No matter what business you’re in, if you’re marketing your products and services (and you no doubt are) then you’re most likely creating content. Lots and lots of content.
💻 Blog posts
📧 Emails
🎁 Opt-in gifts
📚 Books
📹 Videos
🎙️ Podcasts…
The list goes on and on and on.
In fact, you probably spend the majority of your workday creating content. And it’s still not enough. What if you could quickly and easily create more content, without spending hours at the keyboard? I’ve got a few tips that will do the trick!
Strategy #1: Crowdsource It
Think you can’t get other people to write your content without paying them? Think again. You can easily tap into your network of friends, colleagues and even competitors to create an endless stream of content that requires very little work on your part.
💡 Interview the influencers in your niche, either in text or audio
💡 Solicit guest posts for your blog
💡 Build a panel of experts to answer questions for your email subscribers
💡 Host a webinar with a guest speaker
💡 Create a survey and share the results
The possibilities for creating content based on input from others are nearly endless, and while all of them require you to play some part, the actual time spent will be minimal. I recently collaborated on an article with Desi-Ann Gordon, an entrepreneur who operates within the same niche as I do. You can check it out to get an idea of what collaborative content could look like for you! If you’ll be collaborating on a post, remember to include promotional content that you’ll share with your collaborators so they can promote it to their audience. Something like this video Desi-Ann created for our post is perfect!
Strategy #2: Repurpose It
If you’ve been producing content for a while now you likely have a vast collection of content. You’ve written hundreds of blog posts and emails, recorded dozens of how-to videos, produced several ebooks or guides or created at least a few presentations.
Don’t let all that content sit around and collect dust! Look at what you already have, find ways to give it a fresh, and get it back out there. You could even turn a series of blog posts into an ebook to sell, or transform an ebook into a video course. Your podcast transcripts could become books for sale in print and on Kindle or tripwire for a paid course. Outdated blogs can find new life (and new readers) with a simple refresher by using more current data or adding new insight.
Strategy #3: Rebrand It
Looking for something completely new that you haven’t offered before? Put your keyboard away and give done-for-you content a shot instead. Prewritten content gives you the flexibility to create exactly what your audience needs and wants, without spending hours (or days) researching and writing. All that’s left is for you to add your unique voice and perspective, change the colors and add your logo.
In no time at all, you’ll have ebooks, planners, and even complete training courses ready to sell. Your audience will love that you keep them up to date on the latest trends, and you’ll love how quickly you can create new content with little to no writing involved.
Creating content is time-consuming but it’s a crucial part of marketing. These are 3 simple ways to make the process easier for you.
If you really want to challenge yourself this month and start to develop a blog creation routine join me in my Blog-tober challenge! We won’t be producing new posts every day (unless you want to!) but we’ll be dedicating time daily to focus on our blog. We’ll tackle what goes into generating ideas, how to create an outline, ideas for content upgrades, and of course – write new posts!
Now my focus is on using all that I’ve learnt, and everything I know about marketing and communication to help entrepreneurs like you gain clarity on how to market your business. Hiring a marketing agency or spending thousands on campaigns might not be possible now, but your business deserves to be seen. And together, we can make that happen!
Great post Emjae! And, I loved how you shared the video right in the post. it was so on point, introduced you and Desi-Ann’s collab and made me want to go read the rest of it which gets her traffic to her blog too.
And, most importantly, your ideas for reducing the content creation workload were spot on!
I loved them and actually have used many of them in the past. I intend to do a lot more repurposing this quarter and in the upcoming year.
Thanks, Pam! I’m actually working on a guide for repurposing content so that will be up soon! 🙂