Work out what content you love

As the saying goes, “do what you love and you won’t work a day in your life”…same is true for content output.

When it comes to content marketing and a ‘DIY approach’, you have to love what you commit to publishing. You have to respect your customers, clients, followers and subscribers enough to offer content you truly believe they will like, find interesting and that will be of use to them. If you don’t show them this love, they won’t hang around for long.

Continuing with my content confidence theme, I am going to tell you a bit about the sort of marketing tactics you can use and how you can grow to adore the content you create.

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Love creating micro content?

Social Media Posts

What do you think is interesting and engaging when you are scrolling through a newsfeed. Whether it is on LinkedIn, TikTok, Facebook or Instagram…what catches your eye? What makes you stop the ‘continual scroll’ and look closer?

Personally, video has got me ‘stopping’ more often recently, especially on LinkedIn. Partly because of the ‘autoplay’ option – someone starts talking and I can’t help but read the accompanying post, whilst listening to their opening lines. When it seems to be authentic and offer some interesting information, then I certainly stop long enough to read the caption and find out more.

I certainly enjoy mixing in video content myself. I think it is an engaging and a quick video can be a great way to communicate with clients, especially to announce or launch new products, services or important news. Explainer videos work well too. The positive feedback can be so invigorating and confidence-building. I appreciate not many people will probably say they ‘love it’, but I think many find the response something very much to love.

In terms of written posts, I love reading quite genuine news posts, when businesses share a success, story, or event. Again, it’s a lot about the reactions you can get. It is lovely to read messages of support or congratulations. I think it is also why a lot of people follow small businesses on social media – not just out of loyalty, or to find out about the latest offers, but to learn about the company, have an insight in to their ‘story’.

I also love a good image – some beautiful photography especially, not necessarily of landscapes but of products or flatlays too. Personally, I am trying to move away from stock imagery and trying to capture my own relevant photos. I always recommend investing in some brand photography too.

Brightening up someone’s newsfeed is certainly something I love.

Finally, I love the ‘latest and greatest’ type education posts; posts that send me on to interesting articles, which offer fantastic easy to follow advice that I can use and share with my clients. And if they are written well and typo free (!) – then I love sharing them on my own social media pages – alongside a summary or my own thoughts on the article.

If anything I hope you can see I love variety and I think that’s something so important to offer in your micro content.

Email marketing

If social media gives you the ‘ick’ and you would like to use it as little as possible, then could email marketing be something that you could more easily fall in love with!

Growing a mailing list is not easy, but equally nurturing one (even with only quite a small number of subscribers) can be really rewarding. You are likely to get a much better % reach as you are sending content direct to people’s inboxes.

You can also tailor your content to certain segments – sending subscribers what you know they will love.

Sending even more personalised one off emails is also really feasible, allowing you to check in with clients, past clients and potential leads. This is great content to have and to use regularly. I love reaching out and finding out how people are getting on, if I can help, etc.

Email marketing is also a great companion if you are committed to your macro content creation, such as blog posts, more formal videos on a YouTube channel or a website you want people to visit regularly.

Love macro content more?

Blog posts

I absolutely love blogging. I love how much there is to learn by committing to writing something new and different about my subject area regularly.

I also love the process of writing my blog. I often write in the evening, whilst watching TV, nice and cosy on the sofa, with a cuppa…or even something stronger. When I come to edit and finalise the post, there is so much to work with and I love refining my work ready to publish.

I love putting together ‘Top Tips’. It is really exciting trying to summarise down knowledge into bitesize chunks, and actually knowing the post I am putting together will help someone.

There are loads of different types of blog posts, from diary entries, to guides, to interviews and explanatory posts about technical areas of a business.

I would recommend trying all of the different types of posts and working out which ones you like best. You don’t have to stick to just one type, and it is good to offer a variety, but blogging is so much easier if it isn’t a chore.

Do you like writing what you have been up to? Try a diary style, sharing news, events and latest successes.

Do you like doing research around particular areas? Try an explanatory style or top tips post.

Do you like video or photos? Try a vlog or using photos to explain a concept, method or order.

What’s so great about blogging is it’s longevity…the traffic I still receive thanks to posts I first wrote years ago is DEFINITELY something I love!

Website updates

How much do you love your website? Do you proudly send everyone who makes an enquiry to your website? Do you link to it regularly in emails and social media posts? Do you display the website address ‘loud and proud’?

If you don’t love your website and how it looks, then sort it out!

Look at the website images you have currently – do they ‘light your fire’? If not, can you find something more exciting on stock image sites or commission some professional pictures just for your business? You’ll use them again and again….across lots of platforms.

Does the wording really reflect you and how you want to portray your business? Importantly, are you proud of your ‘About page’ or ‘Company profile page’. Don’t cringe at being truthful about your achievements and qualifications; and also sharing your passion.

I absolutely love writing the home page copy and about page copy for websites. I love taking a businesses’ mission and vision, and turning it into an inviting opening paragraph on a home page and, hopefully, creating a strong strap line which is memorable.

As for the ‘About page’, I get that it can be difficult to boast about yourself and ‘blow your trumpet’, so again, I love taking what people find so difficult to say about themselves and stating it in an engaging way, telling your clients what they want to know.

Get creating content you love

Find out what you love! Have fun experimenting and start telling your businesses’ story in a way which you actually enjoy!

I actively encourage content creation which is both enjoyable and effective. It’s amazing the former so often helps the latter.

If you want help finding your content confidence and figuring out which bits of content marketing you may fall in love with, get in touch with me today – email: kate@thecontentconsultancy.com .

Image credit: Photo by Brittney Burnett on Unsplash