Tag: blogs

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The Benefits of Using an Independent Travel Agent

Guest blog from Independent Travel Agent Lynne Page

Why should you use a travel agent when you can book everything so easily yourself online?

I can tell you several reasons why!

An Independent Travel Agent can help you find your ideal holiday

Using an Independent Travel Agent is a valuable resource and can save you so much time, and we all know how precious our time is.

We are experts in our field, can give you personal recommendations due to being well-travelled, and can help you with unexpected situations should they arise.

When you are looking for a holiday, it can be overwhelming as there are so many choices out there, and you may not know where to start. If you like to travel but spend all day at a computer, the last thing you are going to want to do is spend hours trawling the internet trying to find the best deal. The thing I hear the most from my clients is, “ I hate looking for holidays! “

This is where I come in. I can do all the research for you and find hotels and attractions that suit your budget and taste. I can find deals from my many suppliers that are only available to people in the travel industry. I am ABTA and ATOL protected, and you can check my reviews on Google, Facebook and LinkedIn.

My service is personal and flexible

I am a home-based travel agent, and I like to be accessible and personable. I like to build a relationship with my clients. You choose how you would like to communicate with me, whether by email, phone, WhatsApp or meeting locally for a coffee and a chat.

I don’t charge a fee; I earn commission directly from our travel partners upon booking. For example, if I booked your holiday through Jet2 or EasyJet, they would pay me a commission. You would have paid exactly the same as if you had booked it yourself online, but you have me for support. And you are supporting a small business.

I look after my clients before, during and after the trip. I can check-in for you and print your boarding passes, or you can do this yourself if you prefer. I can recommend places to visit or maybe avoid. If there are any changes to your flights or itinerary, I will be able to support you with this.

Whether it’s a family holiday to Greece or a solo tour of India, I will be able to help.

How you can get started

Before contacting your travel agent, it would be a good idea to have some information ready to give them. An idea of where you would like to go, a maximum flight time, and the airports you are willing to travel from? How many nights would you like to stay, and on what board basis? Do you want to be near a beach and local amenities, or are you happy sitting by the pool with a book and a cocktail? Are you willing to pay extra for a sea view and/or a private transfer? What is the minimum star rating you want your hotel to be? The most crucial piece of information is your budget. This is key as everyone’s idea of a ‘bargain’ is different, and it needs to be realistic to avoid disappointment.

So the next time you are thinking about booking your holiday, please consider using an Independent Travel Agent.

Lynne Page - independent travel agent

Find out more:

https://www.lynnepagetravel.co.uk

https://www.facebook.com/LynnePTravel

https://www.linkedin.com/in/lynnepagetravel

email: lynne@theholidayvillage.co.uk

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How you can batch-create content

Actual footage of me batch creating content
Image by Julie Grant Photography

“Why should I batch-create content?” I hear you cry. The simple answer is that it’ll save you a whole load of time. That’s a massive win when your business is busy, or you want to take some time off.

So, here’s how you can batch-create content for your business, along with a few other reasons why it’s a great idea.

Pick a theme

Picking a theme for each month’s marketing means that all your content can refer back to the same thing. You don’t have to wrack your brains coming up with new stuff for every post, so it saves you time. It also helps your audience understand what you do because they see you mention the same thing each time.

Choose a theme that relates to a particular service or your customer’s needs, for example, helping them get ready for the summer holidays.

Create a plan

After you’ve chosen your theme for the month, start planning how you’ll cover it. For example, I have a few themed posts that I do every month, such as quick tips, buzzwords and testimonials, and I supplement them with other ideas based on my theme.

I plan how many posts I need throughout the month and jot down ideas next to dates in my planner. Doing it this way helps me to see what I’m going to post and when, so I don’t panic and share something random because I haven’t posted in a while.

Write one (or two) blog posts

When I batch-create content, I always start with blog posts. They’re big pieces of content that cover a few different points. Depending on the length of each post, they can help your audience to understand a subject in depth or give them a quick overview. They can talk people through a detailed process or link to other useful resources.

Planning your blog posts will give you a good idea of what your audience needs to know. Then, you can reuse them in different ways, including breaking them down into individual social media posts. This brings me to my next point…

Squeeze all the juice out of your content

No one will see everything when you use social media for your marketing. This means you can share the same point, or a variation, more than once. I wish I’d come up with the phrase ‘squeeze the juice out of your content’, but I didn’t. It was Clare Mitchell of The Girls Mean Business.

Anyway, it illustrates the point perfectly. When you write a piece of content, write several posts that share the same thing in different ways. Edit each paragraph or your blog post so it works on its own. Cut and paste a tip onto a graphic or use it as a video script.

Schedule your posts

Finally, when you’ve created your content, schedule it so it goes out without you needing to get involved. You can spend an hour scheduling everything for the coming month and then relax knowing it’s all sorted.

If you use Facebook and Instagram, you can schedule posts, Reels, and Stories using Meta Business Suite and LinkedIn have introduced native scheduling too. Of course, you can also use a third-party scheduler if you prefer.

Do you want to stop creating your own marketing content? I can help with that and even help you batch-create your posts. If you’d like a chat to find out how it works, you can book a call here.

You can also sign up to receive monthly emails packed with useful content writing and marketing tips using the form below.

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7 tips to help you write a headline that gets you noticed

Me at my computer, creating content and trying to write a headline that'll get my marketing noticed.
Image by Julie Grant Photography

Good content marketing headlines can mean the difference between your content being read or totally ignored. (Find out why here.) Here are my tips on how to write a headline that will help you attract the right audience.

Make sure your headline reflects your content

A good headline lets your audience know what to expect. If people start reading only to find that your post wasn’t what they were expecting, you’ll lose their trust, and that’s fatal to a small business. So write a headline showing them why your content is worth your time, and ensure your post sticks to the point.

Write your headline last

If you’ve planned your post, you’ll have a good idea about what you’re going to cover, but things can change as you write. You might come up with an interesting analogy or a take on the subject you weren’t expecting. If you write a headline before you start, check it at the end. Does it still work with the finished piece?

Use numbers

If you can use a number when you write a headline, do it. Several studies have shown that using a number in your headline can increase engagement by anything from 15% to 73%. Readers like numbers because they’re specific and show you roughly how long a post will be. However, please don’t shoehorn a number in if it isn’t relevant. Your readers will smell a rat.

Write lots of different options

Writing several different headline ideas gives you options to choose from and can help you to create a headline that fits your content. Change the structure of your headline and use different synonyms. You can also think about the results your readers will get and why they’ll be interested in what you have to say. Then, when you’ve finished the piece, you can see which one is the best fit.

Put keywords at the start

Putting your keyword or phrase at the start of your headline means that your subject is clear from the start. That’s great for your readers and your SEO. However, it isn’t always possible; I think it’s better to have a headline that reads well than to put your keyword at the start and end up with a clunky sentence.

Use power words

Power words are words and phrases that encourage people to pay attention. Sometimes these can be as simple as using ‘you’ or ‘your’ in a headline. It makes your reader feel that you’re speaking to them personally. Power words are often emotional but can also create a sense of urgency. CoSchedule’s list of 180 power words will give you an idea of the kind of words that work.

Test your headlines

A good headline lets your audience know what they’re going to read but also creates an emotional connection. You might not think you can test that, but you can. If you’ve got a few different options, a headline analyser can help you to pick the best one. There are a few to try, but my favourite is the Advanced Marketing Institute’s headline analyser.

Do you want to grab your audiences’ attention and create content that speaks your customers’ language? I can help with that. If you’d like a chat to find out how it works, you can book a call here.

You can also sign up to receive monthly emails packed with useful content writing and marketing tips using the form below.

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Why are good headlines important?

A newspaper with good headlines

You might associate the word ‘headline’ with a newspaper or online article, but you use them everywhere in your marketing. They’re the title of your blog posts, the subject line in your emails and even your social media posts have a line at the top that’s the first thing your readers will see. Good headlines can determine whether your marketing hits the spot with your audience. Read on to find out why…

Headlines catch people’s attention

OK, this is the most obvious reason for creating good headlines. They’re designed to intrigue potential readers so that they want to know more. That could be because you’re offering the solution to a problem or because you’ve teased some juicy secret they must know about. It makes them look twice and tempts them to read the rest.

I have one important caveat – a good headline isn’t misleading. This brings me to…

Good headlines let your readers know what to expect

Clickbait may work for some businesses, but small businesses like ours need to build trust. A clear headline that lets your reader know what they’ll get from your content helps you do that. It also allows your audience to decide whether it’s worth their time. That way, when they click through, they know that you’re providing tips or advice they can use.

Even if people don’t read the whole post, it gives them a clear impression of what you do and what your business offers.

They can express a particular mindset

Have you ever stood and looked at a newspaper and magazine display in a shop? Each publication could be talking about the same subject or news story, but they all do it differently. The headlines they use help you understand their political viewpoint or the issues they care about.

Your headlines can do the same; they can help you attract customers with a similar worldview to you or tell them something about your personality, so they’ll know whether you’re their kind of person.

Headlines are great for SEO

Headlines work to boost your search engine rankings in two different ways. Firstly, the fact that you have a headline tells Google that your content is well-organised and likely to be helpful.

Secondly, you can include keywords in your headlines. Then, when search engines look at your site, they can immediately tell what your subject is. That means when someone asks a question with your keywords, they know your content is relevant to that search.

Good headlines = more clicks

When you create marketing, you want people to read it, and a good headline encourages them to do that. That doesn’t just apply to content you created to educate your audience. It can help you to get new sign-ups to your email list and more sales. A headline can make it clear that you’re selling something and give your audience insight into the benefits of your product or service so they click through to find out more and ultimately buy from you.

Do you want to grab your audiences’ attention and create content that speaks your customers’ language? I can help with that. If you’d like a chat to find out how it works, you can book a call here.

You can also sign up to receive monthly emails packed with useful content writing and marketing tips using the form below.

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What kinds of content will help you grow your audience?

Chimp and stormtrooper thinking about content types.
Image by Julie Grant Photography

Growing your business means getting yourself noticed. What content can you create to attract new social media followers and website visitors and let people find out about you when you’re not face-to-face?

Read on for some ideas.

Be creative in how you present information

Whenever you create new content, think about how you can reuse it, so your audience gets the point no matter what kind of content they prefer. For example, you can edit your website copy for leaflets and present social media posts as text, graphics or videos.

Keyword blogs and articles

Writing blogs or articles using keywords your customers are searching for will help you show up in a Google search. You can also share them on your socials and educate people about your services. So, think about your services and what you want to be known for, and write about that.

Case studies

Case studies show your future customers the results you’ve got for real people like them, so it helps them trust you. Sharing them on your website helps your SEO, and you can post them on your socials or make a video telling the story.

Testimonials

Testimonials work the same way as case studies, except they come straight from your customers. Google reviews help your SEO, but you can also make graphics out of positive reviews and share them as posts.

Infographics

Infographics help people remember information so they can make great posts, and you can include them as a summary in your blog posts. They’re good on Pinterest as you can use them to summarise a longer article and post them with a link.

List articles

List articles could include top tips, questions, or your favourite resources; there are loads of possibilities. Post them on your website and break them down into individual social media posts and Reels or summarise the key points.

Personal stories

Sharing your story helps your customers get to know the person behind the business. A story can be an article or a few sentences so you can share them on your website and social media as text, images or videos.

Business cards

Believe it or not, some of us still have business cards (mine are from pre-lockdown). They’re great for networking, but you can carry them all the time; I once had someone ask for my card at a kids’ birthday party!

Leaflets

Leaflets offer more information than your business card can, which means you can pin them on your local noticeboard, leave them on a bumph table in a café or send them in the post.

Brochures

Brochures let you show off your work and give more details about your products and services. They can be pricey, so you could stick to sending them in response to new enquiries, but they can be a great way to introduce yourself to new people, especially if you offer a B2B service.

Merchandise

You’ve probably seen personalised merchandise at expos and trade fairs, but they work well as thank-you gifts and as a way of introducing yourself by post. The great thing about products with your name on is that people will keep them where they can see them, so they remember you.

Do you want to grow your audience by creating content that speaks your customers’ language? I can help with that. If you’d like a chat to find out how it works, you can book a call here.

You can also sign up to receive monthly emails packed with useful content writing and marketing tips using the form below.

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Why you need to understand what your audience needs

Photo by Julie Grant Photography

Getting to know your audience is a fundamental part of marketing your business. When you understand what your audience needs, you can create marketing that speaks to them and lets them know you understand them.  The alternative is bland marketing that doesn’t connect with anyone.

Here’s why you need to know what your audience needs and how it’ll help your business.

Products and services

Sometimes, the services you offer depend on your qualifications and experience. For example, you won’t get far without professional credentials if you provide legal advice or treat someone’s bad back. In other industries, there might be more than one way for you to help your customers. Understanding what your audience needs allows you to tailor what you offer.

A range of products and services will also cater to customers at different stages of the buyer’s journey.

The buyers’ journey

Every potential customer who comes across your marketing will be at a different stage of the buying journey. They might need what you offer but want to know more about you before parting with any cash. Maybe they aren’t sure what they need, or they have an idea but want to try a low-cost product or a DIY version of your service to test it out. But, on the other hand, they could find you and sign up immediately because you’re exactly what they’ve been looking for.

Creating different types of content lets you meet people at whichever stage they’re at.

Who needs your business most?

When you’re planning your marketing, it helps to think about the kind of people who need what you offer. For example, you’ll only need me if you have a business or create content for other companies. You’ll mainly talk to parents and grandparents if you sell baby clothes. Will your service be a great fit for someone who’s cash-rich but time-poor, or is it the opposite way around?

Technically, you could sell to anyone, but when you work out who is most likely to need what you offer, it’s easier to create content that hits the spot.

Who do you want to work with?

If you run a service-based business and work one-to-one with your clients, your life will be a lot less stressful if you get on with your customers. Of course, you might already have worked out what type of person is most likely to need what you offer, but you can still tailor your marketing to attract people you’ll enjoy working with.

For example, I mainly work with small business owners, and there are a lot of those about. I use relaxed language in my marketing but also mention my kids and my former career as a solicitor. It combines to attract people with the same approach to life as me.

How will they engage with you?

Finally, ask yourself what your audience needs to do to get in touch with you. Can they quickly buy your products when they finally sit down at the end of a busy day? Do they need to send you a message, email you or click a link to book an appointment? Thinking about how your customers spend their daily lives can help make it easier for them to buy from you.

Do you want to create content that speaks your customers’ language? I can help with that. If you’d like a chat to find out how it works, you can book a call here.

You can also sign up to receive monthly emails packed with useful content writing and marketing tips using the form below.

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How your business life can give you content ideas

The image shows me at my desk, recommending that you use your business life to develop new content ideas.
Image by Julie Grant Photography

You know your business inside out and back to front. It’s all so familiar that it can make you blind to the possibilities that your everyday, day-to-day business life can offer when it comes to creating content ideas. If you’ve ever struggled to come up with new ideas for your marketing, you might be surprised at how many are hiding in plain sight. Here are just a few.

Answer your FAQs

What questions do your customers ask all the time? If you’ve never written any of them down, start now and answer one at a time in your content. They work well because some people won’t contact you to ask a question, but they will Google it. You can give a short answer in social media posts and a longer one on your blog. If you have an FAQ page, start there or build one as you create more content.

Listen while you network

If you go to networking events, listen to what the other attendees talk about. What are their challenges, and how could you help? I love doing this at face-to-face events, where you might overhear other people’s conversations. I know my granny would disapprove of me eavesdropping, but it works.

Tips

Sharing tips can work in two different ways. Pro tips let you share your expertise and help your customers when they need to DIY a task, so you build trust. You can also make your existing customers feel looked after and appreciated by sharing a tip that helps them get the most out of their purchase.

Share your favourite resources

Sharing some of the resources you use every day has different benefits depending on who your customers are and how much experience they have. For example, a crafting business can help new learners by giving them a beginner’s guide, but you can also show more experienced crafters that you know what you’re talking about. If you offer a service, sharing professional resources lets your audience know that you take your work seriously.

Case studies

Case studies are brilliant because they tell your future customers about people you’ve worked with before and the results you’ve achieved. You can lift stories from your day-to-day life and use them in your marketing. Ideally, get permission from the subject before you write about them, but you can also write anonymised versions if that isn’t possible.

What can new customers expect?

This might seem ridiculously obvious, but good content can sometimes be as simple as describing what happens when your customer first contacts you or walks through your door. If someone isn’t contacting you because they’re nervous and don’t know what to expect, this kind of content can help to give them peace of mind.

How to find the right person

If there are lots of different businesses that do what you do, the choice can be overwhelming for a new customer. You can help them by talking about things to look out for or questions to ask at the first meeting. Use your insider knowledge to help your audience avoid common pitfalls, or let them know what credentials to look for, and they’ll start to trust you.

Do you want to develop new content ideas and create engaging marketing content? I can help with that. I create content that speaks your customers’ language. Book a call to find out how it works.

You can also sign up to receive monthly emails packed with useful content writing and marketing tips using the form below.

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How to come up with new content ideas

Coming up with new content ideas
Image by Julie Grant Photography

There comes the point in every small business owner’s life when you think you must have talked about your business from every possible angle. How can you come up with new content ideas when your audience has heard it all before? But, of course, you might be at the other end of the scale, trying to get started but wondering what your audience wants to hear about.

The good news is that there are many ways to develop new content ideas, and you don’t have to reinvent the wheel every time. So please read on for my five favourite ways to come up with new topics.

Have a brainstorm

I know that brainstorming sounds like your worst corporate nightmare, but it doesn’t have to be. Just write down everything you can help your customers with, then break the significant subject areas into smaller topics. For me, writing about blogging can include topic ideas, structuring your content and writing tips. Each has its own more minor topic; the main thing to remember is that you don’t have to write War and Peace. Smaller nuggets of information are always more digestible.

Get new content ideas from social media

Spending time scrolling social media can be research if you do it right. If you’ve ever avoided posting something because you think it’s too obvious other people’s posts and the comments can help you to find the right level for your audience. Social media research lets you see what questions people are asking; you can comment with an answer and turn it into new content.

Ask the audience

Answering FAQs is a great way to create content, as you can share the answers on multiple platforms. If you’ve got an idea for a subject you’d like to cover but aren’t sure what your audience needs to know, ask them. Your questions can be new posts in themselves; they’ll also give you fresh content ideas to use later.

You can ask for help on your own channels and in groups to help you build your profile.

Update old posts

Updating old posts means you don’t have to develop a new idea from scratch. This is an excellent approach if the original topic is still relevant to your audience, but some of the advice has changed. You can create a new post to replace the old one or write a post supplementing the original content. This gives new followers information they won’t have seen before while also offering something fresh for people who’ve been with you for a while.

Think about what you’ve learned

Forgive me if you’ve heard this one before. All your content needs to be tailored to your future customer’s needs. This means that you only need to know more about your subject than they do. For example, you might already know you want to write a blog but not know how to get started, so that’s what I talk about. Think about what you’ve learned to get to this point and talk about that – it could be more than you think.

Do you want to develop new content ideas and create engaging marketing content? I can help with that. I create content that speaks your customers’ language. Book a call to find out how it works.

You can also sign up to receive monthly emails packed with useful content writing and marketing tips using the form below.

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Case study: writing a blog for Goldfinch Marketing’s client

Image shows a pile of magazines and a laptop with the kind of project that Goldfinch Marketing got to work on when I started writing a blog for their client.

One of my favourite things about my work is the chance to learn about the different ways that creative people work. I loved art at school, but I know that there are artists and designers out there that are far better at creating visuals than I am. Hand me a pen and a notebook, and I’m happy. I don’t panic in the face of a drawing pad and pencil, but I might not show the results to anyone. It makes me happy when I see work from people who can make stuff look beautiful.

This means that I was thrilled when I met Christina from Goldfinch Marketing. She creates gorgeous designs, and she’s also brilliant at techy stuff. It all comes together in beautiful websites that Google will love as much as your customers do. She’s also very good at writing; in fact, she’s so talented I would hate her if she wasn’t also lovely.

This may have you wondering why she’d need me, a writer when she’s already good at writing. Read on…

The pandemic

I met Christina during lockdown when everyone was virtual networking; some of us were home-schooling too. She’s based in Dorset, so the chances of us running into each other in person were virtually non-existent. Like many of us, Christina had taken some time during lockdown to evaluate her business and work out what she wanted to spend her time doing.

She’d started Goldfinch Marketing to help her clients with all their marketing needs, whether that was a new website, graphic design or content writing. Her review told her that she loved web design and graphics work but didn’t want to do content writing anymore. That’s where I came in.

The project

Christina had gradually reduced the amount of content writing she took on, but she still wrote blogs for one client. She told me they were lovely people she enjoyed working for and didn’t want to let them down. At the same time, she wanted to free up some time for other projects, so she wanted to see if I could take over writing a blog for them.

Of course I could. Writing their blog was right up my street; they’re a business offering a professional service, so they needed to share their expertise but didn’t want to be stuffy. I read the posts that Christina had already written to follow the same style and suggested some new topics. I also wrote social media edits for each blog post so that the individual paragraphs would work as standalone posts. The client was still happy, and Christina had time for other things.

If you need a new website, I recommend checking out Christina’s work here. Alternatively, if you want to outsource your content writing, either for yourself or one of your clients, let’s have a chat. You can book a call with me here.

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How to match your marketing to your business goals

The image shows a blue sticky note saying 'bright ideas change the world' on a checked background. It's a bright idea to match your marketing to your business goals.
http://Photo by RODNAE Productions: https://www.pexels.com/photo/white-printer-paper-on-yellow-table-7414305/

“A dream is just a dream. A goal is a dream with a plan and a deadline.” ~ Harvey Mackay

I like this quote for its optimism; you can dream, but you only get somewhere when you make a plan and hold yourself accountable for each step. If you’ve planned your goals for the next 12 months, your next step will be creating a marketing plan to help you hit them.

The question is, does your marketing content align with your targets? When you match your marketing to your business goals, you’re more likely to achieve them. Here’s my guide to the types of content that will help you at each stage of the customer journey.

Brand awareness

To grow a business, you need to make sure that people have a) heard of you and b) understand what you do. SEO plays a big part here; it lets people find you via keywords that describe your business. Personality-filled, shareable blogs and social media posts will help you to reach more people and stay at the front of their minds.

It’s also worth creating guest posts for other sites and collaborating with other businesses. My favourite local café hosts workshops and shopping events, and it helps everyone involved grow their brand awareness.

Engagement

This is the stage where you want people to move from knowing who you are to having a conversation so they can decide whether they like you. Asking conversation-starting questions works well here. You can do this in your blog, on social media posts or ask for interaction on your Stories. You can also invite viewers to ask their questions on live videos.

People are more likely to buy things that their friends like, so ask people to post pictures of themselves with your products.

Lead generation

Lead generation is just a fancy term for encouraging them to opt into a closer relationship where they hear from you more often and start thinking about buying. Asking people to sign up for your email list is an excellent first step, as you can send them an email series that shares everything they may not have known about your business before. You can offer a helpful freebie, such as a checklist, eBook, video tutorial or a free trial to encourage them to sign up. Sharing case studies on your website and social media can help as they show your results.

Sales

Small business owners often struggle with this, but selling doesn’t have to mean pressuring someone into buying. All the work you’ve done to build a relationship means that your audience knows how you can help them; they just need to take the next step.

Sales content needs to take away any doubts people might have. They might need to understand the process or get more details about the product before they buy. Use your content to talk about the benefits and your process, and include technical information as bullet points in your product descriptions. Sharing reviews and case studies lets them see that you’ve delivered for others.

One final thing. Don’t forget to follow up after the sale to help them get the best out of what they’ve bought. Offering hints, tips, or extra support maintains the relationship and makes you memorable.

Do you want to match your marketing to your business goals? I can help with that. I create content that speaks your customers’ language. Book a call to find out how it works.

You can also sign up to receive monthly emails packed with useful content writing and marketing tips using the form below.