Shondell Varcianna, founder of Varci Media, joins us to talk about the importance of content marketing for businesses on this segment of “Money, I’m Home!”

 

[transcript]

00:06 Lynne Jarman-Johnson: Money, I’m Home. Welcome in. I’m Lynne-Jarman Johnson with Consumers Credit Union. From Finance to Fitness, we have it all for you. Today, we have a really special guest to talk to you, especially if you’re a business owner or you’re someone who really wants to get your name out there. Shondell Varcianna is with us today. She is the CEO of Varci Media. Now, Shondell, you have turned blogging into a work of art for small business and companies. Tell us how you started.

00:36 Shondell Varcianna: So I’m originally from Canada, from Toronto, Canada. And I come from the financial world. So I started working for a bank in Canada called the Bank of Montreal; it’s the oldest bank in Canada. I started working there when I was 18, and then I just worked my way up. And then I left there, and I started working for a company called Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation. They are the same thing as PMI is here in the U.S.

01:00 LJJ: Okay. Yeah.

01:00 SV: So while I was working there, I had paid off a couple of mortgages, the house that I was living in, as well as a rental property that I had. And my girlfriend suggested that I start giving people advice on how to pay off mortgages, because I had done it in less than 10 years. So she had suggested …

01:17 LJJ: Wow. Just 10 years?

01:19 SV: Yeah, I just started making … Yeah, I was working crazy hours. I started making additional payments. I threw every additional money I had on the mortgage. I increased my payments every year. I just went crazy and got rid of both of them. And so my girlfriend suggested that I start giving people advice and start helping the other people to do the same thing. So I started doing that, and she’s suggested to blog and create a blog and start giving people advice through my blog on how to navigate having a mortgage, what to look for when you’re getting a mortgage and how to pay it off. So I started doing that and then I started to get pretty popular in the whole personal finance community. And some magazines and radio stations started contacting me, and then what I found was, people wanted me to start writing for them. But I was still working at CMHC at the time, so I could only do this part-time. So my boyfriend, who’s my husband now, suggested that I hire some writers to start writing. And really that’s how the business was born, because I was getting so much business that I couldn’t write it all on my own.

02:18 SV: And then I thought, “There’s got to be better people that write than me. [laughter] Let’s get some better writers than me.” And then my expertise is more the managing, so I said, “It’s better for me to get people that can write better than me, build the business, and then I’ll manage the team.” And that’s really how the business was born and how we got started. And then I just moved the company to Atlanta simply because I love Atlanta. So that’s how we ended up in Atlanta.

02:42 LJJ: Beautiful city. Beautiful city.

02:44 SV: Love it here. Love it here.

02:45 LJJ: So you know what’s interesting is you have such a great story to tell. Now, not only are you an entrepreneur; you now run a business that helps other businesses. How important, I have found this very interesting in the bigger scheme of understanding what you’re talented at. So you just mentioned, “Okay, I’m not the writer. The writers are the ones that are extremely talented.”

03:06 SV: Yes.

03:07 LJJ: In today’s day and age, with texting and the way that people write, how have you found it to be even more critical that really good writing skills is a part of everybody’s business marketing plan?

03:20 SV: I think it’s really important, but what’s most important is understanding your audience. Because writing a blog post and writing a social media post are completely different. You don’t have to be as formal with social media. You can add emojis. You could be a little bit more flexible. And content is not just written; it could be a variety of different things. I think understanding your audience is what’s most important, and writing based on how they communicate and writing based on how they’re going to resonate with the content that you are putting out there. That’s what’s most important. Because we’ve had clients where their audience is very, very technical. So we need to make sure we’re more formal; we need to be explaining things more. Versus maybe some Millennials, you want be a little bit more informal. You may want to add some jokes in there. You want be more … So different audiences require different kinds of content. So what’s most important is knowing your audience.

04:16 LJJ: So when you’re working with your businesses that are asking you for assistance and guidance. Some people are just … They don’t even … They still don’t know what a blog is, much more do they have one and should they have one? How do you look at helping companies? Do you help them actually start them, or is it people who really know where they are?

04:38 SV: Both. Both. We work with a lot of financial institutions. So we work with some of that have thought about it, but never really knew what to do. What we do is we first start with finding out exactly who their audience is. We get a lot of information about them, but in order to start the blog, really the purpose of putting any type of content on your website; so the purpose of putting a blog on your website is really to solve a problem that your customers are having. So you want to know, “What issues that are they having? What questions do they have?” And you want to answer those questions and solve those problems and solve those issues in your blog post, and then you want to share that on social media. So that’s really the purpose of putting any type of content out, in my opinion, is to solve a problem that your ideal customer is having. Answer those questions. Like right now, a lot of people are uncertain of what they’re going to do, because they’ve gotten laid off. How are they going to make their mortgage payments? So if your customers are asking those types of questions, answer those questions for them in the form of a blog post and share some of that on your social media.

05:42 LJJ: The other component could be, you know, with COVID happening right now, what is it that you are doing in your company to make sure that there are steps for safety as an example.

05:53 SV: So for financial institutions, we know a lot of people are asking about mortgage payments. What are their options in terms of mortgage payments? Can they skip payments? Are there forbearance options? Things like that. For small businesses, it really comes back to, “What are your customers asking? What are they wanting to know about your particular business? What are they wanting to know in your industry? What’s happening in your industry? Who are you servicing and what questions do they have? What are they thinking about? Have they been laid off? Can you give them some tips on maybe starting a side business to make some extra money. Whatever they could do to solve the problems that they’re having, provide that for them through your content, and relate it back to your business of course.

06:39 LJJ: Give me some success stories, especially with you starting out and moving to Atlanta. That sounds just incredible to say, “Let’s pick this business up and go.” So you yourself are a success story. But the writing the content as you go and the connecting with businesses across the country—give us a couple of success stories that you could share.

07:01 SV: What we do is when we write content for companies, we track it. So we also add keywords. Keywords are really keywords that people are searching for in Google. So any time you’re searching for something in Google, that could be a potential keyword. The keywords that we typically add are keywords that a lot of people are searching for. Google will tell you this. Google has something called Keyword Planner, so you can literally put in different phrases, different keywords that you think your audience is searching for on Google, and Google will tell you how many people are searching for that per month; it’ll tell you the competition that you have. So it gives you a lot of insight into what people are searching for, and then you can add those keywords in your content. So that’s what we do. And then it helps people find your content when they’re searching for it on Google. So that’s really what keywords are.

07:48 SV: So what we do is, we add that in the content, and then we’ll write content on a website, and then we’ll put a call to action, like, “Fill out this contact form. Call this particular number,” whatever the call to action is. And then we’ll track that to see, “Okay, we wrote this content, this many people filled out a content form. Did you get them as a client? And if you did, what type of product did they want?” Now we can start looking at the numbers and say, “We’ve written this content. This is how many people called you as a result of this content. So now, this is what they like. Let’s write some more of this.” So we track it to see how much business is coming, and that works extremely well. You have to track it, or else you won’t really know what’s working and what’s not working. But that’s how we track it, and then over time, business keeps coming in. We look at the keywords. We look at how many people are calling, how many people are filling in contact forms. And that’s how you’re able to track how successful your content is.

08:41 LJJ: You mentioned analytics, and how important … A lot of people will say, “Well, you know what? I’ve got this Facebook page and I just started a blog, and I just started this, but they’re not deep diving into the analytics that happen once that starts and the consistency that is so important for that. How have you found analytics to really be the game-changer?

09:00 SV: Analytics is key because it tells you what’s happening with the information that you’re putting out there, and if it’s working or if it’s not working, which you need to be looking at consistently, so you know if you need to make any tweaks. Over time, people may not be searching for the same things anymore, so maybe you want to change that up. You can also look at things like how long people are staying on your page. If you’re adding internal links on your page, are people clicking those links and going to another site on your page? So that’s really important, too, because how long someone stays on your page will tell you how good your content is or not. If they’re clicking off within a second, then you know it’s not resonating. And there’s a lot of tips that you can use to keep people on your page—breaking up the content, adding sub-headings. When we write, we don’t use more than 20 words per sentence, no more than 100 words per paragraph. So things like that are quick tips, because oftentimes when people are reading, they’re not reading every single word, they’re skimming. So you want something to pop out at them, so sub-headings are great, short sentences, one-liners are good, adding pictures, adding videos. All of that helps to break up the content and move the eye as they’re going down the page. And you want something to stop them in their tracks so they read more.

10:09 LJJ: If someone is listening today and they have contemplated starting a blog, and they’re just reticent, what can you tell them to say, “Let’s get started.”

10:19 SV: I would say, first and foremost, be a part of the conversation that your target audience is having so you know what to write about. You don’t want to just start writing what you think they want to hear. You want to write what you know they want to hear, because then there’s a higher chance of success with your content because you’re providing value to your ideal customer. You’re answering their questions. You’re solving their problems. So that would be the first thing I would say. Once you’re part of the conversation, you’ll know what they want to hear, and then you’re able to come up with topics because they’re talking about what you’re going to write about, and then you share it with the people who are talking about it. And that’s the providing value, so that’s the connecting the dots.

10:56 LJJ: And it really is all about keeping those dots connected at lifetime of what you’re doing. It’s a living, breathing animal almost, isn’t it?

11:05 SV: It’s a journey, it’s a journey. It’s being a part of your ideal customer’s journey is really what it is, because we’re all on a journey. And when you know your target audience, you’re a part of that journey that they’re on, and then you can continue to provide service to them through all of that journey if your products and services align with wherever they are in their journey.

11:27 LJJ: Well, Shondell, thank you so much for bringing us along on your journey today. It’s a really very interesting story and background. And it’s Varci Media, and if you are interested in learning a little bit more about blogging, I know that Shondell would love to chat with you. I like the thought about what you just said, those little tips that make such a difference, they’re fast, they’re quick, they’re easy, but also can really make a big difference in your small business.

11:52 SV: Absolutely. And I’ve got a lot of free tips on our website. So I’ve got a free blogging checklist, as well as a guide on there that goes through exactly what we do with our customers. It’s free. You can go there and you can get it, you can read it, you can check it out and get some of our free tips for yourself.

12:08 LJJ: That is awesome. Shondell, thank you so much. You have a wonderful day.

12:11 SV: Thank you so much. You, too.

12:14 LJJ: I wonder if we we’re a little bit hotter here in Michigan than you are. This weekend it’s going to be another 100 degree here.

12:20 SV: You know what? I haven’t checked the weather today, because it’s hot every day, so I just …

[laughter]

12:27 SV: I don’t really check the weather much, because it’s… Atlanta… I’m from Canada, so there’s no comparison.

12:32 LJJ: Thank you so much, Shondell, and thank you for joining us. I’m Lynne-Jarman Johnson. Thank you, Jake Esselink for your production skills today. And if you have a speaker that you would like us to talk to, or someone that you find interesting, just send them along our way. Money, I’m Home, with Consumers Credit Union.

[music]