Four Things We Can Learn About Marketing From Sons of Anarchy

In a few short months, the popular FX series Sons of Anarchy is going to embark on season five. What could you possibly learn about marketing your business from this merry band of motorcycle hooligans?

Sure, morality has been tossed out the window in their home of Charming, California. This is a club of felons that we’re talking about here. Yet there is something about them that keeps us coming back. This show has all the excitement and drama of the Sopranos, this time on motorcycles. What is it that we can learn from them, that doesn’t involve shooting up your competition, or breaking any other laws?

Loyalty Is Huge

The Sons of Anarchy are nothing if not loyal. They showcase it every day in their unwillingness to rat on anyone for gain. You can showcase your loyalty by rewarding the talent that you see in other small businesses, your employees, and freelancers. Keep them in business. Make sure they know how you feel through your words and your actions.

Maintain Your Likeability

Despite their knack for shooting first and asking questions later, the Sons are still a likeable group of criminals that the audience can identify with. This is evident in the richness of the relationships that they hold, and the family life that they share. You can maintain your likeability by engaging with customers and working hard to continuously develop new relationships.

Fight For It

If it’s worth having, it’s worth fighting for. In season three, the club goes to Ireland, fighting to retrieve their vice president’s kidnapped son. For your business, it may be increasing your customer base that you’re fighting for. Don’t be afraid to try new things with your website, blog, social media and other marketing content. Stick with what works.

A Fresh Perspective Is Good

In season five, the club will start out with a new vice president. You don’t need to step down from your business, but seeking others thoughts and opinions is always a good thing. Maybe you can bring in a guest blogger. Maybe it’s just a matter of listening to the suggestions that customers, clients, or employees have made. 

It is possible to learn from a group of outlaws. Putting these lessons in practice will only make your business stronger. 

What's Your Blogging Frequency?

Lots of people have lots of opinions when it comes to how often a business should blog. If you’re looking to continuously increase your visibility, nothing replaces blogging at least 3-5 times in a week.

Now, that’s a lot of work, and I don’t regularly hit that number myself. I’m not telling businesses to do something that I don’t do. I’m telling businesses to find what’s right for them.

If increasing your writing frequency is something you want to try, the quality of your blog cannot suffer for quantity. If it’s between writing three OK blogs in a week or one good one, choose one good one.

Some businesses write less frequently. It is tough to build an active audience blogging less than once a week, no matter the quality of the work. With the 24/7 stream of news and information through social media, businesses need to be regularly writing new material to make a lasting impression.

Some industries are more difficult to write frequently for. Some just require a lot of time. Make no mistake, this form of marketing your business is not going anywhere. Blogs provide a wealth of information to your customer, and are a great asset for your search engine rankings.

If you are struggling with your time or the quality of your writing, consider hiring it out. Find someone who specializes in blog writing services. 

Write a Blog Post In 30 Minutes

Having consistent, quality content is one of the most important steps in marketing your business. It’s what keeps your audience—as well as the search engines—coming back to see what you have to say.

How are you supposed to keep up with your blog when you have so much else going on with your business? Well, you don’t have to write a 1,500-word opus, at least not every time. I’m talking about a 300 to 500-word blog that conveys an idea your readers will find useful.

Keep An Idea List

As a blogging business person, ideas are all around you. Think about the conversations you’ve had through the course of the week. Think about the trade articles you’ve read, and the ever-changing developments within your industry. Now write them down. As you come up with these ideas, go ahead and jot a few sentences down, either starting the post, or describing the type of post you want to write. You can always go back and develop these later.

Think About Your List When You’re Not Writing

So you know you want to write your next blog tomorrow. While your schedule is packed today, it’s ok to be thinking about what you want to commit to paper. This will make the process for tomorrow a bit easier. Writing is not a 9 to 5. Sometimes the best ideas come while we’re doing something else.

Express Your Idea

As you stare at a blank screen, keep a couple thoughts in mind as you struggle to get started. What’s your own internal deadline? When do you absolutely want this post published? Sometimes just knowing this will start the information flowing.

As you write, you are simply laying out your argument. You can tell the reader what you hope to accomplish in the headline, or first few paragraphs, and then lay it out in the paragraphs that follow.

Write Short

A blog is not the place for over the top, flowery language. It’s not the place to show off your stellar vocabulary. Remember, if you send your readers to the dictionary, there’s a decent chance they may not come back. Keep it straight and to the point. Don’t use 10 words to complete a thought if five will do. A blog only needs to be as long as it takes to convey the idea. Seth Godin often conveys his ideas in 100-200 words. They’re always thoughtful and well written.

Think Methodically

There’s no need to put yourself under a lot of pressure to meet this time constraint. As long as you can think methodically and understand what you want to say in your blog, you should be able to work through it in less than a half hour. You don’t need to do a full blown outline, but you can always write down the main points you want to hit before you forget them. This can help keep you on track.

Don’t Over Do It

Remember not to let the quantity suffer for quality. If 3-5 posts in a week is just too much writing, maybe concentrate on publishing one really good post. A blog can often be a reader’s first exposure to your business. You’re not going to hit a home run with every post (Just being honest.), but every post can still live up to the professional standards that you’ve set for your business.

How To Defeat Writer’s Block

We’ve all been there. We have an idea that is great in concept, and we want to do it justice when it’s published. The finished product needs to be every bit as good as the concept seems right now.

That’s a lot of pressure. It’s no wonder that when you sit down to write you’re staring at a blank page. So what do you do?

Set an Internal Deadline

Maybe there’s no editor or client staring over your shoulder asking for the piece. If it’s just for you and the benefit of your marketing materials, it’s time for a gut check. Ask yourself: when do you want to publish it? Be honest. Too early may jeopardize quality. Too late may kick your procrastination into overdrive. Once you set the date stick to it. Keep writing.

Shut Your Internal Editor Off

All writers have an internal editor. We’re constantly motivated by making what we create better. It’s a great thing—at least until it gets in the way of our immediate goals.

When you stifle your own ideas to the point that they don’t even reach paper, you’re crippling your own creativity. Go ahead, put it on paper. If it’s not up to publishable standards, you’ll have a chance to go back and improve the idea, or delete it altogether, after you are done.

Step Away From The Computer

Sometimes our greatest ideas come while we’re doing something else. Sometimes we need to be taking a walk, doing the dishes, showering, or organizing our Tupperware collections in order to let our creativity fester. This can help you regain some clarity. Once you’ve regained your purpose, come back and finish what you’ve started.

Organize Your Thoughts

What are you really trying to say? Have you wandered a little too far away from this main point? Maybe it’s time to take a few seconds and jot down the main points that you’re trying to hit. What’s the best way to make those points?

Start in the Middle

No matter what you’re writing, the opening needs to be catchy. It needs to pull people in, and lay out the goals and purpose for what you’re trying to say. That’s a lot of pressure. Don’t be afraid to start somewhere in the middle, and get it down. After it starts flowing, the rest will come.

Ten Ways To Find Blog Ideas

Writing can be a challenging task—especially for those who aren’t fully used to it.

If you have a blog, you’ve pretty much committed yourself to becoming a writer. It can take writing three to five posts a week to drive traffic up and get the kind of readership that you’ve been looking for. You’ll also need strong content for every post as well. That’s no easy feet.

So what do you do when you’re out of ideas? It’s time to expand your creative borders and keep thinking of new and creative ways to express your ideas. There is always something that you could write about.

Carry a Notebook

            You never know at what point in the day inspiration could strike you. If you are taking a shower, or taking out the trash, the perfect idea for the next blog may pop into your head. It’s best to be prepared for this.

            Make sure to use the notebook. If you’re still feeling stuck, try freewriting. No one has to see this notebook but you. Write until you find your next great idea.

What Questions Do Your Clients or Customers Ask?

Has a client recently asked you a really good question about your business? Or maybe it’s a question that you believe more clients may have. You can answer that question in a blog. Don’t be afraid to refer them to the blog after you are done. It’ll make an excellent resource.

Industry News or Developments

Has something recently changed in your industry that your readers could benefit from knowing about? Maybe there’s a new line of product, or the regulations are changing? Now is your chance to keep your readership up to date.

Consumer Tips

What should consumers in your industry be aware of before making a buying decision? This is your chance to shine as an expert, without pushing your own product. Go ahead and tell them why what you sell matters, and what they can do to go through the purchasing process the right way.

Direct Response

If you recently read an insightful industry blog, don’t be afraid to expound on it. You can link to the other blog, and give your opinions and insights on the issue at hand. This is a great way to interact with others in your industry and capitalize on another stream of traffic. Just make sure you have something insightful to say.

Look Outside Your Industry

It pays to be reading materials from outside your industry to continuously expose yourself to new ideas and stay fresh. This is your chance to connect the dots between two areas that we otherwise wouldn’t see the connection. Let your creativity flow. How did what Mozart do impact the world of running shoes? I don’t know either. You explain it.

Who Do You Talk To?

Do you talk with others in your industry or a related industry? What insight have they offered you? If they’ve tipped you off to something you need to consider in your industry, now is the time to share. If you’re going to write about their ideas, remember to give credit where credit is due.  Interviewing them for a post may also be a good idea.

Lists

Readers crave information in short chunks. What kind of industry-related lists can you create to convey information? These are often some of the highest read posts, as well.

Book or Product Reviews

What industry books have you read lately? Were they an excellent fountain of information or an abysmal disappointment? Maybe you should make the recommendation, or warn others off.

Find a Guest Blogger

Know someone providing a fresh look at things in your industry? Now is the time to expose them to a new audience, and expose your audience to a fresh voice. It’s a win-win.

Content You Can Share

I’ve written on numerous occasions about the ways that marketing has changed over the last several years. The transition from phonebook advertising to Google has made a big difference in the way companies do business.

The way that search engine optimization itself (making your website findable on search engines) is also changing considerably.

It used to be that strong SEO was achieved by placing strategic keywords on your page, and that was it. While keywords are still important, social media has brought the human element back into the equation.

Social media creates the backlinks search engines have factored into their rankings for a long time. This is the mechanical advantage that these platforms create for business.

The virality of content is now also at play. This is especially true since Google got into the game with Google Plus.  Search experts SEO Moz called the virality of the content “possibly the most important /valuable factor in the ranking equation because it will produce the highest link conversion rate (the ratio of those who visit to those who link after viewing).”

What Does This Mean?

Write Content People Will Be Interested In.

It has to be engaging. It has to captivate. Write content that needs to be shared. Yes, having the terms you want people to search for is important. But so is writing a post you want people to read.

If your readers place a premium on your content, so will the search engines. Mark Twain made the remark that he’d write less if he had more time. Headlines and tweets take time. It can be harder to write short, than to write long.

It’s worth taking the time to write strong headlines, and become better at Twitter. When you have limited space to grab people’s attention, you have to make it count.

Once you have them, tell a good story. Don’t put them to sleep.

Are You Taking Advantage of Pinterest?

There’s no shortage of material written about Pinterest. In the United States, the photo-intensive platform is largely dedicated to arts and crafts-type pictures. Don’t be misled however. This site can do wonders for your traffic, helping you to strengthen your business.

One peek into your analytics should bring a delightful surprise. Just the other day I took a more in-depth look into my analytics and noticed that Pinterest drove more traffic than any other social media platform by a long shot. It surprised me.

Pinterest does account for more referral traffic than Google Plus, Youtube and LinkedIn combined, according to Business Insider. Now, traffic does not equate to customers. But assuming you have a well functioning website in place, traffic sure helps.

There are a wide variety of categories people can pin website content to on the site. Chances are, there’s a way for your business to take advantage there. 

So the question from here, becomes…

How To Make Your Content Pinterest Friendly?  

Think Visually

Pictures drive the site. If somebody pins your blog post, you don’t want an outdated, out of focus shot to be the first thing that they see.

Having multiple photographs on a blog post offers the pinner choice. Photographs that pertain to the subject of your blog, and offer a good visual representation are also important.

Are you Photoshop inclined? A well-produced graphic could also make strong Pinterest fodder.

Make It Easier

First off you have to write strong content. It needs to be something worth sharing. You can also add a Pin It button to make sharing a little easier. There are plenty of tutorials on the Internet for adding it to your specific type of blogging platform. If you’re on Blogger like me, I found this tutorial on adding the Pinterest button helpful.

The bottom line is not to ignore this new network. If you spend a little bit of time with it, it could pay huge dividends for you. 

Write Content They'll Remember

In nearly all cases, the first exposure someone has to your business will be through words. This could be your website, social media, articles, blogging, or video. It could also be a sales rep, (satisfied or unsatisfied) customer, or some other form of exposure.

In most industries, these words sound just about the same. There’s a rush to the same middle ground. It’s easy to feel pigeon-holed into the place that your business belongs. It's that same place that the companies you compete with shoot for. 

It’s more important than ever to use these words to set your business apart. What can a customer expect in doing business with you? Why are you different? Why do you care? There are more mediums to communicate this message than ever. Shoot for your unique selling point, like number four on this blog list.

You can be professional and different at the same time. Woot, Groupon and countless of other businesses have proven this. There’s more room for your company to thrive on the outside.

This is where your customers will notice you.