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Content creator vs. content creation: How to find the right balance for your business
As consumers continue to demand more from the brands they support, business owners tend to feel an even greater pressure to be omnipresent online. But, how far should you go?
While creating content is often necessary to grow your business, that doesn’t mean you have to fully embrace the role of a content creator. Here are some ways to strike a balance in your business and marketing efforts.
Consistency in marketing: your key to success or the reason you’re falling short?
Consistent marketing is often promoted by marketers as your key to building audience trust, increasing customer loyalty, and improving sales numbers. But what does being consistent actually mean?
The best way to uphold a sense of marketing consistency for your business is to be intentional with the schedule you set out for yourself, and what you hope to achieve through these efforts. Let’s further explore what this means, and how to apply this concept in your own business.
Expand your marketing message with collaboration: A quick start guide
One of the most effective ways to reach potential customers is through the art of collaboration – and yes, it’s an art! When you’re intentional in your collaboration efforts and in supporting other businesses, you gain access to new audiences who are primed to opt-in to what you’re offering.
And, when you open up your own platforms to aligned business owners and creators, you’re able to build trust and provide additional value to your audience, making it more likely they’ll want to support you. Here are a few ways to expand your marketing message and reach more people.
3 qualities that matter more than perfection in marketing content
Building a brand and business takes time. Not everyone has a well-formed vision of what their business should look like from day one, let alone how to execute on that vision.
But really, that’s not such a bad thing! It gives you room for growth and improvement over time, which your audience will likely notice and appreciate. Here’s what matters more than everything looking and sounding perfect: authenticity, expertise, and repetition.
How-to guide: learn to brand yourself with words
What you do, what you say (and the tone you say it in), who you are, how you help your clients or audience – each of these elements create an imprint on the world. You don't get to have control over your brand, but you can heavily influence it by thinking about how you want others to perceive you.
Honing in on your brand voice, tone, style, and values can help you decide what marketing actions you will take (and which you’ll avoid) to reinforce the traits, values, and perspectives you want to emphasize about your company.
Content writing prompts: 5 ideas to ignite your imagination
Constantly trying to come up with content ideas day in and day out can seem like a daunting task, and after a while it’s inevitable that you’ll experience moments where you find yourself staring at an empty page and a blinking cursor, trying to figure out what to write about.
On those days, I like to turn to the world of content prompts. For both myself and my clients, using creative writing prompts as a starting point for a blog or social media post can help to ignite the imagination.
Here are 5 to get you started.
Your comments matter: Everything you do publicly is a representation of your brand, so be intentional!
How you show up online is a direct extension of your brand. This goes beyond what you’re posting on your business social media accounts, or on your company website and blog, and also encompasses any comments you decide to share online.
When you show up authentically and positively, engaging with other brands and content in appropriate ways, it can do wonders for your company's growth.
On the other hand, if you find yourself regularly commenting on posts without taking pause first to consider how those comments might be perceived by your audience, you might end up regretting those moments of keyboard courage.
The problem with techniques and templates that oversimplify your business
There are endless resources online for those looking to ‘up’ their marketing game: templates to hone in on your target audience, specific formulas you can follow to grow your social media account or increase your email list, and techniques for getting clear on where and how you should be showing up online, to name a few.
And, while there’s nothing wrong with the intention behind these resources, there are a few issues that tend to come up when business owners rely too heavily on them.
The cost of burnout and how to avoid it
I regularly work with creatives and business owners on honing in on their marketing plans and strategy, and more often than not there is no shortage of ideas. There’s rarely a lack of inspiration or an empty to-do list. Instead, I’m generally shutting ideas down (in a loving way), streamlining processes, and encouraging entrepreneurs to be more realistic with what they focus on and commit to.
Because although their ideas might be new and fun and exciting, there is always a cost to pursuing them. And far too often I see business owners spinning their wheels – trying to do way more than they have the resources for, and bringing themselves to the point of burnout, because they don’t have a plan in place.
How to create effective calls to action (CTAs) in your content
Your call to action directs your audience as to what you want them to do in each piece of content. It provides consumers with clear next steps and direction, which can reduce friction for customers, prevent decision fatigue or overwhelm, and generate more conversions.
Unfortunately, these calls to action are also often misunderstood, which can make them frustrating.
Here are some examples of the common issues I see with CTAs and how to fix them.
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