The Importance of Blog Writing for Business and Marketing with Branda Villacob | 135
You’ve probably had someone tell you at some point that you need to start a blog. However, blogging has a bit of a bad reputation these days. Blogs are seen as tedious, time-consuming, and outdated. So, is it really worth it?
Branda from The Relevant Collective recently joined me on the podcast to talk about blogging and provide some blog writing tips. In case you don’t know Branda, she is a copywriter that helps entrepreneurs create content that makes an impact and brings them closer to their business goals. (She’s also the one who wrote this blog post… kinda meta if you ask me [me being Jenzaia editing after the fact…])
Do People Really Read Blogs?
A big misconception about long-form content is that blogging is out the window. Now, I am all for picking a form of long-form content that works for your business, but I wouldn’t shut the door to blogging as an option.
A lot of beginners who want to blog (or those who have put a lot of time and effort into their blog) might be happy to know that 77% of internet users report reading blogs.
However, blogging has changed. People won’t read every word, and most blogs you stumble across these days are informational (similar to an article). This is a good tip to keep in mind, especially if you are a beginner to blogging.
Blog Writing Tips to Keep in Mind
Whether you're a blogging beginner or consider yourself an expert, Branda shared some tips for getting the most out of your blog (so the time and effort you put in is worth more).
#1 Do Keyword Research
Keywords are terms people commonly use when searching. Think “restaurants near me” or “Eras Tour tickets”. You want the content you write to be searchable, and something people are actually looking for.
Branda recommends using UberSuggest for keyword research. Keep in mind that for every niche and topic, what is considered a “good keyword” is going to vary a lot.
#2 Determine Your Goals Before Blogging
Blogging can be used for various purposes. Sometimes it’s there to warm up your audience, and other times it’s there to generate leads. Before you plan your blogs, figure out your marketing goals for the month or quarter, and then pick blogging topics that further your goal.
For example, if you want to warm your audience to a new course you have about Facebook Ads, then you want to write blogs addressing some of the questions or concerns people have. This could be a blog about why ads are important or how you know when it’s time to run ads.
#3 Repurpose Your Blogs
If you’re not completely on the blogging bandwagon quite yet, you might be happy to hear that if you start with another long-form path, you can always come back to blogging. Let’s say you start with podcasting or YouTube. In the future, those shows can be turned into blog posts, which can make you discoverable in new ways (and maybe even reach new audiences).
You can also repurpose and reuse blogs with Facebooks Ads. If you run visibility ads, you’ve likely sent people to your long-form content, so they can get to know you, be exposed to your expertise, and hopefully develop trust. If you do list-building ads, your long-form content is likely to show up inside your welcome sequence and your weekly emails.
While blogging might sound old school, there are still lots of advantages for your business. By having a solid blog in place, you can generate leads, establish your expertise, and even make sales. I hope these blog writing tips help you get started or give you a reason to keep going!
Grab Branda’s free Airtable template to help plan your blog posts and organize your content.
Don't forget to follow me on Instagram @heyitsjenzaia and tune in next Saturday for more business tips and strategies!
xo, Jenzaia
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Episode Transcript:
Hey there - I'm Jenzaia and this is Market Scale Grow - a podcast created for ambitious teacherpreneurs looking to have a bigger impact on the world, achieve freedom, flexibility, and ultimately make more money. With weekly strategy sessions and inspiring stories from fellow teachers just like you, my goal here is to help you create a customized marketing strategy so you can grow your teacher business beyond your wildest dreams.
Jenzaia: Welcome to Market Scale Grow. I'm your host Jenzea and this is an exciting Saturday strategy session. I am chatting with Branda who is a part of my team. So I'm really excited to be interviewing her. And if you've never met Branda before, she is an amazing copywriter who helps. Freelancers and female entrepreneurs write and plan personality packed content that moves them towards their goals.
From your blogs to your welcome sequences, Branda believes that your content paves the best path for a successful business. When she's not writing or planning content, you can find her reading Outlander with a bowl of ice cream in hand. Oh, I love that. Welcome, Branda.
Branda: Thank you. Thanks for having me. I always get to listen, but now I get to join in, so I'm excited.
Jenzaia: For those of you who don't know who you are, I know I did just read your bio, but can you give us a little bit more about your story, like, from the classroom to where you are now?
Branda: Yeah, I was in the classroom for five years, and while I was teaching, I also started doing TPT on the side, like a lot of teachers do.
But in my fifth year of teaching, I really knew I wanted to leave the classroom. So I don't know how it came to mind one day. I was like, I should start freelancing. And I was thinking about the things that I enjoy doing in my business. And writing was, like, the number one thing. I like doing emails and blogs and stuff like that. When you're creating products, you never get time to do that. And also products take so long to make. So I was ready to ditch that side of things.
So anyways, I started doing that part time, like while I was also teaching. It blew up extremely quickly, way quicker than I had expected.
It was very stressful for a while, but luckily by the time the school year ended, I was able to go full time doing copywriting, which was very scary, but also really amazing. And I still can't believe I'm like a year now doing this full time.
So that's what I do. I write copy, mostly blogs and email marketing kind of stuff. Also work with launch copy and website copy and all those fun things.
Jenzaia: Yes, it's like almost a year since you went full time, isn't it?
Branda: Yeah, I think it's like exactly a year, because I would have started full time in June of last year.
Jenzaia: Do you remember how we were connected? Because I was just thinking about that and I don't remember how we met.
Branda: We met in T.H.U., I believe. Teacher Hustle University. That's actually how I met a lot of my clients that I have now, which is like a true testament to relationship marketing right there.
Because when I was asking for clients, it was basically all THU people who were coming to me, which was amazing. I'm very thankful, but it still blows my mind. Once I went into freelancing, I was like, why did I do education? Like, why was that a part of this journey? Oh, that's why! Because I would have probably never been full time if it wasn't for teaching and being in THU and all those things.
Jenzaia: Yeah. So we're going to dive more into the blogging side and consistent content.
So for those of you who don't know, Branda is my copywriter. She writes the blogs and the emails that go along with this podcast. So I know I've shouted her out, but like, this is an official introduction.
And so you're a huge part of me having a blog that goes out every week and then like that consistent content piece.
So where do you want to start?
Branda: I think a good place to start is the question I get a lot from people when they're like, I want to get into blogging but noon reads blogs anymore? And I'm like, that's so far from true. If you Google any question, like what comes up? Blogs. That's probably what you look at.
Jenzaia: I wonder if it's because we used to… I'm thinking back to like 2008, maybe when I find a blog and then I would go back to entering one and I would read it like that person's diary. And I read every single one. Whereas now. I feel like I google what I need, I read the article, I see if they have anything else on that same topic, and then I'm out.
Branda: 100%. I think that is where there's like that disconnect there. People think they don't read blogs, but they actually do all the time. It's just they're not like literally reading word for word every single thing on a blog post. But we go to blogs all the time for Questions. And I think that's where the confusion is because an article, a lot of times like they are blog posts, but we don't think of them like blogs because I think the word blog reminds us of journaling our feelings about the classroom. You know? Do you remember those old blogs that are like, today's April 23rd and my classroom today… that's not how people write blogs anymore.
But yeah, we read blogs all the time. That is literally what Google is primarily composed of, but we think of them more like articles. And then probably the next biggest question I get is like, if blogging is still alive and well, then how do I get found online with blogging?
And I think there's a lot of confusion around SEO. It seems way more complicated than it actually is, and I think it's because it feels very gatekept. It feels like only certain people know how to do SEO, and it's like this very secret, private thing that only the experts know how to do, but it's actually pretty simple in terms of following some key rules, and once you get those down, you just have to monitor it. But I think that really throws people off.
Jenzaia: So my biggest struggle with SEO is I always want to say SEO optimization and it's like. But SEO is what is it… Search engine optimization. So I always want to put search engine optimization optimization.
Branda: Yeah. Double the optimizing!
Jenzaia: So don't give me a whole SEO lesson, I feel like that's way too big for a 30 minute podcast episode, but like, what are some of the things you do need to have in place for the SEO to take?
Branda: Yeah, I like to do the SEO stuff first, because I try to just naturally incorporate it as I'm writing. So, obviously the big thing is keyword research. I use Ubersuggest for that and they have like lifetime access. You can buy it like once and it's yours for the rest of your life, which is really nice.
And so I like to go there first and look for keywords. It can be really hard. I think with TPT sellers, they're like, there's nothing there though. The research results are so small and there's like two big mistakes I see people make. And the first is you're being way too specific.
Like, yes, you want to be specific with your keyword, but they want the keyword to be like, fifth grade math worksheets for multiplication. It's like, there's not going to be a high volume of people searching for that. So you may have to pull back a little bit.
And then the other mistake I see is like, we think that In order for it to be a good keyword, it has to have like thousands of searches a month. If you're a teacher seller, you're probably not going to see that ever with the volume. Or if you do see a keyword that has like a thousand searches a month, it's like way oversaturated.
You have to be cognizant of your niche, right? When I'm writing for you, which is more in the marketing niche, there are going to be more options because more people are searching for stuff like that. There are more people in marketing than there are teachers.
Jenzaia: Very interesting. And there's that general piece of your keywords and then more specific. And so it's okay if you use those longer, more specific, very niche terms, but then when you're actually doing the research, you're pulling back just a little bit to find what the people are actually searching to get the right number of hits
Branda: Yeah, I think keyword research is like really just playing around with things. Like just before I got on here, I was doing keyword research for your blogs and it's like I could spend 20 minutes per blog just doing keyword research.
It's typing something in and going that didn't really work and then typing something else. It's just playing around and trying different things. And sometimes you'll find that whatever the topic is you want to write about is super saturated and you just have to find the best thing you can for that topic.
So sometimes if you're really great with your content and you want to really get ahead, you could do research beforehand and then use those keywords to write blogs. Like that's if you're like a master at that.
Jenzaia: So in my mind, because I've been putting the keyword research on you. I was like, should I be doing keyword research first before I record my podcast? Like flip the script a little bit.
Branda: So yeah, I don't think it ever hurts. Cause sometimes there's things we just want to talk about and that's fine. Like there may not be a great keyword. Not every blog needs to be number one.
But like, especially this pillar piece of content, right? Like those blogs that you want to be like your staple pieces, maybe you have five blogs that if someone goes to, it's like my thing. You probably really want to nail the SEO there and like making sure you're looking at that stuff.
And then once I have the keywords, I just try to use them as often as I can with it fitting naturally. Like, you don't want it to sound like you're A robot, you know, just like regurgitating keywords. And then I’ll go back and check when I'm editing and see like, okay, how many times did I really use it? You don't have to use it perfectly. That's also a misconception.
I try not to overthink it because it's really easy to overthink keywords and SEO.
Jenzaia: So one more thing, going away from keywords and SEO. Talking about blogging in general, I would feel like there's two different purposes for blogging. One of them I would say is like nurturing and warming up your audience and then the other one is lead generation.
Let's talk a little bit about that first one of how you can use blogs for warming up your audience.
Branda: Yeah, for me, particularly, I'm really big on mapping out like my quarterly goals. And so if my goal, for example, is to launch a new product or service or membership or whatever it might be, then the blogs I write are probably going to be more in that like warming of my audience, right?
Like right now, I'm not necessarily writing a blog to do with Facebook ads or to try to get people to find me on Google. It’s great if they do, but my primary purpose is really trying to get them to start thinking about a topic. So if I'm going to launch a product about fifth grade math activities, I probably want to write some blogs about why they're important and different activities you can use and how to increase engagement to get people thinking.
Whereas again, the lead generation, that's when I kind of think more like those pillar pieces of content, like what do you want to be known for, what are people searching for that connects to the thing you want to be known for, and then like really making sure those blogs are like expertly optimized.
And also that you're tracking those things. Like those are the blogs I would really be careful that I'm tracking on like Google Analytics and stuff like that to make sure it's performing well. Cause it means nothing if you just slap it online, but you never checked like, did it do the thing that I wanted it to do?
Jenzaia: Would you say you need an opt-in form for both of them, neither of them, only the lead generation?
Branda: I think an opt in on every blog post is a good idea just cause you never know who's going to stumble upon it. But, um, Obviously, that can vary greatly depending on if it's more like warming up your audience, your opt in could be a waitlist to something.
Um, it doesn't have to be like a freebie, but especially again on those like one that are lead generation, your opt in should be something that is like very closely related to that pillar content of yours to try to see what people are interested in and hopefully lead them down a nice little funnel, maybe pitch a sale to them or something of that nature.
Jenzaia: So do I need a different opt in for every single blog?
Branda: No, definitely not. I think I've had like two lead magnets for the last year. So I've been rolling with the same one. So definitely not. And I think you can also get really creative with your lead magnets.
Sometimes again, it could be simple as a wait list. It could be as simple as like, Well, this is maybe it's necessarily applying to blogs, but like I did a giveaway recently, and that was an opt in though. So like you can find ways to get creative with your opt-ins because yeah, it can take some time to create different lead magnets and funnels.
Jenzaia: So much time and so much time. Another thing that we tend to overthink, is how to write the emails for the funnel and what we should be selling and how we're selling it. And so I feel like, especially in these cases, that you can attach something and it's better than having nothing.
Branda: I totally agree.
Jenzaia: Also, I pulled up my show notes and again, I'm a little bit different because there's the podcast and the blog post supports the podcast. So I don't actually have an opt in on any of mine. The call to action that I have is get people to subscribe to my podcast. And so.
I feel like it's worth mentioning that if you're listening to this and you're in a similar boat as I am, where podcasting is your main thing, and if you choose to do it that way, then I, I think that that's okay as well. My podcast does have calls to action in it to join my email list and to sometimes go to the Facebook group and other things, but my primary one on my blog post is actually subscribing to the podcast.
Branda: I think you also brought up a good point there, which is that your blogs don't always have to be like standalone things. If you do YouTube or podcasting too, you can also turn that same content into blogs and vice versa. Like if you start doing blogs, but then later you want to grow your audience and reach people in different places, that same content can also be put onto a different platform.
You can use your blog posts as Emails, repurpose them and repackage them and promote them on email. So I think that's also what I really like about blogs, really any form of long form content. But what I like is searchability mostly, but also there's so much variability. It's not like, Oh, I wrote a blog and now if I want to do anything else, like a podcast, it has to be two separate ideas. Like, Nope. They can go hand in hand. And like, why wouldn't they? Because that makes your life easier.
Jenzaia: And that repurposing piece. They do really work well together. Because you're right. There is a transcript on my blog. There are transcripts, but what you're writing for my blog post is not a transcript. It's more of a like educational summary with bullet points and to get those main key points out. And then we also repurpose into an email, which is more of a storytelling engaging piece that way.
And so I ramble in my podcast, you turn it into something educational, and then we storytell. So it's three different. Ways that the same piece of information, the same content is being shared with my audience. And so I think I'm doing a good job with Branda's support.
Branda: Well, for the record, I love your rambling.
Jenzaia: How do blogs work with Facebook ads?
Branda: I mean, this is something I've honestly learned a lot through you and listening to your own podcast. What was I just writing about today? We were talking about visibility ads and consistent content. Visibility ads and blogs really can go hand in hand. So it's like a simple way to send people information about you. Kind of like delivering that extra content and extra like expertise is what I'm trying to say right to get people to see what it is that you do, why you're knowledgeable, why they should trust you to start to learn from you and engage with you, but also in kind of like an inverse way.
I feel like blogs work with Facebook ads, because even if you are promoting a freebie, for example. When they go through your funnel, likely in your funnel, you are also promoting your blogs and your long form content as a way for them to learn from you. So having those blogs and a piece of long form content is like so, so important and warming up your audience is the baseline of what that is.
Jenzaia: That episode that you mentioned is 132, if you haven't listened to the one on visibility ads. I want to say like every other episode I talk about consistency and like just being present and the buyer journeys are getting longer. People need more trust. I talk about this a lot, they need to know who you are. And I feel like blogging really helps with that, like, there's a personal touch and you can get that connection, learn more about them and what they stand for.
Branda: Yeah, I agree. I think what people underestimate sometimes is we like to think like, Oh, consistency means I have to produce a ton.
And like you mentioned this in the episode too, but consistency is about what you are able to do in a consistent way, but also quality over quantity. And a blog is a great place to show that quality because there's many blogs I've gone to for someone. And I'm like, that was lame. I learned nothing that felt like it felt like one of those webinars you go to where you're like, I feel like I'm missing a big part of the equation here.
You don't want your blog to feel like people walk away with nothing. Like, sure, you’re not going to give all your information away, but it should be full of quality information so that when your blogs go out to your email list every week, or they show up in a Facebook ad after a while, and they start clicking on them, they know that when they click. You are a trustworthy place to learn information from, not like they're going to click and be like, well, again, that was lame. There was nothing there.
There are people I've stopped reading their blogs and their emails. Cause I'm like, I never get anything from here except feeling like you're just trying to pitch me something. Like I'm not really learning from you. I think we have to treat it the same way. I would, I would never listen to a podcast that all it did was like, feel like a mini webinar, right?
Like that would get really lame. Like, sure. I know I'm not going to learn the same as if I hired someone, but I want to learn. something. I want a nugget of a takeaway. I think we forget that sometimes as we get really caught up in like, I just have to make stuff and I don't want to give too much away.
Jenzaia: This is my own philosophy, and I know not everyone agrees with it, but I've never had any feelings about giving too much away, and I feel like if someone just wants to do it themselves and figure it out themselves and have no accountability in the piece that they will, but that if when they're ready for that support and when they're ready to like to hand off Facebook ads or to get my support through Dreamlist Essentials or whatever it might be, When they're ready, they can hire me.
At the beginning of my business. I found it way too stressful trying to decide what the gatekeeper was of like what information I was going to let out and what it wasn't. So now if I want to share it, I share. So if you're feeling that energy drain of not knowing where to stop sharing, maybe try just sharing everything.
Right? Because people will still buy your thing because they don't want to have to make it themselves. They're still going to do your course because they don't know the, the like, they need the accountability of somebody helping them. Or if you're a one to one service provider, they just don't want to do it themselves.
There's always going to be those people. And I feel like there's just that trust you have to have in the give and take of the world.
Branda: It's like two different audiences, and you have to decide if you're selling something, probably the audience you're selling to are not the people who are trying to DIY it themselves, and maybe they DIY it for a while because they have to, and that's fine.
Maybe they don't have the money yet to buy it, but I think we get so scared of turning people off, but like some people are going to be turned off no matter what you do, and that's okay. But like, at the end of the day, you are a business and you are trying to sell something, you know?
So if people want to DIY it, go for it.
Jenzaia: That made me think of another piece. You’re a business, and as long as people know that, you can give away all the free stuff as long as at some point you're like, if you want to hire me or if you want to buy this from me, I also sell it. People don't innately know that you sell things. So just having that reminder of here's all the free things if you want to patch it together and figure it out yourself, go nuts.
But when you're ready, here's how you do it with me, or how I do it for you, or whatever the case may be for your individual business. Just reminding them, like, I do sell things. I am a business. I sell things. So it's not just, like, people who are expecting free and get angry at you, because you suddenly start selling.
Branda: Yeah, it shouldn't be any secret that you are a business. I think that kind of like goes a little bit too with like when you're picking the topics for your blogs, I think it sometimes feels like, well, I know I have to sell things.
So then what do I talk about in my blog if people are looking for information? Because It can't just be a giant sales pitch, right? Like sure, I might mention the product that I'm selling or the service that I'm selling, but like, what else do I say? Like, what kind of topics do I write about? And so I think the way to approach that when you're trying to come up with a blog where the call to action is a sale, right?
So if it's like Facebook ads, like what would someone need to know or do in their business before they purchase Facebook ads? A lot of things. There's a lot that you need to do before you run Facebook ads. And so you wouldn't even want someone coming to you before they do those things, right? You'd have to be like, you're not ready. And I think with teacher sellers specifically, if you're in that boat, you have a little bit of an easier time because likely there's not as much of a barrier between like what it takes for someone to buy a product, but grade math activity.
Jenzaia: Yes. And the steps they need to take before they need that activity are probably more like, are you teaching this subject? Whereas Facebook ads, like you said, there are multi steps. Is your business at this level? Are you doing these things? Do you have this in place already?
Branda: Exactly. So I think with teacher businesses especially, just ask yourself, like, what type of resource is it? Is it task cards? Is it... Guided notes. What would someone need to know before they use that? Why should they use this specific product? Why is it going to increase engagement?
Maybe what data do you have to show that it does well in the classroom? Like again, what might someone need to know before they make that purchase? And those are great topics for blogs because people naturally want to know how to increase engagement in their classroom or why they should use certain strategies.
Jenzaia: And with the freebie piece of that, I've had clients who will pull out just a portion of it. So like if it's a set of math, like there's a hundred math posters or something, they'll pull out 10 and then that's the freebie, which makes it really easy because you're not creating something different, but it is individualized for that.
Or if it's a year-long bundle that has 10 months worth of things and you pull it one week of one month. So that's like a fourth of a 10th, whatever that might be. So it's tiny, like just one week out of the year and it does the same thing. Give them an introduction to it. You don't actually have to create anything new.
You have that free piece that goes along perfectly with the blog, perfectly with the sale. And it helps with that streamline. If you did feel like you needed something specific for the lead magnet or the freebie.
Branda: Yeah, that's always a really good idea for that, and it's like an easy thing to put together. Just don't forget your funnel.
Jenzaia: So when we say funnel, we're basically talking about an email sequence, right?
Branda: Yeah. This is a fairly easy funnel to set up because it's a blog post.
Jenzaia: Amazing. Do you have any other thoughts about blogging that we need to know?
Branda: I think if I have to leave you with one last nugget, I think blogging is something that really intimidates a lot of people because it's very writing heavy. And so people just put off making any sort of long form content because they're not perfect and an expert. And I think always the best thing to do with blogging is to simply just start, even if it is just a 500 word blog post, and it doesn't have any keywords in it, and you just word vomited your ideas onto the page and edited it, and you put it out there, that's better than nothing.
Because even if right now your blog isn't like a huge source of lead generation for you, that doesn't mean your blog still can't be a great way too. Get visibility to meet new people to nurture your audience. And so if it is simply just that right now, like even my blog right now is still very new. I haven't had my website for very long.
So my blog is not reaching worldwide status or even domestic status, but it is a huge source of me nurturing my audience and a huge source of me prepping for launches. And so to me, that is enough right now. And sure, I wanted to go beyond that. At some point, I'm working on it, but it's a long process.
Just start somewhere. Cause you can still do something with your long form content, even if it's not going worldwide.
Jenzaia: I was doing my own show notes on my own blog for over a year before I hired you. And the same thing. But very little keyword research or SEO for over a year, but regularly people would reach out and say thank you for having the show notes to go along with it. So it's still worth it because people will still be looking for that information. Plus, you can also do the Pinterest piece. Because they are like fresh URLs and blah, blah, blah, blah. I don't know a lot about Pinterest.
Branda: Me either.
Jenzaia: So you have a freebie to help people plan out their content, correct?
Branda: Yes. I have like a little air table content planner. It's actually what I use to plan out my own content, but great for just kind of organizing your URLs and ideas and keywords and all those things.
Jenzaia: And can you just let us know where the best place to find you is?
Branda: Yes, you can find me on Instagram mostly @therelevantcollective and then also on my website therelevantcollective.com.
Jenzaia: Thank you so much for joining me today, Branda.
Branda: Yeah. Thank you.
Thank you for listening to this episode of Market Scale Grow. I'm so thankful that you've taken some time out of your busy schedule to make me part of your journey. If you love this podcast, don't forget to share it with your friends. And then head to your favorite podcast app to subscribe so that you won't miss next week's episode or any of the upcoming ones. And if you loved it, be sure to leave a review on Apple Podcast so that other people can find this podcast and we can impact teachers and teacher business owners around the world!