I’ve recorded my last episode of The Marketing Companion. Beginning in January 2026, the legendary Sandy Carter will take over as the show’s owner and host.

You can hear my last, surprise-filled episode here:

Listen to Episode 331 of The Marketing Companion

Throughout the podcast’s 13-year history, I’ve always looked forward. I love talking about what’s next!

But for this episode, I broke the pattern and reflected on the story of the show. It’s had many ups and a few downs, and I thought this might be an interesting lesson in tenacity and what it took to build and sustain a podcast that beat the odds.

These promotional photos for The Marketing Companion reflected the zany chemistry of the early shows, which included promoting fake products like Google Pants and the “Get a Roon” app. The brilliant Tom Webster co-hosted the podcast for the first six years.

This last episode covers:

• Why I created the show
• Why the peculiar format of the podcast is a key to its success
• How and why I chose the co-hosts for the show
• Some of the funniest moments in the history of the podcast
• How the show was in constant creative reinvention
• What happened when the downloads began a precipitous decline and I almost lost the show
• How an innovative new format saved the podcast

Brooke Sellas was the co-host of The Marketing Companion from 2019 to 2021. Brooke’s playfulness brought out a fun new side of me!

A driving force of the Marketing Companion’s success was pushing the creative envelope. The world doesn’t need two more talking heads. There had to be entertainment value in the show that earned my audience week after week.

I’ve always looked for ways to innovate, and I was proud to debut the first-ever podcast episode recorded with a synthetic voice.

In 2021, I embarked on a new experiment — six rotating co-hosts. This allowed me to expand the show’s content to cover new marketing ideas. The line-up changed over the years, and fan favorites included Dennis Yu, Amanda Russell, Keith Jennings, Dana Malstaff, and Andy Crestodina.

Scott Monty

One of the most fun innovations was the zany intro created by the talented Scott Monty. I had known Scott for many years and respected him as one of the leading voices in corporate communications. But the first 60 seconds of the show became his creative playground as he “introduced” the show from outer space, a dude ranch, the White House, and a hundred other places. I suspected that the show grew as people just tuned in for Scott’s intros!

Another creative innovation was the addition of a “studio audience” beginning in 2022. Members of my RISE community could watch the live Zoom recording of the show and then ask questions after the recording ended. Seeing emotional reactions in real time added an exciting energy to every episode!

It’s remarkable that over nearly 13 years, I never repeated a show topic twice. And I suppose I kept that record intact by creating an episode that looked back. I hope you’ll enjoy this sprint down memory lane.

When I announced that I was leaving the show, I received many kind notes of thanks, encouragement, and, of course, sadness that this era had come to an end. But this is the right decision at the right time. While I am moving away from a show that was a big part of my life, I am re-acquiring time for new ideas.

This final episode is also my tribute to you, the fans.

Every time I prepared an episode, there was only one idea pounding in my mind: I will never let you down.

I never published a perfect episode, but I kept publishing work I was proud of. It was a show that was always relevant, interesting, timely, and entertaining. 331 times.

And this tradition of excellence will continue with the new host, Sandy Carter. Sandy is probably the most connected, wise, and generous marketing pro that I know. She is absolutely the right person at the right time to take the reins of the show.

Sandy Carter is the new owner and host of The Marketing Companion. Her connections, insights, and wisdom usher in a new era of innovation for the show.

Thanks to each of you for supporting my show. I will miss this important part of my life, but feel proud of what I accomplished and secure in knowing Sandy will continue The Marketing Companion legacy of excellence!

Please support our sponsors, who make this fantastic episode possible.

This episode is brought to you by Brevo (formerly Sendinblue). Brevo gives you the tools to attract, engage, and nurture customer relationships.

Now, any business can build automated customer experiences, email marketing workflows, and landing pages that guide your customers to your main message. We are here to support businesses successfully navigating their digital presence to strengthen their customer relationships.

Go to https://www.brevo.com/marketingcompanion to sign up for Brevo for free and use the code COMPANION to save 50% on your first three months of Brevo’s Starter & Business plan!

A recent Semrush study found that AI search traffic is projected to surpass traditional search by 2028. That makes now the time to prepare your brand for the future of search.

With Semrush AI Search tools, you will lead this transition.

• Track your AI visibility score: See a single, clear benchmark of your share of voice across AI search platforms.
• Identify AI mention opportunities: Uncover sources where your competitors are cited—but you’re not—including social media, forums, and more.
• Benchmark against competitors: Find the exact prompts, mentions, and sources where your competitors appear in AI responses and you don’t.
• Discover trending prompts: Spot the real questions your audience is asking AI platforms—and build content around them.
• Shape your brand narrative: Monitor the sentiment and context tied to your AI mentions, and make sure your brand is being represented the way you want.

The post My Fond Farewell to The Marketing Companion appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.

If you’re a fan of The Marketing Companion podcast, you’ve no doubt enjoyed the funny original intros at the beginning of each show. For many years, Scott Monty has created these little works of art and in the last year, Tim Washer has added his voice and comedic skill to explore the funny side of marketing.

If you’d like to experience a recent sample, try this:

A funny thing happened … 

Brooke and I had a schedule conflict and I thought it would be fun to bring these fellas to the BIG SHOW to explore the funny side of marketing in a full pordcast episode! We covered:

• Mark Zuckerberg
• Favorite brands
• The next big marketing trend
• TikTok
• Influence marketing

You won’t want to miss this! It’s so easy to listen, just click here:

Click on this link to listen to Episode 219

Other ways to enjoy our podcast

• Try this! “Alexa, play the latest episode of The Marketing Companion.”
• Click here to download the latest episode or subscribe on iTunes
• Listen to us on iHeart Radio
• Find us on Google Play
• Find the podcast on Stitcher
• Complete Marketing Companion Episode Guide
• The Marketing Companion YouTube channel

Please support our extraordinary sponsor. Our content is free because of their generosity.

B Squared Media is the premier provider of online customer care solutions and done-for-you social media marketing. Think conversation, not campaign with B Squared. Marketing Companion fans can take advantage of a truly extraordinary offer — $10,000 off your customer care contract or $1,000 toward your first online advertising campaign, Click here to learn more about this amazing opportunity!

The post The funny side of marketing with @ScottMonty and @TimWasher appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.

By Mark Schaefer

Our new Marketing Companion episode is about marketing research and so much more, but first I have to ask you: When was the last time you heard me sing on a podcast? The answer to that would be never … until now, that is. Brooke Sellas and I introduced a new sponsor for the show and we are so excited about it that it made me break into song!

But there are even more (and better!) reasons to listen to the new episode, aside from our warbling!

The top story is about a significant marketing research trend noted in the Wall Street Journal. The article reports that the number of people willing to respond to polls has been in steep decline. People don’t trust the intent of polls and they’re tired of being annoyed by pollsters.

This has significant implications for almost everything we do in marketing, whether we are building a plan on the marketing research of others, or we are doing our own work.

Perhaps this is the ultimate act of marketing rebellion. Consumers are fed up with interruptions from marketers and they’re saying “enough!”

Brooke and I are seeing a drop in response rates in our own marketing research efforts so we turned to our dear friend and polling expert Tom Webster of Edison Research for a fascinating commentary on this concerning trend. The return of Webster!

Marketing research in jeopardy?

This discussion will give you something profound to think about. The top marketing research companies are overcoming these polling issues, but for the rest of us, are we becoming  unwitting generators of “fake news” with our own polling? Even reliable sources we’ve used for years may be in jeopardy.

Think about this … how often do you refer to research from a company you’re unfamiliar with in your own marketing plans or content? What happens when we can’t count on that information like we used to?

But wait! There’s more!

• Coming out of the Facebook developer conference, Instagram announced it’s rolling a new version in Canada that would eliminate likes and other “vanity” metrics. In the test, followers won’t see total likes on photos, or views counts on videos, in their Instagram feeds or when visiting a user’s profile. The account owner will still be able to access their own metrics and see the total likes or view counts for a specific post, although they will need to tap through a post to view those metrics. Isn’t Instagram repeating the same mistake Snapchat made a few years ago?
• Amazon is using an algorithm to fire non-productive workers and the social web went crazy over this idea. Brooke and I have our own take on this and we were prepared for a fight on this one!
• Finally, a signature element of our podcast is the unique and creative introductions provided by our great friend Scott Monty. After nearly 100 of these little art pieces, they’re about to get even better!

So much fun, so much to think about, in 30 minutes of Marketing Companion goodness. What are you waiting for? Click here:

Click on this link to listen to Episode 161

Other ways to enjoy our podcast

• Try this! “Alexa, play the latest episode of The Marketing Companion.”
• Click here to download the latest episode or subscribe in iTunes
• Listen to us on iHeart Radio
• Find us on Google Play
• Find the podcast on Stitcher
• Complete Marketing Companion Episode Guide

Real people. Real brands. Real connection. Sprout Social offers deep social media listening and analytics, social management, customer care, and advocacy solutions to more than 25,000 leading brands and agencies, including Evernote, Grubhub and Edelman.

Sprout’s suite of solutions supports every aspect of a cohesive social program and enables organizations of all sizes to extend their reach, amplify their brand and create the kind of real connection with their consumers that drives their businesses forward.

Headquartered in Chicago, Sprout is a Twitter Official Partner, Facebook Marketing Partner, Pinterest Marketing Partner, Instagram Partner Program Member, and LinkedIn Company Page Partner. Learn more and start your special free 30 day trial at sproutsocial.com/companion.

The post What happens when we can’t depend on marketing research any more? appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.

By Mark Schaefer

One of the things I have written a lot about is the concept of the “saturated niche.”

The idea is that before you go headlong into any sort of content marketing strategy, you should assess the current competition to determine your best opportunities to maneuver. If an industry category is flooded with helpful content from competitors, it might be difficult, or impossible, to break through and get attention for your content. You need to find some strategy that you can own.

One of my students in the Rutgers Digital Marketing program asked me this question:

“Niche saturation. That phrase was driving me nuts because it seemed like you were saying that if the industry is saturated, just forget about it. I am a digital marketer and my niche is service professionals or coaches. Sure, digital marketing as an INDUSTRY is saturated and ever-growing. But I’m not going to give up on my career. What do you do in the case of a saturated niche?”

Finding your place on the web

Of course I am not saying that anybody should give up, I’m just saying, be intentional about your strategy. Let’s look at digital marketing as an example.

A search for “digital marketing” provides 141 million results. Indeed, this is a very saturated niche. If my friend simply started a blog about all things digital marketing she would be lost in the noise.

The fact is, companies who have built a tremendous amount of content on this topic over a period of years have such high domain authority that even if they stopped right now, they still may own the search results for years to come, even if you worked your heart out on your content. That may not seem fair, but that is life in the Google World.

A search for “digital marketing for service industry” provides 26 million results. Still saturated, but we’re heading in the right direction.

If my friend primarily works in one region, she might look at “Philadelphia digital marketing” — 3.8 million results. Now we’re starting to make some progress in terms of a category that is somewhat less competitive.

A close look at this niche shows that most of the content from this search is about digital agencies in Philadelphia, not necessarily digital marketing in Philadelphia. And none of the results are videos. Could she own a niche by creating video content for customers in her region?

In my book KNOWN: The handbook for building and unleashing your personal brand in the digital age, I explore many ideas for owning some content niche even in a crowded content environment. Although I was writing about establishing a personal brand, these ideas are applicable to any company really. Here are a few ideas:

1. Move to an unsaturated social channel

Trotta

There are more than 6,000 licensed real estate agents in my county. That is one crowded space! The biggest real estate firms are creating lots of online content, newsletters and Facebook posts. How would a newcomer stand out?

My friend Suzy Trotta has done just that by creating an awesome, personal, and hilarious Instagram account. Unlike other realtors in her area, she isn’t posting photos of homes and “for sale” signs.

She posts incredibly entertaining pictures from her life in the real estate business. This is human, accessible content in an unsaturated channel that is going to break through and appeal to a lot of people, especially the younger Instagram audience.

Suzy is one of the rising stars on the local real estate scene … and that photo? That’s Suzy in front of her new agency!

There is lots of opportunity for channel innovation within a niche. Can you start your industry’s first podcast? The first Snapchat line of storytelling?

2. Vary the content type

In 2013, YouTube came out with a very useful whitepaper describing the three kinds of content created by every successful brand. These are:

Hygiene — Answering every day customer questions. The “they ask, you answer” kind of format.

Hub — Evergreen content that might feature more in-depth stories about your customers, employees, history and values.

Hero — The epic content that goes viral.

An example of a company dominating a niche with this technique is Nike. Adidas sponsored the last two World Cups but Nike took over the social media conversation by creating hero content — epic mini movies — that received millions of views.

Look at the type of content being produced in your niche. Is there room to maneuver?

3. Try a new content form

One of the things I predicted was that the heightened competition from Content Shock would usher in an era of innovation in new content formats. For example, if Content Shock makes it too difficult and expensive to reach people with a simply YouTube video, the world will probably come up with alternatives.

One of my favorite examples is Tom Fishburne who carved a very successful niche for himself in the crowded digital marketing space through his outrageous Marketoonist cartoons.

There are endless opportunities to establish a niche by content form. Could you become known for amazing and informative infographics? Quizzes? Q&A on Facebook Live? Slideshare presentations?

4. Content quality

Kaushik

In the digital marketing space Avinash Kaushik only blogs about once a month. But his epic and thoroughly-researched posts are so informative (sometimes extending to 10,000 words or more!) that he has built a loyal fanbase based on quality, even in an extremely dense marketplace.

Another example is Jon Loomer, who has become known for his deep-dives into Facebook advertising concepts.

Specifically, the digital marketing space is flooded with me-too content. It is certainly possible to create a stand-out voice through expertise.

5. Promotion and volume

Rayson

It’s a sad thing, but it’s possible to bury even the best content out there if you do a good job with promotion, SEO, and sheer volume. Steve Rayson of BuzzSumo recently wrote a very comprehensive thought piece on this “pump up the volume” content strategy. He showed that sites with very average content — even content written by computers — can get more social sharing through volume compared to companies focusing on fewer, quality posts.

I know that sounds disappointing and strange, and I don’t think that is the right strategy for everybody (including me!), but that’s the way the dynamics of the web works for now. And we have to run our businesses based on what is, not what we wish for.

6. Curation

In nearly every industry, there is one ambitious person who creates a curated newsletter that highlights the best news and information of the week. If nobody has done that for your niche, that could be an extremely effective way of standing out, even if there is a lot of content.

In the digital marketing arena, this has been an effective strategy for Scott Monty whose pithy “Full Monty” newsletter has become the standard source of news and insight every week.

7. Content frequency

Dumas

My friend John Lee Dumas was able to stand out in the very crowded podcasting space, in part, due to the frequency of his episodes.

Years ago, John was in the real estate business in Southern California and he spent a lot of time in his car. He longed for a business podcast that he could listen to every day, but he found there was nothing like that.

He started the daily Entrepreneur On Fire podcast and it has become a million-dollar-business based on the enormous popularity of the show and his spin-off properties.

On the other extreme, Tom Webster and I only produce one Marketing Companion podcast every other week. Many listeners have said part of the appeal of this lower-frequency format is that they are always left wanting more and eagerly anticipate each new show. In this way, these two shows stand out in the crowded digital marketing space, at least in part, due to their frequency.

8. Approach and tone

Becker

How many food bloggers are there out there?  20 bajillion. That is a real number. I looked it up.

So to stand out in that kind of an arena, you are going to have to come up with a new angle. And that’s what happened for Isadora Becker.

Isadora combined her love of TV and movies with cooking. Her YouTube channel features famous recipes from the movies — as she dresses like the characters. Her approach has led to sponsors, books, and a television contract.

Even in a crowded niche, combining a core value (like humor, family, or spirituality) or interest (like movies, sports, or style) with your industry topic can create a new angle that creates new fans in your industry.

9. Demographic Target

If your niche seems saturated with competitor content, look carefully for opportunities they may have overlooked — like a demographic group.

I was brought in to help one global brand who was at least three years behind in their content marketing. Everywhere we turned, their competitors had filled the web with Hollywood-quality videos, breathtaking photography, star-studded blog posts.  There seemed to be no room to maneuver.

But we did a careful analysis and found that the average age of the competitor’s customer had aged and they were completely overlooking youth-oriented content opportunities on Snapchat and Instagram. It’s too early in their process to see if our work translates to sales but their audience in those channels has exploded.

Conclusion

Just because you’re late to the content game doesn’t mean you don’t have options. In fact, the sky is the limit if you apply some research, resourcefulness, and determination to your approach.

You don’t have to be all things to all people. Find a niche with an audience big enough to help you achieve your goals, whatever they might be, and create helpful content consistently.

Mark Schaefer is the chief blogger for this site, executive director of Schaefer Marketing Solutions, and the author of several best-selling digital marketing books. He is an acclaimed keynote speaker, college educator, and business consultant.  The Marketing Companion podcast is among the top business podcasts in the world.  Contact Mark to have him speak to your company event or conference soon.

The post Finding your place on the web, when it seems so crowded out here appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.

I’ve been writing a lot lately about pressures on monetizing content and new monetization ideas. Recently I wrote about a new service called Patreon, which allows fans of your content to say “thanks” with a small monthly donation.

I decided to implement this on my site for these reasons:

1) I saw a friend, Scott Monty do this and I thought it was an interesting idea. I love Scott’s content and gladly pitched in for the great value I was receiving from him. I welcomed the opportunity to say thanks and thought others might appreciate this opportunity on my site, too.

2) Honestly, the time I put into blogging is probably out of whack with the needs of the business. In other words, I could cut back, cut out comments (like many others) and still have a viable business blog. But I love to teach through the blog and want to spend more time on it, not less. Passive income would justify spending more time writing and teaching.

3) It was an experiment. How do you learn if you don’t try something new?

4) It is a way to define my “Alpha Audience” of most loyal fans. After all, if somebody is willing to donate something to say thanks, that audience deserves special treatment, right?

A few things happened since I posted about this and started adding the Patreon call to action at the bottom of some blog posts.

• Some people thought this was a great idea. A common response was “I have learned so much from you. I’m happy to show my support.
• More than half the people who donated — I had not heard of them before! Isn’t that interesting? Some of my greatest fans came out of the dark and now I can connect with them in new and interesting ways.
• I started a private Facebook group for this “Alpha Audience” of patrons offering behind the scenes looks at my business and content ideas. This has rapidly become a vibrant and fun community. We have already found some cool ways to help each other.

But not all the feedback was positive. Here are a few comments from around the web and my take on it.

“I can make a lot more money off of sponsored posts. Why not just make more money that way?”

I think trust matters. Yes, I could be making a ton of money off of sponsored content. I get pitched about this every day. But once I cross that line, my blog is under suspicion. Is this a piece from me, or is it a piece that somebody paid me to post?

My philosophy is that trust matters. I don’t want to mortgage trust for easy money. Patronage is a way to keep my content hype-free and honest.

“There is so much content out there. I can find anything I need anywhere. Why would I pay somebody for content?”

Nobody is paying me for content. This is different from a paywall. I’m not expecting anybody to pay me for content.

But I do think I offer something distinctive and worthy. I believe at least some people would miss it if I went away. My content is not a commodity you can find anywhere, but if people feel it is, that’s fine.

In general paywalls only work if you are huge (like The New York Times) or indispensable (like a somebody giving investment advice). So I’m not creating a paywall. It’s always going to be free whether you support my effort or not.

“We don’t have relationships with bloggers the same way we do with artists. Paying for an everyday blogger doesn’t give me any warm feeling.”

Well … I disagree. I think writing is an art form, even on a blog that is primarily about business. And if you don’t have a warm feeling toward me, that’s OK. I’m not for everyone but keep reading, OK?

“A blog should be at the top of the sales funnel helping you get leads, not at the bottom of the sales funnel creating revenue.”

My first reaction when I heard this, was “Who made THAT rule?” : )

Lots of people monetize content. Lots of people have made a career from their blog.

Still, this is a prevalent point of view and it has some truth — I can point to a lot of business brought in by my blog.

But let’s take a peek into the economics of a blog. On an annual basis:

• I pay thousands of dollars for high quality regular contributing columnists yes, I actually pay my writers).
• I spend dozens of hours answering comments
• I devote hundreds of hours to writing and editing
• I spend thousands of dollars developing quality Slideshare presentations people can download for free
• I spent thousands of dollars fending off denial of service attacks
• I devote hundreds of hours coaching new bloggers and helping them develop guest posts that shine a light on their work. In 2015, I featured about 40 different bloggers.
• I spend thousands of dollars more on hosting, technical support, and editing services

I’m not whining about these expenses. These are my choices. This is an expense of doing business.

Or is it?

A blog of this magnitude is far less important for attracting leads than it used to be. I could eliminate comments (as many bloggers have), I could cut my blogging output by 75 percent, and I could cut out guest writers completely and still have a viable business blog.

But my view is, this is not just a business blog generating cold leads. This blog is about teaching. This is a place to come to learn.

Writing is the most rewarding thing I do I want to do MORE of that, not less, even if the resources I put into it is “out of whack” with the needs of the business.

“You hurt my feelings. Isn’t this another form of sponsored content?”

Sponsored content is when somebody pays me to embed their product in the editorial portion of the blog. I’m not doing that. Nothing has changed. I’m still here for you, folks.

When I first saw the opportunity to say “thank you” to Scott Monty by becoming a patron of his work for a few bucks a month, I jumped at the chance. My theory is, there are probably those of you out there who would like an opportunity to do the same thing.

Really, it’s that simple. I don’t see any controversy in it at all. If it bothers you, don’t participate. Nothing is changing. If you want to become a patron and help me move forward with new content forms, well then … thank you very much.

As an added bonus, here is a video discussion I recorded via Blab with Scott Monty where we discuss this topic, micro payments, and other new ideas on content monetization. It’s a fascinating talk and I hope you enjoy it:

If you can’t see the video above, view on YouTube: Social Media Office Hours: Content Monetization.

The story behind the illustration. After the Blab broadcast, artist Eric Rosner sent me his interpretation of this session. Pretty awesome. You can see more of his work at www.erosner.com.

The post Straight talk on Patreon and patronage for content appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.

The name of the game is to find a way to stand out in your industry … even if it’s crowded. Today I want to help you consider a way to differentiate your blog by thinking strategically about how you use your productivity and the amount of time you put into writing.

Blogging takes a lot of work. Are you using your time to maximum effectiveness?

Your blogging output

How much time can you devote to blogging? If you spend 4-5 hours a week creating content, is it better to spend all of that time on one epic post for the month or pump out a number of shorter posts spread out over weeks? How can you decide?

There are lots of ways to look at it, but one thing you might consider in your decision is the competitive landscape. Maybe your strategy should be determined by an opportunity for differentiation through your publishing schedule. Let’s look at a few of the top marketing blogs as an example of using the time you put into blogging (or any kind of content creation) as a competitive angle.

The field of marketing blogging is extremely competitive but to make my point, here’s how a few familiar bloggers are positioned:

Of the five blogs represented here, four of the authors probably commit about the same amount of time to their blog each week. But the strategies and results of that time commitment are remarkably different. They are using time as a strategy to appeal to a certain audience. Let’s take a closer look.

High frequency, low length — Seth Godin publishes almost every day but his posts rarely exceed 500 words … and sometimes they are as short as a just few sentences! Seth is an industry thought leader and his posts are pithy observations of the business world. Those short articles probably appeal to busy people who only have time for small chunks of content.

Low frequency, low length — Scott Monty only publishes once or twice a week, usually a short business observation and a helpful weekly industry round-up. While Scott publishes infrequently, he puts an incredible amount of time into his curated weekly highlights post. It’s probably just 1,000 words in length but packs a lot of punch. Essentially he is spending his precious blogging time in a way that saves you time.

Low frequency, high length — Avinash Kaushik of Google writes truly epic posts. He may only publish once a month, but when you get his post in your in-box, grab a snack and prepare to settle in for a while. A few of his highly-detailed posts have been mini-books exceeding 10,000 words! Reading an Avinash post is not for everyone but if you you thirst for deep analytical insight (and have the time to read it), there is no better source.

Moderate frequency, moderate length — Here on {grow} I publish thought-provoking posts (like this one) of moderate length several times a week. I also feature regular paid guest columnists like Kerry Gorgone, Eric Wittlake, Mars Dorian, Brooke Ballard, and Kiki Schirr to offer diverse, expert views on interesting topics that might be out of my normal reach.

How did I decide on this formula for {grow}? Reader feedback and surveys. I used to publish shorter, more frequent posts but I found that my competitive sweet spot is medium-length posts published no more than four times per week. Long-time readers might even remember I used to feature weekly cartoons as a way to stand out but I learned this was just not consistent with what my readers expected. For my specific audience, I seem to be at an ideal publishing rate.

Now these great blogs I’ve mentioned certainly do not make their mark through publishing strategy alone. They are also outstanding in their unique tone, original subject matter, and writing style. But the point I’m making is that all four authors are also using their time in profoundly different ways to stand out from the pack and make an impact.

The final category on my chart is high frequency, high length. There probably isn’t any way to be both prolific and lengthy without either turning blogging into a full-time job or getting creative with the approach, which is precisely what Social Media Examiner does every day by using a cadre of staff and unpaid guest writers. The minimum length of an SME post is 1,000 words and they publish eight times per week. There is certainly a place for this approach as well in some industries.

Your blogging strategy

The most important aspect of your blog is this — you need to be interesting. All the time. That’s not easy.

But if you commit to the hard work, find your voice, and identify an un-saturated niche, you can also stand out by HOW you use your time.

If you completed a diagram like this for your industry, is there an open slot?

• If competitors are filling the airwaves with frequent, short posts, does it make sense to distinguish yourself by writing less frequently, but in-depth?
• If your competitors are posting once a month, could you break from the pack by posting once a week or more?
• Could you stand out like Scott Monty and devote your blogging time to skillful curation at a low frequency?
• Is there room for a Social Media Examiner model in your industry?

Examining frequency and length is a new way to think about using your personal blogging time in a more strategic way.

Does this open up an opportunity for you?

Illustration courtesy Flickr CC and Robert Couse Baker.

The post How to differentiate your blog based on the time you can put into it appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.