Today on the podcast, we chat with our friends Martin and Lyndsay from Jammy Digital, who tell us all about using your blog and leveraging Google to build a whopper of an email list. So if you think blogging is dead, have tried and failed to start and maintain a blog (much like us), but want to understand how to use blogging for email list building, you just have to check this interview out! 

Ready to learn some tricks that will completely change the way you look at blogging? 

Let's do this!

SOME EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS: 

(0:13) Want to get more sales from your email marketing? Grab our Click Tricks.
(3:36) Fancy a 14-day FREE trial with Keap? 
(4:34) Did Martin and Lyndsay really meet at the Peter Pan ride queue at Disneyland Paris?
(6:02) The benefits of turning podcast show notes into blog posts.
(10:54) How to make your business blog more effective.
(15:32) How to come up with effective blog post ideas.
(18:32) What if you don't like writing?
(21:25) How can your blog posts be found on Google?
(23:45) How often should you blog in order for your efforts to be effective?
(29:11) Subject line of the week with Martin and Lyndsday from Jammy Digital.

Want to get more sales from your email marketing?

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The benefits of turning podcast show notes into blog posts

As you probably know, we’ve been podcasting for a while. In the past, we tried different types of show notes, but over the last year we've been providing a blog post for each podcast episode (yep – that's the one you're reading right now). It's something that people can skim-read and is the perfect solution for anyone who doesn't like listening to podcasts or can't at a particular point in time. This in-depth article allows anyone to still access the information – even if they choose not to listen to the podcast. Pretty cool, right? 

This works not just for our audience, but also, from our point of view, we've definitely noticed a rise in traffic from the search engines. And as a result, we're getting more people opting into our email list (because we give our readers plenty of opportunities to do this while they read our content).

Having written content works because when it comes to search engines, podcasts aren't massively discoverable. Google likes written content a lot more, so it's about leveraging what the search engines favour in order to make your content more accessible. 

Repurpose your content to achieve your business goals

Content repurposing is great. But it's not just about that. It's about tapping into what's going to make the biggest difference in terms of what you're trying to accomplish in your business.

For Martin and Lyndsay, as well as for us, it’s about getting more email subscribers and building an audience of people we can pre-qualify. How? People who sign up for our list are consuming our content. So they know we’re right for them. And that's why they’re comfortable handing over their email address to get more content from us. And creating written content (over podcast or video) is the best way to do this.

So let's say you do create other types of content – a podcast, a YouTube channel, or do a lot of Facebook lives. Should you drop everything to start a blog? Absolutely not! You can do what we did – we didn't add blogging as an extra piece of work. Instead, we continued to produce our podcast and a member of our team takes each episode and turns it into a blog post. And once you have that piece of written content, it's a piece of web real estate. And you can still embed your podcast or video within it. Win-win!

How to make your business blog more effective

If you have a blog, there are ways to make it more effective and attract more visitors. And the main tip Martin and Lyndsay have to help you get found on Google is to answer the questions your customers and audience are asking you.

Sure, sometimes these questions can make us uncomfortable, especially when they're around price. But being upfront and answering them means you’re going to get found on Google.  People are searching for this information, and your competitors might not be answering these types of questions. So if you do address these topics, you're more likely to get rankings and traffic.

You can cover the questions people have in the decision-making stage, for example. That's when people are trying to decide which option to go with, and a lot of businesses don't focus on this. Instead, they create content that falls into the awareness stage of the buyer’s journey. So answering these types of questions can help you stand out more.

What about keyword research tools? 

Martin and Lyndsay told us that a lot of people rely on tools and try and mimic what big brands do in terms of creating content for their blogs. But when you try and compete with big companies, you’ll always find ranking more difficult. Instead, focus on what your customers are asking.

There might be scenarios where you get asked a question by several clients, but when you look it up on the keyword research tools, you might find it's not a popular keyword. And yet you know it's a question real people have! So remember that customers come before the data. They are the first point of call for communication and letting you know what your audience is struggling with. 

How to come up with effective blog post ideas

Martin and Lyndsay recommend keeping a clean notebook at your desk so every time you have any kind of communication with a client, you can record it in your content book. Content ideas are everywhere – in the emails you receive and the questions people have.

Everything is a content opportunity. And when you start to train your brain to look for those ideas, you'll find them everywhere. The more you’re aware of it you are (and the more you look out for them), the more you'll find. 

So look at any communication you've had with your clients in the past and instead of answering questions individually, answer them in a blog post. That's more efficient. It makes everything faster – even sales calls. Be conscious of these questions and keep a record of them – you'll see your list of ideas grow quickly. In addition to that, there are tools you can use, such as Answer the Public or Quora, for example. Right now you might feel stuck for ideas, but once you start this simple process, you’ll end up with loads!

What if you don’t like writing?

Martin isn't a keen writer himself, he told us. But when he started writing blog posts for their business, he chose the strategy to be as direct as possible. He didn’t try to be overly fluffy with the writing – he simply focused on explaining the exact steps to someone who diddn't know anything about the process. He wasn’t trying to be clever with words – he wanted to give people direct information.

So he got his head down every week and produced a piece of content. And soon enough he realised the blog posts were longer than he initially expected them to be. Because when you go all-in on answering a particular question, you end up giving all the necessary information in your blog post.

Some people think they should only share some of their knowledge, in order to get people to hire them and pay for the rest. But Martin and Lyndsay think you should let go of this mindset completely. There's no shortage of information on the Internet. So if you can be that person – that hub of knowledge for your audience – then go all in and hold nothing back. People will still pay you for implementation and extra services because you created and shared something amazing for free. 

Remember that people don't care about your writing per se – they're not expecting Shakespeare. They're looking for information. So they don't care if you’re not being overly clever with your writing – what matters is that you helped them. And they’ll remember that. That’s much more important than how beautiful your writing is.

How can your blog posts be found on Google? 

Martin and Lyndsay told us that what's good for users is generally what's good for Google. They want the exact same thing. Because the people who create algorithms for Google want to provide the best result to their users – it's their job. So when you focus on delivering exceptional value to a reader, you'll give yourself the best chance of ranking on the search engine results too. 

When you create content that's clear, direct, and easy to read for your users, people will spend more time on your blog. And when Google sees people reading your content and clicking on your links, they'll rank your content highly. Of course, this is an oversimplified way to look at this because there are more factors at play, but it's a great principle to live by. It works for Martin and Lyndsay, who are in the competitive niches of marketing and SEO. So if they’re able to rank on the first page of Google for lots of keywords, then you know that thinking about your users first is a strategy that works.

When it comes to making things easier for your readers, Martin and Lyndsay told us it helps to have plenty of white space on the page, as well as clear headings and bullet points. People don’t want to look at War and Peace when they’re on your blog. So remember to use these strategies and jargon-free, clear, and direct language.  

How often should you blog in order for your efforts to be effective?

Martin and Lyndsay increased their website traffic by 10 times in the space of 12 months by blogging once every two weeks when they started in 2017. Their blog posts were generally quite long, as they wanted to deliver value. If you focus on delivering value, they said, you can get fantastic results. But definitely prioritise quality over quantity and don't believe that you have to blog twice a week in order to see results. 

Also, think about making all of your blog posts work hard(er) for you. At the back of each article they share, Martin and Lyndsay create five or six LinkedIn posts and another eight Instagram graphics. Hardly any of their social media content is original – it’s all taken from their blog posts.

The advantage of starting from your blog content is that it's published on a platform you own. It's your home base – your website. So when you promote your content, try to get as many people over to your website and then onto your email list. Because once you have that, everything else becomes secondary. So promote your blog article on your website where people can sign up to your email list, and you'll see blogging have the impact you want on your business.

Subject line of the week with Martin and Lyndsay from Jammy Digital

This week’s subject line (courtesy of Martin and Lyndsay) is “How Jammy is changing”. Lyndsay tells us this subject line did incredibly well and had a high click-through rate. Why? Because, Martin added, because people care about your business and the changes you make.

In fact, Martin and Lyndsay found that whenever they made announcements in the past about changes in their business, they always had more views and interest. So why not try and use this format for your own business? Maybe for a product or service you sell or a promotion you’re running? 

Useful Episode Resources

About Martin and Lyndsay – Jammy Digital

If you want to connect with Martin and Lyndsay, you can find them on their awesome website Jammy Digital. Definitely go and check out their blog and you can buy their book Content Fortress here. 

Related episodes

Examples of Advertorials to Grow your Email List with Rachel Mazza. 

How to Grow your Email List When You Have Less Than 10k Instagram Followers, Helen Perry spills all. 

How To Grow Your Email List Using Facebook Pages (Without Ads) – Rachel Miller Moolah Style!

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