Hello Reader, Over the years, a lot of business owners have "confessed" to me that when they first started their website, they wrote a few blog posts in their excitement about having a a real, legit home online. And then... life lifed and they never kept it up. And... never saw the benefits. This is such a common story and it's one that can feel a bit daunting. If this is you, you may be wondering: Will I look silly if I start blogging again after two, three, five years or more? What do I...
10 days ago • 2 min read
Hello Reader, Sometimes I have to remind myself to take my own advice. This week, I was feeling a bit uninspired with what to write about for my newsletter. August is typically a lower open rate for me, and I know folks are just busy right now—plus I'm just plain worn out after a busy summer! Then I thought to myself, "Sarah, what would you tell a client who had this kind of block?" My answer: "Ask yourself how you can help someone today. Write about that." Which I've probably said more than...
17 days ago • 1 min read
Hi Reader, The pervasive belief that more content is better is enough to make me kick walls (except I would stub my toe and that is the absolute worst). Post more, share more, do more, more, more, more... No one can keep up and goal posts keep getting moved. But this couldn't be further from the truth. Quality, not quantity, is the key to successful marketing. Why is less more? Relevance: High-quality content marketing that directly addresses your audience's needs and pain points is far more...
24 days ago • 1 min read
Hello Reader, I realized I screwed up when a client said something like this to me, "I want to write about this, but it doesn't fit with my SEO." How did I mess up? I neglected to be abundantly clear that search-based funnels are just ONE thing that you can do with your blog on your business website. Just one among many other ways you can leverage that small but mighty component of every properly set up website. Some other use cases for your blog may be your case studies, a portfolio, and—my...
about 1 month ago • 1 min read
Hello Reader, I've mentioned that I've been having to do some unexpected systems overhauling around here (no fun!), and something I've noticed as I've been trying to figure out the best path forward is that the theme is, "How can this be simpler?" This is super interesting to me, because in the 2020-2023 era, we saw a bit push for complex systems, large teams, "scalable" (a word that's too often misused) offers, and elaborate marketing ecosystems. Part of this is likely due to the world...
about 1 month ago • 1 min read
Hello Reader, You’ve probably heard me talk about the power of blogging and content marketing. I mean, if you've gotten more than a few newsletter from me, you probably know how I feel about this, right? Blog post this, content strategy that... But there’s a good reason I keep bringing it up. Creating evergreen blog content isn’t just about SEO or website traffic—though it's easy to find yourself thinking that's all it is. It’s also—and more importantly—about building trust and relationships...
about 2 months ago • 1 min read
Hello Reader, In my summer group strategy program, Summer of SEO, this week we had a great conversation about blank screen syndrome. I don't know about you, but this is usually what it looks like for me: Staring at a blank screen, wishing for inspiration to strike... The cursor blinks, blinks, blinks. I write a sentence. Delete it because it's the worst sentence ever composed. Blink. Blink. Blink. Yeah, it's not awesome! Zero stars for sure. This truly happens to us all, and it's even worse...
about 2 months ago • 2 min read
Hello Reader, You don’t have to get an A+ in marketing. In all the years I’ve done this work, one of the recurring themes (and I’ve certainly been guilty of it as well) is that people believe they need to do everything perfectly. This is especially true when we’ve got a lot of high achievers that are accustomed to excelling at everything they do. This is how that A+ thinking can become a spiral that leads to inaction. Does this sound familiar? "I can’t do SEO if I can't do everything exactly...
about 2 months ago • 2 min read
Hello Reader, As algorithms get more and more fickle (looking at you, Instagram) I see more and more folks talking about returning to their previously abandoned blogs as a marketing channel. Which is great! I love seeing smart business owners focus on an owned property (remember, the own two online marketing channels you own are your mailing list and your blog). You could most definitely fire up WordPress or Squarespace or whatever website platform you use and start posting away, but that's...
2 months ago • 2 min read