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Content Ideas for Consultants - Getting Started (Part 1)

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Just this week I heard it again: “If I start a newsletter, what would I put in it?” While I can think of lots of content ideas for just about any business owner I meet, it’s not so easy for everyone. In fact, it wasn’t always easy for me either. It gets easier, and you get better, with practice. For consultants, there’s an added bonus to spending time creating marketing content and that's learning . Benjamin Franklin said, “There is no better way to learn than to teach.” Sharing valuable content is teaching and, when you’re creating content for your blog or newsletter, you’ll also be doing research, checking assumptions, and developing opinions . If you’re a new business owner, or new to developing content, finding a place to start might feel like picking a needle out of a haystack. In this series of posts, I'll explain how to get started and accomplish other goals, too. Build Your Confidence Since confidence comes from writing about what you know , start with crea...
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Best Beginner Business Blogging Advice

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If you're planning to begin blogging for your business, I'd like to shorten your learning curve. Because, oh boy, do you ever have lots to learn. The good news is that you don't need to know it all before you start, and learning as you go is fun. I asked a couple of award-winning business bloggers to give me their best advice for beginners so I can pass it onto you. Mary Jane Copps , aka The Phone Lady , has been blogging weekly for her business since 2009. Here's what she says: 1. Embrace a schedule. While it feels daunting to commit to a daily, weekly or monthly blog, staying true to a posting schedule will make you a better writer, and you will develop the ability to create and uncover great story ideas. 2. Be observant; write it down. No matter what the theme of your blog, things will appear in your life each day that can become a post. Stay present to every phone call, meeting and event. Great content is everywhere. But don't rely on your memory; keepi...
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Your Marketing Made Easy

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We have a LOT of options when it comes to our online marketing. The choices can be staggering, often leading to no action at all. Yesterday I had the opportunity to participate as a facilitator at the Your Marketing Made Easy conference in Regina, SK. 10 facilitators, 16 workshops - covering topics like social media, blogging, email marketing, SEO, event marketing, web usability, and so much more. It was a fun and inspiring day! My only regret is that I didn't get to attend many of the workshops put on by the other facilitators. photo by  Alvil Tayco on Twitter Click to Tweet this Article
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Trying to Unsubscribe

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We often talk about the importance of making it easy to unsubscribe. I thought I would share with you my recent experience demonstrating the frustration that can occur when it is not. I decided to unsubscribe from Air Canada's onAir newsletter several issues ago. When my issue arrived, I clicked to unsubscribe and landed on a 'No Update' error page. No big deal, the internet can be glitchy, I would just do it the next issue. This went on for 4 or 5 issues at which point, I started to feel like they were sending me to the error page on purpose. I was getting a little hot under the collar. Last week, on a bad day for me, the current issue arrived and I landed on the same error page. I then went back to the newsletter and clicked the "contact us" link which took me to a form on their website called 'Let Us Know'. It was a lengthy form and the first section was my contact information in which I had to fill out my address, email, phone number and ...
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7 Out Of 12 Small Business Bloggers Agree On This

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When I teach marketing courses, the group eventually tires of seeing this list come up on the screen in every class: Build relationships, community Grow your reputation, sphere of influence Be seen as an expert Share valuable info, products, services Increase your social media following Give value to your customers, prospects and colleagues on a regular basis Get found - SEO The items on this list are key reasons for publishing a blog or newsletter . Yes, of course, the ultimate goal is sometimes - but not always - an increase in sales. The problem is, you (and me) can't meet all the goals on that list at the same time. We'd become unfocused and demotivated. So I 'force' these small business folk to pick only two goals  to focus on. Last week I noted the two goals each person called out as we went around the room. I added my own two goals, as well, to round the group off at a dozen. Seven of us chose #2 - growing our reputation - as one of our two ...
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The Best Reading of 2014

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Continuing our annual tradition, here are our top 10 picks of the best articles from the Work Better, Not Harder newsletter during 2014, not in any particular order. You need to Bite-size your Content by Brandi Good, BLG Business Solutions Your new website just went live - it looks amazing and it's chock-full of great information. You spent hours crafting the perfect blog post. You put together a newsletter with a beautiful layout and great content. You've been sharing these links all over your social media networks. And then... continue reading The Problem with Gratitude by Steve Foran, Performance Quest Can’t believe it took 7 years to figure this out! Although I was unaware of the problem, I’ve known all about the benefits of being grateful - a list which continues to grow. continue reading Have you been Asked yet Today? by Brenda Fay, BrenDaniel Productions Corp. I had a conversation with a potential client the other day and they asked me question after qu...
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Accountability: More Than A Deadline

If you’ve been in business for more than a few months, you’ve had the discussion about accountability with at least one other business owner – and will continue to have that conversation with other business owners. We all struggle with staying focused and getting things done. One way that we combat this is by setting up systems of accountability. Our systems vary greatly, from detailed plans and deadlines to mastermind groups and more. One strategy that can be effective is bringing another person into your system to be accountable to. Telling someone else about your goals and deadlines is a step in the right direction. But accountability works best when it’s more than deadlines and reminders - when there’s the real potential for loss. That could be the loss of money, if we are paying someone to keep us accountable. It could be the loss of opportunity, if we aren’t acting fast enough. It could be the loss of integrity or trust, if the opinion of the person we are letting down is i...
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Reducing the Noise

One problem with the current social media soup is the high noise to relevant signal ratio. The most effective way to deal with this problem is to find accepted and popular experts in your field of interest and subscribe to their feeds. This will lead you to relevant online communities from which you can find and share pertinent advice and draw new customers. This approach will work much better than broad monitoring of many social media services because it will greatly reduce the noise you will need browse and therefore, the time you need to spend building your online reputation. Click to Tweet the Article
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Your Content Quality Check

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When you're buried in details, it's hard to see the big picture. That's not news to you or anyone else. To get out of the trees and above the forest, consider adding one final quality control check to your content creation process. Whether you are writing for your blog, newsletter or social media platforms, before you hit that PUBLISH button, ask yourself: "What value will my target market get from this?" If you can't articulate the value , your target market is unlikely to be able to, either. Think about it from your reader's perspective. How would they describe your article to someone else when they're (hopefully) raving about it? It might be something like: "Check out this blog post about xxxxx. It's got great tips you can use right away." What if you can't articulate the value? Start editing right away, or put it aside and come back to it with fresh eyes later. I have a folder of article drafts that I've rejected ...
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Amazing Statistics

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When I first met the ladies of Transitions Estate Services , they had a simple problem. They needed a way to get their sale notices to their customers by email. We set them up with a bulk email system and template and decided to use Pinterest as a way for them to show off the items at each sale. Updating their website frequently was not practical for them. Pinterest turned out to be a great option for images of the sale items and their click-through and open rates have been amazing since the very first issue. Average open rate is 43% with a high of 46%. Compare this to a 20% industry standard and you can see how successful it has been. Average click-through rate is 27% with a high of 33%. For each and every send, the most clicked link is their Pinterest board and the second is the map to location. Just what they were looking for... to show customers the items for sale and have them show up at the sale! Their customers can see the sale notice and list of items in the local ...
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