5. Content Strategy Basics

The Brand Therapist Now In Session Discussing:

Content Strategy Basics

Last episode we discussed the power of content for your business. So this week we are going to break that down a bit more to help determine what content strategy is right for you and your business content can be done in so many different ways. And it's really important for this to be successful, that you find what works best for you.

So a couple of examples for me, it's this podcast. This is something that I love to talk about. I will talk to anyone and everyone about marketing that lets me and I also love listening to podcasts. That's my favorite way to consume content. So a podcast for me is a really good fit personally, and for my brand. And I am basically my ideal client. I'm a small business. When I created this podcast, I was looking for a way to find marketing content that I could consume quickly on the go. And so therefore I turned around and that's what I am now producing is exactly the needs and wants that I had as a small business owner. It's my way to share value and provide resources to my clients and something. I have a lot of fun doing it in the process.

Now, before I started this a long time ago, I have mentioned before my real estate background, I actually tried to start a blog in the real estate space. And it's a blog that I still think is a good idea for somebody out there, but it wasn't the right fit for me. It was based on real estate stats, really down to a neighborhood level and helping the consumer understand what the market was doing at that level and what those stats actually mean. So it was something that I think there's not enough out there and a great opportunity for someone to provide that type of content. But for me, it was really boring and, and very tedious. I like stats to a certain extent, but I don't want to spend all day involved in them. So that quickly failed because it needs to be something that you are passionate about and enjoy doing. If you're going to be able to stay up on that consistency, because again, this is just one piece of the puzzle of your business.

Choose a Content Strategy Based on What You Enjoy

So if it's something that is not easy and enjoyable for you to put together, it's going to quickly go to the bottom of the to-do list all the time. No creating a podcast was the right choice for me, but that requires a lot of commitment and time. And so some small business owners may look at that and go no way. There's no time that they have to focus on something again, that tiny piece of their overall brand puzzle. So then we got to look and see, what can we come up with in terms of strategy that works for whatever that specific business owner is needing to implement in their business. So this session is really to help break down some strategy ideas, to find that right fit for your business, to reschedule and to actually make this strategy work for you. So first we need to determine what are the goals of your content?

We all love the idea of having the authority and the trust of the consumer and these things that we talked about in the last episode of the power of content. Uh, we all want that in our business, but we really need to look and break down, like, what is the goal of this? Why are we actually producing this content? So think about that in your business. If you were going to start producing content, what is the purpose of it?

For example, my podcast, it's to provide resources to my clients and have these episodes that I can refer to when we're talking about these specific topics. Would I love it to generate business for me. Yeah, someday that would be great. But that is not my main focus of my podcast is to get thousands of subscribers who know that this is my lead generation tool, maybe for you and your business, you want your content to be your lead generation strategy. And that's great. So that would be your goal. And then, you know, moving forward, everything else is going to be built on what that goal is and making sure that we are creating the content to meet the goal.

Choose a Platform that Speaks to Your Ideal Customer

So the second, you need to decide on your platform or the media you using to produce content. With technology today, there are so many opportunities to put content out there, you can do a newsletter, a blog, just your social media alone can be a great platform for your contents, your website. Again, I'm doing the podcast. There's lots of people that have super successful YouTube channels with video, even webinars. And then we can get into online articles on different publications, digital publications, or even written publications and print publications have lots of opportunity to provide content. So think through what the right fit for your business is in terms of a platform.

And when you're thinking about this, think about you. Like I was talking earlier, I chose a podcast because I listened to podcasts and this is what I was looking for in a podcast. So what do you listen to? What do you, how do you consume your content? How do your clients consume their content and really make sure that you are creating your platform based on your brands, the things that work for you and the things that work for your clients. If you go with a platform for your content that doesn't tie into your brand and fit that brand equation, and it's something that’s not really where your clients are, then you're going to a whole lot of effort and you're not going to see the return you're looking for. Again, this is what I did when I tried to start that blog a few years ago.

So then once you have your goal set for what your content strategy is doing for your business, and you have your platform, the way that you going to distribute the content, then we need to decide what your focus is for your content. So there's a lot of different ways to create content within any industry and to provide different resources to the consumer. Last episode, I talked about one of my clients doing DIY style blogging. So that's just one way within the residential remodel space that you could do that, there's so many different topics you could run with within that same industry that the consumer is looking for. For me, again, this podcast it's meant to be quick tips and tricks, marketing and business related, that gives busy, small business owners, something they can take and run with quickly and get implemented. There's a million different ways I could have taken marketing into a podcast, but this is the focus that I have.

Determine Your Strategy for Consistent Content

There's a lot of great podcasts that I listened to that interview other successful businesses and how they've become successful in kind of their strategists and what they've done. And I love listening to those, but those aren't the right fit here for my brand. So think about the different topics and focus that you can come up with for your business. And then kind of decide on that overall theme that is going to run through all of your content. And that's going to help you with your consistency and help the consumer, know what to expect from your content and be looking for it. Then we get to the frequency. So once you've got everything else figured out, you need to have a consistent frequency in your content, to really maximize the power of the content in your business. This does not mean you need to be creating content on a daily basis.

Again, I want to make sure that we're all on the same page, that this is just one piece of the brand puzzle for your business. So you can't spend all your time on it. You need to make it manageable. And whether that's outsourcing it, whether that's only creating content and producing it once a month. Whatever that looks like, you need to make sure that it fits within your life and your brand, or it's not going to be successful. You're going to burn out on it really fast. And it's again, going to fall to the bottom of that to-do list. So if starting out monthly is what feels good to you, then go with it. That's much better than creating content several days in a row and then not for a week or two. And then once a month, and then the back and forth. You really want your consumers to know what to expect from you and have that consistency to build the trust with them. And that's really important.

So those are the four steps that you can sit down fairly quickly and really outline for your content strategy, the goals, the platform that you're going to put it on, your theme or the focus of what that content is going to be related to, and then the frequency of it. So this wraps up this week's session on content strategy basics. It is a second part of our three-part series. We had the power of content last week. So if you have not heard that one make sure you go back and listen to that one. And then next week we'll be wrapping up the series with maximizing your content strategy.

Listen to the audio at https://www.thebrandtherapist.co/podcast-1/episode/ea4b1870/2-how-to-be-your-own-brand

For our services check out The Brand Therapist and contact us at https://www.thebrandtherapist.co/