This week definitely had its ups and downs! Sunday was a beautiful day spent with people I love - and I even got to visit Lake Huron for the first time! I'm always so impressed with the Great Lakes - they are so vast.
Writing is one of those things that small business owners either love or hate to do. And as someone who falls into the love-it camp, it's still hard for me to find enough time to write for my business.
This week was refreshing. Whatever was going on last week (major negative vibes) is officially gone! The last few days I've been especially thankful for encouraging collaborations and consistent progress. We are working on some exciting partnerships and new developments for the website/blog!
If you’re a small business owner, content marketing needs to be a part of your daily business strategy.
Still scratching your head and wondering what content marketing is exactly?
oe Pulizzi defines the concept in his book, Epic Content Marketing, as “the process of developing and sharing relevant, valuable, and engaging content to a target audience with the goal of acquiring new customers or increasing business from existing customers.”
Pulizzi further explains, “Content Marketing is about delivering the content your audience is seeking in all the places they are searching for it. It is the effective combination of created, curated and syndicated content.”
Who doesn’t want their blog to be more successful? Nobody.
As business owners and marketers, we are all looking for ways to increase readership, enhance engagement, and ultimately, get more mileage out of the blog posts we write!
A couple weeks ago, we published a short video “4 Ways to Make Your Blog More Successful.” We totally appreciate all of the wonderful feedback you gave! We wanted to provide a more in-depth look at these tips and share a few more tips we think you need to take your blog to the next level.
These are the tried-and-true strategies we have been using for the past year. Enjoy!
Public speaking is one of the most critical forms of communication in the business world. It comes in all shapes and sizes, from introducing yourself at a networking event to being the keynote speaker at workshops and seminars.
Whether the speaking engagement is small or large, it can cause us to feel extremely nervous. According to Psychology Today, most people fear public speaking more than death! That is a lot of fear.
Sometimes we put so much pressure on ourselves to speak perfectly that it causes us to overthink things.
Most of us recognize when it is appropriate to write emails in a formal or informal tone. At work, we are told to error on the side of being too professional when communicating with coworkers, our boss, and our clients. We’re given the impression that it’s better to be safe than sorry and to be careful not to come off as too casual or worse, disrespectful.
But once you’ve formed strong relationships with coworkers and clients, wouldn’t it feel weird to be strictly professional in your emails? Shouldn’t your communication style reflect the connection and trust you’ve built over time? So, how do you walk the line between being professional and personable in your emails?
I may be a little late to the podcasting craze, but I’m hooked. I recently got a new phone because mine jumped off a cliff (figuratively, not literally). When I got my fancy-dancy new phone, I got a free pair of Beats Wireless headphones (sadly, not sponsored!). New gadgets = revolutionized morning routine.
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The truth of the matter is that some of us started blogging because someone told us we had to, and others started because they wanted to talk about their products and services. But those are not the right reasons to blog.
Watch our most recent video clip and learn about the top three blogging mistakes we encourage you not to make! Businesses who make these three mistakes are simply adding to the mountains of irrelevant content online and disappointing their customers by not offering the solutions they so desperately want.
What’s your home page saying about you? As the most viewed page on your website, your homepage should leave your audience intrigued and informed. What they should not be is bored, confused, or unsatisfied. If you don’t capture your current and potential customers’ attention quickly, they will leave. Seems like common knowledge, and yet, we come across poorly executed homepages every day!
What you include on your homepage sends your audience a message about what you think is most important for them to know, your approach to customer relationships, and why they should do business with you. Your homepage should direct your audience to where they should go next on your website and how they can get more information.
Your homepage is your 24/7 sales tool. Don’t screw it up.
Last week, we got to know Amanda, the owner of Rough Draft Solutions. This week, we wanted to focus on the two other team members of the business, Emily and Maddie.
These two ladies have added so much value to the work we do at Rough Draft Solutions. They are skilled writers and editors, and we are excited for you to get to know them a bit more!
In the world of small business, we must take ownership of our story. We must speak out, share our experiences, and open up about our struggles. By doing this, we can inspire and encourage one another to keep the dream alive. We are continually inspired by the hardworking business owners who are bootstrapping it and making things happen!
This week we’re interviewing our very own Amanda Washburn, the owner of Rough Draft Solutions. We hope it gives you a bit of insight into our company and why we’re committed to empowering other businesses to communicate with their customers! So, grab a cup of coffee and stay awhile!
Moment of truth: I had no clue what content marketing was when I started working at Rough Draft Solutions (RDS).Thankfully, after a year of working at RDS, I’ve got an idea of what content creation strategies businesses should be using.
The amount of advertisements we see each day is excessive. Businesses are striving to show off their brands and attract potential customers, but if they are strictly relying on self-promoting ads, they are missing the mark. If companies want to make a meaningful impact on their customers and extend their reach, they need to produce value-focused, authentic, and hard-hitting content.
Love it or hate it, blogging is here to stay. Every week I meet business owners who ask me about whether or not they should be blogging. Most times, my answer is yes, but under one condition.
Don’t be a dummy.
Okay, that may not be quite what I say, but if you’re going to write a blog you need to follow some house-rules. The rules aren’t complicated, in fact, they aren’t too different from what your 7th grade English teacher taught you in regards to writing a paper.
Awhile back, we made this blog writing checklist for a training session we did with one of our clients. This checklist is a quick and easy way to make sure you cover all the bases before you publish your blog post. Use this checklist as you get started writing and before you know it, blog writing will become second nature.
If you published a powerful piece of content without your name on it, would your customers know it is from you? If you're not sure, you've got some work to do.
One of the most important things you can do when it comes to marketing is to create a business voice that stands out and is easy to connect with. Remember, we've gotten away from just selling our products through content and are now focused on producing value and telling stories. To do this effectively you must create a style and tone for your business that can be used across all platforms and documents.
Remember, your customers probably won’t acknowledge that you have a set style in place because they will be too caught up in effortlessly reading your content (and that is what you want!). And often, if they do notice your writing style and tone it's when something is off and your cadence/approach/perspective doesn't match what they are familiar with.
Let's dig into why you need to establish your business voice (more specifically, your writing style and tone) sooner than later and lay out exactly how you're going to do that.
When it comes to blogging, one crucial and often, overlooked aspects of blogging is finding the time to do it! The idea of having a thriving, popular blog sounds fantastic, but making it happen is another story. You may have a plethora of blog topics you want to publish, but it’s tricky to find the time to blog when you have a hectic schedule.
Today, I will give you tips that can help you thoughtfully plan your time and dismiss the overwhelming stresses, so you can bring your blog ideas to life.
Does your business send a newsletter to its customers? Or have you been thinking about starting a newsletter but don’t know where to begin? The debate of whether to send a newsletter or not is a common one.
The biggest challenge is the thought of writing something your customers may or may not read. No one wants to “waste time” on something that isn’t guaranteed to be profitable. And while many companies are doing newsletters completely wrong, there are a few things you can do to improve the readability of your content and utilize a newsletter to your business’s advantage.
If you’re putting in the effort to blog for your business, you probably have an idea of how important Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is. This is what allows your beautiful blog to actually be seen and read! But do you know how to optimize your content while still being authentic?
Whether you have been creating engaging content and are well on your way to being a blogging master or are just getting started on your blogging endeavors, it's time to dig a bit deeper.
Content developers and website designers go hand-in-hand. Whether your website designer is building you a brand new website, or if you’re going through a website refresh, it’s important that your website tells your story. So what does your web designer really want from you? Content.
When it comes to website content, we’re talking more than simply text and pictures. For Klimb Creative, we want to know the nitty gritty details so we know how to build and structure your website. Here are a few basic elements we want to know:
While you may not want to accept the fact that your brochures are a bit boring and ugly, don’t be too discouraged. You don’t need to be a professional designer in order to create a polished piece. However, before you go all DIY crazy, there are 5 major mistakes you need to avoid.