Where’s my Monday through Friday, 9-5 full timers dreaming of the day they’re their own boss?  The ones who are working 40 hours a week at their desk job and pulling all nighters with their dream job?

If you’re anything like me, you can not wait to give your two weeks notice, but you’re still trying to grow your business.  Well friends with content marketing and consistent blogging, you can do just that!

Here’s how.

I spent 2015 signing up for education that I felt was going to help grow my business and in the thousands of dollars that I spent investing in my dream there was one common trend – blogging valuable content for my ideal client.

While one common trend, it involved two terrifying topics for me: blogging and content.

I had several worries.  Among them included: I didn’t have anything to blog about; no one would read my blog let alone find the posts helpful; how was I going to find the TIME; and the big one – while content marketing worked for everyone else, it’s not going to work for me.

I finished 2015 with notebooks full of valuable information from incredible leaders in the photography industry and the entrepreneurial world.  I was frustrated at my full time job and kept telling myself being able to leave my teaching position and pursue my dreams of full time wedding photography was still at least another year off.  This was until I sat down and started blogging valuable content.

On my Christmas Break from school I buckled down and decided word of mouth referrals was not going to cut it anymore.  I needed to try something new.  So I finally stopped believing all the lies I was telling myself about my blogging abilities.

You’ll hear people who know a thing or two about blogging talk about the Three C’s.  While there are many variations to those “C’s”, the ones that I find are the most valuable are content, connection, and consistency.

Content

For a year and a half I kept a running note in my phone with blogging topics.  I had three main categories – for brides, photographers, and personal.  Ideas would pop in my head while at weddings, from email communication with Brides, casual conversations with friends who were also in the industry, or late night thoughts.  All the lies I was telling myself were simply not true.  I had LOTS to write about, and all of it would prove to be extremely valuable for my ideal client!

Connection

Content and connections go hand in hand if you ask me.  You have to write valuable information that is going to connect to your ideal client.  That content needs to draw your ideal client in and make them want to come back for more.  If you’re a wedding photographer, you need to think about who your ideal Bride is and what information they need while planning their wedding.  For me, my ideal Bride is a laid back rustic/glamorous bride who pays attention to detail.  One of my most popular and helpful posts is a list of rustic wedding venues in my area.

Consistency

Consistency truly is King in the blogging world.  Your content could be out of this world helpful, and you could be making incredible connections with your ideal client, but if you’re not posting consistently, you’re doing yourself a disservice.  In Katelyn James’ Branding Course with the International Academy of Wedding Photographers, she says it takes up to six months of consistency to see the advantages of consistent blogging.

Loren’s Tips to Content Marketing through Consistent Blogging

There are a couple parts to consistency that you need to pay attention to.  These include, what days you’re posting on, what is being posted on those days, and what time the post is going live.

To be successful at the consistency, I knew I needed to start with a blogging calendar.  That on going note in my phone with topics, I needed to get those on paper (or my iCalendar – i’m a digital girl so I went that route).  I decided that I was going to blog three days a week and I choose to pick Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays.  If three days seems too intimidating at first for you, blog two days – Tuesdays and Thursdays.

I schedule my personal posts for Mondays.  If I don’t have anything personal to post, I’ll post helpful tips for Brides.  During wedding season, Weddings are blogged on Tuesdays (if the wedding was on Saturday).  I decided to go with Tuesdays because of what Katelyn James coined the golden window of impact.  If you’re unfamiliar with the golden window of impact, it’s a 72 hour window that guests and client are still excited about the Wedding, it’s still fresh in their memory.  Wednesdays are for Bridal posts, and Thursdays are helpful posts for photographers.  During the engagement session season, I’ll post a session within 72 hours as long as the 72 hours does not fall on a weekend.  This goes back to KJ’s golden window of impact.

The last part of consistency is what time your post goes live.  Just like highways have rush hour for traffic, the internet also has rush hour.  You could post at these times, but you’ll competition.  You could post when traffic is slow, but then your post on Facebook to drive the traffic to the blog could receive little reach.  There’s pros and cons to both.  You’ll need to experiment and find what works best for you.  I do suggest you need to post BEFORE 11 am so you have a full days worth of visitors to the blog.  You’re doing yourself such a disservice if you post new content at 5 pm because the days nearly over and less people will see the content.

The Affects of Content Marketing through Consistent Blogging

Nearly a full four months into my consistent blogging of valuable content for my ideal Bride, my numbers across the board are improving!  My views per month on the blog have increased nearly 65%, my inquires are up from this point last year, I met my booking goal for 2016 with still more inquires weekly for 2016 dates, and I have five 2017 dates booked already with consults set with five other Brides!  At this point last year in 2015, I had ONE 2016 wedding booked.

With a blog full of valuable content and consistency, a Bride sees a professional who is going to be a true asset to their wedding day!  It’s an incredible feeling having your brides tell you how helpful the blog posts have been to planning their wedding, or having a complete stranger tell you they have been following along and can’t wait to plan their own wedding with your helpful tips in mind.

So ask yourself what is holding you back from your dreams?  Is it the lies in your head, or finding the time?  For me it was both.  Once I jumped those hurdles, my business has grown so much!  Yours can to!  But you first have to believe in yourself!

To read Loren’s Blogging Tips, click here

The most notable education came from:

Katelyn James IAOWP | BRANDING FOR WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHERS

Justin & Mary IAOWP | MARKETING FOR WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHERS

United 2015 | JARED BAUMAN .