Bad at Blogging? Write a Year in Review Post, today! – Renee Dalo

Here’s what I know for sure. No one I know can confidently say, “I’m up to date on my business blog.” Well, maybe except for Mindy, who is a professional blogger.

The rest of us do the best we can throughout the year, while we are serving clients, marketing, booking new business, working out, making dinner, and trying to maintain all of our important relationships. Blogging tends to get to sit in the back seat, all year long, right?

In 2018, I successfully churned out a grand total of twelve blog posts. An average of ONE per month, but that’s not how they were posted. There was a chunk of them at the beginning of the year, a few more during mid-season, and a few more in the late summer. Fall and winter…a writing desert. Safe to say, I have some catching up to do.

Well, here’s my ace in the hole, so to speak.

Every year for the past five years, I have published a Year in Review post. It’s a perfect way to me to play catch up with all things blogging, increase my SEO presence, show future clients what I’ve been up to all year, and it feels really good to look back and reflect on everything that we accomplished over the last twelve months.

Here are my best practices for a Year In Review post:

• Don’t go crazy and feel like you have to overdo it. One photo, one or two sentences per event is really all you need.
• Make sure you are linking to all of the vendors that are featured in the photo you choose. I personally don’t tag every single vendor who worked on each wedding, because it would make the post WAY too long.
• I also love to link to all the venues as well. And if it’s a venue where I am a Preferred Planner, I make sure to mention that (ever-so-casually) in the copy. It’s a win-win for you and your preferred venue partner!
• Include ALL of your weddings, events, styled shoots, etc. I’ve seen some Year in Review posts that are more like “Top 6 Weddings of the Year” and it always breaks my heart for those clients whose weddings weren’t cool enough to be included. Maybe I’m a bleeding heart, who knows? But I think there is always at least ONE photo you can highlight and ONE sentence you can muster, even for a wedding that is not an “ideal client” wedding.
• Take time to write a thank you to your team, your creative teams (vendor partners) and anyone else who deserves a little end of year praise. Spread the love!

Below are some of my more recent Year in Review posts for reference:

Year in Review 2018

Year in Review 2017

Year in Review 2016

Lastly, I like to post mine on December 31st. It just feels right to me. It gives me something to post for the entire New Years Eve weekend, and it feels like a gentle transition from one year to the next. It’s now a tradition!

Let me hear from you! Do you already have a Year in Review blog post tradition? Post your link below!