The status quo of modern marketing isn't designed for you and me.The hard truth is that most marketing strategies are designed for massive corporations, while small businesses, consultants, coaches, and other experts are left feeling that the advice they’re given just doesn’t fit—and they’re right. We have two choices: we can struggle to force our businesses into an ill-fitting mold, or we can reinvent a system that works for us and allows us to thrive. I don’t know about you, I prefer door number two. 💌 Reach our team at hello@smco.studio. 🌟 Ready to work together? https://sarahmoon.net/get-started
Hello Reader,
I thought it would be fun to give you a glimpse at how we iterate and create content for our blog by sharing our most recent (written by Andrea) article.
In this piece, she explains why now is the right time for Squarespace users (about 75% of our clients/audience is in this group) to start planning to upgrade to the new version of the platform, 7.1 (yes, the version naming is goofy).
⭐️ Read the Article (even if you're not a Squarespace User) ⭐️ |
We typically create an article on our website for one or more of the following reasons.
We also make sure that whatever the topic is, it fits neatly into our content framework (which follows our marketing model I've shared before). In this case, this article lives under "Build a Brand Bridge," as it's focused on brand expression and creative work/design. This also is a great way to ensure that we're accountable to ourselves (and keeps me in line, to be honest—I get lots of ideas that do not need to be blog posts because they do not fit in the content framework). We don't have a formal process for this, it's basically a quick chat during one of our Monday team alignment calls.
We also used a few different steps in researching the content for this piece and used it as an opportunity to engage folks on some of our supplementary marketing channels:
Once the post was written, we formatted it, created sharable graphics, and I did the final pass for SEO-ifying and quality control. (I'm not a proofreader, but I am good at spotting opportunities and ensuring we keep our brand voice intact.) Then we hit publish.
At that point, this post goes into our repurposing "factory." I've mentioned before that we don't create anything that can't be reused at least three times—and this is no exception. In addition to this newsletter, we'll break this up multiple times for our other marketing channels and get as much traction from it as possible.
A final detail: We have been aggressively updating content with a technique we refer to as "layering." This is definitely a post that will need to be adjusted and added to as the facts change. This is something you definitely want to include in your repurposing plan as well, especially if your field is particularly dynamic.
I know this sounds like a lot of steps, but it's important to think through all the opportunities that content like this creates. If you read through these steps again, you'll see that there are multiple points in the process that were, for lack of a better term, marketing opportunities. That continues after the post is published as well. Now, not everyone wants or needs a system as complicated as this one (though in execution it is truly fairly minimal), borrowing even one or two elements from this for your content efforts can expand the impact of your effort.
Give it a shot and let me know how it goes!
Talk soon,
Sarah
P.S. Want my eyes on your content? A strategy session is a great way to start. Book yours here.
The status quo of modern marketing isn't designed for you and me.The hard truth is that most marketing strategies are designed for massive corporations, while small businesses, consultants, coaches, and other experts are left feeling that the advice they’re given just doesn’t fit—and they’re right. We have two choices: we can struggle to force our businesses into an ill-fitting mold, or we can reinvent a system that works for us and allows us to thrive. I don’t know about you, I prefer door number two. 💌 Reach our team at hello@smco.studio. 🌟 Ready to work together? https://sarahmoon.net/get-started
Hello Reader, Last year my biggest single business expense line item (aside from mine and Josh's paychecks) was legal fees. No, I didn't find myself in hot water with the law, I finally sucked it up and dealt with a lot of long-standing legal tasks that needed to be handled: new contract, copyright filings, and the (slow, slow, slow) trademarking process for my Alignthority™ system. Why did it take me so long to get this important stuff tackled? I was afraid of being a bad client, or "getting...
Hello Reader, Have you ever asked Siri or Google how to do something? Here are some examples: How do I invest for retirement How to plant an edible garden How to price my consulting services How to get started mountain biking How can I travel using points How to hire a trademark attorney Fun-ish fact: I generated all of those examples using Google's autocomplete searches. Those are phrases that pop up when you type into the browser. A lot of searches start with "how," both in search engines...
Hello Reader, If you're a service provider, creative, or other professional smart person, you've probably heard no a time or a dozen. We've all been there—and I won't lie, it can really sting. When I first met my client Natalie Bullen (you can read her story here) she was very new in her business, yet I was blown away by how unfazed she was by rejection. She simply saw this as data and moved onto the next indicated thing. It seemed like an instinct—this is a skill I had to learn and Natalie...