Every piece of content has a job to do, whether it’s selling your hot new coaching program or encouraging people to join your mailing list. It pays to have a plan, rather than just waiting for inspiration to strike.
Start with Creating a Content Inventory List
This is a great project to delegate to a virtual assistant. Divide each piece of content based on format (video, audio, blog post, email, etc.) and also categorize each piece based on theme or topic. Then make note of where each piece is located (blog URL, Vimeo or other private storage services, guest blog URL, etc.). It sounds like a daunting task but you’ll be grateful to have the info in one place when you’re putting your promotion schedule together.
Decide How Much New Content You Can Realistically Produce
Now look at your calendar going forward and think about how much content you can produce realistically.
- Once per week or 5 times a week?
- Can you afford to outsource this content creation?
- Which format(s) will you produce?
- What Calls to Action will you use?
- Do you have products or affiliate products to promote in the Calls to Action?
Remember, your market research will tell you which formats are most popular among your audience so don’t get overwhelmed thinking you need to utilize EVERYTHING. Focus on which format your target client resonates with.
Do you plan specific topics or themes for each week or month?
Planning is often easier when all your posts for the month revolve around one theme. Working with a theme also makes choosing offers for your Calls to Action easier. How do you choose a theme? Revisit your market research. What topics does your audience want to know more about? Center that month’s content on that particular topic and continue working forward on your editorial calendar.
Basically, you want to set up a comprehensive editorial calendar which tracks the types of content you’ll produce and the deadline for publishing it. Once you get into this habit of planning, you’ll be able to work further in advance, with reasonable deadlines and less stress because you know exactly what’s coming up and when.
Types of content you can produce:
- Blog posts – the most common type of website content. Some experts recommend writing 1,000 – 2,000 words of valuable content per post but your market may prefer fewer words. It’s more important to cover your topic thoroughly without wasting time with extraneous words.
Also, look for guest blogging opportunities. Writing for an established, authoritative blog with a large following can boost your name recognition provided you add value in your article(s).
- Videos – YouTube is the world’s second largest search engine and users upload 300 hours of video every minute. Not only can you expand your audience reach by creating a YouTube channel but you can establish trust with your audience more quickly using video.
And of course, video is a powerful way to engage your audience on social media. Social video generates 1200% more shares than text and images combined. - eBooks and Short Reports – the most popular lead generation tools. Offers more information than a single blog post and is a natural next step to promote your list when readers are finished with the blog post. In exchange for their email address (and the opportunity to follow up with them), the reader receives your eBook and hopefully follows you on social media. Sell a Kindle book on Amazon to boost your credibility and reach even more new customers.
Podcasts – encourage your followers to listen to you at the gym and in the car! Have you seen the iTunes Podcast section recently? It’s crazy big but you’ll gain new authority and credibility when people see YOU in the list of some big names. Don’t want to produce your own podcast? No problem! Do your research and submit guest applications to those podcasts and hosts you know will reach your target market.
- Infographics – for those who prefer looking at charts or who don’t have time to read an entire blog post. Take the most important points from your blog post or latest video and place it in graphic format.
Be Consistent
Now that you’ve narrowed down how much content you can realistically produce each month, determine a way to be consistent with creating and publishing all this content.
Can you devote an entire morning or day to writing blog posts or filming videos? Blocking off time in your calendar and producing multiple pieces at once can get you ahead of schedule and give you an incredible sense of accomplishment. If this style works for you, choose your day of the week and focus on content.
If one of the formats you’re using isn’t your strong suit – such as you’re a slow writer or you get tongue-tied on video – is there a way you can outsource some of the work?
Hiring a ghostwriter or a virtual assistant who specializes in content creation is one viable option. Just send her your list of blog titles at the beginning of every month and she’ll have written blog posts for you to publish the following month.
Hiring a virtual assistant who can make quick video edits will also make producing your videos easier, even if you tend to stumble over words.
Another word on consistency: Do your readers or followers expect your content published on a certain day or time? If so, stick with that consistency. If you have never been consistent, start right now by choosing which days of the week to publish new content.
The worst thing is batching your time to CREATE and then letting it collect dust on your hard drive. Once it’s created, make sure it gets PUBLISHED! This is another easy task for a virtual assistant to handle, especially if you have everything scheduled on an easy-to-read editorial calendar.
Be creative with your content! Yes, you want it to provide value but make it uniquely yours. You need to stand out in the crowd, not look like a cookie cutter image of every other entrepreneur.
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After you produce your content, it’s time to promote it. My latest report is now available for FREE. (for a short time)
Content Promotion: A Step-by-Step Guide to Promoting your Content.
Where do you currently publish and promote your content? Are you using more than just your blog? Are you producing content in various formats to attract more people?
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