By Nora Jacques
From the time you make the sale to the time you deliver what you promised, you have the opportunity to capture your knowledge, package it and leverage that expertise as content you can use to grow your business.
You started your business to solve a problem. Your customers come to you for your leadership. So, as you create, build and serve, you are participating in the highly optimized process of producing a valuable customer experience. Every part of what you do is valuable: the questions you ask your customers, the products and process you use, your style, your influence and your connections. So, why not transform your daily business rhythms into thought leadership content?
You are a thought leader.
When you wake up, you put your best foot forward because you know that first impressions matter. When you show up on a business call, you’re on time, you’re attentive and you’re prepared. You care deeply about the work you do and your customers know it.
You live, breathe and eat this work. This is your craft. You are an expert.
It is your responsibility and your duty to the world to disseminate the wisdom, knowledge and expertise that you have honed for decades through social media, blogs, website and email content.
I would even venture to say, you are doing your customers and potential customers a disservice when you don’t share your knowledge with the world through digital channels.
You may have a million excuses for not creating content regularly – you don’t do well on camera, don’t know what to say, or have time – well, that is all hogwash. It’s nonsense.
You sell every day. Every time you share your services and products, you are selling. The only difference is that now you are adding a camera to the room.
Still not convinced? Here are 3 hacks that make content creation so easy even a caveman could do it:
Lesson 1: Start with Why
Simon Sinek gave a speech on Ted, called “Start with Why”. It was based on his book and shared the premise that every great business or effort, should start with why. Your “why” is your reason for existence. Your “why” is your north star which guides all of your business activities and initiatives. Your business goals should be the central, motivating factors in your content strategy, whether you are posting on social, sending out regular emails or guest blogging for an influential partner.
Perhaps you have a revenue goal that you’d like to hit this year. Perhaps you are building your brand, and you’d like to generate brand awareness. Let’s look at There are three different types of marketing objectives for you to consider.
- Awareness | Creating brand awareness includes all marketing activities where you let your target audience know who you are and what you do. Awareness content should be developed regularly in order to share your services and products with your new audiences and re-introduce yourself to your warm market. Awareness activities include social media posts, Google advertising, Facebook advertising and blogging.
- Consideration | Consideration content comes in when customers know who you are and they are in the market for the services and products that you offer. Customers usually are open to considering your business after several touches with your brand. They like what they see, they are interested, however, they want to know if your services or products are a fit. This is where educational content, tutorials, product reviews, and testimonials can really make a difference. Consideration content can be found on social media, website, email marketing, blogs, YouTube videos and more.
- Conversion | Conversion content is the phase where your customers are ready to purchase. The most important factor during this phase is availability. Customers should know exactly what you do and how you do it. They should be prepared to make the purchase and you must meet them right where they are. For B2B businesses, you must conduct market research in order to determine the buying cycle of your business clients so you won’t miss opportunities. For B2C and B2B customers, you must ensure that your offer is easy to find on your digital platforms. Conversion goals include sales, email captures, scheduled calls and pretty much, anything you would consider a conversion.
- Retention | Retention content is created in order to keep your customers loyal. This could include tutorials, recipes, how-to articles, discount offers, educational content and more. The sky is the limit, no matter the content type – you simply must keep your goal in mind as you create.
Lesson 2: Target Audience
If your target audience is everyone, that really means that your target audience is no one. Do the work of specifying the exact persona that responds to your services. You can start by identifying one customer, just one, who loves your brand and embodies your ideal customer.
If you have more than one customer type – you should build multiple personas. As you build out your digital marketing strategy, you can compare the value that each customer brings to your business, and decide which persona to pursue first.
When determining your target audience, you should look at their age, gender, income level, profession, interests, family size, digital channels they use and how they use them, device usage and any other details that add color to your target persona. I always tell my clients to think of a person.
Click here to download my Free Persona Builder Template, courtesy of Digital Marketing Institute.
Lesson 3: Content Themes
As you’re developing your content calendar, you may wonder what the most effective topics to cover might be. The best way to determine your content theme is by researching your target audience’s interests. You can do so through social listening, hashtag research and keyword research. There are several tools you can use to conduct market research including SproutSocial, Moz, Google Keyword Planner as well as social media native analytics tools.
Based on your research, align your content themes with your goals, services and any special offers. For example, if your goal is build brand awareness, you should create content that will share your mission, services, company, culture, brand values and brand story.
If you want to create sales, then create an irresistible offer for your customers and communicate that offer regularly in multiple formats.
Lesson 4: Capture your Craft
As you schedule your day, take five minutes before and after each task to document your business journey. Debrief after business calls, create reels sharing strategies that you’ve shared with clients or customer success stories. Make your knowledge work more than once.
Whenever a customer has an “aha” moment, multiply that moment by sharing on social. You can remove names and details if necessary, but the key is to capture those daily tidbits, no matter how small, throughout your day.
- Social media reels can be as short as 15 seconds. You can feature a unique tool or instrument, a daily ritual, or even an emotion. A coach or consultant can use common challenges and advice to create video shorts on TikTok or Instagram Reels. Begin to think of your digital channels as a co-worker or mentee with whom you share insider secrets and tips to help them along.
- If you’ve had a meeting where you’ve shared powerful tips and strategies, transform that meeting transcript into a blog post to boost your on-page SEO. Leverage your most powerful tips, key questions, and decisions that take place throughout the meeting. Note common themes and break them down into social media posts, emails or listicles.
- Take your Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) and create a series of reels or YouTube shorts. You could create a short video or blog post for each commonly asked question within your industry. You can even weigh in on controversial
There are content ideas everywhere you look. Make a list of your daily to-dos. Besides each item, write down 3-5 ways you can share this moment with the world.