As a business owner (especially in the online space), there is always so much discussion on content. You know you need it, but either struggle on strategy, can’t find the time to remain consistent, or you just can’t come up with enough fresh ideas. On top of it all, you got no clue what you’re doing. If you’re with me on this, then let’s figure out what to do to make your content shine.
In this post, I’ll dive into how to create a content strategy that will work for your business and for you. By the end, you’ll walk away with a plan that’s fresh and you’ll feel re-energized.
Content Strategy-The Basics
What is a good content strategy? In my opinion, content strategy is a well thought out plan that serves your business, creates visibility, and sells your products/services. If you’re expecting to throw up a couple posts and hoping to go viral, you’re just waiting for luck to strike rather than taking control of your own outcomes.
To regain control of your content strategy, we’ll start with a few basic concepts. You need to evaluate where you are showing up online and if that is really the place your ideal client is hanging out. It is important to be where the potential clients/customers are right? So let’s discuss how to do that with long and short form content.
Long Form Content
As a business, you need one channel where you are primarily present sharing information relevant to your audience. The long form channel is for sharing your knowledge, expertise, and to teach your audience about your products/services or solve a problem they are experiencing. As the name indicates the information you share is longer. Creating long form content requires more thought, planning, and research. It commands authority and is a great way to drive traffic to a website!
Long form channels are not social media based. Examples of long form content channels include a blog, a podcast, or a YouTube channel. Even though you might hear that consumers are overwhelmed with marketing messages and don’t have time for long form content, don’t be fooled! You are also building trust and authority. Anyone can post to social media, but do you have the credibility to back up your claims? That is what long form content is about.
When you are working to develop your content strategy as a smaller business or new entrepreneur, don’t try to be everywhere at once. It makes it too difficult to stay consistent. A better plan is choosing the platform where your ideal customer/client is most likely to be hanging out or where you can provide the type of content they prefer consuming.
Short Form Content
This is where you can get all excited about social media. Short form content is all about engagement and visibility. It meets the need to provide short, relevant information in bite sized pieces. Short form content is an engagement driver!
Choose one or two short form channels, don’t try to be everywhere! There are even more options for short form content than long form. I know you see all the established businesses on every single channel. However, you shouldn’t be doing that if you are newer to the online space, newer to entrepreneurship, or have just started out.
The reason to limit your short form channels for is pretty simple: “A jack of all trades is a master of none!” When you are learning content strategy, you can’t possibly master all the platforms at once. Trying to be everywhere will only dilute the quality of your content. Instead, focus on mastering one channel at a time. You don’t need to do “all the things” to find business success online.
Creating Content Plans
Now that you understand the types of content to create and what channels you’ll be using, it is time to plan! Don’t get stuck on the content hamster wheel. Not planning ahead just leaves you feeling frazzled and uninspired. It can quickly feel like things are out of control and that is when overwhelm strikes! Avoid this by using the following strategies to be at the top of your content game.
Plan to Re-purpose and Recycle Content
Efficient content creators create on piece of content then turn it into many! You can do it too. It is a pretty simple strategy that saves a lot of time. Let’s say you show up live on Facebook once per week and teach a mini-masterclass.
Take a 3 to 1 approach. One piece of content, put it to use in at least three ways. After your class, take the time to order a transcription and re-purpose that content into a blog post! Perhaps you’d like to use the audio from the video as a podcast episode. Bite off a few of your favorite sayings or inspirational quotes related to the subject matter in your transcript and boom you got social posts!
You just learned how to create content in several different ways using one action! Personally, it is a bit easier to record content and then use transcriptions or audio to create the additional content. Personally, video is my least favorite content to produce, so if I start there everything else follows pretty easily.
Visibility and Consistency is Key
If you create content and no one consumes it, it’s a big waste of your time! To get the most out of your content, you need to show up regularly and provide value. Often I see newbies over commit themselves and then quickly burnout and drown in overwhelm. Even though bigger businesses have the resources to post on all the platforms, multiple times a day, doesn’t mean you have to as well.
It is a better goal to show up consistently on a schedule you are transparent about with your audience. For example, if you know you can’t produce several blog posts a week, then don’t try! Set a realistic goal and stick to it. Show up with quality on a consistent schedule. This builds trust and rapport with your audience and delivers the value they are looking for. One great post every other week is better than three mediocre blog posts in that same time period.
Set realistic visibility goals you can actually stick to. If you see other entrepreneurs posting stories on Instagram everyday, but you just can’t handle that pace in the present don’t sweat it! Start with a more realistic goal of 2-3 Instagram stories per week, and grow from there as you are able. Consistency is more important than the quantity of your content.
Plan Ahead
Don’t try to create content on the fly! That works sometimes, but a better strategy is to curate your posts and plan ahead. Posting in the moment often has no strategy behind it. If you take time to analyze your target market and the trends at various points throughout the year, you’ll see that most seasoned content creators are discussing themes or specific topics at the most advantageous times.
Sit down with a planner and map it out. Having a plan is empowering and having direction also saves time. Plan at least one month of content at a time. Even better is to plan quarterly or all year if you can!
Content Batching and Scheduling Tools
Planning ahead goes hand in hand with batching your content. Save time by creating content in chunks, so you aren’t constantly in creation mode. Don’t forget that part of batching is also re-purposing and recycling as we discussed earlier in this post.
You don’t need to be constantly manually posting your content. Take advantage of scheduling tools. Many of them will decide the best time to post for you and it is truly a time saving strategy you can’t be without. If you are a blogger, write posts and schedule them for future dates. When creating social media content, use a tool like Tailwind, Later, Buffer, or Post Planner to schedule your posts.
Call to Action
Don’t forget that your main purpose of content creation is to create awareness and promote the sale of your products/services. Content creation is marketing after all. Make sure your content strategy includes call to action. You need to tell potential clients/customers what the next step is in order to generate sales and conversions.
The entire purpose of generating content is to eventually turn the consumers of that content into pay customers/clients, am I right? In this case, I’d like you to grab a copy of my Monthly One Page Content Plan.
Final Wrap Up
Content planning is super important for online visibility and should be an integral part of an entrepreneur’s online presence. Start with focusing on one long form channel and 1-2 short form content channels. Take the time to develop a good content plan and re-purpose/recycle content. Ensure you are being consistent and using batching and scheduling tools to help you. Don’t forget to give the reader a call to action, so they know what comes next.
If you plan to up your content game, grab a copy of my Monthly One Page Content Plan. That should help you get started!
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