This month, I am covering all the ways you can prepare your business to outsource! First, I covered the general first steps you need to take before you hire your virtual assistant. Next, I covered how to prepare your business to outsource social media. This week, it’s all about how to outsource blogging!

Blogging is one of the biggest services we offer at Ava And The Bee. And is an essential part of running a wedding business! Not only does it help with your SEO and web presence, but it also allows potential brides to see your work, as a whole. It allows you to showcase your style, and how you shoot (or plan!) weddings and events. It is also an important part of the client experience. Clients love to see their weddings on your website, and social media! Even if that wedding isn’t your “ideal client”, it is important to share some images from their day. This will let them share it on their own social media and Facebook, and in return, give you free advertising! And why wouldn’t you want free advertising?

When I first start talking to wedding professionals to want to outsource blogging, they often feel like it’s too big of a bourdon. How will they send the images? How will I know what to write? And while it might seem overwhelming at first, it is a simple and easy onboarding process! And, there are easy ways you can prepare your business to outsource blogging, so you feel less overwhelmed.

By taking a little bit of time beforehand to start to organize your business, you will have a stress free outsourcing experience! Plus, taking the couple hours to organize now, will save you hours down the road! Think about it: If each blog takes you 3 hours to create, that is precious time in your business! When you outsource blogging, you can save hours each and every month.

 

Decide your blogging schedule.

The first step is to decide how often you would like to blog. I recommend doing at least 1 blog per week. If you only have a couple of blogs per month and are not consistent, it’s not going to help you as an overall marketing strategy. It’s not just about blogging – it’s about helping with SEO, showing potential clients your work, and showing that you are an expert at what you do. You need to be consistent!

If you do not have enough content to blog once per week, I would suggest having other topics written about, that will educate your client. For example, if you are a wedding photographer, you could have 1 blog post per month be all about tips for couples on their wedding day. Or if you are a wedding planner, you could have 1 blog post per month be about how to pick the perfect vendors. Remember, you don’t have to just blog weddings and events! You can also create educational content.

 

Pair your blogging with social media for the best results.

I recommend making sure you pair blogging with some kind of social media – like Pinterest, Facebook or Instagram. Posting 1 blog per week doesn’t get as much attention unless you are sharing it across platforms!

Some of our packages at Ava And The Bee include Pinterest and Tailwind management – so we can ensure that your blogs are getting out into the world, and to the right audience. We know how valuable it is to share your content! I also recommend sharing it at least once to Facebook, but you can share it multiple times to get the most viewers!

If you are sharing two or three times on Facebook, break up the text. For example:

• Have the first Facebook post be an outline of the wedding, with a link to the blog post.
• Have the second Facebook post (share 2-3 days after the first post) be about the bride’s outfit, or a detail shot of her accessories.
• Next, have the third Facebook post (share these 2-3 days after the second post) be of the couple, with a sweet detail of their wedding day.

By posting on three different occasions, on multiple days, you are able to get more views. Not only will the couple be happy to see their wedding being shared, but they will most likely share the post to their Facebook wall. And their Facebook is going to be filled with potential clients – so why not encourage them to share more than one post!

 

Download our free workbook!

To make things even easier for you, we have created a FREE 19-page workbook and checklist, that will walk you through how to prepare your wedding business for outsourcing. This workbook will let you prepare your company today, so you can outsource tomorrow. It will walk you through how to find the top tasks you need to outsource, what your goals are, and what are the top three things you need to outsource right now.

 

Make sure the package includes everything you need.

When looking for a blogging VA, make sure to see what the package includes. How many words does it include? Does it include SEO like keyword research, alt tags, and keyword implementation? Do they cull the images for you, or is that something you do prior? What platforms do they blog on? What is their voice like, does it reflect your brand? Do they have experience in your industry?

At Ava And The Bee, we have over 10 years of experience in the wedding industry. We are not just great at blogging – we are wedding experts! We know how to capture your voice, your style, and get the reader wanting to see more.

 

Go through your past weddings.

Once you have found the right virtual assistant, it’s time to start going through what you want to blog! Go through your library, and see what you need to blog. Maybe you have a backlog of 15 blogs that need to be started on, or you are trying to catch up from Spring wedding season. Make a list of what blogs you want, and start to organize the images.

Every company will have a different content management process, but most will have some kind of collaborative document where you can start sharing your posts. We use DropBox or GoogleDrive with our clients, to make file sharing easier. If you are going to be sharing the Pixieset or Photographer’s link directly, start to get a folder or document set up with the ones you want to start with. I recommend picking the first 4 to 8 weddings you want to start with.

At Ava And The Bee, we work right from the photographer’s Pixieset or online photo-sharing platform. This way they don’t have to cull down to 30 images, we do that for them! We are able to look at the wedding from an editorial view. Since we are a third party, we can pick the top images that are going to capture a potential brides eye!

 

Don’t forget the vendor’s information!

Make sure to always have the wedding or shoot information when you outsource blogging! If you just send us images with no information on vendors, or anything about the couple, we can’t do you any service. We need to know info about the couple, where the event was, what was special.

Or, if it is a styled shoot, we need to know why the shoot was done, who was involved, and what the inspiration was. You can send us the info questionnaire you give the clients, or that the photographer gives the clients.

Some items we love to talk about in blogs includes: how the couple met, what were special touches on the wedding day, and what the designers of their dresses and suits were. While we can get some info from looking at the pictures, like the colors or styles, we don’t know the couple like you do! Keep in mind, the more information you give us, the better the blog will be, and the more personal!

 

 

A seamless onboarding process to outsource blogging.

Our onboarding process is quick and easy.

First, we will have a discovery call, so we can get to know you, your brand, and your goals.

Second, we send you a welcome questionnaire. This lets us start your SEO Keyword research, which is included with all of our blogging packages. We will get to know you, your audience, and your market!

Third, we get you booked + get your kick-off marketing strategy call on the calendar! This is a 30-minute kick-off call where we finalize your blogging schedule, go over your SEO Research (that we do – don’t worry friends, we do the SEO keyword research for you!). During this call, we map out 3-6 months of content, in just minutes. This way you know exactly what blogs are coming up!

Fourth, we gather the content. We use an easy-to-fill-out Dubsado form that has places for you to place everything we need. We give you prompts so you know exactly what we need for each blog, and make it super easy!

Fifth, we batch out your blog content. We require all content by the end of the month, for the next month’s blogs. This way we write your blogs in the first 10 days of the month, so you have time to review and approve before they go up. We will write the post, do the alt tags and complete SEO for you, add all vendors, link to their website, cull your images and resize for web, and include at least 1 internal link. We will even schedule it for you! So all you have to do is read it and approve! It’s that easy. We blog dozens of blogs per week, so we know how to make this transition as smooth as possible for you. YOU just sit back and relax!

Hire the right team to outsource blogging!

At Ava And The Bee, we make sure that your onboarding process is easy and stress-free! We provide complete digital marketing strategies by utilizing Website SEO, Weekly Blogging, Monthly Pinterest Management, and Strategy. Plus, we are wedding experts, and only work with wedding professionals, like you!

Reach out, and let’s take care of your blogging strategy!