You are sitting down to create content for social media. You know you have to be consistent, and you are excited to get started. And then blank.
Nothing comes to mind.
Whether you are creating marketing content for social media or advertising, you must have a strategy and a clear understanding as to why you are doing it for your marketing to be effective. Here are some of the questions to ask yourself to get your creative juices flowing.
What is the result you are aiming for?
You might have heard this advice before. Start with the end in mind. This is great advice for anything you plan to do, including your marketing content.
What is the result of your content? If you are creating it for marketing purposes for a business, your result will likely be to either increase brand reach and awareness or leads for the business.
Now that you have these results in mind, how will this affect your content?
Let’s keep unwrapping it.
For lead generation results.
What are you selling? Are there any specific services or deals you want your customers to know about this month? Make sure to include information about those services in your content.
Content marketing is one of the most effective ways to reach your customers. Content marketing is essentially all written communication, and social media content is the most accessible form of it. Customers may find your content when other people share it, or maybe they are coming to your Instagram page when they are doing their research and are about to make a decision whether to hire you or not. When customers land on your Instagram page, make sure they will find what you want them to find about the services you are selling to them.
Ironically, many businesses are not communicating their services on social media enough. So when their potential clients see your content, they miss an opportunity to connect with you around that content.
Action item:
Make sure that 20% of your content is around promoting the key services you are focusing on right now.
Marketing content aligned with the brand’s values.
Your brand values are what makes your business unique. Creating content that reflects your unique business values is an effective way to be memorable and stand out in the busy social media feed.
For example:
If efficiency is your brand value, look at your content and see if your content is literally efficient. Are you communicating the message efficiently? Are you being efficient with people’s time in your feed by having brief, targeted content (that speaks efficiency).
Action item:
Have three key, one-word values in mind every time you create content and then look through your content and check if your content reflects these values.
Marketing content aligned with current trends.
Social media thrives on trends. Increasing brand reach and brand awareness is achieved easier when you are creating trendy content. Simply because people might be looking for that type of (trendy) content through hashtags or social media platforms favour trending content, giving priority in the feed to whatever is popular. Research trends and holidays that are happening in a specific month when you are sharing your content, and build your mess around that.
- Check for stat holidays.
- Look up fun national holidays that are happening.
- Industry announcements and launches.
- Check for trending, relevant hashtags often.
- Check trending music and use it in your content.
- Do keyword research to see what questions and keywords are trending and include them in your content.
- Ask your customers what content they prefer and tailor your content to them.
- Ask your customer what questions they have in mind and answer those questions in your content.
In conclusion:
Using brand filters is important for any brand, no matter how new or established your business is. Build this habit to improve your marketing infrastructure to create clarity and consistency in your marketing so your customers can find you faster in today’s busy world of content.
Need help creating brand filters or marketing systems for clarity and consistency? Get in touch with our marketing agency in Vancouver! We always have chocolate!