Content Creation Guide for Entrepreneurs
As an entrepreneur, you need to create content and that content needs to be pretty consistent, however, this is one of the biggest struggles for entrepreneurs and with good reason.
This guide was designed to give you everything you need to know about content creation as an entrepreneur.
Inside the guide you’ll find:
Why content creation is essential
3 myths busted about consistent content creation
4 steps to create consistent content
The #1 content mistake to avoid
7 tips to repurpose your weekly content
And how to create content for social media
Let's dive into why content creation is essential 👇
For over five years I’ve surveyed my audience and do you know what the number one struggle is?
Actually showing up.
Not just once.
Not twice.
But, consistently.
But, dang it’s hard.
The reality is creating content can actually be overwhelming. Most people go through the typical cycle of, “Oh, I've got a great idea! Wait! Is this actually valuable? How do I know if this is valuable? Maybe I should think of another topic!"
And even when we start to figure it out, we find ourselves repeating the cycle month after month.
This is why it’s important to pinpoint and correct why we’re not consistent in the first place, so let’s jumpe into 4 of the most common reasons you might be lacking consistency in your business.
1. LACK OF COMMITMENT TO YOUR BUSINESS
Ok, I’m bringing this up with so much grace and love because I want you to know that you’re not the only one who is sitting in this in-between, but we've talked about this lack of commitment a lot with time management conversations.
For example, I always say that one of the reasons time management is a big struggle, especially when growing your business, is because your business isn’t taking top priority in your schedule.
I know it can be easy to see entrepreneurs who are “making it” and think, “Wow, they're so lucky.” But the truth is that the people who have done this and are doing it successfully have done it with intention. This success didn’t happen by accident.
This intention comes from making a commitment and in this case a commitment to your business.
Have you made this commitment? Here are three questions to help you determine if you’re downplaying your business, even if subconsciously.
#2 A LACK OF SYSTEMS = A LACK OF CONSISTENCY
One of my favorite quotes from James Clear in his book Atomic Habits is, "You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems."
I love it so much we talked about it last week, but I truly don’t think there is a more important conversation to have in regards to consistency than your systems.
If you’re already pressed for time, and only have so many hours to come up with content, ideas, and so much time to write our content and then so much time to get it out there, we have to get our systems in place.
These systems in your business look like clear and defined workflows, thorough weekly checklists and frameworks for getting your content written and out for distribution.
One of my favorite parts of my business is taking one piece of content and repurposing the crap out of it, seriously I wrote an entire blog post on my process. The art of repurposing not only allows you to spend less time creating content but also allows you to create a weekly workflow that can be repeated week after week.
This repetition takes the guesswork out of marketing your business and gives you more time and energy on fine-tuning and improving your craft.
My weekly workflow looks like a single video turned into a blog post, 3-6 social media posts, an email and multiple pins for Pinterest. And every single week this workflow is repeated.
This type of system, and there are many to choose from, allow you to rinse and repeat, minimize the time and energy you’re spending and maximize output.
Inside The Consistency Guide, I share an 8-part framework for showing up more consistently in your business. One of these pieces is centered around your workflow. I walk you through my process of determining your core content and repurpose schedule, then you get a behind the scenes look into my business and my workflow so you can implement it in your business with ease.
Content might be Queen, but if your content isn't consistent it won't do you much good. The Consistency Guide teaches you how to release beliefs holding you back and put systems in place that allow you to succeed in business week after week after week.
#3 STOP TRYING TO BE ON ALL THE PLATFORMS
One of the most popular reasons for not showing up consistently in business is that you’re trying to be too much, create too much and show up too much!
“What?! Michelle you teach marketing and you’re telling me I’m doing too much?”
YES! As with all things we need to be strategic and I’d rather you show up fully on a few platforms then stretch yourself thin with mediocre content on a bunch.
The truth is when we start our businesses, and even in that first year, shoot, even in your fourth year, it can be really easy to look and see where everybody's showing up and think to yourself, “Well, I should be there too. I definitely need to be there. Um, I'm not on Pinterest, I need to be on Pinterest. I'm not on Instagram, I need to be on Instagram. I need to be doing a weekly live stream as Michelle does.” Sound familiar?
We feel we have to do #allthethings because we’re comparing our Chapter 1 to someone’s Chapter 10. Look, I was not doing all of this four years ago, I focused on the areas that felt most comfortable and where I could show up fully and then I continued to grow from there.
In my business, it looked like Facebook Groups and my Facebook Page first, then I added Instagram, then I got serious about Blogging and Pinterest, adding podcasting, weekly live streams, etc... came next.
No one is expecting you to do it ALL right from the start, that’s just crazy!
If you’re trying to do all of the things, all of the time, and find yourself consistent for a week, and then nothing on again for two weeks and then off again because you’re stretching yourself too thin, you’re not going to be able to give your full focus and energy to the areas you absolutely need to see growth, think high-value content.
I recommend two to three platforms most when you’re first starting out and when choosing these platforms you need to consider what is required from that platform.
For instance, if you don’t have a lot of time then you might not want to focus on Instagram or Facebook to grow your community which requires daily posting. Using your blog and Pinterest might be a better option for you and better use of your time in the beginning. Then as you understand and implement repurposing you can take that blog and expand it on social media.
So that's why it's really, really important to create a strategy that works for you. This is why I love authentic marketing and what it’s truly all about. It's about really looking at your life, your schedule, your audience, where you want to show up, how much time you have and create a workflow and a content creation plan to match that.
So much of this comes from your system and workflow. I’ve mastered this with my Repurposing Plan and I’m giving you my strategies to build your own system that you can rinse and repeat every week. Ready to grab it? Go to brandmerry.com/repurpose.
#4 YOUR PURPOSE ISN’T DEFINED
Now, I don't mean your life purpose, although that could easily fit into your business if you know that go for it, but if when you hear the word purpose and instantly start to feel overwhelmed it’s not necessary.
What, I want to encourage you to think about is the purpose behind your business and how it’s deeper than your why.
Let me explain. When I started my business I remember my first coach asked me my “why”. I listed out a ton of reasons like being home with my son, bringing my husband home from his job, traveling more, paying off debt, shopping at Whole Foods.
It felt great! But then business got tough and I found myself no longer motivated by these very surface-level reasons for running my business. So I took the time to think about the true purpose behind my business, my mission, which is so much more than me and even my family.
It can’t be because of money.
It can’t be because of fame.
You can achieve those things working a 9 to 5, it has to be bigger, it has to focus on impact.
There will be months when you don't make as much as the month before, and you might have social media posts that do really, really well and then social media posts that don't.
You might have launches that do really, really well and then have launches that don't.
And when you're focused on the money, or the fame, or the, you know, influence or publicity, or whatever you want to call it likes followers, then you're going to struggle because you're going to question if you should be doing this!
When you think about your audience and impact, the reason you’re showing up you’ll keep going, you’ll keep creating and you’ll continue to be consistent.
If you haven’t already ask yourself,
What is the mission behind our business?
What is the purpose of you showing up every single day, even when no one is there?
Having this information at your fingertips, being deeply rooted in your purpose, allows you to pull yourself back up. As an entrepreneur, no one is going to do that for you!
Inside The Consistency Guide, there is an entire section on defining your purpose. I ask the questions needed to determine your purpose and feel deeply rooted and connected to it.
I've used my Consistency Framework to create consistent high-performing content for four years.
This has included weekly emails, weekly blog posts, at least two videos a month (now it's weekly), multiple social media posts on both Facebook and Instagram and so much more.
I've generated half a million dollars in cash from showing up consistently in my business, delivering what my audience wants and sharing my expertise in a way that is authentic to me.
Let's talk about 3 content creation myths 👇
Consistency is one of my love languages and is one of the fundamentals of a successful business no matter how you create content or where you post that content when promoting your business.
And it’s not just about social media and promotion, but also consistency in your habits.
So let’s bust three myths around consistency to really give you the power back in planning out your day, in planning out your content and feeling good about how you're showing up and building your community.
Myth #1: Consistency is Posting Daily
Myth number one about consistency is that you have to post daily.
I had to start with this because I’ve got some beef with this topic. Consistently showing up online does not mean posting every single day.
I did this, we've all done this. Some of you are maybe posting twice a day. If that works for you, go for it. But if it’s a belief that you have, thinking it’s the standard and if you’re not posting daily you aren’t consistent, well that’s just not true.
We need to stop this one please because showing up and posting daily is just more emphasis on growing through social media, which is one of the things that I don't teach.
I teach other avenues like Pinterest, SEO, Google, the things that you guys have heard me talk about all year as a way to grow your community.
And using Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, even maybe Twitter, as ways to just continue to show up for the existing community.
Using these platforms allows you to step back from the hustle of posting daily.
So rather than looking at consistency as posting daily content, start to think about how many times you want to show up each week and honor that.
And I think this is where people get really hung up and where they struggle is, maybe it's really fun and exciting and you do it for two weeks. And you're like, “Yes, yes, yes.”
And then suddenly a week happens and you're like, “Oh my gosh, I can't post this week” or “I'm not feeling inspired.” And then you're like, “Aw, crap. My whole entire consistency plan is out the window.”
It doesn't have to be like that.
Start thinking about more sustainable consistency, not something that you just feel like, “Oh, I have to do this. I have to post every single day.”
That's one of the reasons that I encourage people to really look at platforms that expand their reach and that allow content to live longer, like blogging.
You don't need to blog every single day. You can blog once a week and optimize that blog. Same thing with Pinterest, where the content ultimately lives longer.
People ask me all the time, "Michelle, you're getting all this traffic from Pinterest." I'm getting anywhere between 13,000-20,000 views a month on my blog, about 90% are from Pinterest. People are like, "How many times a week do you blog?"
Once a week, but I'm consistent with my once a week - and that’s what consistency is really about.
Think about what works for you and what is sustainable, because I’m going to bet that posting daily is not sustainable for most of you.
Myth #2: Consistency is Hard or Difficult
The second myth is that consistency is hard or difficult to keep up with.
We shy away from this conversation around consistency because having to consistently create content every single day or weekly feels like it is overly complicated and hard to stay up to date with.
Sometimes they say that you don't plan because you're afraid to fail, right? Many people don’t shoot for consistency because we just don't think that it's attainable for us.
But I promise you that it is.
I promise when you have your systems in place, it 100% is possible for you.
I've worked with enough entrepreneurs, with enough personality types and different backgrounds to say that this method works, and really simplifies your marketing overall.
This method is the art of repurposing.
The idea is that you have a core piece of content and you're repurposing that content through additional means. We’ve already chatted about how awesome this is, so if you’re ready to create your repurposing workflow head here.
In the beginning, it might feel a little shaky.
It might feel a little like you're piecing it together; it always does. You're figuring out what works best for you, but I promise you, when you get into that rhythm, your entire mind will be blown and it just makes your life so much easier.
Myth #3: Consistency is Hard or Difficult
The third myth is that it has to be new content.
I think you can already pick up on what I'm putting down when it comes to repurposing and therefore you do not need to create new content every single day in your business.
I mean how exhausting.
But, when you’re only focused on building your community with Facebook or Instagram, it can feel like you need to create new stuff all the time and that’s because content on those platforms doesn’t live as long as these evergreen options.
I'm sorry, but if I'm taking all this time and energy to create this video and then it’s gone in 24 hours. No thank you!
It’s one of the reasons I created Brandmerry Academy, because I see too many entrepreneurs struggling to build their audience without spending all their time on social media.
This is why people have trouble with consistency.
This is why people have trouble with content creation because they're like, “Well, shoot, I got to create something new tomorrow because that one's all gone.”
But if you really change your thinking from new content daily to extending the life of your content, you're reusing the same thing over and over again.
And I promise you, your audience does not get tired of it.
Your audience will thank you for posting it again because they probably missed it.
So when you're thinking of creating your content calendar for the year, even just for the month, I want you to break it down to one core topic every week.
What would your life be like if you had one weekly piece of content that you then pushed out and repurposed and manipulated in different ways, and shifted the messaging so that it actually lasted longer?
What would happen?
Would that completely change your life? Because it did mine.
I stopped focusing on creating new stuff every single day for Instagram and really went to this repurposing web. It’s one of the things I teach inside of both The Consistency Guide and Brandmerry Academy.
So it's less about creating a quantity of content and more about the quality of content.
Now that doesn't mean that you post one thing and you're like, fingers crossed, hope it works.
It's about then having these repurposing strategies in place so then you can make sure your content is being seen by your ideal customer.
Remember, people like to consume content in different ways.
They want to be able to read something, watch something, listen to something, consume it very quickly. And the more that we can really show up on multiple platforms and think about ways that you can show up for your audience and be there for them and they can consume your content in the way that's best for them. Again, building trust.
4 steps to creating consistent content 👇
1. STAY INSPIRED TO CREATE CONTENT
You have to stay inspired and motivated. The key to being excited about creating content is to always look for ways to be inspired.
Let me give you an example.
I know that if I need to create content, my butt goes outside.
If I know that I need to create content, let’s say I want to brainstorm and map out 90 days of topics I head to Starbucks.
I know the type of environments and resources that get me inspired and motivated. What are yours?
We have to put ourselves in places that inspire us if we ever hope to be inspired.
If you're sitting In bed, on your laptop, you're probably not feeling very inspired.
So not only do we need to put ourselves in situations where we're feeling inspired, but we also have to get excited about what it is we are doing.
So much of getting excited ties back to the purpose of your business.
Why are you doing this?
Why should you show up and create content?
Who is it for?
If you haven't figured out the real purpose and mission behind your business, today would be a great day to write that down.
When I tap into my purpose of empowering women to own their story and show up and share that with the world through their brand that keeps me motivated. So, even if I am tired or don’t feel 100% in it, I root myself in my purpose and excitement hits.
The core part of consistently thinking of content topics, consistently showing up and delivering that content and consistently engaging comes from being inspired and being motivated.
2. LOOK AROUND FOR CONTENT IDEAS
When we start thinking about creating content we sit down with a notepad, in a quiet room and write our ideas.
I'm telling you, I've had the best content ideas in the shower, or walking through the grocery store, listening to podcasts, or scrolling on Instagram, which is not in a dark room with a notepad.
I’m using the everyday moments around me to think of ideas. For instance, when I hop on Instagram I won’t just do it to waste some time, but I’ll set the intention to see if anything inspires me outside of my industry.
Then I use that inspiration to create a piece of content.
This is why I’m a big fan of using Trello or Google Docs as a way to organize a content idea bank because as I’m going about my day, with the intention to look for ideas, I can pause and add my idea to my Trello board and then go back about my day.
What I’m doing is I’m creating a resource of content ideas every single day, rather than sitting down to “try and write” and feeling incredibly lost and stuck.
The biggest mistake I see entrepreneurs make is feeling like it's 100% up to them to come up with topics for their content.
Look around you.
Get inspired.
Don’t be afraid to Google topics and see what comes up.
Search on Pinterest for a topic and see what comes to your mind.
Look in a Facebook Group and search for topics to see what people ask.
Shift the way you go about getting ideas away from sitting down and brainstorming, to setting the intention to always look for ideas.
3. MAKE CONTENT CREATION A PRIORITY
Your content creation and your business in general, shouldn't just fit in where it fits in your schedule. Make it a priority and move the other things to fit around it.
You will get results if you’re carving out a dedicated chunk of time at least once a week to create your content if you’re not then you're doing yourself a disservice.
You don’t need to create every single day, many of my clients have one designated content creation/ writing day a week. And if you do it, for let’s say two weeks, and still don’t find you’re able to create the amount of content you want in that time frame then cut back on the content or master your repurposing workflow.
Do what you can in that time frame and then as your business grows, as you hire more team members, as you get faster and faster writing content and blog posts, then you can start to create more and show up on more platforms.
So many people fall off because they're trying to do way too much when it comes to content creation, they can't keep up with it.
I am a big fan of bulk scheduling. I bulk create and write my content on Mondays.
I don't do calls on Mondays and pretty much my entire day is carved out to create my content.
I use this time to write my notes for my weekly live stream, Mondays With Michelle, schedule my social media posts and choose the graphics.
4. CHOOSE YOUR CONTENT PLATFORMS WISELY
When you’re starting your online business you’re thinking, “Ok, I’m going to create a website and hope someone comes to it and then I’ll show up on social media. I’ll create a Facebook group or I'll join some Facebook groups, and I'll show up on Instagram.”
Sound familiar? I know it was exactly what I did in the beginning.
This is why so many entrepreneurs get overwhelmed because in order for your stuff to really get seen on those platforms you need to consistently post, which means daily on Facebook and Instagram.
I used to do this and found myself overwhelmed with the amount of content I needed to create, so I don’t do it anymore and that's because social media is no longer my top-tier platform.
Remember back to the beginning where we talked about Awareness, Attraction and Connection? Another way to look at this is through Cold, Warm and Hot Leads.
The majority of people in the Awareness phase are a cold lead, so you’re creating content that pulls them into your brand, if this is social media you’re going to feel like you’re constantly climbing a steep hill.
In my business, I pull in cold leads through my blog, which I optimize for Google and share on Pinterest. Another alternative is Youtube and podcasting. The reason these platforms work so well is that they are Search Engines; your audience is going to them with specific questions and looking for answers, this is not the same for social media.
In addition, your content lives longer on these platforms than say a post on social media, which might last 24 hours if you’re lucky.
If you're not already considering things like optimizing your website for SEO, and you aren't blogging, and you are not using Pinterest or you’re not using YouTube (if you like videos), really consider switching up where you are showing up, it will make a huge difference and will allow you to consistently show up with less content.
Don't make these content creation mistakes 👇
New and seasoned entrepreneurs often come to me after starting their business and showing up on social media. They start creating content out of the gate and find themselves feeling overwhelmed, like their message is all over the place, struggling to come up with content ideas or not getting enough engagement.
The truth is there is a misconception around when we should be creating content and what we need to have in place in order to be doing it in a way that brings in the right people and leads to a revenue-generating business.
The truth is so many entrepreneurs are skipping the branding process which is why content works or why it doesn’t work. It’s really not about using cool tricks and trying to beat the algorithm.
It’s not about a specific number of characters or writing your title in a certain way.
It’s about understanding the fundamentals of your brand and building a strong foundation in which every piece of content is created.
what are the CONTENT CREATION MISTAKES AND why do they happen
Unfortunately so many educators, coaches and consultants are telling people that they’ll figure it out if they keep posting content.
Okay, there's some truth to this in that you find your voice along the way, you start to see what people resonate with and don't resonate with and that tells you what you want to expand on.
But if you think that just posting random content with no clear plan is going to help you decide the pillars of your brand and business, that's backward.
We need to figure out the foundational pieces first so the content that we create, mimics that and is in alignment with that and again, draws in the right people.
Too many entrepreneurs are putting content out there, without a clear brand strategy in place and finding themselves building a community that they hope to sell to. Then when they finally sell...nobody buys.
The reason is you’re attracting people who aren’t in alignment with what you’re ultimately selling.
create your brand first, then create your content
Branding at its core is what gives us the foundation so we don't ping pong all over so that we don’t struggle to come up with ideas and so we don’t struggle to connect our community to our offer.
If you’re experiencing these pieces, let me tell you it’s a branding problem.
SO WHAT IS BRANDING?
To fix it we need to first talk about what branding is. There’s this lie that’s been floating around the internet for too long that your brand is your visual representation, i.e. your logo, fonts and colors.
While the visuals play a role they are only part of the finished product. They are the result of deciding on the experience you want to create.
Branding is an experience we’re creating for our target audience and what they’re taking away from the experience we’re creating.
So branding is so much more than just the color you use in a photo, and finalizing the true brand, the experience will help you decide on those visual components much faster.
It’s something that can’t wait or be done later. All of the pieces you want to create now, your website, content, free offers, promotions, etc...rely heavily on finalizing the core pillars of a brand.
The belief that branding can wait is very harmful to online entrepreneurs.
SO HOW DO WE FIX IT?
Lucky for you, I’m a Personal Branding Consultant and Marketing Strategist so you’re in good hands.
Depending on where you’re at in your business you need to:
Build your brand from the ground up (New and aspiring entrepreneurs)
Find the holes in your branding process and fill them (Seasoned entrepreneurs)
Before I share the 4 steps needed to have a solid brand, you must understand I’m not suggesting you go into hiding for 6 months, figure this out and then start again...NO!
Please don’t do that. So many of my clients do this in as little as a week, with some guidance.
If you’re wanting to fast-track that then sign up for my free on-demand class on The Build a Better Brand Method here.
The key is to put in the work, yes, sometimes extra, on the backend, so you can start creating better content, growing your community with targeted leads, experiencing more engagement and ultimately making more sales.
As you do the work, you’ll notice a shift in your content creation strategy and results.
4 STEPS TO BETTER CONTENT and A BETTER BRAND
These four steps are 4 of the 6 steps in my Build a Better Brand Method. You can learn more about each detail and get the full picture of the branding process and how it plays a role in not only content creation but also increased revenue in my free class.
Watch The Build a Better Brand Masterclass here >>
1. NICHE
FIGURE OUT WHERE YOU FIT IN THIS ENTREPRENEUR SPACE
I don't care what you sell, you have to figure out your specific market. Niching down is one of the best things that you will do for your brand, for your business and as we're talking about for your content.
You need to understand what specific niche you provide your audience.
For instance, if you’re in skincare you won’t grow your business if you offer every skincare product under the sun, but you could focus on skincare for adult acne.
I’m a Branding coach, but I focus on personal branding with an emphasis on storytelling. So I'm not for the woman who isn't ready to be the face of her brand who isn't ready to share stories. That's what I'm about and I've carved out a very specific niche that addresses that issue.
This clarity is going to help you to understand how you're going to show up and communicate with your ideal audience. It's also going to help you get discovered online because people are searching for very specific things.
If you find that your market is full (aka saturated) you’re not alone. And while so many people think this is a bad thing it’s actually working in your favor. If someone is successfully doing it, then there is a need and demand.
Not one person can serve everyone! Find the gap, what they’re not doing, that you can bring to the table. This is your specific niche.
This knowledge around your niche is going to influence how you show up, create content and communicate with the world.
2. IDEAL CUSTOMER OR CLIENT
YES, YOU NEED TO KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE
If you're just starting out, your fear of focusing on one core person is hurting you. Because when you're not clear on specifically who you want to attract, you're creating messaging, content, offers that are trying to attract a bunch of different people and then guess what happens? You're so confusing to your ideal client, that they back out and can’t handle it.
Confusing your audience will result in lost sales.
Please do yourself a favor and take some time, if you haven't already, to do ideal client research. And if you have done it in the past, but it's been a while then give yourself a refresher.
There is so much to the ideal client research, but the top three points to identify are:
What specific person do you want to attract, sell to and work with?
What do they need help with? This is what you want to begin to create content around.
What do they ultimately want or desire? This will help you guide them through the process and help you identify obstacles standing in their way, which can also be addressed in your content.
If you can speak to the pain points of your ideal customer, you can give them solutions, and also speak to their obstacles; I am telling you, you will be the person that they hire.
Another perk of the ideal customer work (hey, that rhymed) is understanding who they are at a core human level. YOU NEED TO KNOW THIS!
Your audience is human and the more that you can understand this and speak to their everyday struggles and desires, not just how they pertain to your product or service, the deeper the connection.
For instance, my audience also loves to hear about time management, productivity, mindset, being a mom and running a business, so I get to create content that fits in all of those pieces and keeps my audience entertained and engaged.
3. MESSAGING AND BRANDING CONSISTENCY
REMEMBER, IF YOU CONFUSE YOUR AUDIENCE THEY WILL MOVE ON.
Having a messaging structure in place will help you to avoid posting one thing on a Monday, something different on Tuesday and completely left field on a Thursday. We want to avoid this off-the-wall approach (think spaghetti at a wall) and focus on having a clear structure in place.
One of the ways to combat this is with brand containers.
BRAND CONTAINERS
Brand containers piggyback off of the idea that your audience is freaking human. They want to see and hear about more than just your one offer, your products or your photographs, they want to build a know, like and trust factor with your brand overall.
This is why we want to identify the different ways we can support our ideal customer through our content. Like I mentioned above, I might do this with time management, productivity, mindset, being a mom and running a business.
Consistently creating content in these buckets builds you up as a credible resource for your audience, makes a more personal connection and also doesn't overwhelm your audience with sell after sell after sell.
These brand containers are life savers when it comes to creating content.
4. YOUR OFFER
WHERE ARE YOU LEADING YOUR ONLINE COMMUNITY?
This is a really important question that not enough people are asking. It’s one of the reasons I consider your offer or framework one of the foundations of branding.
Again, let’s imagine you’re showing up online. You’re spending time creating content and consistently post. Then after months you decide I’m going to make an offer, but that offer doesn’t connect to the community you’ve built online...your sales won’t be great!
When we have our offer or framework in mind from the start, we can reverse engineer our content to bring in the right people and lead them to the sale in an authentic and genuine way.
Building a targeted community requires building a strong brand.
If you know exactly what you want to teach or sell, amazing! This is where you would start getting clear on what that looks like and how it supports your ideal customer.
But, let’s say you’re not 100% sure yet, that’s ok too. You can build out your framework and then use that to influence your content and eventually your offer.
Ask yourself…
“If I were to create something, what would it look like?”
“How would I want to support my idea client on their journey?”
Just having that awareness in your head will allow you to create content and build a community that will then effortlessly lead to your product.
How to harness the power of evergreen content 👇
I don't believe in just creating content to create content.
I want to have workflows and systems that allow me to show up for you, to get in front of new ideal customers, to show up and nurture and build relationships with my existing audience, to ultimately lead members to a sale because at the end of the day I’m running a business and that last piece is kind of important.
And, after 5 years I know content creation allows me to do all of that.
Yet here’s the kicker - I want to make sure you know how to create content that doesn't involve you sitting behind a computer for hours and hours and hours every single day, trying to write up posts knowing that those posts are probably going to disappear.
Honestly, one of the most fun things that I get to do is create new content, and these 4 hacks that I've implemented have made all the difference not just in how I'm creating the content, but more specifically how long it's taking me to create it and how long the content lasts (it’s evergreen baby, more on that later).
Let’s get into the 4 tips.
CONTENT CREATION TIP #1: CONTENT RESEARCH
Let's dive into the first thing that I have for you on content creation hacks of 2021. This one is key. So I'm going to spend a little bit more time on this one than I will the others, so let’s buckle up!
This first step is all about your research.
Now I don't know about you, but when I first started my business 5 years ago, people weren't really talking about how important it was to do research when creating content.
We were talking about ideal customer research as it applies to your branding and that is a crucial step. It was all about having conversations with people to find out how to ultimately message to them in your business. And this was great, it helps you get a solid start, but then what do you do?
No one was talking about the research that actually goes into creating content. This resulted in business owners posting things with the foundation of, “Oh, I think my audience might like this. This might work.”
I fell into that trap for a really long time, until I started looking outside of my niche at what was really working for marketing as a whole.
It always came back down to this idea that the data is always there. The information you need on what people are searching for is already there, you just have to take the time to do the research and look for it.
This simple strategy opens up an entire method for creating content that is based on search engine results not just “oh, that might be nice!”
Why, is it important to think of things that people are searching for? Well, because they are searching for it! This means that you’re getting in front of cold leads (people who aren’t familiar with your brand and services every single day). This is key when you want to consistently scale your business, especially organically.
When you're thinking about creating content, remember, we're not just creating content that is meant to serve people that already know our brand, we have to have consistent people coming in that funnel, finding you online, discovering you, getting to know you. That has to be a consistent stream in order for them to then binge read all your posts on Instagram or go binge-watch all your videos on YouTube.
This research phase requires you to do SEO or search engine optimized research.
What are people searching for as it relates to your niche on Google?
What about Pinterest?
And what about Youtube?
These are all search engine platforms, meaning someone is going there, typing in a question or topic and finding results, and these platforms can give you a freaking gold mine when it comes to finding topics for your content.
CONTENT TIP #2: DESIGN YOUR WORKFLOW
You should not be recreating the wheel every single week in your business. One of the areas that I have found that people struggle with when it comes to creating consistent content is that they don't have a workflow in place.
So, while number one takes the mystery out of, “What do I talk about?”
This step takes the mystery out of, “How do I do it efficiently?”
You can have the best content ideas, but if you don't have systems and workflows in place, you're going to struggle with consistency showing up.
Here are some things to consider when thinking about your workflow:
How many blog posts are you going to publish a week?
How many videos are you going to release weekly, bi-weekly, monthly?
Are you going to have a podcast?
What channels are you showing up on social media?
Are you going to be on Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest?
The goal here is to determine where you’ll be showing up and how often. Now, you don’t need to be everywhere, we just don’t believe in that strategy here at Brandmerry, but you do need a clear idea of where you’ll be sharing your content.
My suggestion and something I teach inside of Brandmerry Academy is to choose one search engine optimized platform (Blogging/ Google, Pinterest or Youtube) and one social media channel to start.
Once you have that data you want to pull that into a workflow that might look something like this.
Step One: Create a blog post
Step Two: Turn that one blog post into 12 posts on Twitter for the week
Step Three: Then use that blog post to create two posts for Instagram.
Step Four: Record that blog post as a podcast episode.
You could do this a ton of different ways, figure out the way that works best for you.
Some of my clients love blogging and writing, so that becomes their core content.
Some of my clients love video, like myself, and that becomes their core content.
Some love recording audio, podcasting and that becomes their core content.
Whatever core content you want, you can then push it out and repurpose it on multiple platforms.
I’m going to do a video and blog in a few weeks on repurposing, but remember this step is all about the workflow. What needs to happen and when. If you want to grab a little cheat that I've put together for you, you can go to brandmerry.com/repurpose, and get your hands on more details regarding that.
It’s these systems that allow us to build sustainable businesses.
CONTENT TIP #3: KNOW YOUR NUMBERS
Number three is a piggyback off of number one with the data, but this hack is all about knowing your numbers.
Seriously, please look at your analytics. They will tell you so much about what you want to scale in your business and can give you insight into the type of content that drives the most traffic, gets the most engagement and more.
While tip one might have focused a bit more on bringing your new audience in, this step can tell you a lot about your existing warm audience.
What types of videos do well?
What types of podcast titles and episodes have a higher listener rate?
What kind of blog posts are getting more rank on Google, are getting more traffic from Pinterest?
Which of your social media posts get more saves and shares and engagement?
Do people prefer certain topics or imagery on your social media?
You have to make it a habit to look at your numbers.
I suggest looking at your numbers every 30 days and making small adjustments and every 90 days planning your bigger moves for the next quarter of content.
For instance, I did a podcast episode about morning routines, which was one of the hardest things for me to do because I have a very different take on morning routines. You can listen to that podcast episode over on the Beautiful Climb Podcast, but this was the topic that we knew my audience cared about and would do well.
We had seen it through Instagram posts and through past Pinterest traffic. All kinds of data was saying, “Do this dang podcast episode, Michelle.”
So I did it and it was our highest listenership because we knew that it was going to be.
It was one of our most viewed reels that I created on Instagram.
We then took that content and turned it into a blog post and that blog post is doing amazing on Pinterest.
So the data is there and once you have this consistent rhythm and that workflow in place, you can start to take the guesswork out of creating content.
Look at your analytics, know your numbers, create more of what is working.
Now you can absolutely experiment and play around with things and you should, but always remember to come back to your numbers and allow that to fuel those decisions.
One of the areas that perform well in my business is video. As we ended 2020 we had a lot of data on what worked best and how we could make some modifications heading into 2021.
Here’s an example of how the data then fueled a change in my marketing.
While we knew video did really well in my business we were seeing that live video wasn’t necessarily working better than prerecorded.
At this point, I was going live every Monday at the same time to deliver branding and marketing tips as part of my show Mondays With Michelle.
Live video takes more time and energy on my part, so rather than not creating videos, we realized that we could pre-record bulk video content.
So four to five videos, depending on how many weeks are in a month to be released every single Monday on Facebook as a premiere, and on IGTV, and then repackaged to release on YouTube later on.
So by looking at the data, we realized that we could make this adjustment. I could have more time in my schedule to take on more clients, which resulted in more money and it all came from looking at the data.
CONTENT TIP #4: OUTSOURCING
The last tip I want to share with you is centered around freeing up more of your time by outsourcing. Now before you're like "Michelle, I don't have the money to invest in a team," I totally understand and that’s not necessarily what I’m implying so keep reading!
When I say outsourcing, I mean tech or team. So if you have the means to hire a virtual assistant or somebody to manage your workflow in ClickUp or wherever you're setting it up, to publish your videos, to edit your videos, then absolutely do that.
Start to outsource those content creation pieces very early on if you have the means to invest in that.
If you don't have the money or means to do that just yet, there are tech options available that are going to yes, be an investment, but a small amount compared to how much time you're spending.
For example, you can use a tool called Veed.io, which I talked about in my recent blog on my favorite Marketing Tools here, to resize your videos for different platforms, add transcripts and even edit the title and captions.
You can use a transcript service like Rev.com to upload your video or podcast and have a full transcript that you can then turn into your blog.
There are a lot of tech options out there that will help you streamline this entire content creation process. And again, as you begin to build your revenue, you can then build your team, which is going to make your life so much easier!
Content creation is the heart of your business. Without strong content, you can't attract your ideal customer, you're not nurturing your existing audience, you're not showing up for them and you’ll have a hard time selling.
Let's not forget social media 👇
1. It's Really About Quality vs. Quantity
Just like me, I bet you started your business and just focused on quantity. You researched how many times a day or week you should post in order to increase engagement, but turns out this isn’t really the answer. You can post 5 times a day, but if your content isn’t of high-value then it’s not going to matter.
The other reality is that it takes less time, overall, to create quality pieces of content. If you take time to produce quality content, you’ll get more engagement and therefore you’ll create a core piece that can be reused over and over again.
In order to create better quality content, it’s important to have a plan. When you give yourself time to map out your content you’ll be more likely to actually create a high-quality piece over just “posting to post”.
2. Content Creation Comes From Knowing Your Audience
If you’re struggling to come up with content it’s most likely because you don’t know who you are speaking to. Trust me, I’ve tested it, if you know WHO you’re talking to then you’ll always know what needs to be said. Truly understanding your audience and where they are needing support on their journey is crucial.
This is why I dedicate a big chunk of energy to teaching my clients to truly identify their ideal client and all the nitty gritty details that will support them in creating content that their audience finds engaging.
One of my top tips is to ask yourself, “What does my audience need in this moment?” and then allow yourself to brainstorm ideas based on what you’re seeing online, what your audience is asking and simple Google search.
3. Identify Your Brand Containers
One of my favorite tools when it comes to content creation and making sure I’m keeping my audience engaged is the use of Brand Containers. Brand Containers are essentially 5-7 themes for your brand that all your content can live under. This allows you to better organize your content, as well as recycle the types of content you are creating. This is a key in keeping your audience engaged.
If you want to learn more about my Brand Containers strategy and receive my content planner, be sure to grab yours here.
4. Using Core Brand Messages to Create Consistent Content
One of my favorite strategies I teach my clients is called Core Brand Messages. The Core Brand Messages framework allows you to create messages for your brand as a whole (streamlined messaging), share your expertise and position the benefit more clearly to your audience.
In addition, by having these unified messages you can consistently come up with content ideas (social media posts) that position you as the expert.
Let’s say one of my Core Brand Messages is, “I support women in uncovering their story to create an authentic brand that allows them to stand out online.”
I could then list out 20-30 topics under this general message. This allows me to create branded content in my zone of genius, plus showcase my expertise and how I support my clients.
80% of consumers say “authenticity of content” is the most influential factor in becoming a follower of a brand. If I’ve learned anything from creating content online it’s that authenticity is key. You not only want to create content that gets in engagement, but is authentic to you and your brand message.
Core Brand Messages are one of the methods I teach inside my Build a Better Brand Method. Watch the free masterclass to learn the step by step of building a better brand that stands out on social media, how to create quality content for your audience and build a thriving community. Sign up at brandmerry.com/brandmasterclass.
Please share your biggest takeaways from this blog post and how you’re going to implement this information in your own business!
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MEET MICHELLE
Hey there, I'm Michelle Knight and I an online branding and marketing consultant for female entrepreneurs.
I believe in the power of storytelling and using that superpower to brand and market yourself online...oh and to set yourself free.
I'm obsessed with living a life of freedom, so much so, that my family and I now travel full-time while running my business from the road.
This blog serves as a home base for all things branding, marketing, content creation and more.
