Feeling overwhelmed at this whole content and marketing thing? Sometimes it can feel like a lot -- especially when you have a lot going on in other areas of your life, but somehow still need to be more active on social media, get your website up and running, and send an email out to past customers to keep them engaged (seemingly all at once).
If you’re feeling this way right now, believe me – I’ve definitely felt that way too. Trying to balance working full-time, taking care of home, and making boss moves that could help you transition out of your day job can be a lot to juggle. However, what I found to be key for me when it comes to content and marketing is exactly what I’ll walk you through here in these three areas.
To help you gain momentum and clarity, I’ve outlined three segments you’ll want to work on inch by inch. This way will allow you to pace yourself when creating content, while still focusing on the foundation first and building up from there. There are three foundational business essentials for creating the content you’ll need in place: brand identity, brand messaging, and brand strategy. Many solo entrepreneurs try to do these all at once, but that’s a recipe for burnout and failure. I recommend that you focus on one before moving on to the next. I’ll explain what to focus on in each and ways to leverage them all below.
Brand identity: In brand identity, this goes back to the ground floor and is absolutely essential to establish on a foundational level. Such components within this phase includes content for a professional bio, about us, mission, core values, tagline, elevator pitch, short bio for social presence, hashtags, and product/service description.
Think about your overall purpose, vision, expertise, and why you’re doing what you do – then get it out of your head and write it down. To develop a clear, defined voice and make sure that what you’re putting out is attracting who you want, it’s a best practice to also complete an ideal client profile to pinpoint who you’re marketing to through your content. You’ll also want to become besties with a graphic designer to help you develop your visual brand (i.e. logo, colors, stationary, etc.), which goes hand in hand with content to make a strong, professional, and profitable statement for your business.
Brand messaging: Once your brand’s identity has been established, it’ll be easier to start developing messaging that will attract your ideal clients and position yourself or business as an authority in your industry. The content you’ve created during the brand identity phase is exactly the core content you’ll need for your website pages, so now you can just plug and play!
Other content to consider after your brand identity content is in place includes brand messaging for social media, email, and blogs (or other learning hubs like podcasts or live videos). You’ll want to develop a content calendar to help you focus better on scheduling out your ideas. Good news is content for all of these channels can be repurposed from what you’ve created in your brand identity. Yes, you can re-purpose 1 piece of content into up to 14 pieces of high-quality content!
Brand strategy: After you have a good footing on your brand identity and you have content going out with your brand messaging, now you can begin to develop content that will be key to help you convert, nurture, and upsell to your customers on a higher level. Content that should be developed for this phase includes call to actions, email sequences, freebies, sales pages, landing pages, advertisement copy, pitches, marketing material, and promotions schedules.
In this stage, creating content that sales and moves your people to make a purchasing decision is essential. The right strategy behind your content and marketing will help you automate the process of generating new leads and customers regularly with less and less effort over time, so you can eventually replace your income from your day job or get back more of the time you need to focus on other areas of your life.
When it comes to content, the strategy of it can get complex. However, by breaking down each phase into segments, you will finally be able to see the light at the end of the tunnel to be able to execute your content at a pace you can handle. Try breaking each phase down into quarterly goals that are more manageable for you or work at whatever time-frame works best for you. That is a-okay. What’s most important is finally being able to get it done. By implementing these tips, say hello to having the peace of mind that comes with building content from the ground up and bye-bye to the old way of doing content that has been costing you customers and sales.
Until next time. You’ve got this!
Have more questions? I’ve got answers! Join me on Facebook to ask what you've been dying to know. Or if you’re looking for some D.IY. or personalized "done for you" content marketing solutions, schedule a free consultation here to discuss your needs more in detail and create freedom in your business so you can focus on other areas of your life and business that matter most.
Meet Your Content Marketing Specialist
Hi, I’m Jasmine – award-winning journalist, author, Editor in Chief, and certified Content Marketing Strategist. For over 7 years, I’ve been helping businesses create content that's clear and true to their authentic voice, helps them gain visibility, attracts their ideal clients, and grows their business!
I realized in my own business (and with my clients), the right words meshed with the right systems can be a game-changer.
That's why I teach people how to have freedom in their business by leveraging content and their brand's messaging to attract their most valuable payers (without losing themselves, sleep, or sanity). Learn more here.
xoxo - Jassy