When you create an article and use it on a blog and a newsletter, there are 5 things to format differently on each platform.
The reason we do this is to …. save time with marketing! You do not need to have two different articles to have a blog post and a newsletter. Use the same one! Repurpose that content!
Marketing can be so confusing, and it is this confusion that leads to trying things over and over. This is where the wasting time comes into play.
I get the confusion. It’s one of the biggest issues my students and clients have with marketing, and my goal is to always make it less confusing.
To share systems, methods and even shortcuts to make marketing easier to do, easier to understand and most importantly, in a way that take less time and gets you more results. Because here’s the thing, if you are going to take time and do your marketing, you want it to work. To do its job, which ultimately is to help your business stay in business.
Today, I want to finish off with part two of the lesson from last week where we discussed the steps to creating an article and how often we create them backwards, which is perfectly fine. (If you missed it, you can check it out here: Steps to Writing an Effective Blog Article.)
Now here is my biggest tip for you on repurposing your Anchor Content – the article you have written.
Most people use it in their blog OR in a newsletter. Too many people forget that you must use that content you created in both places.
- On the website as a blog, it is to help with SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and help get new leads to your email marketing list.
- In your email system as a newsletter, it is to communicate and engage with your email subscribers. People already on your list.
What this means is each version needs to be formatted differently because the audience reading it is different, as is their purpose. BUT you use the same content! There is no need to write an article for your newsletter and a different one on your blog.
You repurpose one article for both places. It is the same content. What is different are specific elements that we change for each placement – the newsletter or the blog.
This is something I share with members in my Thrive Marketing Academy and Inner Circle Membership groups. Part of the training is learning to follow the Article Template I created so that they remember every specific element to include that helps you format the article for a newsletter, a blog and also all the social media and SEO elements that will go with it.
The template walks them through all the different aspects of what to format and create when you are writing your marketing content.
Today, I am going to share the top 5 elements you need to format differently between your newsletter and blog.
- Subject Line and Title
- Subtitle and Intro
- Images
- SEO Elements – Blog Categories and Tags
- Call to Action
Let’s look at what we change for each of these 5 elements.
1. Subject Line and Title
In an email, the subject line is intended to get people to open the email and read the content. It needs to invoke curiosity and make folks want to click open.
In a blog on your web site, the title needs to impress the search engines and people searching on the internet. This time it needs keywords so the search engines know what it is about, and so that folks searching online for solutions might find it because the search engines have registered it and shown it to them as a possible solution to their search.
2. Subtitle and Intro
In your newsletter, you do not technically need a subtitle. This is a specific element for a blog. It gets formatted in a way to give the search engines additional information on what the content is about.
Both articles need an Intro, a segue into what people will learn by reading the article. On your blog, the subtitle comes first and should be a short, sweet, keyword rich one line sentence. Then you go into the Intro.
3. Images
Both content pieces and placements need images. In your blog, you can add more. In a newsletter, I tend to limit the article to one image in order to help improve the deliverability of the emails to the email subscribers. There are studies that say less images in email is more, but one of the main reasons I do this is because many systems do not automatically download and show images. This means if your subscribers do not click to show the images, they will not see them. So always make sure they support the text in your article and are not the meat of the article.
Images in Blogs on the other hand, you can definitely add more to break up the text, but always make sure they are optimized for the web. This means a small file size and with alternative text. These help with Search Engine Optimization as well as page speed too.
4. SEO Elements – Blog Categories and Tags
These are not found at all in a newsletter. They are specific to blogs and formatting blogs. Categories and tags are very keyword rich areas in blogs on a website so you must add them in. They help organize the content on your website too. (I’ll explain more on this in a future article).
5. Calls to Action (CTAs)
These are very different in Newsletters and Blogs, and once you truly recognize why these two content pieces differ, then you really see why they are different.
I’ve talked about this critical difference before: The critical difference between Newsletters, Blogs and Podcasts
Emails / Newsletters >> Go to your captured audience of leads and clients. You already have their email.
Blogs >> Are a way to capture new leads and clients. You generally want to get their email. (Yes, some folks may be on your email list too, but anyone who found this content by themselves online, may not be on your list.)
This means when you have a Call to Action in a Newsletter it is not to get someone’s name and email on your list – they are already there. As you plan your Calls to Action, plan them differently than what you have on the blog where for the most part you are trying to capture a name and email (A lead).
These 5 elements are the ones to format differently when you create articles for your marketing.
When you write them, be sure to use them in both places and take advantage of the options in each system to help market your business online.
Communicate with the folks on your email list, and also get targeted with your website and put blogs on there to get more traffic and convert those website visitors to become leads in your business – new subscribers on your list! But only use one article to do it all!
Want to learn more ways to save time with your marketing? Check out this free guide that shows you how to streamline your marketing in 7 steps.
Also, if you want to get more out of your marketing and spend less time doing it, book a quick chat with me to talk about where you are stuck and what you need to move forward.
Stop Struggling and Start Thriving! My passion is helping to guide people just like you, private practice and service-based business owners, who are often frustrated with all their wasted time spent on marketing that gets you nowhere. You can learn strategies to attract a steady flow of clients and build a thriving and profitable practice. Get started with some of the free resources on my Pepper It Marketing website, especially this Guide to Streamline your Marketing. I also offer several self-study training programs to help you attract more clients so you can Build a rewarding and profitable private practice and still have time to LIVE your LIFE!