lines by sending out an initial mailing of two batches with different subject lines, and then it will finish the send with the subject line that does the best. Make note of the winner so you can replicate that formula in the future. 
• Relevance of the content. This goes back to knowing your ideal client. If you are writing content your audience doesn’t really care about, you can’t expect them to read much of what you write. I can’t emphasize enough how important it is to know your ideal client like the back of your hand. What are their problems? What are their hopes and dreams? What are their primary questions? The better you can target those topics, the better traction you will get with your blog. 

Build on success

Once you’ve been able to identify what leads to success for your blog, take advantage of the insights. 

Build a strategy around insights. If you know certain timeslots get the best traction, use them wisely. Meanwhile, keep in mind the buyer’s journey. For example, you might discover that social posts deliver traffic to your blogs best on Monday mornings. And, you may also notice that your blogs that promote offers do best in the first week of the month. Maybe it’s a good idea to have a monthly offer you promote on your blog in the morning on the first Monday of the month. 

Put some ad spend behind the best performers. When you have a whole slew of people clicking through your Facebook post to read a specific blog, consider the possibility of supercharging it by dropping a few bucks into a paid ad. After all, it has already proven itself as being popular with your ideal client. Why not extend its reach and let it get even more traction for all the effort you put into it?

Play the long game

While it can take 3–6 months before you start seeing any significant traction from your blog from Google search, as you’ve just seen you can jumpstart that traction by promoting your blog posts on social media and through your emails. 

Keep in mind that the lag isn’t just about having enough content on your website. It’s also about where people are in their buying cycle. You are building a relationship with them, and it will take time to move them through the buyer’s journey: from awareness to consideration, and then to decision. 

If you hear nothing else from this article today, I want it to hear this…

You can do this! Just stick with it!

And if you need help, we’re right there for you. All you need to do is schedule a clarity call, and we’ll discuss how we can help you best.