Are you looking for ways to improve your content creation process? You know that creating great content is a brilliant way to connect with your potential clients yet it all feels so overwhelming. There is so much to learn!
I love writing and I love a good system so I wanted to share six of my favourite tips to make planning and creating your content easier.
Tips to improve your content creation process
1. Beware of the fire hydrant of ideas
You’ve got a LOT of ideas. You’re so excited about all of your epic ideas that you’re going to share everything with your people. Right now!
While your enthusiasm is fantastic you can end up flooding your audience with too many ideas at once which leaves them overwhelmed and not knowing what to do next. Or they feel they need to go through ALL of your content before they can work with you.
Instead of drenching your audience with all of your ideas at once, and leaving them to figure out what they need amongst all of the content, take those ideas and pace them out so they easily soak in.
2. Have a plan (even just a little one)
Now don’t get me wrong, I love to share a spontaneous post when a great idea strikes me.
But when spontaneity is all that is happening your content can become a mess. If you only share content when you feel like it then you’re missing an opportunity to take your clients through a considered journey.
You’re also making it harder on yourself as creative spontaneity won’t always show up when you need it, especially if you’re busy with other parts of your business (or life). That can lead to stress and a feast and famine cycle of income.
Instead have a blend of structured content and spontaneity in your content creation process. When I have a plan in place I know I’m providing consistent value AND there is lots of space if I have a fantastic new idea I want to share.
3. Be consistent – your readers deserve it
Do you share three posts a day for a month, then nothing for the next 6 months? Or a weekly blog post for January and February then you get busy and don’t write another one until August?
This is one of the biggest areas I see business owners struggling with because they haven’t set up a way to easily create the content they need. That means when they get busy with clients, or have something happen in their personal life, all comes to pieces and their content marketing goes out of the door.
Instead design a content creation process that you know you’ll be able to achieve easily. If writing a blog post once a week feels like too much, then start with a post every two weeks then switch to once a week when you feel comfortable doing so. You want to set yourself up in a way that you can achieve your content goals, rather than getting discouraged because it all feels too hard and overwhelming.
4. Let go of perfect
Do you spend hours and hours creating the perfect content? The blog post that reads exactly right, the video you re-recorded 20 times until it was just how you wanted it?
While I applaud your efforts at excellence there is a tipping point when that extra effort doesn’t get you any closer to your goals.
Remember your content doesn’t need to be perfect to help someone, but it does need to be shared. Crafting great content takes practise and the best way to get feedback is to share it with your audience. You’ll quickly see the areas that need improving and you can build your skills as you go.
If you’ve got 20 half- written posts that you’ve never shared, now is the perfect time to practise finishing one in all of its imperfect glory.
5. Create content that has a purpose
Have you ever promised yourself that you’d post on your IG 5 times a week? Then it gets to Friday night, you’re relaxing with family, and you remember you haven’t posted today! So you write some random thing just so you can tick that box.
Creating content so you can cross an item off your to-do list isn’t going to help your business or your potential clients. We don’t want to create any old content, rather we want to create content with a purpose.
Consider the job of each piece of content. Is it to educate? To entertain? To inspire? Do you want to encourage people to book in a call with you? It’s important to have a strategy for your content so that each piece has a job to do, and you can review how well it did that job.
6. Always remember who you’re creating for
It’s all too easy for your niche to go out the window when you’re in the flow of creating. I know I’ve done that! You’ve got a great idea and you go with it, except that the content ends up being so broad that you’ve lost the connection with your audience along the way.
Instead have details of your niche, their goals and challenges, close at hand when you plan and create your content. I’ve had a few times where I’ve realised that the content I created wasn’t meeting the specific needs of my people – I’d gone off track in the midst of creating.
That is where the editing process is so important as it gives you a chance to review your work through the lens of what your audience needs. Your content creation process needs to include a check of some kind that ensures you haven’t gone too wide, and are still speaking to the needs of your audience.
Designing a content creation process that is tailored to your business needs, and the way that you like to create content, means you’ll be able to easily improve your content marketing.
If you’d like planning and creating your content to be easier then book in a free call with me. I’m a total systems geek, who loves to write, and I’d be happy to have a chat with you about getting your content creation, and your business, systemised.
