In the fifth of our newly published ‘The Go-To-Expert‘ inspired blog posts, we look at how to make the time to write blog posts, or valuable content which your audience will love. Producing valuable content to help you effortlessly attract in your own clients and build your profile takes time. Getting the time to write blog posts isn’t easy when you have chargeable time targets of 7-8 hours a day. Therefore, the million dollar question is, how do you make the time to write blog posts or valuable content?
How to find the time to write blog posts
1. Know why you are doing it
When we were writing Valuable Content Marketing we interviewed a lot of people around the world and asked them how do they find the time to produce their content. For everybody it is a challenge but they recognise the importance of producing valuable content. Sonja Jefferson, co-author of ‘Valuable Content Marketing’
If you are writing a blog post because someone has asked you and you don’t know how or why it will be used, is it any wonder that this gets de-prioritised? Before you put pen to paper (or should that be fingers to keyboard) understand how you will use this blog post and how it will help your business development efforts. I am talking about blog posts here, but this could be videos, white papers, discussions on LinkedIn, report, research findings etc etc.
2. Work to a content plan
What is the quickest way to eat an elephant? One bite at a time.
When you do a brainstorm and work out exactly what pieces of content you want to be able to produce it can be very daunting. However by working to a schedule and prioritising what piece you will do when, you will be surprised at exactly how much does get done – and on time. For example one of my clients brainstormed fifty blog titles that he would want to have and be able to share with his top contacts. He then set himself the task of writing one of these blogs each week. Click on this link to download your free guide to content planning.
3. Share the content out
You delegate client work downwards. Therefore, how about delegating parts of the content plan downwards? You can often write and produce valuable content faster if it is not only you doing the hard work.
4. Allocate time in your diary to produce valuable content
Just as you would make sure you attend various networking events, or spend time with your introducers and key clients, allocate time in your diary to produce your content. I’ve personally found that on the days I go into London via the train, this is the perfect time to write a blog post or two.
5. Reuse and repackage
You don’t need to write or produce your content from scratch. For example, the blog post ‘everything you ever wanted to know about choosing a profitable niche‘ is a round up of all the articles I have written on this blog about finding and capitalising on a niche. There is nothing stopping you doing a round up of all the current thinking on a certain topic and sharing this in a blog. Other easy ways to reuse and repackage are:
- break a white paper up into several blog posts
- take a blog post from the archives and then do an ‘update’ on it in a new blog post
- break a tips based article up into an article for each tip – but go deeper into each tip.
6. Be on the look out for ideas for content
Getting inspiration for decent content need not be hard work. Carry a notepad around with you, or use something like evernote to jot down ideas for articles. Very often these ideas for articles come from conversations you are having with clients or prospects. Or you may find that social media is a great place to get inspiration for content you can create.
In Summary,
Producing and sharing valuable content should be part of every ambitious professionals personal marketing plan. In Chapter 5 of ‘The Go-To Expert we examine how to produce valuable content to attract in the right type of clients in a high level of detail. If you have found this blog post useful, then buy your copy of The Go-To Expert to dig into the subject in more detail.
