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I love getting to nerd out about content, so what could be better than getting to do it in front of a camera?! When Cheldin Barlatt Rumer invited me back on her internet show, This Is It TV, I was excited to have the chance to do a deeper dive into the world of content with her.
With a new year fast approaching, many people have such high hopes for how they'll be able to use content to grown their business in 2020, but few will actually execute on it. This is due to the fact that it requires too much time and energy to focus on content and marketing efforts when you are also building a service or product-based business. If you're ready to change the way you think about how to use content for your business in the new year, here are a few tips to get you started (or you can just watch the video above):
Audit Your Existing Content
If you already have been creating content for your business, take time at the beginning of the year to audit what you've already created. Take a look at what's working, and at what's not. Which pieces of content saw the most engagement? Which fell flat? Which pieces sent the most traffic to your site, but didn't convert?
Examine every piece of content you've created in the past and figure out how you can improve upon it. Reoptimize the posts you want to keep, and scrap the posts that are no longer serving your business. This process also may help you begin to see patterns emerge and can give you some new content ideas to pursue in the coming year.
Add Structure To Your Approach
If you don't already utilize lists, spreadsheets and apps to help you manage your workflow, you should start now. I happen to love using Google Docs. It makes it easy to stay organized and allows other potential team members to hop in without having to keep track of multiple versions of documents.
Use a spreadsheet to conduct the audit mentioned above. If you've been creating content without putting much thought into it, take some time to think about the categories of content everything you decide to keep would fall into, and stick to those categories when creating new content. It also helps to put together a proper Content Planning Calendar, which provides you with the entire year at a glance, and then allows you to fill in the blanks on a more micro-level each quarter.
Set Defined Goals
If you're created content simply because you think it's what you should be doing, you're not going to see the results you're hoping for. At the start of every year set defined goals that you want to work towards. For example, set a goal of driving more traffic to your website, or funneling more leads to your sales team. Once those goals have been identified, you can work backwards from there to create content that can help you achieve them.
And know that these goals are not set in stone. You can choose to re-examine them quarterly; depending on how your business is doing and how your content is performing, you can adjust those goals to better suit your current needs, or keep them in place if you seem to be gaining momentum. Many people think that a marketing strategy has to be set in stone, but in order to be the most effective, you have to be more fluid, allowing the data to let you to pivot when needed.
Put A Plan In Place
Consistency is one of the best things you can do when it comes to content, in both the frequency of publishing and the messaging. So putting a plan in place to ensure that you can keep a steady flow of on-brand content coming throughout the year (even when you get busy), can mean the difference between a campaign failure (crickets) and a success (more business). Once you have filled out your Content Planning Calendar, execute batches of content that you can schedule out for posting through a program like Hootsuite. Try to stay at least one month ahead of yourself, so that during your business's busiest times, you will have managed to still remain consistent with the content you're putting out.
And if you're struggling with moving forward because you feel overwhelmed or paralyzed by how much you have to do (or by how many great ideas you have), then create a Now/Later List. Place everything that will get you closer to the goals you set for your business in the "Now" section, and everything that you want to do but is not a priority for reaching those goals in the "Later" section. This way, you'll know how to prioritize all of your great ideas without sacrificing action.
Bring In Help
As with anything in life, knowing when you need to bring in help can mean the difference between sinking and swimming. If you simply do not have the bandwidth to tackle your content strategy this year, consider bringing in HYC to help. You will be amazed at how much lighter you'll feel once you've taken something challenging off your plate.