Content creation made easy

Does content creation feel stressful and time-consuming and is, therefore, one of the things on your to-do list that is constantly getting bumped and never done?

The following ideas will help you get the ideas out of your head and on to paper. By doing this you will have a great mix of inspiration and partially created content that you can use in many different ways.

So where do you start? Start by asking yourself: What is something you want people to know?

For example, the following statements are things certain businesses would want their audience to know:

"Drinking more water is good for you."

"There's no ONE way to success, you need to find the best path for you."

" Facebook Live is a great way to connect with your audience."

It starts with one statement

Come up with one statement - something that isn't specifically about what YOU do, but something that you want your audience to know you believe and something that will help your audience.

Now write that statement at the top of a page (a Word processing document, at the top of a page in a notebook, wherever works for you). Remember: your statement is something you believe, something that will help your audience and something that will reinforce what you do and sell.

Next come the ideas

Fill the page with ideas about that statement.

They can be one-liners, they can be tips, they can be testimonials that show how effective it is when people buy into your statement. They can also be inspirational quotes, theories, stories, or they can be whatever else happens to come out.

For example, for the above statements those business owners could say:

"Drinking more water is good for you."

• Drinking water makes your skin softer
• Drinking water is good for your overall health
• Drinking water is better for you than sugary drinks

"There's no ONE way to success, you need to find the best path for you."

• People work differently to achieve their end goal
• Everyone has a different business and business model
• When something isn't working for you, don't just keep telling yourself to do it anyways, try to figure out a different way to do it that DOES work for you.

"Facebook Live is a great way to connect with your audience."

• Facebook Live is a great storytelling tool
• Facebook Live is convenient for both the viewer and user
• When you go live you don't need to worry about perfection, you're letting people connect to the real you (which they love) AND you don't need to worry about the perfect script, the perfect backdrop or the perfect makeup

Don't overthink it!

Set a timer for 15 minutes so that this doesn't become too onerous a task. Just see how much you can get out of your head that backs up that one statement. Every idea is worth writing down!

Then use this gold. How?

* Social media updates
* Group them together into points in a blog post
* Use them as the main points in a presentation or workshop
* Use them as talking points for a video
* Use them as a pitch or talking points to go on TV or the radio

Often we overthink what it takes to get content out of our heads when it's all right there. Brain dump it out and then figure out how you're going to use it, or get someone to help you (a virtual assistant is great for this!)

So... what will you write at the top of your page today?

Create Facebook content by theming your days

We talk a lot about the value of having a plan when you’re creating content. Today I thought I’d talk a bit about how having themes for every day of the week for your Facebook page (or any of your social networks) can help you come up with content quickly.

What do you want people to know about?

First come up with some messages that you want to share with your audience: 

• Do you want people to know that using your product will save them time?
• Do you want people to know that you cook amazing meals that are healthy? 
• Do you want people to know that you’re an expert in renovating kitchens? 
• Do you want people to know that hiring a realtor is better than trying to sell their house on their own?

Create a list of broad categories of things you want people to know about you – just 2 or 3. This is going to help make sure that what you’re sharing is helping you achieve your goals.

Assign a certain kind of content to each day of the week.

For example:

Sundays you can share an article from someone else. There are all kinds of people writing incredible content that back up what you want people to know – that healthy food made from scratch is good for you, that exercising every day is important, that selling your home independently won’t always save you money. Spend a bit of time right now finding four articles that talk about something you believe in that would be of interest to your audience.

Mondays you can share a tip. Spend some time writing down four tips that would help your audience i.e., cooking tips, marketing tips, productivity tips, etc. 

Tuesdays you’re going to feature something from your website.  Go and browse around your website - what are some interesting things you want people to know about? Is there a page that tells me why I should buy something? Is there a testimonials page? Is there a free tool I could download? Find four interesting things and save the URLs for those pages and explain why people should be interested in having a look.

Wednesday ask a question from your community. Maybe it’s something about their favourite products or tools, or maybe it’s something about how they overcome certain challenges. Jot down four.

Thursday we’re going to play with Throwback Thursday (#TBT). Do you have old photos in the archives? Pull up four and quickly tell the story about a great event, about your first year in business, or about how much technology has changed since you opened.

Friday share an article from your website. You probably have all kinds of great content on your blog. Go find it and share it again – it’s still relevant. Pick four now.

Saturday we’ll go with something lighter because people like light on the weekend. Are there any jokes or comics you could share? I’m a fan of going to Pinterest and typing in key words to find stuff like that to share. Find four of these.

Do you see what I did there? If you find four of each of those things, you have a month of Facebook content already written and ready to schedule. It will take an hour or two most likely, but once completed you will have great content ready for the entire month!

Leave me a comment and tell me what your daily categories would be and if you think this would work well for you and your content creation! 

Is what I’m doing online worth the time I’m investing?

Creating a successful online presence requires a lot of work and a lot of content. It can be overwhelming and figuring out if what you’re doing is actually working can be really hard. 

In my experience, people's unrealistic expectations are the main cause of discouragement when it comes to their social media use. People get upset that more people aren’t opening their newsletters, that more people aren’t commenting on their Facebook updates or that more people aren’t viewing their blog posts. But here’s the thing... success doesn’t need to come in thousands of page views or dozens of comments, and it definitely isn’t instantaneous.

The slow build of consistency

Social media and online marketing rarely result in immediate sales and even more rarely does a post go viral. You need to think of social media as an opportunity to prove your expertise and your credibility, and building those things take time. 

We have a really valuable client who followed our content and read our weekly newsletters for two years before signing on with us. That may not be the ideal or the norm, but it shows that consistently sharing content and providing value kept us top of mind until they were ready to work with us.  

Think of the content that you're putting online as a way to build your reputation, make it easier to find you online, as well as giving your audience opportunities to work with you through clear calls to action and demonstrations of what you do and how you can help them. 

Quality over quantity

I know “quality over quantity” is one of those things that you hear constantly and is everywhere nowadays, but it’s true. You can have a small email list and only a few hundred likes on Facebook, but if those people are people who really want to know what it is that you’re doing and selling, they can convert just as well as someone who has tens of thousands of disinterested people on their lists.

Did you know that the average open rate for marketing emails is only 15-25%?

Are you wondering if you’re getting a decent amount of traffic on your web site? Like this article says, the key isn’t so much what your number is, but how well you’re doing by benchmarking against yourself.  Are your numbers steadily increasing? Are they decreasing? What seems to work well? Do more of that. 

Have a plan

Knowing why you're doing what you're doing and how to do it well is key to success in online marketing. It's why we are always 'harping' about having a plan and why we try to offer you all kinds of ways to learn how to use the tools well to increase your opportunity for success.

Want to learn more about blogging? Join us next week on Thursday, April 2nd at 1 p.m. EST for a free webinar all about blogging. During this free webinar, we will give you valuable tips to get you started right, so that the time you spend online IS well worth it. Reserve your spot by clicking HERE.

Learn to blog in 5 weeks with our new online course!

There are so many great reasons to have a blog: 

• To showcase your expertise.
• To give people a reason to come to your website (your home base on the web).
• To help with search engine optimization (SEO) so that you'll come up in search.

The problem, of course, isn't that people don't know the value of having a blog, it's that they don't know how to start a blog, they don't know what to talk about, they don't know how to optimize their content, or they don't feel they can handle the maintenance of a blog. These are all really valid concerns, but we don't want to let them stop you.

Simple Start - Blogging

One of our goals at Wellman Wilson is to create tools to help you feel comfortable with online marketing. We started with a course that helps with Facebook and Twitter, last Fall we introduced a course on newsletters and now we're thrilled to be starting a course on blogging!

The goal of our blogging course is to walk you through the steps of setting up a blog from the very beginning. Does this mean that if you already have a blog this course isn't for you? Definitely not, it may just mean that some of the very first lessons have some refresher material for you - which never hurts!

What you'll learn

Week 1 - Foundations

Choosing to blog - why? how?
Identifying audience, goals
Crafting key messages

Week 2 - Content Basics

Creating a theme (subject) for your blog
Picking blog topics
Telling stories

Week 3 - Enhancing Content

Mixing up content - types of blog posts/media
Creating content
Using images to enhance blog posts

Week 4 - Planning

Setting up a plan
Using a content/editorial calendar
Establishing a regular publishing schedule

Week 5 - Optimize for Success

Optimizing your content for sharing
Learning the basics of SEO (search engine optimization)
Measuring success

How does it work?

The lessons are emailed based and will be delivered to your inbox over 5 weeks. Each week you'll cover a series of topics and be given homework and assignments to move you forward through the lessons.

You will be added to a closed Facebook Group where you will get the support of other people also taking the course and where you can ask questions that we will answer. 

You can also take advantage of our PLUS program which will give you access to one of us for three 30-minute calls.

How much does it cost?

As with our other programs we like to offer a great rate the first time a course is offered. If you enrol when the blogging course launches April 9th the cost is only $49 (it will be $99 when it runs again)!

For more information, including how to register visit: http://www.wellmanwilson.com/blogging

We look forward to seeing you in the course!

Three Reasons Businesses Hire Wellman Wilson Consulting

Have you ever thought about shooting us an email or giving us a call, but you are not quite sure what you need help with? Perhaps you are an entrepreneur or small business owner and you have a website (yay!), but haven’t the faintest idea how to set up a Facebook page for your business (or perhaps you accidentally created it as a Group), or maybe you have a page, but it hasn’t been updated since you created it… two years ago.  Then there are those other social networks you know you should have an account with, but don’t know which ones are the best to reach your target market. And let’s not forget about your blog… and a newsletter! 

Businesses, like yours, hire Wellman Wilson Consulting because of our ability to break down social media and e-marketing into manageable pieces and teach you the tools and methods you need to make them work for you. Here’s how we do it:

1) Teaching businesses how to use social media

We don’t just teach people how to use Facebook ads or promote your business on Twitter, we teach you the value social media has in making connections with your clients, online and in person. Our Simple Start programs walk businesses through learning how to connect, promote, endorse, engage, and interact with customers. We teach you how having a conversation with a perfect stranger online can result in sales for your business.

We have had clients come to us afraid of social media, but by the end of the Simple Start program they not only have multiple social media accounts set up, but also have a solid plan in place to keep their social media current and relevant.

These same clients go on to expand their digital marketing to include newsletters and within weeks they have learned all the tools they need to start, create and send regular newsletters to their audience.

2) Creating a plan and making sure businesses stick to it

Every business needs a social media plan and we make sure it meets your business’ objectives. We take a look at who your audience is, where you can reach them, what your key messages are, what your goals are, and how we can make social media work to reach your audience and your goals.

We then take this strategy one step further with our Accountability Program. We have helped numerous clients stay accountable by helping them develop an action plan, keep track of their monthly activity, examine their content, and talking to them on the phone every month for a full year to review how things are working for them (and making sure they are doing what they say they are going to do).

3) One-on-one feedback, guidance and support

Our coaching programs are all about accountability, encouragement and feedback on your social media and e-marketing efforts. We help train clients, implement strategies and develop content. We also customize our coaching programs to fit our clients’ needs – because we know that not every business has the same problems.

Clients come to Wellman Wilson Consulting because they know they are not just getting a regurgitated written social media strategy. They are offered a personalized social media and e-marketing plan that not only includes a strategy, but the training they need to implement the strategy, the accountability support needed to make sure their plan stays on track, and the option to outsource content creation and graphics to us.

So, if you are not sure what you need from us, but know you need help with social media, we have given you three reasons why businesses just like yours took the next step and contacted us. They didn’t regret it and neither will you, so email or call us today!

We look forward to hearing from you.