Launch With Words

Is blogging bad or a waste of time? Do home remodelers and design-builders have to blog? In this episode of the second season of the Launch With Words Podcast, Bridget is joined by SEO Writer, Tess Wittler, for an insightful conversation on why small businesses should care about publishing regularly on their websites. "Your website is your Number 1 piece of digital real estate." Tess Wittler Follow Tess on Twitter https://twitter.com/TessWittler Tess Wittler's Website https://tesswittler.com/ Are you ready for the Done For You Newsletter? https://bit.ly/DoneForYouTess More Episodes https://launch-with-words.castos.com/ Get the Launch With Words Plugin for free on WordPress https://wordpress.org/plugins/launch-with-words/ Episode Transcript 00:19.11Bridget WillardHey, hey! Thanks for joining me again on another episode this time with my longtime friend Tess Whitler. She is a remodeler and custom home builder marketing solutions person. She is that Marketing Department that you want. She has a Done For You Newsletter Program. She is amazing. She is smart. Tess, welcome to the show. So I know that you have been writing in the service industry for contractors for 00:40.92Tess WittlerOh it's great to be here. Bridget thank you. 00:52.41Bridget Willarda very long time enough to have a MBA if if we were just handing them out. How do we get people who are small business owners, how do we get plumbers and yoga teachers and manicurists to care about having a blog on their website? 01:12.79Tess WittlerWow so you know that's kind of like the million-dollar question but it really boils down to a couple of things, right? So it. It boils down to um Google likes fresh websites and fresh content. So what better way to do that than to have a blog? But more importantly than that, I think that 1 thing that a lot of small businesses sometimes forget is as we're feeding that Google Monster, you know, common, everyday customers -- they check you out before they ever pick up the phone to call you. You know they go to your Facebook page and they go to your Instagram and they go to your Google My Business or Google Business Profile as it's called now. And they definitely go to your website to learn more about you to see if. 01:54.94Bridget WillardHm.Bridget Willard 02:07.76Tess Wittlernumber 1 you offer the services that they're looking for and number 2 if you are the right solution. So I think even more important than, than SEO which is definitely my geek zone and I love that space. But I think even more importantly than that, it's just to be able to be there to help your potential customers understand what you do and get to know you better. 02:28.41Bridget WillardOh for sure. I mean yeah, if Marcy told me to go to Alamo City Plumbing because my bidet is leaking, Ah, I'm gonna go look and see if they even talk about bidets. I'm gonna look and see if they have reviews I'm gonna check out their, you know, Facebook Page. Are they still even in business? Do they have Instagram? What is going on with this place? And I think that most people have overly obsessed on what's being found ah on a Google Search Engine Result or the SERPs. Um as opposed to "plumber near me." 02:49.93Tess WittlerYep. 03:06.77Bridget WillardAh, "manicurist near me." I mean how many of us are doing those searches? 03:10.77Tess WittlerAll the time every single day. 03:14.10Bridget Willa

How do you start writing if you keep staring at a blank page? Are you in your own way? In this episode of the second season of the Launch With Words Podcast, Bridget is joined by marketer and coach Jen McFarland for an insightful conversation on why small businesses should put their audience first with their website content. "You just have to get started." Jen McFarland Follow Jen on Twitter https://twitter.com/jensmcfarland Jen's Blog Post on ClickFunnels https://womenconquerbiz.com/clickfunnels-review-2022/ Take an Ephipahy Course and Stop Decision Fatigue https://epiphanycourses.com/ More Episodeshttps://launch-with-words.castos.com/ Get the Launch With Words Plugin for free on WordPresshttps://wordpress.org/plugins/launch-with-words/ Episode Transcript 00:19.23Bridget WillardHey hey thanks for joining me on this latest episode. I'm here with the Jen Mcfarland. Welcome! I am doing fabulous. 00:26.61Jen McFarlandHey hey how are you doing, Bridget? How you doing listeners? 00:33.64Bridget WillardAnd so we're we're talking to our small business owners. You and I have worked with a lot of clients and what's like so something that you kind of wish I feel like you wish they had an epiphany about? 00:49.16Jen McFarlandAh I feel like all of us as consultants give our clients small epiphanies every single day and that's one of the reasons why I started a new business called Epiphany Courses -- because it's our job as consultants to do that. But then there are people who can't afford us as. Consultants. So Why not give them little epiphanies? And that's my new business called EpiphanyCourses. They are courses based on business decisions, so in in an hour or less, you can make some exceptional business decisions on things that often confuse a lot of people. Like I am a total tech Nerd. We've just spent the last. 01:25.62Bridget WillardUm. 01:26.80Jen McFarlandWhat hour talking about all of our tech nerdiness? And so a lot of things that I am passionate about people get really confused about. And so that's kind of my focus whether it's on my podcast or my website or now with courses is to just help people untangle the techie bits that seem to really keep them from taking action on things. 01:47.95Bridget WillardYeah, um, with the Launch With Words starter pack the whole point of it is that it gets imported as a blog draft and so they know how to use the Draft Folder in WordPress. So just write. You know? A lot of people wanted it to be complicated, like a course, I'm like no -- small business owners don't have time for this crap. They just need to get in there write a blog post. 02:11.56Jen McFarlandYeah, and well what I love about what it is that you've done is it's like you're giving them drafts and you're giving them prompts. Like so many people hate the blank page and I'm one of them. And I've actually sometimes hired people just to help me keep the blank page from staring back at me. And when I see somebody else start it then I'm like oh okay now I got this. Now I can do this because I love to write; I hate the blank page. And that's what is so powerful about Launch With Words, I think, in the people that I work with they're like: I don't even know how to get started. So now I can be like well actually here's the thing. 02:45.69Bridget WillardYeah, the blank pag

How much does SEO matter to a small business? How complicated is coming up with blogging topics? In this episode of the second season of the Launch With Words Podcast, Bridget is joined by writer Kitty Webb for an insightful conversation on why small businesses should put their audience first with their website content. "Always think about your customer first." Kitty Webb   More Episodes https://launch-with-words.castos.com/ Get the Launch With Words Plugin for free on WordPress https://wordpress.org/plugins/launch-with-words/ Transcript 00:22 But first, a word from our sponsor. Zencastr. I use Zencastr because it takes the headache out of producing podcasts. Who has time to edit in Garage Band all day long? Zencastr is an all-in-one podcast production suite that gives you studio quality audio and video without needing all the technical know-how. It records each guest locally, then uploads crystal clear audio tracks right into the dashboard so you have high-quality raw materials to work with. And then they run the production -- and TRANSCRIPTS. With my promotional code, Zencaster will give you 30% off for 3 monthsof their professional plan (the one I use). Plus, the hobbyist accounts are always free. So, what have you got to lose? You only have time to gain. zen.ai/launchwithwords0 The Promo Code is LaunchWithWords0 That's Launch With Words 0 no spaces. 02:23.25Bridget WillardHey hey it's season 2 episode 5 with Kitty Webb Webb -- one of my favorite people on the planet: SEO, writer, dancer. All the things. 02:34.62Kitty WebbAll the things. 02:39.90Bridget WillardSo We're talking to small business owners, Kitty Webb, and like to me everything I know about you makes SEO so easy like it's not really that hard. Like what are some of your like top-of-mind tips to small business owners who are writing their own content? 02:58.29Kitty WebbWell first of all, you're not writing for Google you're writing for people. Google is a tool that is trying to connect actual human beings with the information that they want to find and it gets better and better at that as time goes on so you see a lot of these trends in SEO. And everybody's talking about things like keyword density and neural networks and now they're like looking at different keyword categories and you look at Wikipedia and then you look at the subcategories in the Wikipedia category to make sure that you have your internal linking. None of that is necessary because all of that has to do with Google trying to find ways to connect actual human beings with the answers that they want. And it gets better and better and if that's what you're focused on then you really don't have to worry about all those complexities of SEO. Um, honestly, that really only comes into play when you're in the corporate SEO category and it's hyper-competitive and you're competing against Walmart or Petco or something like that, you know, which I've done. And that's a different ball game. But if you are you know a roofing company a contractor, a dentist. Um Google's not going to put you up against denti

Why should your small business value writing as part of their marketing efforts? In this episode of the second season of the Launch With Words Podcast, Bridget is joined by writer Maddy Osman for an insightful conversation on how small business owners can DIY their content or hire a writer. Follow Maddy Osman at @MaddyOsman on Twitter and check out her company website at theblogsmith.com. More Episodes https://launch-with-words.castos.com/ Get the Launch With Words Plugin for free on WordPress https://wordpress.org/plugins/launch-with-words/ Transcript 00:19.53Bridget WillardHey hey season 2 another episode. This is episode 3 with Maddie Osman -- the Maddie Osman. If you have seen anything in WordPress written about anything you've seen her byline. Maybe you haven't seen her byline. D you ghostwriting? yeah. 00:34.26Maddy OsmanI Do some ghostwriting. 00:39.13Bridget WillardShe's she's pretty ah prolific, is the word we would use, welcome. I'm like career goals I want to be like Maddie Osman. Will you be on my podcast? 00:44.20Maddy OsmanI'm glad you think so and thank you for having me. 00:50.84Maddy OsmanWell I'm I'm super happy to and I feel like Bridget like we learn from each other. You know, like we both have these different approaches but we both like ultimately are trying to do the same thing which is like help businesses communicate better. 01:06.18Bridget WillardYeah, and that is a problem because they have a passion and an an expertise and knowledge for what they do, but sometimes they feel inhibited ah by writing. 01:13.60Maddy OsmanRight. 01:19.22Maddy OsmanSo yeah. 01:21.31Bridget WillardSo like what are some of the things you think small business owners need to know or to get over that inhibition. Like for me I'm a something is better than nothing person. Like just put it on the internet fix it later. 01:33.99Maddy OsmanSolo. Yeah yeah. 01:36.52Bridget WillardSo like what kind of tips would you give a small business owner? 01:40.47Maddy OsmanYeah, no I think that's ah, a really great start and I think that the beauty of the internet as a publishing medium versus print or even you know like media like TV or radio or something like that is that we can change it. Right? after we publish it. We have that power and not that the bar is like lower for things like grammatical errors or making mistakes. I mean that's still super important. But I think that because of the medium that we're publishing on and the fact that a lot of content that we're creating has some sort of timely nature to it. There's also this like forgiveness like if you do make a mistake or you know maybe you like need to dig a little bit deeper into something for it to really provide the value that you want somebody to get out of it or if you made you know, just a grammatical error or whatever, you always have the option to go back in and edit it and I don't think that many people are are going to be upset about that. Versus like a print book and it's like oh crap that's how it is now. 02:45.40Bridget WillardWell I started my career working at a publisher of college textbooks. There are errors in every book Always as they just have those redlined for the next edition. It's not that big of a deal even in print. 02:49.70Maddy OsmanNice Oh sure. 02:59.68Maddy OsmanRight. 03:01.67Bridget WillardBut now with "screenshots are forever" - everybody's like you did this wrong. I just read a job opening today for a mortgage company that had the wrong like plural. The plural was missing like ah all you're only going to use 1 resource I guess not many of it. So but that's me. 03:

Why should your small business value blog posts and customer storytelling on your website? In this episode of the second season of the Launch With Words Podcast, Bridget is joined by writer Todd Jones for an episode about storytelling, email lists, and differentiation. Follow Todd Jones at @tejones on Twitter and check out his website at https://www.copyflight.com/. This episode is brought to you by Zencastr. Zencastr is an all-in-one podcast production suite that gives you studio quality audio and video without needing all the technical know-how. It records each guest locally, then uploads the crystal clear audio and video right into the suite so you have high-quality raw materials to work with. Sign up today at zen.ai/launchwithwords0 More Episodes https://launch-with-words.castos.com/ Get the Launch With Words Plugin for free on WordPress https://wordpress.org/plugins/launch-with-words/ Transcript 00:26.38Bridget WillardHey welcome to season 2 episode 2. I am sitting here with my good friend Todd Jones. Todd Jones is a writer among other amazing things. Hey Todd want to say hi to our audience. 00:42.48Todd E JonesHowdy! 00:44.13Bridget WillardOkay, so um, you write for small businesses. All kinds of small businesses of a variety of backgrounds you want to hit off some of those industries. 00:55.65Todd E JonesWell probably my biggest content right in client right now is MainWP.com which is a WordPress plugin that helps consultants and agencies manage multiple sites. It's hosted. You can host it on your It's not a SaaS in the sense that it's on. Ah, third party servers. It's one you and put on your own server which is why the people who actually use the plugin really like it so that is a big ah client for me and then I do a a local business size like a hyperlocal top thing. You've seen those kind of sites and we talk about a lot of different things and so it it really is geared toward both the the residents of the Conway area where I live and small businesses as well and so I started a email newsletter last year that I call local digital. And it's kind of the business armor that if you will and I had been written writing emails each month from sometime early last year I can't remember when we started and I was I was telling you before we got on I had enough stuff there that I was able to do a little ebook. Getting started in digital marketing for the local small business so it was a lot of fun I may refine it and sell it later. 02:16.44Bridget WillardNice. So what do you find is the biggest struggle for your small businesses that you interact with? 02:24.91Todd E JonesUm, yeah, there was a variety of reasons I think you know I was talking to my friend Laura who runs the little bakery that I was at before I came back to the office and get on to get on with you and it's kind of a specialized bakery. They do like keto and gluten-free type stuff and so and I was getting the cacao drink cacao you know chocolate cacao and the other stuff that they have there as well and you know you can just tell from talking to her. She's like she's busy, right? She's being front for 12 hours a day or whatever she like when I got what I pulled up. 02:47.39Bridget WillardUm. 03:02.70Todd E JonesShe was unloading out of her SUV all the stuff she'd been buying for the store. They're busy I mean just just for the local business. We don't understand sometimes how busy or some people in our business, our industry, don't understand how busy they are from. From beginning the end and they do everything right? So she was playing distributor right? there going out and getting stuff for the to the for the shop while while the other ladies were actually manning the shop so she's got good employees.

Why should your small business value blog posts and customer storytelling on your website? In this episode of the second season of the Launch With Words Podcast, Bridget is joined by her writing partner Warren Laine-Naida for an episode about customer stories, customer delight, and solving problems.    Follow Warren at @warrenlnaida on Twitter and check out his website at warrenlainenaida.net.   This episode is brought to you by Vinovest.   Discover wine investing with Vinovest, a platform allowing investors to own 100% of their portfolio and easily buy, sell or drink from their collection of fine wines. Vinovest features historical returns, direct ownership of world-class wines, portfolio diversity, and robust recession-resistance! Sign Up Today At zen.ai/launchwithwords More Episodes https://launch-with-words.castos.com/   Get the Launch With Words Plugin for free on WordPress https://wordpress.org/plugins/launch-with-words/ Brought to you by Bridget Willard of Launch With Words Transcript 00:20.21gidgeyHey thanks for joining this second season of the launch with words podcast I'm your host Bridget Willard I'm joined today by my writing partner Warren Lane Nighta welcome thanks for being on my podcast. 00:31.40Warren Laine-NaidaUm, hello hey thank you for asking me. 00:39.39gidgeySo small business owners. We know they need to write for their blog. We know they need to use that content for social media. Ah Google profile business profile formerly known as Google my business Google maps Google places. 00:53.20Warren Laine-NaidaYeah. 00:58.32gidgeySo what? What are some things that you really wish ah small business owners could do like what? what do you wish that they would do. Oh. 01:07.84Warren Laine_NaidaOh That's that's a really easy ah question I have this with my clients pretty much in a regular basis. Um I don't think most small businesses look. At the stories around the products or around the services that they are selling. There's sort of a tunnel vision. Um, and there's there's so many ways to think about the products. Um and these are the stories. These are the use cases. This is what differentiates them from their competitors. Um, and I think that's always kind of a sticking point. Um with my clients. Yeah, that's the quick answer. 01:56.60gidgeyWell okay, so when I hear and I'm like the biggest Bruce is like I don't give a crap about the story I want to know if the product works but that's a difference ah between a story and a use case or a case study. So. 02:10.78Warren Laine_NaidaUm, yeah. 02:12.89gidgeyFor me a story is this hypothetical. It was a dark and stormy night I tried this beauty cream ten days later I looked amazing and I had a boyfriend so that story to me I don't care or why you started your company I don't care I know some people care. But let's talk about the case study because case studies are marketing gold. How can we get those case. Studies. 02:36.47Warren Laine_NaidaUm, yeah, um, you mean specifically for the products. Okay, so yeah. 02:43.22gidgeyYeah I did this I Then did I do this and now they reuse this service and these are the results. 02:51.39Warren Laine_NaidaUm, okay, well I um, you know the way I go about it is kind of a mashup between those two things I I don't I'm not a big case study person I think people are smarter than case studies. Um, at

Why should your small business value blog posts on your website? It’s simple. Your blog posts are a 24/7 workforce. Your website is that extra salesperson -- the 12th man to Seahawks fans -- who is always there cheering you on. Your office may be closed, but Google will serve up results -- from social media, your website, and Google My Business.   (00:03):Welcome to the Launch With Words podcast, with your host, Bridget Willard. We're going to talk about all things. Content, blogging, articles, videos. Whatever has words and goes on your website. (00:22):Hey, Hey! This is the last episode of Season One of the Launch With Words podcast. Thank you for joining me in on these 10 very short episodes 'cause I know you don't have time to just be listening to podcasts. We're not really commuting to work anymore. We're going from our bedroom to the other side of our bedroom. We are going from, uh, our den to the kitchen table. You know, some of us are working in the parking lot at Starbucks. (00:52):I feel ya. I feel ya right there. So, Hey, let's talk about the best person on your team for the price. That's right. Your website. Your website, for the price, is the best sales person you have even better is if you are building up your internal sales library by publishing blog posts. (01:17):If this is your first episode of the Launch With Words, podcast, I would encourage you to go back and listen to the rest of them. Wherever you're listening now, you'll be able to find all 10 episodes. It is based upon my WordPress plugin called: Launch with Words and the starter pack is completely free. It comes with blogging prompts to help you get in. Get it done. Get it published. And go back to closing those sales. Right? (01:54):So let's talk about blog posts. Blog posts are available when Jenny asks her neighbor, Sue, "Hey Sue, do you know any plumbers in the area? I think I have a slab leak." They're at dinner. It's 7:00 PM on a Friday. You're not open, but she could go. "Yeah. I went to Billy. Bob was plumbing in Schertz and they're the best. So they go to BillyBobPlumbing.com. (02:24):I don't know if that's a real place. And she looks at your website. It talks about slab leaks. You have a blog post about it. How much time it takes. Who's going to lay the concrete when it's over. What kind of piping is the best. Preventing slab leaks from happening again. Helping you with your homeowner's insurance claim. And, and you're like, "Yes! Yes. I'm going to fill out their website for them right now." And then guess what? Saturday morning, she's going to get a call from Billy Bob and say, "Hey, really glad that you called let's schedule a time to look at this. Is it leaking right now or you just suspect it?" You know, that is the way to use your website and those blog posts for your benefit. Blog posts, as we've mentioned before, are not just influencers telling you about the lipstick they like from Cover Girl. (03:21):This is the way to inform clients. This is the way to answer pre-sales questions. This is the way to establish the fact that you're a legitimate business. You are in business for the future. You are not going anywhere. You're not a fly by night. Your website isn't on Wix or Weebly or Webflow or Squarespace about to shut down because you're not getting the domain name renewals from GoDaddy, right? This is a business that pays somebody to have a WordPress website. That has a contact form with a customized email that says, "Hey, we'll get back to you. Our regular service hours are 8:00 AM to 4:00 PM." You know? That kind of thing. Legitimacy. Legitimacy in every single part of the customer journey. It takes 7 to 10 touch points to make a sale. That's whether they saw you on Facebook or whether they saw you at that chamber of commerce mixer or whether they saw a tweet by you, or whet

Blogging. I know. It feels like you’re supposed to write about how transformative the meal was at Brasserie Mon Chu Chu to your email list of 1,000 people. But don’t think of lifestyle blogging, unless you are one. You’re a small business. Everything you write and publish educates your current, past, and future clients. And blog posts can be reused. Listen in for more! Timestamps (00:03):Welcome to the Launch With Words podcast, with your host, Bridget Willard. We're going to talk about all things, content, blogging, articles, videos, whatever has words and goes on your website. (00:21):Hey. Hey! We know you've seen those Netflix movies and situational dramas and comedies where the lifestyle blogger is writing about her experience at Brasserie Mon Chu Chu in San Antonio's historic Pearl District. And how, uh, eating the filet mignon was like an orgasm in her mouth and the senses the senses and the music took her back to her time in Paris in 2017. Uh, but enough about me. Blogging. Is it just something that 20 somethings do when they're trying to be a lifestyle blogger blogging? Is it just something that people do to express their feelings? (01:11):Blogging is publishing articles on your website. You're at episode nine of this ten-part series, season one of Launch With Words podcast. So, uh, maybe this is your first episode. Maybe you need to go back and listen to the rest. (01:29):But I hope that you understand that blogging shouldn't be taken lightly. It shouldn't be dismissed. And definitely you should not avoid publishing on your blog for fear of feeling childish or juvenile or silly or ridiculous. Why? Because your blog posts educate and inform past, current, and future clients. You know, it's so much easier to get a client back or to have return business from a client than to get a new one. You know? And you want to be seen as that person who is an expert in your field. That's why you started your business, right? (02:11):So here's the thing. Once you publish those blog posts, um, they're on the internet basically forever until you delete your site. And then still there's like the Way Back Machine, but that's another episode. Um, we talked about the internet having a long memory in a previous episode. (02:30):So another thing that you could do with your blog posts is make them into an eBook. So, uh, I, what I did, for example, is I took my Keys to Being Social series that was written over eight years. I took those blog posts, put them into a Google doc, spent about a year editing them with my friend, Sarah Pressler, and turned them into a book called Keys To Being Social on Amazon, available on Kindle and also paperback. I did this because I realized that I had a gift of teaching people how to use social media in a way that makes sense to them based upon what they already know: good manners. Good manners, right? And going through each thing, and then how that works itself out, right? (03:27):So maybe you are a mobile notary and your goal is to teach people that not every notary will do a self-proclaimed affidavit. Not every notary at The UPS Store will notarize something for a living will or the last will and Testament. That you specialize in this, uh, situation. That you will come to the home or office for loan signing docs. The UPS notary is not going to do that. That's not their main, that's not their main source of revenue. That's an extra service, that's a value add for The UPS Store. Right? But you as a mobile notary have that you as a yoga instructor, have your apparel have, um, the ways to modify for being plus-sized. Have like beginners -- a heart for beginners, right? (04:29):You as a general contractor, understand when people want to make their homes suitable for them not just to flip. Some people actually want to bu

The Launch With Words starter pack has a blogging prompt for a case study in the Month of May. “This is a great time to go to your inspiration journal and look for a case study that can be written. Get the content published before people start going on vacations and forget about hiring a small business.” A case study should answer the following questions: What was the problem? What were they doing before? How did they find your product/service? What is the solution? What are the results? (00:03): Welcome to the Launch With Words podcast, with your host, Bridget Willard. We're going to talk about all things, content, blogging, articles, videos, whatever has words and goes on your website. (00:21): Hey, thanks for hanging in with me here on the Launch With Words podcast, a supplement to the Launch With Words plugin and blogging prompts that you can find on my website for the starter pack. For example, we're going to talk about case studies today, which are marketing gold. You remember that Velveeta commercial, um, where it's, uh, shells and cheese or whatever the guy's like "liquid gold." Well, we want marketing gold. (00:52): We want something that's, you know, can be used over and over and over again that accomplishes many purposes: marketing and uh, persuasion to new customers, you know, validation of concept, proof of expertise. And you know, those can be done with case studies. (01:14): In May for the starter pack, um, that's, that's the big prompt. Uh, because it's right before the summer, you want to get people before they start vacationing and forget about hiring small businesses to do things, um, families that have kids, uh, use this time away. You know, even if we're remote working, even if we have a business things just get busy. Should they? That's another question. But we can't roll the clock back to 1984 when we all ran the streets and came home when the streetlights came on. (01:53): So a case study should answer the following questions. Who is the business? Your customer. What was their problem? How did they find your product or service? What's the solution? And what are the results? You could also say, what were they doing before? Right? So the problem was they weren't blogging. The business is you. Uh, they found Launch With Words from this podcast, they installed it on their blog, um, on their WordPress website. They set aside two hours every month to write and publish. And the results are the traffic from Google went up 10%nfor example. You know? The search, the search traffic went up. (02:45): Um, case studies are the best because people sometimes don't understand what, what your product or service does necessarily. We did this, um, back when was working with Riggins Construction & Management, Inc in Santa Ana, California with the epoxy injection video, I did it not only showed that it was more than just cosmetic, but show how important it was. And that was a very large sales tool for us. I'm sure it still is. It's on the internet. You can watch it. It's the most ridiculous video I've ever made. But Hey, you know, it worked and that's the whole point is people need to know that other people have hired you for this exact same use case. Some people call them use cases. And it's tempting to make a PDF or a slide deck. And you know what, if you want to do that, do that. But the internet is blind. You want words. (03:45): Like one of the reasons I'll let you in on a secret. One of the reasons why I started the Launch With Words podcast was so the phrase "launch with words" would be on the internet more." Right? So there's going to be 10 episodes and this episode eight. And all of those transcripts, they are going to come up on a Google search for when people look for Launch With Words. So it's not just of starter pack. It's premium packs. And so far there are two available, right? But this isn't an infomercial for me. I it's just, it's just a for instance. You know? (

So much of our small business marketing efforts go back to our websites. What will we post on social media? Answer: what’s on your website? What will we send in our email marketing campaigns? Answer: what’s on your website? Blog posts. Blog posts are often looked down upon like they’re the red-headed stepchild of the Internet. But blog posts are your “invisible” salesperson. They work while you’re sleeping. They inform and persuade. So, don’t send out that next Constant Contact or Mailchimp email without including a link to your latest blog post.  (00:03):Welcome to the Launch With Words podcast, with your host, Bridget Willard. We're going to talk about all things, content, blogging, articles, videos, whatever has words nd goes on your website. (00:21):Hey there, thanks for joining me for episode seven. We're going to talk about email marketing. So you're using Active Campaign MailChimp, maybe even Constant Contact, but what are you sending in those email marketing campaigns? What are you sending in those emails? You should definitely send them links to your blog posts. Maybe even send them the blog post in its entirety. Tess Wittler recommends that we send a little bit of a story, our content, and maybe a tip, a coupon, some kind of call to action, but it really shouldn't be a month worth of your efforts. It shouldn't be a Christmas letter talking about Bobby and Jenny and Suzy and tae kwon do, ballet, and little league. (01:15):It could be. It could be if your company is sponsoring little league, but you don't want to be super personal. You, you want to be valuable, right? So keeping in that constant, um, cadence of publishing on your blog posts, and then following up with an email marketing -- maybe three to seven days later -- is a great way to remind people of your blog posts. (01:46):Warren Laine-Naida says that being invited to a user's email inbox is an honor. It's like being invited into their home. So when you have a customer or someone interested, subscribing, give them value. Now they may delete those emails. I delete tons of emails every single day, but that doesn't mean I'm not interested. It doesn't mean that I don't see that Jason Resnick is in my email box. It just means I cannot devote the time to deal with it. (02:23):And then don't forget that people save emails as well. I just got an email about three months ago from Goodyear tire service for my oil change. I, I haven't deleted it, but I haven't done anything with it. Doesn't mean that the email marketing campaign wasn't successful. (02:45):And a lot of my peers and small business owners look at email open rates that are 20% or 30% and think that it's a failure. It's not. This is not high school. This is not university. Having 20% open rate with email is awesome. 25, even better. 30 is amazing. 60% tells me you have an amazing list of people that only care about your product or service. And that's gold. That's marketing gold. (03:17):So pair, pair your email marketing campaigns with your blog posts. You want people to come and, you know, in waves. You don't, you don't open your doors at 9:00 AM and expect all of your customers for that day to be waiting. No. So give it a little time. Maybe send that out, um, like I said, four to seven days. Or maybe you're the kind of person who sends it out immediately to your email list and then shares it on social media, four to seven days later. One day on Twitter. Two days later on LinkedIn. Five days later on your Facebook Page. That's totally fine. (04:06):But the email marketing piece is super important. It's important because those people have specifically requested that you be in contact with them. They want to read information from your website. They want to know that you do bathroom remodels. They've want to kno

“Shoeless Joe,” and the movie from that book have both been misleading people for years. “If you build it, he will come.” That’s the biggest load of malarkey. That doesn’t work for “Field of Dreams” in the real world. No one comes to a concert, book launch, website, or restaurant unless they know about it. They only know your product or service exists because you tell them. Which means -- you need to market the thing.  (00:03):Welcome to the launch with words podcast, with your host, Bridget Willard. We're going to talk about all things. Content, blogging, articles, videos, whatever has words and it goes on your website. (00:21):Hey, welcome to episode six. "If you build it, he will come." Famous quote from the book, "Shoeless Joe" and the movie about the same thing, "Field of Dreams." The field of dreams is simply that. It's just a dream. Because guess what? (00:40):You can't build anything -- a stadium, a team, a restaurant, a product, a service -- without telling people. There's no way. It's insanity for us to think that just because we have a website, that people will know about it for one thing. And or that they will magically happen upon a website. It's not something in the mall that we walked by. But even, even a store in the mall, isn't magic. It happens to be next to other stores and they market together. Whether it's Norton Simon, or, you know, some kind of outlet mall, that it's not by chance. All of that is intentional marketing. (01:28):So if you think that writing a book will automatically get you book sales, I'm sorry to disappoint you, but it's not going to happen. If you think that producing a CD and selling them and you know, making your dreams come true. And just thinking that people will happen to do it. This is not going to happen. (01:52):Um, some of these things sounds so obvious. It sounds like I'm patronizing you. I'm not trying to patronize you. I have been consulting with high-end C-suite and entrepreneur clients for over 15 years. Or yeah, basically. So guess what? You have to tell people about it. You have to tell people. It's really not that difficult. (02:25):It takes work. It takes work to tell people that you have a thing. (02:29):It takes some humility and mixed with bravery to tell them that you built a thing. You know? You have to care. You have to care about your business more than your employees. You have to care about your business more than the marketer that you hire. You really do, because you're going to be part of it. But you also have to dedicate the time and the budget. So many of the customers that I've talked to, of the people that I've consulted with say, well, I don't really have marketing budget. Oh okay. But do you have money? Like, do you want your business to succeed? Or do you want to be just another cliche restaurant that closes because nobody knew it existed. I mean, this is the reality. This is absolutely the reality. (03:22):And I love that I have this five to seven minutes with y'all and I could just say stop being so bleeping stupid. Stop being naive. Stop being lazy. Really. Because you're not foolish. You're not stupid. And surely you're not naive. You're an industry expert. That's why you started your business. You know how to get clients. That's why you're still in business. But that half-life of referral by referral, by referral that just, uh, just, you know, magically happen. I mean, whether you bought your dad's company, inherited your mom's company, bought a business that was existing. You think you're going to keep those customers just because they were already there? (04:15):No. Loyalty has to be both created and maintained. And you maintain customer loyalty -- one of the reasons, one of the ways -- is by having good marketing. You have to

So many people are afraid of publishing on the internet because “screenshots are forever.” That’s a good mentality if you’re hesitant to start sexting with the guy you met on Tinder. However, that mentality holds you back in business. See, as small business owners, we can use this to our advantage. As we continue to publish online, we build a net part of the internet. It’s a connected network of pages and references to our names, our businesses, and our expertise. Don’t worry how many views your blog post gets. Worry about not publishing again.    (00:03):Welcome to the Launch With Words podcast, with your host, Bridget Willard. We're going to talk about all things. Content, blogging, articles, videos, whatever has words and goes on your website. (00:21):Hey, thanks for tuning in for the fifth episode in this first season. We're going to talk about the internet having a long memory. Now, if you are SnapChatting and sexting with the guy you met on Tinder, Bumble, Match, whatever -- or the gal -- then the internet, having a long memory should be a concern for you. (00:45):However, if you're building your business, don't let that mentality interfere with publishing your blog posts. It's so easy to think that it doesn't matter, but every connection you make matters when you're publishing. You're building the net part of "inter-net." It's an interworking network. Right? It's a network. It's a web. It's connections. It is a digital version of how we do business online. It's a digital version of how we do business in person. It's a representation of your expertise, of your length in business, of your personality, of your company, of your name, the personal branding of, of you. (01:43):So when you're hesitant to blog, because you don't think it's important, I would remind you of my favorite Chinese proverb: "The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is today." (02:03):Start today, start writing 300 to 500 word blog posts, and then don't stop the writing. Publish. Publish those blog posts. Tell people who you are. What makes you different? Why do people want to hire you? Right? Why are you the best roofing contractor? Why should they buy a Trane air conditioning unit from you? If it's a Trane, does it matter who installs it? Why should they buy a Honda Civic from your dealership and not the one 20 miles away? (02:48):Why should they hire you? Why should they hire you to build a website? What makes you special? What makes you unique? Do you know a lot about a certain industry? Are you an expert in mortgages? Do you work with only financial services? This is, this is what matters. (03:12):We want to know who you are as customers and with the Shop Local movement, becoming more of the commonality with millennial purchasers -- who are 40, by the way -- they want their money to go to a business that recognizes their own goals. If you're not supporting a nonprofit, you should, and then blog about why you do that. These kinds of goals matter. You know? (03:45):So when I encourage my clients and friends to write and publish, write and publish, write and publish, I do this because it takes a long time for results to show. People said to me,when I moved to Texas, "Wow, Bridget you've really become a success overnight." (04:08):Or when I changed my career from being, uh, an office manager /secretary/accountant, to working at a advertising agency in the franchise development world, "wow, that's an overnight success." (04:24):Well, it doesn't feel like an overnight success to me when I've been doing this work since 2009. It doesn't feel like an overnight success to me when I've been working since I was 14 years old. It doesn't feel like an overnight success to me when I've made intentional

There is one reason why writing for your business blog is hard. Because it puts us in the mindset of school and the pass-fail mentality. Once you realize that this isn’t a term paper, you’ll realize that writing for your business blog is easy. This isn’t school. It’s your business. You know it -- very well. So what should you write about? Listen for some tips and ideas.    (00:03):Welcome to the Launch With Words podcast, with your host, Bridget Willard, we're going to talk about all things. Content, blogging, articles, videos, whatever has words and goes on your website. (00:22):Hey, thanks for joining on this episode. A lot of business owners ask me, "Hey, Bridget, what should I write about for my business blog? What, what? I don't have anything to say," they might say. And I know a lot of my peers. I know you feel this way. You got it in your head that it's 8th with Mr. Bussio. Sorry, not sorry. Love the teacher, but it's not a seven paragraph essay, a five-paragraph essay, a term paper midterms in college. It's not a pass or fail mindset. So if you get yourself out of that mentality and say, hey, I started this business because I have expertise. I have authority. And I have experience talking to my clients and selling this product, this service, right? (01:26):So what should you write about? You should write about the things your customers ask. For example, I highly recommend keeping a journal on your, on your desk. When people ask you a question, uh, you write that question down. That should be a blog post. We're talking 300 to 500 words. This is not difficult to do. You can literally sit down, start to finish within two hours, have a blog post. Do that once a month for your business. And you will be so happy that you did that. And we'll talk about more about that part in the episode about the internet having a long memory. (02:18):So your customers questions, fantastic blog fodder. Fantastic. Write those down. Okay. If you don't want to write them down, go through your emails. If you have a SaaS or a service that has a support ticket system, go through some of those. Another thing to write about for your small business blog are the questions that come up frequently. So that might be different, but, but during the pre-sales process, what other questions? So pre-sales questions. (02:58):Another thing to write about are things you wish people understood about your industry or your service. Those are fantastic articles that give you humanity, that give your business some humanity. And we need humanity. Why? Because we do business with those that we know, like, and trust. (03:25):It takes seven to 1ten touches to make a sale that doesn't change with podcasts and social media and blogging and YouTube, and TikTok. That doesn't change. What changes is, how we reach our customers and how we interact with them. So pre-sales questions, things you wish people knew. (03:50):Another thing to write about are case studies use cases. How, how is someone going to use this product or service? How does that fit into their life? Right? We like to talk about the features of our thing and how amazing it is, but really we're solving a problem which is so annoying. I know, I feel you. I feel you deeply on this. (04:19):"Oh, you have to tell people that you solve a problem." Well, no shit. Of course I'm solving a problem. That's why I have customers. But you it's about the empathy. Right? You get into their shoes and you go, oh, okay. I see why Twitter Spaces would be good after a podcast to, for questions and answers, right. Or I see how we would use a tilt-up repair. If we have a fire. You know? It just depends, right. You know, the best use cases, but your customers, they are not as intimate with your product and services as you are. And they never w

Not everyone has to be a great writer. We’re not all Ernest Hemingway. That’s fine. There are plenty of tools and tricks that you -- the business owner -- can employ in order to get started. From voice typing in Google Docs (or Siri in Apple’s Notes) to paying for Jarvis.ai or Bertha.ai, you have options. You can even write the technical and hire an editor. What you are isn’t a writer -- you’re the industry expert. This is the point of business blogging.    (00:02):Welcome to the Launch With Words podcast with your host, Bridget Willard. We're going to talk about all things, content, blogging, articles, videos. Whatever has words and goes on your website. (00:21):Hey, thanks for joining me for another episode of the Launch With Words podcast. What if I'm not a good writer? What if I'm not a good writer? Well, most likely you're not a good writer. You're also probably not a good singer, which is why we have karaoke and showers and privacy of your own vehicle. (00:41):Business blogging isn't about being Ernest Hemingway. It's not about being a good writer. Business blogging is about elevating yourself as the industry expert, as a person who knows what you're talking about as somebody who is approachable and friendly. Um, business blogging. Isn't about being a good writer. (01:03):"But, Bridget," you say, "I had a hard time with high school." That's okay. High school was 30 years ago for me and I'm learning every day, but we have tools. We have so many tools. It's 2021, and there is no reason why you should not be blogging for your business. (01:25):Let's get started with some tools. Okay? First of all, if you don't like typing, we have Siri, Alexa, and Google. And all of them are very happy to take notes for you. Within Google Docs, voice typing is a command in tools. It's native. Open up your Chromebook, your laptop, your phone, click on voice typing. And, uh, you, you have to imagine yourself as the boss talking to a secretary. That's the only trick, right? So you'll have to say what if I'm not a new writer question mark, new paragraph. It's okay. If you're not a writer, semi-colon none of us are period. It's fine. If you have to say it that way, or you could just vomit it out and say, Hey, Siri, start a note. And she will say, what would you like your note to say. You can say, I just want to talk about why epoxy injection is so important for standing up for, um, tilt up construction and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. (02:33):Hand it to, uh, an editor, give it to a friend, have your partner look at it, um, secretary somebody in your office. There, there's options, right? (02:45):So you're aiming for 300 to 500 words. This is basically the same amount of words. That's your typical five paragraph essay, um, content marketing, um, blogging, which has always also called content marketing for business. Content marketing or blogging for business is about giving answers, being helpful, being clear, being witty, being funny, showing your personality. Okay? So what you're gonna do is, um, think about, and I talk about this in my book and in the plugin. (03:22):What are some questions that your customers always ask you? I challenge you as a business owner, keep a journal, a notebook, that sits on your desk or Evernote or whichever tool you like in order to keep, uh, in order to, um, keep in one spot ideas for blogs. Because the customer's always asking you, for example, how do I distribute a podcast on castos.com? Um, it's hosting, but how do I distribute that? So that is a question that comes from a customer, which means that is something you can answer in a blog post. All right, Then do you have an internal sales library, but that's another episode. All right. (04:08):So more tools, jarvis.ai, bertha.ai just released

One of the blocks small business owners have with blogging is with overwhelm. One of the misconceptions is that just because you start blogging, you need to have the same volume as the New York Times. It’s simply not true. Blogging is about establishing yourself as an authority in you field while showing some personality and helping your SEO efforts. In this episode, we’re going to focus on realistic goals.   "SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Bound) goals are established using a specific set of criteria that ensures your objectives are attainable within a certain time frame." Atlassian https://www.atlassian.com/blog/productivity/how-to-write-smart-goals   (00:03):Welcome to the Launch With Words podcast, with your host, Bridget Willard. We're going to talk about all things, content, blogging, articles, videos, whatever has words and goes on your website. (00:22):Hey, thanks for joining me today. In this episode, I get the question a lot, "How often should I publish content on my website? Or how often should I publish a blog post?" That question is kind of a loaded question. It comes with the answer we all hate, which is "it depends." So some companies publish four times a week, some publish once a month, some publish once every quarter. The answer to the question and why I created Launch With Words based upon my ebook, If no one, "If You Don't Mind Your Business, Who Will?" --Sorry -- is that you need to publish consistently. Okay? (01:12):So how often should you publish a blog post let's aim for once a month? Let's aim for once a month and see what you can put out there. It gives you something to share on your social media channels. It gives something for your customers to look at for validation, right? We talked about validation and discovery in season one, episode one. So, how often should you publish? Why not start writing for once a month? That should take you about two hours a month. All right. And then when you feel like there's something extra, you can always publish extra, right? (02:06):A good, healthy cadence for SEO -- for search -- is once a week. Um, so try setting yourself some actual achievable goals. A lot of marketers call them SMART goals, specific, measurable, whatever. Okay. So there's an acronym. But what I learned from the construction industry is there are sometimes suicide bids, right? Suicide bids are bids that are under-scoped under priced. There's no way they can finish that job. So you don't want to suicide goal, right? You want something that you can actually achieve. Can you, as a small business owner, put in your calendar two hours on the first Friday of every month to sit down at your computer and write? (03:01):Now you have options. And we're going to talk about that in episode three. What if I'm not a good writer? But the point is you have to set that time aside. Now, this is the perception that you, as a business owner or someone on your staff is going to do this. So then in order to achieve a goal, a reasonable goal, right, is to actually set that time aside in your calendar and treat it as if it's just as important as a client meeting. Those client meetings, you would never be late for. You would not give yourself excuses. And why shouldn't you -- as the business owner -- care about the blog on your website? Because a website without a blog is an empty, empty storefront. Okay? (03:57):So set aside those two hours. Now, as you have budget to dedicate to marketing, you could always outso