The #1 Content Creation Mistake to Avoid

Business Tips and ToolsVisibilityBranding

Mar 12

Content creation is so important as an entrepreneur because it is basically how you get your voice and message out into the world.So I'm sharing the #1 obstacle that's causing entrepreneurs to prematurely create their content. Read more here: Click …

If you’d like to watch the full video, you can do that here.

Content creation is so important as an entrepreneur because it is basically how you get your voice and message out into the world.

So today, I want to address the obstacle that I see coming up for entrepreneurs, especially new entrepreneurs, in prematurely creating their content.

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.

CONTENT CREATION MISTAKES AND WHY THEY ARE HAPPENING

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 too. 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.

BRANDING FIRST THEN CONTENT CREATION

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 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 WRITE BETTER CONTENT + BUILD 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.

CONCLUSION

It’s important to remember that this process is part of branding and is necessary when building your business. I often say the brand is the beating heart of your business, without it, you’ve got nothing.

So by clarifying your niche, it will allow you to stand out when other people are talking about the same freakin’ thing.

Knowing your ideal client will not only allow you to create better copy that pulls them in and keeps them engaged but if you struggle with what to create content around, just pay attention to what your ideal client is asking for. It's like the easiest thing in the world. I never run out of content, because I'm listening or I'm asking questions of my audience.

If you're all over the place with your content and messaging, people are going to be very confused with how you can support them. Get clear on your messaging and brand containers, based on what they need the most support with.

And finally gaining clarity on your offer will allow you to create content that attracts the right people, nurture them and warm them up so that they're ready to take action on your offer.

Without these pieces done correctly, you'll struggle and we don’t want that.

That’s why I’ve put together a free guide for you called The Personal Brand Roadmap.

It gives you the full step by step in an easy to consume guide so you can get to work. I’m also sharing the top 3 mistakes I see entrepreneurs making when building their brand that you definitely want to avoid.

Download your free guide below.

Branding and Business Coach | Michelle Knight of Brandmerry

P.S. 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.

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 >>