Latest / The SmallBizChat with Melinda Emerson / Effective Content Marketing Strategies with Carolyn Crummey
Transcript
- 0:00From a single podcast, you can get dozens of pieces of content that you can use blog posts.
- 0:06You know, from one podcast, we can take a client and we can get 5 blog posts out of it
- 0:11dozens dozens of social posts that come from it, split up the video into a number of, you
- 0:17know, different ways.
- 0:18And So I mean, from one piece of content, you're you've got tons of it.
- 0:22And go back to the other pieces of content that you have that might be a little bit older.
- 0:27Can you refresh them?
- 0:28Can you bring them up to date?
- 0:29Anything you have that might not be evergreen, you wanna be able to do that?
- 0:360 ignition, liftoff.
- 0:41Ending small business failure.
- 0:43Welcome to the Small Biz chat podcast with a number 1 small business expert, Melinda
- 0:49Emerson.
- 0:50Melinda's goal is to end small business failure, and she'll give you the information
- 0:54you need to succeed and live the life you've dream of.
- 0:58Now Here's the small Biz lady herself.
- 1:01Melinda Emerson.
- 1:04Hi, everybody.
- 1:05I'm Melinda Emerson, the small Biz lady, and I'm the host of the small biz chat podcast.
- 1:10I'm so excited to have you all here with us today because we have an amazing show.
- 1:16Now the small business chat podcast is a peer to peer interview show that gives small
- 1:21business owners a way to get invaluable business advice.
- 1:25The mission of small business chat is to end small business failure.
- 1:29You're here to get advice about how to take your business to the next level.
- 1:33And we're giving you different angles that you might wanna consider.
- 1:37So now with that, I want to turn and introduce my very first guest Her name is Carolyn Crummy,
- 1:45and she is a small business adviser and content marketing strategist with over 3 decades of
- 1:51experience in all aspects of starting, managing, and running a successful business.
- 1:56She's the owner of Vertastic.
- 1:58A boutique content marketing agency that offers small and midsized businesses, strategic know
- 2:04how that increases traffic, brand awareness, lead generation, and customer engagement.
- 2:09They also tactically execute those strategies with their done for you marketing services.
- 2:14You can get more information about her at vertastic.com.
- 2:19So it's t a s k tick.
- 2:21Alright.
- 2:22Carolyn, welcome to the small business chat podcast.
- 2:25Hey, Melinda.
- 2:26Thanks for having me.
- 2:27It's great to be here.
- 2:28Oh, I'm so excited to to learn from you.
- 2:31So let's just start out with the basics.
- 2:34Right?
- 2:34What is content marketing?
- 2:36And then tell me a little bit about how you became a contact guru.
- 2:40Sure.
- 2:40Absolutely.
- 2:41So content marketing is what we're doing right now.
- 2:43Right?
- 2:43It's a strategic marketing approach to focus on creating, distributing, and promoting valuable
- 2:51relevant and consistent content that's geared towards attracting your target audience and
- 2:57moving them to sale to make a sale.
- 3:00Right?
- 3:01So people don't always think of content marketing.
- 3:03It gets a little confusing, but really it's it's blogging podcasting, your email marketing,
- 3:07your lead generation of activities, that's all part of your content marketing.
- 3:13So why do you think that business owners need to do content marketing?
- 3:19Like, is it is, like, is it even an option not to do content?
- 3:23I was gonna say I don't know that it's an option to not do it.
- 3:26I mean, the reality is content marketing will deliver the greatest ROI of of all of your
- 3:31marketing efforts that you're gonna put out Right?
- 3:34And so what we're seeing is in 2021, 43% of marketers increased their content marketing
- 3:39budget.
- 3:39And in 2022, We're seeing that number go up even higher.
- 3:43More people are investing now in content marketing for one simple reason.
- 3:47It works.
- 3:48It's the best way to drive traffic to elevate your expertise in whatever your industry might
- 3:55be and to, you know, get in front of a target audience that you're looking to attract and
- 4:00sell to.
- 4:01Yeah.
- 4:02But I see a lot of bad practice out here, Carolyn.
- 4:05I mean, there's a lot of bad content on, you know, I think it's one of the reasons why I
- 4:11still have a job because I have a journalism background, so I always knew how to develop
- 4:16quality content.
- 4:17And I think that has always made the difference in my business.
- 4:21But why do you think some small businesses fail with their content marketing?
- 4:26So, you know, I'm not even sure if it the word fail is the right word with it.
- 4:31I think it's more how so many small businesses don't optimize the opportunities that are in
- 4:36front of them with content marketing.
- 4:38We see it all the time, and we hear it from other or some of our customers.
- 4:41Oh, I tried blogging it.
- 4:43It just doesn't work.
- 4:43You know, social media doesn't work for my business.
- 4:47Well, hate to tell you, social media and blogging work for every business.
- 4:50I don't care what kind of business it is.
- 4:52It's just that you're you're not doing it right.
- 4:55You know, you can't just write a blog, throw it out there, you know, once a month, maybe post
- 5:01on social media a couple of times and expect that that's gonna give you any kind of return
- 5:06for what your efforts are.
- 5:07It just doesn't work that way.
- 5:08You know, when I mentioned what is content marketing, one of the key words is consistent.
- 5:13Right, consistent, valuable, relevant information.
- 5:17Right?
- 5:18Those are such keys to it.
- 5:19So and the big problem we see a lot of times is a lack of strategy.
- 5:24Right?
- 5:24We see that across many areas of business, but in content, when it comes to content marketing,
- 5:29a lack of strategy is just setting you up for not receiving the return that you should be
- 5:34getting on all of your efforts.
- 5:36So you've gotta start with a strategy and understanding, you know, exactly what you're
- 5:41hoping to gain by each of the activities, whether it be blogging, podcasting, email
- 5:47marketing, you know, what what's your expectation on that and how are you gonna, you
- 5:50know, move that forward in your business?
- 5:52And, you know, I call that random acts content.
- 5:56Right?
- 5:56You know, when people don't have a strategy, they're just out here.
- 5:59Oh, I think I should be on TikTok because everybody's on TikTok.
- 6:02And I
- 6:02was like, You don't need to be if your people are on to time.
- 6:06Right?
- 6:06Exactly.
- 6:07I think people get caught up, though, in, like, you know, the rabbit, like, oh, there's
- 6:11something new.
- 6:12Let me go chase that.
- 6:13So Yeah.
- 6:14But how do you figure out the best content channel for your business?
- 6:18Well, it's actually it's a lot easier than many people think.
- 6:22The right content channels for you are where your audience is.
- 6:25But let's back that up a step.
- 6:27Right?
- 6:27You've gotta know who your audience is.
- 6:29And I know we've talked about this before.
- 6:32So many people fail to identify their target audience and have a really deep understanding
- 6:38of who they are.
- 6:39And if you don't know that, just stop Just stop what you're doing.
- 6:43You know, it it makes no sense.
- 6:45So define who your audience is.
- 6:47And once you know that, then you can very easily figure out where they're hanging out.
- 6:51Right?
- 6:52Are they are they the type of people that wanna listen to a podcast?
- 6:55Are they are they the type of people that'll come to your website and and and read a blog
- 7:00post?
- 7:01Are they sitting on Facebook?
- 7:02Are they sitting on Instagram?
- 7:04What is it?
- 7:05So there's a lot of things you'd have to think about, but it all comes down to where's your
- 7:10audience hanging out and you need to go hang out there with them?
- 7:14Well, one of the things that I've noticed, at least in the last, you know, year is short form
- 7:22video.
- 7:23Everybody's talking about it.
- 7:25TikTok now has, you know, what, a 1,000,000,000 daily users or something.
- 7:29I mean, like, to the point where all the other platforms are, like, taking on TikTok
- 7:33personality because because they're trying to siphon people away.
- 7:36So it is is Instagram Real's TikTok, you know, I think YouTube shorts is even Facebook now has
- 7:46a has a video, like, I mean, do you gotta be doing video?
- 7:50Is video converting better than any other type of content?
- 7:53100%.
- 7:54100%.
- 7:55They said, what was this?
- 7:56You know,
- 7:56okay.
- 7:56This is how I'm gonna prove I'm a a gal of the eighties.
- 7:59Wait.
- 7:59Video killed the radio star.
- 8:01Right?
- 8:01Well, video is taken over content marketing as well.
- 8:04I mean, you have got to be doing video in 2022.
- 8:08I mean, if you weren't weren't doing it in 2021, when you should have been doing it,
- 8:12you've got to be doing it in 2022.
- 8:14And every social platform now is set up with video.
- 8:18So it's not really just TikTok or or reels.
- 8:21You know, Facebook has been video for a long time.
- 8:23Pinterest, you know, all of the main social platforms have a have a outlet now for you to
- 8:28do more video.
- 8:30And the question, do I need to be on TikTok?
- 8:32Do I need to be on reels?
- 8:33Again, let's back that up to I don't know.
- 8:35Is your audience hanging out there?
- 8:37Where are they hanging out?
- 8:38If they're there, you better be there, and you better be, you know, producing valuable content
- 8:43for them.
- 8:44So you just mentioned Pinterest, and that's another one.
- 8:46I'm starting to hear
- 8:47a lot of buzz around Pinterest.
- 8:50And so talk to me about how Pinterest has sort of, like, had this resurgence and it has a lot
- 8:55to do with video too.
- 8:56Right?
- 8:57It absolutely does.
- 8:58And and it's funny.
- 8:58You know, we wrote it we wrote an article I'm gonna say, like, 3, 4 years ago talking about
- 9:03Pinterest.
- 9:04I mean, Pinterest is one of the first things that comes out of my mouth a lot of times when
- 9:07I talk about content marketing strategy, assuming that the client I'm talking with has
- 9:13an audience there.
- 9:14So if you have an audience that includes women anywhere from the age of 23 to sixty five, you
- 9:20should be on Pinterest.
- 9:21And the deal with Pinterest is I always tell people don't think of Pinterest as another
- 9:26social media platform.
- 9:28You need to be thinking about Pinterest as a search engine just like you would with Google
- 9:33or, you know, I don't think Google's the only search engine I use.
- 9:36So or, you know, the other ones, but it it's a search engine, and that's the power of
- 9:42Pinterest.
- 9:43Now just like many of the other ones, they now have Pinterest ideas and Pinterest idea pins
- 9:49are now short form videos that you actually go and and the response to those has just been
- 9:54amazing.
- 9:56So you couple where, like, on Instagram, you don't have that ability to push people back to
- 10:01your website, of course, unless or over 10,000 viewers.
- 10:04So you lose a little bit of that ability to redirect traffic back to your website.
- 10:09Pinterest is a perfect vehicle for that now even with their pinned videos because Your
- 10:13whole goal when you're doing content marketing and and posting on social should be get to get
- 10:18people back to your website where they can learn more about you and discover more of the
- 10:23content that you have, which is gonna actually help to convert them.
- 10:28Alright.
- 10:28So you have made the case for why we need to be doing more content.
- 10:33What what kind of time and resources do I need to have monthly to be churning out significant
- 10:41content because it's not a it's not an inexpensive thing to do.
- 10:45So
- 10:45It isn't.
- 10:46You know, because you pay with your time and time is so valuable for small businesses, but
- 10:50But give me a ballpark of, like, what people need to be prepared to do if they're really
- 10:56ready to get serious about content.
- 10:58Yeah.
- 10:58So I think, you know, even if we just talk about a base content marketing strategy where
- 11:03you're blogging, let's just say, twice a month, right, for to to be but then you're creating
- 11:09social, right, that has to be, you know, consistent.
- 11:12So you're out on social three, four times a week on the different channels.
- 11:16And maybe you've got some short form videos that you're creating and you're doing it, you
- 11:21know, some email marketing so that you can continue to work with the the people that have
- 11:25already raised their hand and set an interest in what you do.
- 11:28I think studies have shown that to kind of maintain that base most people are looking at
- 11:33about 20 hours of time.
- 11:36A blog post on average now somebody who doesn't have a background in journalism like you, and I
- 11:40know you can churn out content can turn out content pretty easily.
- 11:44But, I mean, an average person, you're 3 hours on a blog post, to get it done.
- 11:49But what you've gotta remember is it's not even just that.
- 11:52Right?
- 11:52It's not just writing a blog post.
- 11:54It's the uploading it.
- 11:55It's the thinking about the SEO optimization because all of those pieces come into play.
- 12:00And and then promoting it on social media, doing an email out to your list, let them know
- 12:06because just because you wrote it, doesn't mean they're gonna come read it.
- 12:09You gotta let people know.
- 12:10Right?
- 12:11So it's having a a consistent process and system for your content that you put together
- 12:17But on average, you know, an individual need to spend.
- 12:20I know when we do just our marketing in house for domestic, we we have somebody that spends a
- 12:25good you know, 20 to 25 hours a week, just on our own our own stuff.
- 12:32Now you talked about writing content, right, writing blog posts.
- 12:35Now I'm starting to see all these ads for all these AI services, whether it's jarvis.ai or
- 12:42any word.com.
- 12:44Yeah.
- 12:45Is that legit, or is it or is anybody gonna end up having articles that all sound alike?
- 12:51You know, so we've we've played with some.
- 12:52I'm a I'm an absolute tech geek.
- 12:54Right?
- 12:54So if there's a new tool out there and especially AI, which AI is gonna be the future
- 12:59of a lot of things that we do, I'm gonna be testing it out.
- 13:02So I've looked at Jarvis.
- 13:03I've played with any word.
- 13:04And, you know, there are there are some positive merits to it.
- 13:07I mean, it can aid if you're not a strong writer or you're not somebody who particularly
- 13:14enjoys writing, it could possibly use to help you kind of Finesse words to a page.
- 13:21Is it quite there yet?
- 13:22I don't think so.
- 13:23I don't think so for the the type of content that's really gonna move the bar for you.
- 13:28And actually get you the results that you want from a content marketing plan, but it's
- 13:33definitely come a long way.
- 13:34And I think as the AI for some of these, you know, begin to learn more and they're they're
- 13:39fed more content and they have more users then they're just gonna become more intelligent.
- 13:44So I don't I can see, you know, 2, 3 years down the road where we're gonna see a lot more AI
- 13:51content But what will be interesting to see is how our good friends at Google accept that AI
- 13:58content and what and what they do to actually encourage or discourage that use of AI content.
- 14:06I think that's a really good point.
- 14:08Now I for the record, I would be remiss if I did not ask you.
- 14:12What is the right length of a blog post that people should be writing?
- 14:17I mean, it started 300 words.
- 14:19Then it went to 500.
- 14:21750.
- 14:22Now I've seen, I mean, Neil Patel, I saw him on the interview talking about 2000 words of post.
- 14:27So help me understand Where are we at with people that are still out here blogging?
- 14:32Cause I feel like people that are still blogging are rare because I think everybody
- 14:36else is on podcasts or videos now.
- 14:38But What is the right length for for SEO and for real conversion that you need to be
- 14:43thinking about for a blog post?
- 14:45Yeah.
- 14:45I think there's a number of studies out there, and it changes.
- 14:48It's everything else.
- 14:49Right?
- 14:49It keeps kind of changing.
- 14:50You're right.
- 14:51You know, I think 4 years ago, you were you were, like, 7, 800 words.
- 14:55I'm good to go.
- 14:56Blog post written.
- 14:57But now we've been into the don't write anything under 1500 words.
- 15:01So and I've even seen now that, you know, even blogs that are 3000 words are testing better
- 15:07than, you know, those that are in that 12 to 1600 thing.
- 15:11The thing to keep in mind is this.
- 15:13Right?
- 15:13When you're writing a blog post, you know, is it valuable?
- 15:17Is the person, you know, the last thing you want is to someone come read your blog post?
- 15:21Right?
- 15:22Get to the end of it and go, well, I can't get, you know, that 5 minutes of my life back.
- 15:26Right?
- 15:26It's like watching a bad movie.
- 15:28Right?
- 15:28You don't wanna be like, oh god.
- 15:29I know.
- 15:30I can't get that time back.
- 15:31You want them to finish it and then crave more.
- 15:34So I will always tell people go for value over length Right?
- 15:41Be thinking about that and then just optimizing that content that you have put in there.
- 15:47Right?
- 15:47Make it something that They walk away, they've learned something, and then they wanna come
- 15:52back to you to learn more.
- 15:53They you just want them leaving, to coming back and saying, you know what?
- 15:58When I need help in this area, now I know where to go and they bookmark you and they keep
- 16:02coming back.
- 16:02That's your goal.
- 16:05I couldn't I couldn't agree with you more.
- 16:07You were just such a a wealth of information, but we've gotta take a break.
- 16:11But when we come right back, I'm gonna talk some more with Carolyn Crummy about how often
- 16:17should you update your content strategy?
- 16:19I'm Melinda Emerson, the small business lady, and we will be right back.
- 16:23Hi.
- 16:23I'm Melinda Emerson's small biz lady, and I wanna welcome you to small biz lady university.
- 16:28Our mission here is to end small business failure.
- 16:32So all of the courses here are about 2 things.
- 16:36How to become your own boss or how to make money online.
- 16:40So that's what we do here.
- 16:41So whether you wanna learn about email, marketing, and sales funnels, or you're ready
- 16:46to get started with social media selling Or if you're really just getting started with e
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- 17:05If you have any questions or have any technical getting signed up, just email us at
- 17:10support@malindamerson.com.
- 17:14Take care.
- 17:17Hi, everybody.
- 17:18Welcome back to the small bizchett podcast.
- 17:20I'm here with my guest, Carolyn Crumick, CEO of Vertastic.
- 17:24And, Carolyn, we were just talking about a lot of content stuff, but here's the deal.
- 17:28How often should a small business update their content strategy?
- 17:34Well, the one thing about a content strategy is, like, any strategy.
- 17:38Right?
- 17:38You wanna update it if it's not working.
- 17:40Right?
- 17:40So you wanna make sure So we suggest to all of our clients, the beginning of the year, we
- 17:45reevaluate everybody's content strategy for a number of reasons.
- 17:49Right?
- 17:49What's working and what's not?
- 17:51The great thing about content marketing is, and it's a very important part of content marketing
- 17:56is looking at your data.
- 17:58Data does not lie.
- 17:59And so data is what's gonna help you choose what your strategy is going to be.
- 18:05The other thing is things change fast in the world of content and content marketing.
- 18:10So you wanna make sure that, you know, you're taking all of the new tech, you know, tactics
- 18:15and strategies come along and seeing if they fit into your current strategy.
- 18:20So you kind of always wanna be looking at your strategy and maybe tweaking it and maybe
- 18:25pivoting if something's not working, but definitely you wanted to kind of look at what
- 18:29you're doing at the beginning of every year.
- 18:32And kind of set a plan for the for the year to come with what you're gonna be doing.
- 18:35I love it.
- 18:36Now what about repurposing?
- 18:38I mean, if you're gonna spend all this time developing content.
- 18:42Shouldn't you be able to use it to maybe?
- 18:46Absolutely.
- 18:47Absolutely.
- 18:48I mean, no nobody wants to reinvent the wheel.
- 18:50Right?
- 18:50So this is a great thing.
- 18:52One of the big things coming up in 2022 and where we see a lot of people going to is
- 18:56podcast.
- 18:57Right?
- 18:57If they haven't already made that, you know, switch over to podcasting, we're seeing a lot
- 19:01of people make that move in 2022.
- 19:03And the great part about that is that from a single podcast, you can get dozens of pieces of
- 19:09content that you can use blog posts.
- 19:12You know, from one podcast, we can take a client and we can get 5 blog posts out of it
- 19:18dozens dozens of social posts that come from it, split up the video into a number of, you
- 19:23know, different ways.
- 19:24And So, I mean, from one piece of content, you've you've got tons of it.
- 19:29And go back to the other pieces of content that you have that might be a little bit older.
- 19:33Can you refresh them?
- 19:34Can you bring them up to date?
- 19:35Anything you have that might not be evergreen, you wanna be able to do that.
- 19:39And then think of things like creating a video from a blog that maybe you did last year that
- 19:44you can now just do a quick video for it and then republish it that way.
- 19:48You have that some internal linking that you can create on your website.
- 19:51You've got some new content, infographics, videos, all of these things that you can pull
- 19:56from existing content that you have That's an excellent way to utilize the bit of time that
- 20:02you have to do your content marketing to get some value out of it.
- 20:05I love it.
- 20:06I love it.
- 20:06What what good, good ideas?
- 20:08Alright, Carolyn.
- 20:09Last question.
- 20:10What is the best business advice anyone's ever asked you?
- 20:13Asked me
- 20:14or given these.
- 20:15So, yes, fine.
- 20:18That's fine.
- 20:19I'd have to say, you know, my I'm a I'm a child of small biz, parents.
- 20:24My parents both ran their own small businesses.
- 20:27I started working in a small business with my parents when I was 12.
- 20:31And I think from the very beginning, the one thing that was instilled was know your numbers,
- 20:37and that's always been a a big piece.
- 20:40And I'm amazed you know, when I talk with clients, sometimes how many people don't know
- 20:45their numbers.
- 20:46And when you're working, especially in a service based business where you're providing
- 20:50services, it can very quickly, become non profit, you know, negative profit because we
- 20:57don't value time the way.
- 20:58So so knowing your numbers and and I think in addition to that, knowing your value, that's
- 21:04that's a big, big one as well.
- 21:07I couldn't agree more.
- 21:08Thank you so much, Carolyn.
- 21:09You have imparted so much wisdom for us tonight, and I hope everybody's gonna be
- 21:14thinking about what their new content strategy might be.
- 21:18Alright, Carolyn.
- 21:19What's your favorite podcast?
- 21:21Oh gosh.
- 21:21So many of them, but I think the one I I listen to pretty faithfully is, Amy Porterfield.
- 21:26It's marketing made easy.
- 21:27She just she just has a great way of, getting new marketing information out there.
- 21:32I love it.
- 21:33What is your favorite business app?
- 21:35Oh, actually, this one's easy for me because we just saved ourselves as an agency about $700 a
- 21:41month by getting rid of 3 different apps and just going to this new app, but nobody probably
- 21:47knows anything about, an app Sumo geek.
- 21:49And I found it there, and it's called plutio.
- 21:53We got rid of Asana.
- 21:54We got rid of, time tracking.
- 21:56We got rid of another client portal that we had, and this has wrapped everything into 1.
- 22:02Plutio.
- 22:02We love it.
- 22:03Clutio.
- 22:04Alright.
- 22:04I'm gonna have to check that out.
- 22:06Alright, Caroline.
- 22:07What's your favorite business for?
- 22:09That's hard.
- 22:10So I'm gonna go with the last one.
- 22:11Actually, our team, our entire team, I just forced my entire team to read this one.
- 22:15Who not how?
- 22:16By Dan Sullivan.
- 22:18It's a new one, and I gotta tell you it will change your business if you embrace who, not
- 22:24how, and it's it's a good one.
- 22:26I love it.
- 22:27This was so awesome.
- 22:28Please support my guests because they have given their time and advice here tonight.
- 22:33They help all of us do better in business.
- 22:35Thank you all for watching this episode of the small bitch chat podcast.
- 22:40If you're looking for your digital pivot, I've got a resource that's gonna help you.
- 22:44We've got wonderful courses over at Small Buslady University.
- 22:47And I have one called social media selling that we just launched earlier this year.
- 22:51So if you're looking to figure out how you can turn your social into cash, I've got everything
- 22:56you need.
- 22:57All you have to do is head over to smallbizladyuniversity.com.
- 23:01You know, the mission of small business chat is to end small business failure.
- 23:05It is my honor to work with you all and share my insight and the of my guests And I wanna
- 23:11leave you with this.
- 23:12You never lose in business, either you win or you learn.
- 23:16God bless everybody.
- 23:17Good night.
- 23:19Thank you for listening to the Small Biz Chat podcast with Melinda Emerson.
- 23:25For more resources and small business success strategies, visit succeed as your own boss.com.
- 23:31Subscribe to this podcast wherever you listen to podcasts and join us next Wednesday.