Content underpins every marketing activity.
So whether you’re engaging your email list, social media followers or growing a blog, you need to create content.
Because content is what draws your ideal customers to you. Content is what helps you build those relationships and sell more of your stuff.
It all has a significant part to play in growing a sustainable business.
But creating content is often where people fall down. They try to share fresh ideas for each platform, which means they spend the best part of the month stressed out in creation mode.
But what if I told you there was a better way…
What if I said you can have your content done and dusted for the entire month in less than 2 days…
That’s content sorted for:
- 4 blog posts a month
- 1 email a week
- 1 social media post every day
A couple of days a month devoted to marketing may seem like a lot.
But think about it – if you added up all the time you already spend posting to social media, scrolling your feed and thinking about what to say, that day or so is small in comparison.
This is all about getting focused and becoming strategic with your content creation.
So it doesn’t eat into your time, every day. Because with a system you really can set it and forget it for the rest of the month.
So here’s my super simple content creation system that allows you to be everywhere, with less effort.
This blog post is inspired by the blogging, email marketing and social media marketing modules members get access to inside the Pet Biz Thrive Online Club. Where pet professionals just like you learn smarter ways to promote their businesses online.
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Create your lead content
This strategy all starts with your lead content.
This is the content hub that all your emails and social copy will be drawn from.
And in this case, let’s stick with blog posts.
Your lead content could also be videos or a podcast. They’re essentially more in depth content pieces where you can better share your top tips and expertise.
So firstly, start thinking about the kind of content you’ll create. What can you write about that will help your readers solve a specific problem?
Always think about how your blog topics relate to the products or services you offer. Which offer do you want to promote that month and can you link a common theme across your blog posts?
So for example, if you’re a dog trainer, you could do a blog series around various puppy training tips. Each blog post might talk about management, basic training, crate training and reducing puppy biting.
You may then have a specific puppy package you can offer within those posts.
When you’ve decided on your topics, you then set aside time to write your four posts.
Schedule time into your day at the end of each month. Remove all distractions. Create an environment for yourself where you can bring that creativity to life.
Light some scented candles, put music on in the background. Do whatever helps you get into that zone.
To make your blog post writing faster and easier, check out how to structure a simple blog post.
Create your emailers
Now it’s time to make people aware of the awesome content you’ve just created. And your email list is the best place to start.
But if you’re thinking: ‘But Karly, I don’t have an email list!’. Now is the time to start, my friend.
Use a lead magnet to start attracting people onto your email list. If you aren’t familiar with the concept of a lead magnet, head over here to explore my 7 lead magnet ideas to grow a five figure email list.
To nurture your subscribers effectively, you want to send at least one email a week. And this is all taken from the blog content you’ve created.
So no thinking up fresh ideas – you’ve already done the hard part!
There are a couple of ways you can approach your email marketing.
You can simply copy and paste the entire blog post into each new email. Or you can take the first couple of paragraphs and link to the blog post with: ‘head over to the blog to read more’.
Use an email system like Mailchimp, Mailerlite, or Convertkit to bulk schedule the emails for each week.
Create your social media content
Next, we want to use your blog posts to create social media content for the next 30 days.
Within each blog post, pull out 5 prominent tips that can be used as standalone posts for social media. Again, this is an easy peasy copy and paste job.
Then within each post, be sure to include a call to action.
Try to mix this up so you’re not always doing the same thing.
You could link directly back to the original blog post, add a link to a related lead magnet, ask a question, or ask people to get in touch about a particular service.
Then to make your social media marketing almost completely hands off, use a tool to schedule that month’s content.
I like to use Smarterqueue, but Buffer and Hootsuite will get the job done too.
And that’s it! With this system you can create a month’s worth of content from just 4 initial content ideas.
If you need content creation support, we have a wealth of planning tools, content prompts, guides and templates inside the Pet Biz Thrive Online Club. And we’d love to welcome you in!