I had the absolute pleasure of being interviewed by Alane and Shaochen of Calligraphy Biz Corner about one of my favorite topics: long-term marketing and SEO! This episode was an absolute blast. We dove deep into strategies for calligraphers and other creatives to boost their online presence. The conversation was packed with practical tips and insights (I think you’ll find some real gems in there!) If you’re looking to up your marketing game, definitely give it a listen!
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Table of Contents
Why don’t we get started with a brief introduction about you and your business?
I started in the wedding industry with a destination wedding planning blog while planning my own destination wedding. It turned into a business as a destination wedding travel agent and planner. It was a lot of fun until 2020 when everything shut down. I then focused on what was working well for me: blogging and Pinterest. I started offering those services to other wedding professionals, discovered my love for the B2B industry. Having a toddler made travel a little more stressful and less exciting and fun. And now we’re here.
Do you still have your travel business in addition to your current business as well?
Yeah, I do, but I have contractors that actually do the wedding planning, so I don’t do any wedding planning. I do some of the marketing and SEO on the backend for it, but I’m not actually involved in it other than that.
I love how you transformed it to align with your priorities now and where your life is in this moment. Can you tell us more about that transformation?
It’s so funny. I know you guys talk about this on the podcast too, but when I was a destination wedding planner, I thought, “This is the best thing ever. I can’t imagine anything better than this.” It’s just crazy that you can think something is perfect for you in one season, but you don’t need to be so attached to it. Something even better might be around the corner, which I think is cool.
Can you define the difference between long-term marketing and short-term marketing, and what does SEO stand for?
Yeah, absolutely. There are so many buzzwords in the marketing space, and it can be tricky because everybody uses them a little differently. For the sake of our conversation, when I think of long-term marketing, I think of efforts you can make at any time—maybe right now, maybe three months ago—that help you get in front of people when they’re searching for you. Short-term marketing, on the other hand, is more active marketing, like what can I do right now to get in front of people who are maybe looking for me and maybe not.
For example, long-term marketing would be something like blogging where you can batch four episodes at a time and be found two years later. Active marketing is like showing up on Instagram stories and promoting my offers. SEO, or search engine optimization, is basically a fancy way of saying, how can I get on Google? It’s really any search engine, but usually, people are thinking about Google, and SEO is just kind of how we can show up there.
Why should calligraphers or creative business owners care about long-term marketing?
Right off the bat, I’m like diversify everything. Diversify your offers, diversify your money, all of those things. But the second main reason is time freedom, especially in the wedding industry. You see over and over again how people burn themselves out over wedding season and then when wedding season ends, they have to start all over again. It’s really easy to get stuck in a feast or famine mode when you’re only marketing when you need clients, and it’s really stressful because you’re reactivating a slow Instagram account again, or you’ve burnt yourself out.
Long-term marketing is one of those ways to take the pressure off always needing to show up, which I think is really cool. It’ll also nurture those couples that are looking for you during wedding season in a time that you don’t necessarily have to connect with them in the Instagram DMs. You’re not necessarily in there all day in wedding season, but you still have content to help them connect with you. They’re excited to just plan their wedding. So it’s kind of a way to fill your funnel on the backend.
What are the top three things someone can do to improve their SEO?
One of the ways I like to look at it is Pinterest has something like a confidence score. How confident are they that you are going to be the best result? I think of Google the same way when they’re weighing two websites: one is vague with no blog and just one page, and the other has been around for five years with 200 blog posts. It makes it a lot easier for Google to recommend the latter. So, first, make sure your location keyword or most important keyword is on your website near the top.
The second thing is to fix your heading tags to match the order of priority. This is something I see a lot, especially with Showit and Squarespace websites because they assign headings to certain fonts. Often, people design their websites aesthetically, choosing a big heading as the main heading while a smaller heading, like ‘New Jersey wedding calligrapher,’ is assigned an H3 or H2 tag. What you want is for that to be your H1 tag.
It’s easy to overlook when you’re only looking at the visual side, but Google looks at the data. So, if you have a heading that just says ‘services’ or ‘Hello Alane,’ make that H3 or the least important heading on your page because it’s not telling Google anything about what your website is about.
I think of it like a pyramid: you should have one H1 tag, which Google thinks is the most important thing on the page. Then, a couple of H2 tags, and all the other headings should be H3 or H4. Google doesn’t ignore the other headings, but between H3 and H4, there’s a smaller difference in importance. I’m not sure about Squarespace, but on Showit you can change the title tag without adjusting the font, keeping it aesthetically pleasing while making sure your keywords are appropriately tagged.
Most of us don’t necessarily want only keywords as our biggest heading on the page, but if you can fit it near the top, that’s better. While we are talking about this, another thing to consider is having different keywords for different pages on your website. Not all of them should be the same. For example, use ‘wedding calligraphy portfolio’ on the portfolio page or ‘wedding calligraphy packages’ on the services page. You don’t want the same keyword on all pages.
The third thing to increase your SEO is to build a body of content. This isn’t a super fast thing, but it’s one of the most impactful. It could be blogs, reshared podcasts, or YouTube videos. This helps Google see you as the best option.
Does building content mean any kind of content or specifically blog content?
The thing I like about blogging is that each page can rank for each keyword. If you have 20 blog posts, that’s 20 potential keywords you could rank for. When we look at content on your homepage, about page, and services page, you need a minimum of 300 words per page to rank on Google. Check your about page and main pages. I personally like to aim for 600 to 900 words if possible. For your portfolio page, if you link each portfolio to a different wedding, try to add 300 words at the top.
One thing I see people do is just post all photos, but Google rarely ranks a page of just photos. I always like to think of if somebody landed on just this one page, would they know what I do and how to hire me? Include information like, “This is a beautiful wedding at [venue]. I did the calligraphy. Hire me here or learn more here.”
What is one of the biggest mistakes that you see calligraphers making when it comes to SEO on their website?
When it comes to images, many of us just upload them without much thought. To optimize your images for better SEO, start by reducing the file size. One or two large images might not seem like a big deal, but they can slow down your website significantly when you have thousands. Resizing them ensures faster loading times.
Next, rename your images with descriptive names and use dashes between words, like “wedding-signage-at-venue.” This helps search engines understand what the image is about. Also, add alt text, which is what Google reads if someone can’t see the image. Make it helpful and accurate, and include the keyword about 20% of the time.
Platforms like Squarespace do resize images for you, but I prefer to do it beforehand. This way, you control the size and quality. For example, I resize blog images to about 800 pixels in width. WordPress, used by Showit users, often resizes to 1900 pixels, which is larger than necessary. While platforms try to maintain quality, Google aims to load pages quickly. Large images slow this down, so resizing before uploading is best.
What are some tips for making blogging easier and more sustainable for calligraphers with time constraints?
Blogging isn’t as hard as it seems. We just need more practice. When we look at our screen time on Instagram, we have no problem ignoring that. And then when our first blog post takes eight hours we get discouraged about the time it took. The reality is, your first one might take eight hours, the second one takes four, and we get much faster with each one. It doesn’t take long to get good at it. As entrepreneurs, we focus on the long game, but it can be discouraging because it’s a slower burn strategy.
I tell people it takes three to nine months to start ranking on Google. It’s only hard for the first six months, but once you see momentum, it becomes easier to maintain. Google is a more forgiving platform than something like Instagram. If you take a few months off, it’s easier to come back to and Google won’t punish you for trying to revive a dead account. You don’t have to stress about posting times or trending sounds. You can blog and batch whenever you want.
If you’re struggling to get your blog posts out, I have an easy framework. First, for how long a blog post should be. For calligraphers, especially if you’re competing locally, aim for 700 to 900 words. The first paragraph should introduce the topic and a keyword. The second paragraph should introduce yourself and explain how they can hire you.
Make sure readers know they can hire you, even if they’re new to your work. The third paragraph can be the main content. For example, if you’re featuring a real wedding, describe the first look, ceremony, and reception. If you’re doing a roundup of wedding signage, list different types like boho signage or rustic signage. More tips mean less writing per tip. If you’re covering three types of wedding signage, you’ll need to write more than if you’re covering ten types. Finally, wrap up and remind readers to work with you.
How often should someone blog to see results?
I would say if you’re blogging weekly, you’ll see results in three months. If it’s every second week, you’re maybe more to six to nine months. If you’re blogging once a month, then I would say to be brutally honest, blogging is not your strategy.
It will eventually work for you, but it might take two years before you even have 24 blog posts, which is not nothing, but let’s say at the end of the year have 12 blog posts that someone did in three months. It’s fine. Blogging serves another purpose to nurture people. Sometimes people use blog posts to educate their own clients, but if you’re using blogging as a strategy to get bookings, I would say minimum twice a month.
What are some ways to come up with blog topic ideas?
When people come to me with many ideas but no time to write, I advise starting with the ones they’re most excited about. Building momentum is key, so focus on writing and getting content out. It doesn’t matter which one goes first, especially at the beginning.
If you have many ideas, sort them by the seasons in your business. In the wedding industry, businesses are cyclical. People look for venues in January, seek inspiration in spring and summer, and inquiries rise in September. Draw on your experience to think about it.
For data-driven people, do keyword research. UberSuggest is a free tool offering three searches a day and gives related suggestions. I used it before upgrading to a paid tool ($150/month), which is better. Upgrading isn’t necessary, but it can help. Best practice doesn’t mean perfection; just get your content out there.
If you need ideas, look at Pinterest trends, Google trends, or even ask ChatGPT. It may not be perfect, but it gives a starting point. See what others are creating, and put your spin on it.
If you have blog posts with multiple points, consider making each one its own blog. Google loves internal linking, which improves both posts. Blogging takes time to build momentum, but the more content you create, the easier it gets. If you can’t come up with ten ideas, start with one and see how it grows.
If you have a podcast, a blog, a newsletter, and Instagram, do you recommend taking the same piece of content and adapting it for those different formats?
Yeah, I think it’s fine to repurpose, especially something like your blog and Instagram. They are two different audiences and two different mediums of content. When I think of Instagram, people see what you post at a passing glance most of the time versus when they saw the same content on a blog. You’ll have to reformat it obviously, but they’re mostly sitting down on your computer and reading, looking for something.
So they’re in two different headspaces looking at the content. Even if the content is similar, people won’t notice it’s the same Instagram post. For podcasting, I think there is such an opportunity for you to take the transcript and even if you don’t turn the transcript into a blog post, you could take parts of it that could be its own blog post.
How do you feel about using AI for blog posts?
A lot of people wonder if using AI will get them penalized. Everyone seems to be on one end of the spectrum or the other. I use AI as a starting place, not copy and pasting. Unless you’re strongly against AI, it’s fine to use it. I often check big companies’ blogs with AI checkers out of curiosity. AI checkers aren’t 100% accurate but it seems like everyone uses it. As long as the content is still valuable, it’s fine to use AI but adding your personality and experience is crucial.
Google values unique, expertise-based content. They don’t want me to write about wedding calligraphy, but if you’re a wedding calligrapher with a portfolio and an outline written by AI, you can edit it to include personal touches. This creates a better user experience, which Google favors. Google wants to provide the best search results, so whether you use AI or not, you need to create the best content.
For example, asking ChatGPT to write a paragraph on why you recommend cocktail signs at a bar will yield a better result than just asking for a paragraph about cocktail signs. Why you are recommending something is always going to produce a better result. Feeding AI a better prompt helps, especially if you dislike writing.
When coming up with topics, calligraphers have an advantage because they are usually hired later in the planning process, allowing for a wider range of topics compared to a wedding planner who must focus on early planning topics.
With calligraphy, there’s more freedom. Couples hire calligraphers later, so consider that when feeding information into ChatGPT. Give examples based on whether couples have found a venue or not. To compete with AI-generated content, focus less on generic topics like the cost of wedding envelope calligraphy and more on unique, engaging topics like how to create a cohesive invitation suite that wows your guests. This provides value beyond what an AI can easily generate.
How can we measure the effectiveness of our long-term marketing efforts?
Set up Google Search Console to measure your efforts. Set it up right away but don’t look at it for the first six months. Then in Google Search Console look at top keywords you are being ranked for, top pages, and impressions versus clicks.
Ensure all your posts are getting indexed by Google. If a post is discovered but not indexed, it means Google didn’t find it valuable enough to rank. Add more content, images or different images, and adjust your settings. Request indexing again and keep an eye on it. Also, add Google as a lead source on your contact form to track where your inquiries are coming from.
Kara, we’d love to talk about how our listeners can connect with you, maybe work with you. Can you share a little bit about that?
Yeah, absolutely. So you can find all the details on my website The Kara Report. For services I offer, obviously done for you Pinterest and blogging management. And then I also have a blogging mini course if you want to go more in detail of all of that. And also, I have a weekly podcast, also called the Kara Report. So I’m sharing marketing and business advice every week.
