Why should your small business value blog posts on your website? It’s simple. Your blog posts are a 24/7 workforce. Your website is that extra salesperson -- the 12th man to Seahawks fans -- who is always there cheering you on. Your office may be closed, but Google will serve up results -- from social media, your website, and Google My Business.   (00:03):Welcome to the Launch With Words podcast, with your host, Bridget Willard. We're going to talk about all things. Content, blogging, articles, videos. Whatever has words and goes on your website. (00:22):Hey, Hey! This is the last episode of Season One of the Launch With Words podcast. Thank you for joining me in on these 10 very short episodes 'cause I know you don't have time to just be listening to podcasts. We're not really commuting to work anymore. We're going from our bedroom to the other side of our bedroom. We are going from, uh, our den to the kitchen table. You know, some of us are working in the parking lot at Starbucks. (00:52):I feel ya. I feel ya right there. So, Hey, let's talk about the best person on your team for the price. That's right. Your website. Your website, for the price, is the best sales person you have even better is if you are building up your internal sales library by publishing blog posts. (01:17):If this is your first episode of the Launch With Words, podcast, I would encourage you to go back and listen to the rest of them. Wherever you're listening now, you'll be able to find all 10 episodes. It is based upon my WordPress plugin called: Launch with Words and the starter pack is completely free. It comes with blogging prompts to help you get in. Get it done. Get it published. And go back to closing those sales. Right? (01:54):So let's talk about blog posts. Blog posts are available when Jenny asks her neighbor, Sue, "Hey Sue, do you know any plumbers in the area? I think I have a slab leak." They're at dinner. It's 7:00 PM on a Friday. You're not open, but she could go. "Yeah. I went to Billy. Bob was plumbing in Schertz and they're the best. So they go to BillyBobPlumbing.com. (02:24):I don't know if that's a real place. And she looks at your website. It talks about slab leaks. You have a blog post about it. How much time it takes. Who's going to lay the concrete when it's over. What kind of piping is the best. Preventing slab leaks from happening again. Helping you with your homeowner's insurance claim. And, and you're like, "Yes! Yes. I'm going to fill out their website for them right now." And then guess what? Saturday morning, she's going to get a call from Billy Bob and say, "Hey, really glad that you called let's schedule a time to look at this. Is it leaking right now or you just suspect it?" You know, that is the way to use your website and those blog posts for your benefit. Blog posts, as we've mentioned before, are not just influencers telling you about the lipstick they like from Cover Girl. (03:21):This is the way to inform clients. This is the way to answer pre-sales questions. This is the way to establish the fact that you're a legitimate business. You are in business for the future. You are not going anywhere. You're not a fly by night. Your website isn't on Wix or Weebly or Webflow or Squarespace about to shut down because you're not getting the domain name renewals from GoDaddy, right? This is a business that pays somebody to have a WordPress website. That has a contact form with a customized email that says, "Hey, we'll get back to you. Our regular service hours are 8:00 AM to 4:00 PM." You know? That kind of thing. Legitimacy. Legitimacy in every single part of the customer journey. It takes 7 to 10 touch points to make a sale. That's whether they saw you on Facebook or whether they saw you at that chamber of commerce mixer or whether they saw a tweet by you, or whet

Blogging. I know. It feels like you’re supposed to write about how transformative the meal was at Brasserie Mon Chu Chu to your email list of 1,000 people. But don’t think of lifestyle blogging, unless you are one. You’re a small business. Everything you write and publish educates your current, past, and future clients. And blog posts can be reused. Listen in for more! Timestamps (00:03):Welcome to the Launch With Words podcast, with your host, Bridget Willard. We're going to talk about all things, content, blogging, articles, videos, whatever has words and goes on your website. (00:21):Hey. Hey! We know you've seen those Netflix movies and situational dramas and comedies where the lifestyle blogger is writing about her experience at Brasserie Mon Chu Chu in San Antonio's historic Pearl District. And how, uh, eating the filet mignon was like an orgasm in her mouth and the senses the senses and the music took her back to her time in Paris in 2017. Uh, but enough about me. Blogging. Is it just something that 20 somethings do when they're trying to be a lifestyle blogger blogging? Is it just something that people do to express their feelings? (01:11):Blogging is publishing articles on your website. You're at episode nine of this ten-part series, season one of Launch With Words podcast. So, uh, maybe this is your first episode. Maybe you need to go back and listen to the rest. (01:29):But I hope that you understand that blogging shouldn't be taken lightly. It shouldn't be dismissed. And definitely you should not avoid publishing on your blog for fear of feeling childish or juvenile or silly or ridiculous. Why? Because your blog posts educate and inform past, current, and future clients. You know, it's so much easier to get a client back or to have return business from a client than to get a new one. You know? And you want to be seen as that person who is an expert in your field. That's why you started your business, right? (02:11):So here's the thing. Once you publish those blog posts, um, they're on the internet basically forever until you delete your site. And then still there's like the Way Back Machine, but that's another episode. Um, we talked about the internet having a long memory in a previous episode. (02:30):So another thing that you could do with your blog posts is make them into an eBook. So, uh, I, what I did, for example, is I took my Keys to Being Social series that was written over eight years. I took those blog posts, put them into a Google doc, spent about a year editing them with my friend, Sarah Pressler, and turned them into a book called Keys To Being Social on Amazon, available on Kindle and also paperback. I did this because I realized that I had a gift of teaching people how to use social media in a way that makes sense to them based upon what they already know: good manners. Good manners, right? And going through each thing, and then how that works itself out, right? (03:27):So maybe you are a mobile notary and your goal is to teach people that not every notary will do a self-proclaimed affidavit. Not every notary at The UPS Store will notarize something for a living will or the last will and Testament. That you specialize in this, uh, situation. That you will come to the home or office for loan signing docs. The UPS notary is not going to do that. That's not their main, that's not their main source of revenue. That's an extra service, that's a value add for The UPS Store. Right? But you as a mobile notary have that you as a yoga instructor, have your apparel have, um, the ways to modify for being plus-sized. Have like beginners -- a heart for beginners, right? (04:29):You as a general contractor, understand when people want to make their homes suitable for them not just to flip. Some people actually want to bu

The Launch With Words starter pack has a blogging prompt for a case study in the Month of May. “This is a great time to go to your inspiration journal and look for a case study that can be written. Get the content published before people start going on vacations and forget about hiring a small business.” A case study should answer the following questions: What was the problem? What were they doing before? How did they find your product/service? What is the solution? What are the results? (00:03): Welcome to the Launch With Words podcast, with your host, Bridget Willard. We're going to talk about all things, content, blogging, articles, videos, whatever has words and goes on your website. (00:21): Hey, thanks for hanging in with me here on the Launch With Words podcast, a supplement to the Launch With Words plugin and blogging prompts that you can find on my website for the starter pack. For example, we're going to talk about case studies today, which are marketing gold. You remember that Velveeta commercial, um, where it's, uh, shells and cheese or whatever the guy's like "liquid gold." Well, we want marketing gold. (00:52): We want something that's, you know, can be used over and over and over again that accomplishes many purposes: marketing and uh, persuasion to new customers, you know, validation of concept, proof of expertise. And you know, those can be done with case studies. (01:14): In May for the starter pack, um, that's, that's the big prompt. Uh, because it's right before the summer, you want to get people before they start vacationing and forget about hiring small businesses to do things, um, families that have kids, uh, use this time away. You know, even if we're remote working, even if we have a business things just get busy. Should they? That's another question. But we can't roll the clock back to 1984 when we all ran the streets and came home when the streetlights came on. (01:53): So a case study should answer the following questions. Who is the business? Your customer. What was their problem? How did they find your product or service? What's the solution? And what are the results? You could also say, what were they doing before? Right? So the problem was they weren't blogging. The business is you. Uh, they found Launch With Words from this podcast, they installed it on their blog, um, on their WordPress website. They set aside two hours every month to write and publish. And the results are the traffic from Google went up 10%nfor example. You know? The search, the search traffic went up. (02:45): Um, case studies are the best because people sometimes don't understand what, what your product or service does necessarily. We did this, um, back when was working with Riggins Construction & Management, Inc in Santa Ana, California with the epoxy injection video, I did it not only showed that it was more than just cosmetic, but show how important it was. And that was a very large sales tool for us. I'm sure it still is. It's on the internet. You can watch it. It's the most ridiculous video I've ever made. But Hey, you know, it worked and that's the whole point is people need to know that other people have hired you for this exact same use case. Some people call them use cases. And it's tempting to make a PDF or a slide deck. And you know what, if you want to do that, do that. But the internet is blind. You want words. (03:45): Like one of the reasons I'll let you in on a secret. One of the reasons why I started the Launch With Words podcast was so the phrase "launch with words" would be on the internet more." Right? So there's going to be 10 episodes and this episode eight. And all of those transcripts, they are going to come up on a Google search for when people look for Launch With Words. So it's not just of starter pack. It's premium packs. And so far there are two available, right? But this isn't an infomercial for me. I it's just, it's just a for instance. You know? (

So much of our small business marketing efforts go back to our websites. What will we post on social media? Answer: what’s on your website? What will we send in our email marketing campaigns? Answer: what’s on your website? Blog posts. Blog posts are often looked down upon like they’re the red-headed stepchild of the Internet. But blog posts are your “invisible” salesperson. They work while you’re sleeping. They inform and persuade. So, don’t send out that next Constant Contact or Mailchimp email without including a link to your latest blog post.  (00:03):Welcome to the Launch With Words podcast, with your host, Bridget Willard. We're going to talk about all things, content, blogging, articles, videos, whatever has words nd goes on your website. (00:21):Hey there, thanks for joining me for episode seven. We're going to talk about email marketing. So you're using Active Campaign MailChimp, maybe even Constant Contact, but what are you sending in those email marketing campaigns? What are you sending in those emails? You should definitely send them links to your blog posts. Maybe even send them the blog post in its entirety. Tess Wittler recommends that we send a little bit of a story, our content, and maybe a tip, a coupon, some kind of call to action, but it really shouldn't be a month worth of your efforts. It shouldn't be a Christmas letter talking about Bobby and Jenny and Suzy and tae kwon do, ballet, and little league. (01:15):It could be. It could be if your company is sponsoring little league, but you don't want to be super personal. You, you want to be valuable, right? So keeping in that constant, um, cadence of publishing on your blog posts, and then following up with an email marketing -- maybe three to seven days later -- is a great way to remind people of your blog posts. (01:46):Warren Laine-Naida says that being invited to a user's email inbox is an honor. It's like being invited into their home. So when you have a customer or someone interested, subscribing, give them value. Now they may delete those emails. I delete tons of emails every single day, but that doesn't mean I'm not interested. It doesn't mean that I don't see that Jason Resnick is in my email box. It just means I cannot devote the time to deal with it. (02:23):And then don't forget that people save emails as well. I just got an email about three months ago from Goodyear tire service for my oil change. I, I haven't deleted it, but I haven't done anything with it. Doesn't mean that the email marketing campaign wasn't successful. (02:45):And a lot of my peers and small business owners look at email open rates that are 20% or 30% and think that it's a failure. It's not. This is not high school. This is not university. Having 20% open rate with email is awesome. 25, even better. 30 is amazing. 60% tells me you have an amazing list of people that only care about your product or service. And that's gold. That's marketing gold. (03:17):So pair, pair your email marketing campaigns with your blog posts. You want people to come and, you know, in waves. You don't, you don't open your doors at 9:00 AM and expect all of your customers for that day to be waiting. No. So give it a little time. Maybe send that out, um, like I said, four to seven days. Or maybe you're the kind of person who sends it out immediately to your email list and then shares it on social media, four to seven days later. One day on Twitter. Two days later on LinkedIn. Five days later on your Facebook Page. That's totally fine. (04:06):But the email marketing piece is super important. It's important because those people have specifically requested that you be in contact with them. They want to read information from your website. They want to know that you do bathroom remodels. They've want to kno

“Shoeless Joe,” and the movie from that book have both been misleading people for years. “If you build it, he will come.” That’s the biggest load of malarkey. That doesn’t work for “Field of Dreams” in the real world. No one comes to a concert, book launch, website, or restaurant unless they know about it. They only know your product or service exists because you tell them. Which means -- you need to market the thing.  (00:03):Welcome to the launch with words podcast, with your host, Bridget Willard. We're going to talk about all things. Content, blogging, articles, videos, whatever has words and it goes on your website. (00:21):Hey, welcome to episode six. "If you build it, he will come." Famous quote from the book, "Shoeless Joe" and the movie about the same thing, "Field of Dreams." The field of dreams is simply that. It's just a dream. Because guess what? (00:40):You can't build anything -- a stadium, a team, a restaurant, a product, a service -- without telling people. There's no way. It's insanity for us to think that just because we have a website, that people will know about it for one thing. And or that they will magically happen upon a website. It's not something in the mall that we walked by. But even, even a store in the mall, isn't magic. It happens to be next to other stores and they market together. Whether it's Norton Simon, or, you know, some kind of outlet mall, that it's not by chance. All of that is intentional marketing. (01:28):So if you think that writing a book will automatically get you book sales, I'm sorry to disappoint you, but it's not going to happen. If you think that producing a CD and selling them and you know, making your dreams come true. And just thinking that people will happen to do it. This is not going to happen. (01:52):Um, some of these things sounds so obvious. It sounds like I'm patronizing you. I'm not trying to patronize you. I have been consulting with high-end C-suite and entrepreneur clients for over 15 years. Or yeah, basically. So guess what? You have to tell people about it. You have to tell people. It's really not that difficult. (02:25):It takes work. It takes work to tell people that you have a thing. (02:29):It takes some humility and mixed with bravery to tell them that you built a thing. You know? You have to care. You have to care about your business more than your employees. You have to care about your business more than the marketer that you hire. You really do, because you're going to be part of it. But you also have to dedicate the time and the budget. So many of the customers that I've talked to, of the people that I've consulted with say, well, I don't really have marketing budget. Oh okay. But do you have money? Like, do you want your business to succeed? Or do you want to be just another cliche restaurant that closes because nobody knew it existed. I mean, this is the reality. This is absolutely the reality. (03:22):And I love that I have this five to seven minutes with y'all and I could just say stop being so bleeping stupid. Stop being naive. Stop being lazy. Really. Because you're not foolish. You're not stupid. And surely you're not naive. You're an industry expert. That's why you started your business. You know how to get clients. That's why you're still in business. But that half-life of referral by referral, by referral that just, uh, just, you know, magically happen. I mean, whether you bought your dad's company, inherited your mom's company, bought a business that was existing. You think you're going to keep those customers just because they were already there? (04:15):No. Loyalty has to be both created and maintained. And you maintain customer loyalty -- one of the reasons, one of the ways -- is by having good marketing. You have to

So many people are afraid of publishing on the internet because “screenshots are forever.” That’s a good mentality if you’re hesitant to start sexting with the guy you met on Tinder. However, that mentality holds you back in business. See, as small business owners, we can use this to our advantage. As we continue to publish online, we build a net part of the internet. It’s a connected network of pages and references to our names, our businesses, and our expertise. Don’t worry how many views your blog post gets. Worry about not publishing again.    (00:03):Welcome to the Launch With Words podcast, with your host, Bridget Willard. We're going to talk about all things. Content, blogging, articles, videos, whatever has words and goes on your website. (00:21):Hey, thanks for tuning in for the fifth episode in this first season. We're going to talk about the internet having a long memory. Now, if you are SnapChatting and sexting with the guy you met on Tinder, Bumble, Match, whatever -- or the gal -- then the internet, having a long memory should be a concern for you. (00:45):However, if you're building your business, don't let that mentality interfere with publishing your blog posts. It's so easy to think that it doesn't matter, but every connection you make matters when you're publishing. You're building the net part of "inter-net." It's an interworking network. Right? It's a network. It's a web. It's connections. It is a digital version of how we do business online. It's a digital version of how we do business in person. It's a representation of your expertise, of your length in business, of your personality, of your company, of your name, the personal branding of, of you. (01:43):So when you're hesitant to blog, because you don't think it's important, I would remind you of my favorite Chinese proverb: "The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is today." (02:03):Start today, start writing 300 to 500 word blog posts, and then don't stop the writing. Publish. Publish those blog posts. Tell people who you are. What makes you different? Why do people want to hire you? Right? Why are you the best roofing contractor? Why should they buy a Trane air conditioning unit from you? If it's a Trane, does it matter who installs it? Why should they buy a Honda Civic from your dealership and not the one 20 miles away? (02:48):Why should they hire you? Why should they hire you to build a website? What makes you special? What makes you unique? Do you know a lot about a certain industry? Are you an expert in mortgages? Do you work with only financial services? This is, this is what matters. (03:12):We want to know who you are as customers and with the Shop Local movement, becoming more of the commonality with millennial purchasers -- who are 40, by the way -- they want their money to go to a business that recognizes their own goals. If you're not supporting a nonprofit, you should, and then blog about why you do that. These kinds of goals matter. You know? (03:45):So when I encourage my clients and friends to write and publish, write and publish, write and publish, I do this because it takes a long time for results to show. People said to me,when I moved to Texas, "Wow, Bridget you've really become a success overnight." (04:08):Or when I changed my career from being, uh, an office manager /secretary/accountant, to working at a advertising agency in the franchise development world, "wow, that's an overnight success." (04:24):Well, it doesn't feel like an overnight success to me when I've been doing this work since 2009. It doesn't feel like an overnight success to me when I've been working since I was 14 years old. It doesn't feel like an overnight success to me when I've made intentional

There is one reason why writing for your business blog is hard. Because it puts us in the mindset of school and the pass-fail mentality. Once you realize that this isn’t a term paper, you’ll realize that writing for your business blog is easy. This isn’t school. It’s your business. You know it -- very well. So what should you write about? Listen for some tips and ideas.    (00:03):Welcome to the Launch With Words podcast, with your host, Bridget Willard, we're going to talk about all things. Content, blogging, articles, videos, whatever has words and goes on your website. (00:22):Hey, thanks for joining on this episode. A lot of business owners ask me, "Hey, Bridget, what should I write about for my business blog? What, what? I don't have anything to say," they might say. And I know a lot of my peers. I know you feel this way. You got it in your head that it's 8th with Mr. Bussio. Sorry, not sorry. Love the teacher, but it's not a seven paragraph essay, a five-paragraph essay, a term paper midterms in college. It's not a pass or fail mindset. So if you get yourself out of that mentality and say, hey, I started this business because I have expertise. I have authority. And I have experience talking to my clients and selling this product, this service, right? (01:26):So what should you write about? You should write about the things your customers ask. For example, I highly recommend keeping a journal on your, on your desk. When people ask you a question, uh, you write that question down. That should be a blog post. We're talking 300 to 500 words. This is not difficult to do. You can literally sit down, start to finish within two hours, have a blog post. Do that once a month for your business. And you will be so happy that you did that. And we'll talk about more about that part in the episode about the internet having a long memory. (02:18):So your customers questions, fantastic blog fodder. Fantastic. Write those down. Okay. If you don't want to write them down, go through your emails. If you have a SaaS or a service that has a support ticket system, go through some of those. Another thing to write about for your small business blog are the questions that come up frequently. So that might be different, but, but during the pre-sales process, what other questions? So pre-sales questions. (02:58):Another thing to write about are things you wish people understood about your industry or your service. Those are fantastic articles that give you humanity, that give your business some humanity. And we need humanity. Why? Because we do business with those that we know, like, and trust. (03:25):It takes seven to 1ten touches to make a sale that doesn't change with podcasts and social media and blogging and YouTube, and TikTok. That doesn't change. What changes is, how we reach our customers and how we interact with them. So pre-sales questions, things you wish people knew. (03:50):Another thing to write about are case studies use cases. How, how is someone going to use this product or service? How does that fit into their life? Right? We like to talk about the features of our thing and how amazing it is, but really we're solving a problem which is so annoying. I know, I feel you. I feel you deeply on this. (04:19):"Oh, you have to tell people that you solve a problem." Well, no shit. Of course I'm solving a problem. That's why I have customers. But you it's about the empathy. Right? You get into their shoes and you go, oh, okay. I see why Twitter Spaces would be good after a podcast to, for questions and answers, right. Or I see how we would use a tilt-up repair. If we have a fire. You know? It just depends, right. You know, the best use cases, but your customers, they are not as intimate with your product and services as you are. And they never w

Not everyone has to be a great writer. We’re not all Ernest Hemingway. That’s fine. There are plenty of tools and tricks that you -- the business owner -- can employ in order to get started. From voice typing in Google Docs (or Siri in Apple’s Notes) to paying for Jarvis.ai or Bertha.ai, you have options. You can even write the technical and hire an editor. What you are isn’t a writer -- you’re the industry expert. This is the point of business blogging.    (00:02):Welcome to the Launch With Words podcast with your host, Bridget Willard. We're going to talk about all things, content, blogging, articles, videos. Whatever has words and goes on your website. (00:21):Hey, thanks for joining me for another episode of the Launch With Words podcast. What if I'm not a good writer? What if I'm not a good writer? Well, most likely you're not a good writer. You're also probably not a good singer, which is why we have karaoke and showers and privacy of your own vehicle. (00:41):Business blogging isn't about being Ernest Hemingway. It's not about being a good writer. Business blogging is about elevating yourself as the industry expert, as a person who knows what you're talking about as somebody who is approachable and friendly. Um, business blogging. Isn't about being a good writer. (01:03):"But, Bridget," you say, "I had a hard time with high school." That's okay. High school was 30 years ago for me and I'm learning every day, but we have tools. We have so many tools. It's 2021, and there is no reason why you should not be blogging for your business. (01:25):Let's get started with some tools. Okay? First of all, if you don't like typing, we have Siri, Alexa, and Google. And all of them are very happy to take notes for you. Within Google Docs, voice typing is a command in tools. It's native. Open up your Chromebook, your laptop, your phone, click on voice typing. And, uh, you, you have to imagine yourself as the boss talking to a secretary. That's the only trick, right? So you'll have to say what if I'm not a new writer question mark, new paragraph. It's okay. If you're not a writer, semi-colon none of us are period. It's fine. If you have to say it that way, or you could just vomit it out and say, Hey, Siri, start a note. And she will say, what would you like your note to say. You can say, I just want to talk about why epoxy injection is so important for standing up for, um, tilt up construction and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. (02:33):Hand it to, uh, an editor, give it to a friend, have your partner look at it, um, secretary somebody in your office. There, there's options, right? (02:45):So you're aiming for 300 to 500 words. This is basically the same amount of words. That's your typical five paragraph essay, um, content marketing, um, blogging, which has always also called content marketing for business. Content marketing or blogging for business is about giving answers, being helpful, being clear, being witty, being funny, showing your personality. Okay? So what you're gonna do is, um, think about, and I talk about this in my book and in the plugin. (03:22):What are some questions that your customers always ask you? I challenge you as a business owner, keep a journal, a notebook, that sits on your desk or Evernote or whichever tool you like in order to keep, uh, in order to, um, keep in one spot ideas for blogs. Because the customer's always asking you, for example, how do I distribute a podcast on castos.com? Um, it's hosting, but how do I distribute that? So that is a question that comes from a customer, which means that is something you can answer in a blog post. All right, Then do you have an internal sales library, but that's another episode. All right. (04:08):So more tools, jarvis.ai, bertha.ai just released

One of the blocks small business owners have with blogging is with overwhelm. One of the misconceptions is that just because you start blogging, you need to have the same volume as the New York Times. It’s simply not true. Blogging is about establishing yourself as an authority in you field while showing some personality and helping your SEO efforts. In this episode, we’re going to focus on realistic goals.   "SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Bound) goals are established using a specific set of criteria that ensures your objectives are attainable within a certain time frame." Atlassian https://www.atlassian.com/blog/productivity/how-to-write-smart-goals   (00:03):Welcome to the Launch With Words podcast, with your host, Bridget Willard. We're going to talk about all things, content, blogging, articles, videos, whatever has words and goes on your website. (00:22):Hey, thanks for joining me today. In this episode, I get the question a lot, "How often should I publish content on my website? Or how often should I publish a blog post?" That question is kind of a loaded question. It comes with the answer we all hate, which is "it depends." So some companies publish four times a week, some publish once a month, some publish once every quarter. The answer to the question and why I created Launch With Words based upon my ebook, If no one, "If You Don't Mind Your Business, Who Will?" --Sorry -- is that you need to publish consistently. Okay? (01:12):So how often should you publish a blog post let's aim for once a month? Let's aim for once a month and see what you can put out there. It gives you something to share on your social media channels. It gives something for your customers to look at for validation, right? We talked about validation and discovery in season one, episode one. So, how often should you publish? Why not start writing for once a month? That should take you about two hours a month. All right. And then when you feel like there's something extra, you can always publish extra, right? (02:06):A good, healthy cadence for SEO -- for search -- is once a week. Um, so try setting yourself some actual achievable goals. A lot of marketers call them SMART goals, specific, measurable, whatever. Okay. So there's an acronym. But what I learned from the construction industry is there are sometimes suicide bids, right? Suicide bids are bids that are under-scoped under priced. There's no way they can finish that job. So you don't want to suicide goal, right? You want something that you can actually achieve. Can you, as a small business owner, put in your calendar two hours on the first Friday of every month to sit down at your computer and write? (03:01):Now you have options. And we're going to talk about that in episode three. What if I'm not a good writer? But the point is you have to set that time aside. Now, this is the perception that you, as a business owner or someone on your staff is going to do this. So then in order to achieve a goal, a reasonable goal, right, is to actually set that time aside in your calendar and treat it as if it's just as important as a client meeting. Those client meetings, you would never be late for. You would not give yourself excuses. And why shouldn't you -- as the business owner -- care about the blog on your website? Because a website without a blog is an empty, empty storefront. Okay? (03:57):So set aside those two hours. Now, as you have budget to dedicate to marketing, you could always outso

You have a website for your small business but what about the blog? That's what most people refer to as "content" in "content marketing." Don't worry, blogging isn't a four-letter word and you can definitely do it. But for this episode, we're going to focus on why content matters for small business websites.    (00:01):Welcome to the Launch With Words Podcast with your host, Bridget Willard. We're going to talk about all things, content -- blogging, articles, videos -- whatever has words and goes on your website. (00:19):Hey, thanks for spending some time with me. We're going to talk about why, why content matters for small businesses. So when we talk about content, we're talking about the words. That's why this is called Launch With Words, because we think of these words that marketers give us and they feel overwhelming and it feels like we don't know exactly what they're talking about. We're talking about articles. We're talking about your about page. We're talking about your biography, right? We're talking about articles. We're talking about page content. (00:57):Content matters to small businesses because they -- you -- are needing to reach out to your customer base. Of course. So for your website, your website is used for two things, validation and discovery. (01:17):So sure somebody might discover your website doing a search, uh roofing contractor near me, for example. Or, um, your friend down the street might say, "Hey, go check out my vendor. And this is what they do." And give you the website, right? (01:39):And then you look at that website as a customer. And you, you think is this the kind of person I want to work with? Do I like the personality they have? Am I impressed with their skillset? And then that's the validation. So you're, you're getting discovered from social media, from a referral, from a search on Google, Alexa, Siri. And then the person is going to look at your website and see. Hey, does this person know what they are talking about? Do they really know about standing-seam metal roofs? Do they really understand architecture in Texas? What is it that we can get from this website to see if I kind of like who you are and your, and your personality? (02:36):And as a bonus, it answers any questions the customer might have about procedures or things that are confusing, the premium content pack for Launch With Words. (02:49):For example, for roofing includes a blog post about, um, oh, would you call it? Uh, I just lost. I just lost my train of thought. Cause whatever that's what happens, right? Words, words, words, get focused. So here's the thing [laughs] you want to know. Am I going to get a change order for this plywood, sheathing? And why am I getting a change order for this? Well, because you don't know if you have to replace plywood sheathing, unless you remove the roof first. Right? (03:24):One of my most famous content pieces back when I worked at Riggins Construction was a video about a poxy injection and how it was welding the concrete together. That it wasn't solely cosmetic. All of those words give your audience, both robots and humans, something to learn. (03:51):So, thank you for listening to season one, episode one. Why does content matter for small businesses? I feel like the answer's right there, you need to communicate your website is that extra sales person. And when you treat it that way, you're going to be more successful. (04:15):Thanks for listening to Launch With Words, a podcast by BridgetWillard.com. If you liked this podcast, one, I go ahead and share it with your friends, small business owners, peers, your brother. Oh, I really appreciate your attention. If you have any ideas, contact me on my website. Follow me at @BridgetMWillard on Twitter. And I hope to see you on the next episode or the next season. Mo