According to Hubspot Academy, content marketing is a “strategic marketing process focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain clearly defined audience and ultimately drive profitable customer action.”
Simply put, anyone can post content on their website and social media, but the key is to have a strategy behind what you are putting out to your audience. By being specific in your visual aesthetic, content type, brand voice, and content topics you can speak directly to your ideal audience and build trust with them.
Trust is the goal. When your audience trusts you, they are more willing to do business with you. This is especially important in service based businesses.
Practically Applying a Content Strategy
Content Marketing has more to do with offering value and knowledge than you typical idea of advertising. We are not against paid advertising in any way. It serves a great purpose to getting your business out there. However, today’s customers are no longer sold by a big billboard. They will typically do business with people they know, their friends recommend, or they trust.
Content creation can also be FREE. Yepp, we said free. While we offer to do content creation for you, you can definitely DIY. So, what does it look like to apply a content strategy to your business?
1. Choose 1 Main Content Platform
When it comes to creating content, you want to choose a platform to create long-form content. This would be a blog, podcast, YouTube, etc. Choose one that you will be comfortable with and that makes sense for your business. Almost any platform can be tailored to your preferred topic. Our medium for producing long-form content is blogs! We are better at writing and it takes less time than a podcast or video.
Long-form content is important because it is offering a lot of value to your audience, helping you become a trusted source, and enhances SEO for Google! Overall, it is a win-win.
You can always expand and build on to your content platforms later. You are not stuck to just one, however, we recommend only choosing one platform when you are getting started. Once you get it nailed down, you can always add more platforms. This recommendation also applies to social media platforms.
When deciding which platforms to use at first, only choose one or two. If you choose seven social media platforms, it will be very overwhelming and the chances of you throwing in the towel are much higher.
2. Choose Content Pillars
Now that you have determined what outlet you want to use, it is time to decide what topics you want to focus on! We recommend coming up with 4-5 content pillars or content categories. Content pillars are topics for your business to consistently discuss and create content for. This helps you come up with content when you may get stuck and keeps you on brand.
Content pillars help you plan your content and be consistent. For example, a photographer could focus on brides, couples portraits, and planning your wedding day. A makeup artist could focus on women empowerment, beauty tips, and self-love. Ask yourself these questions when you are choosing content pillars:
- Do you have knowledge about it?
- Are you able to create plenty of sub-topics and content for it?
- Does it represent your brand?
3. Choose a Schedule
You have your topics…now when do you post?!
Our advice to our clients is only commit to a schedule you can actually follow through with. The most important thing is showing up consistently.
When it comes to content marketing, remember, the point is to give your audience valuable and relevant content. If you are just posting to post, you are not serving your audience. When it comes to content marketing, you need to make sure that you are producing quality over quantity. If you can only commit to three days a week, make sure those three posts are well thought out and serve your audience!
For Blogs, podcasts, and vlogs, it is recommended that you post once a week, BUT consistency is better than frequency. Choose a schedule that works for you.
For social media, each platform is different on the number of times per week and day you are supposed to post to get the highest reach. Again, the key is to produce quality content for your audience. Commit to what you can actually produce. I will be talking about when to post on social media in a later blog, so make sure you subscribe to our email list to get notifications about new content!
4. Produce Content
The most efficient way to create content is to “batch create.” You may have heard that term before! Batch creating content simply is sitting down and creating a lot of content at one time rather than just creating it as you go. This allows you to get it all done and scheduled out, so you dont forget to post or have something else come up that prevents you from posting that day.
Even when something crazy happens you can rest well know that you already have your content for that week or month done. Yes. I said month. The goal here at Nostalgia Media is to have our client’s content done a month at a time! How refreshing would that be?
The key to batching content is putting it on your calendar just like any other appointment you have. You are basically making an appointment with yourself!
5. Break Up Your Content into Social Media Posts
The beauty of content marketing is that once you have your key content written, you can simply break it up into posts for your social media! This saves you time but also builds consistency between all your platforms. Create the social media content and then use a scheduling platform like Planoly, Later, Sked, or Buffer to post your content for you.
When deciding which social media platforms to use at first, only choose one or two. If you choose seven social media platforms, it will be very overwhelming and the chances of you throwing in the towel are much higher.
Choose social media platforms that your customers hang out on. If your ideal audience is millennial women who buy coffee a lot, then Instagram is probably your best choice. If your ideal audience is a middle aged businessman, Linkedin may be better than Instagram. Here at Nostalgia Marketing our main focus is Instagram because our idea clients are small business owners looking to expand their reach. We specialize in Instagram since it is a visual platform.
6. Email Marketing
Emails are still a very important part of communication. Your email list is something you own. Have you ever thought about that? If you’re business is only built on Facebook or Instagram, your business could go away if those platforms do. With emails, you will forever have their emails! They are yours.
Encourage people to sign up for email (or texts) from you. You will be able to let them know when you have a new blog or freebie for them. If you have an email list, make sure to always promote your new content with an email (just like I did a plug for mine a couple paragraphs up!).
Content Marketing Strategy Recap
A content strategy is important for your business if you are looking to build trust with your audience! Develop a content strategy to keep you on brand and consistent in your communication with your audience. The best way to get started is:
- Choose Your Platforms
- Choose Content Pillars
- Choose a Schedule
- Produce Content
- Break Up Content into Social Media Posts
- Email Marketing
Let us know in the comments if you are already using a content strategy! If not, do you plan to? We would love to hear your thoughts and feedback on this topic.
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