Types of Content for Social Media, Blogging, Videos, and More

Feb 21

As an entrepreneur, you know that content creation is really important and it's something I like to talk about a lot on this channel. But how should you be organizing your content, and what happens if you run out of ideas? Do you have some sort of magical thing that you can pull ideas from?

Yes. Yes, you do.

Today I'm going to share with you the main content buckets that you can have for promoting your business.

Content is such a phenomenal tool for business owners, because not only can it get you in front of your ideal customer AKA get your brand seen, but it can also support you in moving your potential customer through the stages of the buying process and ultimately signing up, making a sale, paying you for your programs, for your products, and for your services.

So content is just such a crucial tool for entrepreneurs, but it can also be a main stressor. This is one of the top struggles that we get from new members inside of Brandmerry Academy, which is my marketing program.

This idea of consistently creating content and always having to come up with new ideas can be super overwhelming. And I'll be honest with you, if you're 100% relying on social media to market your business, it is overwhelming.

Inside of the Academy we teach a different approach where we focus on SEO strategies, things like blogging, Pinterest, showing up on Google search, and YouTube, so that you are creating core pieces of content that are consistently bringing in your ideal customer and don't require you to come up with something new every single day. But still, no matter which strategy you're following, it can sometimes be really hard to feel inspired.

So today I want to share with you some of my top buckets for content. As a small business owner, as an entrepreneur, you can begin to create different ideas under each of these buckets and pull from them whenever you need an idea or you're filling out your 90-day content calendar, which I talk about in this video right here.

So let's talk about six, yes, six content buckets. One of the ways that I like to organize these buckets for my clients is inside a Trello board. So if you're using Trello, it's a fantastic tool. We actually give our clients inside of Brandmerry Academy these six buckets, along with a ton of ideas under each one. Sixty-plus content ideas for them to get started and we're constantly adding to them.

So what I recommend is that you take these six different buckets I'm going to share with you and add them to a Trello board or a document or a spreadsheet or whatever you want, and start to input ideas that you have under each bucket.

The idea here is that you can always reference this anytime you're scheduling your content, or you run out of ideas.

6 Content Creation Buckets

Content Bucket Number One: Share Your Story

Yes. Brand storytelling. I love it so much. It is such a powerful tool for entrepreneurs and completely underrated when it comes to marketing.

Now I am, of course, referencing your brand story, but I'm also talking about all the different ways that you can break up your brand story or just share personal stories as you go about your life. Of course, the key here is to make sure that the stories that you're sharing do relate or resonate with your ideal customer.

I share a bit more about that whole process inside of this video right here. The idea here is that you are positioning your brand as an authority while also offering empathy and connection with your ideal customer. This is why storytelling is so important.

So think about things like your brand story, your mission, sharing your values, any client stories that you have, anything that comes up for you in your day-to-day, and how it connects to your work.

The possibilities here are seriously endless. I have been sharing random stories as they come up in my life since the beginning of starting my business. And it's often these types of stories that really resonate with my ideal customer and kind of spark them to take action to purchase from my brand.

The reason for that is because of the connection piece. Storytelling is a fantastic way to build trust, and we know that people will buy from you when they trust you.

Content Bucket Number Two: Share Behind the Scenes

Now, this could quite literally be showing the day-to-day of your business, a fantastic place to do this is on Instagram, on social media. And I still love using social media as a way to warm up my new leads. So someone who has found me through Pinterest or YouTube or Google will then typically follow me on social media and it's a way for us to build that connection.

So showing behind the scenes via video content is a fantastic way to do that, and I find that things like Instagram stories are a really simple way to show up and share content in this bucket.

But you can also create small snippets of behind the scenes of your business. If you make jewelry, for example, creating videos showing you actually creating the jewelry. If you have a new design that you're coming out with and you've sketched it, show a photo of that sketch.

That's what we mean by behind the scenes in your business. What are the inner workings that are happening? This is fantastic for transparency, which we know is incredibly important with brands and people really want to see how things are made. From a service-based perspective, you can of course share your day-to-day.

I actually love to share how I create content, record podcasts, record videos, my client calls, all of those different things, but it can also mean that you're sharing kind of the behind the scenes of your framework of your business, what you're teaching, how you're teaching it, and of course, client results.

Content Bucket Number Three: Educate Your Audience

The third one I have for you is my second favorite. Storytelling, obviously, my fave. This one is my second fave, and this is where education comes in.

I really believe that every single brand and business can have an educational component to their content strategy. And the beautiful thing about educational content is that it builds authority. It shows people you know what you're talking about, and they can see that through the content that you're creating. It really, really, really helps with the client buying journey.

I have had multiple clients who find me on good Google and immediately inquire about working with me one-on-one. I respond to them via email and they will respond right back and say, great, fantastic. Where do I pay? I listened to your podcast, or I watched your YouTube, or I read your blog and I already know that you are the right person to support me. It's through that educational content that they're able to make that decision very, very quickly, often without a discovery call, I might add.

So educational content is so powerful and this list could go on for days and days and days. This bucket is literally anything, anything that you can help your ideal customer with, how you can help them solve their problem.

So for instance, this video is a great example of educational content. I know content creation is a main struggle for my audience so I'm constantly talking about it and sharing all these different types of videos.

We have this one right here, I've got a video on brand storytelling. We've got a video on planning 90 days worth of content. Video, video, video.

Now, you don't have to use a video, you can use a blog or podcasting. Of course, video is a fantastic tool in 2022 and beyond. But the idea here is that you're helping solve a micro problem for your ideal customer. You're giving them information that they've been searching for, or that they need in order to move forward with their transformation.

All my product-based businesses, you can also share educational content. I'll give you a great example from a brand that I love. They have a skincare line and they have a lot of blog content on the types of skin care that you can use, how to use their specific products, how to apply your skin care, tons and tons of information that will help someone through the client buying journey and will also help them get discovered.

Content Bucket Number Four: Connect with your Potential Clients

Number four is all about connecting with potential clients. So where storytelling was really focused on something you've experienced and how it applies to your ideal customer, this is really focused on your ideal customer front and center.

So thinking about things like client journey, transformation, clients that you've worked with, or customers who have bought your products, or a before and after. You can also create stories around specific results that your customers have experienced, as well as talking about and addressing things like obstacles that might be standing in their way.

So there is a bit of a crossover here with storytelling. Honestly, I find storytelling should be applied in all of these buckets, but the main focus here is how can you connect with your ideal customer and let them know that you 100% know where they're at and where they want to be?

Content Bucket Number Five: Build Brand Authority

Now, as we've mentioned before in the storytelling section, empathy and authority are huge when it comes to making purchase decisions. When it comes to brand authority, this is where you want to dial up your expertise. So while you're already sharing information on educating your audience, the different little pieces that you know, or that you teach in your business, this is where you're really highlighting your framework. What is your signature framework that you are providing your ideal customer, and what are all the different elements that you can share around that framework?

This is also a fantastic place to kind of differentiate yourself within your industry. So if there's something that you believe that a lot of people maybe don't do within your industry, or aren't talking about, you can really turn up the dial on that and position yourself as a leader in that thought process.

So one of the things I started doing really early on in my business was talking about brand storytelling and emotional branding. At the time, a lot of entrepreneurs were not talking about this. So I started kind of leading the way and that got me featured on multiple podcasts and in guest interviews and as a guest expert in programs. So I would talk about that a lot as a way to build brand authority.

Then as I started getting kind of picked up on these podcasts and things like that, I would share those underneath this bucket, which again, elevates my brand authority because I've now been featured. So there's a lot of different things that you can do within this bucket. But what I want you to focus on first and foremost is your signature framework. How do you deliver the results that you deliver? How do you solve the problem that your ideal customer is facing? Then you can also integrate features where you have been featured as an expert within your industry.

And, of course, my personal favorite, offering an industry disrupt.

Does someone believe something? Or does the industry believe something as a whole that you don't? A great example of this is my belief that you absolutely do need a website if you are marketing your business sustainably, and many entrepreneurs don't think you do. So I love to talk about my own personal angle.

Content Bucket Number Six: Promotion

That leads us to the final bucket. You'll probably notice that a lot of these buckets we've been talking about are really about building that brand awareness, starting to build that brand authority, making that connection, getting leads in the door, and building that trust to lead to the sale.

So this sixth bucket, and a crucial bucket if you actually want to get paid, is promotion. Making sure that you're consistently promoting what it is you're selling. I find that entrepreneurs really struggle with this, but at the end of the day, if you want people to pay you, you need to tell them what you have available for them.

If your ideal customer has a problem that you're solving, but they don't understand how you help them solve it, they're not going to pay you for it. So this promotional bucket can mean a bunch of different things, but here are some ideas to get you started.

→ You can focus on the return on investment of your program or your product. So really highlighting what they're investing and what it's going to get them in return.

→ You can also share client testimonials and clients before and after, as it relates to your particular program.

→ This is also a fantastic place to talk about objections. What might your ideal customer be thinking if they come in contact with your promotion? If they come in contact with your sales page, what might be holding them back? Really creating content around these objections and offsetting these objections early on can speed up the purchase decision process.

→ And of course, making the ask. A big part of the promotional piece of content creation is just putting your product or service out there and giving them a CTA to take the next step. Asking them to make a decision and go all in.

So the promotional content bucket is something that you want to be repeating quite often in your business, whether you're launching or you just want to talk about your products or your services multiple times a week.

So there you have it, six buckets to start organizing your content. I hope that this really got the juices flowing for you.

I recommend you take these six buckets and organize them into a spreadsheet or maybe a Trello board, or even just a Google doc so you can consistently add ideas to it. I love having an idea bank so when I think of something random at the grocery store, I can add it to my idea bank, and then when I go to plan out my 90 days' worth of content, I can just pull from that specific section. I don't have to feel overwhelmed like I have to create something new. The ideas are already there.

So again, you can use the ideas under each of these buckets to show up on social media, if that feels good for your brand, but also to write blog posts. And of course, within your email marketing, video marketing, and podcasting as well. As I mentioned at the beginning of this video, this is the type of stuff that we're teaching inside Brandmerry Academy.

You can learn more at brandmerryacademy.com. Our goal is to give you advanced marketing strategies that help your brand get seen and paid without relying on social media. You can learn more at brandmerryacademy.com and find out when doors are opening again.

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