Keeping a consistent flow of fresh content for your business can feel like a massive challenge, but with a bit of creativity and planning, you can avoid running out of content ideas. Here’s a roadmap to ensure you always have engaging content to share:
Understand Your Audience:
Know your target audience inside out. What are their interests, pain points, and preferences? Understanding them will help you tailor content that resonates and keeps them engaged.
Start by making a note of all your customer’s pain points. Why do they need a service like yours? What are the problems they’re currently facing that would lead them to hiring you? Make a list of all of them and begin to create content around these.
It’s so important to make sure your content is created with your ideal customers in mind as with everything else in your business, but by addressing their pain points you’ll ensure you’re speaking directly to them.
Set Clear Goals:
Define your content marketing goals. Are you aiming to educate, entertain, inspire, or convert? Having clear objectives will guide your content creation efforts. By breaking down your content into clear pillars of your objectives, this will help you organize your content and keep consistent.
Create a Content Calendar:
Plan ahead! Develop a content calendar that outlines topics, formats, and publishing dates. This will help you stay organized and avoid last-minute content creation stress. By the way, this absolutely doesn’t have to be anything fancy or paid for? I use an excel spreadsheet and Facebook Creator Suite to plan all my content and it’s simple and completely free.
Start with a long form content type:
What I mean by a long form content type is some form of longer content like a blog post, article, podcast episode, you tube video or a live on Facebook or instagram.
By firstly creating long form content, you can then break this down into social media posts. It’s far easier coming up with one topic to discuss in long form content, than lots of smaller bits of content, so get creating long form on a weekly basis.
For example, I write a blog post every week which I then talk about across my social platforms. I create stories that have links directly to the post which also drives traffic to my website and I break the blog post down to make my posts and captions for the week.
Address FAQs:
Frequently Asked Questions are a goldmine for content. Grab a bit of paper and a pen (and a drink if you fancy) and write down all the questions your clients have ever asked you, all the questions you think future clients could possibly ask you and all the questions you would ask if you were buying your product or service.
You can then go on to create detailed explanations, how-to guides, or video tutorials based on these queries. The possibilities here are literally endless!
Document what you do:
Write down all the things you do in your business day to day. These might seem super mundane to you, but will be interesting to your followers. This will also peel back the curtain on the behind the scenes of your business, but also let your potential clients know that you’re a professional. It will also let them know how much value they’re getting from you or the hours it takes to create or deliver what you do.
I do this by reminding my audience that I’m not just a designer. I also manage all my projects, I’m a strategist and I’m a marketer.
Share Your Expertise:
You’re the expert in your field and want to be known as the go-to person to trust. Share insights, tips, and advice that your audience can benefit from. Position yourself as a knowledgeable resource. You can do this in any format from videos, blog posts, polls, tutorials and Q&A sessions.
News and Trends:
Stay updated on industry news and trends. Create content discussing the latest developments and how they impact your audience. Don’t just share these, but ask for your audience’s opinions on them too, making sure to engage with them.
Customer Stories and Transformations:
Share success stories or case studies of how your products or services have made a positive impact on your customers. Authentic testimonials can be powerful content, but remember the most powerful testimonials are those that show how you transformed a situation for your client. If you can get video testimonials that’s an even bigger bonas too!
Behind-the-Scenes:
Give your audience a peek behind the curtain. Show them your workspace, introduce your team, and share your company culture. People just absolutely love seeing what really goes on behind the scenes of your business and I know on my socials, these are the posts that seem to perform highest. Remember to be authentic here. The polished look won’t cut it here. Be real and honest about what your #bts is.
Curate Content:
Don’t be afraid to curate content from reputable sources. Share interesting articles, videos, or infographics that align with your brand and add your unique perspective. Avoid just sharing any old anything that doesn’t necessarily fit with your values or messaging. Remember everything you share online becomes part of the brand you are portraying.
Seasonal and Holiday Themes:
Tap into the spirit of the season or holidays. Create content that’s relevant to the time of year, whether it’s New Year’s resolutions or summer holiday tips. This might fit with some businesses more than others, but if there is something within your brand values that will also work when shared with your audience, get it out there. Mine are always things like World Gin Day and things about dogs!
Polls and Surveys:
Engage your audience by asking their opinions through polls and surveys. Use the insights to create content that directly addresses their preferences. This can be super valuable for your ongoing marketing efforts too. Sometimes guessing what your audience wants isn’t enough and it’s important to ask them.
Even better than this, ask some of your audience to be part of a focus group and ask them questions about what you offer with your products or services. I recently did a website focus group on zoom and recorded the call. I now have a ton of words transcribed that I can literally cut up and make into online content for months to come.
Collaborations and Guest Posts:
Collaborate with other businesses in your industry. Guest posts or joint webinars or lives can bring fresh perspectives and a new audience to your content. Your business will be shared with your collaborators audience and they’ll be shared with yours. It’s win, win for both parties!
Revisit Old Content:
Update and repurpose old content. Trends and information change, and you can give a fresh spin to existing pieces. You don’t have to continue reinventing the wheel and some of the things you created last year will be just as relevant to your business and your ideal clients today.
Personal Stories:
It might fill some with fear but sharing personal anecdotes or stories related to your business journey adds a human touch and helps build connections with your audience. Of course, it’s important to share what you feel comfortable with here, but at the same time, it might be necessary to step out of your comfort zone too.
Personal connection is the one thing that can make all the difference when promoting your business. Remember that humans buy from humans and we want to build connections. Just be yourself here and you can’t go far wrong.
Book or Product Reviews:
Review books, tools, software, or products that are relevant to your industry. Your audience will appreciate your insights. I’ve done posts on the tools I use to help me in my business like Asana and Dubsado.
Remember, inspiration can strike from unexpected places too! Keep a notepad or a digital document handy to jot down content ideas whenever they come to mind. I keep an idea dump note on my phone at all times as well as one in my content planning excel spreadsheet. By staying curious, listening to your audience, and adapting your content strategy, you’ll ensure you never run out of engaging content for your business.
And if, after all this you really have run out of ideas, get in touch and I’ll give you some help with coming up with a strategy to make sure you don’t!
