Melanie
The Monday Morning Marketing Podcast is brought to you by Esther of IPA Group, bringing premier online promotion to your business.
Esther
And Melanie of STOMP Social Media Training, who empowers business owners to manage social media and marketing for themselves.
Melanie
Happy Monday and welcome back to the Monday Morning Marketing Podcast. Today, we're going to be talking about writing content for your website with our guest, Rebecca Boyle, of rebeccaboylecopywriting.com. Welcome to the podcast, Rebecca.
Rebecca
Well, thanks very much for having me.
Melanie
So we need to create regular content for our website. Tell us why, Rebecca.
Rebecca
Yeah, so a lot of small business owners really have their website as a place where people can check their authority and lead referrals to and that thing. But a website is really important to get your leads from because it's under your control. So you don't want to have it as an afterthought. And your website, it needs to be updated with content so that you are constantly attracting people. If it just stays the same all the time, people will go have a look at it and then bounce out of it and there'll be no reason for them to come back again. So it's really important to keep updating your website with blogs or anything else, case studies, things like that, anything else you're doing. And sometimes even changing the copy itself on your website, your home page, whatever it is, and keeping that updated, both for your users to keep inviting them back, keep offering them valuable content, but also for search engines so that they can see this person is regularly updating their website. So it's It's all new content and it'll help you rank higher in search engines then.
Esther
Brilliant. So okay, so you mentioned blogs there, but it's not just blogs that we need to be updating. We need to be on top of our things on our home page because At the end of the day, that's where most people will land. So if it's not SEO friendly or if it's not keywords that people are looking for when they click through, even though your keywords in the back-end are maybe up to scratch, How often should we be updating our landing page or our home page?
Rebecca
Yes, exactly. So for example, I had a client who wanted to recreate their website and one of their services they offered was workforce management or something similar to that. And when I was doing the keyword research for it, it showed that people weren't really searching for that. They were searching for other terms. So I went back to this person and said, look, I know this is what you call your service, but this isn't what people are really searching for. So you can change it or and they didn't really want to change it, to be honest. But really, if that's what people are searching for, that's what you need to be thinking about. And what I say is have certain keywords per web page. So your home page, you should be targeting certain keywords. Other pages, service pages, product pages, they should all be for specific keywords and updating that, keeping that updated, and things like case studies as well, or even just news about what's new with your company, updating team bios, all that thing. Especially people can see that you're putting effort into that. You're keeping things updated because if someone goes on the website and they think, oh, this hasn't been updated for a while. There doesn't seem to be anything new on this. Maybe there's dates on things that are really outdated. People may think, Is this person still in business? And you don't want to give them obviously that impression to give them any objections. So you want to keep it updated for your users first and then for search engine second as well.
Melanie
Okay, so I hear that you've got all these mechanisms and all these processes that you need to put in place in order to keep your website fresh. So there's a huge amount of onus on the owner of the website to have all this incredible knowledge, isn't there?
Rebecca
Yeah.
Melanie
Now, you were talking about SEO, you were talking about possible papers, blogs. Is there a way that our regular listeners who are just starting out, where would they go to get all this support and help in the beginning, do you think?
Rebecca
Yeah, so there's a couple of options. You can spend the time and do it yourself. Even if you're not the best writer, if you want to write a blog, you are the best one to talk about it. It's your topic. You have authority in it. So feel free to go ahead. You can get family and friends to check over it first before you put it up. So you can try and do it yourself. Obviously, that takes a wee bit of time, but that's something certainly you could do. You can also go to places like Upwork or People Per Hour, those job boards that you can get people for maybe more affordable prices for your budget at the minute. And you can go to them and maybe get a deal on... Even one blog a month can help. It's just anything that you can manage, any content that you can do. And you can always use those blogs for social media posts and vice versa and repurpose the content. So you're not creating this content from scratch for everything. I would also say to concentrate on only a couple of platforms. So don't feel you have to do everything. Don't feel you have to have the website. You have to be on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, Medium, all the other sources, doing podcast. Just focus on maybe two or three, depending on what your resources are, and just make sure you're doing it well. So as I say, if it is only one blog a month, and if it is yourself having to write that, go ahead and do that because anything will help. It's always updating content. It's giving people information that they're searching for, and that'll help in search engine results. So you can go to, as I say, the job boards or you can get copywriters like yourself who can offer to do those services if you have slightly more money, but it can still be affordable and it can be worth the effort as well because you want to direct everyone to your website because that's where you can control your your content. And that's where you can control getting sales. You don't want to have to continue to rely on platforms like LinkedIn or getting it through referrals because you're not really in control of those platforms, whereas you're in control of your website.
Esther
So when should people contact you then, Rebecca? Should it be when they first set up their website before they've written a single piece of information, or is it better to get the website done and then contact you?
Rebecca
Either. Usually it's best to contact me before you've written anything, because what I do when I'm creating web content is do a lot of customer research, do a lot of competitor research, and do the keyword research. So you have that good foundation of you're not just creating a copy out of nowhere, you're understanding who your audience is and how they want to be spoken to, you're understanding what competitors are doing, so you can be slightly different, and you understand what keywords you need to target. So you can get that right from the get go. But if you have already created a website, then you can certainly come to me and I can do a web audit. So I can go over it and say, look, I would change this, that and the other. And you can go away and either do that yourself or get me to do it and edit it for you. So it really just depends on what your stage is or if you want a complete refresh off your website, I do that too. But it can be really at any stage. But getting that right from the get-go is a good foundation for your business and will make you feel confident about directing people to the website because you know what's right.
Melanie
When people approach you, how long would the process take and what information are you looking for from them to facilitate the service?
Rebecca
Yes. So, usually people come to me and it will take about two weeks, depending on if I get all the information on time and everything, of course. But to actually write it, it can take two weeks for me to actually do the website. Again, depending on how many pages it is, usually for about a five-page website, it'll take two weeks, could be longer for more. And the information I would be getting is I want... I get I'll be able to fill in a questionnaire of who their competitors are, what their goals are, someone of their business, and any services or products they have, and just generally give me information about the business. And then I will go away do competitor research, see what they're doing, do customer analysis to see what they're thinking. And this can be from customer interviews or it can be from forums, specialist publications. So if you're targeting law firms, for for example, any legal publications and forums, and taking all that information and then creating copy for each page of the website.
Melanie
Do you niche in a particular field? Would you be just for law or do you work with anybody?
Rebecca
I work with a big fratis of clients. I've worked in the cleaning industry. I've worked with environmental consultants. It's a wide range, but it is generally B2B, some B2C, but mainly B2B. But it can be in any industry. I do particularly like MedTech, and I'm working with a pharmacy automation client at the minute. And I find it really interesting because I'm a long health campaigner in my spare time. So I know a lot about the terminology and find it really fascinating. So I do particularly enjoy those clients. I also particularly enjoy law firms because I have a degree in journalism, and part of that was studying media law. So I enjoy that aspect of it, too. But really any business, I enjoy learning about all different industries. And you don't have to be a specialist in that particular industry. I just have to be good at what I do, and that's helping you communicate the value of your business.
Melanie
Now, when you work with these businesses and brands, there are, I suppose, processes that you use that you regularly use for your clients, and maybe you recommend them. So just before I hear about who you would recommend, let's hear from our sponsor who we are recommending right now.
Esther
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Melanie
So back to that question. Of any of the processes that you're currently using, would you recommend any processes for your customers when you're working with them?
Rebecca
Yes, so there's a few tools that you can use. There are free versions of them, so you can use them yourself if you're wanting to check out what keywords and things. So there's a few such as Uber Suggest or Answer the Public. There's Semrush. So all of those tools will help you See what competitors are doing, see what keywords maybe you should be targeting. There's also Jasper AI and a couple of platforms like that where you can input your content and it will tell you if it is search engine optimised or not. I don't tend to use those platforms myself, but a lot of clients that I've worked with, they would possibly use those for their blogs and that thing and find it helpful, especially if you're not a writer yourself. It's very helpful to just put your copy in and see if it's hitting all those targets. I would always suggest having spelling and grammar check-in, such as Grammarly. That's always It's important because actually spelling and grammar typos and things like that, inconsistencies, actually have been proven people will bounce off your website because of that. So it's important to make sure all of that's right. Even if you get someone to double check it, if you're doing any content yourself and as I say, run it through Grammarly or any spelling and grammar check like that as well.
Melanie
It's so easy, isn't it? I mean, it's a free attachment as well.
Rebecca
Exactly. It can work automatically on your emails and everything like that. And it's not always right, of course. Sometimes it will tell you to change things and it's not correct. So you do still have to use your own brain and make sure it It's telling you the right thing. But it's definitely helpful when you've accidentally put in extra letters or exclamation marks, whatever it may be. And it's definitely a great help.
Esther
So things Things like that, things like Grammarly are AI. And I'm just going to throw out the question because it's on top of everyone's mind at the minute with AI and stuff. So obviously there's a lot of people using platforms to generate their content, to generate their blog posts and things like that. What recommendations would you give people who are depending heavily on AI to do that for them?
Rebecca
AI is great. I would use that sometimes myself as a tool, ChatGPT, Claude, some of the other ones. They certainly are helpful, especially if you're not a writer. I would use them for really idea and for inspiring me, for maybe headline examples, that thing. But what I would say to people, if they are using it just completely for their content, is to be specific with your prompts because you'll get out of it only what you're putting in. So be specific. Tell it what your audience is. Tell it what content you want and be as specific as possible. And the other thing would be once it comes up with the content for you, please edit it. Because while these tools are really great, they're not at the point where you can just use them as is. So you do need to edit it because your tone of voice will be in there. The AI will have its own way of speaking. And unless you train it up to speak like you, it's not going to sound like it. And people will be able to tell that. They may be able to tell it's AI, and it's not going to help build a loyal following who can instantly recognise your voice. So you want to definitely edit any content that you take from AI.
Melanie
I've also been warned by other people to also fact-checked, especially if you're using certain platforms where the data might not be as accurate as it portrays. So definitely, if you're going to be doing AI generated blogging of some description, make sure that it's accurate and up to date.
Rebecca
Exactly. And if you make a mistake of putting an accurate fact, one or two, maybe you can be forgiven. But if you do that, and a lot of it do it consistently, then people won't trust you because they're like, well, they're not even checking fax here. So people will feel that that's your attitude towards business in general, towards customer service. Best, that you'll be like, Oh, that'll do, and that'll be your way of dealing within your business. So you want to make sure that you definitely are fact-checking it, too, because it's definitely not always right.
Melanie
So when you set up the business, I assume you had a goal in mind of your own. Are you going the direction you're hoping for?
Rebecca
Yeah, thankfully, when I set up, I just wanted to be able to make a living, really. It wasn't a huge goal. It was just to be able to do this full-time. And so, thankfully, that has been the case for two or more years now. And I've had steady sales the whole time. I haven't had huge amounts of money, but it's been steady steady, which is just so beneficial to a small business of being consistent. And I tell people I do that because often, little and often, it can be overwhelming trying to market yourself and do this that and the other. But if you just do little things every day, every other day to promote your business, then you will see that result of getting steady sales and getting to where you want to go. And that's certainly how I've built up business to the stage where I'm at, where I'm starting to grow. And I have taken them other writers to do stuff for me because I am getting that amount of work and hopefully that will continue.
Melanie
Cool. Congratulations.
Rebecca
Yeah, thank you.
Melanie
Well, thank you so much for your time today, Rebecca. Can we find out how we can contact you and get further information?
Rebecca
Yeah, of course. So there's my website. So it's rebeccaboylecopywriting.com. And you can also sign up to my email list on the website, which has a free homepage checklist, which takes you through how to create, copy on your homepage yourself if you don't have the budget at the minute to do it. And that includes SEO Basics, so you can do that. You can also connect with me on LinkedIn, and you can also email me at hello@rebeccaboylecopywriting.com.
Melanie
Fabulous. And do you have a download or anything that people can access?
Rebecca
Yeah, the download would be once you sign up for the emails. That's the only one I have at the minute, the homepage checklist that they can write their own website, copy themselves. And of course, if they don't want the emails, they can always unsubscribe once they've got that download.
Melanie
Fantastic. Well, thanks again, Rebecca. It's been a pleasure to have you on. You've actually been a A huge fountain of knowledge. So thank you very much for that.
Rebecca
No problem. Thanks very much.
Melanie
Well, that's all the time we have for now, but we'll be back very soon with another podcast. And if you've got any other questions that you'd like us to cover, this was a wonderful suggestion by somebody who sent us an email. So if you've got any areas that we'd like to cover that we haven't so far yet, then do let us know by emailing us or finding us on your favourite podcast and letting us hear from you through the comments there. We'll be back very soon.
