Home » Content Creation

Category: Content Creation

Best Content Creation Strategy

Frustrated about how to create decent content for your website, blogs, social media sites and video channels? Have you been searching for the best content creation strategy and come up empty handed or with less money in your bank account and not much to show for it?

In my previous article about Content Creation I briefly mentioned the content blueprint. Today I’m going to clear the air and hopefully help you out of the muck and mire of content creation. This way you can work on your business, attract more qualified people and get more sleep at night.

Why am I hammering on this topic of a content blueprint and outline?

Because your best content creation strategy begins with a blueprint and outline. (Yes – I know I’ve covered this before in other articles)

It seems that more and more I get approached by companies that claim to be able to produce content and especially articles for blogs and social media. Yet no one has ever approached me with a content outline and best practices strategy.

I’ve been writing here on Clickandmortarblog.com since 2010 and the list of individuals and companies that have contacted us to provide content is longer than ever. Yet rare is the company that crosses my doorstep with a quality book of content that says – we get it!

The best content creation strategy means you have to come to grips with you are either able to create good quality content, direct someone else in house to do it, or have the ability to pay a team of writers and producers to get the work done. 

Anyway you look at it someone needs to create the content. You, your partner, your employees, your kids, or an outside professional.

I dealt with this with a client who struggled over a number of years to create quality content within their organization and was not using the best content creation strategy but jsut the opposite. It was an internal battle that they fought and eventually lost due no one on staff who had the ability to create and pull all of the content together.

They tried and tried and tried but in the end (or new beginning) it just wasn’t coming together the way they wanted it to and hence they wasted alot of time and lost revenues plus who knows how much money.

        The Best Content Creation Strategy for Your Small Business

It’s one thing to write a few articles and post them on your blog or website. It’s entirely another to research, interview, write, record, edit, and then publish content on a weekly basis.

When it comes to the best content creation strategy you must have a content outline or blueprint to work from and have a constant source of fresh content to pull from. Otherwise you’ll spin your wheels looking at the walls and windows of your office searching for things to say, write and record.  See where I’m going with this.

Once you have these two items, then you’ll need to make sure that you use the following Three Important Keys to Unlock the Rooms or Building of Buyers:

1. Relevent Content is what your prospects and customers want.  Content that has everything to do with your product, service or information and can help them solve their problem or answer a question. So keep your content relevent and not off in the woods attracting all kinds of bugs.

2. Quality Content is the second key that you need. This is one pet peave that I have when it comes to creating content for the web. It’s got to be quality or just don’t bother posting it, otherwise the key won’t work.

3. Original Content is the third key that you need when it comes to attracting people. It’s bad enough that there are copy cats all over the web. Be original. Be real and be interesting.

Once you use and implement a three keys with a content blueprint as your guide, then your content has to be optimized, posted, distributed and archived. Yes, you read that right – ARCHIVED. In other words you need to have a log and store your content in a readily accessible digital storage system.

Because the day will come when you need to access it due to a new piece of content being produced or you need to repurpose it for some other project online or offline.

Creating relevant, quality and original content is not as difficult as many make it but it does make for the best content creation strategy. It just comes down to a content blueprint and outline that covers all the information that you would share with your target audience.

So get together with your business partner, spouse, staff or content creation company and have a series of content brainstorming sessions. It’ll make your life easier and your content will get created, and posted sooner than later.  Thus the best content creation strategy will come together and your business should start to see people who want to work with you.

Until next time,

Dave Krygier
Publisher

Click and Mortar Marketing – 5th Anniversary Post by Clickandmortarblog

Hard to believe it’s been five years since we started this click and mortar marketing site called clickandmortarblog.com. What’s even crazier is that the amount of content pertaining to click and mortar marketing and small business that’s come through here is so much more than I originally anticipated.

As of this day we have written all but several posts in house and this was due to myself being unsure about how I was going to write, edit and do it all.

Click and Mortar Marketing by Clickandmortarblog.com
Since 2010 – Click and Mortar Blog has been delivering marketing tips, tactics and information for the small business owner and marketer looking to expand on the web…

When we first started in February of 2010 I had Jeff Stuhlmiller contribute a few articles. He was kind enough to lend a hand but since then all the rest of the original posts for clickandmortarblog.com have come directly from the publisher.

Why do I share this on the eve of our 5th Anniversary? Because in this day and age of copycats and laziness, many an online marketer may take the easy road to stealing other people’s content.

Especially if he or she is working in click and mortar marketing and doesn’t understand how to create totally original content.

There are some really good to great content creators out there on the market today who work their “you know whats off” each and every day to provide businesses and organizations like yours, original videos, audios, articles, photos and graphics for clients around the world. They put their hearts into creating content that means something and is valuable to them and their clients.

Then some lazy, unethical person comes along and decides the he or she is going to scrape their website for new content that can be used for their own website or video. And do they ask for permission? Not! They copy, paste and go along their merry way. 🙁

When it comes to click and mortar marketing I know from years of experience that this happens all the time. Retail business owner A hires Writer A to write 5 blog posts for her website and social media channels.

Writer A then takes her time and the business owners money doing this, and scans the web, copying and pasting content into a word doc. Then she spends a little time rearranging the content so it looks like it’s original when it’s really not!

This is only one scenario of many that can play out for the small business owner who wants to create good to great quality original content online, but just doesn’t know. 

Click and Mortar Marketing for the Small Business Owner 

For a retail or service based business owner who is looking to really kick it up a notch with click and mortar marketing – always find credible/reliable sources for creating online content. That includes your photography, graphics, videos, audios and especially the words that support these. 

Interview more than three people and pick the ones that understand your business and will deliver the goods on time and on budget. If you need some help with this – connect with SBM.

Your click and mortar marketing is pulling two worlds together where your buyers coexist, and thus the content needs to work together to achieve the results that you are after. You get there by using quality original content, which is the best way to go when it comes to connecting with your small business’ target market.

And if your business is utilizing click and mortar marketing you must be testing every step of the way to see what is working and what is not. That way you maximize your ROI.

Next time I’ll dig into the content strategy, so stay tuned.

Dave Krygier
Publisher
ClickandMortarblog.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

Three Things You Need to Know About Content Marketing Online for Small Business

For years and years I worked in a small business that relied on organic search traffic to drive people to our email, phones and physical locations. Organic search was our only online marketing activity for the better part of 4 years and then we added a few directories like Qwest and GTE Superpages. Content marketing online wasn’t even something we considered but it turns out that we were doing it without knowing what great results would come down the road.

We loaded up content week after week and month after month. It was tedious work, but we had a good webmaster and I fed him alot of information, pictures and graphics. 

At our peak we had over 250 pages of content and this made the difference when our buyers were searching for items that we offered. We dominated certain categories and it was all based on the content that we had on our website.

The thing is in today’s online environment you have sooo many options when it comes to marketing. From directories and pay-per-click ads to Local search and the magic bullet website. The list is so long that your head spins and wallet can get empty really fast.

Small business is tough enough as it is and online marketing can make it even tougher, especially when your phone is ringing every day with people who want your money and magic bullets by the dozen.

You’ve heard it all just like I have.

content marketing online
“Target Market with Content Marketing Online”

And this is why content marketing online could be what separates you from your competition. Plus you can target market much better and increase sales, which could make for a more profitable month or year!

Here are Three Things that You Need to Know about Content Marketing Online for Small Business:

  1. It pays to have a Content Blueprint just like you have a business and/or marketing plan. No blueprint – lots of confusion and headaches. A clear, well put together blueprint is like a good roadmap that leads you to your destination.
  1. Quality Content Creation can be easy or it can be really hard. Easy is better and sometimes this needs to be handled by someone other than yourself. Either way you want to make sure that there’s quality in what you create. Content, Content, Content. Quality original content that connects you with your buying market online.
  1. Good Content Distribution can make the difference of sales or no sales. The better the distribution of your content to your target audience, the more buyers will be attracted to you. Not rocket science. Be where your target market hangs out.

So if you are tired of spinning your wheels with ads and marketing that doesn’t seem to convert into sales…

Test content marketing online this next year and make sure to work from a blueprint.

Make sense? Good – get to work and create quality original content.

Doesn’t make sense? Need some help with some or all of it? Check out Techsmith and contact the peeps over at SBM and let ‘em know that the ClickandMortarblog.com publisher sent you. They’ll take care of your content marketing woes in a jiffy.

So now it’s time to get busy and put all of this content stuff together so you can see the benefits in your small business. 

Stay in touch and be sure to stay tuned for more on this hot topic of content marketing online.

Dave Krygier
Publisher

 PS – Keep us posted so we know how your content marketing online is coming together.