There are only 24 hours in a day, and if you like spending some of that time sleeping, it can get stressful and frustrating for small business owners to find the time to get everything done.

But many small business owners out there are succeeding. They’re able to do it all by working hard (of course), but also by using the tools they have in smart ways.

Take Stan and John, for example. Two business owners who merged their blog with their email marketing to grow their audience and keep customers interested.

Blog Broadcasts: The Time-Saving Tool You’ll Love

The blog broadcast will take content from your blog and automatically create that content in an email newsletter.

The way it does this is by checking your blog’s RSS feed. When you have a new post, the blog broadcast tool will pick it up and create a broadcast message for it. You can set your message to send at a certain time or after a certain number of posts.

You can also choose a template for your blog posts to appear in. The RSS variables will automatically pull your blog post, but you can also set up your own text in the template that will stay the same until you change it.

Stan’s Story: Building an Audience

Stan Horst owns Cabin Creekwood in Virginia. He shares articles on his website about local attractions to encourage people to book one of his cabins.

When asked what his email marketing goals were, Stan said: “To build a list of faithful readers to whom we can stay connected so that when they think of a getaway, they think of us.” Since most people enjoy the great outdoors in warmer months, Stan also wants to increase business during the slower season.

So, Stan set up a blog broadcast.

Now, what he puts on his site…

…gets sent to email subscribers:

And it’s working out great. “It has enabled me to have regular contact with guests and prospects, without the effort required to write a newsletter from scratch,” says Stan. “The best part is it is a one-time setup.”

John’s Story: Increasing Sales

John Brand owns Buckaroo Leather, a tack store. He has big plans to increase his sales and online presence in 2013… and the blog broadcast is going to help him get there.

The Buckaroo Leather blog lets visitors see what’s new and what’s on sale. The blog is an excellent place to share this information; blogs are often the entry points to websites.

Here’s what it looks like on the Buckaroo Leather site:

And this gets sent to email subscribers:

Why does John like this feature? “It allows us to communicate with a large number of people with very little effort in a consistent and timely manner, sending updates, specials and our informative newsletter.”

He also appreciated how easy the feature was to use. “We like the ability to quickly choose a template and then just fill in the blanks, no designing required. Just find a template you like and you are done,” says John. “I also like the ability to post the blog broadcast on my various social media outlets.”

Recap: How Blog Broadcasts Help You

Based on Stan and John’s stories, here’s what we learned about the blog broadcasts’ benefits for business owners:

  • It’s an easy feature to use
  • It keeps subscribers engaged
  • It saves time
  • It can help grow your audience
  • Templates make it look good

Want to start using this feature in AWeber? Get started now.

What Tools Help You?

Is there a feature or some other tool that has made your life easier as a business owner? We’d like to hear about it!