The importance of content confidence
Do you have content confidence?
It astounds me that many small business owners create content and publish a range of posts and marketing materials but lack utter confidence in what they are putting out in to the world.
I see how demotivating it is…and it breaks my heart.
Our audiences (no matter who your ideal client is) are savvy these days and we need to have confidence in the content we create, importantly, knowing why we are putting the time and effort in to creating it in the first place.
Why is content confidence important?
Marketing is time consuming. It take up brain space. If you are trying to create content but you don’t have confidence in its ability to fulfill its purpose…then, what’s the point?
It can also cause a range of really negative feelings if you don’t have confidence in what you are creating – anxiety, stress, worry – they are all understandable feelings when we are putting out something in to the world that we don’t feel confident in.
I don’t want any form of marketing to have an adverse effect of my clients, so to me ‘content confidence’ – a pride in what they produce and publish, coupled with a belief it will make a difference to their business – is most important to me.
How to get content confidence?
I believe there are four key steps to building content confidence and these form the foundation of The Content Club and all the services I offer.
1 – Work out how you feel about each marketing activity you do
How often do you reflect on the marketing activities you do? Do you actually like creating the content you publish? What fills you with joy? What fills you with dread?
A knock to our confidence often comes when we constantly have to do something we don’t want to do. …so, what would happen if stopped doing some of the content creation tasks you don’t like? Importantly, have you evaluated whether they are effective in the first place?
Start focussing on the content creation elements you truly enjoy…that fill you with excitement…or, at least, that you don’t dread. And then consider those that you feel in your gut are effective for your business.
Can you do more of these to help increase your confidence?
2 – Have a content strategy that underpins what you do and why
I love to question ‘why’!
It is so vital to me that small business owners have really clear reasons as to why they are taking the time and energy to create specific pieces of content (or spending the money for someone else to do it).
Importantly, I believe we should spend the most time on what draws in leads and sales. We should all be using ‘quick win’ strategies for things which maintain our visibility and encourage engagement.
Spend time of some high level thinking about what you do, in terms of marketing, and why you do it.
3 – Create a clear plan (and purpose) of content to be created
A lack of content confidence is often seen when creating the content is constantly a last minute chore…something that just gets ‘chucked out’.
Content confidence absolutely grows when you have a clear plan of what you are doing (trust me, I have seen it many times in The Content Club).
When you make a minimum content commitment and give yourself clear boundaries (which is what a plan ultimately provides) then following a plan to implement it gives you masses on confidence. This is enhanced when not only do you plan your content creation but also consistently implement that plan – scheduling and publishing content to your own timetable.
4 – Reflect on the impact of content created
For step 4, we come full circle in many ways. It’s about taking the time to look at what’s working and what is not.
Your content confidence grows when you know how your content is landing – is your messaging right? Are you attracting the right customers? Are you getting the reach, visits, engagement, etc., that you wanted (and as aimed for in your strategy and planned in your plan!)?
It is really hard to reflect when there is no strategy or plan…when everything is adhoc…when nothing is measured.
Make the time to reflect – do a simple bit of analysis and use this to help you drive your efforts towards where you can grow in confidence.
Grow your content confidence
We are experts in seeing the negative. We are experts in beating ourselves up about what we can’t do!
However, you are probably doing so much better than you think. You just need to nurture you content confidence through the steps identified above.
If you want support with growing your content confidence from an experienced content writer, as well as a community of fellow business owners who are working on their own confidence, marketing activites and content creation techniques, then come and join The Content Club.
Our twice monthly Content Clinics are ideal for discussing concerns, getting feedback and working on your strategy. Our Quarterly Planning sessions are perfect for helping to plan and implement consistent marketing which is really powerful for your business and your future goals.