8 Content Creation Tips for a Consistent Content Strategy

Marketing Tips

Jan 24

I love creating content. You might not feel the same way now, but I promise it is possible to find joy in this process. And, while I genuinely love creating content, I do not want to spend all of my time and energy making it happen.

It's one of the reasons that I have focused on more evergreen strategies in my business, like relying on Google, Pinterest, YouTube videos, podcasting, and blogging, rather than focusing on social media. But no matter where you’re showing up, I want to share with you some of my top tips to streamline your content creation process.

On my YouTube channel, I shared ways to streamline your workflow process in this video. But, I want to take it a step further and share how to consistently create content, while not hating the entire process.

When it comes to consistent content creation, I’ve discovered that most people get hung up with the first step - What do I share?!

So, today we’re going to focus on this struggle and give you 8 ways to improve your process so that coming up with content ideas and creating your content becomes a breeze.

CONTENT CREATION TIP #1: KEEP RECORDS

As you begin to create your content, it's really important to keep clear records of the content you've already created. Inside of my ClickUp, we have an entire Content Database. This includes the title, release date, links, what’s promoted, etc… so I can easily locate past content.

If I ever want to revisit a piece of content, maybe repurpose it, or create a series, I have all of the information right there. This is incredibly helpful when you take an SEO approach to your content and will want to update keywords, and other factors to help with rank.

It’s also great if you want to reference an existing piece of content, and create internal links on your website (which Google loves)!

However, one of the things that's going to help you as you show up and consistently create content is to analyze the content you've already created because your audience will show you what they resonate with most.

On YouTube, we find that planning videos, content creation videos, and messaging videos do really well. So I know that every few weeks, I want to have a video that is in one of those categories. The only reason I know that is true is because we review our analytics every 30 days.

The same goes for social media. On Instagram, you can see what type of content has done really well with your audience. You could repurpose that content exactly as it is. Yes, I give you permission to post the exact same thing again on social media, because the reality is your audience is not going to remember that you already posted it. Or you can use that idea and you can create something new or refresh that content and post it again.

When you’re struggling to come up with content ideas, the answer might be right in front of you. Don’t stress yourself out by always worrying about creating something new, you can often repurpose your content/ reshare your content on a different medium, or with a different angle rather than creating something entirely new.

CONTENT CREATION TIP #2: ASK YOUR AUDIENCE

This is something that I think we often overlook. But if you have an audience, even if it is 10 people, you can ask them what type of content they would love for you to create.

They're already your warm audience. They're already there, creating engagement. They're already speaking with you, reading your blog, answering your emails, opening your emails, looking at your posts, and watching your videos. Why not ask them?

This is something that I do multiple times a year in my business. Every 90 days, we try to send out a market research survey to my audience. And in that survey, we ask very specific questions on the type of content that they would like to see from us at Brandmerry.

This post came from a market research survey. If you utilize your audience, people who have already expressed interest, you don't have to sit there and guess about what your audience would like. You can simply ask.

Whether it’s a simple Instagram story, you DM a few people, you ask in your email, or you have them fill out a complete survey, it doesn't matter.

The first people to help your content get seen will be your existing audience, so why not deliver what they are looking for, provide insane value, and build authority?

CONTENT CREATION TIP #3: ORGANIZE YOUR IDEAS

The third tip I have for you is a way to organize all of your amazing ideas. Okay. I don't know about you, but do you get ideas for what you can create with your content in the most crazy places? Whether you're on a plane or at the grocery store or your kid's soccer practice or doing dishes. You're not in a place where you necessarily are going to sit down and write down all of your ideas and completely map out, but you do need a place to jot down that idea that you have.

So I like to have an idea bank, and this idea bank is simply a note in my Google Drive because then I can access it from my phone, from my computer, no matter where I am in the world. And I can just jot down that idea. Then when I go to map out my content strategy for 90 days, something I talk about in this video right here, I can pull from my idea bank.

I am telling you, if you start implementing this practice, you are going to find how easy it is to come up with ideas. What I have always found is I will get these ideas in the moment when I'm feeling inspired. But then the second I sit down to write out my content plan, I'm like, "I can't think of anything."

But I have an idea bank, so I can just go look at that. And I allow that to get my juices rolling. So create some sort of idea bank, preferably digital, where you can jot down these ideas and circle back to when you're mapping out your content.

CONTENT CREATION TIP #4: CORE BRAND MESSAGES

Another tip I have for you is to create core messages or core offers for your brand. This is something that I teach in my membership Brandmerry Academy. They're called core brand messages, or CBMs.

I teach you how to create structured messaging for your brand as a whole.

What this does from a branding perspective is it gives you focus.

So whenever you're thinking of content ideas, you can look at your Core Brand Messages and say, "What does my audience need to know in order to take advantage of my offers? What are some obstacles that are standing in their way that are keeping them from taking advantage of this offer? What are some objections my audience might have regarding this offer?"

Then you can create various forms of content that are actually going to help you sell your offer.

Having these core brand messages, having these signature offers with these pillars, is a great way to streamline your content and make sure you never run out of ideas.

CONTENT CREATION TIP #5: STORYTELLING

One of the things that I talk about a lot at Brandmerry is the power of storytelling.

Not just your brand story, although very, very important, but also your ability to incorporate micro stories into your marketing, everyday things that are happening, things that you're seeing, things that are happening with your customers and your clients and really start to incorporate storytelling as just a natural form of marketing. It’s called Digital Storytelling, and it’s something I’ve been utilizing and teaching for years.

One of the strategies that I use when I am not feeling inspired is to think about my own story. I will just sit there and start to brainstorm things that have happened or things that I have heard or core pieces of my Brand/ Founder story, and I will use that to inspire my content.

This works incredibly well on social media and in email marketing because we know storytelling is such a powerful tool on those platforms.

If you’re not already incorporating storytelling into your marketing this can be a great way to start, and can help you come up with a long list of content ideas. Simply take an hour every 30 days to go into your content idea bank and write down a bunch of story ideas.

Storytelling allows the personal side of your business to come through, increases trust with your audience, and as I’ve already mentioned can take the headache out of coming up with content ideas.

These stories can be your own (the personal branding side), but you can also share stories about your clients and their results as well which just builds more authority with your audience.

The last three I have for you are really some time-saving strategies that I wanted to make sure that we touched on.

As I mentioned in the beginning, a big part of the stress that comes with content creation is just coming up with ideas. We've talked about a lot of those, but let's talk about some little strategies that you can implement to save you time overall.

CONTENT CREATION TIP #6: HAVE BRAINSTORMING SESSIONS

One of the things that I talked about in this video, is the power of sitting down for two to three hours every 90 days and mapping out your content for that particular quarter. We call it the 90-Day Content Plan and it’s the foundation of what I teach here.

This is your opportunity to sit down, look at your idea bank, look at some of the things your audience has been asking for, look at your keyword research using Google or a tool like Ubersuggest, and just sit down and write out all the different ideas that you have.

This strategy works incredibly well when paired with an SEO-centered marketing approach, which includes focusing on one core piece of content each week (specifically one on an SEO platform) and repurposing it. This means you only need to come up with 12 topics for the full 90 days. It’s all taught inside of the Content Planning Blueprint here.

Then you take that information and organize it in a spreadsheet or ClickUp, where you’ll choose the title, assign the keywords for your specific platform, and choose the date that you’re going to release it.

I find this simple brainstorming session saves me so much time in the long run, because I’m not wasting time each week trying to come up with a topic. If you struggle with inspiration, like the rest of us, this can be the difference between consistently sharing content and posting when you feel like it.

And, when you’re taking an SEO approach to your content strategy, you’ll also find the content you’re creating lasts a lot longer!

Learn more about the 90-Day Content Blueprint Here.

CONTENT CREATION TIP #7: SET A TIMER

Having a system or workflow for your content can save you a lot of time in your business, however when you’re just getting started it can still feel like content creation is taking a long time.

That's because you're building up that content creation muscle. It's going to take some time. But one of the things that I started doing in my second year of business is setting timers, and I would use these timers as motivation to see if I could create stuff in a specific chunk of time.

Rather than giving myself a whole day to create content, I'd say, "All right. I've got two hours to record as many videos as possible. My goal is four." Or I would say, "All right. I've got 45 minutes to write this blog post." And I would set a timer for 45 minutes.

Now, when I was first starting, I always went over, always, because I was still trying to refine my strategy. But, through the process, I was becoming a better content creator. I was getting better at talking on video. I was getting faster at writing blogs.

And, over time, I started meeting those mini-deadlines that I set for myself. And as a result, I was saving hours every single week.

So I highly suggest you play with it, set a time that feels a little challenging, and see how you do.

CONTENT CREATION TIP #8: STREAMLINE YOUR PROCESS

That leads me to my last tip. You're not going to master this out of the gate, but every single time you create content, I want to find ways that you can streamline your process.

So every time you do it, have an opportunity to analyze and say, "How did that feel? My blog took a really long time. Why do I think it took a long time? Is there anything that I can do to speed up this process? My graphics are taking forever. Maybe if I create templates, I'll save myself time in the long run."

Look at these little opportunities to analyze every week in your business, or maybe every 30 days, to find where you can streamline your process.

This is honestly a strategy that's just great for marketing and business in general, but using it with your content creation will save you time and it will save you energy. Having these clear systems is what's really going to support you to show up consistently for your audience.

Inside Content Planning Blueprint, I teach you my tried and true workflow and even include a ClickUp workflow for your business.

Even 8 years later, I’m still using my content workflow list to make sure I’m hitting all my marks.

CONCLUSION

I hope those tips got the juices flowing in your brain, and you are thinking about all the ways that you can gather ideas for your content creation and also save a little bit of time. As I said before, I have a lot of videos on this channel that can be incredibly helpful for you in your content creation journey.

You can also look for my videos on market research, planning out 90 days of content, as well as our content creation video on saving time with your existing workflow.

If you want more support with content creation and your overall content marketing process, then I encourage you to get the 90-Day Content Blueprint here.

Planning and creating your content doesn't have to be a constant struggle. There is a better way to research, plan, and create your content as an entrepreneur and it's all inside the Content Planning Blueprint!

The Content Planning Blueprint is perfect for online business owners who know the power of content creation but are tired of spending all of their time coming up with ideas, organizing their content, and wondering what will attract their dream clients.

P.S. In just a few hours, you'll have 90 days of content planned, a repeatable workflow to save you hours on creating and distributing your content every week, and content topics that will keep performing for your brand for years to come! Get your blueprint now >>