Brandmerry Blog Archives
Marketing Secrets: 3 Repurposing Mistakes to Avoid
Repurposing your content is how you reach more people without spending all of your precious time writing emails, blogs, social media posts and more. However, many entrepreneurs make a few big mistakes when repurposing their content, but I’m covering them all in the blog so you don’t make the same. Read the blog now!
Marketing Secrets: 3 Repurposing Mistakes to Avoid
BY MICHELLE KNIGHT
If you don’t already know I’m obsessed with simplified and minimalist marketing strategies.
Starting my business with a newborn, then scaling my business while traveling full time has taught me to streamline my business faster than most.
I learned very quickly that extending the life of my content, through the art of repurposing my content was the secret.
Mix the strategy of repurposing with the strategies I teach inside of Brandmerry Academy, to create more evergreen traffic to your website and you’ve hit the marketing sweet spot.
However, repurposing is a broad term and honestly many entrepreneurs do it wrong or miss out on some key pieces which result in mediocre optimization. Seriously, I want you to get the most impact from your time and energy, so avoiding these mistakes is key.
Read on to learn the 3 repurposing mistakes to avoid.
Content Repurposing Mistake #1: Thinking Too Small
One of the mistakes I see entrepreneurs make when repurposing is thinking too small. They limit themselves to the amount of content they can create from their core content.
In case you’re not familiar with the strategy I teach inside of Brandmerry Academy, all repurposed content comes from a core piece of content (email, blog, video, podcast, etc…) and then is expanded to additional platforms and additional posts.
Once you have this core piece of content, the possibilities are endless.
A single podcast could become:
A new podcast episode
A transcribed blog post
5-6 Pinterest images
A Reel for Instagram
3-5 social media posts for Instagram
3-5 social media posts for Facebook
3-5 tweets on Twitter
...heck, you could even go live about the podcast episode answering questions or record the podcast episode for Youtube.
See? The possibilities are endless if you take the time to map out your strategy.
And, this isn’t just about creating more content, it allows you to spend less time creating content every single week, gives you more opportunities to reach your ideal customer, extends the life of your content (most social media content lasts a few hours, where blogs can last 2+ years) and did I mention it saved you time? Because it definitely does!
Content Repurposing Mistake #2: Not Optimizing For Warm and Cold Audience
One of my biggest pet peeves when it comes to content creation is not considering your audience at every single stage of the buying process.
I see entrepreneurs who only think about educating their audience (i.e. at the Problem or Solution Stage) or only creating content for those ready to buy (i.e. the Purchase Stage). When in reality, there is a way to produce content that serves your audience at every single stage.
Stages of the buying process is something I teach inside of Brandmerry Academy and is important when creating content!
Let’s take a video example into consideration.
You create a new live video every week (by the way this could be a blog, podcast, etc...I’m not saying you have to do live video for this to work, but you get the idea).
So, you create a live video every week.
That live video has a pretty specific title, it’s based on what your audience has asked about and leads to your current offer. Maybe it’s something like, “How to Repurpose Your Content for Social Media.”
It’s specific to your audience and what they’ve been asking for and designed for your existing audience, as live video doesn’t typically attract new people! This is most likely for people further along in the buying process as their seeking out solutions and product/ services to solve their problem.
Now you have this video content and you’re transcribing it for your blog, because you’re smart, but the people you want to attract to your blog will come from Google and/ or Pinterest and be a cold audience (i.e. people who don’t know you and your brand just yet).
The key here is to optimize for those at the beginning of the buying process and use Search Engine Optimized keywords and titles to do just that.
After research, you might adjust the title to, “4 Ways to Save Time on Social Media and Plan Your Content for a Full Week!”
It’s more specific and rooted in research.
This is what I want you to remember. Choosing titles for content isn’t based on a feeling, it’s based on research - if you want to be discovered. This is why taking the time to research your content before creating and adjusting your titles for different platforms is important.
It’s one of the reasons I teach advance content creation inside of Brandmerry Academy, so your content doesn’t just sit there, but is actually discovered.
Content Repurposing Mistake #3: Consistency is Lacking
Although it may come as a shock to those of you that know me and my message, I’m not talking about the consistency in content, timing or even your message.
I’m talking about the consistency of your systems!
Your systems are everything and these daily, weekly and monthly habits are the difference between wasting hours and hours in your business and making money.
So, what do I mean by lack of consistency? I mean a lack in workflows!
Once, you’ve decided on your repurposing plan (i.e. your core content and additional platforms you’ll be optimizing) you can create a weekly workflow that can be duplicated week after week.
I feel like I don’t have to tell you how much time and energy this will save in your business!
And the best part, you don’t need a team to master this (although when the time is right, this can save even more energy), but just having this weekly workflow outlined will allow you to do more as a solopreneur.
I suggest using a platform like ClickUp or Asana to create your weekly content workflow and save it as a template.
This includes listing every step of the process from idea generation, writing, editing, formatting, graphics, scheduling and more!
You then can adjust the content topic, titles, and descriptions every week, but have a clear and optimized work flow. This can allow you to create your content for the entire week in a single day!
And as you grow your team, you can assign weekly tasks to members just further optimizing your time and making sure your energy is best spent on content and marketing!
CONCLUSION
Well, there you have it!
If you’re making any of these mistakes it’s time to adjust your content and repurposing strategy.
It doesn’t have to be overly complicated, but it does need a little strategy behind it, which just so happens to be one of my specialties.
If you’re interested in not only learning more about repurposing your content, but also how to market without relying on social media, then check out Brandmerry Academy.
This monthly marketing membership was created to help entrepreneurs maximize their time and learn the true art of marketing, which isn’t really dependent on social media!
Your marketing can’t wait, it’s required to not only grow your audience, but move your audience through the buying process which, you guessed it, leads to profitability!
Learn more about Brandmerry Academy here and happy repurposing!
P.S. Are we connected on Instagram? No? Well lady what’s happening here we’ve got to fix that. Come hang out with me on my favorite social media platform. Follow for inspiration and send me a DM to know we’re connected.
- FREE GIFTS YOU'LL LOVE -
DISCOVER YOUR BRAND STORY IN UNDER 5 MINUTES
LEARN HOW TO WRITE AN ‘ABOUT ME’ PAGE THAT CONVERTS
MAP OUT 30 DAYS OF CONTENT IN UNDER AN HOUR
- READ THE LATEST POSTS -
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.
2020 Marketing Lessons and Changes We’re Making for 2021
2020 was a year of obstacles, tough choices and growth. As a business owner there were a lot of surprises and realizations that are impacting the company strategy for 2021 and beyond. I’m sharing those with you today on the blog.
2020 Marketing Lessons and Changes We’re Making for 2021
BY MICHELLE KNIGHT
One of my favorite things to do as I approach the end of another year is audit the heck out of my life.
I'm talking full life and business audit which includes my relationships, health, sales, systems, progress towards my big vision, marketing and more!
And, one of my favorite areas to dive really deep into is marketing because there is so much data to make a super informed decision, but since I'm all about creating a business that also improves my overall quality of life I take it ALL into consideration!
So even though 2020 was a difficult year for so many reasons, the truth is my marketing felt good. I was so happy with how simple, streamlined and actionable the Brandmerry marketing was last year, I still went ahead and changed it for 2021!
You might be questioning why I would change something that was working, that resulted in an increase in email subscribers, doubling our revenue and increasing website traffic by over 300%, just to name a few, keep reading!
Marketing Lesson #1 - Protecting My Time as a Business Owner
How it came to be: I doubled my cash revenue from 2019 and as this started to happen I found myself dreaming more about simplifying my business as it continues to grow. Rather than adding more to my plate and more things to do, I want to minimize.
Yes, I’ve always had the mindset that you can grow without doing more. I’m also a believer that more isn’t always better and from my experience the more you simplify the more space you have to expand.
It’s important to me that I never sacrifice my time for money or progress. So as we saw the revenue increasing, I was very concise of what was working and what wasn’t.
We evaluated the programs I offer, how I was showing up, our systems and more. This started happening around June 2020 and we worked behind the scenes through the end of the year.
What I learned: In order to make this goal of growth without sacrifice happen, I began to release I needed to release some of the control in my business. I defintely struggled with this and find that many solorpreneurs do. In the beginning it’s just you, just like it was just me creating the content, the materials, marketing, videos, email...all the things.
However, as I’ve slowly outsourced in my business it’s become clear that it’s required for growth. I quickly learned it was time, amped up my mindset work around releasing control and started to brainstorm ways to hand off more projects that didn’t require me.
What’s changing in 2021: Brandmerry has always had the vision of growing into a company, so this decision actually felt really good to implement. It was difficult to navigate, but always felt like the right decision.
We’ve created new positions for my existing team members, who have been with me for years and I trust fully with the Brandmerry and Michelle Knight Co. brands. This looked like creating an Operations Manager role for tech, systems and customer support, although we plan to hire someone to take over customer support and community care in the second quarter of 2021.
In addition, I created a new Marketing Manager role to take off some of the requirements for me to come up with content ideas, implement workflows and add a new platform...yep, we’re coming back to Youtube.
Marketing Lesson #2 - Getting 30 Days Ahead With Content Creation
How it came to be: One of the things I love creating for Brandmerry are videos, it’s my favorite way to create content for my audience and show up. Over the years, I’ve mastered my repurposing flow to center around video content and last year in 2020 it freaking shined!
In 2020, I went live every Monday for my weekly show Mondays With Michelle and used this content to create a weekly blog post, Pinterest graphics, multiple social media posts for Instagram and Facebook, as well as emails to my community.
However, this strategy still required a lot of my time to make it happen. And as I aim to free up more time for travel and take the pressure off to create weekly content, it became clear we needed to shift.
What I learned: I realized it was time to elevate my marketing production and create workflows that require less of me in real-time, plus taking the bulk scheduling to another level by getting 30 days ahead with created and scheduled content.
As we elevate and add new roles and responsibilities to the Brandmerry team this became even more possible. As we navigated this lesson I wanted to make sure my marketing efforts weren’t compromised.
What’s changing: At the end of 2020, we went back to what I teach inside of The Brandmerry Academy on repurposing and scaled our entire strategy.
Big picture 2021 this looks like being an entire month ahead of schedule with content. Rather than just having 90 days of content planned and creating the content weekly, we’re now switching our focus to having the 30 days of content planned, created and scheduled a month in advance.
This allows me to maintain one of my favorite elements, video creation and passing over everything else! You’ll see these changes role out with Mondays With Michelle and more throughout the year.
This definitely was an exciting and scary decision. It’s an investment in team to free up more of my time and energy, but the ROI in extra hours every week to focus on growing Brandmerry, engaging with my community and supporting my clients, including adding more time to take on new clients will be incredible.
Marketing Lesson #3 - High-quality, Consistent Content Increases Sales
How it came to be: This lesson actually started back in 2019. When we first started traveling, I took a break from consistent live video. I switched to Youtube, but at the time it was hard to maintain consistent Youtube videos on the road. I noticed my consistency and quality began to lack.
So, in September 2019 I started to reevaluate how I was showing up and marketing Brandmerry. Something felt like it was missing in revenue and it became clear it was all centered around my content.
What I learned: As I mentioned before video marketing is my favorite and content in and of itself is my Queen Bee (something I learned from the book Clockwork). In 2020, I committed to showing up multiple times a week, with live videos pretty much every Monday.
As I made this commitment and started implementing, it became clear that this high-quality content that was delivered consistently to my audience increased revenue.
The combination of evergreen lead generation, SEO and Pinterest to be specific, and weekly videos to support my clients my sales grew, as well as client retention and ease in signing new clients.
This consistency built trust, making it easier to sign highlevel clients without a Discovery Call. In fact, we switched to an application for my VIP Intensives and found even when I offered calls for my live program Roadmap to Freedom, I didn’t do a single one.
What’s changing: I’m taking more of a hands-off approach to attracting new leads. The evergreen marketing strategies I have are working and don’t require me to show up daily. There the same strategies I teach inside of Brandmerry Academy in case you want in on this awesomeness.
So with this shift, I’m able to focus my energy fully on nurturing my existing audience. Focusing my energy and attention on building deeper connection, Brand Affinity and trust. I’m so excited to be at a place in my business where I can elevate this entire experience!
Marketing Lesson #4 - Pinterest and Google Are a Marketing Must
How it came to be: In 2019, I noticed that my website traffic was climbing and after making some small tweaks to my SEO strategy. In addition, we put more emphasis on improving our Pinterest strategy, being more intentional and tracking analytics and noticed that more than 90% of traffic was coming from this platform.
What I learned: This was a pretty easy one to see happening, I mean my website traffic grew by 374% with over 120,000 website visitors in 2020.
Not only could we see that more people we’re finding and visiting my website, but after a brief analysis discover that Google and Pinterest we’re bringin in more high-paying clients. VIP Intensive clients we’re coming from Google where they wer’re searching for my services and many of my course clients were coming from Pinterest.
The reason for this is these platforms attract customers further along in the buying process and ready to invest.
What’s changing: Not much from my end, because my attention is showing up for my existing community, but our overall company marketing strategy is shifting to put more emphasis on these platforms which are changing constantly.
We never want to lose this edge so continuing to scale our efforts and modify with any changes is important. It’s also important to me that the marketing lessons inside of Brandmerry Academy are updated in real-time to support members, so this is good for business on all levels!
Lesson #5 - Marketing Always Works When You Have Data
How it came to be: In 2020, I increased my monthly budget for ad spend and it paid off! I spent $32,239 on ads and made roughly $75,000 on my program last year. That more than doubled my investment and doesn’t even take into consideration client retention when many of my clients moved from You! Branded to Brandmerry Academy, Roadmap to Freedom or my VIP Intensives.
What I learned: Marketing works.
If you take the time to set it up and you’re constantly looking at your numbers and consistently following your plan in front of you, it will work.
I only knew to invest that amount of money because I had tested my product organically, then I scaled it month to month watching my ROI with ad spend. I made adjustments along the way based on my numbers, never starting over or scraping the entire thing, but making small adjustments.
This isn’t just for advertising it works for email marketing, engagement, sales conversions all it and can be one of your best tools as an online marketer.
What’s changing: I’m continuing to scale my marketing budget and even hired someone to take it over for me. This was a decision that not only supported the ROI of our marketing budget, but again allows me to free up time in my schedule for more creative tasks.
It also prompted us to create more marketing and system trackers, as well as SOP’s (standard operating procedures) so we can take a hard look at all of our growth and numbers this year.
I also set team projections for many of our marketing goals for revenue, email subscriber count, Pinterest monthly views, website traffic and more.
CONCLUSION
It was so rewarding to look at this audit and feel so confident in our marketing changes. It’s one of the many reasons I love marketing because it is measurable!
So many entrepreneurs are mindlessly marketing, when it needs to be one of the most intentional practices in your business not to mention required if you want to create consistent revenue.
Marketing is where 50% of your energy and time needs to go to build a successful business, but if you're not optimizing your strategy it probably feels more like 90% of your time.
That's why I love teaching entrepreneurs how to use advanced marketing strategies to get off of social media and on platforms that make a BIGGER difference. ..think consistent traffic to your website
...consistent leads and subscribers
...and you guessed it, consistent sales!
That stream of traffic and leads is so important, but also hard to do when you're relying solely on social media or worse Facebook Groups 🤪
I’ve always loved advanced marketing and have seen the incredible results, not just in revenue, but also in time freedom. It’s why in 2020, I launched my membership Brandmerry Academy.
Brandmerry Academy teaches entrepreneurs how to master their marketing without relying on social media or wasting time. Doors are opening soon for our 1-year anniversary and you can learn more and join the waitlist here: brandmerryacademy.com
P.S. Are we connected on Instagram? No? Well lady what’s happening here we’ve got to fix that. Come hang out with me on my favorite social media platform. Follow for inspiration and send me a DM to know we’re connected.
- FREE GIFTS YOU'LL LOVE -
DISCOVER YOUR BRAND STORY IN UNDER 5 MINUTES
LEARN HOW TO WRITE AN ‘ABOUT ME’ PAGE THAT CONVERTS
MAP OUT 30 DAYS OF CONTENT IN UNDER AN HOUR
- READ THE LATEST POSTS -
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.
2021 Marketing Projections for Small Business Owners and Entrepreneurs
As we head into 2021, there are so many lessons that we learned in 2020 that are going to impact how we market our businesses. Learn five of the marketing trends to incorporate into your marketing strategy and weekly workflow.
2021 Marketing Projections for Small Business Owners and Entrepreneurs
BY MICHELLE KNIGHT
As we head into 2021, there are so many lessons that we learned throughout 2020 that are going to impact how we market our businesses.
Of course, marketing is always changing, but the good news is that the predictions and trends we’re seeing for this next year have been building for quite some time, so none of them should require a complete overhaul of your existing strategy.
To be honest, I’m so excited about the following five trends because, as you’ll notice, there is a great deal of emphasis put on human to human marketing and focusing on building experiences as a brand. This is one of my favorite things about being a business owner and one of my favorites to teach.
So get ready because we’re going to see the following trends in full force and if you’re an online business owner and entrepreneur you want to make sure these are part of your marketing strategy moving forward.
To support you further, we’re sharing the five trends below and actionable steps and recommendations you can take within your business.
#1 Marketing Trend of 2021
Video Will Explode
At Brandmerry we love video. It’s my favorite strategy for creating core content for my brand and I’ve been so excited to see the changes and new additions to video marketing over the past few years.
Video marketing won’t be slowing down anytime soon we’re seeing more and more platforms embracing video options. According to a Cisco study, by 2022, 82% of all online content will be video content.
One of my favorite platforms Pinterest is making video a top priority. Releasing Pinterest Stories and more short video content within the feed (similar to Instagram Reels) to create more brand awareness and community feel.
In 2020, we saw the catapult of TikTok during the pandemic, followed by Instagram Reels later in the fall. These short-form pieces of video content meant to educate and entertain our audiences will continue to rise and be favored within the algorithm.
TAKE ACTION IN 2021:
Make sure you’re creating consistent video content for your brand. If you struggle with consistency, be sure to check out my Consistency Guide here.
Hubspot found that 54% of consumers want to see more video content from a brand or business they support
No matter what platform you’re most comfortable with there is a video option available or coming in 2021. This includes an increase in video use on Pinterest, Twitter (their new app called Fleets) and LinkedIn, as well as some of our favorites Facebook and Instagram.
BRANDMERRY MARKETING TIP:
Have fun with your video content. Think of ways to give incredible value to your audience while also sharing your personality to build a stronger connection to your brand. We love Instagram Reels for this and plan to repurpose those same videos to multiple platforms in 2021.
#2 Marketing Trend of 2021
Marketing OFF of Social Will Increase
2020 brought a lot of changes to social media and while it’s not going anywhere soon, we are hearing a lot of buzz from people taking time off of social media.
You’ve probably seen this happening within your industry and circle as Instagram rolls out a new Privacy Policy and more information becomes available
Am I suggesting you stop using social media? Absolutely not! I highly suggest all online brands have some social media presence (one platform is enough) for nurturing their existing audience.
However, with these changes and more consumers spending less time checking on social media it’s important to have alternative marketing methods in place.
Way too many entrepreneurs are using social media as their only form of lead generation and communication for their brand and that’s some risky business.
TAKE ACTION IN 2021:
If you’re not already focusing on search engine optimized platforms now is the time. These search platforms were specifically designed for consumers and users to search for very specific resources, products and information and get results.
Unlike social media, the intent is to point users in the right direction, which means more trust and a better user experience than most social platforms. Not to mention content on these search engine platforms lasts much longer than on social media. A blog can continue to deliver results for 2+ years, while a Facebook post lasts a few hours.
BRANDMERRY MARKETING TIP:
Inside of Brandmerry Academy, we focus on equipping entrepreneurs with the knowledge and skills to grow their business off of social media.
Three of my favorite tools to use are Website SEO (to make sure you show up in Google Searches), Blogging (to create a stream of content that lasts and increases your overall Google ranking) and Pinterest (to drive consistent cold traffic to your website).
Not to mention, small businesses with blogs get 126% more lead growth. (Content Marketing Institute)
Youtube is an excellent search engine platform for video content, but I find most of my clients prefer to start with blogging as it’s a little less time consuming than weekly video.
Curious to know more about Brandmerry Academy? Find out what trainings are included, the incredible support and more here.
#3 Marketing Trend of 2021
Brand Values and Human Connection are Top Priority
77% of consumers buy from brands that share the same values as they do (HavasGroup, 2019).
And we are going to see the importance of brand values and emotional branding play a major role in 2021. The reality is, consumers, want brands that they can trust and more and more consumers are looking for brand affinity.
And this level of trust and desire for brand affinity will impact revenue generated by brands. 64% of consumers said they would buy from a brand or boycott it solely because of its position on a social or political issue (Edelman, 2019).
TAKE ACTION IN 2021:
The importance of branding, with an emphasis on values, mission, messaging and connection, will continue to increase as we move through 2021 and beyond.
The old methods of branding and marketing, just focusing on the same, are going bye-bye, which I’m incredibly grateful for!
One of the best things you can do for your business in 2021 is to focus on human connection with your ideal customer. This includes being clear on your brand values and mission and sharing them, sharing more stories that focus on connecting these values and life experiences with your audience and focusing on authenticity as the driving force of your brand and business.
BRANDMERRY MARKETING TIP:
One of the best things you can do for your business is build a solid foundation and this includes, and should be centered on your values and mission.
These can be some of the best marketing tools for attracting your dream customers and keeping them engaged as part of your brand. This form of branding is centered around emotional branding, which is one of the foundational pieces I teach inside of my program You! Branded.
Motista found that emotionally connected consumers have a 306% higher lifetime value.
So aside from identifying your values and mission, how do you build an emotional connection? That’s all in the art of storytelling. Learn more about storytelling here.
#4 Marketing Trend of 2021
Virtual Events Will Increase
As someone who made it a goal to book public speaking engagements in 2020, the events of the pandemic definitely threw that off course. My guess is you noticed as more and more businesses adapted and turned to virtual events.
Well, this shift has resulted in what is sure to be an increase in virtual events in the year to come. 80.2% of event organizers were able to reach a wider audience with virtual events in 2020. (Bizzabo, 2020)
However, this isn’t likely to replace in-person events but does open the door for more small businesses and brands to have the opportunity to add events when in-person events are not in the budget.
TAKE ACTION IN 2021:
Thanks to 2020, more consumers are familiar with online virtual events, so if you’ve been thinking about hosting an online event now is an excellent time to begin planning.
On the flip side, this also opens the possibility for more features, as you can submit yourself as a speaker and expert for virtual events that don’t require travel or a major time commitment.
BRANDMERRY MARKETING TIP:
Make a list of in-person events in your industry and follow them on social media or via their website. Keep a lookout for when they release details regarding applications and submissions for their 2021 virtual events.
63% of organizations are moving to digital conferences and events. (TOPO, 2020)
Weekly public relations pitching is an excellent strategy to increase brand awareness and authority.
With a degree and background in public relations, I can tell you it’s one of the best ways to increase your ROI on your marketing efforts. Often, these virtual events bring in new email subscribers and paying customers and don’t cost you, the expert, a penny - bonus points if you’re paid!
Curious about building your public relations strategy for your brand? This is one of the twelve trainings available inside of Brandmerry Academy. Learn more here.
#5 Marketing Trend of 2021
Email Marketing Will Still Rule
When it comes to converting your warm audience into paying customers there is nothing more powerful than email marketing, and despite all the new social platforms and changes, email marketing is still the best way to communicate with your audience.
Emails are typically the first check of the day for consumers, and statistics show that the average person checks their email 15 times a day.
And since I know convincing you to put more emphasis on your email marketing is always a little difficult (I’ve worked with enough entrepreneurs to know), here is some information to get 100% on board:
59% of respondents say marketing emails influence their purchase decisions. (SaleCycle, 2018)
For every $1 spent, email marketing generates a minimum of $32 in ROI. (Oberlo)
59% of marketers say email is their biggest source of ROI. (Emma, 2018)
You’re ready to improve your email marketing now, aren’t you?
TAKE ACTION IN 2021:
Growing your email list of community members and showing up for them weekly should be a top priority. The good news is that it doesn’t have to be overly complicated.
At the very minimum have some sort of opt-in for your ideal customer to provide their name and email address. I love to give a free gift to new subscribers and suggest you do the same to increase conversions.
From there, have a simple onboarding email series that introduces your brand, values and mission - remember marketing trend three from above! Also, provide value for your audience for a week or so.
From there, make it a goal to share one email a week (minimum) with your audience and use email marketing as your main tool for sales and promotions.
BRANDMERRY MARKETING TIP:
I encourage every entrepreneur to focus on growing their email community in 2021. So many entrepreneurs, before working with me, are overwhelmed with one more thing to do in their business, but simplified marketing allows many of these strategies to work in the background for you.
For instance, inside of Brandmerry Academy, we teach you how to create a consistent stream of leads through evergreen content (think blogging, Pinterest, Youtube and more). With this consistent stream of new potential clients, your focus is on nurturing and connecting with your new community members.
Through the art of repurposing, you learn how to take a single piece of content and extend the life of it on multiple platforms to expand your brand awareness and brand connection. This includes repurposing that same piece of content for email.
Every week you can follow the same structure, think rinse and repeat, to take the overwhelm out of marketing. This small shift allows you to focus more on connecting with your audience, creating and serving your paying customers at the highest level.
To learn more about Brandmerry Academy, just click here.
P.S. Are we connected on Instagram? No? Well lady what’s happening here we’ve got to fix that. Come hang out with me on my favorite social media platform. Follow for inspiration and send me a DM to know we’re connected.
- FREE GIFTS YOU'LL LOVE -
DISCOVER YOUR BRAND STORY IN UNDER 5 MINUTES
LEARN HOW TO WRITE AN ‘ABOUT ME’ PAGE THAT CONVERTS
MAP OUT 30 DAYS OF CONTENT IN UNDER AN HOUR
- READ THE LATEST POSTS -
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.
3 Myths Busted About Consistent Content Creation
Creating content consistently can be stressful! We get it and chances are you’re buying into these three industry myths around consistency. Let’s set the record straight around consistent content so you can feel confident in showing up for your community!
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 today I wanted to 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.
But, we’ve got to start at the core of it all and that’s the Importance of Consistency in Business.
Consistency in Business
I really believe in the power of consistency to grow your community and ultimately grow your business.
From a community standpoint, consistency is so important because it builds trust. So it's not really about you just pushing out a bunch of content.
It's about you being there.
It's about your brand being there and showing up for your community, delivering value to your community, and ultimately building that trust.
When you're consistently showing up and they're following you on that platform, or they're subscribing to your email list, they know who you are. They really start to get a sense of who you are as a person, who you are as a brand, what you stand for, and ultimately your expertise, which is huge.
This is where the relationship with your brand starts to form and brand affinity can start to happen.
Another element of consistency is the role it plays in messaging. Consistent messaging also builds trust with your audience because you're showing up and you're delivering value and you’re doing it in a way that builds authority.
Your goal is to become an expert in a specific niche, so you’re consistently creating content and resources around that area. And that makes you the expert. It elevates you, it elevates your brand.
But, if your messaging is all over the place and not consistent, then your audience is going to have a hard time understanding what it is you do and how you can support them.
I've been saying the same thing since 2016, my core concepts haven't changed.
Recently, we found my very first YouTube video. I’m not going to lie, it's kind of embarrassing, but what it did was reaffirm the concept of consistent messaging and the impact it can have on a business. I've been saying the same thing about branding, about storytelling, about emotional branding since the beginning.
And that is one of the reasons that I have now been able to get featured on podcasts and in articles and more as an expert on this topic.
You might not know exactly what you're talking about out of the gate, and that's fine. You're going to have to experiment.
But when you really realize what it is you want to own and why people come to you and what differentiates you from others, consistently honoring that and creating messaging and content around that can help you grow your business substantially.
Then there's the other element, and that’s consistency in business overall - this looks like workflows and systems that save you so much time and energy.
I have very clear workflows in my business and I teach these content workflows inside of my programs, including The Consistency Guide.
Every single week, we are repeating the same content strategy over and over and over again. And as I've added team members, it's been really beautiful in being able to outsource different projects in a seamless way.
And while, the teamwork is amazon, the reason I do this is so that I can have consistency on my end so that every week I'm super clear on the fundamental things that I need to do in order to get content out there, to be able to grow my community, to build trust, to make sales.
And then it frees up so much time for me to be creative and focus on creating new things or showing up for my audience, or if you're in any of my coaching programs, you know I'm really active inside of those communities.
These systems give you the time to create, explore and grow your business without constantly feeling bogged down, trying to come up with content ideas and creating new content.
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.
You're not creating a bunch of new topics and new things every single day of the week.
Here's an example: I do a Mondays With Michelle video on the three myths of consistency.
This video will then be transcribed.
That transcription will go on my blog.
That blog might have a different title just depending on SEO, but probably not (if you haven’t caught on it’s this blog).
And then that blog gets pushed out to Pinterest where our content lives longer and drives most of the traffic to our website.
The same core piece of content. I didn't come up with something new.
Then, we take that transcript and create three to four social media posts, every single week.
I have a graphic designer that I work with that I absolutely love. And she takes the transcript and creates the graphics. Those graphics then get pushed out over the next week. Sometimes we'll even save some of them and use them down the line.
So again, same video, the same piece of content, a bunch of graphics. And if you don't work with a designer, you just create some templates in Canva and just start to really practice your flow.
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.
You can build your repurposing workflow and more with The Consistency Guide.
In addition, it’s very important you understand why you’re showing up with your content and that comes back to understanding and feeling grounded in your purpose.
So many entrepreneurs just create content to create content.
It becomes a dumping ground to put stuff out there.
And yes, of course, in that first year or so, you're experimenting with things. You're wanting to see what people resonate with. Absolutely, there's always experimentation that comes with marketing your business.
But if you don't have a clear purpose, which is both the end goal, the action you want people to take, the product or the service or the offer that you want them to purchase, as well as the overall purpose and mission behind your business, then it’s really hard to show up.
It's really hard to just create consistent content, especially when you're working extra hard in the beginning to grow your audience.
But when you have that purpose, very, very clearly defined in the back of your mind of “What is the overall purpose for my business? What am I working towards? And what is the purpose? What am I ultimately leading people to?”
It makes content creation and consistency so much more effective.
So if you haven't already identified your mission of your business, you definitely want to do that.
And if you don't already have a signature product or service or an offer, that you're leading people to, think about that because that's really going to help you decide what type of content to create.
One of the core pillars of my branding process is your Signature Offer. If you’re just starting out, or don’t feel clear on this end goal, be sure to watch my free class on The Build a Better Brand Method: brandmerry.com/brandmasterclass
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.
CONCLUSION
Let’s recap the three myths, shall we?
Number one is posting daily, you don't need to do it. Just be more strategic with your content and the high-quality content that you're putting out there. Consistency doesn't mean daily. It means figuring out how you're going to share your message and consistently sticking to that, honoring yourself, honoring your commitment to your audience.
Number two is that it has to be hard or difficult. It doesn't have to be that way. Repurposing is going to be your best friend. If you guys want my top tips, plus build out your own repurposing web, then get your hands on The Consistency Guide.
And also understanding the purpose, what's the purpose behind the content that you're creating?
And then finally, remove the idea that it has to be brand new content all of the time.
Look at ways to extend the life of your content. Look at ways to repurpose your content, not just in one week, but maybe even recycling content that does well.
These are all ways to consistently show up that don't require you to just create, create, create, write, write, write, write post, post, post, post, graphic, graphic, graphic every single day.
I also wanted to share with you that one of the things that I created this year because I saw a need. So many women were coming to me to say consistency was their main pain point in business, so I created The Consistency Guide.
This 40-page workbook breaks down my entire process into an 8-part framework to help you master consistency in your business. Learn more at brandmerry.com/consistent.
P.S. Want to watch the full training? This video was recorded as part of Mondays With Michelle which airs every Monday at 4 pm CST.
- FREE GIFTS YOU'LL LOVE -
DISCOVER YOUR BRAND STORY IN UNDER 5 MINUTES
LEARN HOW TO WRITE AN ‘ABOUT ME’ PAGE THAT CONVERTS
MAP OUT 30 DAYS OF CONTENT IN UNDER AN HOUR
- READ THE LATEST POSTS -
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.
5 Ninja Skills to Improve Your Email List Building Efforts
Building your list doesn’t have to be a long drawn out process, but it does need to be strategic. Build a community of people who are NOT your ideal customer and you’ll have a hard time making a sale. Read the blog to learn 5 tips to improve your list building efforts.
5 Ninja Skills to Improve Your Email List Building Efforts
BY MICHELLE KNIGHT
If you don't have a community, if you don't have an email list, if you don't have people who are going to ultimately buy from you, you have nothing.
We get right into building our businesses and our brands and we get focused on what we’re going to offer and what’s on the website, when we need to be focusing on our community growth.
That's why one of the core foundations, I teach inside of all of my programs, is ideal client work.
Without knowing who you're speaking to and without putting the energy and attention into building and attracting those ideal customers, you're going to have a hard time selling.
And with this emphasis on community building it’s important to share 5 Ninja Skills to improve your list building efforts.
If you want to watch the video, rather than read, scroll down!
Email List Building Tip #1
Your Lead Magnet
The first tips, and something you need with all of your email list and community growth, is the lead magnet!
This is what starts it all.
Remember, like 12 years ago, when you would land on a blog or a website and it would say, “Join our newsletter?” And it was like, "Okay, cool. I like your newsletter. This seems fun."
I still see this from time to time and it makes me cringe because the person on the receiving end of that is not attracting their ideal customer. They're not specific enough and saying, "Are you interested in these things? You're the right fit for our program. Please opt into my email list."
When we just have that very general newsletter approach to it, then we often find ourselves with an email list or a community that is not full of our ideal customer. And we don't want that.
So a lead magnet is what sets the tone for everyone joining your email list or joining your community.
What you want to think about is a core lead magnet for your brand as a whole. One of the core lead magnets I have for my business is my Brand Roadmap. I teach you the steps of my personal brand roadmap so you know those and you understand the three mistakes of branding.
This free gift works into all of my programs and all of my offers.
So when you're thinking about growing your community, please focus on growing the right community.
I'd rather you have an email list of 100 people that were 100 ideal customers than an email list of 2,000 people that may or may not actually be interested in what you offer.
Your lead magnet is what allows you to create a clean and targeted email list and community. This is the ninja skill that everyone misses, I think.
There's not enough strategic thought process that goes into a lead magnet and what I'm going to encourage you to do is think about your offer and reverse engineer.
Think about what you want them to actually do, purchase from you.
Then think about what lead magnet you can use to bring in the right person for that offer.
You'll find that you are bringing in the right people and you're repelling the wrong ones. And that's exactly what we want to do with all of our branding, with all of our messaging, with all of our marketing, with all of our freebies.
Email List Building Tip #2
Make Your Lead Magnet Evergreen
The second thing I want you to keep in mind when it comes to list building ninja skills is that you want this to be evergreen.
Evergreen content basically means that someone can grab it at any time. There's no time limit on it. It's not a live workshop or challenge happening on a specific date.
While these types of list builders are great and they're great to coincide with a big launch or a promotion or just a big push to build your email list, you always want to have an evergreen lead magnet in the background.
I’ve already shared with you that my evergreen lead magnet is my personal brand roadmap where you give me your name and your email address, and I give you the personal brand roadmap.
I've created a lot of lead magnets in my business long before I actually knew how to strategically create a lead magnet.
I would create them all the time - so I'm telling you this because I understand that you want to create a new lead magnet every week or you want to create a new one every month.
The best thing you can do is create a core lead magnet that someone can opt in at any time that's leading them to your core offer.
Then create these other fun periodic, live lead magnets to boost your list. It can be easy to get 200 people to sign up for a challenge in two weeks because it's exciting and timely. But what happens when that challenge is over?
Make it evergreen!!
Email List Building Tip #3
Passive and Active Promotion
Make sure that once you have your lead magnet created, you have your opt-in, you're promoting it both actively and passively.
So one of the easiest things to get set up, and something that I think every entrepreneur should do as soon as they have their lead magnet, is the passive side.
The passive side is the opt-in on your home page, sidebar of your blog, footer of your blog, social media links on your Instagram, in your TikTok, on your YouTube bio.
These different approaches are passive. You get to set it and then it's cool. You get to set it and then you kind of just get to leave it there.
Then you have the active piece of it. Now, sometimes people will go right into active and forget passive, or what typically happens is they go passive and they forget active.
Active is actively promoting your freebie, your lead magnet. Some of the ways to do that are obviously social media. I don't want you to put all your eggs in a social media basket, but I know that's the first thing that comes to mind and I encourage you to be creative with it if you're going the social media route.
Think about incorporating it on your feed, but also think about creating some templates for Insta Stories and saving it as a highlight.
Think about creating a Reel that leads to your evergreen opt-in. So people can see that video at any time and then go to the landing page and grab it.
You can do live video and share your lead magnet as an opt in.
If you're blogging, create blogs that directly lead people to the lead magnet.
If I'm promoting my lead magnet, my personal branding roadmap, then I might have a blog that's all about branding yourself in 2021. And I'm teaching them things that they need to do and telling them to grab the freebie as an extension of that.
So make sure that you have this combination of the passive pieces that are always there, always in play, and then the active pieces.
Email List Building Tip #4
Make It Timely and Seasonal
Think about ways that you can reframe that lead magnet based on things that are happening during that time of the year.
For instance, we always have the personal brand roadmap available, but one of the things we do is create new pin graphics on Pinterest that say, “Ready to build your brand in 2021?” or “Branding in the new year”
It’s timely so more people are searching for it which will give us a boost for sign ups.
You don't have to change the lead magnet, at all, you’re just modifying how you promote it and making it exciting, timely, and seasonal.
It’s all about reframing your messaging around your core lead magnet, rather than creating a new one every season to keep it interesting for your audience.
Adjusting the messaging or graphics can make a big difference, especially if you’re running advertisements which work so well when they are based on what’s happening in the world.
For example, during Summer 2020 I repositioned my ad copy for the Personal Brand Roadmap to meet the messaging and needs we were seeing online.
I created ad copy that read, "Hey, I know this is on top of your mind. I know you're wanting to scale your business and grow your business quickly because of everything that's going on. Here's a brand roadmap for you."
It worked really well, because it reframed the messaging and we saw an increase in sign ups and a lower cost per ad.
When you make it timely, it feels like fresh content and they absolutely love it.
Email List Building Tip #5
Consistent Traffic to Your Website
In my program Brandmerry Academy, we focus on consistent traffic and consistently creating traffic to your website and to your lead magnet, so that you can consistently grow your email list, and you always have people coming in the top of the funnel, funneling down into a paid offer or a service.
Traditionally what we are always taught, when we're starting our business, is social media. Just show up on social media every day or post in Facebook groups every single day, to grow your community.
That doesn't work for me. I don't know if it works for you, but I've got a lot of different things going on in my life. I don't want to be thinking about posting in groups every day. I don't want to think about posting on social media.
What happens if you take a vacation? What happens if you step away for a week and stop promoting? Does your email list stop growing? Yes, it does. Unless you have these consistent streams to create traffic to your website, to your lead magnet.
Two of our favorites over here at Brandmerry are Pinterest and SEO.
So many entrepreneurs have websites that are just sitting there. I know y'all took a lot of time to build your website because I did too. If you have this website, or a landing page and a lead magnet for your freebie, you want to make sure you're consistently driving traffic to that.
Pinterest is an amazing tool to be able to do that.
Your content lives super long on this platform. We have pins from 2017 that still get consistent traffic, and as a result, because of all the traffic, Google loves them so those same blogs get traffic from Google.
The beautiful thing and what I love so much about Pinterest is it's so visual and so you get to play with creating all these different pin graphics.
You don't have to write a whole new post every time. You just get to play with the graphics and the messaging and the photos, leading them to the blog that you've already written or the landing page for your lead magnet. It’s way less effort than posting daily on social media.
Then, my other favorite method is making sure your website is optimized for SEO. When people are searching for your industry and services, they turn to Google. Then they find you, land on your website and opt into your lead magnet. It’s one of my favorite ways to make sure you’re getting consistent traffic to your website!
So start thinking about ways that you can create that consistent stream of sign-ups. Things like Reels are great because they can go viral. They can show up all the time. YouTube is a fantastic option. SEO, as we've talked about with blogging. Pinterest with blogging, those are some of my favorites. Obviously Facebook and Pinterest ads are great as well, but from an organic, not having to pay anything angle, Pinterest and SEO all the way!
You don't have to pay a dime to get started on those platforms unless you need to learn how to do it and then you can join the academy and learn how to do it there.
CONCLUSION
Let’s recap!
It’s important to make sure that you have a strong lead magnet. This is what starts the whole entire thing. You want to make sure that your lead magnet is specific to your ideal customer, bringing in the right person to your email list and keeps in mind your end goal. What are you ultimately going to sell them or promote?
Make sure that the lead magnet that you create is evergreen, meaning that they can sign up at any time and then sprinkle in fun, timely live pieces like challenges or limited time offers.
Adjust your messaging and positioning for the same lead magnet to make it fresh!
And then finally, number five, make sure that you have a strategy to consistently get traffic to your website and into your lead magnet. Two of my favorites are Pinterest and SEO.
If you’re ready to build your email list without relying on social media, check out Brandmerry Academy! You’ll learn all the ins and outs of SEO, Pinterest, video marketing, advertising and more so you can grow your list consistently without the stress of posting daily.
Learn more at brandmerryacademy.com.
Want to watch the full training? Watch below. This video was recorded as part of Mondays With Michelle which airs every Monday at 4 pm CST.
- FREE GIFTS YOU'LL LOVE -
DISCOVER YOUR BRAND STORY IN UNDER 5 MINUTES
LEARN HOW TO WRITE AN ‘ABOUT ME’ PAGE THAT CONVERTS
MAP OUT 30 DAYS OF CONTENT IN UNDER AN HOUR
- READ THE LATEST POSTS -
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.