Gah! It’s another one of those ‘I do not know what to write about days’. For nearly an hour, I’ve sat here with a blank screen, thinking no one is going to read this… it’s the bank holiday weekend. It’s August; everyone’s on holiday! It is so easy to let those voices in, isn’t it? The ones that cause you to lose momentum, screw up your consistency and essentially sabotage your results – and that’s in all areas of life! Not just Marketing!

“Come on, Christina – Let’s do this!”

Nope, still nothing. We have a content plan that I should be sticking to, and it’s not that I don’t have ideas. I have tons of them – really, really good ones! I just don’t feel like writing about any of them. There is something to be said for getting ‘in state’ when it comes to producing content. It’s obviously more relevant to video content when you have to be in the right mindset to perform in front of a camera. But honestly, it’s just as relevant when you’re writing!

The truth is that, for me, writing a few hundred words on a topic takes just as much energy as presenting a 90-minute webinar.

1. I have to think of a topic with a title that’s really engaging. `So engaging that people won’t want to miss it. (Or, in this case, read it.)
2. I have to think about structure because otherwise, I’ll disappear down some ever-winding track that is completely unrelated to the topic. Usually, 5, 7, or 10 points I want to cover. Making sure, of course, that they’re in the right order, so it all makes sense and is easy to follow! (My brain doesn’t think ‘in order’, so this is often a challenge.)
3. Then I need to know how I’m going to bring it all together for the big, impactful, memorable finish. That way, I can make sure I don’t miss anything when I’m delivering the content.
4. Then it all needs to be turned into slides, etc. and made to look pretty!
5. Then I figure out what I’m ACTUALLY going to say.

The way I approach writing blogs is pretty much the same as the above.

How I teach my clients to write blogs, however, is a little different

I give them a framework to use as a guide.

• WHAT are you going to write about
• WHY are you writing it
• HOW to make the change/implement/take the steps
• WHEN the things being discussed should happen
• WHAT IF your reader doesn’t listen to your guidance
• WHAT’S NEXT? Does the reader need to contact you for help? Read a follow on article? Go check something? What?

Throwing out the rule book

Sometimes though… you have to throw it all out of the window and just get writing. Not everything you produce will be a masterpiece. This will likely be the worst written article this year as I’ve literally thrown the rule book out of the window and just started writing to see where it took me. The odd blog that is simply a piece of ‘Free Writing’ won’t hurt any algorithms. Google won’t suddenly demote us in their rankings. However, I will have continued to maintain consistency, the automated marketing activities that will action because this has been published mean that those all-important touchpoints will have been met. (In truth, it’s probably going to end up being one of the most read articles this year. That always happens! The stuff you toil over and think will be a big hit often flops – the stuff you think most likely to flop is the stuff that EVERYONE ends up seeing!)

Let’s leave it there

I think it’s time to stop and figure out how to draw this to a close. In writing this, I’ve realised there are two, possibly three blogs we need to build into our content plan, which I can delegate and get someone else in the team to write for me, potentially! If I hadn’t taken the free writing approach, I probably would not have thought of these as specific articles.

Plus, as I said, it’s August, and we’re heading towards a bank holiday weekend plus, it’s the last few days before the children head back to school. I’ll keep your reading short so you can go and enjoy some downtime. See you back here in a week or so where we’re all going to be well-rested and ready to smash the rest of the year. For now, kick back and relax. You deserve it.