You know how there’s always that one thing that you know you SHOULD do, but you keep putting it off? You push it to the back burner, thinking that there will come a day when things are less busy, but that day never comes. (Seriously, if you find that day, let me know. I would like to see what it looks like.)
For me, that thing was creating a weekly blog. I know that’s kind of a funny thing for a writer to admit. Shouldn’t I WANT to have a blog? Shouldn’t it be easy for me to think of blog content every week? After all, I write words for a living. This should be a snap, right? Wrong.
It’s not that I don’t like blogging. I do enjoy it, but it’s not as easy as you’d guess. After spending all week writing sales copy for clients and trainings for my copywriting students, my brain is tired. It takes some effort for me to pull my head out of the deep research and sales psychology mode I’m in all week and shake myself back into just being me, Christa the copywriter.
It wasn’t until almost a year after I shifted into sales copy that I created a weekly blog that I contribute to consistently. And although it takes purposeful intention and carving out time to write for it, it’s totally worth it. Why? Because my little blog helps me exponentially increase my reach and engagement with my target audience.
Keep reading to learn how one blog article, leveraged well, can do the same for you.
One Article, Multiple Uses
One of the reasons it took me so long to create my blog is that I didn’t understand how versatile blog content can be. “It’s just a blog,” I’d say to myself. “I’m a sales copywriter. It’s not even the same kind of writing. How is writing a blog a week going to help me grow my business?”
If you’ve ever had thoughts like that, now you know you’re not alone, right? You’re welcome. I’d also often find myself inwardly groaning at the thought of sitting down to write MORE after writing for clients all week long. It felt like just another writing project to me.
What I had failed to realize at the time was that a blog was the perfect way to simplify – and amplify – my content creation overall. When I began to use my blog as the foundation of my weekly content, posting regularly got so much easier! No more wondering what to post about. Once my weekly blog was written, it could be split up into captions, posts, quote cards, and more.
Not only did writing a weekly blog article smooth out the whole content process for me on the back end, but my audience liked it too. My content was all cohesive and flowed well. I found I could take my readers on a journey with me, and they still wanted more.
Switch Up Media Formats
Written content isn’t the only thing my weekly blog gets utilized for. I also use my blog article as the topic of all my video content for the week.
I post videos on multiple platforms – Facebook and Facebook Stories, Instagram and Instagram Stories, Instagram Reels, Pinterest, YouTube, and TikTok. My weekly blog has become a ready-made source of video content ideas.
Each week after I write my blog, I sit down and record short video clips and teasers of me giving value based on the blog article’s topic that week. Those go up on my social media, and they’re a great way to keep people engaged with my content and keep traffic flowing back to the weekly blog.
Use It Later as Trainings
I also use my weekly blog articles as the teaching content for my Facebook group for copywriters, The Confident Copywriter. Every Friday at 10 a.m. CST, I go Live with my tribe and deliver an in-depth training based on the blog content. That in-depth training eventually becomes a video for my YouTube channel as well.
I also like to reference my blog content when I’m creating trainings for guest coaching appearances or when I speak inside other groups or masterminds. Instead of creating a training session from scratch, my blog content gives me a foundation to start from.
Make It Into a Lead Magnet
Different people learn and process information in different ways. Some people love to learn by reading blogs, books, magazines, and texts. Other people like things like guides, lists, and downloadables. So, what? Do I just resign myself to missing out on a whole demographic of potential clients and customers because they’re not the type of people who enjoy reading blogs?
No way! A weekly blog can also be made into a lead magnet. This is something I’ve very recently started to do, and I think it’s going to be very effective. Each week when I’m done writing my weekly blog, I take an extra 30 minutes or so to write lead mag intro and call to action for it, reformat the text to be more streamline so it pairs well with graphics, then send it off to my VA to turn it into a lead magnet.
I can use these lead magnets to grow my list and push traffic from Pinterest. The visual design of a good lead magnet reaches out and attracts other types of learners as well. Never underestimate the power of a free downloadable guide to get people to sit up and take notice.
Promote It on Podcasts or Summits
Oftentimes as a guest on a podcast or summit, you’re allowed to promote one link. Yes, you can direct people to your weekly blog, but that’s not what I mean exactly.
I’m asked to guest on podcasts and summits several times a month, sometimes more depending on the time of year. Some of the interviews are Q&A, which I love. Off-the-cuff Christa is fun. But others have more of an educational bent, and you’re asked to prepare a training beforehand.
This is where your weekly blog can come in clutch. Giving the same old training over and over again can get boring for you. If your appearances all tend to serve the same audience, it might get a little stale for your listeners too. Keep it fresh without spending hours and hours prepping by choosing one of your weekly blog articles and turning it into a training!
I love this option because it saves so much time and energy, which always seems to be in short supply, and you already have the written content there for a slide deck if you need one.
Use It to Direct Pinterest Traffic
If my weekly blog and my Pinterest account were people, they’d be like Meredith Grey and Christina Yang on Grey’s Anatomy. They just GET each other, and where one goes, they quickly point back to the other. The blog-Pinterest combination is the dynamic duo of social media.
I’d been posting regularly to my weekly blog for around six months when I decided to add Pinterest to my social platforms. I HAD a Pinterest account, but I never really did anything with it besides Pin things on boards that didn’t even make sense for what I do for a living. (Balayage hairstyles for brunettes? Yes please!)
Yes, I hired a Pinterest manager because not only did I NOT know what I was doing, I was never going to have time to do whatever I needed to do even if I’d have known what it was I needed to do. Get it?
My weekly blog article made the process of bringing on a contractor possible. All the written content was there for her every week. She didn’t have to guess what to create Pins about. As long as I keep churning out weekly articles, she always has fresh content to Pin about … and man does it work!
When I handed my Pinterest over to my Pinterest manager, I probably averaged around 1000 monthly impressions. At around 18 months in, I average around 500,000 monthly impressions and thousands upon thousands of views, plus clicks, shares, follows and traffic. Guess where? Right back to my weekly blog, where they can read even more cool stuff from me. Happy sigh.
Keep It Consistent
One weekly blog can go a long way. Since figuring that out, I’ve not only seen a massive increase in my reach, engagement, and traffic, I’ve been able to show up on my social media platforms with consistency – and that’s important.
Some of you are reading this right now thinking, “Yes! Okay! I can do this. It’s time for me to get consistent with my blog.” And if you’re someone who enjoys blogging and that makes sense for you and the type of business you have, it can definitely work.
But maybe you’re not really a writer, and the thought of sitting down to write a blog makes you want to die a little inside. That’s okay too. Want to hear a secret? It doesn’t HAVE to be a blog!
The truth is, you can choose another form of content to be your foundation and these six strategies can still work. For example, let’s say you’re more of a talker than a writer. Try a weekly podcast episode. Love being on camera? How about a vlog? Audio and video content can later be transcribed and broken into written content.
Make sense? Awesome! Just remember to stay consistent, because consistency is what helps your content stand out and attract people to you.
More from Christa Nichols
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