One of the hardest things to do when creating content is to organize what you need to produce and then putting that into a workable calendar. With this post I'm hoping to give you a bit of insight on how you can successfully create your own and as a result get organized and start regularly producing good quality content.
First off you're probably wondering why content is important and you might even be wondering what content actually consists of.
The reason content is important in our marketing is because we have to establish a certain level of trust with the consumer before they will buy our products. Gone are the days when we could put up an ad with a cheesy sales page and generate leads from cold traffic. In fact it often takes 5-8 exposures to your content before the consumer will convert.
In today's market we have to show that we offer value in our products before the consumer will trust us enough to come in and see us. We develop this trust via content that showcases how our products or services can help people live their lives a little bit better or solve some sort of pain point.
Content actually consists of pictures, videos and blog posts to name a few. These are all ways to showcase the unique aspects behind your products or services and you should be using a combination of all of them for optimal results. Sometimes you have to put yourself in the consumers shoes and ask yourself. What is the customer looking to fix specifically? What kind of pain are they experiencing? From the answers to these questions you should reverse engineer your content to help solve these pain points.
Now in order to build an effective content calendar we need to understand our industry and what makes the most sense to reach the largest amount of people. I recommend creating a content calendar monthly. This way you can evaluate the next months content and be prepared for events or anything special you need to include for the next month.
Start creating your content calendar by mapping out how many pieces you'd like to produce per week. For starters I would go for 7 posts per week focusing on two videos, two blogs and three pictures per week. These pieces should be focused on providing helpful tips and strategies and showcasing your business in action. It's especially important to showcase your staff and customers as it builds a human side to your brand. Shoot for at least 1000 words on your blogs, keep videos anywhere from 1-3 minutes and always include your logo on pictures.
When you start to build a larger audience and are consistently getting a good amount of exposure to your content pieces it might be a good idea to bump up to 9 posts per week and finally 15 posts per week when you've really grown and are getting a ton of engagement!
An example of a content calendar would be
- Monday Motivation
- Tuesday Tips
- Wednesday Recipe Day
- Thursday Insiders showcase
- Friday Customer Showcase
- Saturday a compilation of the week
Once you've nailed down what you're going to post you'll need to pick the specific days to post it on your blog and respective social media networks. To get an idea of when people are online you can check your google analytics and Facebook analytics. It will show you when the largest amount of people are online everyday. Post your content on those times to maximize exposure.
Finally set a date each month with your staff to go over your new content and to build a calendar for the next month. The more your team is utilized the more good ideas will come about and the more interesting your content will be!
There is one tool I really like to utilize for putting your content together and placing it into a calendar with a due date to be posted. That tool is an app called Trello and I highly recommend organizing your content calendar with it!
Now get out there and create some beautiful content and content calendars to wow your future customers and to build the trust and bond that they need to be comfortable with your business!