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You've got your logo, now how do you add it to pictures? There are so many different ways you can do this, but here are 2 simple ways I do this for myself and my clients. Let's dive in. Word Swag App Step 1: Download Word Swag from the app store. Step 2: Choose the photo you want your logo to be on and make sure it's saved to your camera roll. You'll also want to make sure you've saved your logo and it's also in your camera roll. *If you're a client of mine, you'll have a google drive link with different folders dedicated to each file type. For this you'll want to use the png files with transparent backgrounds. Hold your finger down on the file in your Google Drive folder and click "save to camera roll". Step 3: Launch the Word Swag app and click the "Library" button at the bottom in the middle. This will pull up the photos from your camera roll. Choose a photo you'd like to add your logo to and click "next". Delete the text automatically added if you don't want to add a quote to the photo. Then click "save". *Note: This app does require a monthly subscription to add the logo file. So you may need to work through a few other steps in setting up the monthly subscription. Continue reading for a free way to add your logo to pictures using your computer. Step 4: The next screen will show a button that says, "Add Your Logo". Click that and then select "New Logo". Select the logo file you saved to your phone and drag it to the spot you want it on your picture. You can enlarge or shrink the logo file by pinching it with both fingers. *Tip: Want to use the logo as a watermark? Just change the transparency on the logo file! Once you've got the logo where you want it, click "Save" and it will automatically be saved to your camera roll. Canva App *This option does work on your phone, but the app can be more difficult for less "techy" people. It’s much easier to do this from a computer. Step 1: Click here to set up an account if you don't already have one, or simply sign in. Step 2: Make sure the photo you want to use and the logo you want to use is saved to your computer. Click the "Create a New Design" button on the top right. If you're using the app on your phone there is a turquoise button on the bottom right hand corner with a plus in the middle, click that. The next step will be choosing your size. We're going to use the "Instagram Post" option. (Even if this isn't for Instagram, that size option gives you a perfect large square to work with) Step 3: There will be template options, but for the sake of this blog post we're going to simply talk about adding the logo to a photo. On the computer when you choose "Instagram Post" it will pull up a blank white square. Now select the "Uploads" tab, next choose, "Upload Media", and upload the photo from your computer. Once it uploads the picture you're going to want to size it so it fits that white square, or whichever size you chose. Step 4: Once the picture is evenly placed on the art board, you'll want to upload your logo just like you uploaded the photo. Go back to the “Uploads” tab, select your logo, upload it to Canva, and drag it from uploads over to the picture. You can use the little white circles in the corners of the logo file to scale it larger or smaller. *Tip: Want to use the logo as a watermark? Just change the transparency on the logo file! And there you have it! Want to learn how to use Canva templates? Check out How to Create Content that Increases Brand Recognition. This post is all about understanding what 'creating content' actually means, how to create content for your business without seeming 'salesy' and of course how to create content in a way that will help people remember your business! Photo Credit: Unsplash

Today I want to introduce one of my new favorite watercolor artists, Grace Manning. A friend of mine shared her work with me through Instagram and I've since fallen in love with her watercolor work. I reached out to see if she'd be open to sharing her creative advice on the blog and she said YES! Without further ado... here's Grace! "Hello fellow creative, I am so honored that you're reading this. I hope that something I've experienced can help you in your own creative journey! " Where are you from and what's your background? How old were you when you realized you were creative? "So, a little background on me is that I was born and raised in Nashville, TN and am thus thoroughly tired of country music. I am almost two years into a wonderful marriage to my best friend, Cody. We now live in the Chattanooga area. Like most creatives, I have always been the "artistic kid." I doodled through most classes and was always the one who decorated the hallways on homecoming weeks. It wasn't until my junior year of High School that I really gained any confidence in my artistic abilities." What situation made you realize you were creative? "My junior year English teacher entered me into an acrylic still-life painting competition without asking me beforehand. The school was entering into the state-wide Beta competition (an honor society club for High School students) and needed someone to represent us in each subject area, including art. Long story short, I had no idea what acrylic still life painting was a week before the contest. I spent that week practicing and ended up placing. I was shocked and incredibly encouraged." What obstacles have you encountered in your art business and what helped you overcome them? "Ha, it would be harder to think of an obstacle that I haven't encountered. Honestly though, I didn't intentionally set out this year to "start an art business." I was a master's student, studying Marriage and Family Therapy, and when quarantine hit, I started painting during all of my zoom classes. When the semester ended, I decided to take a break from school and actually started to get my real estate license, studying from 6am to 11am most days and painting in the afternoon. As you can tell, painting slowly started to take up more and more of my days, until it became so full time that I never finished my real estate classes, and here we are. In that, I didn't really have time to save up a 3-6 month income as many are advised to do when starting their own business. I didn't prepare a website beforehand. I had absolutely no idea how to actually run a business, or if I needed to pay taxes, or how to gain more than 100 followers on Instagram. Essentially, I am learning it all by trial and error and by listening to anyone I can who experience in the field. For watercolor artists or stationers (I am not a stationer, but these people both are) I do recommend the Tipsy Business Podcast by Carley Zuercher or Biz Birthday Bash Podcast. And that's part of the trial and error. A lot of the advice that they've given is so helpful. At the same time, a lot of it is super overwhelming for where I'm at currently, or it's just not applicable to my specific business. So it's listening to everyone, because their experience is valid and true for them, but weeding out what isn't relevant or helpful for my business. The other largest obstacle is money, duh. It's super easy to fall into the trap thinking you need all these great things to make your business boom and you need them right now. But you cannot afford them all right now and you shouldn't go into debt trying to. That may be bad advice for people who have investors and can make those leaps. But for most people who are starting this all on their own, the only things I suggest that you NEED to get are the materials you need to produce your product (but in bulk if you can), decent packaging materials (they can get better with time, but don't have crappy packaging), and a budgeting system!" When it comes to planning and getting new commissions, how do you do it and what advice would you give a new artist who wants to follow in your footsteps? "As far as planning out new commissions, PUT THEM ON THE CALENDAR. Until recently, I was just keeping a note in my phone and without fail I would always overbook myself. Who doesn't think you can do it all when you're talking to a potential customer, you want to say yes, but you will be regretful later if you didn't really have the time. I know some artists who open their books every month and take 10 new slots. Once they're gone, they're gone. And they don't open their slots until the next month for another 10. That model can work, and does work for several people. I don't know how it would work for people who are planning birthdays, anniversaries, etc. It could be difficult for them to feel secure in getting the piece they want by the date they need it. So I will always take names, but I schedule them out and give them a realistic idea of their turnaround time. If they need it earlier, we can discuss rush fee options and special dates, etc. But I will always honor my existing orders first. This is a lot, I know but simplified my advice would be: - Know what you can produce each week. Realistically - don't over state it. You will pay for that later when you can't put out what you said you could. - Schedule it out on a calendar. For example, now that you know you can do 3 commissions a week, you can schedule them out and not overbook yourself. - Leave the weekends free. Do not schedule work on your weekends. First, you need to rest. I learned that the hard way - a stress induced back spasm after working 8 days in a row. But also, you'll likely fall behind on your work schedule and you'll need that weekend to catch up. Leave them free. - Always respect your existing clients. You will no doubt have someone sneak in at the last moment wanting a product for a quickly approaching date, but they are not your priority. The people who booked with you months ago are. You can work with this new customer to do what you can, but never push an existing client away or neglect their project for someone who ran up at the last second." What advice would you give someone about growing their audience on social media? "Girl, I wish I knew. Truly, the only things that have really grown my following (which is still dismal, but I'm so grateful for every one) are giveaways and interactive content. Giveaways are huge draws, especially when requirements include following your page or sharing your stuff. More people will inevitably see your page, and it never hurts to be seen by more people. But also, be realistic with giveaways. That's real time and money you're giving away, so only do them when you can afford to. And interactive content is just engaging with people that are there. - I post polls. I am always responding to dm's. I try not to overload their feed, but I also try to always have something in my stories, so my little circle is always present on their feed. Other than that, yes, be consistent. But don't be consistent just to be consistent. Post good content. I would rather follow a page that posted something stunning every week than someone who posted something so-so every day." If you had to choose a favorite, or top 3 which pieces of work are you most proud of creating and why? "Ah, that's difficult... but okay, these are not ranked 1,2,3 - they are just my top 3 generally. One that I particularly love is this older man I painted looking into a shop window. It was a memorial piece of this girl's grandfather, and this was just a candid photo that she threw me in a mix of potential reference photos for me to work from, and I fell in LOVE. From the colors, to the composition, to the detail in his wrinkles, I love the life that's captured. Another is probably a portrait I did of my now husband and his older brother, who has since passed away, Hunter. It was a candid shot from their childhood that I painted as a Christmas gift for his mother last year. Again, I really just love the life and laughter that's captured here. And the third would probably be a couple I painted where the girl is wearing this stunning satin dress that flows down the length of the painting. I had so much fun painting the fabric in this one. It was just fun and I would do it again, ha." What books would you recommend and why? "I am not a "reader" per say, I go through phases. My husband is for sure, but we have very different tastes. I can get into some fiction, but most of my favorites are theology heavy. The Way of the Heart by Henri Nouwen is one of my favorites, along with The Knowledge of the Holy by A. W. Tozer. Some of my favorite fiction books have just been random picks from small town bookstores with a cover that interested me. One I read recently was called, Between Georgia, and it was a quick read but it put me in a whole different town with vivid characters and I love when a book can do that quickly and well." If anything was possible, where do you hope your creative gifts will take you in the years to come? "Oh man, I don't know. I know I don't want to be one of those artists whose work is hung in stuffy museums where fancy people come and glance at them. I never want to lose the joy of creating pieces that will be cherished by families forever. So while my prices may go up, and cliental may change, in some ways, I don't want to look that much different. A year ago, I was working as a marketing coordinator for a chiropractor, painting when I got home and dreaming of the day that I could quit and do something that felt meaningful. I would have never guessed that I'd be here. So who knows what next year holds, or the year after. I'm along for the ride, and I just pray that everything I do can bring joy, glory and honor to the one I serve, Jesus Christ." Check out Grace Manning over on Instagram by clicking here.

Quieting all the noise can be challenging. Most of us have multiple social media accounts, multiple email addresses and so many notifications are constantly popping up on our phones. It can be overwhelming just picking up our phones in the morning. I've worked with multiple clients that have 15,000 to over 100,000 unopened emails. And that's just their email. Deep down we all want to feel like we're doing our best to keep up with everything, but when that little red dot appears next to a bunch of apps it can seem overwhelming. (This next part is all about email, so if you've got that figured out scroll down to "What about the rest of my phone?") How to Clean Out My Email Recently, I was with a client that had over 15,000 unopened emails. I assumed all of these hadn't come through this year. Come to find out these emails dated back to 2013. We decided to tackle this head on and ended up sifting through them all in less than an hour. Today I'm going to talk through how we simplified her email and what other steps we can take to simplify the rest of our phones. First, we had to figure out if the email notifications were coming through to one email or if there were multiple accounts we needed to work on. Come to find out there were 6 different accounts signed in, but one in particular had the most with 10,000 unopened. I asked her if she would be okay if I went in and marked every email as "read" except those that came through this month. She said she loved that idea! Thankfully Google has a way to mark batches of 100 at a time so it doesn't take as long as you'd think. We signed into google.com on a laptop since it's so much easier to clean email out on the computer instead of a phone. Not only does it let you mark batches of multiple emails it even categorizes what's a "social email" or "promotional email". Primary shows all your emails in one place, but the Social and Promotions tab allows you to see emails that are from a social media account or a company. Social can be anything from Facebook notifications, to LinkedIn notifications, Instagram... you name it. Promotions could be emails from company's updating you on their most recent sale. There are arrows on the top right just above the Social and Promotions tab that allow you to sift back into older emails. This is where the magic happens. Click the Social or Promotions tab, then select the arrow to the top right and click it until it takes you to last months emails. (see picture above) Next, click the check box on the top left, that will select all the emails on that page, then you can click the little envelope icon. When you hover over the envelope icon it will say "Mark as Read". When you click this it will mark every checked email as read. Now you can use the arrows to click back further, use the check box to check them all, and mark as read. Do this for all your emails except for this months emails. That way you can take care of what's current. As you sift through old emails if you see something that you forgot to take care of you can "star" that email. This will automatically put those emails into a "Starred" folder created by Google. That folder shows up right underneath where it says "Inbox". No matter how many emails you have in your Inbox this is a great place to start. It can seem counter productive to mark the emails as read since you're not actually reading them, but having a clean slate when you need to check your email again will give you so much more peace next time. How to Organize My Email How do we prevent this from happening in the future? Next time you check your email and you see one pop up from someone or a company you don't wish to receive emails from anymore just scroll to the bottom of the email and click "unsubscribe". This will prevent future emails from coming in and will help you keep your inbox cleaner in the future! How to Manage Phone Notifications When it comes to quieting the noise on our phones there are SO MANY ways to go about this. The first thing to do is ask yourself, "Why do I want to simplify my phone? Am I feeling overwhelmed or frustrated by it? What is causing these feelings?" This may seem like a silly question, but for me personally I can't stand being accessible to people 24/7. I want to be able to sit down and write, read a book, work on a design project, and not feeling like I'm ignoring everyone. Here are a few things that have helped me overcome this. 1. Turn off ALL Notifications that Don't Come from a Person First, I have turned off all notifications unless they are from a person. If you have an iPhone open up Settings, then Notifications this will show you every app on your phone. Scroll through your list of apps and find one you don't want to get notifications from. Occasionally, I like to play pool on my phone, but I don't want to get ANY notifications from the app. So, I slide off the "Allow Notifications" completely. Now, let's say you don't mind notifications for an app, but you hate the little red dot that pops up next to the app on your home screen. I personally cannot stand that. It makes me feel like I need to open the app. (Which is exactly why they put it there insert rolling eyes emoji lol) That little red dot is called a "Badge" and you can turn just that off if you like. 2. Managing Nighttime Notifications Another great hack is Do Not Disturb. On an iPhone you can add people to your Favorites in the Phone app and when your phone is on Do Not Disturb anyone that calls you that is in your favorites will come through, but everyone else outside of your favorites will be silenced. This feature is MY FAVORITE. I'm very serious about getting a good nights sleep, but if my brothers, my mom, or my best friend needed me I would be there for them at 3am, no questions asked! On the flip side... if I get a robot call about my car's extended warranty at 3am I just might want to throw my phone out the window! I'm serious about my sleep ;) So how do you set this up? First, open your phone app and click Favorites on the bottom left, you'll see a plus sign on the top left, when you click that you can choose who you want listed in your favorites. After you finish that head over to Settings, then Do Not Disturb, flip on the Scheduled option and choose what time you want to stop getting calls and notifications. Scroll down a bit further and make sure next to "Allow Calls From" it says "Favorites". 3. Simplifying Facebook Notifications Let's talk social media. I use to get notifications from Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, LinkedIn, Twitter, Youtube, TikTok.... the list goes on. Now I only get a notification if it's directly from someone. Since I run my business mainly through Facebook and Instagram it was difficult to set boundaries with those. I personally don't mind getting the notifications while I'm on the phone, but I don't want them popping up on my lock screen when I'm busy doing other things. So for that app I have notifications set only for banners, which is just the little drop down that comes up on the top of my screen while I'm on the phone. Facebook messenger notifications are completely off. I was hesitant to turn it off completely, but the Facebook app notifies me so I rarely miss one. Why have two apps reminding you of the same thing? Update from March 2024: I've since deleted Facebook and only get on it if I'm on my computer. Nowadays, I don't rely on social media to generate business so I stay in and out, but rarely check it! The best way to reach me now is via email or text/calling. 4. Simplifying Instagram Notifications Instagram is an entirely different ball game. I use to get notifications that people who hadn't posted in a while just posted, or that someone commented on a photo I posted, or commented on a photo I was tagged in... this is all noise. You shouldn't have to stop everything you're doing to see what someone said in their comment on your picture or see what someone posted when they haven't posted in a while. (It's important to remember that these platforms are businesses. They make money through advertising, so the longer they can keep you on the app, the more money they make. It's 'free' for everyone to use, but we pay a heavy price with all the time we waste on them, myself included!) I promise, you won't even miss the notifications once you turn them off. Where are these settings at? They're not in iPhone settings, they're actually within the Instagram app. Open Instagram, go to your profile, then click the three lines on the top right, choose Settings, then Notifications, then Posts, Stories, and Comments and check "off" for all of these. Go back one page and select Following and Followers, select off for all of these. Go back and do the same for the rest of the sections. As far as all the other apps, I simply have notifications turned off for all of them. If you open the app you will see all the notifications from them. No need to let them interrupt your whole day, all day long! Changing these few things has made staying focused so much easier! Sometimes I'll turn on Do Not Disturb randomly in the middle of the day if I feel like I can't focus and I just need to drown out the noise. Especially in the morning if I wake up late, but I still want to have my quiet time. I'll set a timer for 30min., open my Bible, and turn on Do Not Disturb and pretend I have zero responsibilities. It sounds funny, but even allowing yourself 30 minutes of quiet with no distractions can bring so much peace! I would love to hear how this helps you and as always if you have any other ideas about simplifying your phone or tips and tricks you've tried that have worked I would love to hear them!

So you've got your branding package. Congratulations!! This is the first step to visually, start building your brand. You should have a Google Drive link to a folder with the following folders, .ai, .png, and .jpg. These file types will all come in handy in different ways. When should I use each file type? .ai = Illustrator File The .ai stands for Illustrator. These files are what you'll need to send to a print company if you want to have merchandise made. These files can also be used if you want your logo on a billboard or even on a car wrap. Illustrator files are for large scale projects because the designs are vectorized files! What does this mean? Well, Adobe explains it best, "Vector files are images that are built by mathematical formulas that establish points on a grid. Raster files are composed of the colored blocks commonly referred to as pixels. Because they can infinitely adjust in size without losing resolution, vector files are more versatile for certain types of tasks than raster files." Here's a photo to give you a better idea. Photo Source: Tell Your Tale .png should always be your go to The .png file type is going to have a transparent background. These are great to save to your phone so that you can add your logo to quotes for social media, a great way to continue to build brand recognition ;) A few apps I recommend for creating graphics are Word Swagg and Canva. These two apps are easy to use and provide endless options for creating graphics without having to hire someone to create them for you. Click here to get your first 30 days of Canva pro for free! (There is a free version, but the pro version has so many incredible features, like resizing, more font options, free stock photos, and more.) Want to see how Canva works first? Click here to read my blog post, "How to Create Content that Builds Brand Recognition". .jpg file type Lastly, the .jpg file type will have a white background or a colored background. These file types are generally not as high res as a .png. Note: PNG stands for Portable Network Graphic, with so-called "lossless" compression. That means that the image quality was the same before and after the "compression" or download. JPG stands for Joint Photographic Experts Group, with so-called "lossy" compression. Meaning the more times you download the same .jpg file the more blurry it will get. Even though the .jpg file isn't as great as a .png I still include it because some websites or apps still only give you the option to upload as a .jpg. If you can upload a file as a png, always go that route to make sure your image is uploaded in the clearest, crispest form. How should I announce the new branding on social? Having a new logo and branding for your business is an exciting announcement! When you open your Google Drive folder, you'll see social graphics and made specifically for this announcement post. When I share a new logo design I tend to put in the caption "Which color is your favorite?" and I'll post multiple images that are almost identically, but the backgrounds are different. Each background color is your brand color. That way your audience gets to visually connect with your new brand colors and share which color is their favorite! Using a description that asks your audiences' opinion is a great way to create engagement on the post, which will help more people to see it. If you want to take it a step further, you could even post one photo of your logo and share, "Here's a sneak peek into some new branding we'll be announcing soon! Can you guess what other colors will be included?" Something that gets them thinking and something that allows them to share what they think. If you know you'll be getting merchandise made, create a mock up of what it will look like and post a preview to get your audience excited! How? Find a photo of someone wearing a blank t-shirt in the color you plan to buy for your merchandise, save that file, and go to Canva.com, upload the t-shirt picture and one of your .png logo files. You can then drag your logo over top of the shirt picture and make sure it's lined up the way you would want it printed on the shirt and download the file, as a png ;) then post on your social media as a fun sneak peek! Creating a mock up for a t-shirt design is a simple and great way to showcase what you'll soon be offering your audience. Here's an example of one of my clients doing just this: Photo Source: Instagram @bluegrassbernedoodles 3 Ways To Use a Brand Pattern First of all, a brand pattern is something most business owners generally look over when they're getting their branding established. You'll notice though, that big businesses and new businesses that are gaining traction and growing quickly use their brand pattern to add interest and stand out even more from the competition. Here are some ideas of how to use your brand pattern. 1. Use it as a background on your shareable social media graphics. Below is a great example by Hello Media a fellow branding and social media management company that I've connected with on Instagram. Photo Source: Instagram @_hellomedia 2. Use it on one side of your business cards. Photo Credit: Palma Stationary 3. Use them on your product packaging. This adorable tissue paper with the brand pattern on it is a great way to continue building brand awareness. Genius! Photo Credit: StylishCreativeShop There are infinite ways to use your brand pattern! Feel free to hop on Pinterest and search "brand pattern" for more fun ideas! Pinterest is my GO TO for all things branding and marketing inspiration. How do I build brand recognition? There are some companies that are obviously doing it VERY WELL. Let's use them for some inspiration: Photo Credit: Unsplash Building a brand is all about your mission. It's not so much about what you do, but why you do it. This is what makes people want to represent your brand. Some brands I can think of who have loads of supporters represent something more than just their service. Let's talk about Harley Davidson as an example. They sell motorcycles, but it's so much more than that. Anyone who owns a Harley is a part of a community. How do we know this? Well, because there are people who have their logo tattooed on their arms. You don't get a tattoo of someone's logo on your arm simply because they have great motorcycles. You get a tattoo like that because you connect with what they offer AND who they are as a brand and what the brand represents. Photo Credit: Unsplash Nike is another great example. Their slogan is "Just Do It" empowering and encouraging you to just do the dang thing. They're not talking about how their clothing is the best, or the cheapest, or the most popular. They are simply sharing their mission. They're logo just happens to be on the clothes they sell. This is what it's all about. What is your mission? What is your slogan? Who are your ideal clients and customers and how can you showcase your brand to attract to them? If you're not yet sure who your target audience or target customer is click here to learn more about how to find your target audience. Want to learn how to create content like a pro? I've created a free reusable workbook to help you develop some ideas and plan content for social media. Click here to download the workbook now. I would love to see some of the content you create! Feel free to message it to me over on Instagram. You can find me @createandcollab_ or simply click here to hop on over to Instagram for more tips and tricks. Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through my links, at no cost to you.

Representing what you do in a compelling way can seem daunting. Sometimes it feels like just another thing to add to the to do list. Believe me, I’ve been there. I do my best to take pictures while I’m working, but usually I’m so busy throughout the day I forget. Every business needs professional photos, but where do I start? What type of photos will I need to capture and where should I use the photos once I have them? It’s simpler than you think, let’s dive in! Why are Professional Photos Important for Business? 1. Improve Your First Impression Blurry and unprofessional photos communicate a message, just like professional high resolution photos do. Photos included on your website, social media posts, and in advertisements are important when it comes to making a first impression. I don’t know about you, but when I’m looking through a menu at a restaurant, the photos of the sweet deserts or fun summer cocktails are what catch my eye first. They spark my curiosity and get me excited to try something new. Sparking curiosity is the first phase someone goes through before they’re ready to buy into what you have to offer. Your brand’s first impression should cause new eyes to want to see more of what you have to offer! 2. Differentiate Yourself From Your Competitors We all have competitors, some more than others, but what if you could differentiate yourself from your competitors? Having high quality images of your product or service does exactly that. Not to mention, if you’re consistently putting out content that showcases what you do in a compelling way, it’s simply a matter of time until they need what you have to offer. Filling your website and social media with high quality images increases the chances of making the sale or closing the deal. 3. Tell YOUR Story in a Compelling Way Your story is more than just your companies history. Your story showcases what you have to offer and why you’re passionate about offering it. If you want to make a connection quickly, make sure to use photos of you within your website and social media. Many brands use familiar faces to establish a strong brand-consumer relationship. It’s true we connect with and trust brands with a face more than we do a faceless brand. 4. Build Trust and Credibility One way large brands build trust fast is by utilizing photos of happy customers using their products. We watch videos of people unboxing new products or trying new foods online and when they seems happy and excited it makes us want to try it! Why? Because we want to experience that joy and excitement too. 5. Set the Tone and Create a Mood Imagine selling a house without having any photos of the house, it would be pretty difficult. High quality images of food helps us imagine tasting it. High quality images of fancy houses makes us imagine living a life of luxury. We light candles and turn on music to set the mood. Using high quality images of our products and service does for our brand what candles and music do for a room. For the last couple years I’ve been dabbling in photography. I knew learning this skill would help my clients in so many ways. Here are a few website builds I’ve completed recently that include professional photography, by yours truly ;) If you're looking to have professional photos taken for your business I'm happy to help or connect you with a photographer that can fly directly to you!

Creating content that helps people recognize and remember your business can be a challenge, but it doesn't have to be! Marketing today is all about creating content that sparks curiosity and attracts the eyes of potential clients/customers. This sounds complicated, but I'm here to break it down so it doesn't seem as stressful or confusing! In this blog post, you'll learn: What branding is and how it helps people remember your business What 'creating content' actually means How to create content without seeming 'salesy' How to create content that builds brand recognition (plus, content ideas!) How do you attract more eyes, but also make it easy for people to remember and recommend you? It all starts with a quality product or service. You can have the most eye catching branding, but if it doesn't clearly show the problem you solve, it's not going to convert views to customers. Before investing time creating your brand's look, start first by defining your Target Audience, as well as the top service or products you're wanting to promote. What problems do they solve? Who is most likely to need them? Where are those people hanging out? This helps you determine the marketing channel you'll want to invest your time in. Once you know this, moving onto defining your colors, look, and feel of your brand will come easier. What is Branding Design? The term 'brand' comes from the Scandanavian word "brandr" which means "to burn." By the 1500s, it became common to brand cattle in order to show ownership. The purpose of branding is to 'brand' your marketing and advertising into the mind's of your audience. Branding creates a visual representation of your business, increasing the chances of someone remembering you. Using a set color palette, font(s), and your logo consistently, is what actually builds visual brand recognition. Having a logo gives your audience something to remember you by. Not to mention it makes it so much easier to create a consistent look when creating the marketing material for your business. Whether that be social media posts, advertising, a website, or even the interior design at an in-person location. When you stick to a consistent color palette, font(s), and use your logo regularly it "brands" your business into the minds of your audience. If you already have your branding and you're just looking for ideas of what to create and what to use, this post is just for you! Make sure you have access to all your logo files, the color codes for your color palette, and the fonts that are specific to your brand's style. A great way to make sure you're always staying on brand is to either keep your branding board on your phone or have it printed out in your office space. This allows you to quickly glance at it to make sure everything you're creating has a consistent and cohesive look. Your branding board should include the main logo, a color palette, alternate logos, submarks, fonts, and photos that represent your brands style. Here's a few examples: What is Content Creation? Content creation comes in many forms, both written and/or visual. A lot of the times it's social media posts, blog posts, info graphics, email marketing campaigns – the list goes on! The purpose behind creating content is to attract the eyes of your target audience. Before you set out to create content, it's important to understand the buying phases that customers go through before they make a purchase. Keep reading to learn each of the phases! How to do I Create Content Without Seeming 'Salesy'? I'm a little obsessed with psychology, but specifically the psychology behind why someone actually purchases a product. There are 3 phases that we all go through before we buy a product or utilize a service, whether we're aware of it or not. Once I learned this, I was able to spot when I was getting sucked into making a purchase because of an Instagram ad! This intrigued me so much I started utilizing it in content marketing research for myself and my clients. Let's break it down: Phase 1: Curiosity Before we ever purchase a product, it has to spark our curiosity. Last year I kept seeing an ad for a metal lint roller thing. Over and over I saw videos of people using this lint roller on their carpets, their clothes, their old wool coats. After seeing a number of ads I was intrigued. Phase 2: Enlightenment What moves us into phase 2 is when we realize how the product or service is going to impact our lives for the better. When a product clearly shows it can solve the problem we have, we're so much closer to opening our wallets. After seeing videos of this lint roller thing remove hair from the carpet, and clean old wool coats in minutes, I was sucked in. At this point it was just a matter of time before I bought it. Phase 3: Commitment Phase 3 is when you're finally ready to buy. Generally, we like to browse or window shop before we make a commitment. We like to learn more about the item or product before we order right on the spot. When creating content, think about what will spark curiosity or what will help them see why your product or service will add value. Unless you're running an ad campaign, social media posts needs to include content that will spark curiosity or add value. If you post 5 days a week, make 4 posts that relate to those first two phases and one that relates to the 3rd. This will ensure that your content is intriguing, adds value, and doesn't seem too 'salesy'. How to Create Content that Builds Brand Recognition One great way to showcase how you add value is to share reviews you receive through a social media graphic. I would highly recommend using Canva for this. There are hundreds of templates to choose from, but here's a review template I thought was really pretty for this. Watch the video to see how to edit the template to match your brand's style. Keep scrolling for the written version. Here's the template I started with: Here's how I swapped out some of the elements so that it represents my branding better: Canva has templates for social media posts, invoices, posters, flyers, business cards – the list goes on and on. They have a free version or a paid version that unlocks so many more design tools. Click on this link to get your first month free! I would highly recommend the paid version. It's worth the price and plus, it's a write off for your business! One of the biggest reasons I love the paid version, is that they allow you to add your brand's colors in the brand kit section. This allows me to open a template and swap out the colors for my brand's colors. After I change the fonts to represent my brand and add my logo, it instantly represents my brand! Below is a screenshot of what it looks like to change out your brand's colors: The paid version also gives you access to an entire library of gorgeous photos you can use for all your designs. That's how I got the mountain photo with the birds in the background. Another benefit to the paid version is the ability to resize an image. If I wanted to use this review in my Instagram story, instead of a post I would simply resize to the size of an Instagram story. Simply search the size you're looking for and click "Copy and resize": Here's what it looks like when I resized it: By extending the background higher and lower you'll get a perfectly sized graphic for your Instagram story: As you can see, Canva truly makes designing content for your business so much faster and easier. If you're ready to dive into Canva and start designing content for your business, you've got nothing to lose! Click on this link to get your first month in Canva for free! Happy designing! Related Posts You May Also Like: How to Create a Professional Email Signature 5 Benefits to Having Professional Photos for Your Business How to Turn Browsers Into Buyers Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through my links, at no cost to you.

I tend to do a lot of research before I jump into something. I want to know I’m going about it ‘the right way’. Sometimes, I allow this to hold me back from acting on a new idea or project because I’m not sure where to start. If you've ever felt this way, just know you're not alone! When it comes to creating a logo for a business, company, or non profit, a lot of questions can come up. In this blog post, I’m going to share how you can use Canva to create a logo and how to go about it ‘the right way’. I’ll be covering: Where Do I Start if I Want to Create a Logo Myself? Who Do I Hire to Create a Logo? Can I Use Canva Templates to Create a Logo? If you’ve been curious about this, I’m going to dive into all the details so you can stop wondering and start doing! Where Do I Start if I Want to Create a Logo Myself? A logo is the face of your company. It should represent your business, as well as your brand’s personality. If you’re looking to DIY your logo yourself, the first step is to start brainstorming. Get a blank sheet of paper and write down the business name. Write it in caps, in lowercase, in cursive, write it upside down, write it backwards. Look at the different shapes of the letters. Look at the length of the words. Sketch it out in bubble letters. Write down some adjectives that describe your brand’s personality. Research other brands that are similar to yours to make sure you’re not creating something that looks the same as other businesses that are similar to yours. Your logo will become a point of recognition for the services/products you provide. Think about the type of feeling you want the logo to evoke in people. Do you want it to be bold and make a statement? Do you want it to be soft and inviting? Who is your target audience? How will it make them feel? What will appeal to them? The beginning stages of creating a logo is a combination of creative ideas and market research. Once you have all this narrowed down, come up with a few different designs. When I create a logo and branding for a company, I start with a strategy call to discuss all of this with them. Sometimes I come up with 20 different sketches before I start designing. Once I begin the online design process, I make sure I have 3 designs that represent what the client is looking for. I generally don’t start with color so we can focus on the design first, then move into colors! Who Do I Hire to Create a Logo? Obviously, this is a loaded question. There are millions of designers out there. The biggest piece of advice I can give you if you’re wanting to hire someone to do it for you is this: find someone that you feel comfortable working with, someone that will listen to your ideas, your vision, and who your company is. A great designer will listen to your vision and come up with options that represent the vision you’ve shared as well as some other creative ideas they think would be a great fit for you and your business/non profit. Be respectful of their time and their talents. Ask about their process before you get started. What is their policy on rounds of edits? What deliverables are they going to send you once you’re finished? How will you access those in the future? Understanding their process will help the whole project run much smoother! Can I Use Canva to Create a Logo? When creating a unique logo in Canva from scratch, you can use basic lines and shapes from the free library. Canva’s website also says, you can use all of their fonts! However, you can’t use stock content (e.g. photos and graphics) as they only give you a non-exclusive license to this. Other Canva users are free to use the same content which means that using stock content for your logos isn’t suitable for us in a trademark. Elements in a logo need to be exclusive to you. You can learn more about Canva licenses here in Licensing explained. You can upload your own logo design to Canva. This might be a logo you design yourself or one you commissioned a graphic designer to create for you. After uploading your logo, you can use Canva to created branded collateral for your business, like social media content, business cards, flyers, and so much more. Source: Canva Can I Use Canva Templates to Create a Logo? Why use a logo template if it can’t be trademarked? Using a logo template is a great way to create a logo if you’re just starting out and you’re not worried about having exclusive rights. If you don’t have the time or budget to design a unique logo, it’s a quick and easy way to create basic branding for your products or your services. Just keep in mind, everyone else that uses Canva has access to these templates. So the logo template you may use, has and will continue to be used by thousands, if not millions of other people. Canva doesn’t currently offer purchasing exclusive rights to their graphics, so they recommending reaching out to a local graphic designer or artist for this. If you do decide to create the logo yourself and you’re thinking about using Canva, click here to get all the Canva Pro tools for free for the first 30 days. Even though I created my own logo and I create logos for clients, I always suggest using Canva for creating other marketing material such as business cards, flyers, proposals, letterhead… the list goes on. Their templates are super helpful because they give you a starting point. Being a creative person, I tend to tweak and change them a lot. If you don’t feel like you’re a creative person, you can still use their templates. Just swap out the colors for your brand’s colors, swap out the fonts for your branded fonts, and include your logo. Even though someone else could be using that template, at least you know it will represent your brand because it’s tweaked with your branding collateral. Related Posts: How to Find Your Target Audience How to Create Business Cards in Canva How to Create Content that Builds Brand Recognition Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through my links, at no cost to you. Photo Credit: Kaboompics

So this strategy has helped me grow my following, but more importantly my business. Let me say though, prioritizing followers over paying clients is a great way to sabotage your dreams. So I need you to go into this not expecting anything to come from it. That may sound counter productive, but you don’t give someone a compliment so you get one back. You give someone a compliment because you genuinely mean it and you just want to be kind. That kind of mindset is what will make this strategy work. Step 1: Identify your Target Audience First things first, narrow down who your target audience is aka who you want to connect with. If you're not sure how to do that, How to Find Your Target Audience will help with that. Once you have the type of person in mind that you want to connect with, you'll want to hop on Instagram and send out a minimum of 5 encouragements a day. What does this look like? Let's talk Instagram etiquette first. For instance, this strategy would never work on Facebook, here's why. On Instagram it's 100% normal for someone to come check out your account, like a few pictures, and leave a nice comment on one of them. On Facebook though, if someone you don't know adds you as a friend, you're probably going to look to see if you have any mutual friends. You may even reach out to a mutual friend to ask who this person might be. On Instagram though, it's totally normal to constantly be connecting with new people. Networking with new people is expected and encouraged on Instagram. So how does sending an encouragement work? Photo Source: Unsplash Step 2: Find people in that audience and interact with their content When you set out to engage with a new person on Instagram it isn't about making a sale right away. It's about sparking curiosity and building trust first. People don't part with dollars unless you're solving a problem for them. Before they can buy or utilize a service though, they need to trust you. So let's say you want to connect with mom's who are also business owners. Think about what hashtags they might be using. Let's take the hashtag 'mompreneur' for example. You could search this hashtag on Instagram, click the hashtag, then tap the "recent" tab and it's going to show you every single post that anyone has ever used that hashtag on. I suggest using the "recent" tab instead of the "top" tab because you know these posts were made within the last hour or even sooner. Scroll through that recent tab to look for a photo you could leave a genuinely nice comment on. Once you find one, comment your note of kindness, then like 2-3 other photos that person posted. Boom, that's one done. Step 3: Keep up with people who engage back with you Even if you start with finding 1 or 2 people a day to interact with, that’s still 30 - 60 people a month your brand is interacting with! 365-720 a year! I’ve gotten clients and made lifelong friends doing this. If someone I interact with comes back and likes a few pictures and follows me, this shows me that they're open to connecting! One girl I did this with last year came back and followed me so I followed her back. A couple weeks later she reached out because she needed a logo! I designed a logo for her and we meet for coffee and we talk on the phone all the time now! I would have never met her without this strategy. The biggest thing with this strategy is to figure out the type of person you want to connect with, then search a hashtag that they would use. You can even do this by location. For example, I live just south of Nashville and I like to stay up to date with what's going on downtown. If I want to make a few new connection with people in Nashville, without actually getting out of my house and going downtown, I interact on the hashtag 'nashvilletn'. Not only that, but I can be anywhere in the world and network with people in specific city's if I use that city's hashtag. Photo Source: Unsplash Having a social media account for your business allows your business to directly interact with potential leads. Your goal in your content should be to add value, build trust, and retain those followers. As your following grows don't forget to interact with them so they continue to like and trust you. One of the biggest benefits to having social media for your business is the engagement side. Think about how other brands interact with you and how that makes you feel. Now think about how you want your brand to make people feel. Direct engagement with new people takes time, but if you're just getting your business started, utilize the extra time you have to network with new people online. Want to strategize together one on one? I offer coaching/consulting on social media for small business owners. If you're looking to book a one on one strategy call, tap the "Request a Quote" button on the top right and we can schedule a call together.

Do you ever feel heavy, like deep down in your soul? Life can start to pile up. It’s during these times that hope seems almost impossible to grasp. I know I’ve been there, a lot. Especially over the last year. I started counseling recently and it’s shed light on a lot of places I’ve purposely tried to leave in the dark. As cliche as it sounds, life is a long journey. To go on any journey, we must fill our tool belt with things that will help us along the way. Just this week my business coach and two of her author friends released a devotional called Hope Is… Just reading the dedication pulled at my heart. “To all those searching for hope. May you find it in these pages. Most importantly, may you find it in the One who is our greatest source of hope.” Order your copy on Amazon by clicking here. Who are the authors? Hope Is… was written by good friends Kristy Ensor, Sue Mohr, and DeAnn Starling. The authors created a group called The Crooked Crown Writing Society in a small town outside of Nashville, Tennessee. They offer support by straightening on another’s crowns when they begin to fall. They wear proverbial crowns because they are daughters of the King of Kings, the Most High God. The group’s primary purpose is to foster creativity and provide accountability for their various writing projects while glorifying God and inspiring others. I hopped on a zoom with them Tuesday morning to chat more about how this devotional came about. We met for brunch last week on their launch day. It was an honor to spend time with them on their book launch day! Amongst a lot of fun stories and laughter what shined through the most is their passion for sharing a message of hope. This past year they merged their talents together as writers to write a book called Hope is. Written during the pandemic, these ladies just knew if they dug deep enough, they could find HOPE in the midst of chaos. And they did – Abigail: What past times do you enjoy outside of writing? DeAnn: I love to travel. None of our family is here, so my husband and I love to do road trips to see them all. Most of my spare time is spent planning how we will get to see all of them. I also love painting. My desire is to do that more! Sue: I love to read. I have 5 books going right now. I can never get enough of them. Fiction and fact. They inspire me. Take me to far away places. I’ve actually lived out bucket lists that I’ve traveled to, because I read about them in a book. My other favorite thing to do is playing with my 3 grand-littles and hanging out with my girls. They bring me joy and are many times, the inspiration behind so much of my writing. Abigail: I know you guys love writing. What is your favorite thing to write about? Kristy: I love fiction, although I’ve written mostly non-fiction for Lifeway, have penned a piece called Monday Motivations since 2013, and the blog for my church. In my heart of hearts, though, I’m a fiction writer, a novelist. I’ve been working on my first novel and have a short story collection called Beneath the Southern Sunrise. I already have a publisher for that. I’ve got them started, I just need to finish! Build some courage + consistency. Abigail: What do you guys love most about writing? Sue: There is a story within a story within a story within a story. I love the journey. The challenge to create the characters and flesh out how the story weaves and then ends is so much fun. Abigail: What do you want to tell your readers? DeAnn: If you are going to write a book about hope, you better buckle up, hahaha! In the midst of all of this, we have experienced, Covid, the flu, multiple hospital visits, surgeries, births and so much more! Sue: Yes, God was definitely the author of our lives in this entire journey. Kristy: Writing this book has been like riding a rollercoaster, filled with highs and lows—just like life. We’ve also had LOTS of laughs along the way. So, I encourage readers to hold onto faith and humor. God and laughter are key in getting you through your circumstances. “Hope collects the tattered pieces of our lives, stitching them into something beautiful. It gives us courage and strength, lifting us up to a place where we can soar.” ~The Crooked Crown Writing Society Order your copy on Amazon by clicking here. What others are saying about HOPE IS… “Insightful and inspiring, Kristy, Sue, and DeAnn take the reader on an often witty yet always poignant tour of hope.” ~Donna VanLiere, NY Times best-selling author and speaker “Wow… such a breath of fresh air! Incredibly anointed authors coming together to point us toward a victorious biblical mindset for so many of our real life tensions. This book inspires us to have a mindset saturated in Jesus who is the only hope; a confident expectation of a better tomorrow based on the characters and promises of Jesus. Dive in. Be empowered. Be equipped. Be encouraged.” ~Chris & Holly Brown, Speakers/Authors/Pastors of The Well Church, Columbia, TN/ Radio Host “Hope comes in many shapes and sizes, too many to count and certainly no one-size-fits all. In the lovely new devotional, from authors Kristy Ensor, Sue Mohr, and DeAnn Starling, hope is served up in all its various expanses. Whether you’re married or single, with children or without, this collection will encourage each woman who reads it to fix her eyes on the only one who provides true hope, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.” ~Katie Battistelli, Author of The God Dare and Growing Great Kids “Hope is… an encouraging breath of fresh air during what can be described as a turbulent season for us all. The honest, raw, and gritty real-life stories of endurance and trust in the Lord will indeed bring you hope and lead you to the true source of peace that passes understanding. These gifted ladies will have you crying one moment and belly laughing the next. The perfect devotional for anyone who could use a deep dose of hope.” ~Lyn Carr, MAR/Hospice Chaplain “Life can be hard, and hope can feel so far away at times. Hope is… offers us reminders that, even in the midst of uncertainty, fear, doubt, and the unknown, we can find peace and comfort in God and the hope He offers. Through sharing their own stories and experiences, our mom, Sue Mohr, and her friends, Kristy and DeAnn, have written a roadmap to search for the hope of Jesus in all circumstances. We are so lucky to have grown up hearing and applying these encouraging words and stories from our mama and can’t wait for the rest of the world to experience her creative wisdom.” ~Amber/Sarah/Julia, EVERLIFE “A guiding light that illuminates the path through life’s challenges. Messages of real-life experiences that inspire one to hold on to the hope that brings forth the desires of our hearts. Readers feel understood, courageous, and equipped for battle. The writers are real hope dealers.” ~Krista Anderson, Founder & CEO of Healthy On The Go/ESSTAR - esstar.us Recent Accolades Number 2 on Amazon in New Releases for Devotionals Number 15 on Amazon for New Releases for Christian Living The devotional reached the Top 100 on Amazon in Christian Personal Growth and Christian Devotionals!

What if your business could show up in the inboxes of potential customers, build trust with them, and turn them into a client or customer without you ever having to pick up the phone? It's totally possible, here's how. Growing an email list is less intimidating than you think, I promise. Most business owners think they need to get to a certain place in their business before they can start growing an email list, but it's the exact opposite. Your email list needs to be established before you need it. This will serve as your funnel. You may have heard of a "sales funnel" or "sales process" this refers to the buying process that companies lead customers through when purchasing products or booking a service. This is how you find, qualify, and sell your product or service to new potential customers. An email list builds a group of qualified leads who need your product or service. Weekly emails allow you to start building trust and adding value, getting you one step closer to gaining them as a client or customer. Photo Credit: Unsplash So how do we even make this happen? We start with a lead generator. We've all seen this before, it's a little pop up that offers you something of value in exchange for an email address. You may have noticed mine on this page. My current lead generator offers a reusable worksheet that helps my audience DIY creating their social media strategy. When they type in their email, it automatically delivers the worksheet to their inbox, they can download it, print it out, and fill it out in an hour or two. Social media has been one of my most frequently asked questions, so it made perfect sense for this to be the lead magnet. To develop your own lead magnet, think about your most frequently asked question, or what information you can offer that would be worth someone giving you their email address. Make sure it relates back to your industry and what you offer. Graphic Created with: Canva Here's an example of a lead generator I built for a client to give you some inspiration. One of my clients breeds bernedoodles so their lead generator says, "Unlock: 5 Tips For Success For You And Your New Puppy". The automated email that goes out after someone subscribes is all about setting expectations, prepping the family and their house for a new puppy. It even includes a puppy shopping list, as well as questions to keep in mind when they meet with the breeder and a few other resources. This starts educating their audience before they even talk with them one on one! Lead generators aren't just about closing a sale, the best lead generators start with educating or providing a free resource their audience can benefit from. This starts building trust right away, making it even easier to close when the time comes. Here's another example from another client of mine who's a mom blogger. She offers free printable valentines day cards to her audience. This was the perfect idea because she wants to help busy mom's feel more prepared! Graphic created with: Canva There are so many ideas to strategize when it comes to email marketing. Not only can you create a lead magnet, you can even set up follow up emails that go out every 2 days or every 3 days after they receive the lead magnet. As you grow the number of subscribers on your email list, you're able to share exclusive things just with those people. Let's say you want to offer a new product or service, you can launch it specifically to your email list first to see what the response it before you take it public to social media. This not only helps you test new product/service launches it also starts to build brand loyalty with your current customers. What is brand loyalty? Brand loyalty is when someone chooses to purchase from you over and over instead of switching to a competitor. Some people are very particular in their brand loyalty habits. I personally LOVE Annie's White Cheddar Mac and Cheese. If I'm craving mac and cheese and I don't want to go out to eat, I will allows order that kind, because I choose that brand over all the others that makes me brand loyal to them. What does this have to do with your email list? Offering special things to your email list, sharing behind the scenes information, all of this builds trust with them and makes it all the more likely they're going to keep purchasing from YOU!

If you’re wondering if blogging isn’t relevant anymore, you’re not alone. Most people don’t fully understand the purpose of a blog. Have you ever typed in a question on Google and clicked a link that comes up? Well, if that link is a page full of text answering your question, that’s a blog post! In this blog post I’m sharing the benefit to having a blog for your business and how to write your first post! I’ll be covering: How to start promoting your blog How to format your first post How to find pictures to include How to find topics to write about Blogging about topics that help your target audience is a great opportunity to show up in search results, not to mention it gives you content to send out as an email. You know what is outdated? Newsletters. If you’ve got a form on your website that says, “Subscribe to our newsletter” you may not be getting a lot of new email subscribers. People only subscribe to email lists if they truly believe there’s some kind of value they’ll get from it. That’s why you may notice pop ups that offer free information or discount in exchange for an email address. There’s so much content floating around nowadays, not to mention our inboxes are constantly being flooded with emails. We’re a lot more protective of our emails because we don’t want to have our inbox full of spam. How do I get started promoting my blog? So, what does this have to do with a blog? A whole lot. Whether you’re writing for fun or writing to share information or educate people on a topic, you’re going to need a way to get them the information. The first step is building a lead magnet, that’s a fancy term for offering helpful info or a discount in exchange for an email address. Once you’ve got your lead magnet set up, people will start to subscribe to your email list. If they’ve subscribed, they believe the information you shared is worth giving you their email. Once they’re on your list what do you email them? Yep. You guessed it, you send them your blog posts! Bonus: Another great way to know exactly what to write about is by joining Facebook groups where your target audience could be hanging out. Start participating in the group, leave comment, and browse through the questions and get familiar with the problems they’re facing. If someone posts a question, politely comment and relate to what they’re feeling and let them know you wrote a blog post on that topic, then copy and paste the link to your blog post. I’ve connected with lots of new people this way! How do I write my first post? So, how do you write a blog post that keeps people reading? The first step is writing a catchy title that gets them to click into the post first. Here’s some example blog post titles I’ve come up with for different industries: The 3 Most Important Questions to Ask Before Investing in Real-Estate Top 3 Mistakes to Avoid as a New Home Buyer Top 5 Tricks to Eating Healthy When You’re Busy The Power of Life Insurance, When Life Happens 5 Ways to Lower Home and Auto Insurance Costs You get the point. Once they’ve got the post open, you’ll want the introduction paragraph to relate to them. Think about the topic you’ll be writing about. Clearly you have some important information to share. How can you talk about that info that will relate to them? Generally, I write my topic idea at the top, type up the intro paragraph and then come up with topic ideas for each paragraph. Some blog posts may be longer than others, but I like to keep my posts 3-6 paragraphs long. This makes it long enough to be worth the read, but short enough so that you don’t overwhelm them. How to Format Your Blog Posts (quick list): Relatable Introduction Bullet point the topics you’ll be discussing 3-6 paragraphs with titles that keep them interested Closing paragraph (optional) Should I include pictures? Another great way to keep them reading is to include photos. We’ve all heard the phrase, “A picture is worth a thousand words”. If the topics you’re talking about could come alive even more through a photo, include one! Don’t forget to write the alt text for the picture so that Google knows what it is ;). I would say at a minimum, every blog post should at least have one photo. Where do I find photos if I don’t want to take my own? If I don’t have time to take a photo or need a photo of something I don’t have access to I love using Unsplash. Unsplash is a website dedicated to proprietary stock photography. Since 2021, it has been owned by Getty Images. The website claims over 265,000 contributing photographers and generates more than 16 billion photo impressions per month on their growing library of over 3.48 million photos. The photos on Unsplash are free to use and can be used for most commercial, personal projects, and for editorial use. You do not need to ask permission from or provide credit to the photographer or Unsplash. Although, if you do, it truly blesses that photographer immensely! So how do I find topics to write about? This is a loaded question that can go two routes. (Probably more, but we’ll focus on my favorite two!) First, if you want to use your blog as a way to drive more traffic to your website, a great way to find topics to write about is searching your idea on Pinterest. If the topic you type in the search bar comes up in search results, you know you have something that would be great to post on Pinterest! Second, I personally love to use my blog to answer frequently asked questions from my clients. This gives me something to send them each week and always helps more than one person. Remember in school when someone would raise their hand to ask a question you were thinking? It’s just like this. If one person is asking about it, chances are there are others wondering the same thing too. If you’ve been getting a lot of frequently asked questions, you want to help educate on specific topics, or you just want to share stories, a blog is a great thing to use for this! If you’re thinking about starting a blog and you’re not sure where to start, I’ve designed blog style websites for clients and have so much fun with this! I would be honored to design a website for you, set up your lead magnet, and get you started! Tap the request a quote button on the top right to find out more! Related Posts: How to Find Your Target Audience How to Start an Email List to Grow Your Business

Does creating a website seem like a completely overwhelming task? It's okay, you're not alone. I'm here to share 7 tips that will help your website convert more leads. Having a website is an investment, whether you're investing your time to DIY it yourself or you're paying someone like me to do it. Not to mention all the other overhead we incur as business owners. My goal with all my clients, is to listen and understand their business goals, what they have to offer, and present that in a way that brings their vision to life and helps them reach their business goals. In this blog post, I'm sharing 7 Secrets to Generate More Business & Leads. I'll be covering: How to make what you offer clear, but not salesy How to display the written sections on your site in a compelling way How to make your website look great on a computer and a phone The basics to starting and growing an email list How to know what to send your email list How to automate your sales process and set expectations How to display long form information in an easy to digest way Whether you're trying to build a website yourself or you have a website you're not loving, you're in the right place. These 7 Website Secrets can work as a checklist for your current website or a checklist if you're wanting to build it yourself. Bonus: If you'd prefer to listen instead of reading through this blog post, today's your lucky day! My business coach and I recorded a podcast episode all about it. Listen or read, whichever way you learn best. Listen on Spotify or through the player below. 1. How to make what you offer clear, but not salesy The biggest thing I notice that's always missing on websites is a clear call to action. A call to action or 'CTA' is a marketing term for something that prompts an immediate response or encourages an immediate sale. Examples of a call to action could be: buy now, shop now, request a quote, schedule a call, etc. For every client I work with I include a button with a CTA at the top of their website. The top of a website is called, the header. Including a CTA in the header makes the next step you want your viewers to take extremely clear. Determining your CTA starts with your business goals and strategy. To determine this really narrow in on your core offer and base your CTA around that. 2. How to display the written sections on your site in a compelling way They say you have an average of 8 seconds to capture someone's attention on a website. People don't part with dollars unless it's solving a problem they have. If you're not able to convey the problem you solve for your viewer within those 8 seconds, they're quickly moving on to your competitors website. So how do we make this happen? It's simple. The section right under the header needs to explain briefly, the problem you solve, in a way that relates to your target audience. The photo below is an example of a client of mine who owns a fitness company. Her call to action and offer is extremely clear and the background photo gives them a visual representation of her offering as well. Not to mention those inspiring muscles that are HERS by the way!! #soinspiring 3. How to make your website look great on a computer and a phone The secret to this is, make your website mobile friendly. A study from 2020 shared that globally, 68.1% of all website visits came from mobile devices. With all the new technology coming out every year, I believe this number will continue to increase. How we consume information and interact with businesses is changing constantly. Being a business owner means we must be willing to pivot, implement new changes, and keep improving day in and day out. It can be overwhelming at times, but I promise you, having a website that is mobile friendly is one of those changes that's worth it, because it will increase your ROI. (Return on Investment) 4. The basics to starting and growing an email list aka building your funnel You've probably heard you should be collecting email addresses, but why? Growing a following on social media is great, but if that's the only place you connect with your audience you're in big trouble. I've heard of clients who've gotten their accounts hacked or their account is shut down because they didn't follow the rules on that platform. This can be devastating, but imagine if you could connect with all of those people over email. You'd still have a way to share information, follow up, share sales etc. So what does it mean to grow your funnel? Everyone's talking about it, but most people don't fully understand what it means and how it translates to their business. Building your funnel is a marketing term that means delivering marketing messages that speak to people who are in different stages of the buying process. Developing a funnel through automated emails is where closing leads can become almost automatic. Let's say your funnel starts with someone visiting your website. If they're not 100% ready to buy or book your service, they may scroll through to see what you have to offer and then close the page. The goal would be to collect their email since they're interested, but still not sure if they want to commit yet. This is why you need a lead magnet. What's a lead magnet? A lead magnet is an email opt in that gives you the chance to offer free information in exchange for an email address. The information you provide through an automated email will help them trust you and your brand more. Having their email allows you the ability to follow up and share helpful information with them. As they receive your emails their trust in you grows and so does their curiosity about what you have to offer. Check out these lead magnets that have helped my clients grow their email list and their business. 5. Once you have their email address, what should you send them? Alright, let's say you've got your lead magnet set up, you're getting email subscribers, what's the next step? The lead magnet should trigger a drip campaign. What's a drip campaign? A drip campaign is a marketing term that refers to your communication strategy that sends "drips", a pre-written set of automated emails or messages to customers/prospects over time. By setting up a few more automated emails that include helpful information, you automate your follow up process with new leads. Keep in mind though, when someone subscribes to your lead magnet but they don't schedule a call, request a quote, or follow through with your CTA it means they're in the curiosity phase still. This means they're just looking to learn more, they're not necessarily ready to commit yet. Setting up a drip campaign to offer more helpful information has the potential to move them from curiosity, to enlightenment. When a lead is in the enlightenment phase, that means they've realized you can solve the problem they have and they're getting closer to being ready to commit. 6. How to automate your sales process and set expectations What is a sales process? A sales process is similar to your funnel, but less complicated. Your sales process is simply the steps it takes for your viewer to actually engage in your call to action. Think about what they need to do to utilize your service. Do they need to request a quote? Do they need to schedule a call? Can they purchase on your website without you having to talk to them? Really narrow down the simplest way they can make a purchase. The harder it is for them to understand what's next, the less likely it is that they'll actually convert. By setting up automated emails after they engage in your call to action, you're able to set the expectation on the front end, automatically. Keep in mind this does take a lot of strategy and planning before you can actually set up the automated emails. If you have a form someone needs to fill out, or if they can simply purchase on your site, you're going to want to set up a sales campaign. A sales campaign is similar to your drip campaign in the fact that it's automated, but it's much more sales forward than the drip campaign. There's so many routes a sales campaign can take. It can be used to set an expectation as to when they can expect to hear back from you. If they've purchased a product that maybe brings in a lot of frequently asked questions, you could create an automated email that links to a full FAQ page. If they fill out a form to learn more, you could include an automated email for them to book a call. The list goes on. The biggest thing to keep in mind is that your sale campaign is for hot leads and your drip campaign is for leads that are just getting warmed up. 7 How to display long form information in an easy to digest way Including a blog on your website is the best way to share long form information. Not only can you separate information into different topics easily, it also gives you something to include in those drip campaign emails. I have a client that does an incredible job networking in facebook groups by utilizing her blog posts. If someone has a question that one of her blog posts answers, she'll reply to the post with a genuinely sweet comment and paste the link to the blog post. Her website views are the highest of all the clients I've had in the last 3 years now, simply because she's setting out to help people. Her goal in interacting with people online isn't to make a sale. Her goal is always to answer questions and help people. Not only are her website views the highest of anyone I've ever seen, her income is also the highest of anyone I've ever seen as well. She has multiple businesses, but her heart within each of them remains the same. Having a blog can be a lot of work in the beginning, but creating content that will help your target audience has a huge return on investment. If you've ever typed in a question through the Google search bar then clicked a link, that link is most likely a blog post, or a page dedicated to answering the question you searched. So not only is it helping you have content for emails and social media, it's also increasing your chances of showing up on the top page of Google. As you grow your audience, you can even start making money from your blog by monetizing it. I could go on forever about blogging and the potential it can unlock for your business. If this really peeked your interest, drop me and email and let me know if you'd like me to write more on this topic. You can find my email by scrolling to the bottom of this page. If at any point you're working through these steps and you want to strategize one on one, I do offer coaching and consulting on all the topics listed above.