It’s likely not news to you that one of the best ways to drive traffic to your business is to create consistent, high-value content.
Yet it’s also likely that doing that consistently and with quality is a challenge.
My clients lament this often and share how they struggle to keep up with it, feel inspired to know what to create, be in the know about which platforms to use and which trends to follow, and how to manage their time to create and post.
I’ve been creating content for the past 16 years across national media outlets, social media, email broadcast lists for each of my companies, podcasts, digital series, and the list goes on. Because of that, I’ve learned a lot along the way (often from making it harder than it needed to be) and want to impart some tips to help you get the impact you need from your content, without going mad in the process:
- Get clear on why you’re creating in the first place. What’s the goal? For whom are you creating it? What’s the primary call to action toward which you want to drive someone? How does it all feed into your bigger strategy?
- Audit where you’re already creating content (or considering starting) and ask yourself, “Does it really move the needle or am I doing it because you feel as though I ‘have to’?” If the answer is no, first consider if it’s the cadence or quality that might need adjusting versus if you can relieve yourself of creating for that platform altogether.
- Choose 1 to 3 places where you enjoy sharing content (good signs are that they’re platforms where you also enjoy consuming content as well as how you most naturally enjoy creating it). Start there.
- Get clear on your content pillars (what core messages you share). Map those out into weekly, biweekly, or monthly themes for your content. Even better is to map those out on a calendar in conjunction with your business goals, such as product launches.
- Under each pillar, list a handful of topics about which you can share. (Example: pillar = content creation. Subtopics = tools to automate posting, tools for generating hashtags, design and caption templates for your posts, how to repurpose content.)
- Speaking of repurposing content: Repurpose content. Start with the method that comes most naturally to you. For example, you like to record videos, so start there. Then use a tool like otter.ai to pull the transcription. Take that written document and make it into an email broadcast. Turn that into a blog post. Then splice that up into smaller social media posts.
- Similarly, take old posts, emails, or otherwise, that performed well and share it again, in a slightly new way. You don’t have to have a brand new insight every time you share. Just give it enough time to breathe before you reuse it.
- Use real-life situations to inspire content. For example: Did you have an experience with another business that inspires a lesson learned? Share it. Use lessons, tools, or resources that stand out to your clients and share those. and/or share behind the scenes of your work.
- Hand off the part(s) that aren’t essential for you to do to make it less of a heavy lift. That may be design, captions, scheduling or formatting, or the entire piece of copy. That will depend on what you’re creating and your level of comfort with handing it to a talented person who can do part or parcel of it.
Side note: Remember that 100 percent of your followers and subscribers don’t see what you share every time (on Instagram it’s closer to 6 percent, on average, and on your email list, it’s likely 20-50 percent, depending on the size of your list).
If I were to take this piece as an example, I’d write this, then record a video about it, then make it into smaller pieces for Instagram, and turn the original piece into an email for my list and a blog for my website. I’d then hand it off to my assistant to proof it, make those designs, set it up on each platform, and make it go live.
In fact, that’s exactly what I’ll be doing.
Now it’s your turn. Which tip(s) can you take to make your content creation more easeful and effective?
I look forward to seeing what you create!