I had a fabulous meeting with a lovely lady recently and it got me thinking (again) about all the different skills you need in business. She was talking about all of the different elements that she was bringing together to make sure that the message she was sending reflected her values and the work that she does. Talking to me about getting the words right was the next stage in the process. She’d written a few things herself but hadn’t been happy with them. It’s a common theme when I speak to small business owners. There seems to be this feeling that they should be able to do it themselves. Writing is easy, right? If you’re holding back from working with a writer because you feel you shouldn’t have to, here’s why you might want to reconsider.
It’s not just about the visuals
Words matter. Your first impression of a person or a business will probably come from the visuals, but the words cement the relationship. It’s especially important in writing. When you talk to someone face to face you can read their expression and body language to help you understand. In writing you can easily be misunderstood or misinterpreted. If you’ve ever read an argumentative comments thread on Facebook you’ll know what I mean. Trolls will deliberately bait others and twist their words. Others could genuinely have misunderstood you. Even people who agree with each other end up talking at cross purposes.
A second set of eyes on your writing could help you to prevent that from happening. It also means that you get to see your business from an outsider’s perspective to get the message right.
Writing is a skill
We all wrote essays and stories when we were at school. It’s often the people who studied English Lit that struggle most with the idea of hiring a writer. They know how to string a sentence together so why is writing for their own business so hard? The truth is that writing copy and content for a business is a skill all on its own. Talk to a group of writers and you’ll also find that they’ve all got their own specialisms based on what they’re good at and enjoy doing.
There’s more to it than just sitting down and writing. It’s about getting to know you and your brand. Your writing needs to be tailored to your audience which means you have to understand what they need and value. Working with a writer can help you to identify exactly who you’re talking to and how to create something that sparks the right reaction.
You don’t have to do it yourself
Of course, there’s nothing to stop you from learning to do your own writing. But if your skills lie somewhere else, do you want to? Do you want to spend a day writing a blog post when you’d much rather be doing something else? I don’t often tell people that they don’t have to do their own writing, but perhaps I should. I’ve held back because it feels as if I’m stating the bleeding obvious. Only, it isn’t always obvious.
There are lots of reasons why a small business owner might not outsource their work. Sometimes it’s lack of funds, or it could be that their business is their baby and they want to protect it. But I often find that it’s simply because they think they should do it themselves. It’s potentially counterintuitive, but just because something is in your voice, it doesn’t mean you have to write it.
This is another one of those subjects where I’ll forgive you for reading the title and saying huh? The question should really be – when you look back over the blogs and social media posts you’ve written, do they all sound like you? When you keep things consistent you’ll get better results from your marketing and your life will get easier.
It’s the million dollar question (well, probably). More importantly, it’s one of the number one reasons why people are put off writing a blog for their business. You probably already know about all of the benefits of blogging, like getting your customers to know, like and trust you, but somehow it keeps getting put to the bottom of the to do list.* If you’ve googled ‘how often should I blog?’ you may well have encountered articles that talk about putting a new blog post out once or twice a week. Yikes. The good news is, you don’t have to write a blog every week if you don’t want to. Here are some things to consider when you’re working out how often to blog.
I’ve been along to a few different networking groups since I started my business. You meet an incredible range of different people with all kinds of businesses. These days I find myself speaking to a lot of people who have a job and a side hustle. Some of them want to turn the side job into the main business and others just want a bit of extra money every month. It all means that I’m hearing more and more conversations about the right time to leave a job.
Have you ever asked yourself that question? I hear it a lot and it’s often from people who are hesitant about blogging. I suspect that there are even more people who don’t ask how long their blog needs to be. They assume that they need to write ‘War and Peace’ for every blog post.
Blogging is wonderful as a business marketing tool and a creative outlet. If you’re writing a blog to promote your business it’s important to know what’s going to appeal to your audience so you can tailor the content to them. You can also air your personal views via blogging. There’s loads of scope to talk about whatever you choose.
It’s easy to think of storytelling as being something you do with your children. You can cuddle up at the end of the day and send them off to sleep with a lovely bedtime story. Mine are still young enough to watch CBeebies so we sometimes get the added bonus of a tale read by Tom Hardy. (I even know people without kids who tune in to watch him anyway!) If that’s how you think of storytelling you might be forgiven for having dismissed it as an effective marketing tool. Actually, it’s one of the most effective approaches you can take.
Are you a business owner or a writer? It’s completely possible to be both, especially if you have a writing or marketing based business. However for most people it’s one or the other. If you went into business to make a product or offer a service that’s nothing to do with writing, the idea of a workshop that focuses on writing blogs could seem like a complete nightmare. A room full of people picking your writing to bits? No thanks! Of course, there are services and workshops that are designed to provide critiques. They’re mostly for writers. Here’s why my workshops don’t.