I blog for a living and believe in the impacts it can have on a business when done well. But I only publish new blogs on my site once per month and the reason for that is simple – it’s the cadence I can do reliably while ensuring effective distribution to get the most out of the effort I put in.
That’s not to say I haven’t published a blog outside this cadence when I thought it was important and I wanted to share something with my followers. There’s always room to publish more often when needed, but once you establish a cadence, you should keep it consistent to at least publish that often.
Why Publish Blogs Monthly
I’ve spoken to many businesses that have reached out to me to blog for them and discouraged their enthusiasm for weekly posts. The reason is simple: they didn’t have the time to commit to distributing the content once I wrote it.
Blogs are not magical. They don’t suddenly lead to spikes in your website traffic just days after publishing. In fact, you won’t see any spikes within months of publishing.
You have to put effort into helping customers discover your blogs. This means distributing the blogs regularly through the following channels:
- Email marketing
- Social media
- Social media groups (when relevant)
- Online forums where your customers are asking questions
- Ongoing lead nurture series to new customers
Putting your content out there is just one step in the process. You have to help make your customers aware of it with effort.
Tips for Setting Your Blogging Cadence
Now that you know why I choose to publish once per month, here are some tips for setting your blogging cadence to find a rhythm that’s right for you.
1. Review Where Your Marketing Stands
Some companies want to start blogging before they’ve established some basic marketing. If you haven’t taken the time to write high-quality website copy, focus on that first. Ensure your website has lead forms and sign-up forms to get to know your customers and capitalize on the website traffic you generate.
Establish your social media presence and ensure you have strong ties between your website and social channels to make it easier to follow you. Every customer and prospect will want to stay in touch using a different method.
2. Evaluate Your Resources
Take some time to review what time and resources you have to devote to your content marketing. If you aren’t sure how you can make it work, the best option is to publish monthly or hire outside resources to help with distributing your content.
3. Consider Realistic Leads Per Month
How many new customers can you take on? What number of leads is realistic for your business based on your ability to follow up on them and convert them to new business?
You don’t want to set an aggressive publishing schedule that brings in more leads than you can handle. While that sounds like a great problem to have, it can also harm your relationships if you can’t scale your sales resources fast enough to respond appropriately.
No one will want my services if it takes a week to respond to a request for a consultation or many days after we talk to return a proposal. And it’s just me, so I know I can’t manage a website that brings in 10 leads per week or anything crazy like that. You have to consider your sales volume and set realistic marketing expectations from there.
4. Review Your Overall Marketing Budget
You can’t spend your full marketing budget on content. Take some time to create a realistic marketing budget based on your income and talk to some professionals about how to distribute that budget across your various channels.
Ideally, you want to be investing in a variety of marketing methods to see the best results. Content is an essential part of any form of marketing but it can’t be where you place all your funds.
5. Talk to an Expert
I love meeting with businesses and helping them set realistic content marketing goals and schedules. I’ve found other content marketing professionals push for the largest and best contract from anyone who will schedule a consultation. But what I’ve found is, that just creates short-term clients who aren’t happy because the plan isn’t realistic for them.
I can’t promise we’ll walk away from a consultation with an agreement to work together. But I can say that you’ll get an honest opinion about the best next steps for your marketing. Schedule your free consultation for honest, straightforward content marketing advice.