Grow With Soul: Ep. 74 Tiny Shifts To Completely Simplify Your Content Marketing With Kayte Ferris
Today I wanted to go into everything content, because content is everything. Often we hear the word ‘content’ and think it’s just blogging, but it’s not. In marketing we tend to break channels up into silos because it’s easier to think and talk about them all separately - so you have your blog over here, your Instagram over there, your email list in the back room, Pinterest, perhaps a podcast or video channel in your back pocket. While they all link up, we tend to treat them as separate entities. We might have a different strategy or different pile of ideas for our Instagram to our blog and all the other things. But really this is an over-complication because it’s all content.Here's what I talk about in this episode:
Developing an effective content strategy
Making a manageable posting plan for you and your business
Creating content that clarifies your message rather than confusing it
Discovering clear blog post objectives
Why you should invest in your content marketing
Repurposing content across channels
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Read the episode transcript:
Hello and welcome to episode of Grow With Soul. Today I wanted to go into everything content, because content is everything. Often we hear the word ‘content’ and think it’s just blogging, but it’s not. In marketing, we tend to break channels up into silos because it’s easier to think and talk about them all separately - so you have your blog over here, your Instagram over there, your email list in the back room, Pinterest, perhaps a podcast or video channel in your back pocket. While they all link up, we tend to treat them as separate entities. We might have a different strategy or different pile of ideas for our Instagram to our blog and all the other things. But really this is an over-complication because it’s all content.
The point of marketing is to get your message in front of the people who need to see it, and to do that we use channels. But somewhere along the line, the channel became more important than the message. We began to worry more about having the right Instagram/email/blog strategy rather than focusing on the message. When you restore the order, when you think about having a message you disseminate through channels - then you’ve got a content strategy. And it’s easier, because you’re not fussing around with all the individual channels, but using them as tools for the messages and pieces that are really going to connect with your right people.
So, in this episode, I’m sharing everything I know about creating an effective and flowing content strategy. I may refer specifically to writing throughout for ease, but remember, everything I share here is applicable to all types of content - written, audio, visual.
Let’s start with how to plan your content. Planning is important because it means that when you sit down to create, you’re not wasting valuable brain power on figuring out what to do or making decisions, you’re just doing it. In this way, planning also helps you to be consistent because you’re not having to make the big decisions of what to post week after week; it’s plotted out in advance. That’s not to say you can’t add in extra things when you feel inspired, but it means you can still be showing up with your message even when you’re not inspired. It’s a safety net, not a straight jacket.
Do what’s manageable
A question I get over and over again is ‘how often should I be posting?’, whether that’s blog posts, Instagram photos or any other type of content. There is a lot of advice out there dictating how many times you should post a week, varying from daily, more than daily (god forbid), to weekly or monthly. The very fact that there is such a difference between these must-dos suggests to me that there isn’t one perfect number of times to post. It’s a myth, and therefore you must find your own schedule.
I always advise people that the best posting routine is the one you can stick to consistently. So look at the time you have available and decide what’s manageable – if that’s fortnightly, then start with that. One thing to remember is that as quantity goes down, quality should go up. If you are only going to be blogging every other week it’s important that those posts are meaty, rather than posting quick listicles.
Refine your topics
A big problem that comes with content creation is knowing what to write about. When there’s every topic under the sun available as a potential, the choice can be paralysing – creativity loves boundaries, so give it some. Not only that, but not every topic under the sun is relevant for you to talk about in the context of your business, so it’s vital to find the ones that are so that your content clarifies your message, rather than confuses it.
The exercise I use for this is to create content buckets – themed metaphorical buckets that you will fill up with ideas to write about that are representative of your brand. These should be derived from the purpose of the brand and your why, and only relevant topics should fit into them. For example, mine are Simple Marketing, Simple Working and Simple Living – anything that doesn’t fit into these buckets doesn’t get written about.
Do a big brainstorm
I try to actually sit and plan content as few times a year as possible. I will tweak the plan more regularly, but I like to have a quarter’s worth of ideas plotted out in advance. This purely means that rather than figuring things out on a weekly basis I can spend more time on more important actions.
Part of this planning routine is a big brainstorm. The brainstorm will be based on my content buckets, on questions I’ve been asked, on other content in the eco-system I’m operating in, on launches or pushes I have within the business. Generally I’ll come up with 50-100 blog post ideas in one sitting following this process, and although not all of them get used, it’s great to have them there to dip into whenever I’m feeling uninspired. (You can see an example of this in the Blog Planning highlight on my Instagram).
Keep records
To help you with your big brainstorm, it also helps to keep records of ideas. We can’t control when the ideas come, so get into the habit of jotting them down, in an organised way. Scribbling them on pieces of paper or in random iPhone Notes is as good as not writing them down because you’ll never find them again. I do mine in a single Note app I can use on both my phone and laptop, so that no matter where I am I can continue adding to, and find, that single list. Then, when I sit down to do my brainstorm I draw on this list, to decide what ideas I’m going to take forward into content.
Have a calendar
I literally don’t know where I’d be without my content calendar! And really, the key word here is my. There isn’t one perfect calendar template to rule them all. Over the years I’ve tried out lots of different formats for content calendars, and if you Google it there are all sorts of complex templates and elements that other people include.
For me, simplicity has been key. A colour code for my content buckets, adding in important events and launches, but other than that no other detritus than the blog post or podcast title that’s going out that day (although some people like to add in their social media posts too). The simplicity means that I can see what’s going on at a glance, that it doesn’t take me five minutes to navigate and decipher the calendar, which ultimately means that I stick to it.
Like I said before, your calendar isn’t a rod for your back. It’s there to provide a structure, especially during those times where you just don’t have the bandwidth to think up something new and creative every week. It doesn’t mean that if you have a flash of inspiration and absolutely must write about something that you can’t! Your calendar should be flexible – mine gets the cut and paste treatment a couple of times a month.
That’s planning, now let’s move on to writing and creating content that’s effective.
On the face of it, writing content seems like it should be pretty easy: pick a topic, write something interesting about it, hit publish. But writing effective content takes more thought and strategy to make it work really hard for you and your business. This doesn’t mean that it’s more complicated, it just means taking an extra few minutes to think about it more intentionally to create a post that has an effect on your business.
Know who you’re writing for
The key to creating effective content is writing content that’s valuable to your customer; the key to writing valuable content is really knowing your customer. Knowing them means more than knowing their demographic information, it’s about understanding their hopes and goals in life, the challenges they’re up against, and what’s holding them back.
When you can help them with these deep problems you are providing value and connecting with your customer on an emotional level. By providing value you are holding their attention and, crucially, building trust with your customer. Remember this is always an exchange, the value you’re giving for the attention, advocacy and ultimately sale from the customer. I know there are many thousands of people who listen to this podcast who will never buy from me, but I know that if I provide valuable content here they might give it a rating so others can find it, they might share an episode link in their mailing list or recommend me to a friend. All of which helps to increase my reach and impact.
Redistribute ideas
Honestly, I have sat down to write a podcast script before and realised that actually all I’ve got to say on that topic is a couple of paragraphs - not the necessary 3000 words!Even after your brainstorm, you may find in reality that not all your ideas will make the cut. But, even the duff ideas may inspire something great – maybe a couple of Instagram captions, an extra paragraph for another blog post, or a worksheet for your email list. No idea is truly dead or rubbish, it just needs to be redistributed to the channel where it will shine.
Create for where customers are in their journey
Often you see blog posts or Instagram posts where the writer has only wanted to write about their products. This is a natural impulse, but honestly unless I have been following that person for ages and am absolutely ready to buy, those posts are a bit boring. If you’ve never encountered that business before you’re likely to keep scrolling past that post. That’s because it’s not written for where you are in your journey.
Think about where customers are in their journey discovering your brand when planning and creating your content. People landing on your site for the very first time just want to get to know you, what you’re interested in, whether you’re someone they want to support. It’s not until later that they will start to investigate your approach and your products. So don’t think of content that is more general, or perhaps not about your products at all, as not being effective or as waste of blog space. It earns its place by keeping new visitors on the site and inspiring them to learn more about the brand.
Have an objective for the piece
Linked to this is giving each blog post an objective. Objectives for a post will naturally crossover, but wanting each post to do everything is a sure fire way to creating an unfocused piece. When you have one clear objective for the post you’re writing you can make sure it is really effective at achieving it.
So, you may want a post that will help new customers find you on a Google search – you therefore ensure it is naturally full of your chosen keyword, stuffed with internal links and has a more introductory tone. On the other hand, you may want a post which helps people get to know your brand more, so you may talk about why ethical production is so important to you in a personal tone which gets under the skin of your business.
Repurpose your best ideas
We all think that when we’ve written about a topic once, we can’t possibly cover it again. However, repurposing your most popular posts is vital to consistently sharing effective blog content. Why reinvent the wheel when you’ve done it perfectly before? If you have a particularly effective post, re-use a section of it as an Instagram caption, put it in your newsletter, discuss the topic on a podcast or in a Live social media broadcast, rework it from a different angle and post it in a few months time.
People worry that they will seem repetitive, but it’s important to remember that while you see everything you produce, no one else does. Your online audience is always changing, new people are joining all the time, and it’s likely that you’re existing audience doesn’t remember a post from two months ago because they’ve been reading so much else in between time. And even if someone does remember the first post, all you’re doing is creating a consistency of message, rather than being repetitive.
Finally, let’s take a little bit of time to look at how to make your content marketing work harder.
What is the number one reason content marketing doesn’t happen in your business? I’m willing to bet that it’s because ‘it’s time consuming’. But let’s think about other things that are time consuming in your business – making or sourcing your products, responding to emails, doing client work. Those things don’t get pushed down the to do list, so why is content creation not deemed as important as these things?
The reason that content creation gets neglected is because we don’t see how hard it can work for us; it can sometimes feel like you take 3 hours to style one picture that someone will spend 3 seconds looking at. When you make your content marketing work harder for you, it becomes easier to see the value, and justify the time you’re spending on it.
Because really, content is the thing that’s going to last the longest in your business – clients and products will come and go but once you’ve got content created it’s there forever. It’s yours, you own it, and you can use it in lots of different ways. Rather than thinking of content as a time consuming hassle that you put out into the world once and then archive, think of it as a member of staff. You’ve invested into it, but now you can put it to work in other areas of your business.
Email marketing
Content helps you with your email marketing in two ways. First of all, it gets you sign ups. Include a sign up box at the bottom of posts so that new visitors to the site have an action to immediately take. Look at what your most popular content has been and create an opt-in based on it to incentivise people to subscribe. This doesn’t have to be something brand new – tweak an existing blog post, put two together, focus in depth on one particular element.
Once you’re gaining new subscribers, you can use your existing content in your newsletters. Include links to popular posts, show a behind the scenes of your Instagram photo, or reproduce a recent blog post in a reduced form.
Social media
Most of us create specific content for social media, especially Instagram, but there can be lots of cross overs between your existing content and social content. Image-wise, you’ve probably noticed that I use all the same images across all channels: I don’t take different pictures for Instagram, blog posts, Pinterest etc, I use all the same ones, usually more than once.
The same is true for written content. Can you remember what caption you posted on Instagram on September 21st2019? If you can’t remember, then your audience certainly isn’t going to either. If a photo or a caption did particularly well the first time, replicate it. No one will notice and why continually try to re-invent the wheel?
We also often overlook our blog content when it comes to social media. Say you write a blog post with five great sections in it – well there’s five great Instagram captions or Facebook posts. Rework the points you make in a blog post to fit your other channels to get the most use out of it.
Outreach
Outreach includes guest posting, collaborating with other business owners and podcast appearances, and is a really impactful channel. The great thing about outreach is that it allows you to get in front of your target audience on a channel where they’re engaged, and that they trust. It allows you to piggyback on the reputation of that channel, whilst providing value to their audience.
Outreach is usually the thing that scares people the most, probably because it can make you feel very exposed – it’s safe and comfortable hanging out on your own channels, and heading over to someone else’s feels more risky. But your content marketing can help with this. When you’re pitching a guest post, use one that you’ve already written and know is popular. You can rework the content for the publication but still be confident that it will be well-received and valuable. Similarly with podcasts, talk about things you’ve talked about in your blog posts or captions before. You don’t need to come up with new concepts to talk about when the ones you already know are great. At the time of recording, Untamed has just been released and Glennon Doyle is promoting it online due to the coronavirus. In regular IGTV’s and podcast interviews, Glennon shares snippets from the book, slightly tweaked in response to questions. She’s not reinventing the wheel each time she appears somewhere but uses her existing stuff - which only serves to drive home the message.
So that’s my quick run through the basics simplifying your content strategies and planning and using effective content. In a couple of weeks I’m doing a whole episode on storytelling in our content as that’s a hugely important part of creating connecting content - so much so that I’m adding a whole section about it in my new update of Campfire. If you want to feel more like you know what you’re doing with your content, whatever type of content it is, Campfire is now available for pre-order at simpleandseason.com/campfire, and you’ll get full access to my fresh, fully updated lessons from June.