You’ll be done in a few minutes.

I’m often in the position of having to convince small business people that they need a consistent marketing plan that can be replicated on a regular basis. Frequency is key. The optimum frequency for most small operations is weekly, from my experience. It’s doable for the overworked chief-cook-and-bottle-washer types and usually provides effective lead generation. The problem is that many professionals and sole proprietors only market when they feel they need customers. Feast-or-famine marketing is an age-old problem dating back to the dinosaurs (really, I read it on the Internet).

“You can always edit a bad page. You can’t edit a blank page.”

― Jodi Picoult, author

I’ve proselytized to lawyers, accountants, jewelry designers, psychotherapists, consultants, creative freelancers, entertainers, and on and on. The universal question seems to be, “But what can I post?” The goal should be to show off your products or expertise in as succinct a manner as possible. Blogs lend themselves very well to most industries. If you have any passion or interest at all in your field, you should be able to find something to say.

But many small business people don’t know how to start writing about their business. One great place to start is to pretend that someone you’ve never met before has just asked you what you do for a living. Now pretend they’ve never heard of it before and need it explained to them like a 5-year-old. That’s the beginning of a great introductory article that can be used over and over again as a go-to reference for your field. The next time someone asks you the same question, you can direct them to that article, thereby generating traffic to your website, and possibly generating a new lead, even a new customer.

What about additional articles? Pretend that same person keeps asking you follow-up questions like, “How do you do that? Why is that important? Can I do that by myself?” If you can produce about five hundred words a week, that’s pretty good. That’ll give you something you can email out to your current customers and/or champions to help stay on their radar.

Getting started can be such a challenge, but it’s like cleaning the house. Start with one dish and suddenly the kitchen is clean. (If that doesn’t work for you, try some Marie Kondo on Netflix.) Once you’ve got the content flowing, you’ll be generating leads before you know it.