Feeling the pressure to create original, attention-grabbing, personalized content that hits the emotional mark with your clients? Wondering if it’s enough to repost, share and curate other people’s content without getting your hands dirty?
Content creation is an essential element to today’s marketing. It’s key because, if done correctly, it will drive traffic, engagement, influence and leads for your business. So how do we make time to create content? And what do we create? These are two of the biggest questions that I get on this topic.
Let’s talk about that first question, because that’s where most people really struggle. You can’t (and you won’t) consistently create content if you’re writing off the cuff when you feel like it or have time. Let’s be real, we will never have the time, so here’s how to painlessly streamline your approach so you get it done.
Tip #1: Create an inspiration list.
Create a list of quality sources that you admire and regularly produce content that relates to your clients. Follow them on social media, stay on top of their blog posts and pull ideas from them when you are planning your content themes. Take a tip from Steve Jobs on this subject matter, “We have always been shameless about stealing great ideas”.
No need to spend hours trying to create an original piece of content that's probably already been created. Your goal should be to draw inspiration from what’s already been done, then simplify it, make it better, put your spin on it and personalize it for your audience. This will help you create solid content pieces faster and avoid writer's block.
Tip #2: Check what's working for your competition.
I’ve heard business owners say, “I don’t waste time paying attention to the competition.” While I certainly don’t recommend hyper-focusing on others, it’s important to keep tabs on what’s working for your competitors and how they are marketing themselves. It’s a great opportunity to learn from their mistakes, successes and to gain some ideas on how to differentiate yourself.
Make a list of your top competitors, including the big players you hope to be competing with in the near future. Follow their social media sites and once a month scan through their content and see what topics and themes they are sharing. Look at the number of comments, shares, likes and retweets to get an idea of what’s getting a positive reaction and what’s fallign flat and then try incorporating the most popular topics into your own marketing.
Tip #3: Build a simple editorial calendar.
The hardest part of content creation is actually making the time to do, because it takes time. Make sure you've created a simple outline of the different content you will create each month. Plan out monthly themes and what your goals are.
Will you share five social media posts a week, one blog post a month and create two videos? Whatever your goals are they should be written on a calendar, planned out and you should have time blocked off to create these pieces. I try to plan out my content 2-3 months in advance so I know exactly what I am creating and never waste time wondering, “What am I doing this month?”
Tip #4: Streamline your process.
The first time you set out to blog, create a video or design an infographic it’s going to be a major time suck and that’s OK! We all go through it. The goal is to create templates for every piece of content you create so each time you build another piece, you plug the new info in and away you go! It should take less and less time each month.
There are lots of great tools like Canva, Piktochart and Photoshop (for the more advanced marketer) that will help you develop easy-to-use templates for your content. The key is to get a system going so you know the look and feel of the content and exactly how you are distributing it.
Tip #5: Don't be afraid to repurpose and repurpose again.
Business owners complain to me all the time that they don't have enough original content or a big enough budget to create more. Then, come to find out, they are sitting on a gold mine of used, but relevant content that’s gathering dust from a year or two ago.
Not every piece of content has to be brand new. There are plenty of timeless classics that can be used, year after year with a little refresh. Don’t be afraid to repost or re-release an old gem that worked for you in the past. Chances are your database has changed (hopefully grown) and a set of fresh eyes are going to see it for the first time. Keep in mind if it was a great piece of content, people in your network won’t mind seeing it again.
These are a few simple tips to get your content marketing up and running. Hopefully this helps simplify the process and will give you the structure and confidence to get out there and start converting more of your connections into clients with impactful content.
xo
CopyKat