022: HOW TO CREATE LESS CONTENT WITH MORE IMPACT
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Today’s question for the podcast:
When starting: how do you navigate the need for content in order to get traffic, with the need for traffic to read your content? You can’t get traffic without content, yet it’s hard to stay motivated to write great content while nobody is reading it.
Quality matters more than quantity. To help you do this, I have an AMAZING freebie that you can grab: The Social Media Action Plan. Get it below.
You’ve probably heard me say this if you’ve ever tuned in but it’s worth repeating – there is nobody literally no one stalking your business, refreshing your news feed or seeing everything that you are putting out into the world the first time you’re sharing it.
THE TRUTH ABOUT CONTENT CREATION
Between social media algorithms, busy lives, and an overload of information, I can almost guarantee that most of your audience is missing your great information. Did you know that only 6% of your followers are actually seeing what you’re sharing? That’s pretty rubbish. In this episode I address growing a following and reaching into new audiences by getting mileage out of content that already exists.
Today I am walking you through the lifecycle of my content, in the hopes that it will inspire you (and save a BUNCH of time) in the content creation process. One of the biggest shifts in my business has been from quantity to quality. When I look back over the years to look at how much content I really produced – I created simply for the fact of creating.
In this podcast we look at what would happen if we flip the script and put more energy into how we are sharing the content we create – and make sure that it gets in front of the right people.
We can find ourselves getting stuck doing things that aren’t actually making an impact or moving the needle forward in our business. So much time can be sucked up creating content, but not creating a plan for what to do with the content once it’s produced. So, here are 10 ideas that will help you revive, reuse or repurpose the content that you’re spending so much time on.
MAKE A BIGGER IMPACT WHILE CREATING LESS
#1 | Spend More Time Planning
Spend less time creating the content and focus on the how, when and where you’re going to share it. Just changing the way that you’re thinking about the actual creation process can have you marketing to the masses in a way that serves them without constantly feeling the need to create new stuff.
When I switched it up, and let go of my type A tendencies, and I said – Okay, I can produce content, but I want this content to be shared to the masses, live on and to have a plan. It allowed me to be far more strategic about what I put out there, and I was no longer creating for the sake of creating.
#2 | Create “Evergreen” Content
When you create content, keep in mind that you intend for this content to be evergreen, live on for more than just one post. This is content that is pertinent a month from now, and not time sensitive. Keep it more general, remove specific dates or seasonal info; if someone were to land on this page in 6 months’ time, it would still be relevant for them.
I started to challenge myself, instead of creating all of this content that would only serve people for a week, what would it look like if I created intentional content that would be useful that would continue to serve my audience long after I first shared it?
Shifting the mindset of being timely to being evergreen helped reduce my workload, while being more intentional behind the creation process.
#3 | Check Your Links
Check them often... and re-check them. Let me be the first to say, I’m not the queen of linking. I’ll get emails saying: “hey this link is broken” or “this link is taking me to the wrong page.” So, I am not perfect at this; perfect is a word that doesn’t exist in my vocabulary… because it does not exist. Things happen, wires get crossed and pages change. In order to keep an elevated experience on your website, you want to make sure that things are working.
To do this, every once in a while I will do a “click test.” I’ll click through a page on my site, just to make sure that everything is taking people to the right spots. It is really important to test things out, and make sure that it is working properly. There is nothing worse than having this promising link to content that you want, only to discover that the link actually leads to nowhere.
#4 | Automation
Automation is my favourite thing. I love using sites like Buffer, Tailwind and the Plan app to help me automate, repurpose, and easily share old and new content alike. To do this, I create a content library, so I can see everything I created, everything I have, and get them scheduled to be pushed out so my audience has more than one chance to enjoy.
On a site like Meet Edgar, you can literally create a content library, write out posts, have different links to share, and select when and where they’re going to get shared to like Twitter, FB groups or your Facebook page.
Tailwind is a Pinterest app, that helps you schedule and loop pins. It’s AMAZING. I’ll spend about an hour a week on my Pinterest strategy, yet I’m dropping out pins every day throughout the week in a strategic way, even though I’m not manually pushing the button to do so.
You know me, I love Plan for my Instagram. I import in a handful of photos at once, rearrange my grid, and put out my posts and set reminders for when they need to go live. This helps so I’m not always needing to be in the content creation headspace. Things are already ready to go. When you batch work you are able to stay in that frame of mind in order to create intentional, meaningful content, that tells a story with consistently needing to do it day in and day out.
Having a content library, and schedule when to push posts out helps my audience (if they didn’t see it the first time) see content in the future.
#5 | Cross-Platform Sharing
I have different audiences from Facebook to Instagram and from Instagram to Pinterest and et cetera. Sometimes, sharing content that was shared on one platform to another is fresh for those people. Not a lot of people are following you on EVERY single channel. If they are, and they’re seeing duplicates of your content, it is just keeping you in the front of their mind.
I love to speak to my different audiences in different ways; sometimes just doing that can create an invitation to read the content. Maybe you have to change up the caption or formatting a little bit, but if you go in with the intention to share cross-platform, you can be far more strategic about how you speak about it, how you write about it, and how you invite others to engage with it.
#6 | Annual Strategy
Look at your content calendar for the year as a whole. Do you have any upcoming launches, or busy seasons you had last year? Could you reuse some of the blog posts or social media posts you made last year instead of constantly writing new ones?
When we look at things from a quarterly and annually perspective, it really helps us to be ahead of the game. One of the biggest mistakes I see people making is creating such timely content, that they’re not giving their audience a chance to be served or warm up to what they’re ultimately be selling
When you can see the content calendar, see the year at a glance, it can help you stay ahead of the game. You can look back and ask: what worked? What didn’t work? How can I repurpose what worked and use it again? Tweak and change what worked last year, without having to reinvent the wheel.
#7 | Promotion, Promotion, Promotion
Maybe you made a freebie and promoted it once or twice, but then it just died on social media. Do you have a freebie that you created and can promote in a new way? Instead of worrying about creating a new free offer for your audience, how can you talk about it in a new way and promote it again?
In my one-on-one client coaching online marketing sessions, I ALWAYS stress the importance of creating an email list. I know everyone wants a big Instagram following, but I want you to focus on your list.
Something I advise to do is to have two different opt-ins. Let’s say you’re a fitness coach, you can make a one-week workout guide, and a grocery shopping and food prep list. Some people fall into the trap of “I couldn’t possibly share this again, because people are going to be annoyed with me.” And I have to remind my clients: no one is refreshing your feed. Maybe they saw it last week, was in a busy spot, and didn’t opt in but wanted to (and forgot about it because life is busy). We have to get out of our own way and start being unapologetic about putting the right tools in the hands of people that need them.
A lot of times, well create incredible freebies, spend so much time on email opt-ins and maybe share them once or twice with the world. If you’re wondering: how the heck can I promote my freebies more, what can I do? Take a look at the Social Media Action Plan freebie I mentioned in the beginning of the podcast. It will walk you through how you can show up, and promote yourself on each platform, share your message, so you can serve you audience before you even go to sell to them. You can grab it below.
#8 | Focus on Analytics
When deciding which content to re-share, check out what is currently doing well. You can do this by looking at Google Analytics and your most visited pages. Once you find out the pages that are performing the best, make sure that you have a freebie attached to convert the traffic to your email list. I always ask my new clients to give me access to their analytics, so many people have it but don’t use it! It is a tool that I pop into at least once a week, because I want to see: what do people want? What are the interested in, excited about and clicking into? How can we have a plan for those people so we can serve them in bigger ways?
I let my Google Analytics dictate what content is coming next, how I’m using Pinterest to share that content with the world, and how it plays a role in my SEO strategy. You want to re-share the stuff that’s killing it. You created it once, now let it do the work for you.
#9 | Re-evaluate Your Content
Check out the pages that aren’t doing so well. Is there a reason why they’re flopping? Is there a way you can improve it? Switch out the title, change the image or flip the description or the way you’re speaking about it. There’s been so many times I’ve created something with the idea “this is going to kill it” and no one opts in for it. If I truly believe that its good, and maybe people just didn’t understand what I was trying to say, I’ll use these tactics. You want to move forward to make it a success (and not just scrap it).
#10 | Reuse Your Content
Would your content do well as a guest post for someone else? I often get approached to contribute content, or write for another person’s blog and I always check my catalogue of topics that’s already been written. The reason they’re reaching out is because the probably already know what I talk about, and so sometimes a fresh introduction and a spin on what’s been written is all I need to do to re-use my content.
Make sure you have new words and are not just copying and pasting an entire article, because that can knock you down in the SEO world. There is no reason to start from scratch.
I remember all of the days where I spent all of my time creating content, only to have that content live and die with the one FB post. Little did I know, my audience was missing out on the information that they wanted, and I wasn’t creating a system that was sustainable for what I wanted to do.
RECAP
When I shifted from quantity to quality, and focused more on promotion, I was able to get so much more mileage out of a post. When you start creating content with a true plan, you’re going to stop spinning your wheels and you’re going to be able to get your content in the right hands. Focus on content that lasts and lives farther that just one social media post. Create with a sense of purpose.
After looking after all of the stuff I’ve created, and figured out a way I can share it with you in new ways, I’ve been able to dial back from spending all of my hours creating and allowed me to say: what does my audience need right now? Do not let content creation consume you, do not waste your days spending time reinventing the wheel... instead share that meaningful message, the purposeful, intentional message with the world and know that: people will appreciate it when you show up and serve them.
Don’t forget to grab your FREE Social Media Action Plan below!
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