Get Your Message Out There with Fresh Content
When you have an online business and website to keep optimized, you’ll need an ongoing fresh supply of content. But, rather than just uploading content for content’s sake, choose to add content that says something worth saying; content that draws readers in and makes them want to stay tuned. Teach them something. Share something of value.
Maybe the focus of your business is narrow. Perhaps your customers come to you for something very specific and finding new things to write about becomes challenging. No matter your subject, there are always new ways to tackle it. In today’s changing society, there’s always something new that can be added to put a spin on an old topic. Turning to outside writers may be the ideal way to gain the fresh perspective you need.
While it may feel redundant to continually tell your audience what you do, what you think, and what you sell, this is the way business marketing is done these days.
Updating all your platforms with fresh content is imperative. While it can be time-consuming, and at times frustrating if you’re not much of a writer, there are alternate ways to get the job done. You can purchase fresh content from a freelance writer or web content agency to use.
Your audience will stay tuned if they know there is more valuable information coming down the pipeline from you. Create more opportunities for the conversation to continue by updating your content regularly and linking it to all your platforms.
Why is Content Updating Important?
You’re going to need updated content if you’re to have anything to put on your blog and link to your Twitter feed, Facebook and LinkedIn pages.
Your audience wants to be updated and inspired. They want to make new discoveries that will improve their jobs or lifestyles. They want to know your business is still active and want to hear about what you’re working on. They’re eager to hear about the new things you’ve tried or read and want to recommend.
If you are the go-to expert in a certain field, your clients will look to you to do the homework they have no time to do themselves. By adding ongoing good content to your platforms, over time they’ll learn to trust your expertise.
Why Fresh Content is the Best Thing Since Sliced Bread
Of course, you aren’t going to spend significant time and money on inputting creative content without benefiting in some way. Ultimately, you want to make sales, broaden your platform, and build your reputation. This is why it’s important you provide information your audience will want to share, talk about, and will walk away with something of value. Good content should make readers bookmark your pages, add you to their RSS Feeds, sign up for your newsletters, hire you, or buy your products. You’ll want to lead people to a particular destination, and with purpose. Perhaps it’s to your compelling offer with an opt-in to some valuable content where you are helping them, or it’s to your amazing product or service that convinces them they cannot live without it.
New fresh content will also help optimize your website so it will appear higher in search engine rankings. Search engines aren’t the only ones using web crawlers to identify important content, though. Anyone searching for information in an organized manner will use a crawler for their own reasons. Adding fresh content increases the chance you’ll be found.
Making an Ongoing Commitment
The most painful thing I see happening all the time is how people who mean to create content, just never do. Or they start, then stop within a few months…or less. I think their expectation of what they should be seeing as a result, and what the results actually are, are completely different. It’s not a matter of how long you should be creating fresh content. It’s a matter of planning it out for long stretches, not giving yourself a period of time where you don’t at least have some idea of what you can create every month.
What’s even better is that the effort you put into creating content, or having content created, can be re-purposed into a multitude of additional pieces. Videos, ebooks, images, webinars, social posts, presentations, and pdfs can all be part of well-planned web content with a long-term and measurable impact.
If you approach content creation as a sustained development strategy, not just something you do for an event campaign, that’s how you’re going to get the greatest reward.
If you find that you’re a start-n-stopper, don’t be so hard on yourself. There’s never a time when you should be saying “because I cannot seem to stay on track with getting content created, perhaps content marketing is not for me.†There is no right or wrong way to tackle it. A surprising misconception that many people have is the time it takes them to write a value-packed piece of content. They feel it shouldn’t possibly take 3-4 hours to write something, and that they should leave it to the “prosâ€. In all honesty, it takes most of us that long (or longer) to create value content. Most people who create content are not blessed with the gift of easy writing. It takes work and it takes time. The main point is that you embrace content creation and keep plugging away.
No Writing Skills? No Time to Write? When Buying Content Makes Sense.
You can spend your own time writing, hire in-house staff to write for you, or you can purchase content from freelance writers or web content agencies. If you purchase pieces for full rights, you can then tweak them and add your own name and links. Buying from other authors doesn’t make you any less of an expert, it just means the craft of writing isn’t what you’ve chosen to focus your time on.
Surprising Ways Fresh Content is More Refreshing than New Socks
Today’s audience are readers, spending more time reading online than reading newspapers or books, or watching television. More people look online for solutions. Inquisitive people are voracious web surfers always on the hunt to uncover new trends and make discoveries, so you need to be there for them to discover!
There are many ways to cross-promote your business and link your content so that it is found in a number of places. A would-be client might discover your link on Twitter or LinkedIn, through a friend’s Facebook feed, in the description on a YouTube video, an image on Pinterest, in the description on a Slideshare presentation, and so on. Your audience is EVERYWHERE, so you’ll want to be found EVERYWHERE! The more quality material you have online, the more likely it is you’ll establish a presence and begin building your platform.
The Internet is today’s water cooler where people gather to make friends, discuss trends, and make discoveries. It’s important to be part of the discussion if you want to effectively do business today.Â
Don’t underestimate the power of adding good quality web content to your blog or website on an ongoing basis in order to get your message out and reel the buyers in.
As a matter of fact, let me get you started. Go buy a calendar, grab a pencil, and find a quiet and comfortable place to contemplate. Then answer the following and begin to fill in your calendar:
- What is it you want to accomplish with your message over the next 3 to 12 months. Do you have a big picture journey you want to take your audience on?
- Describe your Unique Selling Proposition (USP). What is it that makes you and your message/product different and special. What do you offer that your competition does not?
- What’s going on in your business over the next 3 to 12 months? Are you planning webinars? A live event? A product launch? Are you publishing a book or ebook?
- List any business anniversaries, milestones that will be reached, or other accomplishments.
- What’s happening in your industry over the next 3 to 12 months?
- Come up with a theme or category for each month. Grouping your content this way allows you to be thorough, it allows you to create a story or a series of episodes, and is a great way to get your own mind focused on a single topic at a time. If you find that your thoughts are all over the place because you have so much to share, this is a wonderful way to bring it together for you.
Before you know it, you’ll be well on your way to developing months worth of content ideas that will work their magic for you for a long time.
And Remember, it’s Never Too Late to Get Started
If you find that you are unmotivated, uninspired, or just plain drawing a blank, a Content Editorial Calendar can give your creativity the jumpstart it needs. Creating a 12-month calendar is ideal, but even 3 months will move you in the direction of being more productive, and with purpose.
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