Insights

Content marketing is a crucial aspect of any digital marketing effort, be it through social media, blogs, emails, videos, podcasts, or any other format. Making your content distinctive is crucial for success in the digital arena.

Whether the goal is to increase brand recognition or sales, content marketing is a powerful tool. To stay ahead of the competition, it is important to continually improve. Here are several modest modifications you can implement now to significantly enhance your content marketing strategies.

Batching Your Content Creation

Creating content can be a daunting task, requiring the generation of ideas, their effective execution, and finally the creation of the content itself. By scheduling a specific time to create all of your content and batching it together, you can save both time and effort. Designate some time to work on everything you'll need for the next week or two, and you won't have to worry about coming up with new ideas daily.

The key to making this strategy work is preparation. Developing a content calendar provides a roadmap for what needs to be created, making the process smoother. Once you get into a creative groove, it becomes easier to design multiple pieces of content to meet your needs. For the rest of the week, you can simply hit "post" without having to worry about creating new content.

For example, you can write all of your summer blog posts in a single day and then publish them gradually throughout the summer, instead of having to write a new one each week. The same approach can be applied to promotional emails or any other copy you need to write. Remember to include social media posts in your batching, as these can also be planned in advance.

Keep in mind that flexibility is crucial for success with this approach. You should prepare to review your content before publication to ensure that it aligns with your plan and remains relevant. If you incorporate trends, you will need to schedule them earlier to stay up-to-date. 

Maintaining a list of ideas throughout the week can help you stay organized and avoid forgetting your creative inspirations 

Whenever an idea comes to mind, be sure to write it down, whether in bullet points or with detailed notes. This way, when it comes time to create your content calendar, you'll have a backlog of ideas to reference, instead of having to scramble to come up with new ideas in real-time. 

Utilize Templates

This tip is particularly useful for your social media content and will be a huge time-saver in the long run, even though it may require some initial effort. Set aside some time to develop 5 to 10 templates for your content that reflect your brand and company's identity. Keeping the templates simple makes them versatile and easy to modify.

When batch-creating your content, you can insert new information into the templates for a polished look without having to start from scratch. This also supports your branding, as all of your posts will have a consistent appearance. Your audience will start to recognize your posts in their feed, helping you stand out and be more impactful.

Repurpose Your Content

Many times, the hard work has already been done for you and you might not even realize it. For example, if you had a successful blog post, when you're writing and planning your emails for the week, instead of creating a completely new set of text, you can reuse what you've written for your blog post and adapt it to an email format. The same blog post can also be turned into social media posts.

You can also make changes to the format of your old content. For instance, you can take previous posts that performed well, give them a new look, and repost them. There's a chance that new followers who haven't seen your content before and even some old followers who might have missed the first post or forgotten about it, will see it. You can also turn static posts into videos or any other repurposing idea you have. With this technique, you can get more mileage out of one piece of content.

Improve Your Writing

Marketers tend to use technical jargon in an attempt to demonstrate their expertise, but this actually has the opposite effect on their audience. The key to making sales is being able to explain things in a clear and concise manner. To build a connection with your audience, it's crucial to speak their language. One way to achieve this is to write in a conversational tone, as if you were speaking directly to them. Avoid formal language that is not suited for conversation, and opt for a friendly tone that promotes relationships.

Remember that people enjoy hearing stories, so try to format your writing in a way that tells a story. A story should have a beginning, middle, and end, and include other elements such as a hero (usually the customer or your brand) and a problem that needs to be solved (what you can do for them or what you offer). This type of formatting makes your writing more captivating and encourages your audience to read to the end.

Your copy is the essence of your content. Don't be afraid to try new things and find what works best for you and your audience.