Content
Ideation
A starting place
How do you decide what kind of content you should create? Consider one thing: your content should be what your ideal customer needs rather than what you want to create. Your job is to add value to your customer's life and help them with any problems they may have (related to what you do, of course). If you're just talking into the void and no one is resonating with your topic, it's not going to make them want to stick around.
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A few ideas for coming up with ideas:
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Poll your audience. Very specifically. Don't just ask "what can I help you with?". It won't get you any responses (trust me, I've tried). Find a topic you feel you have some authority on and start teasing out the details. When I recently hosted a Coffee & Content Planning Workshop, I asked several questions such as "how does content planning make you feel?", "do you know what kinds of content your audience wants to see?", "do you have a content strategy?". The answers gave me pieces of insight into whether or not there was even interest in a workshop on content planning and then also how I could frame it to solve those issues.
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If you don't have a current audience (or even if you do), use Google's search bar. You can start typing keywords into the bar that relate to what you do. You'll start to see the most common phrases and questions populate first and this will help you understand what the general population is wanting to know or is needing help with.
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Another option is to go out and find your competition online. What are they talking about? How can you do it better? How can you do it differently? Sometimes, the way someone phrases something drives us nuts. For me, I feel like so much marketing can sound deceitful, as if we are trying to trick a customer into buying from us. I personally never want to sound that way. I think it's important to give to our audience and hope that someday, in return, they will want to give back (by buying from us). I use that belief to frame my voice online.
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Types of content
Awareness content
Of the three types of content we're going to discuss here, awareness content will likely be the bulk of what you end up creating. Awareness content is content that addresses either a customer's goals or problems. This type of content is general and accessible enough to help someone who has just discovered you, whether that was through a Google search, social media, or word of mouth.
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On example of awareness content that I've written was my first blog post "Why you need a brand (and no, I don't mean your business)". This kind of posts speaks to an individual who is in the process of starting a business and may not even know the difference between a brand and a business. Or even what role a brand plays. It doesn't require someone to know anything about what I do before they can understand the material but it doesn't exclude anyone who may have been following me for awhile, either.
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Other examples of awareness content:
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How to build your ideal customer profile
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8 things to ask your contractor before you hire them
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How to grow your Instagram following to 10k in 6 weeks
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5-minute makeup routines for young professionals
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7 tips for shooting the perfect flatlay
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34 alternatives to the word "unique"
Homework
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In your workbook, brainstorm what kinds of awareness content you think you could come up with, based on your target market.
Consideration content
Consideration content is the next step on the customer journey. This is content designed for someone who already knows of you, has maybe been following you for awhile but still isn't quite sold on buying from you yet. At this point, we are really going to hone in on the trust factor and try to answer any questions the customer has.
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The Coffee & Content Planning Workshop I mentioned a couple paragraphs ago is specifically consideration content and would likely only have appealed to those who actually knew who I was, what I do, and believed that what I have to offer was worth 90 minutes of their time on a Saturday. Does that make sense?​
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Consideration content is built for the people who already know and like you, but they may not trust you yet or they have objections to purchasing from you. Here is where you earn their trust with your knowledge, expertise, assistance, etc.
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Another example of consideration content that I wrote was back when I had my natural yarn dyeing business. One common thing that happens with natural dyes is that the excess color comes off on your hands while you knit with it (otherwise known as "crocking"). This is really off-putting to some people, but is completely normal. Coupled with my water-saving practices, this made sense for my yarns. I wrote a blog post (and talked about it all the time, really) explaining what "crocking" was, why it was normal, and no, it won't come off on your furniture! It normalized crocking among a lot of my customers and even caused some of them to actually like seeing the colors come off on their hands.
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Homework
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Can you think of consideration content that would appeal to your current customers or answer any objections someone might have about buying from you?
Decision-making content
Decision-making content is effectively sales content. It is simply stating what you have to offer. This usually comes in the format of an Instagram post or story, Facebook post, or something like a consultation or discovery call. The nice thing about this style of content is that you don't have to beat around the bush. You can be completely upfront and direct about what you are asking - "Here's what I have to offer and here's where you can purchase it." Typically, if your customer has gone through their journey with you for quite some time, they aren't going to think twice or care one jot about being sold to.
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The caveat to decision-making content is that it is best to be used sparingly. Such as when customers need to be made aware of a new product (like a pre-launch or post-launch phase) or service. You wouldn't want to be posting sales copy exclusively on your social media channels because it doesn't provide any value to your customers. It has to be give and take - you "give" them value through free content and eventually you may be able to "take" their money for a product they purchase.
This can be one of the most intimidating things for those of us who don't want to come off as "sell-y". Keep in mind two things. The first is that people can't buy from you if they don't know that you're selling anything and also that you can always always do things your way. You can be clever or you can be straightforward, just as long as you are clear. Your customer needs a direct line to follow and if they're not understanding the path they need to take, they aren't likely to keep trodding down it.
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Common formats of decision-making content:
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Consultations
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Live Demos
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Webinars
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Workshops
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Announcements