The last thing you should do if you want to grow your business is NOT SHOW UP.
A week ago, my family was circled around the computer to meet our (likely) new babysitter.
I had been messaging this woman (she is a college grad, married, works for a pediatrician, and wants a little side work) for a week. I was super confident that she was the ONE.
Cake + writing? I mean, could it get any better? Betsy was so fun to work with - she is a visionary in the world of wedding cakes and makes the most delicious cupcakes. Helping her craft the messaging that would lead her ideal clients through her website was an absolute joy.
And as happy as cake makes me, testimonials like hers make me even happier. Here's what she had to say about working together.
"Amanda was absolutely wonderful to work with. When I decided I wanted to redo my bakery website, I had no idea where to start. Amanda was the answer!
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How you ever wondered why it’s so hard to write for your business?
You live and breathe your work. It’s your passion, it’s your hobby, it’s what fills up your cup when everything else seems to be falling apart.
You know the ins and outs of it - the good parts - the bad parts - and you absolutely know who your ideal customer is and what they need.
Shouldn’t you be the PERFECT person to write the copy on your website and your marketing materials?
Writing is hard. Writing for your website is tortuous. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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Earlier this week, we talked about WHY it’s hard to write website copy for your business. There are SO. MANY. REASONS. And yes, one of the ways to make writing for your website easier is to hire a copywriter (hello, hi, it’s me;) ). But you know what? You can also DIY your website copy. You can (and will) get better the more you write.
Does staring at a blank page, knowing you need to write, give you a pit in your stomach? 🙋🏻♀️⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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In a poll last week, most of you said that getting started is the hardest part of writing website copy. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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For some reason, we can talk endlessly about what we do and how we are changing the lives of our customers, but when it’s time to sit down and write about it, we have nothing left to say.
What words come to mind when you think about your business and how you want to present yourself to your customers? How do you want to make your customers feel?
When I started this business back in 2014, there wasn't a lot of strategy behind the visual brand. I didn't see a connection between my logo and the colors I used to how I appealed to my customers. This time around, everything is different. Working with RuthAnn at R Artspace was an enlightening experience and brought clarity to my vision.
3 years. How exactly does one reintroduce themselves after disappearing for three YEARS? I’m fairly certain there aren’t any tips or tricks on this one because it’s probably not recommended to leave in the first place. So, this may be bumpy, but let’s do it anyway! 🙌🏻
Hi, my long-lost friend! I’m Amanda Washburn - owner and writer behind Rough Draft Solutions. For the last three years, I’ve been a stay-at-home mom focused on raising my two sweet rambunctious little boys with my husband Nate. We live on four acres 30-minutes outside of Lansing, Michigan, and we thoroughly enjoy keeping life simple.
A photo may be worth a thousand words, but what happens when it’s paired with a well thought out caption? Now that’s where the magic happens.
Instagram captions can be a time-suck. You finally perfected your photo and are now staring at a white box wondering what in the world to say. You frantically head to Pinterest searching for an idea, a clever phrase, or a witty quote. Maybe you type a few words, but then immediately erase it because it’s not creative enough, cheeky, or genuine. Next thing you know, a half hour goes by, and you have to move on to the next thing on your endless to-do list without even posting a photo! Ugh.
A couple of weeks ago, the Michigan Business Rap had me on their Lunch Break radio program. I thoroughly enjoyed meeting local business professionals and sharing my insight on content marketing! The other participants couldn’t have been more welcoming and gracious.
So what is the Michigan Business Rap? According to their website, “Michigan Business Rap is a daily radio show hosted by Michael Patrick Shiels and Tony Cuthbert. Every weekday afternoon from 12-1 p.m. on The Team 92.1 FM the show is live. The hosts engage a panel of local business experts in a roundtable discussion, which is designed to break down hot topics and timely news stories from the perspective of business owners. The show opens the microphone to the business community, resulting in informative, interactive and entertaining discussions.”
Your website is the face of your company.
You may have heard that before, but it’s worth repeating. Your website is often the first place people go when they want to learn about what you do and how you can help them. And while it’s important for your website to look appealing, the words on each page will determine if it works effectively for your business or not.
The truth is, website content is often an afterthought. When building a website for your business, your first thought was probably about how you wanted it to look. Don’t get me wrong! A well-designed website is imperative, but your content is what’s going to cause people to take action.
By now, as a business owner, you’re probably well aware of the benefits of blogging. But do you realize the harm you may be doing by NOT posting consistently?
The thing is, humans are creatures of habit. We like to have routines. We want to know that the businesses we choose to work with will deliver on their promises consistently. And frankly, grabbing the attention of your readers is hard enough. If you succeed in capturing their interest, you better not push them away by only posting interesting content once in a blue moon.
If you blog every week for a month, and then disappear for six weeks, your customers are going to wonder what happened. If you post sporadically, your customers won’t make it a habit to check your blog every week. You want to make sure you deliver content to them when they are looking for it! You want your readers to get used to coming to your blog every Wednesday, or whichever day you post!
Starting a company from scratch isn’t easy. Trust me, I’ve been there.
When you first begin, it can be frustrating. You don’t have the money to create big, extravagant advertisements or campaigns to get people’s attention. You don’t have the online presence with your website or social media to direct prospective clients to your company. You don’t have the help of a full-time marketing staff. But there are still affordable things you can do to raise awareness about your business!
Business owners are some of the busiest people in the world. It’s no secret that you’re juggling a million things. Often, writing content for your website, blog, newsletter, and social media platforms probably isn’t high on your priority list. But if you’ve been around here very long, you know how vital content is in enriching your customer's experience.
The truth is, as business owners, we have the tendency to put too much on ourselves. This isn’t because we don’t trust our staff or don’t know how to prioritize. It’s because we want to do the best we can for our business. But if you’re anything like me, you need to remember you can’t possibly do it all and it is okay to get help.
You’ve got a blog, you’ve scheduled the time to write, and now you just need one more thing. A blog post idea to write about.
Even though you’re an expert in your field, sometimes the hardest thing is to figure out how to capture your knowledge and ideas into a pretty little blog post. How do you balance sharing what you know and answering the questions your customers have?
Do you ever wish you could hire someone to write blog posts for your business and still get the credit?
Kind of feels like cheating on a test, right? Thankfully, it’s not. In fact, it is a recommended practice that will not only save you time but provide value to your customers.
A ghostwriter is someone who will take on your tone, style and persona and use it to write content for you, under your name. Not all successful small business owners are skilled writers, nor do they have an abundance of extra time. A ghostwriter can write your blog posts and newsletters, giving you the freedom to focus on the work you love and need to do.
As a small business owner, your biggest concern is probably not your blog. You’ve got clients to please, products to produce, services to refine, and a whole lot more. And yet, blogging is vital to the growth of your business and the support of your customers.
Your to-do list may seem endless, but you cannot afford to ignore your blog.
If you’re disenchanted with writing for your business blog, it’s important to refocus, shake things up, and find your mojo again.
Recently, I've heard a few people say email is dead. They are wrong.
Even in the world of overflowing inboxes, it is still worth your time to reach out to your customers through email.
Email campaigns are an effective way to provide value, connect with your customers, and share more about your business. With an email campaign, you are sending out marketing content on a specific schedule with the intention of increasing your customer’s awareness, trust, and interest in your business.
Writing is one of those things that small business owners either love or hate to do. And as someone who falls into the love-it camp, it's still hard for me to find enough time to write for my business.
If you’re a small business owner, content marketing needs to be a part of your daily business strategy.
Still scratching your head and wondering what content marketing is exactly?
oe Pulizzi defines the concept in his book, Epic Content Marketing, as “the process of developing and sharing relevant, valuable, and engaging content to a target audience with the goal of acquiring new customers or increasing business from existing customers.”
Pulizzi further explains, “Content Marketing is about delivering the content your audience is seeking in all the places they are searching for it. It is the effective combination of created, curated and syndicated content.”
Who doesn’t want their blog to be more successful? Nobody.
As business owners and marketers, we are all looking for ways to increase readership, enhance engagement, and ultimately, get more mileage out of the blog posts we write!
A couple weeks ago, we published a short video “4 Ways to Make Your Blog More Successful.” We totally appreciate all of the wonderful feedback you gave! We wanted to provide a more in-depth look at these tips and share a few more tips we think you need to take your blog to the next level.
These are the tried-and-true strategies we have been using for the past year. Enjoy!