Don’t over-think it. Just sit down and write. Whatever comes to mind. You can go back later to keyword and proofread. You’ll be surprised how many words you can get on a page in one hour if you just sit down and write about something that is interesting to you or that you know a lot about. Blogging is such an integral part of internet marketing for many reasons you can read about here.
See also: Why Blog? The Numbers, the Numbers, the Numbers!
Nothing at all coming to mind to blog about? Instead of writing a blog, take an hour to plan out your editorial calendar for the month. This will do time saving wonders for you later. Once you sit down to blog, you’ll know exactly what your topic is so you can just start writing. It will also help you develop offers and schedule social media posts that relate to your blogging topics so you’ll have a well thought out, holistic internet marketing strategy.
You know that offer you keep meaning to write? (I know I do!). It would be a lot easier to get started if you had research to point you in the right direction. Start now. Take your extra hour and Google your topic. Then start reading. Bookmark anything that is relevant and what you deem to be good information. Then when you actually do sit down to write the offer, you won’t have to spend time finding the information.
Sometimes it’s the easy little things that we keep putting off to do that get forgotten. It’s not that PPC ads are hard to write - there is a simple formula to follow - it’s just that they take more brainpower because you are limited by keywords, word count, etc. and find yourself avoiding them altogether. Suck it up. Take one hour and knock out has many PPC ads as you can. Enlist a co-worker and make it competitive to see who can write the most PPC ads related to your campaign in an hour.
Grab your flip cam or your phone. Make a how-to video, share a customer case study, tell a personal story, give a few industry tips and tricks, talk about a new product release, or give your own thoughts about a new industry trend popping up in the news. The video doesn’t have to be long; 2 to 5 minutes will be just fine. Now you have something you can post on your website, YouTube channel, and share on social media. You’re a rock star.
So, that folder in your inbox titled “Read Later,” open it. Click on any interesting subject line and read. Repeat as necessary for one hour. It’s so easy to let your inbox fill up with the blogs you’ve subscribed to while having the best intentions of reading them, only to hit delete. It’s up to you what you want to read or not, so just pick a few and read them. Reading other blogs in your industry can help you learn new trends, tips, and tactics as well as give you ideas for future content. My favorite? Copyblogger - I read it every day.
While you’re reading other industry blogs, bookmark the ones that you find particularly interesting or helpful. You can curate this content and use it on your own blog. Learn about how to do that by clicking here.
See also: Internet Marketing Tips: The Art of Content Curation
This is a great way to learn about the questions your customers and potential customers are asking, as well as their likes and dislikes. Ask a question on Facebook and see what kind of answers you get. Tweet a statistic on Twitter and see if you get any re-tweets or new followers. Your customers ARE on social media, and even if you have a marketing company or social media manager, YOU should be on sometimes too.
If you have an offer or a PPC ad all ready to go, the next step in your interne t marketing strategy would be to get the landing page going. If you have the right software – we use HubSpot’s inbound marketing software – you can easily knock a landing page out in an hour. Maybe you’ll even do it in 30 minutes so you can start writing your lead nurturing emails too!
It can be easy to start neglecting your own company website when you are focused on so many other aspects of the business; however this is the gateway to who you are as company and deserves some of your face time. Try going to your website with the perspective of someone who has never been there before. What design elements do you like or dislike? Are there clear calls-to-action directing the customer what to do next? Is your content up to date? Do you notice any spelling errors or click on any bad links? These are all things to look for as you take an hour or so to evaluate your website.
It’s ironic, yet extremely satisfying, that I just realized this blog post took me exactly 43 minutes to write (see tip #1). You might be saying, “but you write internet marketing blogs all the time, it’s easy for you” in which I would assure you that I struggle with the same things you do, but can attest to the fact that the more you do it, the better you’ll be – and then you’ll be amazed what you can accomplish in an hour!
One last tip - set a timer for an hour when trying one of the tips above. It will help you stay focused and motivated and give you permission to be done!