Why a Blog Editorial Calendar Could Revolutionize Your Business

Is your content working for your business?

By that I mean, are you getting the readers you want on your blog? Are your blog posts converting readers into buyers?

How much time do you spend writing your blog post every week? And is that time converting to more dollars for your business?

The sad truth is that for many people reading this, the answer is NO: no, their blog posts aren’t reaching the right eyeballs and converting those readers to customers. And so, QED, no, the time they’re spending on their blog posts ISN’T converting to dollars.

But they keep writing. They keep on posting every week (mostly). They’ve been told they need to have a blog, so they keep on blogging — even when it isn’t working.

Bless their hearts.

You have been lied to about blogging.

I don’t want to step on any toes here, but I want to be totally honest and straight with you. All those gurus and coaches and masterminds and programs that told you that you need to be blogging for your business — they lied to you.

Because a lie by omission is still a lie.

Yes, if you have an online business, blogging is crazy important for a whole host of reasons. I could give you statistics and a list of reasons WHY it’s important as long as my arm, but here’s the part all those gurus left out of the equation:

A blog without a strategy is a waste of time.

Tweet that, share that, sing it from the mountains, because if you don’t have a STRATEGY behind what you’re posting and when, my friend, then you are basically flushing money down the toilet every time you sit down to blog. Time = money and none of that time you spend writing those blog posts is earning you a cent.

I get so frustrated when I see these big Internet marketing names touting their courses that include blog “templates” that will help you go viral and get you gobs of traffic, etc. etc. etc.

Hey, gobs of traffic would be awesome, right? Who DOESN’T want something they create to go viral? Those are understandable, lofty goals.

But let me ask you this: What will you do with all that traffic once you get it?

Are you chasing the first click, or the last?

Let’s say you follow one of these templates and you DO see a massive spike in traffic. Some big name in your niche tweets about you and suddenly, you are FLOODED with new readers — a great majority of whom are your ideal customer. 

Fantastic, right??

Well… What are you going to do for your second act? You followed this template to get them here — does all your other content follow the same boring format?

You got the first click; how do you plan to get the second?

And how many clicks do you need before they buy?

The cold truth is that very few people will buy directly from a blog post. Very few. As in, almost none. 

So, unless you have massive, MASSIVE traffic, you’re not going to see any sales from your blog.  Period.

But that’s normal. And that’s not really what your blog was meant to do.

On the contrary, your blog is many things, one of which is the first step in getting a new reader to know, like, and trust you. 

If you provide:

• valuable information that they need and are looking for
• in your own interesting voice, so that they get to know you
• they will trust you enough to PAY for more information from you with their email address.

This is Seth Godin’s permission marketing strategy. Your blog is the medium through which you earn permission to market to your ideal customer.

Like that? Tweet that one out, too, because it’s a concept most people don’t get. 

Your blog is only the FIRST STEP you are taking in earning a person’s trust, so that they will give you their email address and allow you to market directly to them through email.

So, while a post that garners you a huge boost in traffic is something we all dream of, you have to have a PLAN for how you’re going to get that traffic to stick around long enough to give you permission to market to them.

To reiterate: your goal with your blog is not to directly make sales; your goal is to create fans who know, like, and trust you enough to give you their email address.

And frankly, that rarely happens by accident.

You need a strategy. A blog editorial calendar will give it to you. 

This is where I start beating the drum of the editorial calendar — because this is the tool that will allow you to build the strategy you need to attract the right kinds of readers, get permission to market to them via email, and convert them to paying customers.

Let’s look at this backwards for a moment. In my experience working with one-on-one clients, if you don’t know what to write about:

• you don’t understand what YOU want to get out of the post for your business
• you aren’t sure what you want to sell with that post
• you don’t know how (or more likely, haven’t thought about how) to make the connection between what your customer THINKS they need and what you have to offer
• or you’re afraid of giving away too much for free.

If you have an editorial calendar, it solves all of these problems for you:

• it helps you get clear on what you want to accomplish with each blog post.
• it allows you to visualize your sales cycle so that you know which product or service to sell at any given time.
• it makes understanding your customer journey simpler, so that you can create the content they need for the stage they’re in
• and it helps you realize that how much you give is directly proportional to how much you are trusted.

But how do I put it all together?

Have I convinced you? Do you understand now that any blog post you’re writing that isn’t a part of a bigger strategy is probably a waste of time?

And don’t get me wrong: those fun posts you do about your kids or your cat or your beer or whatever? Those can be part of a strategy, too!  But if you’re not doing it intentionally, you’re not going to see much benefit.

If you take the time to figure out your strategy for your content, you’ll be rewarded with content that actually supports your business. You’ll not only know what to write about every time you sit down to blog, but you’ll also know — FOR SURE — that your content is moving you closer to your business goals.

Ready?  Click here to learn more.