Author Archives: cindymobey

Marketing your business with little to no budget

When you run your own small business, there is often little money left for a marketing budget, which can make marketing a bit of a challenge. But there are many ways that you can market your business to your target market without spending any money.

Having read a lot recently on social media about small businesses really feeling the pinch at the moment, I thought I’d have a look around to see what free marketing ideas there are out there.

I hope that these help you…

  • Create a free Google Business Profile. This is free to set up and you can add photos and updates with links to your blog posts or social media pages. It’s more of a local tool, so helps your business get found locally pinpointing you on Google Maps, as well as allowing a link to your website.  Your customers can also add reviews to your Google Business Profile.
  • Social media – Most of us have business accounts on Facebook and Instagram, and some of your will also have TikTok accounts, LinkedIn, Pinterest, X or one of the many other sites. Facebook still seems to be the most popular go-to place for people to search businesses. This is a great way to showcase your products and services, engage with your target market and find new communities to join and network with.
    Post regularly and consistently (it doesn’t have to be every day, so long as you are consistent). Share your human side, articles of interest, inspirational quotes, hobbies etc and as always my advice is the 80/20 rule. Share 80% entertaining, engaging, educational or inspirational posts and 20% selling.
  • Use hashtags – yes, these still work, so long as you don’t overdo it. The recommended number of hashtags used to be 30 per post, but these days it is advised to use around five. Use your own personal hashtag is you have one (or set one up) and use a variety of local and more general hashtags. Don’t go for hashtags that have millions of followers, or you won’t be seen – choose a variety between low and high figures. I personally wouldn’t recommend using those with over a million followers.
  • LinkedIn – this is one we often overlook and I’m just as guilty as the next person, but something I am going to try and do more of for the rest of this year. LinkedIn is a huge social media site – most use it to just add network connections, but you can share your blog posts and offers, talk about your business, have a conversation with the connections you make and join relevant forums and contribute to them – and you can share other businesses’ content.
  • Email marketing – this is a great way to get customers and potential customers engaged with your business. It’s a great place to build and maintain relationships. It’s not a new thing, but it is still one of THE MOST reliable ways to achieve new customers and maintain existing ones.
    There are free plans out there on hosting sites, but most want a small monthly subscription, but it is worth it if you use it correctly. When someone signs up to your email, give them an incentive, such as a money off voucher or a free checklist, e-Book etc. It’s a good idea to ensure that your email has an offer that encourages your readers to take the next step – that might be with a special offer you are running, a new product or service you’re promoting or perhaps a webinar or podcast you’re hosting. Your email is your direct link to your customers and potential customers, so ensure that the content is worth reading and that you show them the real value of your business and that you care about them. 
  • Ask your existing customers to refer you to their friends and family – you could also offer an incentive, such as ‘for every three customers that they refer who buy something from you, they will receive a 10% discount off their next order’.
  • Survey your customers – this is a great way to find out more about how your customers feel about the products or services they have bought from you. Ask them what they like best, what they like least etc. This gains you valuable information for future products or services. You can also ask for permission to publish their comments on your website or social media. 
  • Case studies – Use a real example of a problem you’ve solved for a customer, with a quote from them about how wonderful you and your service are. Turn this into a blog post, add it to your email marketing or post about it on your social media pages.
  • Have a website – this is a great place for you to give more details about you and your business. You can add an online shop, a blog, and a sign-up opt-in to your newsletter. Ensure your website is clear and easy to navigate, loads quickly (so keep image sizes small) and that it is engaging and gives plenty of useful information. Ensure that each page has a link to another page on your website to encourage visitors to stay a bit longer – this helps your ranking figures.
  • Write a blog – If you have a website, it’s a no brainer to have a blog. The reason? When you publish your latest blog post on social media, you point people to your blog post (and therefore your website0 where they may be tempted to have a browse. As with any other piece of content, a blog needs to be relevant to your audience and engaging. The good thing about a blog is that you can also repurpose the content to make other pieces of content for social media, email, podcast, webinar, YouTube video – the possibilities are endless!  
  • Free directories – as well as directories that you pay for, there are loads of free directories out there. Search for ones in your local area – this helps you get found more easily.
  • Attend networking events – if there is a regular networking event near you, they are well worth paying the small fee to join. You’ll meet other like-minded businesses and often pick up customers from those businesses over time once they get to know you. You can also join online networking events, which mostly don’t cost anything. If there isn’t a physical local networking event, why not think about starting one at a local café – coffee and networking always goes down well!  
  • Enter a business award competition – there’s nothing better than being able to say that you’ve won an award or a competition. Even if you don’t win but are shortlisted it’s still something to shout about. And either way, you can shout about it on your social media, website, in your newsletter etc.

I hope that this article has given you ideas on how you can promote your small business with little to no money. If you have any other ideas, put them in the comments – I’d love to hear from you!

If you need any help with any of the ideas above, you can always contact me for free 30-minute call.

How to write a blog post

A blog post is a great way to connect with your target audience, helping with engagement and it also helps to set you up as an expert in your field.

Your blog post is basically an article, or piece of news, maybe a guide or ‘how to…do something’. It covers a specific topic or can address a particular problem that your audience is encountering, that you solve. Generally, blog posts range from 600 – 2000 words and contain images, videos, or infographics.

Importantly, blog posts are great for driving traffic to your website. There are millions of blogs out there on every subject you can think of, so it’s important to make yours as engaging as possible.

Where do I start?

The first task is to have a brainstorming session to generate ideas for your posts. Coming up with ideas can be a daunting task, and it’s often the most difficult part of blog writing, but once you get your ideas, you’ll be away!

I use my blog to start a theme, which I then run through all my social media posts, repurposing part of my blogs to make other content. So, how do I find things to write about?

I know my target audience and my ideal client, so I look at the problems they might be facing with their small businesses. I belong to several groups on Facebook and follow lots of small businesses on my Instagram account, so I can see if there are questions being asked about my specific niche. Then I try to address those issues in a blog post.

I also use Pinterest to look for ideas; Quora is a Q&A platform, where you can search for questions being asked in your niche and Reddit is a good source of content ideas – you just put your subject in the search bar and ideas for content will come up. There are loads of tools out there to help you…and don’t forget to ask your customers or audience what they’d be interested in seeing.

Once you have your topic, the next decision to make is what kind of post are you going to do? You could do:

  • A ‘how to’ post
  • A ‘what is…’ post
  • An ultimate guide
  • Tips and hints
  • A list-based post
  • Informational
  • Educational
  • A post about something personal that’s happened in your life

It really depends on your niche. If you’re a travel blogger, for example, you’ll be writing about places you’ve been, how you get there, what your experiences were like and giving lots of advice about travelling in general.

This would be a different kind of blog than someone like me, who writes about marketing and helping small businesses. My posts tend to be educational, ‘how to’ (like this one!) or addressing things I know that my audience struggle with.

Create an outline of your post.

Now you have your idea and you have decided on what kind of post you’re going to do, create an outline. Do plenty of research on your subject and make notes, then you can put everything into some sort of order. A quite simple order for a post would be:

  • Your introduction – include the title of your post here and a few keywords.
  • The main point of your post, what you are hoping to achieve, or what you are hoping your audience will achieve and what they’re going to get out of your post.
  • Additional information – this can be bullet points, infographics, graphs, or videos/images to illustrate your points. This is where you get down to the nitty gritty.
  • Conclusion – reiterate the point of the blog post, and include a call to action, so your audience know what to do next. This could be ‘Follow my blog for more tips’; you could include a link to another page on your website; you could point your audience to your social media pages, so they can check them out. Or you can ask a question to encourage commenting on your blog post.    

Now, onto the writing

Make sure you understand your audience – what do they want to know about? What will resonate with them? Creating a buyer persona can help with this, so you know your audience’s likes and dislikes.  

Then, just start writing. It doesn’t have to be perfect, just get all your ideas down – write freely. Use your own voice and don’t try to be clever or write like a car manual! Just be yourself and your personality will come over to your audience.

Try and set aside 30 minutes a day to get yourself into the habit of writing and it will soon become second nature.   

Once you’ve finished your blog:

  • go back over it and tweak it, so that it reads in order. Don’t forget to edit the grammar and spelling and check for typos. Sometimes the spelling of a word is right, but predictive text has changed it to something completely different to the word you wanted, so it doesn’t make sense.  
  • Read it aloud, as sometimes what you read and what you hear when you read it are completely different!
  • If you’ve mentioned stats, ensure you include a link to the source of your information.
  • If you mention another business, include a link to their website
  • If the topic you’re writing about links to a previous blog article you’ve written, put a link to the previous article – this keeps your audience looking on your website
  • Then step away from your article – leave it for a day, or at least a couple of hours, then go back and re-read it with fresh eyes. This will help you pick up any errors and gives your brain time to process what you’ve written about, which might result in you wanting to add something.

Write your headline

I always write my headline last – I know the subject of the blog post and use that as a headline to start with. Then, once I’ve read the post through, I think of a catchy headline. For this post, I’ve literally used ‘How to write a blog post’, because I want you to know immediately what the post is about – it’s educational and informational, so I feel it just needs to say what it does on the tin!

Don’t be too clever or obscure with your headline writing, as you have very little time to capture your audience’s attention, so make it short and snappy and understandable.

I’ve written a previous blog about writing emotional headlines, which might help.    

Add images

Images help to break up the text, so incorporate a few images into your blog post.

SEO

Writing a blog post and publishing it on your website is great, but without SEO (search engine optimization), it won’t be found…unless you have a big following on your blog…and even then, you want to be finding new people to read it too.

Quite simply, SEO is about a strategic use of keywords, headline, sub headlines, URL and ensuring that your post is readable and easy to understand. You can use plugins, such as Yoast, which help enormously with your SEO, giving suggestions and correcting what you’ve done. SEO is a whole other subject, but it’s worth googling it to find out more.

Neil Patel is an absolute SEO guru – he has a great website, with easy-to-understand videos and blog content. He writes about all things marketing, so check out his website. I’ve learned so much from him!

Hit the publish button

Finally, once you’re happy with everything, hit that publish button and your blog post is ready to share with the world. Don’t just hit publish and run – you need to now do some work to get your blog in front of your target audience.

  • Share your post on all your social media sites, making sure you change the wording slightly for each platform.
  • Share in business groups when they have a ‘share your business’ day. There are several blogging groups too, which you can join and share your posts.
  • Tag influencers and use hashtags to get your content in front of your audience.
  • If you send out regular emails to subscribers, or send out a newsletter, include a link to your blog, with a sentence or two about it.
  • Look on one of the Q&A sites and if your blog answers someone’s question, answer their question and link them to your blog for further information
  • Use analytics to track the performance of your blog   

 After that, it’s just a case of creating consistent content – be that once a month or once a week – whatever you choose, try and be consistent with that timing. Your blog will start to attract an audience and will start to establish you as an expert in your field.

So, set aside time each week or month to brainstorm ideas and work on your blog. I always carry a notebook with me, (but I am a stationery geek!). I often think of ideas when I’m out, so I can make notes about ideas, no matter where I am.

If you have any questions, please feel free to put them in the comments. If you want to have a blog, but simply don’t have time to do it yourself, please drop me an email cindymobey@outlook.com

Happy writing and blogging!        

The pros and cons of blogging

There are several pros and cons to having a blog and blogging. I’ve had a blog for about 14 years and have been writing pretty consistently now for about 10 years – it was a bit hit and miss at first.

Why do I blog?

I’m a freelance writer, creating content for businesses, and also a small business marketing coach, so it makes sense to have a blog to give articles that will help educate my audience on how to market their businesses. The information I give is free and I know it has helped lots of people to get on track with their marketing.

I also enjoy writing, so it’s a challenge to find a new subject to write about every week, but I never seem to run out of ideas as my subject matter is vast. My blog also gives potential clients the chance to see that I can write, so they are seeing regular examples of what I can do.

Blogs can be monetised and you can earn from affiliate marketing on your blog, but this is something I don’t choose to do. I see my blog as an extension to my marketing business and the information I share with my clients and audience – I don’t want my blog to become somewhere I’m trying to sell things!

These are my reasons, but what are the more official pros and cons?

The pros of blogging

Blogs are a great source of information and in this digital age, if anyone wants to find out something, they search online first. Blogs can help give the information they need. But let’s get down to the nitty gritty:

  • First of all, starting a blog is easy. I use WordPress and they have several templates to help you when you start. Adding posts is simple and straight-forward and you don’t need to know any HTML or other code to do this.
  • Blogging is a great creative outlet. If you love writing, you can get started immediately and write about any subject you want to. If you love travel, for example, then you could write about all the places you’ve visited, with advice for people who are thinking of going there. If you love food or love cooking, you could start a food blog, giving recipes and adding video to show people how to make something. The possibilities are endless.
  • You don’t have to be an expert – if you’re interested in a certain topic, that’s enough. You can write about what you do know and research the rest. You’ll learn as you go and your writing will improve with every post. The trick is the same as everything else – just get started. Your first blog post won’t necessarily be fabulous, but you’ll grow as you write more and more.
  • A blog is the perfect reason for people to visit your website. Mostly, websites are pretty static and you don’t constantly add or change content. Adding a blog means that your site is constantly being updated, which ensures people come back for more. You can also link to other blog posts that you’ve written in the past from the one you’re doing now – backlinks.
  • Blogging can be good for your business as it can be a way for your business to be found on Google. Generally, people will connect more with other people than with a brand, so your blog helps potential clients out there relate to you. It helps them get to know you.
  • Writing a blog will also set you up as an expert in your field. If you consistently publish blogs that are useful or that people want more of, every time you publish a new blog, you’ll get more followers. People will share the blogs they like and then that opens you up to a whole new audience. The key here is to provide valuable and useful content that people need and want.
  • Blogging is really good for those of you who are more introvert. You can write in private and have your content reach thousands of people. If you don’t have the confidence to speak publicly or do presentations, blogging is the next best thing. And the good thing about a blog is that it is there permanently, so if people want to come back to it to refer to the information you give, they can…any time of the day or night.
  • Once you’ve been blogging for a while, you’ll realise that you are constantly picking up new skills. Blogging is a lot more than just writing. You learn how to use WordPress, for example, and how to build a website; you learn about Search Engine Optimization (SEO); Social Media marketing, as you have to promote your blog; Email marketing; improve your written skills and learn about images and graphics.    
  • You can also use blogging to get into freelance writing. Your blog is your portfolio, which demonstrates you know how to write, source images, do extensive research on a subject etc.
  • Finally you can make money with your blog. If you write about certain products, you can sell them through your blog posts. You can also do affiliate marketing, get an income from Ad revenue or sponsored posts. To make money on your blog, you will need to constantly put in the time and effort to keep it going, but it can be very lucrative.    

Of course, as well as a host of reasons why you should be blogging, there are some cons. It’s always good to know, so you can make up your mind as to whether it’s right for you.

The cons of blogging

  • You need to be very disciplined to stay on top of your blog, especially if you are going to be doing it for a living. I blog once a week as it suits me and is an aid to my business. I don’t use it as an income, but if you intend to, you will need to write much more frequently and consistently. It takes a lot of time, effort and perseverance to be noticed and is a very steep learning curve. If it was easy to do, everyone would be doing it. It does take months, years even, to really get noticed and to have enough content to prove your expertise.
  • Because of the reasons above, time etc., you’re not going to make money overnight. And if you do make money from your blog, it isn’t going to be a regular income – it will fluctuate month on month.
  • Blogging is also a lonely life – you spend hours at your computer and it can be quite and isolating existence. You won’t have the interaction with colleagues face to face like you do in an office, but it does also give you freedom to pop out if you have to. It’s swings and roundabouts!
  • You need to be good with change and be prepared for technical issues. Sometimes servers crash, there are glitches in your website, which you need to sort out. You could have internet problems, so can’t get online. And of course, the algorithms for the various social media channels that you’ll link to, plus algorithm changes on google can impact who sees your blog and who it is shown to. The General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) that changed back in 2018 had an impact on being able to just send your blog out on email – your audience had to sign up and give their permission to receive it by email. These things can change at any time.
  • You need to be organised and have a plan, so you know what you’ll be writing about and how for at least a few months in advance. And you need to invest money into your blog, so you have the right apps to promote it, use paid ads etc. Your website will also incur hosting costs, keeping up with the latest training costs money too. If it’s really successful, you might even want to employ a VA to help you getting your blog onto all the various social media sites.

So, now you have all the pros and cons, you can make an informed decision – to do or not to do a blog!

If you do, please share the link with me. If you need help writing or setting up your blog, feel free to contact me.

Contact me

Why use video for social media content?

Video is becoming increasingly popular on social media. It is a great tool for small businesses to help you highlight your brand, build loyalty with your customers, and attract new customers.

People are on their phones or devices all the time and they love watching videos – you’ve only got to look at how some of the TikTok dances have become a thing to see why. And who remembers the iced bucket challenge that was around a few years ago – it went viral with people from all over the world joining in and posting their own videos.

So why is video so important for small businesses?

Well, primarily, it’s good for your brand as video makes it more visible to a huge number of people. If you make a video using your products/services, it’s a good idea to use a logo watermark, as this will help establish that it’s your brand.

It also draws your audience’s attention. A video can grab attention quickly, compared to wordy text. The only problem is keeping it short, sweet and to the point, as people don’t have a long attention span! But practice makes perfect.

Video tips

So, when you make your video, here are some tips to keep in mind…

  • Ensure that the content is relevant to your target audience and is engaging enough to grab their interest.
  • Include headings and short descriptions, using SEO keywords and phrases so they will be found in a search.
  • Include relevant hashtags and a call to action.
  • Ensure that your video can be shared.
  • Think about using a video on your website or on your landing page for email sign up, so that your potential audience can learn more about you and your products/services in a more engaging way.
  • Try and inject some humour into your video where you can.
  • Show behind the scenes video – this helps your potential customers to see you have a transparent brand – people are generally nosy, so they like to see where and how you work.
  • Having yourself speaking in a video shows you are human, and people can engage with you, the business owner.
  • Videos can be made at any time and anywhere, so if you think of something you want to tell your followers and you’re at a coffee shop, go ahead and do it!
  • Video is low cost and more likely to remain online, available, and searchable for longer than ordinary text posts.

The most efficient types of video content for businesses are demonstrations, live performances, testimonials, ads of events and brand awareness, so it’s a good idea to keep that in mind.

You don’t have to be in the video and speaking if you don’t want to – you can show products or services with a musical background without actually having to appear in person.

Keep an eye on your engagement.

Just like any form of content that you put out, it’s vital to keep an eye on the engagement your video brings. You can see what’s working and what’s not! Then if you decide you want to use video for a paid ad, you’ll know what will work before you shell out any money.

You can see your engagement stats through the insights on all your social media channels, so it’s worth checking this out regularly for all your posts – not just for video.  

Conclusion

Video is a great addition to your social media marketing strategy. It helps your brand recognition and can help you reach audiences you may not reach with text/image only posts.

Just ensure that your video content is relatable and relevant to your target audience and just give it a go and see what happens! I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised!

Voice Search Optimization Strategy

Voice search optimization is becoming more popular and is going to really take off, big time, in 2025. It is the process of optimizing your website pages so that they appear at the top of search engine results when people use a verbal search to find what they want.

What exactly is voice search optimization?

In simple terms, if you want to find something on the internet, you can use voice search instead of typing in your request.

So, if people are doing this, you need to make sure that your website is optimized for voice search so there is the chance your web pages will be read out aloud by a voice search device. Even putting it simply sounds complicated! But it’s really not…

How does it work?

Loads of you will have experience of Alexa or Siri or you may even have used a voice search device to talk to Google.

So, you say ‘Alexa – how do I xxxxxxx’

This is voice search.

Then Alexa replies to you by reading an answer found on a search engine.

Siri is slightly different – for a lot of queries, Siri won’t read the answer to you but will tell you where you can find the answer on the internet – an answer that best fits the query you asked.

Again, when you ask Google a question, it’s different again. If you ask Google something on a device like Google Home, it will often tell you ‘I’ve sent a link in your Google assistant’ – then you have to go to your Google assistant to get the link and find your answer. 

Voice search optimization strategy

With more and more people using this form of search, a strategy for this is going to be vital for your business over the coming years.

According to WebFX, more than 55% of people use voice search to find businesses near them – this could be restaurants, cinemas, places of entertainment etc. But more are using it for local businesses for things they want to buy locally too.

More than a billion voice searches happen every month, and it is estimated that voice search will account for 50% of all searches in 2025, so if you have a small business you could be missing out on potential customers if you are not optimizing for voice search.

How do you optimize for voice search?

Voice search optimization is obviously linked to search engine optimization and the kinds of keywords and phrases that you put on your website, which will help people searching physically or verbally for what you offer.

There are a few ways you can optimize your content on your website. Let’s have a look…

Optimize for verbal queries!

When someone types out a query, it’s not going to be the same as when they ask a question verbally.

Example – Someone fancies making garlic bread.

They might type – ‘how to make garlic bread’ on their laptop.

On voice search, they may say ‘How do I make garlic bread?’

It’s only a subtle difference, but when someone asks a question, they’ll ask as if they’re talking to a real person – it’ll be more conversational.

Typed – ‘Recipes for chocolate cake.’

Voice search – ‘Show me some recipes for different kinds of chocolate cake.’

With voice search you are giving a command to your voice search device, (Alexa, for example).

So, for your website to be optimized for voice search, you need to optimize for conversational queries, just as you would find keywords for search engine optimization.

Let’s stick with chocolate cake – because we can (!) – let’s brainstorm questions people may have…

  • How do I make chocolate cake?
  • How do I make chocolate fudge cake?
  • What’s the best recipe for a chocolate fudge cake?
  • What do I need to make a chocolate fudge cake?

There will be all sorts of questions people could ask which are related to your products or services, so you need to have a good brainstorm to decide what questions people might ask.  If you need help with this you can use Google – type in one of the questions you have, and other questions will automatically appear under ‘people also ask…..’ in the search. This will give you ideas.

Then you need to ensure that these questions are incorporated into your website copy.

WHAT A FAFF!

I KNOW!

But important to stay ahead of the game!

Google Business Profile listing

I’ve talked about this before, and this is something that is a no brainer to pick up local business. If you haven’t set up your Google Business Profile listing yet, it’s worth doing it now. It’s free and will help you get found in your local area.

It’s a great tool as you can show your opening hours, link to your website, add your contact details, add photos and updates, as well as collecting reviews.

You’ll also want to add search engine optimization keywords and voice search optimization words and phrases too.

For example, if you make and sell candles, you might want to add ‘homemade candles in London (or wherever you live). Or ‘beeswax candles in London’ – you get the idea.

You can also use local slang and dialect for your area. For example, if you sell bread rolls – in your area they might be called cobs, or baps etc.

Give direct answers – don’t beat around the bush!

The bestway to address voice search optimization on your website is to have a frequently asked Questions and Answers section – FAQ.

By ‘answer a question directly’, I mean don’t fluff it out – state facts. For example…

Question could be ‘What do I need to make garlic bread?’

You can answer in two ways – directly and indirectly – look at the two example answers below.

Answer A – To make Garlic bread, you need a baguette, butter and 4 minced garlic cloves. Cut the baguette into slices without slicing all the way through.

Mix the butter and minced garlic together and spread in between the slices.

Wrap the baguette in foil and put in a hot oven for 10 minutes until bread crisp and butter melted.

Answer B – To make Garlic bread, you need just three ingredients. The first ingredient is a baguette or French stick. Then you need butter – you can use salted or unsalted butter, but I prefer salted, and 4 cloves of fresh garlic.

Take a sharp knife and cut the baguette into fairly thick slices, being careful not to slice all the way through the bread. Mince the four garlic cloves and add to the butter. Mash it up until thoroughly mixed.

Then, take the cut bread and carefully spread the garlic butter on both sides of each attached slice. BLAH BLAH BLAH..

Answer A is the way to go – short, concise and to the point. Don’t waffle and use unnecessary steps or phrases.

Use SEO (search engine optimization) best practices too.    

As I said earlier, you need to use both SEO and Voice search optimization for this to work efficiently. You need to have good SEO, so that your website appears near the top of search results – then voice search devices will search those top search results to find the answer to their questions – so you then need voice search optimization.

I’m not going to go into SEO in this article as I’ve covered it in others – see the links below…

You also need to make sure your website is optimized for mobile and tablet devices, as well as desktop or laptop, as people often use voice search on their mobile devices.  

Building your SEO Strategy part 1

Building your SEO Strategy part 2 – content

Conclusion

These are the basics for voice search optimization and I hope that it has helped you to understand what it is, how it is used and how you can ensure that your website is optimized so that you’re ready if anyone asks for something that you create or a service you provide.

If you optimize your website for voice search, then you’ll be on your way to driving more traffic to your website and ultimately driving leads and sales. Good luck!

Content Marketing Strategy – your way to success!

Do you have a content marketing strategy? A lot of small businesses don’t – and if you are one of those businesses, you are missing out on planning your way to success! Staying ahead of the game is what keeps our audiences engaged and also helps our businesses remain relevant. BUT, it doesn’t mean to you have to keep up with every trend that comes along.  

A content marketing strategy includes all the things you do to attract, engage, and keep your audiences’ attention, by creating and sharing content, such as blog posts, videos, newsletters, podcasts, and social media content. In fact, anything and everything that keeps your business in your audiences’ minds when they decide they want to buy what you offer.

The strategy is about the planning of that content so that it achieves your goals and is aimed at your specific target audience.

Why is the strategy important to your business?

I’ve seen lots of people on social media saying that they want to grow their business and it’s just not happening.

Is this you?

You’re consistently posting on social media, you might have a newsletter, you show your products or services, publish your blogs, pay for ads – and are consistent – but still you’re not getting as much business as you hoped. The reason is likely to be that you don’t have a workable content strategy, or that your goals aren’t realistic.

Content marketing is a long game – it’s not something that you can implement and get results within a few months. That’s why so many big companies have a whole marketing department. They know that they need to have people working on it constantly and over a long period of time to get any return on what they do.

With the right strategy in place, you can:

  • Generate leads
  • Raise your brand awareness
  • Engage your followers and target audience
  • Retain your current customers
  • Position yourself and your business as an expert in your field

You can’t just wing it!

Unfortunately, content strategy isn’t something you can wing! You need to conduct research, know your target audience, know what keywords to use and have a clear idea of your buyer personas.

Most small businesses will know their target audiences, but quite often still post and focus on what they believe to be important or interesting, rather than what their audience and perspective customers need and want. Having a strategy addresses this matter.

It’s not a secret that creating content is time-consuming, but writing short blog posts, or putting up a social media post just because you haven’t done one today – or trying to put out three posts every day, means you’ll probably do something quickly, just to get it out – and this could end up with you losing out in the long run.      

High quality content helps you to rank better in Google, helps you to build trust with your customers and followers, brings you leads and importantly, helps you to convert those leads into customers.

I’m not saying that there isn’t a place for short-term content strategies, as these can produce some instant results, but a long-term strategy will allow you to build a rapport with your audience, provide real value to them and keep your business in the front of their minds long term. Long-term strategies also tend to build bigger audiences and don’t concentrate on the hard sell, which puts a lot of people off.

How do you build a content strategy?

Your content strategy is the foundation of your customers’ journey with you. It helps you have better customer satisfaction and helps you with sales. Think about:

Your audience

Who will be reading your content? Who is your target audience? Do you have more than one?

Create a buyer persona for each of your target audiences – this will help you tailor content specifically for them.

What problems do your products or services solve?

What are the benefits and features of your products/services? What are your customers’ pain points and how do you solve them?

What makes your business unique?

What do you do that is different from your competitors? What makes your products/services better than theirs? It might be that you have years of experience; you might have a distinctive way of speaking to your customers (your tone of voice).

What are your business goals?

This is very important as you need to know what goals you want to achieve, so you can tailor your content to help you achieve those goals.

What kind of content format will you use?

Bear in mind that you need your content to reach your customers, so where do they hang out? This might be social media, a blog, a podcast, a YouTube channel, video content or an email newsletter to name a few. You also need to know what kind of content your audience likes. You can only find this out by trying different things over a period of time and analysing which type gets the most engagement.

Once you know what format you need to use to suit your audience and to reach them where they are, think about your budget and what you can afford to be able to use all these channels effectively – by this, I don’t mean you have to pay for ads – but things like a website or email marketing can come at a cost.

Where will you publish your content?

Linked to the previous point, where you publish your content will depend on where your audience are. This might be your website, or social media. If social media is a big part of your strategy, which sites will be best for you? Which sites do your audience use?

If you target a younger audience, you might want to opt for TikTok and Instagram.

How will you manage your content?

Once you know what channels you’re going to use, you need to think about how you will create and publish all your content. Will you be doing it all yourself?

Have a plan, and plan at least two weeks ahead, so you know what posts are happening and when. For social media, you can batch-create content and schedule it in advance. Blog posts and email can also be planned and written ready for publishing.

If you plan your content around a particular theme each week or month, it makes content creation much easier. If you write a blog, or have a podcast, you can also repurpose that content to make social media posts/videos.

Make sure that your content tells your customer how you can help them solve their problems, use your unique voice, and try and weave in your overall business message.

I try and use the 80/20 rule for my content. 80% entertaining, engaging, educating, or inspiring my audience and only 20% sales posts.

Your strategy also needs to:

  • Ensure your content points your audience to your website or online shop…or somewhere they can get more information
  • Be cost-effective
  • Include an audit of the content you’ve already published. Look at your insights on social media to find out what kind of posts work best you’re your business. And, if you blog/podcast, look at your stats to see which articles/episodes are the most popular. What works and what doesn’t?
  • Does your current content align with your goals, and will it help you achieve it? If not, you may need to look at changing what you do and how you do it.

There are loads of different types of posts you can create to keep your audience interested, and to help you achieve your goals.

Content Marketing is all about reaching your target audience with the kind of content they want to see, in a place where they hang out.

Planning and having a strategy are key and will really help you achieve your goals, reach your audience, build trust and rapport with your followers…and ultimately make those sales.

If you’d like help with your content marketing strategy, I’d love to help and get you moving towards building your audience and growing your business. Contact me via email (cindymobey@outlook.com) to book your free 30-minute consultation – I look forward to chatting to you about your business.

Common small business marketing problems (and how to fix them).

As we blast into 2025, marketing for small businesses becomes ever more challenging. Marketing constantly evolves and technology, algorithms, as well as consumer behaviour changes every year, which brings their own problems to solve.

So, as a small business it’s sometimes hard to keep on top of everything and anticipate what might be the marketing challenges for this year. Sadly, I’m seeing so many businesses going under – most are due to personal reasons, but I’m sure there are some that just don’t know how to get back out there.

Hopefully, this article will shed some light on some of the problems we small businesses face and give you some guidance on how you can stay ahead of the game and use marketing to keep your business afloat this year.   

No marketing strategy

I’m not saying that you do, but it’s often due to small businesses not having a marketing strategy in place. Many small businesses don’t realise that you need to have long-term plans as well as the shorter more tactical goals and plans.

A marketing strategy covers both by outlining your long-term goals and then HOW you’re going to achieve those goals through marketing efforts in the short term, by defining your target audiences, your messaging, content, channels, and metrics.

The problem – without a specific strategy, it’s difficult to determine which channels are best to reach your target audience – to know who they are and where they hang out. And if you don’t measure the success of the things you do put out, such as on social media, you don’t know if what you’re doing is effective. Also, without clear goals, it’s a challenge to know where your business is and if you’re making any progress.

How to fix it – having a good marketing strategy looks at everything, from identifying your target market and having buyer personas, understanding customers’ pain points and motivations, to finding out what channels you can use to best reach them. Setting achievable goals will help you get to where you want your business to be – then you can work on the tactics you need to implement to achieve those goals.

Creating focused content

I know we say this all the time, but good content is what will get you in front of your target audience and grab their attention. But creating good content needs you to have a really good understanding of your audience and how you can address their needs, wants and pain points to engage them and promote conversions to sales.

The problem – if your content doesn’t speak to your audience, then you’ll have low engagement, which will lead to any marketing efforts failing. If your content doesn’t grab attention, people will scroll on by.

How to fix it – Know your audience – create buyer personas so you understand who and what your content needs to reach and do. Make sure that your content solves problems your audience might have and provide them with solutions or actions that will help them, depending on whether you are product-based or service-based.

Your content needs to be purposeful – moving your potential customers on a journey from finding you, to the consideration stage and then finally to buy. This isn’t a short journey! So, create content that:

  • Educates
  • Entertains
  • Engages
  • Inspires

Include good call to actions and continually be thinking about guiding them to the next step. Ensure your content includes relevant keywords that they’ll understand, good descriptions and give easy to find links to your shop, blog, or website so they can find out more.

Always use a wide range of posts – don’t always just do selling posts.   

Connect with your audience.

Linked to the last point, you need to resonate and connect with your audience. If you don’t, you could lose them.

The problem – If you don’t connect with your audience, your marketing efforts will be in vain. If you don’t put out the right messaging, or give the right impression, your reputation could suffer, and you’ll have reduced brand loyalty.

How to fix it – Ensure that you do thorough marketing research and ask your audience for regular feedback (ask for it), so you can better understand what they want, need or like. This helps you understand how your products or services can solve their problems.

Use storytelling and emotive content that grabs attention and builds that all important trust. Listen to feedback and learn from it – even negative feedback can be turned around.

You can also use email newsletters and blogs to connect with your audience, giving them more in-depth information and content, which helps nurture that all important relationship.

By taking all of this into account, you can build lasting relationships, where you understand your audience and they trust you and become loyal customers.  

Social media

The reason that many social media accounts just don’t work is because of inconsistent posting, lack of engagement and failure to give an audience what they want – and the algorithms don’t always help.  

The problem – You’re not growing on social media, or your growth is very slow. This, in turn, limits who your posts reach, and engagement becomes almost non-existent, so you don’t get those sales. Without these things, you miss out on building a strong community and driving traffic to your website, shop, or blog.

How to fix it – You need to have a good social media strategy, which includes regular posting, interactive content, perhaps collaborations with other businesses or influencers. You need to engage with your followers through comments and messages to build relationships. And you need to use insights or analytics to track how you’re doing and adjust accordingly to ensure you’re on track.

  • Have a content calendar, even if it’s just written on a pad or in a word or excel document. Plan your posts ahead, so you know what you’re doing and when – schedule posts to help remain consistent.
  • Engage with your audience through replying to comments and messages. Try to answer comments with a question where you can encourage a conversation or engagement. This gives you a deeper understanding and connection with your audience.
  • Create visually appealing and valuable content that answers questions for your audience, gives them details of what they want or need, and caters to their interests.
  • Collaborate with other businesses, supporting and sharing each other’s posts. If you can get an influencer on board who aligns with what you do, they’ll help you reach a larger audience.
  • Review your social media insights to understand what works and what doesn’t. And act on it accordingly!

People scroll through social media to be entertained or to find a particular business or product. But mainly it’s scrolling until something catches their eye. By including a mix of posts, incorporating humour, storytelling, tutorials etc. you’ll capture attention.

Algorithms  

GROAN! This is probably THE most challenging thing that small businesses face. The algorithms constantly evolve, which can have a huge impact on your engagement and visibility.

The problem – The constantly changing algorithms can prevent people from seeing your posts, your reach can go up and down, engagement can plumet one minute and suddenly surge another. This can have a detrimental effect on your business and your social media efforts can feel ignored.

How to fix it – Try and stay informed on algorithm changes and adapt where you can. Make it your priority to have high-quality, engaging content that encourages interaction. If necessary, book a coaching session with a social media expert so you are up to speed with best practices.

Understand that algorithms are based on the user experience and relevant content, so creating the right kind of content is vital.

You can’t control the algorithms, but you can control the content you put out to ensure that it is valuable, relevant, and engaging for your particular target audience. If you analyse your insights regularly, create valuable content you know your audience likes, you can adapt to the changes and your social media presence will be better.

You’re losing interest in your marketing.

This happens! You just sometimes feel like you can’t be bothered with it all.

The problem – lack of focus in your marketing efforts can leave to a reduced impact and effectiveness of your content, diluted messages, and chaos. Your engagement will fall, and you’ll get less customers and followers will fall away.

How to fix it – Ensure you have clear business goals and marketing objectives that align and support them.

Regularly review and amend your goals to make them more achievable. If a goal seems too big a mountain to climb, break it down into more manageable chunks.  

A marketing strategy will help you remain focused on what matters to your business and gives you direction as to what you need to do to keep your business at the forefront of your target audience’s minds. It also helps you focus on the channels where your target audience hangs out, so you’re not trying to be on loads of different platforms and spreading yourself too thin.

Standing out in the crowd

2025 is going to see more new businesses and products emerging and standing out in the crowd is a big challenge for small businesses.

Ensure you have a unique brand position (USP) that states clearly what makes your product or service different or better than the rest. How are you different from your competitors?

Make sure that you focus on giving an excellent customer experience at every single touch point that your customers have with your business. From website and social media to blog posts and email or messages, ensure that the service you give is second to none, be transparent and consistent and you’ll find customers will be loyal to you and your brand and will recommend you to their friends and family.

Finally, produce high quality, original, engaging content that perfectly highlights you and your business and your expertise.

Conclusion

I’m sure that there are many more marketing problems out there, and marketing is never an easy ride. 2025 is going to continue to bring challenges to small businesses all over the world, but by being proactive and having a robust strategy, you’ll be able to navigate anything that’s thrown at you.

Marketing isn’t just about short-term gains, it’s the marathon, building long-term relationships with customers and having a sustainable plan for your business’s success. Having a strategy in place and with your dedication to your business and creativity when it comes to your content, you can achieve your goals, and your business will be a success. If you’d like help with any of the things I’ve mentioned in this article, feel free to get in touch. I offer a free 30-minute consultation.

How to conduct your small business annual review

If you haven’t already thought about what you want your business to achieve in 2026, now is the time to review the past year, so you can plan for next year.

It’s a bit like having your annual performance review when you work for an employer, only you conduct it on your small business. When you run your own business, you need to keep track of so many things, it’s normal for things to sometimes slide. With 2026 clearly in view, it’s important to be thinking about what your goals will be for next year and how you’re going to achieve that. But you can’t do that until you know how you’ve done this year.

Your business performance review should cover everything your business has been through over the past 12 months and include your successes as well as those not so successful moments.

Look at your 2025 goals

Did you write down your goals last year? If you did, did you achieve what you set out to do?

This is the time to look at both your short term goals for last year – and the more long-term goals to see where you are. You could ask questions such as:

  • What went well in 2025?
  • What challenges did you face?
  • What didn’t go so well?
  • What did you learn from the things that didn’t go so well?
  • Did you learn any new skills or take any courses?
  • How can you repeat the successes you had for next year?
  • How can you avoid any mistakes you made this year?

If you employ anyone, such as VA, it’s time to have a conversation with them and ask them the same questions. You can brainstorm ideas, give, and receive constructive criticism for improvements and come up with a few good goals for 2026.

Look at your business practices

All of us small business owners offer either a service or products to our customers. This is the time to look at how your business practices are working…and if you are aiming all your sales/content etc. to the right audience.

  • Look at your customers. Do you know what your customers’ pain points are? Do you know what your customers’ needs are?
    Once you know this, you can identify how your business is going to provide solutions.
  • Are you giving your customers a good service? If you set your standards high at the beginning of the year, are you still delivering the same standard of service at the end of the year?
  • Are your products or services good value for money?
  • Look at feedback and reviews from your customers so you can identify what products or services were most popular and why.
    If you can identify why a particular product or service is so popular, you can look at how you can replicate that in 2026.

Look at the financials

We all hate looking at our figures, but it’s important to make financial evaluations to determine where you are…if you’re making a profit etc.

Cash flow is the obvious one. You take money in; you pay money out. Sales and expenses are important to understand how you’ve done this year. Compare your sales and expenses to the previous year and see where there are improvements, or losses. Doing this, you’ll be able to have an idea of what you might be able to do next year.

What do you pay out? All businesses must pay out to buy materials, stock, stationery etc. Are you getting the best deals for those items? Have they increased in price this year? Do you need to take that into account for next year? You might need to raise or lower your prices to compensate.

Look at your business insurance. This is often overlooked. Does it cover you for everything you need to be covered for or do you need to have a conversation with your financial adviser?

Are all your relevant licenses and safety certificates up to date?

Expansion – As your business grows, you may have to think about expansion. Do you need to take on an assistant? Do you need bigger premises? Do you need to have a larger stock to cover your increasing client base?

If you are expanding quickly, now is the time to be thinking about employing an accountant ready for those all important, but pain in the wotsit tax returns.

Look at all your social media data

This might seem obvious, but if you’re on social media, it’s really important to look at all your insights for the year. Here are the areas that are worth looking at:

Engagement – yes, you might be getting loads of ‘likes’ on your content, but does it actually get followers to click on your website, or your profile. And do you get sales from those clicks?

You can use this information to help you look at your marketing strategy for next year.

Location – you can see where your followers are from in your insights. We often assume our most engaged followers are local and buy from us. You might be surprised…and if you find you have a following from another country or area, you can customise your content accordingly.

Feedback/Reviews – You will be able to see if any customers have left reviews or feedback on social media, but what about all the other people you’ve sold to this year. If you haven’t had complaints from them, you can assume that they must have been happy with your product or services. You could send out a survey to ask questions about your products or services. If a customer has bought a specific item, ask them what they liked about it. If you put a clause in the survey to say that you can use comments on your website or for promotion – any complimentary reviews you get, you can use. (I still always check if it’s OK to use anyway, but worth including the wording.)

You could offer an incentive to reply, such a 10% off voucher to use in January. This is a brilliant way to get more replies as people just love getting something for nothing – a freebie or money-off voucher.

Take note of any feedback you get and act upon it. If there is a criticism, ask more questions so you can understand what a problem might be – you may be able to solve it simply and quickly with a tweak to your products or services.

Visibility – Where did your customers find you? Did they discover your business on social media? Did they come across you on a Google Search? Was it a personal referral or something else?

This is useful data as you know which areas to work on and you can see which area works best. Every business is different, so what works well for one, won’t work well for another.

Market analysis   

When you first started in business, did you do a business plan or marketing plan? If you did, you will have conducted research into your ideal market. However, this can change so quickly, so it’s always worth including this in your review.

  • This is where you’ll look at your customers’ needs and how you can best serve them. Have your customers’ needs changed since the last time you looked?
  • Look at your existing customers – what do they like/dislike. Is there something they need that you can supply – or do they have a problem that you can solve?

Check out your competitors

This is always worth doing to see what they are up to and how you can compete.

  • Can you offer something unique, that they don’t offer?
  • Is your customer service up to scratch?
  • Look at why your customers choose you over your competitors and make sure you include something around this advantage in your marketing plan for next year.

Celebrate your successes

The point of doing a review is to find out how your business has done against the plans and goals you set. But it’s also important to celebrate all your hard work. Shout about any wins you’ve had and let your customers know how successful your business has been.

You could share the highlights of your year in a social media post for example. Then also give your audience a little teaser about what’s to come in the New Year.

Your 2026 strategy

Once you have completed your 2025 review and have all the data, you’ll be in a better position to know what works well for your business and what doesn’t.

With this in mind, you can now go on to plan your business and marketing strategy for 2026.

If you have some big or challenging goals you want to aim for, why not think about breaking them down into more manageable chunks?

Good luck with your marketing planning and strategy. If you would like coaching on setting up your strategy for next year, feel free to contact me.

How to be accountable to yourself for your business

When you are employed and work for a company, you are usually accountable to someone. You can ask that person for help; you might have a mentor and your manager will usually help you climb the career ladder.

However, when you work for yourself and own your business, the buck stops at you. You are suddenly responsible for everything – not just the day to day running of your business, but the marketing, sales, customer service, your own training, training employees if you have them, and keeping yourself organised and efficient. You are only accountable to yourself…and that can be hard.

It’s not that you aren’t responsible to anyone, it’s that your goals become more subjective. Your diary fills up with things you ‘have to do,’ rather than things you should be doing…or even things you enjoy doing.

But there are ways to create self-accountability so that everything you do doesn’t depend on your willpower alone!

Get yourself an accountability partner

Team up with another small business so you can encourage each other. Share you goals and deadlines, so you can help each other achieve them.

Having someone you can talk to, perhaps just once a week – or even once a month – can really help you to stay on track. You can ask each other for advice, share your new ideas, run social media posts past each other, talk through any problems or issues you might be having with your business, and generally gee each other up to keep going.

This will help you in many ways, but mainly because you won’t want to let your accountability partner down, so you’ll find you get more done and with more enthusiasm. Give it a go!

Share your goals publicly!

By this, I don’t mean plaster your goals all over your social media and website! You just need to be reminded of the commitments you’ve made to your business. Tell your friends and family about the goals you’ve set yourself and your business. Not all of them will ask you about them, and some will forget you even told them, but you will find that a few will ask how you’re getting on – and it will spur you on.

Speak about what you want to do in networking groups or business groups that you belong to and share that you need a bit of accountability. You’ll always find a few people who will be willing to encourage you.

Community support can be amazing. For example, if one of your goals is to learn a new skill, find a training package that includes a support group – or create one yourself. Finding people who you can work with – who have the same interest and goal as you will really increase your chance of success.

Have a plan

I know I’ve said this load of times, but I just love a list! So, for me, planning is key to me achieving things. I always have a ‘to do’ list going, which will help me achieve the things I want to get done. I have lists for the month, for the week and a daily one too, which when I think about it, might be a bit excessive!

It’s about doing things that work for you. The best thing about having a plan of action, and a list, is that it feels so good when you can tick something off that list and see it shrinking.

If your goals are big, work out a way to cut them down in more manageable chunks, so you achieve that goal step by step.

When you can see that things are getting done, this gives you more confidence and will inspire you to keep moving forward.

Keep an eye on your finances

This might seem obvious, but it’s something that can be easy to overlook. The dreaded admin – we all hate it, but it’s important to keep tabs on outgoings and income. Keep your books up to date, and if you use an accountant, give them updates regularly.

In order for your business to survive, you need to know what’s going on with the money. I’m not going to say any more as it’s something we all know about – but worth adding in!

Use a calendar

I’m sure that most of us will use a calendar to put meetings in, schedule work we need to do and deadlines we need to make. But do you use a calendar for yourself?

I’ve started to do this over the past few months, and it makes such a difference. I block out time to batch-make social media posts, write my blog and monthly email newsletter. I’ve started scheduling some of my social media posts so that I save time. I must admit I do like to post in real time too, so I don’t schedule everything. I like to engage with people as they comment, but I now block out time to do this – and guess what? My engagement figures are increasing and I’m getting to know more small businesses.

If you have a goal such as learning a new skill or completing a course – schedule time in your diary for that, so that you don’t forget about it or let it slide. It also helps you to avoid that Mr. Procrastination!

Avoid procrastination  

That does bring me nicely to Mr. Procrastination. One of the things that will help you is to recognise why you procrastinate. Some of the signs are that you will find any excuse not to get on with the job in hand. You might find yourself just doing the easy, quick-to-achieve work, instead of concentrating on the larger, more complicated tasks.

You might find yourself ‘popping onto social media’ for a bit, and then realise that two hours have passed!

Sometimes it’s just that you’ve lost sight of why your goals were important to you in the first place. So, being organised and having a plan can help you with that – and all the other things I’ve mentioned above to be accountable to yourself.

Actively look for new opportunities

If you sit and wait for opportunities to come your way, they won’t. You need to go actively looking for them. If you want your small business to succeed, what can you do? Here are few ideas…

  • Ask for referrals from current customers/family/friends.
  • Network – and I can’t stress this enough – network in groups on social media and genuinely comment on posts. Read the post before you comment so you are aware of what they’re doing that day. Don’t just leave a ‘have a great day’. Ask a question or engage in conversation.
  • Offer incentives and discounts for existing customers – it doesn’t have to be a lot, but every little helps.
  • Re-contact old customers and tell them about new products you have – this could be done via your email newsletter. You could offer an incentive for a returning customer.
  • Ensure your website it optimised for mobile as most view on mobiles these days. Check that all your links work and that your website loads quickly. And make sure that all information is up to date.
  • Use online reviews to your advantage – use them to create a story (with permission of course) – use them to provide proof that your product/service works.
  • Participate in events, both online and local. You may find there’s a local coffee and catch up session for small businesses. If there’s not, is it something you could start? Small businesses like to recommend each other and you’ll find a great community spirit and network.

And finally…CELEBRATE YOUR WINS!

No matter how big or how small, celebrate your achievements. If you’ve cut a big goal down into smaller chunks, celebrate each milestone along the way. Cut yourself some slack and look at all the positive things you have managed to do.

Coaching can really assist you with accountability, and with an action plan to assure you achieve your goals. If you would like to book a free 30-minute consultation, we can discuss your situation and how I can help. Please email me – cindymobey@outlook.com or reach out to me on social media.

Driving traffic to your website

You’ve worked hard to get your website up and running and have done everything you can to make sure it includes keywords; the right SEO and you launch – then hear crickets! There is nothing more frustrating, but just like you have to drive traffic to your online shop with a provider, or to your blog, you also must drive traffic to your website. A website, especially a new one, won’t just magically appear on the first page of a google search.

Driving traffic to your website with content

I know that this is probably startlingly obvious, but you can’t get website traffic without content. It is the absolute cornerstone of every other strategy to drive traffic. So, how do you do this?

Have a blog.

I know that this seems like a bit of a pain in the wotsit, but it really does help get people to your website. A blog is where you regularly publish useful content for your audience. No matter what business you are, a blog is a useful tool and there is always something to write about.

It’s been found that businesses that use a blog get on average 55% more website visitors than those that don’t.

Blog ideas could be:

  • A tutorial on how to do something
  • Talk about a particular product or service you offer with details of the benefits to your audience
  • You could use it to tell your story or let your audience know more about you and your business
  • Behind the scenes
  • FAQs
  • How customers use your products or service with testimonials to prove a point
  • Interview someone – maybe a customer about why they love your products or services
  • Educate your audience on what you do or an aspect of what you do
  • Publish a gift guide on your blog highlighting your products – if you offer gift wrapping, talk about this, and give lots of examples and photos

These are just a few ideas but shows that there are lots of different ways to blog.

Have a good ‘hook’ – headline to draw your audience in – A headline that pulls your audience in is an important part of your content.

Invite someone else to write a guest blog on your site – this can work well with someone who does something similar to you, but in a different way. They will then share their guest blog, which could bring new readers to yours and to your website.

Just ensure that you give them guidelines as you don’t want a blog post that is unethical, gives too many spammy links (which could damage your brand) and make sure that the information they give is high quality and original.

A picture tells a thousand words!  

I’ve written a whole blog post on this subject, but good visuals are a must to create charts, graphs, lovely images etc. And don’t forget to put text behind or under the photo to describe it. That helps your SEO.

In much the same say as images, video can really attract visitors to your website and keep them engaged.

If you use YouTube, you can put the link to your website from your YouTube videos in the video description. And in your video, use a call to action in your narrative to point your audience to your website.

Give your readers useful resources.

This won’t necessarily be relevant to all businesses, but it’s useful to have a resource centre on your website. I have a ‘free resources’ tab on my website and have a load of free downloads to help small businesses. All I ask in return, is that you sign up to my newsletter, then you get a password to get access to the resources.

Resources can be checklists, downloadable guides, how to tutorials, videos, templates, webinars – there are loads of things you can put to help people. What you use for your resources will depend on what you do. A resource centre will encourage people to return to your website over and over again.

Increase traffic with SEO.

Again, I have written several blog posts to help with SEO, but SEO is what helps people find your site in the first place. Here are just some of the basics…

  • Keywords – words and/or phrases that people will type into a search engine. If your website includes the search words people use, it is more likely you will be found. Be aware though, this does take time if your website is new. You can use keyword research tools to help you with this. The Google Keyword planner is a great help for this. You’ll find that there are keywords that have a higher search volume which can make your website harder to rank for, so it’s about striking a happy balance.
  • Long-tail keywords tend to be easier to rank for – as the name suggests, this is more of a phrase rather than just one word. For example, I will tag this blog post with the long-tail keyword ‘Drive traffic to your website’ and ‘How to drive traffic to your website.’
  • Strategic keywords – The next thing to think about is WHERE to put your keywords. Ensure your target keyword is in your title tag, headings, naturally in the body of your article and always within the first 100 words of the text. And don’t forget image keywords in alt text. And if you can, also put it in the meta description (the short description that Google shows along with your title when your article comes up in a search).

Internal links

This is something that is easy to forget when you’re on a roll with writing but try and add at least 1-3 links to other pages on your website, so you keep your readers on your website for longer, which will help with your ranking.

Page speed

This is important as when someone lands on your website, they don’t want to wait for everything to load in order to see your content. I know that I won’t wait for long if a website is slow. 

Make sure that your image sizes are not huge as this slows everything up and ensure that all your plug-ins are working properly.

There is a Google Page Speed Insights tool which can give you a score on your site’s performance and provide suggestions. 

Mobile-friendly

Most visitors to your website will view your site on a mobile phone, so make sure that your website/blog posts are optimised for mobile use. There’s usually a little button when you go into your website’s dashboard so you can check this.

Refresh your content regularly.

Keep your content fresh by updating it regularly. This might be updating your shop contents or changing some of the wording on your homepage or about page. If you do publish blogs, publish them regularly and consistently – and if your blog post is old, ensure that you update it with relevant facts, figures, and dates! 

No matter whether your website ranks on the first page of Google or not, a refresh of content can make all the difference to traffic. You can do this by updating images, ensuring that links are working, adding new keywords, and tweaking words in your meta description every now and again, or updating your product descriptions.

Have a Google Business Profile

A Google Business Profile will really help you get local traffic to your website, so this is a no-brainer. Just like a social media site, although easier, you can add new photos and publish a blog post or update with a photo and text to keep it up to date. Feel free to message me about this if you need more help.

Increasing website traffic using social media

Now you’ve dealt with your website and getting that all up to date and sorted for being found, now it’s time to look at how you can increase your traffic using social media.

Promote your content in social media posts.

As I’ve already said, you can’t just publish something and hope that it’s found. You need to tell people it’s there. Whether you use Facebook, Instagram, X, Pinterest etc, when you publish content, give the link to your website. People who come from another source, other you’re your website are called ‘backlinks,’ and this is a great way for search engines to recognise that your content is valued and being looked for.

For example, you’re launching a new product – give the link to your new product in your shop, so your audience knows where they can buy it. Add your website to your bio so it’s obvious you have one!

If you have a blog or a newsletter, publicise this on your social media sites – people won’t know you have either if you don’t tell them, but don’t overdo this – as with everything, in moderation. I publish a blog post every week and use social media to tell people about it. I also have a newsletter which I publicise every month, either in stories or a post.

Add hashtags – If the social media site you use is hashtag-friendly, such as Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, include relevant hashtags to help the reach of your posts. Make sure the hashtags you use aren’t always the same – they need to relevant to the subject your post talks about.   

Ensure that your website has your social media share buttons, so visitors know you are on social media and which social media sites you are on.

Post at the right time – your insights can help you find out the times of the day and week that you are likely to get most engagement from your social media posts. I’ve tried all sorts of times and find the best for me is very early in the morning as the majority of my target audience tend to be online first thing. I also network first thing – and again for an hour at lunchtime (which other businesses see and sometimes will return the favour and look at my post) – and I do it again in the evening, which is where I sometimes end up having conversations. You have to work out what works best for you and your business. 

Facebook groups – if you belong to any Facebook groups, this is also a good way to get yourself known and there will be opportunities to talk about what you do and publish your website URL. Some groups have specific days of the week when you can do this – just be aware of the groups’ rules and regulations to ensure you don’t get banned from a group by violating their rules.

You can also start your own Facebook group and build your own community.

Business directories

There are usually free business directories in your area where you can add a short description of your business and give your website address. Some let you add photos and a bigger description. It’s definitely worth researching these to find what is available locally to you.

Set up an email newsletter.

I have other blog posts in more detail about this, but an email newsletter is invaluable to your business. People sign up to your email because they want to, so you have a captive audience. You can use your newsletter to promote your website, your products, or services, give news to your subscribers, talk about any events you’ll be attending, give news about any webinars you’re hosting, or point them to your social media sites. Love your subscribers and give them value and they will want to keep coming back for more. You can read more about newsletters here.

Other ways to increase your website traffic.

There are other ways to increase your website traffic, which includes:

  • Host an online webinar – people love to learn, and webinars are a great way to reach your target audience and give them free information. You can also upgrade to do paid online webinars once you are getting known.
  • Participate in forums – answer questions and share your knowledge.
  • Attend a conference or convention – there is usually a cost involved in this, but they can be very worthwhile – and you will engage with other like-minded people.
  • Join a networking group or event – these are still out there as a face-to-face event – this can help you get your business name out there and to meet other businesses.
  • Have a stall at a market or event – if you are product-based, this is a great place to give people details of your website. You’re missing a trick if you don’t add a business card with your website details with everything you sell. And have a stock of your cards on display, so people who don’t buy can take one – they may contact you later.  
  • Use paid advertising to promote your business, or if you are promoting a specific event, such as a webinar you’re hosting.

I appreciate that this has been a long blog post, but I hope that it helps you find out a bit more about driving traffic to your website in a variety of ways. As always, feel free to contact me if you have any questions. And check out my website for more details about the services I offer!