In the first part of this post, we discussed the benefits of blogs vs. newsletters. In today's post, we'll explain the "blog cycle" and how to go about transitioning from a newsletter to a blog.
By publishing content via a blog, a virtuous cycle begins to build over time. Content is produced for the blog and distributed via social media (and other) channels, giving the planner or firm the chance to engage with prospects, connect through the content, and have the content shared with others. This in turn leads to new people who begin to follow the blog and see the next blog post, and the cycle begins anew. And of course, the interaction with prospects can also provide the inspiration for new blog content to reach the prospective client audience.
It helps to make the point that it doesn't make a lot of sense to do just one part of the cycle. Just "being" on social media isn't very helpful, if there's not a blog to point back to and a way to keep prospective clients engaged. New "followers" and "fans" (i.e., more prospective clients) won't follow you and what you have to say if you're not producing content to share with them.
Yet at the same time, for a content marketing approach to work, it needs to grow an audience and reach new people—a significant failing of the traditional newsletter approach that is constrained by how quickly the planner or firm can gather names. In today's digital world, distributing and sharing content on social media—and allowing readers to share and distribute content through social media—is simply a radically faster and more efficient means of reaching people, not to mention an effective means of ongoing drip marketing.
Transitioning from newsletter to blog
