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Simple SEO and Marketing, Business Growth, Organic Marketing, Copywriting, Online Business, Blogging, Content Creation
Ep 251 // The 10 Biggest Lessons that I’ve Learned in 250 Podcast Episodes
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Well, hey there friends. So Today I'm celebrating 250 podcast episodes, which when you say that out loud it sounds insane, especially considering a large majority of podcasts only have like five episodes and then they quit. But you know what, here we are, three ish, three and a half ish years later, 250 episodes in and loving it. So I have 10 lessons that I've learned in 250 podcast episodes, not in any like real specific order. Don't worry, I'm not gonna take forever in a day to walk through these lessons. But these lessons that I've learned in podcasting really do apply to any form of content marketing. So regardless of whether you have a podcast, ever want to have a podcast, these lessons will truly help you in your content marketing strategy, help you reach more people with your stuff, and help more people. So go ahead and jot some notes down if you want, or just make mental notes on how to improve your content marketing in your business. Let's go. Hey there fellow entrepreneur. Welcome to Simple SEO and Marketing. Do you want to grow your business with sustainable traffic sources? Have you heard about the power of search engine optimization? And you want to take advantage of it to get more traffic, more eyeballs on your business. But when it comes down to it, does SEO feel complicated and hard to implement? Are you tired of wondering what in the heck to do with your website to get more traffic and more leads knocking on your door? What if I could tell you that there was a simple, proven system for using SEO, blogging and copywriting to get leads from your website and not just any leads, High converting leads. Hey, I'm Faith Hannon, wife, mama, copywriter, SEO strategist and barrel racer. And for the last eight years I've been figuring out what works and what doesn't work in the world of online marketing to get organic traffic. And now I'm here to share all the things I'm learning in the trenches of SEO, copywriting and content marketing. How does 300%, 500% or even 12,000% more traffic in a year sound? What could your business do with that kind of traffic increase? How many more people could you help? So listen in and prepare to take notes. I'm about to drop simple, actionable SEO, marketing and copywriting tips, all with a heavy dose of Jesus loving encouragement. Let's get you more traffic and more leads so you can help more people with your God given gifts. So one of the fun things, slash not so fun things about being a super driven, competitive, goal oriented human being. Like I am if they don't always take time to like celebrate the wins. Right. I've always got the next thing, the next goal on my mind. And so today I was like, you know what, Faith, you just gonna sit and you're gonna celebrate the wins and the lessons learned and 250 podcast episodes. So that's what this is. And I'm just kind of letting you into some behind the scenes lessons that I'm learned, learning in this, in this process. Right. So lesson number one ready is outlining is absolutely necessary. As with any form of content, if you don't know where you're going, then you are lost and your content consumer is lost. This goes for podcasts, this goes for emails, this goes for blogs, this goes for videos. Like whatever you're creating, please, for the love of all things holy, have an outline. Now you do not need to script everything. I personally do not enjoy videos or you know, podcasts that are completely scripted. They sound really, you know, like speechy to me. Right, And I'm sure they do to you as well. Btw, I don't script anything in case you couldn't tell. But you do need to outline. Okay. Know where you're going, know what you're. The main point of that piece of content is before you ever sit down to create it. Now I actually have more for you on outlining inside of episode 242 because outlining will help improve literally every type of content that you create, even short form. Okay. Outlining is absolutely necessary. Number two is to pay attention to what works and what doesn't work. As a business owner, marketing your own business, or even hiring somebody to market your business for you, you might have an idea in your brain that this is what people want. This is the pain point we're going to speak to, this is how we're going to talk about it. Or even you might even be creating a product that you don't actually have validated, which don't recommend. But whatev, you have to pay attention what is working and what doesn't work. Now sometimes it is just a simple language shift. People say use the word blue instead of teal, for example, right. Like that was, you know, out of thin air. But you get what I'm saying. Like you need to pay attention to what works and what doesn't work. If people's language doesn't line up with what you're saying, then maybe shift your language a little bit. If your keyword strategy isn't lined up with what people are actually searching, then update, change Renew your keyword strategy, right? Pay attention to what works and what doesn't work. And a couple couple of sub points to this lesson. Here is one. Data is your friend. Don't be scared of data. It's just numbers, okay? Data is just data. It's not validation of, like, who you are as a person, right? It's just simply like, okay, we're gonna look at the numbers. We're gonna see what's working. We're gonna see what times are working. We're gonna see what keywords are working. We're gonna see what people gravitate towards. Data is your friend. Use it. Okay? Emotions. Like I tell my children, emotions make a poor driver. They make a great passenger. God gave us emotions to be a gift, but not to be our driver. Same goes in business. Emotions make a poor driver. If there is a situation in your business, your marketing isn't going as well. You aren't having the sales that you want to have. Maybe you just aren't really feeling it. Air quotes. Don't let your emotions make decisions there. Okay? Data is your friend. Emotions make a poor driver. Now this is not to say that you shouldn't trust your gut, but emotions, the poor me, everybody hates me, guess I'll just eat worms kind of emotions, that is not data, nor is that your gut, okay? Emotions make a poor driver. Data is your friend. Now, lesson number three is to pray and obey. I absolutely believe in the core of my bones that God wants to be involved in our business strategy, our content, every aspect of our lives and how we are reaching people for the kingdom in this world. Okay? God absolutely cares about our businesses and how we conduct ourselves and how we represent him. Right? I absolutely believe that in the core of my being. Right? And he knows what your people need to hear or read or see to experience change and growth and be blessed by what it is that you do. He knows that. He knows that. Okay? Okay. So when you're building your business, when you're planning your content, I want you to take time to pray and listen and obey. Now you have to take this and point number two, which is pay attention to what works and what doesn't work. And, like, mesh it into, like one, you know, one point here. If God tells you to do something, you better do it. Okay? Regardless of what the data says. That also means, though, that you better do it boldly because you know that you heard from the Lord. Okay? So, yes, we pay attention to what works and what doesn't work, and we pray and obey. It's a Both. Okay. Now I say pay attention to what works and what doesn't work, and pray and obey in two separate points, but they do go together. Now I say pay attention what works and doesn't work, with the caveat that there are times that I'm like, I know that this episode, blog, video, like, I know it's not going to get a ton of clicks. It's not going to get. Not clicks or listens or whatever. Like, it's not going to get a ton of traction, but I feel in my gut that I'm supposed to do it, okay? And so I do it. And that's okay. Like, you don't have to expect everything that you produce in your content marketing strategy. You don't have to expect everything that you produce to be a complete out of the park home run. That's okay. There are going to be things that you create on, on any platform and with any content, there's going to be things that you create that just. You're creating it because you want to help somebody with that thing. Right? Like, for example, I. I've recorded a podcast episode on Prayers for Boldness right after Charlie Kirk's assassination. I. Not it. I did not expect to like, make a bunch of money off of that or any money off of that. That's fine. But I knew to do that because the Holy Spirit would not let me not do it. I knew to do it, so I did it. It was a. I'm gonna do this because the Lord says to do it, not just because it was data driven. Okay? And that's okay. We need to be aware of what works and what doesn't work. And we need to pray and obey. Okay? Okay. Now thing number four that I have learned is that having a solid messaging strategy, a needed product and a marketing strategy is still absolutely necessary to have a successful podcast. Let me, and let me kind of explain this a little bit. There are a ton of podcasts out there. I love it. I love podcasts. I love creating a pod, creating podcasts. I love listening to podcasts. And there, as with anything in business, there, there is an expense to create that content, right? Your time, your effort, all the subscriptions, the equipment, all those things right there. There's an expense to do that. And there's a lot of times that people will go into creating a podcast or creating a blog or creating, you know, YouTube strategy and, or, and they think, like, I'm just gonna create this thing and talk about this thing or try to get affiliate marketing or they're trying to Build a business on nothing. They're trying to build a business on no solid messaging strategy. They don't know if there's a needed product and they have no marketing strategy. And they may get listens or views or clicks or whatever. But at the end of the day, to grow a business using any form of content marketing, you have to have a solid messaging strategy, know that it's a needed product and have a great overall marketing strategy. Because if not, you're just spinning your wheels. Yes, you may get, you may get listens or downloads or reads or views or whatever, but if your messaging strategy isn't on point, it doesn't matter. It does not matter. Okay? Because if you're trying to build a business, you have to have a great product and a great messaging strategy. Talk about that product. Now, if you're like faith, I don't even know how to talk about what it is that I do, then shoot us over an email because we're opening up website copy spots and VIP day spots for the upcoming year. Because the truth of the matter is, if you know how to talk about it, what you do and how you help people, then you can do that on whatever platform you want and it's going to convert now. Yes, different platforms require different strategies, different keyword strategies, but the common threads between every form of marketing outweigh the differences and the nuances. You have to have a solid messaging strategy, a validated, needed product to succeed on any platform. Okay, tip number five is this or lesson number five, I should say is don't be afraid to repeat yourself or rephrase things in a new way. Listen, y', all, I have 250 episodes out there. I can promise you that I have rephrased things or repeated things over three and a half years and 250 episodes, right? Like, but the fact of the matter is you never know what all somebody has listened to or read of your content. Okay? You, you just don't know. And you also never know what will finally land for someone, right? You don't know exactly what you know thing is going to trigger something in somebody's brain and like a positive trigger, like, oh, that's what that, how that works. Oh, that's how that, you know, goes together, right? Those light bulb moments. You never really know for 100% certain what is going to work or land with each individual person. We're all just so different and we're all, you know, busy and doing different things and caught at different times. So don't be afraid to repeat yourself or Rephrase things in a new way now, and you can go back and listen to episode number 248, sell more and save time with this one easy hack for how to really build a great messaging bank to pull from. Okay, that's all I'm gonna say about that. But it'll, it'll walk you through some of those, those hacks to save time and speak about your things in a good way. And lesson number six is gonna maybe ruffle some feathers, but it's this. One form of long form content isn't enough in today's market, one form of long form content just isn't enough. And I don't say that to make you be like, oh my gosh, I'm already. And make you hit the freak out button. That's not what I'm saying this for. But the fact of the matter is like, different people learn different ways. We're all at different seasons and times in our lives. And so you may have a really great message that, you know, ideal client A has time to sit in and listen, sit and listen, and they learn, you know, audit, they're auditory learners. You may have ideal client A five who is pretty similar to A, but maybe they're in a busier season or a different season and they leave learn through reading. And you don't have any blog to go with that content. Yikes. They're not going to sit and listen to a podcast. Maybe. And I can speak to this from very much experience as a mom with three little kids and I've been nursing for a lot of years in a row. I can't sit and listen to podcasts all the time. I can, however, read blogs on my phone while I'm nursing. Now, maybe your person is not, you know, a mom of young kids. So you're like, oh, that doesn't apply to me. But the fact of the matter is there are sometimes that people just need to read instructions to get it. And then there's sometimes some people, you know, they need to listen to instructions. So I always, always, always recommend having two forms of long form content. Now, that does not mean that you have to completely double your workload. Okay? You don't. You need to repurpose your content, your podcast or video content into blogs or the other way around, depending on how your brain works. You need to repurpose your content strategically. This does not mean that you copy and paste your show notes or your transcript and call it a blog. No, ma', am. No, sir, that won't do you any good. There is A lot of strategy behind writing repurposing a video or a podcast into an SEO friendly blog. And if you are inside of the simple SEO framework and group coaching program, you get my system for that. Now I'm working on something extra special, cool and fun that I cannot fully release yet. But if you are like, ooh, faith, I'm smelling what you're stepping in. I'm going to raise my hand to learn about what that thing is. Then make sure that you send an email over to infoaith Hannah.com or just listen and check your emails. If you're on my. If you're my email pal and you'll be the first to know about a, about a really, really cool way that we are repurposing podcasts or videos into strategic blogs. Okay, that's all I'm gonna say. That's all I say. Now, number seven in my lessons learned is consistency is key, but you do not have to have constant connection. I am a huge fan of batching. I will batch podcasts, I'll batch blogs, I'll batch everything that I can possibly batch in my whole life, right? So that I can be consistent. Now, the beauty of podcasting and blogging, or even YouTube to some degree, is you can create, upload and schedule and not have to, like, look at it or touch it. And I know that you can do that with social media too. But you do still have to, like, have some level of involvement or engagement with your social media that you do not have to have with podcasting and blogging, right? You can just post it and schedule it and you don't have to go back in there and like fiddle fart around with comments and all that. Like, I love y', all, but I can't be checking comments all the time, right? Like, not how I'm living my life. But one thing that I really appreciate about podcasting and even blogging is that it's easy, easy to be consistent without having to stay connected to your phone at all times. Okay, lesson number eight is this listening. Don't over complicate it. Just don't, don't over complicate it. It's really easy for us as humans to try to make things more complicated than they need to be. Really, no matter what kind of content marketing you're doing, figure out a way to do it simply do it well. But to do it simply, it doesn't have to be big, flashy, shiny, perfectly edited, all the things. And I know that I'm going to hack off all of the podcast producers when I say this, but it doesn't have to be okay. That's okay. Don't overcomplicate it. Okay? Number nine is this. You need to either create or buy a system that you will actually use. Y', all, I love me some beautiful templates out there, and I have spent a lot of time, like, way more time than I should have, looking through project project management systems like ClickUp and Asana and Monday and Notion. And I've played with all of them and I have fiddle farted around with all of them and wasted way too much dang time on that. But ultimately, I landed on left and came back to one that works for me, which is Meister Task. Now, you can buy. You can buy ClickUp templates, you can buy Asana templates, you can even buy Meister Task templates for, you know, a lot of different things, right? But if it doesn't work for your brain and it doesn't actually work for what you need to do in your business and your content marketing, then it's wasting your time. Okay? Creating a simple system that you can actually use and will actually use, even if it's not perfectly color coded and gorgeous and, you know, going to win any aesthetic awards, using a system that you will actually use will help you be more consistent and not overcomplicate things. Right? And repurpose content. You see what I'm getting at here? You need a system that you're going to actually, actually use. Doesn't really matter if it's my system. You just need one that you will actually use. Okay? Okay. And lesson number 10 is this. Each episode, blog post, whatever needs to actually be helpful on its own. And I say that with all the big love and hugs in the world. But I get a lot of comments and a lot of people that will be like, oh, my gosh, your podcast is actually helpful. I actually learned something. Or I actually took notes and I'm like, what do you mean? You know, you should be like, you're not. That's not everybody's podcast. And then I go and I listen to some other, like, new podcast. I'm like, what in the world was that? That was just fluff for 30 minutes of my life that I'll never get back. Whatever you're doing, do it unto the glory of the Lord. Be helpful. Actually be helpful with what you create. And you know what, you may have this fear of, like, I'm giving it away for free. Who cares? Who cares? You should be in business to bless people and help people. If you give away a little bit too much, quote, free information. And down the road, somebody takes, you know, less time to purchase your product because they know that you're going to deliver, you still win. And if somebody who is struggling and can't buy your product but can still get a bunch of information for free out of your content, gosh, you bless them. And how awesome it is, is it that you got to bless somebody. So each thing that you create should absolutely have some value on its own. Somebody should not have to buy your product, join your email list, whatever, to still get some value from your content. And that, my friend, is a hill that I'm willing to duke it out on. All right, so I'm gonna run back through these 10 lessons in case you missed them and then will. Peace out, Girl Scout. Okay, outlining is absolutely necessary. Number one. Number two, pay attention to what works and what doesn't work. That is your friend. Number three, pray, listen and obey. Number four, you need a solid messaging strategy and a validated product regardless of the platform. Number five, don't be afraid to repeat yourself or rephrase things in a new way. Number six, one form of long form content isn't enough. Repurpose those podcasts into blogs. Let me know if you're ready to learn simple SEO framework and group coaching. I'll show you how number seven is. Consistency is key. Number eight, don't overcomplicate it. Number nine, create or build a system that you will actually use. And number 10, each episode, blog post, piece of content, whatever needs to actually be helpful on its own. All right y'. All. So I just help, hope, pray that these lessons that I have learned in 250 podcast episodes will also be a blessing to you in your content marketing. And I'm excited to jump back into recording as I batch record a bunch of episodes for y'. All. So we'll talk soon. Love you. Bye. Thank you so much for listening in today. Hopefully this episode gave you some really tangible tips for better SEO and marketing to get more leads and more sales from your website. If it did, can I ask you a quick favorite? Would you please share this episode with a friend and then just take 10 seconds and go leave a written review on Apple Podcasts. That is the very best way to help more Jesus loving entrepreneurs scale their businesses so that they can help more people with their gifts and make an even bigger impact for the kingdom of God. And guess what? We now have a Facebook community where we can learn, hang out and laugh. Go join the Facebook group now. It's linked in the show notes and all the other things. Courses, coaching and copywriting can be found at my website, faith hannon.com until next time. God bless and I'll talk to you soon.