How Content Marketing Can Help Your Business Increase Sales
Jul 28, 2021Episode 48
Leanne Shelton
Learn all about how content marketing can help you grow your business.
Join Leanne Shelton from Write Time Marketing as she explores these issues.
As a business owner, you may be an expert in your field, but are you also an expert in describing your business, services or products? And how they are going to solve the problems faced by your customers? Probably not!
That's where a professional copywriter comes in. A copywriter will 'get into your head' and gain a deep understanding of both your business and your customers.
With content marketing, you have your website, blog and social media all working together to lead customers to you.
Leanne Shelton has over 15 years of professional writing experience – with additional skills in sales, marketing, PR, and events.
She’s worked in not-for-profit, corporate, and government roles, but her passion for health and wellness has driven her towards that particular niche.
This includes writing high-quality and engaging content – as well as running a relevant meet up group and podcast ‘Marketing & Me’.
In recent years, Leanne has used her breadth of content marketing knowledge to teach business owners how to enhance their brand and authority within their industry.
As a result, she now has a split offering in her services – outsourced copywriting and DIY training, giving her clients the option to choose the best path in their current journey.
Learn all about how content marketing can help you grow your business.
Join Leanne Shelton from Write Time Marketing as she explores these issues.
As a business owner, you may be an expert in your field, but are you also an expert in describing your business, services or products? And how they are going to solve the problems faced by your customers? Probably not!
That's where a professional copywriter comes in. A copywriter will 'get into your head' and gain a deep understanding of both your business and your customers.
With content marketing, you have your website, blog and social media all working together to lead customers to you.
Leanne Shelton has over 15 years of professional writing experience – with additional skills in sales, marketing, PR, and events.
She’s worked in not-for-profit, corporate, and government roles, but her passion for health and wellness has driven her towards that particular niche.
This includes writing high-quality and engaging content – as well as running a relevant meet up group and podcast ‘Marketing & Me’.
In recent years, Leanne has used her breadth of content marketing knowledge to teach business owners how to enhance their brand and authority within their industry.
As a result, she now has a split offering in her services – outsourced copywriting and DIY training, giving her clients the option to choose the best path in their current journey.
So cause when people are searching in Google and think about your own habits here, Quite often it's articles that come up, not websites. You want your blog to then be coming up as a solution.
Paul Sweeney:
Welcome to the business behind your business. And today we're going to be looking an aspect of, for business owners that is quite important at this time when we're looking for more sales and that's part of the, the marketing process, but we're going to look at something specific about marketing, and we're going to look at what we call content marketing. Now, what we've done here is we've got somebody that's an expert in this field because. That's what we want to get in front of you. We want to get the experts giving you as an owners of your business, that the right advice from the right people. So we welcome to daily and Shelton for right time marketing.
Leanne Shelton:
Thank you. Good to be here, Paul.
Paul Sweeney:
Yeah, great to have you here Leanne. Now you've been doing this for, for quite some time. What sort of businesses do you work?
Leanne Shelton:
Yeah. So my niche is a health and wellness space. So starting from those, the micro-business owners through to, I started working with some medical associations as well, and they've all got different needs in the content marketing space. And because I'm a copywriter and I can pretty much write to any real brief, or most types of copy, then I can help them in the different levels that they are. Hmm. Okay.
Paul Sweeney:
So, so that's good to know. So there's a couple of things I think we need to get clear before we delve into this in detail. So we've mentioned content marketing, but you've just mentioned that you're a copywriter. And now just let's clarify. What does a copywriter actually do?
Leanne Shelton:
So a copywriter not to be mistaken by the legal copyright symbol often happens. So copywriting. Basically writing the words for your, your marketing so content marketing, I guess you could say is the term and copywriting is the method you use to, to make it all come together. You need to get the words. So a copywriter is the person who will write it for you. will take a brief on what you require, get into your head space. It's usually ghost written. So I'm pretending to be you. Most of the time, like as a copywriter, your name isn't actually on it. It's the client's name? That's that's writing it. So for example, if it's a blog, it would actually be the the general manager director's name, not the copywriters. So since you're doing it as a gross written pace, you need to kind of get into the Headspace of the client and know the tone of voice, their audience, the audiences needs that problems. What solutions are you offering? And with all that kind of background knowledge, write the blogs, write the website, copy, write the social media posts, sales pages, emails, all that kind of stuff. So that's pretty much what I do. I just get into your head a little bit and I try to speak on your behalf, but get that message right. And get that clarity. So that it lands on the right people at the right time. Okay.
Paul Sweeney:
So th that's a very good very good summary of what it actually is. And I think one of the struggles for a lot of business owners is they may be good at what they do, but when it actually comes to describing it or putting the words to paper. I know English wasn't ever one of my strong points, so I'm always struggling with this and putting my thoughts, you know, in a way that somebody can understand, but can not losing the message. So I think that's really. A hard thing for most business owners and where they do need to get help.
Leanne Shelton:
And quite often, your too close to your own product or service. So you understand the jargon, you know what you're all about, but you forget that your audience doesn't necessarily. So what I say is try to think about them. I don't write. And, and many people, you know, business owners fall into this trap of their website, their contents, all that we do this, we do that. We do that. No, you need to actually be addressing the other person. First. I needed to be nodding along. This is where I love like hypothetical questions at the beginning of content. Because it gets people, nodding, ongoing guests, you get where I'm at. You get me and then you come in with, we get you. He's the solution that we provide. And then it makes such a much bigger impact than when he does like, listen to us, we're great, we're great right. No, you need to give them a reason why they should listen to you. Hmm,
Paul Sweeney:
absolutely. That's good. So you mentioned websites and we've had a previous discussion or several episodes ago with Claire Wendell she mentioned that one of the biggest delays in, in a business getting their website published is they don't know what to right. Now. Content, or, content marketing is pretty broad different purposes. But website is one of them. And is that a good place to start with for a business with content
Leanne Shelton:
marketing? Yeah. So a website, obviously it's key for whether people are stumbling across it by SEO search engine optimization in a search. Or, if they've met you or heard about you across socials or something, and they're using it as a reference point to kind of just kind of a bit of research oh yeah. Are the actually about, and kind of build a bit more confidence before they reach out and do business with you. So it's obviously key to have step back and think. What you represent your values, the message you want to get out there and have that clear on your website. And obviously you think of keywords that people can be searching if it is based on, a you know, stumble across approach. But also have that, not looking nice and pretty that's where the designers come in, but yeah, quantify and have a beautiful website, but the message is full short, and it just doesn't say enough. Maybe it's too vague and this is where you really have to spend that time thinking about it. What are the pain points? The client mapping all that out a solution for each one, and then making sure your website is easy to navigate accordingly.
Paul Sweeney:
So yeah, there's no point getting somebody to your website and spending a lot of money on advertising and Google ads, Facebook ads, to get them to your website. If when they get there the message. It doesn't tell them what they need to hear or it doesn't tell them about you in the way that they want to hear about you.
Leanne Shelton:
Yeah. Actually on that, yes. The the whole, you part I'm very big on having an about page and because people buy from people. So it's, I actually get frustrated when I go to an about page and it's just a summary of the business we launched in this year and our mission and vision and blah, blah, blah. That's great. But I want to hear the human story. Why did you get into that business? What drives you? What's your passion? Who's who in your team put photos, your faces, it just, it as an emotional, emotional level. That just makes such a difference that I'm actually talking with a client at the moment. They've wanted to keep their personal story out of it, but their. The whole drive it. It's all about soft foods for people with Fazio. You can't chew a swallow properly, and it's all that comes from caring for my mother. That story. If you can say that I I've been in your shoes, I know exactly how you're feeling. Uh,I was dealing with these problems myself. It just adds a whole other level toyour marketing because it's not just, I'm in this to make a lot of money. It's like, no, I'm in this because I have a reason and people then connect with that reason.
Paul Sweeney:
Hmm. Yeah. So you've mentioned we do business with people, so it's good to understand that, that background and look. I'm guilty of this, cause I'm an accountant and we tend to stick to the technical. But the, the responses where I've had the most engagement with clients with prospects is where we've been a lot more open and personal about a reason for something and given some personal story, a personal background, or even case studies that actually. Really relate to the people we're trying to reach. It's been quite I guess, surprising, but also a bit of a humbling experience to find out that yeah, people don't really need, want to see my technical knowledge. I want to know how much I care about them.
Leanne Shelton:
Yeah. And quite often, those are the social media posts that go viral. But, you know, there was one I put up at the beginning of the year was purely a bit of a behind the scenes. I'm having a two day mini getaway only like half an hour away, but to do business planning. And as a last minute quick, selfie of me in front of my computer at a, you know, Airbnb and it just went off. I think there's like 2000, 3000 views, whatever it was ridiculous within all my little tips and tricks. Okay, but nothing compared to that. So it just shows that people love these kind of little personal story things. It shows that you are a person they can relate to and therefore want to work
Paul Sweeney:
with. Yeah. So that's great. So what's the next step? So moving beyond the website, I guess the next stage is what we've, I guess it can apply across the whole spectrum of marketing activities, but what's the next most common way that people use content marketing.
Leanne Shelton:
So blogging is probably the next step and that it's ties into your website. So you got your website done. That's great. But quite often you probably spent months or even years working on it. So quite often it's like, all right, it's done dusted. I don't want to look at that thing ever again. And then it actually becomes static in terms of like Google searches. So you need to kind of keep your website looking fresh for, from an SEO point of view. And that's where blogs come in. And that gives you the opportunity to also present yourself as an expert and authority in your field. And also, so you can then direct people to it via newsletter, which is obviously part of the content marketing strategy. And also people are going to find it when they're doing searches in Google. So cause when people are searching in Google and think about your own habits here, Quite often it's articles that come up, not websites. So you need to have these blogs answering and it could pretty much, you start by going through your FAQ's. You may have a short paragraph on your website, the flesh them out into a blog because the people are typing to those questions into Google. You want your blog to then be coming up as a solution. So blogging is probably the one of the next steps. And then you go from there, you repurpose the blog. So don't. Put up there and then leave it alone. You can then create easily five social media partners from a 500 word blog guide to Canva, canva.com. Love it. There's a free version and paid create a cute little graphic and a little extract from your blog with a link to read more. Put those posts over the next five days, five weeks, five months, whatever it is. And you can obviously then repeat those later on, and then you also then featured the blog and your newsletter. You know, it could be a monthly newsletter check out latest blog. There's a link there. You could even do a little videos put up on YouTube, promoting that blog too, or even at say. A YouTube clip of you basically reading and talking through that blog because everyone consumes maybe a different life. Some prefer to read it, some prefer to watch YouTube. So this is where the content marketing starts to all kind of take place. You start with one key piece of content, like a blog, and then it branches out. And so obviously if you also have a program or a course, you want to launch. Then that program becomes the key piece of content. And then you create social media posts from it. You create newsletters or email communications with extracts of what it's all about. Communicate that way videos with tasers webinars. So this is how it all ties together. Like it's something to begin with and then it all feeds on from that. Hmm.
Paul Sweeney:
So you can do a lot with it, just one core piece of content. So if that's the case, then you can replicate that content across different media and, and ways of communicating. Then it seems important to me to take a little bit of extra time to get that initial piece of content at a better quality and actually make sure it's communicating the right message in the right way to the right people. And I think that this is where you need to go outside your field and get, get guidance from somebody like Leanne and. Because that's what her expertise is. And, you know, I can go and learn stuff on Google, but it's going to take me a lot of time and it's going to take me away from my business. And yeah, you can learn a lot of quick things in Google, but it can also be quite dangerous because you learn to do things half-baked or not quite the same way. So this is why it's better to, to actually speak to a marketing expert or an expert in any field, but let's look at content marketing. So Leanne, if somebody came to you to start with what would be the process for them, where would you start?
Leanne Shelton:
So if they, I mean, if they know what they want, so I feel like I need a blog written. I'll be great. Okay. Tell me, or, or website copy. I have like a project brief that I want to understand. Yes. The audience, their pain points. And it competitive. We needed to look at all that kind of stuff. If it is a blog so the topics are very important. So I'll ask if you've thought about topics, need help with that, and that can help brainstorm some things. And, you know, I use a tool called keywords everywhere, which is a browser plugin, and that's great for each type of little, do a little search. And then you see what kind of. Ranking and weighting certain search terms have, and you can kind of get a feel for all right. That would be a great keyword phrase to use my blog. So you can do a bit of that. There's also another one called answer the public, but that one we've only got a couple of searches for free. Then you have to pay a Keywords everywhere. It was like a$10 fee for like a 10,000 searches or something, which for me lasts a year without ever turning it off. But that these kind of tools are grateful. Just getting those ideas and then pretty much I make it a very collaborative approach. So I use a Google doc. I then map out a rough outline for the blog with subheadings. I make sure it's all clearly mapped out lots of white space. Also I know the word count that I'm working with, because it obviously takes longer is there extra research involved or will a client provide links that I can use. I prefer that method because they're the expert and one of the best resources to use, I might find something that actually isn't a trustworthy source. So it's more important for that input. And then I'll write it and send the draft and I'll include a couple of rounds of free edits. They can make the edits themselves on the document with track changes and then. Yeah, until we're happy with it. So that's pretty much how it works with that. I mean, a website pretty much similar in, in the briefing process, but obviously each of these pages, what kind of content do you want? Manasseh competitors' pages or other resources where they like the style of content and then I can kind of go, all right, that's the. The style you're going for make it your own voice so no you know, no duplication, no copying plagiarizing. That's a big no-no, but you can be inspired by what other sources have. Unless if it's definitions or explanations of things, but ultimately you are different to your competitors, so it shouldn't be matching their website anyway. So if it is a website, I would then provide a draft of the homepage first to make sure the look and feel is a hundred percent of what you're after, before roll out the rest, because I don't want to do all of it. You say it's completely off the buck. I want to make sure you're happy. So, yeah. Just, I think one thing to be mindful of because it was collaborative. I have had this issue in the past. Don't just think, oh yeah, it's outsourced a hundred percent. Here's the job handed over. You just deal with it because I need to know, especially if I'm writing multiple blogs I need to know it's correct. You need to allocate that time to review. It will take a fraction of the time would take you to write it. You just said allocate maybe half an hour to review a blog, provide feedback. We have a chat, whatever it is that if you it's not just a, oh yeah, just get her to do it. or him to do it because it's. You may miss the mark and therefore you're not going to get the job done well. Hmm.
Paul Sweeney:
Yeah, there's a saying that I have that delegation is not the abdication of responsibility That if you're delegating a task to somebody you are still responsible for the output. So you need to make sure that it is actually the output that you, that you're happy with and that matches your business and the message that you want to convey. So you do need to be involved in the process, but I think using somebody else's skill Yes, saves so much time and the outcome is far far superior and I've stumbled across that. I learned that lesson very early on that accountants are not wordsmith.
Leanne Shelton:
That'salright I'm not good with numbers. So we're even.
Paul Sweeney:
That's good. That's good. So, and now you mentioned about re reusing or re promoting content. So is a lot of people. I think that I have to come up with fresh content every time. When we repurpose like, I know one of the things we do is I've got blogs from a couple of years ago when I was still promote those. Is there a way of writing so that you can. I guess, repurpose old content without having to constantly create new new material.
Leanne Shelton:
Ultimately the plan is to create evergreen content. So that means something that doesn't just expire or become out of date very quickly. So while it's fine to write about a conference you've just been to, or you know, that that's okay every now and again, but ultimately that's not going to be relevant to the reader within. Six months. Oh, I mean, probably within a month, it's not gonna be relevant anymore. So ideally you want to think of topics that will always be searchable, will always be of interest. And then, yeah, like you said, Paul, you can go back and tweak them and make them more relevant again. So if you have mentioned research from yeah, 2019 and you know, or there's been a new update, you know, 20, 20 stats, Twitter wants debts, you can go back and refresh and that apart from making it more relevant also. From like the reader point of view, it's they know that it's as fresh ads, it's more up to date Google also by making these updates, Google will kind of see, okay, this is fresh content, even though it may be originally written two years ago. And that obviously helps you too. When it comes up in searches and yeah. So that's kind of the aim for you. You don't want something that's going to purposely very quickly go out of date, but a hundred percent I've heard from like the experts like Neil Patel has said that he spends most of his time going back to old blogs and refreshing them rather than writing new content, especially if you've got heaps already. And that's yeah, don't forget about the stuff that you've got in the past. Going back. Giving them a refresh if I slipped and then reshare them again, because I mean, it could be some things that you might've parsed a year ago with COVID and that's kind of been a resurgence lately, so therefore it's become relevant again. No harm and resharing. Yeah. Because you forget that not everyone in the audience will, one that was around a year ago. You may have grown your audience or two, not with algorithms and all the different social media platforms and things. There's no guarantee they even saw it in the first place. And Hey, they happen to say it a second time. So what, maybe they missed it the first time when they read it, but now it may hit home. I'll be a great refresher for them. So there's absolutely no Harmon.
Paul Sweeney:
Hmm. Great, fantastic. So Leanne, if businesses were going to do one thing to get started, what would be the key thing that they need to do?
Leanne Shelton:
With content strategy in general.
Paul Sweeney:
Yes. I know it's a big area.
Leanne Shelton:
Yeah. I mean, look, being visible is key. So if, I mean, if something of blogging feels a bit overwhelming, then you can start with social media posts, which obviously it's a shorter, you know, snippets of what a blog ultimately is. So you have a little bit of a think, go through all your existing content. If you've run webinars, you have programs of courses. That's all great stuff you can now work from. You don't have to think about brand new posts and things like that. Just go through a past course, outline program, pick out some extracts, like I said before, go to Canva, create a graphic, and then just as your call to action, just say, reach out. If you have any questions or ask questions, right then there. How do you feel about this? What are your thoughts? And that then builds engagement. So. It's just at least get something happening. The idea, ultimately you'd love to have. Continuous, consistent content on social media. People also get a regular newsletter from us, monthly fortnightly weekly. Whatever based on your audience? And then if you also are at like networking events and being physically visible, it all plays a great pot because I get the feedback of Leanne. I feel like you're everywhere because I'm, I'm popping up on different channels. And as the algorithms work, if they are reading stuff, Commenting on your socials, your stuff's going to go to the top of the newsfeed. It's going to be the first thing they see. And then more likely to think of you like if a suitable problem that you solve arise.
Paul Sweeney:
That's some great, great, great advice there. So Leanne, if somebody listening wants to get in contact with you and get started on this process, how do they get in contact with you?
Leanne Shelton:
Yeah, so you can either pop me an email at leanne@writetimemarketing.com.au. And that's write. As in you write with a pen, I love a good pun. Yeah, the website www.writetimemarketing.com.au. And you can find me on LinkedIn, Leanne Shelton. Pretty sure I'm on the only ones there and also Instagram LeanneShelton247. But yeah, I also have a podcast too called"Marketing and Me" and that one, it's a mixture of soloing guests episodes, all about marketing and business growth, predominantly aimed at health and wellness business owners. But it's actually relevant, pretty much everyone with the business. And there's also episodes there based on the health and wellness side of things. So yeah. Even if you don't have a business, it's, there's still some really great episodes there. So come check it out and let us know your thoughts.
Paul Sweeney:
Fantastic. So we'll put links to all of Leon's contact details in our show notes and, and, and also linked to the podcast. So marketing and it comes up as one. Yeah. Well, not so much the big three specifically, but how do I get more sales? Is one of the big three, and marketing is, is often how you actually create the new enquiries. So marketing is very important for small business and business everywhere. So check out Leanne's podcast and Yeah, get in touch, but all we want to know what you want to know. So get in touch with us. You can reach out to us on speakpipe.com/thebusinessbehindyour business and leave your message and ask us a question and we, yeah. The right expert to answer your question on our podcast. So thank you again, Leanne, for sharing with us and some great tips there on where to get started with content marketing, why your business needs it and how you can get the most value out of it. So thank you again, Leanne. Thanks, Paul.
