The Truth About SEO - Does it Really Matter?

The Truth About SEO - Does it Really Matter?

BY MICHELLE KNIGHT

I stumbled into SEO, Search Engine Optimization, when I first started blogging. I was implementing tiny bits of information I would find online and crossed my fingers that it might work.

Honestly, I knew nothing at the time but did know that small changes could yield big results. Within months I discovered I was on page one of Google - that’s when I knew it was working. 

I continued to put more emphasis on my strategy heading into 2019, learn as much as I could about SEO and over time I discovered that the majority of my leads were coming from Google and Pinterest.

Today, thanks to effective SEO strategies I experience thousands of website visitors every month.

Here’s a sneak peek at what happened from 2019 to 2020.

VS.

But, let’s not just talk about SEO, let's strip away all the mystery that we see in online marketing and have a real conversation about why every single business, no matter what you sell, should have a solid SEO strategy inside of your marketing.

What SEO Means

Let's first just break down into everyday terms what SEO is. 

It's essentially search engine optimization, which you probably already know, but what is that exactly? 

It means that when you are on search engine platforms like Google or even platforms that you might not think about, like Pinterest and YouTube, you can go to those platforms, type in questions, keywords, or a single word, and the algorithm will pull all of the resources that match those terms. 

As a marketer, if you want to show up for people who are searching for those things, you want to make sure that you're paying attention to the SEO in your content.

This tool is giving the algorithm the information that you are sharing on your page so that you show up in your ideal client’s search results. 

And yes, ranking on page one is kind of a big deal, most people don't scroll past page two or three, but even showing up on those early pages, page one, two or three can be super beneficial for your business. 

Obviously, we're all shooting for page one and we're going to talk about how you can do just that for your industry.

The Consumer Buying Process and SEO

A few blogs ago, I introduced the consumer buying process and I presented the different phases that a customer goes through before they purchase.

Stage One: Problem or Need Recognition
Stage Two: Information Search
Stage Three: Evaluation of Alternatives
Stage Four: Purchase Decision
Stage Five: Post-Purchase Evaluation

We also broke it down as it relates to content creation. So, make sure you go back and watch that video. That's going to specifically tell you about each of those individual pieces so you have a better understanding of the client buying journey.

What I want you to focus on when we're talking about these five phases is that people are finding your content at different points in their journey. 

Not everyone is going to be coming to you and discovering your brand with a credit card in hand, and not everyone is going to be coming to your brand wondering, "What am I supposed to be doing with my life?" 

There are a wide variety of different stages that a consumer might be sitting in at any given time and that's why SEO can be incredibly powerful. 

It allows you to create multiple resources, as well as the SEO on your site as a whole, to make sure that you are showing up for people at multiple stages of the buying process.

SEO MARKETING: 3 SEO ACTION STEPS

SEO TIP #1: SITE-WIDE SEO

The first thing you want to do is make sure that you have your site-wide SEO set up. 

As I mentioned before in the consumer buying process there will be people looking for your services and industry specifically at stage four or five. Now, this is where your website homepage comes into play because when you set your site-wide SEO, and you rank on Google for specific keywords, the traffic is going to go to your homepage. 

So, you want to make sure that your homepage is set up and ready to rock and roll. Last week I shared my 4-part framework for increasing conversions on your homepage, you can check that out here.

A lot of people miss this piece of the puzzle, they start to rank, and then they realize, "Oh, crap, everyone's just landing on my homepage which isn't optimized to collect leads or direct people to my offers, or send them to resources like my blog." We don’t want that so make sure you have an optimized homepage to start.

Ok, back to site-wide SEO.

I use Squarespace in my business so there's an actual section in Squarespace for site-wide SEO. Kajabi is another tool that I use and they have a section for site-wide SEO as well. No matter what platform you're using, there is going to be a section to set up the SEO for your website as a whole, typically found in the settings section.

Now when you’re choosing what to include in this section, I want you to think about those final stages of the buying process. The stage where someone already understands their problem, already understands their solution, they've looked around, and now they want to purchase. 

That's what I want you to focus on when it comes to choosing keywords for site-wide SEO - think about your industry or product. For instance, “chemical-free skincare” or “business coach” or “wedding photographer Australia”.

In my case, if someone is looking for a branding coach and they're ready to invest in a branding coach, they might Google “branding coach,” and my website is going to pop up. 

If someone is looking for a personal branding consultant, they might type in “personal branding consultant” and my website will pop up. 

It's much easier to convert those individuals because they are ready to invest and by having this SEO in place you can create a consistent stream of clients.

You’ll use these keywords to format your Site Title and Site Description, which is another place to include some of those keywords but typically is written more conversationally and enticingly.

In addition, you can give it another boost but also include those keywords on your home page individually as well. 

I'm not going to go into that entire strategy today. That's something I teach inside of Brandmerry Academy, but if you’re choosing to do it yourself then you want to keep in mind that research is everything.

It's a mistake that many entrepreneurs make. They might say, "Okay, fantastic, this is my title. I'm a unicorn princess coach," and that's what they put for their site title.

No one's Googling that, right? And this is where I often say that your titles shouldn't be fluffy, they should be rooted in data and research. So, using some of the tools that I mentioned in a previous post on my favorite marketing tools, Ubersuggest or Keywords Everywhere are great tools that you can use to see how much traffic a particular keyword gets.

Now ranking for an industry doesn't mean that you need to have like 10,000 or 30,000 searches every single month, it could be as simple as 150 to 500 because those people are further along in the buying process so they are looking for a very, very specific solution to their problem.

TO RECAP:

• Do your research to discover what people are researching at stage four of the buying process

• Implement a Site-Wide Title and Description

• Add those keywords to your homepage in your copy

• Optimize your homepage for conversions

SEO TIP #2: BLOGGING AND PINTEREST

Number two is supporting what you're saying you're known for, i.e. Site-Wide SEO, with additional resources on your website through blogging.

Blogging does a few different, incredible things for ranking your website. 

Number one, blogging is an awesome resource. So, if someone wants to get to know you, you want to support them in moving through the buying process, blogging is a great way to showcase your expertise. 

In addition to that, many people who are at stage one of the buying process are just looking to understand their problem, looking for solutions to their problem, or just trying to get some information about what they are experiencing.

That's where blogging could be incredibly helpful. And if you use SEO on your blog strategically, then your blogs will show up in Google Search. For instance, my ideal customer at Stage One might be searching for content creation strategies and one of my blogs will show up. 

It is, I would say, much easier to rank for your site as a whole, which is why that's number one than it is to rank individual blog posts. But the more that you get into SEO and the more that you practice utilizing keywords in your headers and optimizing your title, then it is more likely that your blogs will rank on Google. 

In addition to supporting your ideal customer on their journey, Google also loves content that supports what you ultimately say you are doing. So, if I say I'm a branding coach and I have a lot of blogs on branding, Google likes that a lot, and they're going to use that to help me show up on their search engine. 

It also helps with other search engine platforms as well.

Think about Pinterest! Remember, Pinterest is an SEO platform and a great place to feature your blog content to get in front of your ideal customer.

Putting your blog content on your website, sharing it on Pinterest and making sure it's optimized there as well can help drive consistent traffic to your platform. 

Many of those individuals on Pinterest are at the beginning stages of the buying process where they're just looking for solutions, and your blog can show up for them. So, making sure that you're creating supporting content within your niche, within your industry on your blog, and that's a consistent part of your marketing strategy.

SEO TIP #3: SEO RESEARCH

It's one thing to blog, it's another thing to do your dang research. 

So, one of the best pieces of advice that I could give to you when it comes to content as a whole is to do your research and make sure that you're optimizing your content on Pinterest, on your blog, and YouTube for SEO. 

What does that mean? That means that you might have a fantastic idea in your head of something that you want to share and I want you to research that topic to make sure that you're choosing the best title and the best keywords so people find it.

On the flip side of that, you might not know what you want to talk about at all and you can use these tools like Ubersuggest and Keywords Everywhere to search for specific topics that you know are relevant for your ideal customer and get a plethora of topic ideas and content that you can share that you already know is going to do well on search engines.

When planning your content give yourself some extra time to do your SEO research.

There are so many resources out there that will give you the answers, you don't have to just wonder, "How many people are searching for this?" 

The data is there. 

If you take an extra step when you're mapping out your content for 30 days, 60 days, 90 days, like I like to do over here at Brandmerry, you're making sure that the titles, the URL that you're creating, and the keywords on your content are going to show up for people.

CONCLUSION

Remember, so many people create their website and then it just sits there because they're not getting traffic. 

SEO is the answer to getting consistent traffic, leads and conversions. And utilizing search engine platforms like Pinterest, Youtube and Google will allow you to continue to scale your business with ease.

I hope that this was helpful for you in understanding what SEO is and why it's important. Make sure you go back and read those previous posts specifically on the client buying journey and optimizing your homepage. 

And if you’re ready to learn how to market your business with ease, without relying on social media and implement the strategies we talked about today with SEO, Pinterest, blogging, video marketing and more, then check out Brandmerry Academy and how the membership can support you in scaling your business.

P.S. Have you tuned in to The Beautiful Climb podcast? I release new episodes every other Friday on topics around productivity, motherhood, habits, goals and going after the life of your dreams! Check out past episodes and be sure to subscribe at thebeautifulclimb.com

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MEET MICHELLE

Hey there, I'm Michelle Knight and I an online branding and marketing consultant for female entrepreneurs.

I believe in the power of storytelling and using that superpower to brand and market yourself online...oh and to set yourself free.

I'm obsessed with living a life of freedom, so much so, that my family and I now travel full-time while running my business from the road.

This blog serves as a home base for all things branding, marketing, content creation and more.

Digital Marketing Guide for Entrepreneurs

BY MICHELLE KNIGHT

This guide was designed to give you everything you need to know about digital marketing as an entrepreneur.

Inside the guide you’ll find:

• Why digital marketing is essential

• 3 ways to improve your online marketing

• 3 marketing mistakes to avoid

• 3 ways to improve content marketing

• Tips for growing your email list

• How to not rely on social media

• How to improve your email list

• Why you need a website

• Tips for improving your SEO

• Why you need Pinterest marketing

• How to increase your website conversions

Let's dive into what relationship marketing is and why it's essential 👇

WHAT IS RELATIONSHIP MARKETING?

Relationship Marketing, also referred to as H2H (Human-to-Human marketing) is focused on one thing, building a relationship between the brand and the consumer.

It is the new age of marketing if you can call it new. It’s no longer acceptable to rely on traditional marketing setups like B2C (Business-to-Consumer) or B2B (Business-to-Business) and has moved to a Human-to-Human marketing approach.

Relationship marketing builds on the idea that every transaction comes down to a human buying something from another human, when you think of marketing and specifically selling in this way it shifts the way you go about sharing your products and services to a more emotional and empathetic approach focused on connection.

Added bonus not only does this increase conversion rates, but it also increases client retention!

In relationship marketing your strategy becomes 100% about building trust.

It’s about the emotional connection your audience has to your brand, it puts an emphasis on Brand Affinity and as the brand and marketer, it puts more emphasis on storytelling.

This switch is much more effective than the “traditional” way of advertising and marketing your products and services, which can sometimes feel disconnected and inauthentic to your audience.

86 percent of consumers say that authenticity is a key factor when deciding what brands they like and support (Stackla, 2019)

WHY RELATIONSHIP MARKETING IS IMPORTANT AS AN ONLINE BRAND

As we’ve already covered a million times, relationship marketing is about relationships, so with that in mind, there is a two-fold approach.

Can you guess what it is? You probably guessed it...relationship marketing comes down to you and the consumer or potential client.

Let’s first talk about you (aka the brand). No matter if you work for a company, or more likely have an entrepreneurial business (possibly a personal brand) there is a human(s) running the show.

The idea is that the human(s) become the face, voice and connection between the audience and the products. It’s important to focus on creating content that showcases the values of the brand, connects emotionally to the consumer, and shares great stories.

It becomes more about quality over quantity, tieing every single piece of content back to the question, “How does this build a relationship and trust with my audience?”

The other side of the equation is your audience. Remember, you’re talking to a real human on the other end of your emails, social media posts and videos. This can be so easy to forget as we’re living in an age of automation.

However, you can’t automate human connection! 

Think about how you as a consumer hope to engage with a brand, actually take it a step further, how do you like to interact with a friend? My guess is if the only communication you had with them was an automated/ canned response you’d peace out! 

We often overlook the fact that our potential customers are real people, with real lives, looking for real connections.

At the end of the day, humans want to be seen, heard, and understood, and as a brand, you have the ability to do just that through your marketing efforts.

From a marketing standpoint when you can focus on building a solid relationship through your marketing efforts you’ll build trust with your audience much quicker than if you're ignoring the struggles and desires of your audience.

Relationships build trust and trust is what leads to sales.

81 percent of consumers said that they need to be able to trust the brand in order to buy from them (Edelman, 2019)

Let's talk about 3 ways to improve your overall online marketing 👇

1. Become a Better Storyteller

If you’ve read my blogs before then this tip shouldn’t come as a surprise to you, it’s literally how I’ve built the half-a-million-dollar business I have today.

Learning how to tell better stories is going to improve your marketing across the board, whether it's on your website, in your freebie funnel, live video, social media, blog, Pinterest, I can keep talking and going on and on about every single aspect, but you get the idea. 

And there are a couple of the core reasons storytelling works so well in marketing.

Your content is 22 times more likely to be remembered If you incorporate storytelling.

I know you spend time creating content, right? It is probably the most time-consuming part of running your business and it's an important part of running your business. So don't you want to make sure that when you take this time, and you put the content out into the world, that people actually remember what you said? Don’t you want to know it’s making an impact? That it’s not just consumed and forgotten in 48 hours?

Incorporating storytelling allows you to do that. 

In addition, storytelling does some cool stuff in our brains

When we read or hear a story dopamine is released in our brains. This release makes us feel an emotional connection to the story instantly. If it’s a great story it might even allow us to connect with the storyteller. This emotional connection is important because it’s why people decide to buy.

It has been proven that logistics aren’t enough on their own. When we share the price, the savings, the number of modules, etc...it isn’t going to get someone to commit. The emotional connection, what’s happening on the subconscious level, is the reason someone makes a purchase decision.

And, finally, if you’re not already convinced, one of the fundamental pieces of storytelling that I love to teach is that your story is actually not about you as the marketer, it's about your ideal customer. 

One of the ways to become a better storyteller is to remember that every single story that you share needs to be about your audience and connect to your audience in some way and invite them in. When we do this with our storytelling, we continue to neural coupling.

Neural coupling is the firing of mirror neurons that create coherence between a speaker's brain and the brain of his or her audience members. And inviting your audience into the story is actually quite easy. Look for ways to ask questions like, “Have you ever felt this way?”
“Does that sound familiar?”
“Have you had this experience?”

Just those simple one-liner questions can Invite your audience into your story.

These are just three reasons why integrating storytelling into every aspect of your marketing is so important, because it will actually allow you to build trust quicker, leading to the sale. 

2. Take Care of Your Client’s on Their Journey

Yes, I mean every single step of the way. Your client journey doesn’t just start when they purchase a product from you, it starts the second they learn about you and your brand.

The client journey isn’t talked about enough and as a result, people market the crap out of their business and they do an amazing job, but after the sale, the client is just not satisfied. It’s because they didn’t spend the same level of care on their client as they did selling.

So, I want you to think about a couple of things.

• When someone opts into your freebie, what happens? What do they get? What do they hear about?

• When someone gets an email from you or sees on social media that you have an offer and they go to your sales page, what does that process look like?

• When someone buys from you, what does that process look like?
  
  

You want to really break down each of these different processes every step of the way.

I'll give you an example of the onboarding process for my program Brandmerry Academy.

When someone is ready to join The Academy, during a launch, they go to the sales page, they choose their offer, then they go to the checkout page.

On the checkout page, I have a video of me walking them through the process. After they enter their payment information, they are immediately taken to a confirmation page that says, “You did it! You're in!” and it includes another video from me sharing the next steps.

Under the video, I tell them exactly what they need to do, which includes checking their email for their login and looking for another email from me with all the details they need. Then, while they wait for the emails, I’m directing them to the New Member Survey. 

After the survey, they check the email and have everything they need to get started. They have a link to the Facebook Group. They can log-in to the membership site. They have a walkthrough video of the membership site so they can get started. They have a New Member Roadmap.

There is no guessing as to what they need to do and as a result, my clients feel 100% supported from the second they choose to buy. 

Do you see how powerful this is? I made it a point to maintain trust the entire way through the process.

A few questions to start asking yourself to clean up your process:

• How can I make this a memorable and easy experience for people from the second they hear about my business?

• What happens when someone lands on a sales page? Do my buttons work?

• When someone wants to schedule a call, what is that process? 

• When someone buys a product what is the step-by-step process?

3. Consistently Show Up and Deliver Value

If you want to make it in marketing, people need to know who you are.

Consistently showing up for your audience, is just another way to build trust with them. And no, consistency does not mean posting every single day, that’s so old school, what consistency means is finding a rhythm that works for you and sticking to it.

Building trust and credibility with your audience so they know you’re showing up during the week. When you focus on consistency you are less likely to get lost in the mix of information.

This is one of the reasons I love email marketing and I make it a goal to send at least one email a week. Email marketing allows you to get directly to your audience without having to compete for space on social media. And when you’re showing up on the same day every week, they know to look for you!

When we’re talking about consistently showing up, no matter what platform you choose to share your content, you need to have core systems in place to make your life easier. Consistency is a really big struggle for so many entrepreneurs and that’s because they don’t have clear systems in place to create content weekly.

James Clear, the author of Atomic Habits, states, “You do not rise to the level of your goals, you fall to the level of your systems.”

This line spoke to my soul because it's not just about hitting your goals, it's about having the systems in place so that you can get back on the horse when you inevitably fall off. It’s going to happen so having these systems allow you to pick back up and get right back into it.

If you don't have these workflows and these systems and you don't know how to create consistent content, you don't know how to write content quickly, and you don't know how to come up with content ideas, and you don't have these systems that you can essentially rinse and repeat you will struggle.

It’s one of the reasons I created The Consistency Guide for entrepreneurs. I’m finally solving the problem so many entrepreneurs have by addressing the mindset and systems of it all. You can learn more about The Consistency Guide here.

3 marketing mistakes to avoid 👇

Marketing Mistake #1: Relying on Social Media

The very first marketing mistake is that you are most likely relying only on social media to grow and market your business. As the online mentoring and course industry expands more and more coaches are utilizing social media platforms and unfortunately the message is getting out there that all we need to do is show up on social media to grow a profitable business.

I don’t know about you, but I quickly noticed it’s not quite that easy, right?

While, this strategy might have worked wonders for them and it probably still does cause they have like 100,000 followers or 25,000 followers, for those of you that are just starting out and in the trenches of that first and second year maybe you've realized that you've hit a ceiling and that you can't create more content.

Showing up on social media daily to engage and create content takes a lot of time. When you go about using this strategy only, you’ll start to create less and less content because it starts to get harder to keep it consistent. Then over time you notice you’re going weeks without anything.

I got to a point in my business where I had reached six figures, and although I felt accomplished I also didn’t know how I was going to keep growing. I realized I couldn’t make more than this a year, if I was going to keep getting clients and then still show up on social media every single day. 

The reality is by relying on this strategy I was limiting myself and you’re most likely doing the same. It’s not scalable to rely on social media to grow your community and profits.

The other piece is that you don’t own social media. If you're relying on Instagram to promote your business and Instagram doesn't work, how do you promote your business?

If you're relying on Facebook or even your Facebook group to show up and promote your business and for some reason that's not working in the middle of a launch or a sale, what happens? 

That’s why it’s so important to have these other avenues in place to consistently build your audience. 

**If you’re curious about my favorite strategy which is SEO (Search Engine Optimization) be sure to check out this post here.

You should not be relying on social media to constantly attract new leads and grow your business. Social media is where we go to be social, to build relationships, to nurture the community that's already there.

Marketing Mistake #2: Not Generating Leads

This mistake makes me hurt a little inside, when I see an entrepreneur who has no efficient way to collect leads from prospects on their website, watching a live video or following them on social media.

This is all about list building. The idea is that if someone is taking the time to consume your content, you want to give them a way to join your “inner circle” i.e. your email list.

To kick it off, I highly recommend Convertkit to grow your email list because it has all the tools you need including landing pages, segmenting, forms for your website, tags, funnels and more. You can try it for free with my link here.

The beautiful thing about capturing your ideal customers information is that they are committing to your business. It’s essentially their first investment in you and your brand. Even though you're not getting an exchange of money, somebody is saying, “Okay, I trust you. I like what you're about and want to hear more from you. I want to welcome you into my inbox!” 

I don't know about you, but my inbox is a sacred space. This is a big deal!

So to generate consistent leads to your business you want to have advanced marketing strategies in place like, SEO, podcasting, YouTube, blogging and Pinterest  where you’re putting out a piece of content and every single day people are finding it and saying yes to joining your list.

Now, here is the kicker!

There needs to be an exchange that happens where you give them a free gift in exchange for their email address. This is the very beginning of the lead generation process.

If you’re new to list building, here is the overview below. If you want to learn more about list building, check out this blog here.

So you start with a free gift. If you’re a service-based business this can be a PDF, video training, audio training, a quiz...there are a ton of different options here.

If you sell a product, this might be a coupon code or a discount on their first item, but it could also be something really cool like a quiz. If I were selling a skincare product, I might create a free quiz that tells people their skin type and recommends the best products. In order to get the results and tips, they would have to give their email address.

That’s the free gift, something of value in exchange for their email address. Then you show up for them regularly in their inbox, providing value and time to time asking for the sale.

3 TIPS TO IMPROVE YOUR FREEBIE (FREE OFFER)

1. Your freebie needs to be something your audience knows they need. If they are not aware of it, then it’s going to be really hard to market.

2. It needs to provide value to your audience. If after they consume the content, they walk away with something to implement, having learned something new or being inspired it’s valuable.

3. Your free gift needs to be a clear pillar of your brand. For instance, a skincare quiz sounds super cool, but I wouldn’t do that as a free gift because it doesn’t directly connect to my brand message or paid services. 
   
   

Marketing Mistake #3: You’re Blaming the Algorithm

I call this the blame game. 

My marketing isn't working because of the algorithm…
My marketing isn’t working because my industry is saturated…
My marketing isn’t working because my ideal client isn’t on [insert platform]...

That is not why your marketing isn’t working, but it's really easy to fall into this rut. It's really easy to fall into this thinking and then stay there.

I can teach you all the strategies in the world, but if you're stuck in a mindset that no one cares or no one sees it or it doesn't matter, then you won't get results.

And that's the truth. 

I’ve had those moments in my own business, especially in the beginning. If I was promoting a challenge and there were 5 people who signed up, and in my mind, it was nobody cared.

EXCEPT for 5 people! 
5 people who signed up, who had never heard of me before, who had never bought from me before, who were giving me an opportunity to show up for them.
That’s 5 potential clients.
It’s all in your mindset.

Such a big part of showing up is creating content! If you don't think people will find it, if you don't think people will find value in it, then what are the odds that you’re going to consistently show up?

Your mindset will take over and you’ll feel there is no point...no one sees it
...the algorithm is out to get me.

No, the algorithm is out to challenge you...accept that challenge and become better.

If your marketing isn’t working change your mindset, accept responsibility and find solutions.

We cannot play small games when it comes to building our online brand and our business and this belief will keep you playing small. In order to be successful, we need to think big picture and big picture responsibility, taking responsibility for things, not working and finding solutions.

3 ways to improve content creation 👇

1. Use a Content Calendar

If you are not currently using a content calendar then you’re flying by the seat of your pants and that is most likely contributing to the need to “search” for answers, rather than trusting your own writing instincts.

You can download my free Content Calendar if you haven’t already.

This will teach you a technique (not a template) I use with my clients to identify YOUR authentic Brand Containers as a way to come up with a stream of content. Then you can better plan for your content over the next month and pull from your own life experiences and needs of your clients in the process.

In addition, can you tell I’m super passionate about this, you’ll get into the habit or pre-writing your content which allow you to find your own voice.

2. Pull Ideas For Content From Your Followers

Want to know the secret to content that converts? Pay attention to what your audience is asking for. Yes, it gets to be that easy, yet so many entrepreneurs are missing this step.

Maybe it’s because they don’t have an audience yet?

Maybe it’s because their audience, although small, is made up of family and friends?

Maybe they don’t know how to ask?

Whatever the reason may be, I want you to remember you have the internet at your fingertips. Literally, anything you need to know is available to you if you take the time to look (and taking the time to brainstorm and research content ideas is huge)!

Use hashtags, groups, forums, connections, heck a simple Google Search to find what your ideal client is looking for and create content that addresses that need in a way that showcases your personality and brand voice.

3. Play up Emotional Branding in Your Content

Not sure what I mean by emotional branding? Be sure to check out this post here.

At its core, emotional branding is understanding the pains and pleasures of your audience and creating strong copy and content that:

1. Addresses the pain and/or pleasure

2. Uses strong emotionally charged language to connect to that pain and/or pleasure

3. Offers a solution

Even in the beginning when you’re testing your copy and your writing style or brainstorming content ideas, you can start incorporating emotionally charged words and phrases into your copy.

This will allow you to connect on a deeper level with your audience and start building an audience of true fans.

I believe that your true voice deserves to be heard and your brand to be seen.

I know that you have everything you need already inside of you to stand out on social media, you might need a little help in tapping into it, but don’t mask it with a generic template.

The goal is to find a system that allows your most authentic qualities to shine through.

Your language.

Your personality.

Your voice.

Your unique characteristics.

Your style.

When you use a template, that probably about 1,000+ other people are using you lose these pieces. Maybe not at first, but over time.

And as Dr. Seuss once said, and about a hundred other movies including What a Girl Wants 🙌🏻, “Why blend in when you were born to stand out?”

If you’re serious about doing the work and creating a brand that stands out on social media, produces high-value content for your audience and building a thriving community that leads to a revenue-generating business, then be sure to sign up for my free training on The Build a Better Brand Method here.

Growing your email list is important 👇

What if I told you that you could spend $1 and make $38...what would be your reaction?

Yeah me too! Well, the good news is that specific number is on average what email marketing generates. Yes, for every $1 spent you have the potential to make $38 in return. That’s a 3,800% ROI.

I don’t know about you, but sign me up.

Email marketing has been a love of mine for years now, ever since I realized that in order to make money in my business I needed people to sell too.

And, while I love showing up on social media to build trust and community there has always been something about relying on an outside platform that makes me nervous.

We’ve all had the days where Facebook or Instagram isn’t working, imagine if your entire business relied on your audience on social media...no thank you.

Over the years, I’ve used a very simple strategy to grow my online community via my email list using a lead magnet and email funnel.

Today, I’m breaking it down for you step by step and addressing some of the top mistakes I see entrepreneurs making when they are trying to grow their profitable list.

WHY EMAIL MARKETING IS IMPORTANT

When we’re asking for someone to follow us on social media we’re not asking a lot. 

Think about the number of people you currently follow, do you really have a deep interest in each and every one of them? Probably not.

That’s because it’s super easy to just hit the follow or like button.

However, email marketing requires a small level of commitment. In order to be added to someone’s list, you’ve got to provide your email address.

Well, that my friends is basically gold. You’re asking someone to trust you enough to send them periodic emails. Ultimately, this low-level commitment is the first step in becoming a paying client.

Your new subscriber is saying, “Yes, this is valuable to me. I'd love to learn more from you!” or something similar to that.

Email marketing is not only an amazing way to build an online community but to also pull in targeted leads to your paying offers.

6 MUST-HAVES TO GROW YOUR EMAIL LIST

#1 FREE GIFT OR LEAD MAGNET
#2 OPT-IN OR LANDING PAGE
#3 THANK YOU PAGE
#4 WELCOME EMAIL (DELIVER THE LEAD MAGNET)
#5 WELCOME SEQUENCE
#6 TRAFFIC

Because relying on social media isn't the best strategy 👇

The goal of marketing your business should be to build your email list/ inner circle.

There I said it. Why is this your main goal? Because when you have a community you have people to sell too - Community = Profits.

Yet, so many entrepreneurs don’t put enough attention to doing this daily. The reason for this is because of social media. Social media is an amazing business strategy, but in terms of marketing your business, it’s not the best strategy.

If you’re relying on social media to build your email list and make sales for your business and are feeling overwhelmed and inconsistent you’re not alone, but there is another way.

Here are three reasons we shouldn’t rely on social media to build our business and what to do instead.

#1 SOCIAL MEDIA IS MEANT TO BE SOCIAL

The reason the purpose of social media is important is that it was designed to be social. The purpose of these platforms is to keep people on them and engaged for long periods of time, so they’re not ideal for sending people to your website or landing page for your free gift.

While platforms like Facebook and LinkedIn make it easier than Instagram to post external links, the platforms have released statements saying that they favor content that keeps users on the platform.

So while social media might be a great way to engage with your audience on social, it won’t give you the same conversions as other strategies when it comes to building your email list.

#2 YOU DON’T OWN SOCIAL MEDIA

You know this right? Well, if you don’t realize that building your following and community on social media is risky let’s remember the times when Instagram and Facebook went down.

There have been many times in my business when I wanted to go live on Facebook and I couldn’t. Or Instagram was down for everyone making it impossible to post.

Now, while this might be an inconvenience for me it doesn’t really matter because I lead my social media followers to my email list.

Imagine if the only place you can contact your community is social media and this happens during a launch or promotion? Not good! 

And, while you don’t own your email platform either, you can download the name and email address for subscribers making it easy to move somewhere else.

#3 SOCIAL MEDIA IS NOT A SEARCH ENGINE

There’s a reason platforms like Google, Pinterest and Youtube work so well at attracting new subscribers and eyes on your brand; they are searchable.

What do I mean? We’ll if you type something into these platforms, often a question, you’ll get resources and solutions to your problem; social media was not designed in the same way.

Sure, you have hashtags and a search feature, but they aren’t optimized for search results and you’re not always getting the most accurate or prominent at the top.

If you’re running a business one of your daily goals should be to attract new people to your brand and business and that isn’t efficiently done if you’re relying on social media.

SO, WHERE DOES SOCIAL MEDIA FIT IN

Let’s talk about the 3 Tiers of Marketing - Know, Like and Trust.

Tier 1: Is the Brand Awareness stage, this is where people get to know you.

Often, this is done by creating content that you put out into the world and using tools like Pinterest, Google or Youtube so people can actually discover your content.

Tier 2: This is the Attraction stage and where you lead your new fans to your email list. You’re attracting them with a lead magnet or free gift in exchange for their email results.

Tier 3: This is where you focus on building trust with your new community members. This is where social media plays a vital role. You want to use social media to nurture your audience, educate them and share more behind the brand and your story. This is when social media makes the most sense.

However, as we’ve mentioned so many people are relying on social media at Tier 1 and are missing out on consistent leads and sales.

CONCLUSION

Social media is great, it’s one of my favorite ways to show up for my audience, but if you’re relying on social media to attract new subscribers and grow your list of potential leads it’s going to be a slow climb.

Using resources like Google, Pinterest, Youtube and more can not only speed up the process but optimize your time and energy in a much better way.

Check out this recent post I did on driving traffic to your website for some additional ideas.

So, now let's improve your email list! 👇

If you don't have a community, if you don't have an email list, if you don't have people who are going to ultimately buy from you, you have nothing.

We get right into building our businesses and our brands and we get  focused on what we’re going to offer and what’s on the website, when we need to be focusing on our community growth.

That's why one of the core foundations, I teach inside of all of my programs, is ideal client work.

Without knowing who you're speaking to and without putting the energy and attention into building and attracting those ideal customers, you're going to have a  hard time selling.

And with this emphasis on community building it’s important to share 5 Ninja Skills to improve your list building efforts.

If you want to watch the video, rather than read, scroll down!

Email List Building Tip #1
Your Lead Magnet

The first tips, and something you need with all of your email list and community growth, is the lead magnet!

This is what  starts it all. 

Remember, like 12 years ago, when you would land on a blog or a website and it would say, “Join our newsletter?” And it was like, "Okay, cool. I like your newsletter. This seems fun."

I still see this from time to time and it makes me cringe because the person on the receiving end of that is not attracting their ideal customer. They're not specific enough and saying, "Are you interested in these things? You're the right fit for our program. Please opt into my email list." 

When we just have that very general newsletter approach to it, then we often find ourselves with an email list or a community that is not full of our ideal customer. And we don't want that. 

So a lead magnet is what  sets the tone for everyone joining your email list or joining your community.

What you want to  think about is a core lead magnet for your brand as a whole. One of the core lead magnets I have for my business is my Brand Roadmap. I teach you the steps of my personal brand roadmap so you know those and you understand the three mistakes of branding. 

This free gift works into all of my programs and all of my offers. 

So when you're thinking about growing your community, please focus on growing the right community.

I'd rather you have an email list of 100 people that were 100 ideal customers than an email list of 2,000 people that may or may not actually be interested in what you offer.

Your lead magnet is what  allows you to create a clean and targeted email list and community. This is the ninja skill that everyone misses, I think. 

There's not enough strategic thought process that goes into a lead magnet and what I'm  going to encourage you to do is think about your offer and reverse engineer. 

Think about what you want them to actually do, purchase from you.

Then think about what lead magnet you can use to bring in the right person for that offer.

You'll find that you are bringing in the right people and you're repelling the wrong ones. And that's exactly what we want to do with all of our branding, with all of our messaging, with all of our marketing, with all of our freebies.

Email List Building Tip #2
Make Your Lead Magnet Evergreen

The second thing I want you to keep in mind when it comes to list building ninja skills is that you want this to be evergreen. 

Evergreen content basically means that someone can grab it at any time. There's no time limit on it. It's not a live workshop or challenge happening on a specific date.

While these types of list builders are great and they're great to coincide with a big launch or a promotion or just a big push to build your email list, you always want to have an evergreen lead magnet in the background.

I’ve already shared with you that my evergreen lead magnet is my personal brand roadmap where you give me your name and your email address, and I give you the personal brand roadmap.

I've created a lot of lead magnets in my business long before I actually knew how to strategically create a lead magnet. 

I would create them all the time - so I'm telling you this because I understand that you want to create a new lead magnet every week or you want to create a new one every month. 

The best thing you can do is create a core lead magnet that someone can opt in at any time that's leading them to your core offer. 

Then create these other fun periodic, live lead magnets to boost your list. It can be easy to get 200 people to sign up for a challenge in two weeks because it's exciting and timely. But what happens when that challenge is over?

Make it evergreen!!

Email List Building Tip #3
Passive and Active Promotion

Make sure that once you have your lead magnet created, you have your opt-in, you're promoting it both actively and passively. 

So one of the easiest things to get set up, and something that I think every entrepreneur should do as soon as they have their lead magnet, is the passive side. 

The passive side is the opt-in on your home page, sidebar of your blog, footer of your blog, social media links on your Instagram, in your TikTok, on your YouTube bio.

These different approaches are passive. You get to set it and then it's cool. You get to set it and then you kind of just get to leave it there. 

Then you have the active piece of it. Now, sometimes people will go right into active and forget passive, or what typically happens is they go passive and they forget active. 

Active is actively promoting your freebie, your lead magnet. Some of the ways to do that are obviously social media. I don't want you to put all your eggs in a social media basket, but I know that's the first thing that comes to mind and I encourage you to be creative with it if you're going the social media route. 

Think about incorporating it on your feed, but also think about creating some templates for Insta Stories and saving it as a highlight.

Think about creating a Reel that leads to your evergreen opt-in. So people can see that video at any time and then go to the landing page and grab it. 

You can do live video and share your lead magnet as an opt-in.

If you're blogging, create blogs that directly lead people to the lead magnet. 

If I'm promoting my lead magnet, which is my free training to Build a Better Brand, then I might have a blog that's all about branding yourself in 2021. And I'm teaching them things that they need to do and telling them to grab the freebie as an extension of that.

So make sure that you have this combination of the passive pieces that are always there, always in play, and then the active pieces.

Email List Building Tip #4
Make It Timely and Seasonal

Think about ways that you can reframe that lead magnet based on things that are happening during that time of the year.

For instance, we always have the personal brand roadmap available, but one of the things we do is create new pin graphics on Pinterest that say, “Ready to build your brand in 2021?” or “Branding in the new year”

It’s timely so more people are searching for it which will give us a boost for sign-ups.

You don't have to change the lead magnet, at all, you’re just modifying how you promote it and making it exciting, timely, and seasonal. 

It’s all about reframing your messaging around your core lead magnet, rather than creating a new one every season to keep it interesting for your audience. 

Adjusting the messaging or graphics can make a big difference, especially if you’re running advertisements that work so well when they are based on what’s happening in the world.

For example, during Summer 2020 I repositioned my ad copy for the Personal Brand Roadmap to meet the messaging and needs we were seeing online.

I created ad copy that read, "Hey, I know this is on top of your mind. I know you're wanting to scale your business and grow your business quickly because of everything that's going on. Here's a brand roadmap for you." 

It worked really well because it reframed the messaging and we saw an increase in sign-ups and a lower cost per ad.

When you make it timely, it feels like fresh content and they absolutely love it.

Email List Building Tip #5
Consistent Traffic to Your Website

In my program Brandmerry Academy, we focus on consistent traffic and consistently creating traffic to your website and to your lead magnet, so that you can consistently grow your email list, and you always have people coming in the top of the funnel, funneling down into a paid offer or a service.

Traditionally what we are always taught, when we're starting our business, is social media. Just show up on social media every day or post in Facebook groups every single day, to grow your community.

That doesn't work for me. I don't know if it works for you, but I've got a lot of different things going on in my life. I don't want to be thinking about posting in groups every day. I don't want to think about posting on social media.

What happens if you take a vacation? What happens if you step away for a week and stop promoting? Does your email list stop growing? Yes, it does. Unless you have these consistent streams to create traffic to your website, to your lead magnet. 

Two of our favorites over here at Brandmerry are Pinterest and SEO. 

So many entrepreneurs have websites that are just sitting there. I know y'all took a lot of time to build your website because I did too. If you have this website, or a landing page and a lead magnet for your freebie, you want to make sure you're consistently driving traffic to that. 

Pinterest is an amazing tool to be able to do that.

Your content lives super long on this platform. We have pins from 2017 that still get consistent traffic, and as a result, because of all the traffic, Google loves them so those same blogs get traffic from Google. 

The beautiful thing and what I love so much about Pinterest is it's so visual and so you get to play with creating all these different pin graphics. 

You don't have to write a whole new post every time. You just get to play with the graphics and the messaging and the photos, leading them to the blog that you've already written or the landing page for your lead magnet. It’s way less effort than posting daily on social media.

Then, my other favorite method is making sure your website is optimized for SEO. When people are searching for your industry and services, they turn to Google. Then they find you, land on your website and opt into your lead magnet. It’s one of my favorite ways to make sure you’re getting consistent traffic to your website!

So start thinking about ways that you can create that consistent stream of sign-ups. Things like Reels are great because they can go viral. They can show up all the time. YouTube is a fantastic option. SEO, as we've talked about with blogging. Pinterest with blogging, are some of my favorites. Obviously, Facebook and Pinterest ads are great as well, but from an organic, not having to pay anything angle,  Pinterest and SEO all the way!

You don't have to pay a dime to get started on those platforms unless you need to learn how to do it and then you can join the academy and learn how to do it there.

CONCLUSION

Let’s recap! 

It’s important to make sure that you have a strong lead magnet. This is what starts the whole entire thing. You want to make sure that your lead magnet is specific to your ideal customer, bringing in the right person to your email list and keeps in mind your end goal. What are you ultimately going to sell them or promote?

Make sure that the lead magnet that you create is evergreen, meaning that they can sign up at any time and then sprinkle in fun, timely live pieces like challenges or limited-time offers. 

Adjust your messaging and positioning for the same lead magnet to make it fresh!

And then finally, number five, make sure that you have a strategy to consistently get traffic to your website and into your lead magnet. Two of my favorites are Pinterest and SEO. 

If you’re ready to build your email list without relying on social media, check out Brandmerry Academy! You’ll learn all the ins and outs of SEO, Pinterest, video marketing, advertising and more so you can grow your list consistently without the stress of posting daily.

Learn more at brandmerryacademy.com.

Let's talk about why you need a website 👇

So you have a website, but little to no traffic. The struggle is real, and something so many entrepreneurs, including myself have experienced.

It took me monthly to build my website and an additional year before I realized that my website meant nothing if I wasn’t getting people to actually view it. Now, just a few years later, I’m getting thousands of organic website visitors every month using the strategies I’m sharing today.

So if you have a website, one you probably spent a lot of time and maybe even money on, and no one seems to see it, today’s blog on 3 Ways to Drive Traffic to Your Website is for you.

WHY YOU NEED A WEBSITE

There are a lot of online educators and course creators saying that you don’t need a website and I disagree. If you’re running an online business you NEED a website, for one main reason...people are searching for your services online and if you don’t have a website, well they won’t find you.

In addition to showing up in search results, websites serve as a valuable resource for your business.

CENTRAL LOCATION: People want to find what they need and having a central location with the information for your business and services is a great way to do that. Someone doesn’t want to search through your Instagram profile or your Facebook page to learn more about you, they want a one-stop-shop, this is where your website comes into play.

FIND WHAT THEY WANT RIGHT NOW: In addition to having your information in one central location, people also want what they want right away. So if someone is looking for a particular service or resource you want to give it to them, that’s where your website and a collection of resources come in.

A PLACE TO REFER PEOPLE: I don’t know about you, but I love having a place to send people that I know is going to support them at the highest level. This is my website. My website is a resource for anyone interested in learning more about my brand, business and services. Having the information available and in one space makes it easier for me in growing my business.

METHOD #1

HOW TO DRIVE TRAFFIC TO YOUR WEBSITE FOR FREE

One of the most effective and simple ways to drive traffic to your website for free is by using our friend Google.

Think about it, when you have a question or a problem you turn to Google. So every single day your ideal customer is doing the same, looking for your product or service and a solution to their problem that you solve.

If you’re not taking the time to set up Site-Wide SEO (not specifically talking about blogs here) you’re missing out on free traffic.

Today, we’re getting hundreds of organic traffic from Google thanks to landing on page one for multiple keywords.

The best part about Site-Wide SEO is it’s something you can set up for your business on the backend, or hire someone to do it for you, and you don’t need to touch it every single week like you do content.

Today, I blog every week which helps rank for multiple keywords, but in the beginning, I only had optimized my main page SEO and still landed on page one.

If you want to learn more about SEO (Search Engine Optimization) check out this blog.

METHOD #2

MY FAVORITE WAY TO DRIVE CONSISTENT TRAFFIC TO MY WEBSITE

I’m in love and I don’t care who knows it. If you’re not already aware of how Pinterest can improve your online marketing, you’re in for a treat!

Pinterest is how I’m consistently driving traffic to the content on my website. 

While the main purpose of my Site-Wide SEO was to rank my home page for specific keywords my audience is searching for, think Personal Branding Consultant, Branding Coach, etc...I’m using Pinterest to drive traffic to my blog.

Pinterest, like Google, is a search engine, so while many people think Pinterest is a social media platform like Facebook and Instagram they are wrong. Pinterest was designed to get people off the platform, not to stick around and socialize.

Because of this, it’s great for every online business, as it’s experienced experimental growth over the past few years.

The key to Pinterest is content, which I create in the form of my blog posts. Every blog post gets pushed out to Pinterest and using our Pinterest Strategy from inside Brandmerry Academy (http://brandmerryacademy.com) we’re consistently driving traffic to my website (even blogs from 2017 still get consistent traffic today).

So you can see why Pinterest is such a valuable tool in driving traffic to your website and the best part, it’s free (although there is an option to promote pins on Pinterest as well).

**Did I mention Pinterest also helps you rank on Google? Well, it does! When Google sees that you’re getting traffic to your content they love it and it tells them it’s valuable so they’re more likely to move it up.

METHOD #3

HOW TO DRIVE TARGETED TRAFFIC TO YOUR WEBSITE

You’ve probably already guessed I’m going to talk about blogging, but we’re going to get a little bit more specific here. It’s not enough to just blog random topics and to just post content without doing a little research.

In fact, taking just a few minutes to map out your blog content ahead of time and think strategically about what content you want your ideal customer to have their hands on will help with website traffic drastically.

So Method #3 is Do The Research. One of the best ways to improve traffic to your website is to create quality content your audience is searching for. This is why I love Ubersuggest and use it in my own business.

Ubersuggest allows you to do thorough keyword research, as well as see what people in your industry are creating content around.

Taking this time before you start writing your content will help. I suggest mapping out 90-days worth of blog topics with keyword research and repeat every 90 days.

SEO, Pinterest and blogging doesn’t have to be overwhelming, we show you how to do it step-by-step inside Brandmerry Academy.

Let's improve your SEO 👇

Why is SEO important for online business owners?

I don't know if any of you were like me where you spent all of this love and time and energy creating your website just to find out that people wouldn't actually stumble upon it. 

In my case, five people were finding my website every single month. Can you relate?

This is why SEO is so important for every type of business. We have these awesome websites, but no one is landing on them. And with 3.5 billion Google searches a day, it seems silly that so many entrepreneurs are missing out on free traffic, quality leads and sales. 

In my own story, when I began to get more strategic with my SEO (some of the strategies I’m sharing with you below) we started to see not only an increase in traffic every month, but also an increase in conversions to my higher-level programs.

New clients that were investing between $5,000 - $10,000 were coming from Google. This was happening because women were specifically looking for a branding coach or business coach (i.e. ready to invest) and finding my website on page one (often in spot one) and booking a call...some booking directly on the website!

And that trend has just continued and continued to where every single day I'm getting messages from people who say, I found you on Google. 

The reason for that is because I didn't try to go viral for my blog. I put my focus and emphasis on ranking for my industry.

Oftentimes we think about SEO as it pertains to blogging, but we forget that we can also optimize our site for our industry to bring in quality leads ready to invest.  

We want to optimize our blog posts, our title, our bullets, our headers, our images, all of those things play a role.

3 Ways to Improve Your SEO This Week

1. Research your main keywords
You need to understand what you want to rank for before you start optimizing your site. 

Conduct research on the product or service you provide so you understand the industry as a whole and what people are searching for. I like to use tools like Keywords Everywhere and Ubersuggest to do a thorough keyword search.

You can also do some industry research through Google. Look for other brands in your industry and see what keywords they are using in their site title and site description. Pair that, with Ubersuggest to see how people are actually doing and you’ll have a great keyword bank to get started.

2. Optimize the Backend of Your Website for SEO
This is what we talked about in Phase One, but now it’s time to do it! After you have your keywords chosen you want to go into the backend of your website and update your Site Title and Site Description.

This should take you no more than 30 minutes and will make a big impact.

3. Optimize Your Homepage for SEO
You’ll repeat the same thing you did in Step 2, and update your Page Title and Page Description for your home page. Also, do a double check of the headers on your page, making sure they are efficient and include your keywords.

BONUS: Go through your images on the home page and add in Alt Text. Make sure the file name for the image includes your keywords and the caption includes a thorough description as well.

Start with these 3 steps and start improving your SEO immediately.

When I started ranking on page one, I was only focused on these 3 steps and then I started integrating more and more blogging, content and backlinks.

Pinterest is every entrepreneur's dream 👇

As I've mentioned before I love experimenting with advertising in business, but Pinterest, I believe is an entrepreneur dream.

REASON #1: Pinterest is a search engine platform, meaning people go to the platform with specific goals in mind. They are searching for something specific and through keyword targeting you’re able to show up in their search. 

This is a far difference from Facebook where you’re just throwing stuff on someone’s feed and “hoping” they click!

REASON #2: Pinterest ads are much easier to set up. One of the hardest things, in my opinion is writing copy, headlines and making graphics for ads. There are so many options and testing takes a lot of trial and error. 

With Pinterest, it’s mostly visual (or course titles and descriptions help with SEO, but let’s be honest here). Your focus can be on creating graphics that catch the eye of your target audience.

**more on strategy and my top tips below**

REASON #3: Pinterest ads keep going. This might be one of my favorite benefits of Pinterest advertisement. Because of the nature of the platform, even after you turn your ad spend off your traffic keeps increasing. The reason for this is as you were promoting your pin, it was being shared and saved. On Facebook you turn your ad off and it’s done.

This longevity makes Pinterest one of the best tools for sustainability in business! One of the strategies we love to use is promoting a few pins every month to give them the boost they need and then switching them off.

Now you have the views, let's improve your website conversions 👇

Website Conversion Tip #1

GRAB THEIR ATTENTION IMMEDIATELY

The average person will make a decision if your website is right for them in 15 seconds. Yes, that is the average time someone will spend on your website, so grabbing their attention and the first impression is crucial.

I look at this like the subject line of an email you want your audience to open or the photo on Instagram that you want your audience to see so they read your post.

This same approach applies to your website. My secret sauce for this is Emotional Branding.

I’ve been teaching the idea of Emotional Branding for years and it’s one of the most powerful pieces you can have in your branding, but more importantly in any situation where you want your audience to stop what they're doing and take action, or in this case explore your website.

Let’s assume for a moment we are talking about your homepage, since this is where most people from Google will land. The easiest way to see how your website is performing is to explore it yourself. 

Head to your website, as a viewer, and write down that you see. What do the images say to you, what is the first language you see, are you excited, stressed, happy, comforted, etc when you first get there? You can also ask two or three of your friends or family to tell you what they see and feel when landing on your site as well.

When you get this information ask yourself, “Is this on-brand for me? Is this correct based on the limited time they spent on my website?”

You’ll start to notice that the more emotionally-charged your images and words are the more likely people will be to stick around. 

Pictures of people work really well in this scenario, strong language or a mission at the top and pointing out the problem your audience is facing are great ways to get started.

Website Conversion Tip #2

CLEARLY STATE THE PURPOSE OF YOUR BRAND

Speaking of the first 15 seconds and the top of your website, the second thing you want to clearly state is the purpose of your brand. This will drastically help you improve website conversions because it gives people the opportunity to say, “Yes, this person is for me or no, I’m not feeling it!”

Despite what people say you actually want the wrong people for your brand to peace out. Why would you want someone who isn’t in alignment with your brand, not your ideal client and likely never going to buy from you hanging out? You don’t.

Having this clear brand statement at the top allows you to state what you do, who you serve, what problem they are facing and how your service or product helps them solve that problem.

For instance, my website says, “As a personal branding consultant, I teach female entrepreneurs who struggle with building a revenue-generating business, how to brand and market their mission and message online to make more money and impact.”

Right away you know what I do, who I serve, what they struggle with and what I help them accomplish. This is important because as a branding consultant I don’t do the physical branding work for you. So when people land on my website I want to make that clear that I’m not a designer. If they know right away there isn’t confusion or false expectations on how I can support them.

Website Conversion Tip #3

HAVE A CLEAR CALL TO ACTION

If someone is on your website, what do you want them to do? It’s a really important question that we don’t often think about. 

Typically there are two options:

Option 1 - Buy your product or service
Option 2 - Join your email list (the inner circle)

This last option is important because if you don’t have this call to action you might miss out on a potential sale. 

Let’s say I visit your website and I love it but I’m not in the market for your services. Of course, that doesn’t mean I’ll never be in need of your services, but if I have no way to stay in contact with you or learn more about you the odds of me remembering you are slim.

This is why we should always, I repeat always, have an email opt-in. You can learn more about building an email list here.

I prefer to have one core lead magnet that someone can receive in exchange for their email address. When you have one clear call to action it’s easier for people to say yes or no. For instance, my Personal Brand Roadmap is my only call to action on my home page and since making that change we’ve seen an increase in lead magnet conversions of over 60%.

The same is important for your blog as well, always have a lead magnet available on every single one of your blog posts so if someone finds you on Pinterest they can join your inner circle.

Website Conversion Tip #4

TELL A GREAT STORY

This is my specialty and the core foundation of my business. Storytelling is so important, but so many people reserve it for social media and email marketing and completely miss the mark on their website.

Up until this point we’ve talked a lot about your homepage, but there is another important page on your website that gets the majority of your traffic and that’s your ‘About Me’ page.

Your ‘About Me’ page is typically the second most viewed page on your website and rightfully so, people want to know what you’re about, they want to know your story. This is essential because what they are ultimately saying is, “Can I trust this person?”

Your ‘About Me’ page should, in fact, be about you. I know there is a lot of misinformation about what to include on this page and people often say it should only be about your audience, but I disagree.

If I’m going to your ‘About Me’ page then I want to learn about you. If you don’t tell me about you then I’m going to lose interest. So your page should include a clear brand story, as well as more information about you, what led you to where you are today, why you do what you do and who you serve.

By following this framework you’re more likely to convert readers and visitors into community members and paying clients. I know from experience that people have signed up for my programs because of what they read on my ‘About Me’ page.

For your page to perform and increase conversions you have to know your story. This is one of the core pillars of my program You! Branded, in fact, it’s the first module.

You! Branded helps women identify the different chapters of their book, aka ‘About Me’ page. It’s about introducing people to you, sharing your journey and building authority and trust and finally bringing it home to share how you can support them.

There is a fine art in writing your story while also keeping your audience engaged and inviting them in. I’ve got an entire blog on writing your ‘About Me’ page which you can check out here.

Website Conversion Tip #5

SEND A COHESIVE MESSAGE

And finally, let’s talk about a cohesive message for your website. This is where your branding work really gets to shine, and no I don’t mean your logo. 

What I mean by your branding work is how consistent are your images, your brand emotions and your overall messaging? Break this consistency and you’ll break the trust of your website viewer.

If I land on your homepage and discover you are a Relationship Coach for women healing from a toxic relationship and I’m intrigued. So then, I hop over to your blog and your blogs are about building your email list, there is a disconnect and now I’m confused and the trust is broken.

You want to make sure that everything you’re sharing on your website follows the theme of your brand and speaks to a very specific person. One of the pieces to a strong brand is messaging and I believe in building core brand messages for your brand as a whole so you can share those messages everywhere, including your website and always be on-brand.

If your message on your homepage is different from your message on your About Me and your blog it’s going to be hard for me to understand what exactly you do and how you can help me. 

An example would be that you don’t do any core messaging work and you start building your website. You sit down and write your homepage. Then the next day you write your story. Then an individual sales page. If you piece these together they don’t flow and feel like three separate standalone pages.

The reason we want things to flow is that we don’t just want to keep people engaged for 15 seconds as we talked about in tip one, but we also want to keep them on your website for an extended period of time. 

Those visitors are more likely to convert.

If you’re looking for more support with your digital marketing strategy, we’re guiding you through the entire process inside The Brandmerry Academy. 

Brandmerry Academy is a year-long membership community that gives you monthly marketing mini-courses, group coaching and advanced strategies to increase your leads and profits without spending all your time or relying on social media.

Learn more about Brandmerry Academy at brandmerryacademy.com

P.S. Have you tuned in to The Beautiful Climb podcast? I release new episodes every other Friday on topics around productivity, motherhood, habits, goals and going after the life of your dreams! Check out past episodes and be sure to subscribe at thebeautifulclimb.com

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- FREE GIFTS YOU'LL LOVE -

DISCOVER YOUR BRAND STORY IN UNDER 5 MINUTES

START HERE ↠

LEARN HOW TO WRITE AN ‘ABOUT ME’ PAGE THAT CONVERTS

START HERE ↠

MAP OUT 30 DAYS OF CONTENT IN UNDER AN HOUR

START HERE ↠

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- READ THE LATEST POSTS -

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MEET MICHELLE

Hey there, I'm Michelle Knight and I an online branding and marketing consultant for female entrepreneurs.

I believe in the power of storytelling and using that superpower to brand and market yourself online...oh and to set yourself free.

I'm obsessed with living a life of freedom, so much so, that my family and I now travel full-time while running my business from the road.

This blog serves as a home base for all things branding, marketing, content creation and more.

How to Layout a Website Homepage in 4 Easy Steps

How to Layout a Website Homepage in 4 Easy Steps

BY MICHELLE KNIGHT

You’ll typically find yourself in one of two boats when it comes to having a website as an entrepreneur.

In one boat, you spend a lot of time, a lot of money, and a lot of energy on creating your website. Whether you've done it yourself, or you hired a team, bought a course, bought a template, or bought add-ons, you’ve spent the time, money and energy to have a website for your brand.

With boat number two, you are waiting to create your website, and it just keeps getting put on the back burner because it's incredibly overwhelming. 

And no judgment, I spent, eight months creating my website, only to scrap the entire thing and start over because I didn't know what I was doing. Turns out your brand plays a really big role in your website, something I didn’t realize 5 years ago. It’s one of the reasons I teach the importance of having a solid brand foundation BEFORE you build your website.

If you need a little more love in the branding department, make sure you watch my free on-demand class where I’ll teach you my signature Build a Better Brand Method. Watch it here.

For our purposes right now, let's just assume that you've done the branding work because it is necessary. Don't think that you can jump in with this 4-part framework I'm about to give you, without knowing your brand and your message and your mission and your ideal customer, because it's just not going to work. 

That's my disclaimer. It's out of the way.
Now let's talk about the 4-part framework.

WEBSITE HOMEPAGE TEMPLATE: 4-PART FRAMEWORK

Now, one of the things that I learned when I started implementing more SEO, search engine optimization, into my business is that my homepage was getting a lot of traffic.

One of the things that I teach inside of Brandmerry Academy is getting your homepage to rank in search engines for your industry because the quality leads you get are just perfection!

Things like site-wide SEO, your site title, your site description and more all help you rank on Google and all of that traffic is going to lead to your homepage. Sometimes we think about SEO only working for blogs, but one of the easiest things that you can do when you're starting your business is focus on the SEO traffic for your industry and ranking for your industry.

As I mentioned in last week’s blog, people who are in the fifth stage of the buying process are ready to buy and they're coming to your homepage where they will decide if you’re the right brand for them.

So that homepage better be working for you.

I realized pretty quickly my homepage was not working for me and I needed to switch it up a bit. I implemented what I now call my 4-part HOME framework, you see what I did there?  HOME is the acronym that we're going to dissect for the homepage.

I discovered this by accident and fine-tuned it. And I've been teaching it ever since. So let's dissect the HOME 4-part framework for your homepage.

Homepage Framework Step 1: HOOK

H is for hook. 

Listen, if someone's coming to your website, they are probably going to peace out in like eight seconds if you don't hook them. That's why this is one of the most important things that you can add to your website. 

This is typically right at the top before anyone has to scroll down or take any action. And it tells the person who is viewing your page, exactly who you are, who you serve, and why you are going to support them in solving their problem, or how you support them in solving their problem.

Remember, as marketers and business owners, we're solving problems. That's what we do. 

That's why people invest in our products and our services.
They have a problem
They're aware of the problem.
They're seeking a solution and ta-da, they're finding you as a solution, or your product, or your service to their problem. 

Your goal with your brand is to attract or repel. You want to make sure that your hook is hooking in the right people and sending away anybody that isn't the right fit for you. 

So, to recap your Hook should outlines:

• Who you are

• Who you serve

• How you help them go from struggle to desire (the goal they ultimately want)

This is something I teach inside of Brandmerry Academy. One of the first bonuses you get is all about writing your signature Brand Bios and one of those is your Hook.

Homepage Framework Step 2: OPPORTUNITY

Then we move down the page a little bit to O. 
O is for opportunity. 

You want to give anyone that has now been hooked an opportunity to learn more and to join your email list.

This is where I love to include your freebie opt-in. 

Now inside of my program Brandmerry Academy, one of the first things that we focus on is creating some sort of freebie, or lead magnet, so that as you increase traffic to your website, people are taking advantage of your lead magnet and joining your email list. 

Your email list is gold. This is how you stay in contact with your brand. This is how you share important promos and updates. 

People who land on your website, then disappear, are hard to stay in contact with if they aren't on your email list. 

The best thing to do is include a button to a landing page or a form embedded so they can sign up for your free gift and join your email list.

Homepage Framework Step 3: MEMORABLE

Then that moves us down the page a little bit more to M.
And M is for memorable.

Listen, I teach storytelling and how we can apply it to our branding and marketing. It's kind of my thing. And one of the things that I love about storytelling is the fact that integrating story into your content, into your copy, makes it 22 times more memorable than if you didn't have any.

So, this is the point at which you become memorable to your ideal customer. 

To do this, you also share a small ‘about me’ section and your mission. I call this the Bio Blurb and it’s something we teach inside Brandmerry Academy.

The goal here is to give your ideal customer more insight into who you are, your mission, the work that you do, and allow them to read more on your full ‘About Me’ page.

This is a great opportunity where you can connect through empathy and build authority, which leads us to the final stage.

Homepage Framework Step 4: EXPERTISE

That leads us to the fourth part of the homepage, which is E for expertise. This is where you want to continue to elevate your authority. 

Remember, people are seeking us out to solve problems through our products, through our services, and they want to know that we can guide them and we can support them. 

So after you've hooked them, you've given them an opportunity to get a valuable free resource, you’ve shared your story, let’s just amplify that expertise, shall we? 

This is where you can share really popular blog posts that provide education for your audience, and can ultimately help them make small little micro-changes with their problem. 

You can show your expertise by highlighting features that you've been on. If you've been featured in Forbes, or you've been featured in Business Insider, or relevant podcasts for your industry those logos can be beneficial. But, it doesn't have to be those big players that we always think about. Sometimes those niche-down outlets, media outlets, podcasts, things like that, can mean even more to our ideal customer.

If you have a podcast, you can share podcast episodes so they can explore additional resources from you.

You can also share testimonials. If you've had clients who have seen tremendous results, you can feature those on your homepage.

E is all about elevating your expertise and authority!

CONCLUSION

This is it. 

These are the four things that I want you to have on your homepage. No more. 

Don't overwhelm people with a million different options. Keep it simple. 

Ultimately, when people land on your homepage, we either want to attract them or repel them. 

Once we've attracted the right people, the ideal customer, because nobody else matters, then we want to give them an opportunity to join our email list, to learn more, or to buy almost instantly. 

And creating a homepage like this is going to support you, in sending people in the different directions that you ultimately want them to go, while keeping it simple and not overwhelming.

Overwhelming your audience from the first thing that they see is a surefire way to lose them. 

If you are ready to dive in to increase those website views and ultimately those conversions, this is exactly what we teach inside of Brandmerry Academy. Learn more at Brandmerry.com/academy.

P.S. Have you tuned in to The Beautiful Climb podcast? I release new episodes every other Friday on topics around productivity, motherhood, habits, goals and going after the life of your dreams! Check out past episodes and be sure to subscribe at thebeautifulclimb.com

---

- FREE GIFTS YOU'LL LOVE -

DISCOVER YOUR BRAND STORY IN UNDER 5 MINUTES

START HERE ↠

LEARN HOW TO WRITE AN ‘ABOUT ME’ PAGE THAT CONVERTS

START HERE ↠

MAP OUT 30 DAYS OF CONTENT IN UNDER AN HOUR

START HERE ↠

---

- READ THE LATEST POSTS -

---

MEET MICHELLE

Hey there, I'm Michelle Knight and I an online branding and marketing consultant for female entrepreneurs.

I believe in the power of storytelling and using that superpower to brand and market yourself online...oh and to set yourself free.

I'm obsessed with living a life of freedom, so much so, that my family and I now travel full-time while running my business from the road.

This blog serves as a home base for all things branding, marketing, content creation and more.

The Stages of the Consumer Buying Process and Why Marketing Matters

I'm jazzed and determined and lit up to talk to you today about the consumer buying process. 

If you are a marketer, if you sell anything online, I don't care what it is, if someone pays you for something, you need to be aware of the consumer buying process. 

When I discovered the stages of the consumer buying process, as we will talk about in this post, I quickly recognized how I, as a marketer, could make sure I was attracting leads at every stage.

But, before I get too far ahead of myself let’s start with the basics.

What is the Consumer Buying Decision Process?

Let's start by talking about John Dewey, the philosopher behind the consumer buying decision process stages.

John Dewey created this five-part system, which includes: 

Stage One: Problem or Need Recognition

>> This when the customer is aware of their problem.

Stage Two: Information Search

>>  When the customer is in the process of finding information to solve that problem. That's when we go to Google and other fun areas to find information to solve our problem. 

Stage Three: Evaluation of Alternatives

>> The customer has found the solution to their problem, they figured out there's a way to solve it, now they're weighing which way am I going to go? This is when they’re product shopping or brand shopping, trying to figure out the best one to solve our problem. 

Stage Four: Purchase Decision

>> They've decided on the brand, on the company, and on the product that they are going to purchase. 

Stage Five: Post-Purchase Evaluation
>> This is when they're sitting there and going, "Did I make the right decision? I don't know. Can't wait for my product to come." 

A major part of the final stage is closely related to how you onboard or welcome your new clients and customers. In a recent blog I shared my 8-step client onboarding process, so be sure to check that out after you read this post. 

The Consumer Buying Process Begins When…

...the consumer has identified their problem. 

Every consumer will go through the process at a different pace. Some will spend a lot of time in Stage Two, while others will be ready to make a purchase decision in a matter of days or even hours. 

As marketers, this process, and where consumers begin, is important because you want to make sure that your content is reaching people at every stage of the process.

Creating content that is valuable and accessible to people at each stage can drastically improve your marketing efforts and conversions.

Ok, now time for a curveball because, in true Michelle fashion, I am going to share an alternative 5-stage buying process that is designed to specifically support you with your content creation.

5 STAGES OF THE CONSUMER BUYING PROCESS FOR CONTENT CREATORS

So we’re still focused on five stages, but you're going to notice there's a bit of a difference when it comes to designing a process for content creation. 

STAGE 1: NOT AWARE

So, unlike the traditional stage one, I believe there is a group of individuals who experience symptoms or daily “red flags” that haven’t identified the true problem enough to seek out a solution. These are my Stage One-ers.

Maybe they've recognized that something might be up.
They are feeling a little off, maybe they're like, "Oh, I think I want to leave my job. I'm not sure. I think I might want to get healthy. Something's wrong. I don't know why." 

The reason that it's important to think of this stage is that many people who are coming to discover your brand are at a place where they don't know the specific problem they are experiencing - maybe they can’t even identify or communicate what is happening clearly. 

But through your content, through your education, through your marketing, you can help them become aware of the specific problem. 

You can educate them on that, moving them quickly through the decision-making process.

STAGE TWO: PROBLEM AWARE

Stage two is when they are officially aware of the problem. So you'll notice that I add a little bit of extra in there from John Dewey's philosophy, as it applies to content creation. This is the stage, like his #1, when they are aware of the problem. 

They know that they've got a problem, they've identified what it is, can describe it and find themselves starting to relate more closely to others with similar struggles, problems and pain.

This stage is all about connecting with them and their pain points with your marketing and content creation.

STAGE THREE: FINDING A SOLUTION

During stage three, your ideal customer is now aware of the problem and is now looking for solutions.

We find many ideal customers at this stage are looking for How-to and educational content, looking for quick solutions to their problem, but they're not necessarily aware that there's a product or a service that can solve that just yet. 

Once they move into the third stage, they are aware of that solution. So they're starting to say, "Okay, I know how to solve this problem and now, I want to figure out the best avenue for me," which leads us to stage four.

STAGE FOUR: PRODUCT AND SERVICE AWARE

You'll notice in stage three, is when you're getting a lot of Google search results and your ideal customer is searching for brands and businesses to help them solve their problem.

Then stage four is when they're aware of the very specific offers and solutions to their problems. Their search has narrowed and they're starting to dive deeper into specific brands, yours hopefully because you delivered such awesome content 😉

At this stage, you’ll hear many entrepreneurs talk about moving from cold to warm (i.e. into brand awareness).

That's when people tend to move from being a cold audience to a warm audience.

They're starting to consume more of your content and getting to know you and this is when the know, like and trust factor is elevating. 

STAGE FIVE: PURCHASE DECISION

Then finally, in the final stage, they are ready to purchase. Now, this is when they have taken out their credit card, they've decided to go with your brand and they are ready to make a purchase online or in person. 

You'll notice there are a lot of similarities between what I'm sharing with you and what John Dewey originally shared about this client process, but there are some differences as well and I love to and encourage you to focus on the ones that I shared with you as it applies to content creation. 

Why is that important? Because we have to understand that sometimes people are coming and discovering our brand, not fully aware of how to solve their problem.

They simply have a problem and now they're seeking out answers and information. 

That's why, as I mentioned before, some of those How-To videos and knowing your ideal customer and where they're at, can be helpful in coming up with titles and content to share. 

As somebody moves through the buying process, they're looking for specific solutions to that problem so integrating specific solutions for your audience can be incredibly helpful as well. 

Then, and this is where I think a lot of marketers miss the mark, you always want a way to attract people who are ready to purchase. 

Creating the educational content is helpful, we’ve already discussed this, but I see so many entrepreneurs miss out on ways to attract ideal customers who are ready to purchase right now - from you!

When someone is ready to purchase, where do they go? Google and search engines like Pinterest and Youtube.

One thing I noticed a couple of years ago is that we were getting a lot of traffic from Google for people who were specifically looking for personal branding coaches and personal branding consultants - at the final stage of the customer journey.

These customers were very, very quick to move into a high-level offer that I have called my VIP Intensives, typically without consuming any other information from me. Why? Because they were at stage five. 

They already knew what they wanted and they were ready to invest and found Brandmerry.

HOW TO CREATE WELL-ROUNDED CONTENT

Now that you understand the stages of the buying process, it’s time to switch your focus to a well-rounded marketing approach to address every single part of this five-stage process.

So what are some things that you want to have in place? I know you're curious. 

There are three things to have that will support you in making sure that you are hitting every single stage of this five-stage process with the content that you're creating every single week.

#1 Content For New Audience

Your first goal is to make sure you’re creating content for new people (aka new community members). So this is typically content that people are discovering on Pinterest, YouTube, through your blog, or search engines. 

When we are in the first stages of the buying process when we're not quite sure the problem or the solution to our problem, we might be just browsing things that we know are wrong on Pinterest, looking on YouTube, searching on Google.

When we're further along in the buying process, think stage four and five, we're specifically looking for products and services. That's why marketers mustn’t just focus all of their attention on social media and instead have avenues for people to discover them. 

This is also why advertising is very effective because we can target people that we know are our ideal customers, get our content in front of them and bring them in. But we don’t need to rely on advertising dollars, we can utilize organic reach through search engines to achieve the same results. 

Some of the content that works well with this is How-To content, educational content, and knowing your audience so well that you can use their language in your copy. 

So for instance, if I am a marketer and I am specifically marketing to highly sensitive individuals, empaths, you might say.

If my audience doesn't know that they are empaths, if they don't carry that label as being an empath, then I can't use that in my marketing, because it's not going to help me attract new people. 

If they're at some of the beginning stages, then I want to talk about more of the feelings and the everyday things that are happening, how they're highly sensitive, how they tend to possibly be more affected by things that happen at work than maybe their colleagues. 

These are things that they've told me are happening in their day-to-day that I can use in my marketing. 

If I am using the term empath but they don't know that's what they are or they are not carrying that label, it's not going to help me bring them in.

Same with perfectionism. I talk to a lot of perfectionists. Many of my clients are perfectionists or recovering perfectionists, but sometimes I won't use that in all of my marketing because some of my clients aren’t aware that that is something that they have. But they do know the symptoms. 

So goal number one is to create consistent content focused on bringing in new people. Some of my favorite platforms for this are blogging, Pinterest, and YouTube because they are search engines.

#2 Warm Up Your Audience

Goal number two is content that warms up your audience. This is focusing on those stages two through four when people are discovering that you have a solution to the problem and they want to get to know you. 

We know that trust leads to purchase decisions.
Storytelling leads to purchase decisions.
Emotional connection leads to purchase decisions.

So this is where you get to amp up the storytelling, this is where you get to share more edutainment, those fun videos, Instagram Reels, show up on Instagram, and share behind the scenes of your life to build that know, like, and trust factor with your audience.

Creating content that warms up your audience is important. 

Once somebody finds your blog and joins your email list, how are you staying in contact with them? Emails, Instagram, podcasting, all those different things are incredibly helpful for moving someone through the client decision-making process.

#3 Site-Wide SEO

Then finally we have the third goal, and this is something that every single business needs to set up today.

Do not wait to do this. 
This is your site-wide SEO. 

You have a website. I know you do. You spend a lot of money on it and a lot of time on it, in fact, probably too much. So when it comes to getting traffic to your website, specifically traffic that is in the fifth stage of the buying process, meaning they're ready to pull out that credit card, you want to make sure that your website is optimized for those keywords. 

The people who typically find me through my SEO strategy are coming because they are ready to make a purchase decision and I have those searchable keywords on my site-wide SEO. It's something that once you do your research and you set it up, you don't have to worry about it again. 

This shift has made the biggest difference in my business. I have a lot of resources on SEO and using SEO on your website, here on the Brandmerry Blog, but it's also something that I teach in-depth inside of Brandmerry Academy.

Brandmerry Academy is my membership community that teaches you how to market your business without social media. You can go to Brandmerry.com/academy to learn more about that and join the waitlist to hear when doors are opening again soon.

CONCLUSION

Now, remember, you must be touching your ideal customer at different stages of the buying process. 

We all go through each of these stages, some faster than others. So when you wear this hat when you're creating your content, it's going to help you make sure that you're consistently bringing in new clients, nurturing those new clients, and ultimately creating consistent revenue. 

Thanks, John Dewey for dropping us those original five, sorry, I made some modifications, but there you have it. 

If you haven’t heard, I have a free Repurposing Guide that will support you in creating content for each of these stages. Head to  brandmerry.com/repurpose to get an inside look on creating a repurposing plan and a workflow for actually getting your content out into the world, simplifying that process, making it easy peasy to show up consistently for your audience.

Watch the full video here!

P.S. Ready to build a revenue-generating brand? One that not only stands out online but also makes it easier than ever to create high-value content? Tune in to my free brand class and learn my Build a Better Brand Method. Watch now at brandmerry.com/class.

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- FREE GIFTS YOU'LL LOVE -

DISCOVER YOUR BRAND STORY IN UNDER 5 MINUTES

START HERE ↠

LEARN HOW TO WRITE AN ‘ABOUT ME’ PAGE THAT CONVERTS

START HERE ↠

MAP OUT 30 DAYS OF CONTENT IN UNDER AN HOUR

START HERE ↠

---

- READ THE LATEST POSTS -

---

MEET MICHELLE

Hey there, I'm Michelle Knight and I an online branding and marketing consultant for female entrepreneurs.

I believe in the power of storytelling and using that superpower to brand and market yourself online...oh and to set yourself free.

I'm obsessed with living a life of freedom, so much so, that my family and I now travel full-time while running my business from the road.

This blog serves as a home base for all things branding, marketing, content creation and more.

Content Creation Guide for Entrepreneurs

As an entrepreneur, you need to create content and that content needs to be pretty consistent, however, this is one of the biggest struggles for entrepreneurs and with good reason.

This guide was designed to give you everything you need to know about content creation as an entrepreneur.

Inside the guide you’ll find:

• Why content creation is essential

• 3 myths busted about consistent content creation

• 4 steps to create consistent content

• The #1 content mistake to avoid

• 7 tips to repurpose your weekly content

• And how to create content for social media

Let's dive into why content creation is essential 👇

For over five years I’ve surveyed my audience and do you know what the number one struggle is?

Actually showing up.
Not just once.
Not twice.
But, consistently.

But, dang it’s hard.

The reality is creating content can actually be overwhelming. Most people go through the typical cycle of, “Oh, I've got a great idea! Wait! Is this actually valuable? How do I know if this is valuable? Maybe I should think of another topic!"

And even when we start to figure it out, we find ourselves repeating the cycle month after month.

This is why it’s important to pinpoint and correct why we’re not consistent in the first place, so let’s jumpe into 4 of the most common reasons you might be lacking consistency in your business.

1. LACK OF COMMITMENT TO YOUR BUSINESS

Ok, I’m bringing this up with so much grace and love because I want you to know that you’re not the only one who is sitting in this in-between, but we've talked about this lack of commitment a lot with time management conversations.

For example, I always say that one of the reasons time management is a big struggle, especially when growing your business, is because your business isn’t taking top priority in your schedule.

I know it can be easy to see entrepreneurs who are “making it” and think, “Wow, they're so lucky.” But the truth is that the people who have done this and are doing it successfully have done it with intention. This success didn’t happen by accident.

This intention comes from making a commitment and in this case a commitment to your business.

Have you made this commitment? Here are three questions to help you determine if you’re downplaying your business, even if subconsciously.

#2 A LACK OF SYSTEMS = A LACK OF CONSISTENCY

One of my favorite quotes from James Clear in his book Atomic Habits is, "You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems."

I love it so much we talked about it last week, but I truly don’t think there is a more important conversation to have in regards to consistency than your systems.

If you’re already pressed for time, and only have so many hours to come up with content, ideas, and so much time to write our content and then so much time to get it out there, we have to get our systems in place. 

These systems in your business look like clear and defined workflows, thorough weekly checklists and frameworks for getting your content written and out for distribution.

One of my favorite parts of my business is taking one piece of content and repurposing the crap out of it, seriously I wrote an entire blog post on my process. The art of repurposing not only allows you to spend less time creating content but also allows you to create a weekly workflow that can be repeated week after week.

This repetition takes the guesswork out of marketing your business and gives you more time and energy on fine-tuning and improving your craft.

My weekly workflow looks like a single video turned into a blog post, 3-6 social media posts, an email and multiple pins for Pinterest. And every single week this workflow is repeated.

This type of system, and there are many to choose from, allow you to rinse and repeat, minimize the time and energy you’re spending and maximize output.

Inside The Consistency Guide, I share an 8-part framework for showing up more consistently in your business. One of these pieces is centered around your workflow. I walk you through my process of determining your core content and repurpose schedule, then you get a behind the scenes look into my business and my workflow so you can implement it in your business with ease.

Content might be Queen, but if your content isn't consistent it won't do you much good. The Consistency Guide teaches you how to release beliefs holding you back and put systems in place that allow you to succeed in business week after week after week.

#3 STOP TRYING TO BE ON ALL THE PLATFORMS

One of the most popular reasons for not showing up consistently in business is that you’re trying to be too much, create too much and show up too much! 

“What?! Michelle you teach marketing and you’re telling me I’m doing too much?”

YES! As with all things we need to be strategic and I’d rather you show up fully on a few platforms then stretch yourself thin with mediocre content on a bunch.

The truth is when we start our businesses, and even in that first year, shoot, even in your fourth year, it can be really easy to look and see where everybody's showing up and think to yourself, “Well, I should be there too. I definitely need to be there. Um, I'm not on Pinterest, I need to be on Pinterest. I'm not on Instagram, I need to be on Instagram. I need to be doing a weekly live stream as Michelle does.” Sound familiar?

We feel we have to do #allthethings because we’re comparing our Chapter 1 to someone’s Chapter 10. Look, I was not doing all of this four years ago, I focused on the areas that felt most comfortable and where I could show up fully and then I continued to grow from there.

In my business, it looked like Facebook Groups and my Facebook Page first, then I added Instagram, then I got serious about Blogging and Pinterest, adding podcasting, weekly live streams, etc... came next.

No one is expecting you to do it ALL right from the start, that’s just crazy!

If you’re trying to do all of the things, all of the time, and find yourself consistent for a week, and then nothing on again for two weeks and then off again because you’re stretching yourself too thin, you’re not going to be able to give your full focus and energy to the areas you absolutely need to see growth, think high-value content.

I recommend two to three platforms most when you’re first starting out and when choosing these platforms you need to consider what is required from that platform.

For instance, if you don’t have a lot of time then you might not want to focus on Instagram or Facebook to grow your community which requires daily posting. Using your blog and Pinterest might be a better option for you and better use of your time in the beginning. Then as you understand and implement repurposing you can take that blog and expand it on social media.

So that's why it's really, really important to create a strategy that works for you. This is why I love authentic marketing and what it’s truly all about. It's about really looking at your life, your schedule, your audience, where you want to show up, how much time you have and create a workflow and a content creation plan to match that.

So much of this comes from your system and workflow. I’ve mastered this with my Repurposing Plan and I’m giving you my strategies to build your own system that you can rinse and repeat every week. Ready to grab it? Go to brandmerry.com/repurpose.

#4 YOUR PURPOSE ISN’T DEFINED

Now, I don't mean your life purpose, although that could easily fit into your business if you know that go for it, but if when you hear the word purpose and instantly start to feel overwhelmed it’s not necessary.

What, I want to encourage you to think about is the purpose behind your business and how it’s deeper than your why.

Let me explain. When I started my business I remember my first coach asked me my “why”. I listed out a ton of reasons like being home with my son, bringing my husband home from his job, traveling more, paying off debt, shopping at Whole Foods.

It felt great! But then business got tough and I found myself no longer motivated by these very surface-level reasons for running my business. So I took the time to think about the true purpose behind my business, my mission, which is so much more than me and even my family.

It can’t be because of money.
It can’t be because of fame.

You can achieve those things working a 9 to 5, it has to be bigger, it has to focus on impact.

There will be months when you don't make as much as the month before, and you might have social media posts that do really, really well and then social media posts that don't.

You might have launches that do really, really well and then have launches that don't.

And when you're focused on the money, or the fame, or the, you know, influence or publicity, or whatever you want to call it likes followers, then you're going to struggle because you're going to question if you should be doing this! 

When you think about your audience and impact, the reason you’re showing up you’ll keep going, you’ll keep creating and you’ll continue to be consistent.

If you haven’t already ask yourself, 
What is the mission behind our business?
What is the purpose of you showing up every single day, even when no one is there?

Having this information at your fingertips, being deeply rooted in your purpose, allows you to pull yourself back up. As an entrepreneur, no one is going to do that for you!

Inside The Consistency Guide, there is an entire section on defining your purpose. I ask the questions needed to determine your purpose and feel deeply rooted and connected to it.

I've used my Consistency Framework to create consistent high-performing content for four years.

This has included weekly emails, weekly blog posts, at least two videos a month (now it's weekly), multiple social media posts on both Facebook and Instagram and so much more.

I've generated half a million dollars in cash from showing up consistently in my business, delivering what my audience wants and sharing my expertise in a way that is authentic to me.

Let's talk about 3 content creation myths 👇

Consistency is one of my love languages and is one of the fundamentals of a successful business no matter how you create content or where you post that content when promoting your business. 

And it’s not just about social media and promotion, but also consistency in your habits. 

So let’s bust three myths around consistency to really give you the power back in planning out your day, in planning out your content and feeling good about how you're showing up and building your community.

Myth #1: Consistency is Posting Daily

Myth number one about consistency is that you have to post daily. 

I had to start with this because I’ve got some beef with this topic. Consistently showing up online does not mean posting every single day.

I did this, we've all done this. Some of you are maybe posting twice a day. If that works for you, go for it. But if it’s a belief that you have, thinking it’s the standard and if you’re not posting daily you aren’t consistent, well that’s just not true.

We need to stop this one please because showing up and posting daily is just more emphasis on growing through social media, which is one of the things that I don't teach. 

I teach other avenues like Pinterest, SEO, Google, the things that you guys have heard me talk about all year as a way to grow your community.

And using Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, even maybe Twitter, as ways to just continue to show up for the existing community. 

Using these platforms allows you to step back from the hustle of posting daily.

So rather than looking at consistency as posting daily content, start to think about how many times you want to show up each week and honor that. 

And I think this is where people get really hung up and where they struggle is, maybe it's really fun and exciting and you do it for two weeks. And you're like, “Yes, yes, yes.” 

And then suddenly a week happens and you're like, “Oh my gosh, I can't post this week” or “I'm not feeling inspired.” And then you're like, “Aw, crap. My whole entire consistency plan is out the window.” 

It doesn't have to be like that.

Start thinking about more sustainable consistency, not something that you just feel like, “Oh, I have to do this. I have to post every single day.” 

That's one of the reasons that I encourage people to really look at platforms that expand their reach and that allow content to live longer, like blogging. 

You don't need to blog every single day. You can blog once a week and optimize that blog. Same thing with Pinterest, where the content ultimately lives longer. 

People ask me all the time, "Michelle, you're getting all this traffic from Pinterest." I'm getting anywhere between 13,000-20,000 views a month on my blog, about 90% are from Pinterest. People are like, "How many times a week do you blog?" 

Once a week, but I'm consistent with my once a week - and that’s what consistency is really about.

Think about what works for you and what is sustainable, because I’m going to bet that posting daily is not sustainable for most of you.

Myth #2: Consistency is Hard or Difficult

The second myth is that consistency is hard or difficult to keep up with. 

We shy away from this conversation around consistency because having to consistently create content every single day or weekly feels like it is overly complicated and hard to stay up to date with. 

Sometimes they say that you don't plan because you're afraid to fail, right? Many people don’t shoot for consistency because we just don't think that it's attainable for us. 

But I promise you that it is.

I promise when you have your systems in place, it 100% is possible for you. 

I've worked with enough entrepreneurs, with enough personality types and different backgrounds to say that this method works, and really simplifies your marketing overall.

This method is the art of repurposing.

The idea is that you have a core piece of content and you're repurposing that content through additional means. We’ve already chatted about how awesome this is, so if you’re ready to create your repurposing workflow head here.

In the beginning, it might feel a little shaky. 

It might feel a little like you're piecing it together; it always does. You're figuring out what works best for you, but I promise you, when you get into that rhythm, your entire mind will be blown and it just makes your life so much easier. 

Myth #3: Consistency is Hard or Difficult

The third myth is that it has to be new content. 

I think you can already pick up on what I'm putting down when it comes to repurposing and therefore you do not need to create new content every single day in your business. 

I mean how exhausting. 

But, when you’re only focused on building your community with Facebook or Instagram, it can feel like you need to create new stuff all the time and that’s because content on those platforms doesn’t live as long as these evergreen options.

I'm sorry, but if I'm taking all this time and energy to create this video and then it’s gone in 24 hours. No thank you!

It’s one of the reasons I created Brandmerry Academy, because I see too many entrepreneurs struggling to build their audience without spending all their time on social media.

This is why people have trouble with consistency. 

This is why people have trouble with content creation because they're like, “Well, shoot, I got to create something new tomorrow because that one's all gone.” 

But if you really change your thinking from new content daily to extending the life of your content, you're reusing the same thing over and over again. 

And I promise you, your audience does not get tired of it. 

Your audience will thank you for posting it again because they probably missed it. 

So when you're thinking of creating your content calendar for the year, even just for the month, I want you to break it down to one core topic every week. 

What would your life be like if you had one weekly piece of content that you then pushed out and repurposed and manipulated in different ways, and shifted the messaging so that it actually lasted longer?

What would happen? 

Would that completely change your life? Because it did mine.

I stopped focusing on creating new stuff every single day for Instagram and really went to this repurposing web. It’s one of the things I teach inside of both The Consistency Guide and Brandmerry Academy.

So it's less about creating a quantity of content and more about the quality of content. 

Now that doesn't mean that you post one thing and you're like, fingers crossed, hope it works. 

It's about then having these repurposing strategies in place so then you can make sure your content is being seen by your ideal customer.

Remember, people like to consume content in different ways.

They want to be able to read something, watch something, listen to something, consume it very quickly. And the more that we can really show up on multiple platforms and think about ways that you can show up for your audience and be there for them and they can consume your content in the way that's best for them. Again, building trust.

4 steps to creating consistent content 👇

1. STAY INSPIRED TO CREATE CONTENT

You have to stay inspired and motivated. The key to being excited about creating content is to always look for ways to be inspired.

Let me give you an example. 

I know that if I need to create content, my butt goes outside.

If I know that I need to create content, let’s say I want to brainstorm and map out 90 days of topics I head to Starbucks.

I know the type of environments and resources that get me inspired and motivated. What are yours?

We have to put ourselves in places that inspire us if we ever hope to be inspired.

If you're sitting In bed, on your laptop, you're probably not feeling very inspired. 

So not only do we need to put ourselves in situations where we're feeling inspired, but we also have to get excited about what it is we are doing.

So much of getting excited ties back to the purpose of your business. 

Why are you doing this? 
Why should you show up and create content?
Who is it for?

If you haven't figured out the real purpose and mission behind your business, today would be a great day to write that down.

When I tap into my purpose of empowering women to own their story and show up and share that with the world through their brand that keeps me motivated. So, even if I am tired or don’t feel 100% in it, I root myself in my purpose and excitement hits.

The core part of consistently thinking of content topics, consistently showing up and delivering that content and consistently engaging comes from being inspired and being motivated. 

2. LOOK AROUND FOR CONTENT IDEAS

When we start thinking about creating content we sit down with a notepad, in a quiet room and write our ideas.

I'm telling you, I've had the best content ideas in the shower, or walking through the grocery store, listening to podcasts, or scrolling on Instagram, which is not in a dark room with a notepad.

I’m using the everyday moments around me to think of ideas. For instance, when I hop on Instagram I won’t just do it to waste some time, but I’ll set the intention to see if anything inspires me outside of my industry.

Then I use that inspiration to create a piece of content.

This is why I’m a big fan of using Trello or Google Docs as a way to organize a content idea bank because as I’m going about my day, with the intention to look for ideas, I can pause and add my idea to my Trello board and then go back about my day.

What I’m doing is I’m creating a resource of content ideas every single day, rather than sitting down to “try and write” and feeling incredibly lost and stuck.

The biggest mistake I see entrepreneurs make is feeling like it's 100% up to them to come up with topics for their content.

Look around you.
Get inspired.
Don’t be afraid to Google topics and see what comes up.
Search on Pinterest for a topic and see what comes to your mind.
Look in a Facebook Group and search for topics to see what people ask.

Shift the way you go about getting ideas away from sitting down and brainstorming, to setting the intention to always look for ideas.

3. MAKE CONTENT CREATION A PRIORITY

Your content creation and your business in general, shouldn't just fit in where it fits in your schedule. Make it a priority and move the other things to fit around it.

You will get results if you’re carving out a dedicated chunk of time at least once a week to create your content if you’re not then you're doing yourself a disservice.

You don’t need to create every single day, many of my clients have one designated content creation/ writing day a week. And if you do it, for let’s say two weeks, and still don’t find you’re able to create the amount of content you want in that time frame then cut back on the content or master your repurposing workflow.

Do what you can in that time frame and then as your business grows, as you hire more team members, as you get faster and faster writing content and blog posts, then you can start to create more and show up on more platforms.

So many people fall off because they're trying to do way too much when it comes to content creation, they can't keep up with it. 

I am a big fan of bulk scheduling. I bulk create and write my content on Mondays.

I don't do calls on Mondays and pretty much my entire day is carved out to create my content.

I use this time to write my notes for my weekly live stream, Mondays With Michelle, schedule my social media posts and choose the graphics.

4. CHOOSE YOUR CONTENT PLATFORMS WISELY

When you’re starting your online business you’re thinking, “Ok, I’m going to create a website and hope someone comes to it and then I’ll show up on social media. I’ll create a Facebook group or I'll join some Facebook groups, and I'll show up on Instagram.”

Sound familiar? I know it was exactly what I did in the beginning.

This is why so many entrepreneurs get overwhelmed because in order for your stuff to really get seen on those platforms you need to consistently post, which means daily on Facebook and Instagram.

I used to do this and found myself overwhelmed with the amount of content I needed to create, so I don’t do it anymore and that's because social media is no longer my top-tier platform.

Remember back to the beginning where we talked about Awareness, Attraction and Connection? Another way to look at this is through Cold, Warm and Hot Leads.

The majority of people in the Awareness phase are a cold lead, so you’re creating content that pulls them into your brand, if this is social media you’re going to feel like you’re constantly climbing a steep hill.

In my business, I pull in cold leads through my blog, which I optimize for Google and share on Pinterest. Another alternative is Youtube and podcasting. The reason these platforms work so well is that they are Search Engines; your audience is going to them with specific questions and looking for answers, this is not the same for social media.

In addition, your content lives longer on these platforms than say a post on social media, which might last 24 hours if you’re lucky.

If you're not already considering things like optimizing your website for SEO, and you aren't blogging, and you are not using Pinterest or you’re not using YouTube (if you like videos), really consider switching up where you are showing up, it will make a huge difference and will allow you to consistently show up with less content.

Don't make these content creation mistakes 👇

New and seasoned entrepreneurs often come to me after starting their business and showing up on social media. They start creating content out of the gate and find themselves feeling overwhelmed, like their message is all over the place, struggling to come up with content ideas or not getting enough engagement.

The truth is there is a misconception around when we should be creating content and what we need to have in place in order to be doing it in a way that brings in the right people and leads to a revenue-generating business. 

The truth is so many entrepreneurs are skipping the branding process which is why content works or why it doesn’t work. It’s really not about using cool tricks and trying to beat the algorithm.

It’s not about a specific number of characters or writing your title in a certain way.

It’s about understanding the fundamentals of your brand and building a strong foundation in which every piece of content is created.

what are the CONTENT CREATION MISTAKES AND why do they happen

Unfortunately so many educators, coaches and consultants are telling people that they’ll figure it out if they keep posting content.

Okay, there's some truth to this in that you find your voice along the way, you start to see what people resonate with and don't resonate with and that tells you what you want to expand on. 

But if you think that just posting random content with no clear plan is going to help you decide the pillars of your brand and business, that's backward.

We need to figure out the foundational pieces first so the content that we create, mimics that and is in alignment with that and again, draws in the right people. 

Too many entrepreneurs are putting content out there, without a clear brand strategy in place and finding themselves building a community that they hope to sell to. Then when they finally sell...nobody buys.

The reason is you’re attracting people who aren’t in alignment with what you’re ultimately selling.

create your brand first, then create your content

Branding at its core is what gives us the foundation so we don't ping pong all over so that we don’t struggle to come up with ideas and so we don’t struggle to connect our community to our offer.

If you’re experiencing these pieces, let me tell you it’s a branding problem.

SO WHAT IS BRANDING?

To fix it we need to first talk about what branding is. There’s this lie that’s been floating around the internet for too long that your brand is your visual representation, i.e. your logo, fonts and colors.

While the visuals play a role they are only part of the finished product. They are the result of deciding on the experience you want to create.

Branding is an experience we’re creating for our target audience and what they’re taking away from the experience we’re creating.

So branding is so much more than just the color you use in a photo, and finalizing the true brand, the experience will help you decide on those visual components much faster.

It’s something that can’t wait or be done later. All of the pieces you want to create now, your website, content, free offers, promotions, etc...rely heavily on finalizing the core pillars of a brand.

The belief that branding can wait is very harmful to online entrepreneurs.

SO HOW DO WE FIX IT?

Lucky for you, I’m a Personal Branding Consultant and Marketing Strategist so you’re in good hands.

Depending on where you’re at in your business you need to:

1. Build your brand from the ground up (New and aspiring entrepreneurs)

2. Find the holes in your branding process and fill them (Seasoned entrepreneurs)
   
   

Before I share the 4 steps needed to have a solid brand, you must understand I’m not suggesting you go into hiding for 6 months, figure this out and then start again...NO!

Please don’t do that. So many of my clients do this in as little as a week, with some guidance.

If you’re wanting to fast-track that then sign up for my free on-demand class on The Build a Better Brand Method here.

The key is to put in the work, yes, sometimes extra, on the backend, so you can start creating better content, growing your community with targeted leads, experiencing more engagement and ultimately making more sales.

As you do the work, you’ll notice a shift in your content creation strategy and results.

4 STEPS TO BETTER CONTENT and A BETTER BRAND

These four steps are 4 of the 6 steps in my Build a Better Brand Method. You can learn more about each detail and get the full picture of the branding process and how it plays a role in not only content creation but also increased revenue in my free class.

Watch The Build a Better Brand Masterclass here >>

1. NICHE

FIGURE OUT WHERE YOU FIT IN THIS ENTREPRENEUR SPACE

I don't care what you sell, you have to figure out your specific market. Niching down is one of the best things that you will do for your brand, for your business and as we're talking about for your content. 

You need to understand what specific niche you provide your audience.

For instance, if you’re in skincare you won’t grow your business if you offer every skincare product under the sun, but you could focus on skincare for adult acne. 

I’m a Branding coach, but I focus on personal branding with an emphasis on storytelling. So I'm not for the woman who isn't ready to be the face of her brand who isn't ready to share stories. That's what I'm about and I've carved out a very specific niche that addresses that issue. 

This clarity is going to help you to understand how you're going to show up and communicate with your ideal audience. It's also going to help you get discovered online because people are searching for very specific things.

If you find that your market is full (aka saturated) you’re not alone. And while so many people think this is a bad thing it’s actually working in your favor. If someone is successfully doing it, then there is a need and demand.

Not one person can serve everyone! Find the gap, what they’re not doing, that you can bring to the table. This is your specific niche.

This knowledge around your niche is going to influence how you show up, create content and communicate with the world.

2. IDEAL CUSTOMER OR CLIENT

YES, YOU NEED TO KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE

If you're just starting out, your fear of focusing on one core person is hurting you. Because when you're not clear on specifically who you want to attract, you're creating messaging, content, offers that are trying to attract a bunch of different people and then guess what happens? You're so confusing to your ideal client, that they back out and can’t handle it.

Confusing your audience will result in lost sales.

Please do yourself a favor and take some time, if you haven't already, to do ideal client research. And if you have done it in the past, but it's been a while then give yourself a refresher.

There is so much to the ideal client research, but the top three points to identify are:

1. What specific person do you want to attract, sell to and work with?

2. What do they need help with? This is what you want to begin to create content around.

3. What do they ultimately want or desire? This will help you guide them through the process and help you identify obstacles standing in their way, which can also be addressed in your content.

If you can speak to the pain points of your ideal customer, you can give them solutions, and also speak to their obstacles; I am telling you, you will be the person that they hire.

Another perk of the ideal customer work (hey, that rhymed) is understanding who they are at a core human level. YOU NEED TO KNOW THIS!

Your audience is human and the more that you can understand this and speak to their everyday struggles and desires, not just how they pertain to your product or service, the deeper the connection.

For instance, my audience also loves to hear about time management, productivity, mindset, being a mom and running a business, so I get to create content that fits in all of those pieces and keeps my audience entertained and engaged.

3. MESSAGING AND BRANDING CONSISTENCY

REMEMBER, IF YOU CONFUSE YOUR AUDIENCE THEY WILL MOVE ON.

Having a messaging structure in place will help you to avoid posting one thing on a Monday, something different on Tuesday and completely left field on a Thursday. We want to avoid this off-the-wall approach (think spaghetti at a wall) and focus on having a clear structure in place.

One of the ways to combat this is with brand containers.

BRAND CONTAINERS

Brand containers piggyback off of the idea that your audience is freaking human. They want to see and hear about more than just your one offer, your products or your photographs, they want to build a know, like and trust factor with your brand overall.

This is why we want to identify the different ways we can support our ideal customer through our content. Like I mentioned above, I might do this with time management, productivity, mindset, being a mom and running a business.

Consistently creating content in these buckets builds you up as a credible resource for your audience, makes a more personal connection and also doesn't overwhelm your audience with sell after sell after sell.

These brand containers are life savers when it comes to creating content.

4. YOUR OFFER

WHERE ARE YOU LEADING YOUR ONLINE COMMUNITY?

This is a really important question that not enough people are asking. It’s one of the reasons I consider your offer or framework one of the foundations of branding.

Again, let’s imagine you’re showing up online. You’re spending time creating content and consistently post. Then after months you decide I’m going to make an offer, but that offer doesn’t connect to the community you’ve built online...your sales won’t be great!

When we have our offer or framework in mind from the start, we can reverse engineer our content to bring in the right people and lead them to the sale in an authentic and genuine way.

Building a targeted community requires building a strong brand.

If you know exactly what you want to teach or sell, amazing! This is where you would start getting clear on what that looks like and how it supports your ideal customer.

But, let’s say you’re not 100% sure yet, that’s ok too. You can build out your framework and then use that to influence your content and eventually your offer.

Ask yourself…

“If I were to create something, what would it look like?”

“How would I want to support my idea client on their journey?”

Just having that awareness in your head will allow you to create content and build a community that will then effortlessly lead to your product.

How to harness the power of evergreen content 👇

I don't believe in just creating content to create content. 

I want to have workflows and systems that allow me to show up for you, to get in front of new ideal customers, to show up and nurture and build relationships with my existing audience, to ultimately lead members to a sale because at the end of the day I’m running a business and that last piece is kind of important.

And, after 5 years I know content creation allows me to do all of that.

Yet here’s the kicker - I want to make sure you know how to create content that doesn't involve you sitting behind a computer for hours and hours and hours every single day, trying to write up posts knowing that those posts are probably going to disappear.

Honestly, one of the most fun things that I get to do is create new content, and these 4 hacks that I've implemented have made all the difference not just in how I'm creating the content, but more specifically how long it's taking me to create it and how long the content lasts (it’s evergreen baby, more on that later).

Let’s get into the 4 tips.

CONTENT CREATION TIP #1: CONTENT RESEARCH

Let's dive into the first thing that I have for you on content creation hacks of 2021. This one is key. So I'm going to spend a little bit more time on this one than I will the others, so let’s buckle up!

This first step is all about your research. 

Now I don't know about you, but when I first started my business 5 years ago, people weren't really talking about how important it was to do research when creating content.

We were talking about ideal customer research as it applies to your branding and that is a crucial step. It was all about having conversations with people to find out how to ultimately message to them in your business. And this was great, it helps you get a solid start, but then what do you do?

No one was talking about the research that actually goes into creating content. This resulted in business owners posting things with the foundation of, “Oh, I think my audience might like this. This might work.” 

I fell into that trap for a really long time, until I started looking outside of my niche at what was really working for marketing as a whole. 

It always came back down to this idea that the data is always there. The information you need on what people are searching for is already there, you just have to take the time to do the research and look for it. 

This simple strategy opens up an entire method for creating content that is based on search engine results not just “oh, that might be nice!”

Why, is it important to think of things that people are searching for? Well, because they are searching for it! This means that you’re getting in front of cold leads (people who aren’t familiar with your brand and services every single day). This is key when you want to consistently scale your business, especially organically. 

When you're thinking about creating content, remember, we're not just creating content that is meant to serve people that already know our brand, we have to have consistent people coming in that funnel, finding you online, discovering you, getting to know you. That has to be a consistent stream in order for them to then binge read all your posts on Instagram or go binge-watch all your videos on YouTube.

This research phase requires you to do SEO or search engine optimized research.

What are people searching for as it relates to your niche on Google?
What about Pinterest?
And what about Youtube?

These are all search engine platforms, meaning someone is going there, typing in a question or topic and finding results, and these platforms can give you a freaking gold mine when it comes to finding topics for your content.

CONTENT TIP #2: DESIGN YOUR WORKFLOW

You should not be recreating the wheel every single week in your business. One of the areas that I have found that people struggle with when it comes to creating consistent content is that they don't have a workflow in place. 

So, while number one takes the mystery out of, “What do I talk about?”
This step takes the mystery out of, “How do I do it efficiently?”

You can have the best content ideas, but if you don't have systems and workflows in place, you're going to struggle with consistency showing up.

Here are some things to consider when thinking about your workflow:

• How many blog posts are you going to publish a week? 

• How many videos are you going to release weekly, bi-weekly, monthly? 

• Are you going to have a podcast? 

• What channels are you showing up on social media? 

• Are you going to be on Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest?

The goal here is to determine where you’ll be showing up and how often. Now, you don’t need to be everywhere, we just don’t believe in that strategy here at Brandmerry, but you do need a clear idea of where you’ll be sharing your content.

My suggestion and something I teach inside of Brandmerry Academy is to choose one search engine optimized platform (Blogging/ Google, Pinterest or Youtube) and one social media channel to start.

Once you have that data you want to pull that into a workflow that might look something like this.

Step One: Create a blog post
Step Two: Turn that one blog post into 12 posts on Twitter for the week
Step Three: Then use that blog post to create two posts for Instagram.
Step Four: Record that blog post as a podcast episode.

You could do this a ton of different ways, figure out the way that works best for you. 

Some of my clients love blogging and writing, so that becomes their core content. 
Some of my clients love video, like myself, and that becomes their core content. 
Some love recording audio, podcasting and that becomes their core content.

Whatever core content you want, you can then push it out and repurpose it on multiple platforms. 

I’m going to do a video and blog in a few weeks on repurposing, but remember this step is all about the workflow. What needs to happen and when. If you want to grab a little cheat that I've put together for you, you can go to brandmerry.com/repurpose, and get your hands on more details regarding that. 

It’s these systems that allow us to build sustainable businesses.

CONTENT TIP #3: KNOW YOUR NUMBERS

Number three is a piggyback off of number one with the data, but this hack is all about knowing your numbers.

Seriously, please look at your analytics. They will tell you so much about what you want to scale in your business and can give you insight into the type of content that drives the most traffic, gets the most engagement and more.

While tip one might have focused a bit more on bringing your new audience in, this step can tell you a lot about your existing warm audience. 

• What types of videos do well? 

• What types of podcast titles and episodes have a higher listener rate? 

• What kind of blog posts are getting more rank on Google, are getting more traffic from Pinterest? 

• Which of your social media posts get more saves and shares and engagement? 

• Do people prefer certain topics or imagery on your social media?

You have to make it a habit to look at your numbers. 

I suggest looking at your numbers every 30 days and making small adjustments and every 90 days planning your bigger moves for the next quarter of content.

For instance, I did a podcast episode about morning routines, which was one of the hardest things for me to do because I have a very different take on morning routines. You can listen to that podcast episode over on the Beautiful Climb Podcast, but this was the topic that we knew my audience cared about and would do well.

We had seen it through Instagram posts and through past Pinterest traffic. All kinds of data was saying, “Do this dang podcast episode, Michelle.” 

So I did it and it was our highest listenership because we knew that it was going to be. 
It was one of our most viewed reels that I created on Instagram. 
We then took that content and turned it into a blog post and that blog post is doing amazing on Pinterest. 

So the data is there and once you have this consistent rhythm and that workflow in place, you can start to take the guesswork out of creating content. 

Look at your analytics, know your numbers, create more of what is working.

Now you can absolutely experiment and play around with things and you should, but always remember to come back to your numbers and allow that to fuel those decisions. 

One of the areas that perform well in my business is video. As we ended 2020 we had a lot of data on what worked best and how we could make some modifications heading into 2021.

Here’s an example of how the data then fueled a change in my marketing.

While we knew video did really well in my business we were seeing that live video wasn’t necessarily working better than prerecorded.

At this point, I was going live every Monday at the same time to deliver branding and marketing tips as part of my show Mondays With Michelle.

Live video takes more time and energy on my part, so rather than not creating videos, we realized that we could pre-record bulk video content. 

So four to five videos, depending on how many weeks are in a month to be released every single Monday on Facebook as a premiere, and on IGTV, and then repackaged to release on YouTube later on.

So by looking at the data, we realized that we could make this adjustment. I could have more time in my schedule to take on more clients, which resulted in more money and it all came from looking at the data.

CONTENT TIP #4: OUTSOURCING

The last tip I want to share with you is centered around freeing up more of your time by outsourcing. Now before you're like "Michelle, I don't have the money to invest in a team," I totally understand and that’s not necessarily what I’m implying so keep reading!

When I say outsourcing, I mean tech or team. So if you have the means to hire a virtual assistant or somebody to manage your workflow in ClickUp or wherever you're setting it up, to publish your videos, to edit your videos, then absolutely do that. 

Start to outsource those content creation pieces very early on if you have the means to invest in that. 

If you don't have the money or means to do that just yet, there are tech options available that are going to yes, be an investment, but a small amount compared to how much time you're spending.

For example, you can use a tool called Veed.io, which I talked about in my recent blog on my favorite Marketing Tools here, to resize your videos for different platforms, add transcripts and even edit the title and captions. 

You can use a transcript service like Rev.com to upload your video or podcast and have a full transcript that you can then turn into your blog. 

There are a lot of tech options out there that will help you streamline this entire content creation process. And again, as you begin to build your revenue, you can then build your team, which is going to make your life so much easier!

Content creation is the heart of your business. Without strong content, you can't attract your ideal customer, you're not nurturing your existing audience, you're not showing up for them and you’ll have a hard time selling.

Let's not forget social media 👇

1. It's Really About Quality vs. Quantity

Just like me, I bet you started your business and just focused on quantity. You researched how many times a day or week you should post in order to increase engagement, but turns out this isn’t really the answer. You can post 5 times a day, but if your content isn’t of high-value then it’s not going to matter.

The other reality is that it takes less time, overall, to create quality pieces of content. If you take time to produce quality content, you’ll get more engagement and therefore you’ll create a core piece that can be reused over and over again.

In order to create better quality content, it’s important to have a plan. When you give yourself time to map out your content you’ll be more likely to actually create a high-quality piece over just “posting to post”.

2. Content Creation Comes From Knowing Your Audience 

If you’re struggling to come up with content it’s most likely because you don’t know who you are speaking to. Trust me, I’ve tested it, if you know WHO you’re talking to then you’ll always know what needs to be said. Truly understanding your audience and where they are needing support on their journey is crucial.

This is why I dedicate a big chunk of energy to teaching my clients to truly identify their ideal client and all the nitty gritty details that will support them in creating content that their audience finds engaging. 

One of my top tips is to ask yourself, “What does my audience need in this moment?” and then allow yourself to brainstorm ideas based on what you’re seeing online, what your audience is asking and simple Google search.

3. Identify Your Brand Containers

One of my favorite tools when it comes to content creation and making sure I’m keeping my audience engaged is the use of Brand Containers. Brand Containers are essentially 5-7 themes for your brand that all your content can live under. This allows you to better organize your content, as well as recycle the types of content you are creating. This is a key in keeping your audience engaged.

If you want to learn more about my Brand Containers strategy and receive my content planner, be sure to grab yours here.

4. Using Core Brand Messages to Create Consistent Content

One of my favorite strategies I teach my clients is called Core Brand Messages. The Core Brand Messages framework allows you to create messages for your brand as a whole (streamlined messaging), share your expertise and position the benefit more clearly to your audience.

In addition, by having these unified messages you can consistently come up with content ideas (social media posts) that position you as the expert.

Let’s say one of my Core Brand Messages is, “I support women in uncovering their story to create an authentic brand that allows them to stand out online.”

I could then list out 20-30 topics under this general message. This allows me to create branded content in my zone of genius, plus showcase my expertise and how I support my clients.

80% of consumers say “authenticity of content” is the most influential factor in becoming a follower of a brand. If I’ve learned anything from creating content online it’s that authenticity is key. You not only want to create content that gets in engagement, but is authentic to you and your brand message. 

Core Brand Messages are one of the methods I teach inside my Build a Better Brand Method. Watch the free masterclass to learn the step by step of building a better brand that stands out on social media, how to create quality content for your audience and build a thriving community. Sign up at brandmerry.com/brandmasterclass.

Please share your biggest takeaways from this blog post and how you’re going to implement this information in your own business!

P.S. Planning and creating your content doesn't have to be a constant struggle. There is a better way to research, plan, and create your content as an entrepreneur and it's all inside the Content Planning Blueprint!

The Content Planning Blueprint is perfect for online business owners who know the power of content creation but are tired of spending all of their time coming up with ideas, organizing their content, and wondering what will attract their dream clients.

In just a few hours, you'll have 90 days of content planned, a repeatable workflow to save you hours on creating and distributing your content every week, and content topics that will keep performing for your brand for years to come! Get your blueprint now >>

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MEET MICHELLE

Hey there, I'm Michelle Knight and I an online branding and marketing consultant for female entrepreneurs.

I believe in the power of storytelling and using that superpower to brand and market yourself online...oh and to set yourself free.

I'm obsessed with living a life of freedom, so much so, that my family and I now travel full-time while running my business from the road.

This blog serves as a home base for all things branding, marketing, content creation and more.