Every business has unique challenges, but there are a few common mistakes business bloggers make that are hiding in plain sight. Fortunately, once you know how to recognize them, fixing them is mostly a matter of clearing up misunderstandings, readjusting focus, and realigning priorities.
See if any of these five scenarios are frustrating you:
Mistake #1. Too many hard-to-use business tools
This problem is ubiquitous among consultants and small business owners who write their own content. It comes from juggling too many tasks, like marketing and service delivery, combined with general information overload. It’s so insidious that most people are unaware it’s happening — the same way we’re unaware of the air we breathe, unless it’s choking us!
Here’s what it looks like: You set up a WordPress website, add a collection of plug-ins someone said you need, buy a WordPress theme you saw, subscribe to an email provider you read about….
Then you buy graphic design tools, writing software, a smart phone with apps, productivity software, subscriptions to cloud-hosted spreadsheets, personal e-mail, business email….
Are you feeling overwhelmed yet? All of these items are supposed to make managing your business easier. The problem is, they’re not efficiently working together. To compound things, there’s a hidden time-suck lurking in the midst of it all:
Each new tool comes with two learning curves: how the tool works, and how it works best within your business.
How to fix this:
The answer is not necessarily to buy all-in-one tools. They’re usually harder to learn and use. The solution is to review your priorities and goals, then refocus on the specific tasks that need to be completed. Identify which of the tools that you already have will help you accomplish your goals.
To conquer those curves, schedule time in your calendar to go through the tutorials of the tool you use the most. If that’s WordPress, check out free videos on YouTube or WordPress.tv, or subscribe to Lynda.com for a month or two. Practice by applying what you learn on situations in your business. Three to six hours of in-depth training can make a dramatic impact on paring down the time it takes for routine tasks.
Mistake #2. Automation in the wrong places
In the digital environment, there’s a strong push-and-pull to automate everything. It’s part of the scale-everything philosophy that comes from the VC-funded startup world. Once a company takes on outside funding, it’s goal is to maximize the VC’s return on investment (ROI). Automation is an ideal way to reduce expense. also, developing proprietary software along the way becomes another profit center .
If you’re a self-funded solo professional or you manage a small business team which provides a service, cash flow is your top priority — and time is money. Automation in the wrong places can increase those nasty learning curves, and eat up enormous amounts of time.
How to fix this:
Fortunately, WordPress is a fantastic tool for automated publishing when you use it strategically and know what to avoid. Here are a couple of examples:
- Avoid automated content creation plugins that scrape whole pages from other websites. Instead, use the Press This clipper in the tools section of the WordPress dashboard. Of course, remember to curate by citing attribution. Adding a link is a nice gesture, too.
- Avoid plugins that enable you to manage your email list through your host. Unless you’re an experienced webmaster, you’ll be creating a new, unpaid job for yourself! Instead, subscribe to an email provider such as MailChimp for managing your lists. Use a free plugin from WordPress.org to create attractive opt-in boxes. ConvertKit and Drip are other good options which have plugins that work with WordPress.
- If your website uses a shared hosting plan, avoid plugins that use a lot of system resources and cause pages to load slowly. For example, although Broken Link Checker is a good tool, it makes a lot of calls to the server. Instead, check for broken links in Google Search Console (formerly called Webmaster Tools).
Mistake #3. Set it and forget it approach
There’s a common misconception that once you set up your WordPress site, the bulk of your work is done — from that point, blogging is just a matter of writing and publishing posts. A few days or weeks later, when something breaks on your site, it feels like a major emergency that should have never happened. At the very least, it feels like a disappointing surprise. It’s hard to write posts that inspire your audience when your blood pressure is near the bursting point!
Expecting that your website won’t need care and maintenance is a recipe for frustration.
How to fix this:
There are a couple of solutions to this problem. One is adjusting your expectations: digital objects don’t behave like objects in real life (IRL). The other involves becoming tech literate.
To put things in context, think for a moment about ordinary household tools like hammers and wrenches. They can lay neglected in your toolbox for years, yet still work when you take them out. If you were born before 1990, that’s likely your basis for expecting how the world should work.
In contrast, WordPress and other digital tools are like live plants. They need to be properly installed in their environment, regularly monitored and carefully protected from pests in order to look their best.
As for tech literacy, it’s now a requirement for doing business in the digital world. If you want to be able to maintain your WordPress site, you’ll have to learn its language — the same way you’d have to learn about gardening to care for a plant.
You don’t need to become an expert, but you do need to learn about basic WordPress security, how to format blog posts, how to spot plugin conflicts, and where to find answers when other questions arise . The resources mentioned earlier (YouTube videos, WordPress.tv and Lynda.com) will be useful here. Hiring someone to manage your WordPress publishing is an option, too — the same way you might hire a gardener to care for your plants.
Mistake #4. No content strategy
The lack of a content strategy can lead to disappointing results from blogging. There’s a lot of bad advice floating around recommending daily blogging even if you have nothing worthwhile to say. If you’re stuck in the rut of that old strategy — whether you’re writing the posts yourself or outsourcing cheap content to publish — you could be doing more harm than good. Low-quality content can’t represent your business well.
Publishing posts on random topics can be almost as harmful. At the very lest, it’s a waste of time. As an example, if you were searching online to hire a web designer and found two possible sites — one with tips for designs that convert to sales, and the other with rants about drivers who take up two parking spaces — which designer would you hire for your business site?
How to fix this:
Crafting a strategy starts with research and planning. Invest some time researching competitors, researching customers, creating buyer personas and mapping content for buyers journeys. Insights from the results lay the groundwork for inbound blogging campaigns that guide prospects through the stages of their buyers’ journeys .
From there, draft a content calendar of blogging topics. Change it as trends or news stories emerge, and use it for ideas when you don’t feel inspired to write. You can also use it to outsource a few posts to freelance writers when your schedule gets hectic.
Mistake #5. No distribution strategy
This problem is similar to the set-it-and-forget-it mindset: just because you publish a post on your site doesn’t mean your audience will see it. According to InternetLiveStats.com, there will likely be more than 1 billion sites online by mid 2016. Even if you estimate that each site has only two pages, that’s an enormous amount of digital clutter your posts have to fight their way through!
How to fix this:
Developing a distribution strategy involves delving into more research to find out where your prospects are hanging out online. Fortunately, some of your content strategy research applies here, too. For example, your competitor’s Twitter followers comprise a built-in list of potential leads. Research the other social sites they’re active on, and focus social posting campaigns there.
Posting to social media can be a good way to incorporate automation as long as there’s some human contact built into the mix. For example, via the Jetpack plugin’s Publicize module, WordPress can autopost to your profiles on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Tumblr, Pinterest and Google plus.
To wrap things up:
Addressing these five challenges can add focus and momentum to your business blogging. Once you know where to find your ideal customers and clients, and map their buying journey, choose the tools and media you like using the most. Keep in mind that by steadily creating content for your site, you’re building a digital asset. Get into a publishing routine you can realistically sustain, and bring on a team member when you need help or want to take a break to recharge.
If you’d like to get in touch , you can contact me here. Let’s discuss how to make your business grow!