Running a small business typically means that you’re in charge of absolutely everything – from the financial side of things to the creative stuff.
Content creation, especially in the digital age, has become a cornerstone of business and marketing which means that you want to get it right for success in your company.
However, when you’re not creative-minded, didn’t study in this line of work, or just consider yourself a bit clueless, it can be tough to know how to go about managing all this.
Here are six tips to help you out with creating content that will reel in your audience.
Be Consistent
Consistency with your brand identity is an important part of making yourself memorable. You’ll want all the content on your website, social media pages, and even physical branding (like your packaging) to have the same look and feel, true to your business.
If your small business doesn’t have a set color palette yet, you can use this great color palette generator – create.vista.com. Once you have your color palette, a few fonts, and our tone of voice set, stick with these to create consistency in your content and marketing.
Know Your Audience
Don’t fall into the trap of creating generic content and simply following the trends. Doing market research and understanding who you’re communicating with forms a crucial part of content creation.
The type of material you’re producing, the tone of voice you use, where you post your content, etc., will all depend hugely on who you’re putting your messages across to and who you hope will hear and see you.
Make sure you’re intimately familiar with the type of person you’re targeting and curate all your content to align with what they will want to read, see, and hear.
Provide them with the type of material they’ll want to consume – nothing more, nothing less. Creating a buyer’s persona could help you in this instance.
Pick a Lane
Staying on top of digital marketing is important, but you need to make peace with the fact that you simply cannot have a finger in every pie – for good reason.
Having a business account on every single social media platform, on top of email newsletters and other forms of communication, is just unsustainable. Your content will be sparse and your audience won’t grow much.
Make sure you’re aware of current social media trends and try to align your content with what’s relevant. Pick two or three avenues to focus on and make sure you do it well and post consistently.
Often, the platforms you choose will depend on the nature of your company and who you’re targeting. If you’re catering to the younger generation, TikTok is probably your best bet.
However, if your business is more professional formal, educational, sophisticated, or any other related descriptors, you might choose to focus on your company website, email newsletters, a LinkedIn page, and perhaps Facebook.
Make it Relevant
You’ll also need to make sure you’re posting the right types of content for what’s trending, but also for your business. For example, sharing beautiful, picturesque landscape shots is a great idea for travel or adventure-related business.
However, if an online store that sells customized dog collars posts the same type of content, it won’t contribute much to its marketing.
Think about what kind of content would be relevant and even useful for your audience – infographics, fun or motivational quotes, product photography, recipe videos. Your options are endless but don’t abuse them.
Changing it up once in a while can be good for growth, but creating a pattern is helpful in gathering loyalty in your views and engagement.
You might consider sharing a positive customer review once a week, doing a monthly challenge on your social media page, or hosting a Q&A every month.
Be Professional
Putting out high-quality content should be a priority, which means that it needs to look and sound professional. Blurry shots of your product edited with an in-app Instagram filter aren’t going to look good.
Similarly, bad spelling and poor grammar in your written content will come off as lazy and unprofessional. Put the time and work into designing and crafting your content to a high standard or hire someone to do it for you.
If you can’t afford to hire a graphic designer, at least invest in good graphic design software that’s easily used by the average person – this will help you to create professional-looking logos and other designs for your content.
Think of Others
Using your platforms and the content you share on them for something bigger than just your own company is important. Corporate social responsibility forms a major part of your brand identity and making this a part of your content is always a good idea.
Show through the material you share what your business is going for others, and use the engagement to help more people, generate donations, or simply create awareness.
You could also consider producing content that directly benefits your audience, such as by sharing free, useful information or resources that are relevant to your industry.
For example, a health-oriented business could share free healthy recipes or information about certain ingredients. A company that advocates for mental health might share useful resources to help others in times of need.
Final Thoughts
Content creation isn’t a simple, thoughtless process. There’s a lot that goes into the before, the during, and even the after.
Make sure to plan your material thoroughly and really think about what you’re putting out there, what it will do for your brand, and what it might offer your audience.
