Hello, and welcome to the Theory of Marketing Relativity Podcast. I'm Jess Burton, a marketing specialist here at Epic Marketing Consultants Corporation. Let's talk all things marketing and merchandising with our Epic team All righty, so today we are here with our Epic blog writer Dara. Dara thank you so much for joining me.
Dara :Thanks for having me. It's nice to see you face to face sort of mess of virtual setting
Jess :I know it's so crazy that like like we were just talking about it like you we went to middle school together and I like not that I'm saying I'm like terrible at like keeping track of people but like I remember like seeing you and Nancy's class and be like, I only know one Dara. Like this I was like I'm and we all look the same as we did in middle school. I think we do. I am older person.
Dara :I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing. But it is a little scary sometimes how things don't change.
Jess :Right, I always just like I just I'm like, that's just Delaware. Like we all just eventually will bump into each other. So the reason I have you here today is we're gonna talk a little bit about blogging. Blogging is not writing is not has never been my strong suit. If you want me to like ramble on a tangent, absolutely. So I was always the kid who had to like follow the format your English teacher gave you that was like opening sentence three support sentences and then like closing sentence and then you move on to like your first support paragraph.
Dara :Well, that's such a bad thing. structure is very important. And I think it was something that one of my friends started a conversation with me about a while back, mostly because she was a Game of Thrones fan. And this idea of being a pantser or being a plotter and I guess Game of Thrones falls into one catergory, and I'm possibly embarrassed to admit that I haven't watched it. So I hope that doesn't offend any listeners or you Jess but the idea that either as a writer, you come to things by carefully plotting them out and sowing the seeds of your garden and, you know, figuring out exactly what's going to grow where and when. Or you just kind of meander along your path and see what comes up and what flows out. And I think that as a writer, I kind of fall in between. Sometimes I just like, start with an idea and see where it takes me. And it it probably wouldn't hurt if I were more of a an organized, formatted person. Sometimes Sometimes when I have writer's block, you know, taking the time to make that the map of where you want to go. And especially if we get into it with with blogging, SEO can kind of be your map to. That it's good to have a plan, especially with blogging, even if it does seem a little more casual or conversational?
Jess :Absolutely. I think I noticed, like for a couple of our clients, like, they write their own blogs, but we upload them to their websites. And I remember one time being like, why is the SEO like it will like tell you and like WordPress, it'll tell you like the SEO and I forget what else it is, but it'll put like little frowny faces if like you're not doing it right. And I remember like, emailing Nancy being like, these frowny faces are making me really sad because I don't, I'm like, I don't know how to fix them. And I'm like, Oh, that's just them telling you like your SEO is like, not as great as it could be that they should improve it. So like we would always send them to, you know, Sheryl, and she would tweak it a little bit. But it's funny because I think like with the digital age, and like SEO and SEM and all that kind of stuff, and like trying to get yourself out there that that can be in itself like your direction. I always find it super interesting reading your blogs. For us, because I, Instagram Instagrams, like a storytelling format. So like, you want a long post that goes with the pictures. And I like remember the first time Nancy was like, just copy the whole blog and put it in Instagram. I mean, like, Ann it's like 4000 characters over. She's like, What do you mean? It's 4000 characters. I'm like, there's a character limit and Instagram. I was like, I have to cut stuff out. And she was like, What are you mean, you have to cut stuff out and like, I have to cut out juicy details of Dara's blog. Which like, it's great, because I feel like I learned more stuff. Even like sometimes I'm like, Oh, we this would be a great blog for us. I'm like thinking I know stuff. And then I read your blog, and I'm like, wow, I knew like two of the things she wrote about like, now I feel more like internal personal education.
Dara :That's like I learned a bit a bit just writing them. And that's one of the things that I like about writing. It's like, you get to I think when I write something, my hope is to always learn something myself.
Jess :Yeah, I think that in our line of work here as like a marketing team like that, I think I feel like we've all I feel like I learned something new about everything at least once or at least once a week.
Dara :And those are constantly changing.
Jess :Oh, absolutely, whether it's marketing related, or whether it's like things, like from our clients, like we have one client, I hop on a call with her, and she starts explaining their product, and I'm like, wait, go back, and she'll pull up like a video and she'll explain how this works and how this does this in the water. And I'm like, Well, you know, high school science all over again. But kind of back to what you said about, you know, the different kind of ways to plot out your blog. We have a lot of, you know, financial institutions that come to us for social media stuff, just because we're experienced in it. Do you have any I guess, I don't want to say suggestions because I feel like that's like super that's like a super overused term. But do you have any guidance for, you know, credit unions or banks or financial investors on blogging and kind of using a blog to get across their point?
Dara :Yeah, absolutely. So I think with blogs, and this can be sort of blanket idea for a lot of ways to approach social media is that you should always start with the question, could this actually be a right approach for me? And not to think well, you know, this is at least consider things. Because I think with a blog, a lot of people might think it's too casual or they might go straight to thinking about recipes or fashion or makeup and thinking that it's kind of in that more featurery fun lifestyle category. But, you know, a credit union, they can be on Instagram, they can have a blog, you know, just in the same way that well not quite in the same way. But you know, a boutique could be on a blog, or a more serious and kind of traditional business like a credit union could. And it's just about thinking, what you want to accomplish, how the platform could accomplish it for you, and what tweaks you might need to make in your approach to make it the right fit. And that's not to say, you know, 100% of the time, you should do this, it just says, think about it, and think about how it could work for you. And then hopefully, you'll, you'll come up with a plan that does make it worth the investment of your time and resources. One of the things that's really great about blogging is that it can be very approachable and easy. It's not like filming a whole video series where you have to invest in a lot of equipment. A lot of the times you can just fit it on your existing website. Or you could look into different blogging platforms like medium that are, you know, their existing resources that can be easy for you to approach. If you already have experience working in word or writing an email, if you know how to use a keyboard, you know, the first step in writing a blog. And then there are some layers to it. You know, like we talked about SEO earlier, that you should consider to really maximize your blog and how effective it can be. Just think about that you can approach this. And so I guess the first step is just considering it. And then thinking about how it could be right for you. So with credit unions, there's a lot of community atmosphere in there. There's a lot of education in there and there are a lot of lifelong decisions that, you know, financial officers and credit union members are making together. So think about how you could use a blog to have those conversations. You know, it could be something that works with people who credit union members who are older, that maybe this is something that they read for advice to understand more about, you know, different ways to save different points in their life that they're going to hit. Whether you're thinking about getting a degree getting married, buying a house saving for retirement, or it could be something that if you're talking about financial literacy, and kind of investing or preparing for the next generation, what how would you want to talk to kids? Is there you know, are there little nuggets of information that you would want to be sharing with people that would be worth you know, investing your time in kind of writing out the casual conversation you might have face to face, but just have it in a blog format.
Jess :Absolutely. I feel like you nailed it that it was like a phenomenal answer. I feel like I always like try and push. And I maybe this is just because I am so like, I'm not a financially savvy person at all. And I, my basic grasp of all of that is like, bare minimum. I'm just impressed like, I know how to write a check, because I know plenty of our peers don't know how to do that. I'm like, I know how to
Dara :Maybe that's a post for credit union.
Jess :Exactly. But I think like, I definitely think that it's less intimidating and for people to read a blog, versus it is to like, this sounds terrible, pick up the phone and call like a financial advisor. I know like jokingly on like Facebook, sometimes like a couple of images will like say like, you know, I prepared for an hour to make a single phone call to make an appointment. And I'm like that like kind of define some of the friends I have, like, they very much don't want to talk on the phone, they very much don't want to like have that kind of interaction. They'd rather do it in person, or they rather read about it. And I feel like a blog is like a great way to kind of give them that information, but also deliver it in a way that you can kind of even like link back to your website. So that like if it's like, oh, if you're looking for checking accounts, here's the link to all of our checking accounts. Here's the link to all of our savings accounts. Here's a link to this up on our website about our, you know, 401k options, all of that kind of stuff. I feel like it's like a good way to make these big scary, like ideals into something that is more casual and consumable.
Dara :Yeah. And I think a lot. The way that I like to think of a lot of social media and marketing is it's either a conversation starter for it's a way to continue a conversation. So you talking about how you like, you'll go to Google something first and you'll research it before you pick up the phone call. So if you're looking to bring in business or to share your expertise, you know, one thing that small businesses, credit unions, anyone can think about, you know, if you write this blog post and then at the end, you know, include For more information, you know, here's who wrote the blog post, here's how you can contact them to continue this conversation in person. You know, that can be a lead generator for you. That can be a way to build community and to build rapport with members and financial officers.
Jess :Absolutely, I think like we I talked about this with like Nancy, about like video like it makes people whom you've never who you may not have ever met before, more approachable. We talked about like video is great because they can see who you are. So when they walk in To a branch where they walk into, you know, a location like oh wait, she just did that talk on this. And they recognize you from somewhere, which immediately makes you more, you know, recognizable. We have a client who writes her own blog, and next to every blog image, they and the author, they put their hedge their professional headshot, so that they like someone would know that if this person was in the branch and they walked in, she's the one that I'm going to meet for my 4pm you know, financial coaching meeting. Because I think then you kind of also know the base level that someone knows, if they've read if they say, I feel I'm contacting you, because I read your blog on investment portfolios. You know, I'm interested in this, they know that you've read that blog, you've got to the bottom, and now you're reaching out to contact them.
Dara :Yeah, and I'm glad that you mentioned photos as well. Because as much as we talk about the ease by which you can start a blog, you know, it's you and a keyboard and a website. There are some bells and whistles that you should think about adding to really maximize it. And to make it feel like there is a person on the other side or a next step to take, whether it's subscribing to a newsletter to become a regular reader of the blog, or getting to someone to pick up the phone and give you a call. And then I'll just make your blog. And I think this is something that if you're thinking about it, you can just you can visualize it how much easier it is to read text that's broken up with photos that maybe include some links to videos, that includes subheads to get people to have those entry points where you know, if they skimmed the first section, they can jump into the second section and see wait that has the information that I want to read.
Jess :Absolutely, I think the, the way it's broken up into like tangible pieces and even like our blog, it's I don't say it's color coded but like it is the titles are red and the body is black, and like you can kind of get a feel for it. And if you don't want to read through an intro, you can skip to like the nitty gritty of it, because you can see, okay, this is what this says, Here are all the bullet points. And then maybe you read the bullet points and you think, Oh, I need to go back and read the beginning of it. So then now you've sat and you're reading the entire blog, because you want all the information. And I definitely think that having images is helpful as well because it does break up like a wall of text. I think about like emails, we like emails I've gotten where it's just like, oh my god, this is 18 paragraphs long, like I don't want to read your dissertation on meetings.
Dara :I gotta get a cup of tea, get in a comfy chair. I gotta find a place to read this for the next half hour.
Jess :Exactly. You're like I need to prepare myself I need to get my light blue like my blue light glasses because I'm gonna be staring at the screen for a while. Um, but yeah, I think that like imagery, the linking, I know we had a conversation about like, inbound and outbound links and all that kind of stuff that I had no idea. Like, I didn't realize that there was that much involvement in all of that.
Dara :Yeah, and when you talk about bullet points, and an earlier when you mentioned on Instagram, sometimes in the beginning, they're too long. I'm thinking of you when I'm writing the post, and like, I got to put some bullet points right here, because Jess is gonna want to grab those for social media
Jess :100% I always use them as like an opportunity to put in, like, relational emojis. Like if I forget, what was the last one?
Dara :I love emojis.
Jess :Yeah, I'm always like, Oh, geez. Yeah, like this one's a good one for a book and then I'll do an arrow and then I'll do like, an envelope or something. But yeah, I think that even to like using like those emojis on social posting about a blog, helps break up the copy because if you've ever clicked like, see more underneath an Instagram post, and you're like, it's the same thing. phew this is a doozy okay, let me get comfortable so that I can read it. I definitely think like the emojis and like images are like benchmarks for like how far you are in reading it. Is there anything that you kind of have learned that you were surprised you learned, like being a regular blog writer?
Dara :About blogging or like through blogging?
Jess :I guess both.
Dara :Yeah. Whenever I always answer both, can I ask it a double part question? Something that could go both ways? I want both answers.
Jess :Exactly.
Dara :I think that I have learned that organizing and planning can be challenging, but is definitely worth it. As someone who admits to like coming up with an idea and just sitting down and seeing where it takes me I also So know that I need boundaries, I need deadlines to get things done. And we, one of the things that people might be picking up on, like hearing a conversation, it's not just me because it's, I'm writing the post, and then I'm working with you for social media and you're turning into something else. And then and then it's ending up in a newsletter that's gonna be emailed out to people. So it's more kind of blog kind of takes on this life of its own. And it lives in many different directions. And so you and I work behind the scenes, we have the content calendar, where we're planning out ahead, you know, what's coming up in the fall already. And sometimes it can be a little overwhelming because it's like, is this really what I want to be writing about in a few weeks, but you just got to get the idea out there. And then something that I've learned through blogging, I think I'm always surprised or not necessarily surprised. But whenever I come across different stats, because I think it is, I am someone that I like to work in different stats and quotes and links. Because I really want to pack things with information and make it detailed and colorful. It's always kind of surprising to me just to see how far a reach things can have like when I'm inserting different social media stats. It just, you know, always kind of blows me away, like, how many people are involved? How many people are absorbing information all around the world?
Jess :Now that to me, like one of the craziest statistics is that like, YouTube is the biggest social media platform like not Facebook, not Twitter, like YouTube, and I'm like, I like I guess maybe it's because I don't really consume that much on YouTube. I'm mostly on Facebook and Instagram, that I don't think about YouTube as being out there but I guess like there is a huge audience of people on YouTube. Do you have any favorite like bloggers that you follow that you like to keep up with?
Dara :I think in my personal life, I end up following a lot of bloggers for personal fun reasons. I there's someone that I went to, to graduate school with, she had a fashion blog. And I think I follow that because she's my friends. And it's like, I'm with her. I feel like I see her all the time. And but she probably doesn't see me all the time. Because I'm not posting my fashion pics every day. But she is.
Jess :Yeah, I think I, I feel like i when we probably like in college. So like the early 2000 10s, when like Pinterest became a big thing and people were pinning all this stuff. Like, I feel like at that point, I was following all of these like, and like I was an RA in college. So I was following all these teacher blogs because I was like, I need to know how to do the best bulletin boards and name tags. I think I was doing like, at one point, I think I was following like two or three people who are a little older than we were that were just posting all of these like study tips and like, different ways to study for different people. I feel like as I've gotten older, I have moved kind of away from blogs, but I've picked up podcasts which are like they're not virtual. What are they like audio blogs.
Dara :Yeah, I you're right.
Jess :Yeah, I think that was kind of the way that like blogs transitioned into like, the later 2010s is now we're all in podcasts like, instead of us like typing out a blog on blogging, we're making a podcast about blogging.
Dara :My mom and I do have a joke about blogs, and that we will I think like a lot of people get recipes from blogs. That's one of the first things that I think about food blogs. And I do, I will admit, I have a lot of great recipes. I love the food blogs. But my mom's my mom and I say that if we had a food blog, we would call it just show me the recipe already. Because if you've ever experienced the long scroll, of trying to get to the recipe. And there are all those beautiful photos which I love to see I love to look at the food. I love to hear about how delicious the food tastes. But at some point, I just want to get to the recipe and make the meal which I admit is why there are the posts that say click here to jump to recipe so it will recognize that that effort is being made. So thank you to those food bloggers.
Jess :I think I I think one of my friends she posted something because she's like one of those people that like, never has a Pinterest fail. Like everything she makes looks beautiful. Can't like she just is blessed in the kitchen and I'm like, can you pass some of that over here? Because like, not too long ago, I burned pasta to the bottom of the pan. But she even said she was like, you know, if you're on your phone, if you click at the top, like of the search bar, there's like the option to do text only. She's like, it takes out all the pictures.
Dara :Oh, that's a great tip.
Jess :She's like, yeah, she's like, so it makes it easier to like scroll and like she's like, if they don't have to go directly to recipe button. It makes it easier to scroll through and find the recipe. I was like, that was life changing. She's like, Oh, yeah, she's like, and the other smart thing. She's like, if you're making a recipe and it's short enough, she was like, make it your, like screensaver on your phone or your iPad. She was like, and then she was like and then you never have To unlock your phone, you have to tap the screen. I was like, is this is this the secret to making great food in the kitchen? She's like, well, you also have to know how to cook and bake. I'm like, okay, well, you saved me some time scrolling through a million recipes and images on, like a a food blog
Dara :I love that. So this is what I've learned today.
Jess :Yeah.
Dara :From this podcast so, thank you.
Jess :No problem. I can't guarantee that anything will turn out okay. But at least you'll know how to read the recipe a little bit better.
Dara :That's perfect. Yeah, that's just going to show me the recipe.
Jess :Exactly. Like that is like I feel like that's like one of those things where it's like, that would make a great blog, like do like an actual blog. Just show me the recipe picture recipe and then all of the story about why you bake this apple pie, where you got all the information from your favorite grocery store to buy cinnamon. That's what we always talk about always like nobody cares that you spent four hours sourcing this cinnamon from a local cinnamon, I don't even know where you get cinnamon. That's how much I know. But it's just it is one of those things. Just show me the recipe already. Well, Dara, thank you so much for joining us. If people want to find you and keep up with you, where can they reach you?
Dara :Well, I do have a unique name, as you mentioned, so you can contact me through Epic. I'm the only Dara that I know of working with Epic. So it's Dara@epicmc2.com. And you can generally find me by looking for Dara McBride.
Jess :Awesome. Thank you so much for joining us.
Dara :Thanks, Jess.
Jess :Thank you all for tuning in this week. We hope this theory is relative to your marketing needs. Make sure you subscribe to get notified of our latest episodes.