Taking Back Joy Podcast • Episode #004:

How to market consistently in less time

Are you running a small business in a small town and you've gotten so stuck on marketing your small business, you've actually stalled and stopped? Is there a gaping hole in your social media or you haven't sent an email in about a month?  Are people starting to suspect you've actually been kidnapped?

No one wants their marketing to turn out this way so in this episode, I'm going to walk you through my rock solid process for creating consistent weekly content that has got buckets of value for those most likely to do business with you. Content that can also be repurposed in half a dozen ways, giving you the opportunity to shop daily without having to actually show up daily. I can also get your marketing content organised weeks in advance, giving you a really comfortable buffer for when we have those weeks where everything hits the fan and the marketing falls by the wayside.

This is my go to strategy for creating marketing content that is high value inconsistent, but also efficient. So if you're ready to close those gaping holes in your marketing for good, let's dive on in.

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Show Notes: Links & resources mentioned in this episode

• Later

• Facebook Business

• Mailchimp

Episode Transcript

Download: Episode Synopsis (PDF) | Episode Content (PDF)

Synopsis

Meredith Paige 00:00

Are you running a small business in a small town and you've got so stuck on marketing your small business, you've actually stalled and stopped? Is there a gaping hole in your social media or you haven't sent an email in about a month, and people are starting to suspect you've actually been kidnapped?

Meredith Paige 00:16

Well, no one wants their marketing to turn out this way. So in this episode, I'm going to walk you through my rock solid process for creating consistent weekly content that has got buckets of value for those most likely to do business with you. That can also be repurposed in half a dozen ways, giving you the opportunity to shop daily without having to actually show up daily and I can also get your marketing content organised weeks in advance, giving you a really comfortable buffer for when we have those weeks where everything hits the fan and the marketing falls by the wayside.

Meredith Paige 00:49

This is my go to strategy for creating marketing content that is high value inconsistent, but also efficient. So if you're ready to close those gaping holes in your marketing for good, let's dive on in.

Episode Content

Meredith Paige  00:00

If you're a small business owner in a regional rural area, and you're feeling a little bit stuck with marketing (and we all know that stuck marking is non existent marketing), in this episode, I want to share with you a really cool strategy that I've developed and implemented not only in my business, but in my client businesses, for getting really high value marketing content created every week then having it appear across a whole range of channels that all link back to your business. But in a way that doesn't have you stuck to your screen and spending hours perfecting and tweaking, but actually gets it done, out there and serving your business. 

Meredith Paige  00:37

The technique I'm talking about is called creating core content and content batching. Probably sounds like a lot to take in so let's break that down into a couple of segments. Content really just refers to the stuff that you put out on social media, in emails, print, local radio, things like that, that's the fancy way of referring to all that stuff is content. The first part of this strategy is, is the development of what I'd like to call a core content piece. That is, once a week, you're creating one substantial piece of content that is full of like value and expertise that really positions you as a go to person in your industry, and perhaps even in your specific niche within your industry, but also shares in really good value free with people who could potentially become a customer. It's a really good way to shop regularly established what you know what you're good at what your background is, share a little bit of knowledge and give people a reason to maybe check you out and find out what the paid version looks like if your free stuff is so good. 

Meredith Paige  01:42

Ideally, you want to start with this. This ties into my three bucket strategy for marketing, of connecting, conveying and converting and is a really good way to convey your expertise on the regular first step is to decide what kind of content you're going to create. And look, it's okay if this changes over the course of a number of months. But my recommendation is to pick one kind of content first and stick with it for about three months, writing something once a week. That will give you a really good window of time to see if it's going to be effective, whether it's going to resonate with your audience before you chop and change too much and start getting a bit of shiny object syndrome happening. How do you decide what kind of content you create? Well, that's going to largely depend on three factors that I kind of keep in mind.  

Meredith Paige  02:32

I decide what kind of medium I would make my core content on comes down to two key factors. Firstly, what is your ideal client most likely to consume. So this is where you kind of need to think about their daily or weekly routine, what they like to do, where they typically tend to hang out naturally anyway. And this is where you want to be showing up. You're going to be putting stuff out there when no one's going to be either digitally or physically walking past and taking it in. So if you work from home, there's probably no point you creating a print publication, having it sitting at the front of your house on your driveway. because no one's going to be walking past to grab that. I know that sounds like a really left field analogy, but you know what I mean? So think about the lifestyle of your ideal client that is the person most likely to do business with you. 

Meredith Paige  03:23

And  then what kind of content do you think they could consume consistently, so you could become a regular fixture in their week. For example, your ideal customer might have a 30 minute commute by train every day. And so a long form video, or maybe a long form podcast, or even a blog might be perfect for them because it's something that they can consume in that 30 minutes there and back dedicated time, Monday to Friday, or whatever days they work. So in that instance, perhaps even written material, lack of bloke might be best suited to them because they're on train or on public transport, they're not driving so they have the opportunity to read. Plus, they're not going to have any auditory distractions. So listening to something might be a little bit tricky on a crowded train and peak hour reading, something's going to be a lot easier. On the flip side, your ideal client might be driving a substantial amount of time to work or on their weekly activities. And so something they can listen to, like a podcast might be better suited to them. your ideal client might have a big commute in their daily weekly routine. You might need to think about the length of time that you're expecting to consume. Is it better that you create five minute written pieces or a five minute video series, or maybe really short podcast episodes, think about the kind of content they're most likely to consume regularly, and how much time they have to get dedicate to it. And least that's gonna put you in the best possible position once you have their attention to keep it sustainably.

Meredith Paige  04:55

Now the other side of this is what kind of content are you most likely to be able to create consistently. I can give you my own personal experience on this. So, because I've been marketing in marketing for a very long time, I've been dabbling in content creation for quite a while as well, when I first started out doing blog articles, because my main strengths is my ability to write. However, I'm also a raging perfectionist. And so these blog articles were taking hours for me to create because I was constantly editing and tweaking and rehashing. And so these blog articles were consuming my time for really little to no return on investment, given how much time I was, in fact, investing in them. So I did that for a while, it was starting to feel like too much of a job and not enough of like a quick thing off the to do list site to change tack. That was when video started doing really well on Facebook and Instagram, particularly Facebook, we're talking a while ago now. And I'd also been consuming a lot of free videos, free trainings, things like that. So then I switch to video and I started trying to do a weekly video series that was pre recorded had slides and things like that. But again, the infrastructure required to develop that was far beyond my capacity to do consistently. And because it was pre recorded, I was constantly editing and tweaking and re recording. And again, my inner perfectionist was too easy for her to get in the way. So that didn't work either. But again, tried it for a period of time. And it didn't feel what the returning investment was there to keep going beyond that three month mark saying.  

Meredith Paige  06:34

Then I actually bit the bullet and started doing live video because I thought, well, if it's alive, it's already out there, I can't really take it back candidate can't pull it down, and it's just there. So I kind of forced myself outside my comfort zone. And look, I'll be honest, the first few were atrocious, I didn't have any idea about facing natural light or slowing my voice down or breathing consistently. It all came out and quite a breathy, poorly lit jumble. But that's okay, you got to get started to get better. So, live video for a long time did really, really well for me. And it's still something I jump back into every now and then when I've got something more visual that I need to illustrate. So I've done that for a really long time. And I did feel like I got a lot of really good return on investment because I was doing my live videos on Instagram, and are spending anywhere between 10 and 20 minutes illustrating a point, I was getting a lot of views, a lot of them were triggering, quote, inquiries and follow up emails and messages and things like that. 

Meredith Paige  07:34

Side note about the idea of showing up as you are not as perfect. I remember one day there was a time when I had a whacking great cold sore and I'd slept badly the night before. And my hair was in desperate need of like cut colour blow dried situation. Like I look like a mess. But I had a really good topic I'd come up with to talk to you for my talk about from my life that day. And so I thought I didn't have time to do my makeup on a very slim window between the end of a nap and the school pick up. And I was cutting it really fine. So I thought you know, just put it together. I'll put it out there. What's the worst that can happen? And I think I've got to quote inquiries off the back of it and a whole other bunch of questions and some followers and things like that. So I remember sitting there thinking, imagine if I hadn't done that today, imagine that if I hadn't just showed up as myself, scrappy and all, and delivered the value that I'd been committing to deliver every week. I would have not received those quote requests, I wouldn't have landed that job off the back of it, I wouldn't have gotten that client, I wouldn't have gotten out those followers. So please don't feel like you have to be perfect when you're delivering this content. Just be yourself because yourself is far more reliable. No one can relate to perfect but we can relate to people. 

Meredith Paige  08:52

When you creating this core content pays, be yourself as it will pay dividends. So to recap, there are two factors you need to think about. What are your ideal customers those most likely to do business with you? What are they most likely to be consumed consistently? Or they're read, watch or listen to? And what are you most likely to be able to produce consistently. Now I do have a bit of a saying that 'everything's a hassel until it becomes a habit'. So this will take you a number of weeks for it to stop feeling like a chore and for it to start being a non negotiable in your week. Like there was a lot of weeks there when I first started out where it was happening last thing at night. It was really rushed. It was a case of I just need to get this done because this is a commitment I've made to my business. And now because I've been doing this weekly content thing for so long, I'm actually engineering my week around it. 

Meredith Paige  09:42

Classis example: I've just driven to pick my eldest up from school. I had my youngest primed for a nap. When we drove to pick him up, I could leave him in the car and just step outside my car to get my oldest so he was in my line of sight and reach the whole time but you inside the car, he was asleep, I've driven home. And now I'm sitting in my driveway in my car, which side note makes fantastic podcast acoustics. I'm sitting in my car with my fast asleep three year old recording a podcast. So because this all idea, weekly content has become a non negotiable for me, I've actually engineered my week around it. 

Meredith Paige  10:23

So then once you have established the kind of core content piece you want to create every week, even for just the next three months. And you've worked out a couple of topics of what you want to cover based on what you know, your customers need to know what they need to understand or do before they can do business with you. That's always a good frame of reference for themes and topics to cover, then you need to actually produce the thing and try to create the slickest system possible for actually getting it done and getting it out there. Now for written content, this might mean brain dumping everything into a Google Doc, and then sharing it with maybe a key staff member or your partner, if they're particularly good at this kind of thing. And getting them to do the editing and the refining and things like that, it's also really good reason to get a virtual assistant on board. These can be really good assets in your business where you might only need them for a few hours a week. But they're really good for like, stop using software to market you have a really good sort of one level of like one on one level marketing tools like scheduling tools, and some basic graphic design tools like Canva sometimes. So have a look around for a virtual assistant, they might be the perfect person to be editing down your blog, and refining it for you, once you've sort of dumped all your thoughts into the page.

Meredith Paige  11:34

So get someone else to edit it, don't edit it yourself, because you'll be there for years, I guarantee it. If it's a video thing, do what I did, maybe just try going straight to live. Assume that the first few are going to be clunky. And that's okay, you know what you've got to get the clunky ones out of your system and to get to the good stuff and to revive to refine your skills. So just the sooner you dive in and clean the clutter with the first few awkward ones, the sooner you're going to get to the better ones. So try live video. And the good thing about live is it doesn't have to be overly engineered either it can be very raw and off the cuff as long as you just maybe jot down a few points you want to cover beforehand, or a podcast like what I'm doing now can actually be really good if your days are a bit stretched. And you're not going to have the opportunity to have good light or a good sort of setup or any time to do it properly during the day. Because it's not visual, I could be doing this at 11 o'clock at night seeing in my car and still get the really good result, the sandals still be really good, I'll have the space to think about what I'm saying. So think about what's going to fit in to your lifestyle and what you can make work well consistently, and go with that. So get yourself a really good system for creating it, editing it, and then getting it out there. 

Meredith Paige  12:49

So then this is where we get to the second part of core content creation. And that's the idea of batching and scheduling. So what you can do from a core content piece is first and foremost, put it onto your website. Then you can promote it through a newsletter, and social media posts and any print advertising or on any networking events or opportunities to use other people's platforms like your local business chamber or industry groups. This can be something you refer to when people want to know more about what you do and be given an opportunity to follow up on you. You can refer them to your blog, your video, your YouTube channel, your podcast, it's a really good way to throw people back to your marketing channels, and then get them in the loop on the regular. So firstly, you can promote the core piece of content itself, the latest blog post the latest video, the latest podcast episode, that can be something you promote across whatever channels channels it is he choose to use, then what you can do is you can go back through that core content piece and look for what I call a little nuggets of gold. And these can be isolated concepts, these can be a phrase that was particularly high impact that you came up with. 

Meredith Paige  14:00

These can be pulled out and then turned into additional content, whether it's an additional email, whether it's something you expand upon in a shorter video, it might be a text base post that goes on social media like a quote, you can pick through these pieces core piece of content or even better, you can have a virtual assistant pick through this core content piece for you. And look for maybe three to five little nuggets of gold within that they can then be scheduled throughout the week. And this can still be content that has value but can be used to fill out your week. So you're making more of an appearance more regularly, without having to come up with something brand new every single day. 

Meredith Paige  14:39

We need to remember that, especially when it comes to social media. Not everyone sees everything. Like especially on Facebook these days what's referred to as organic reach, which is essentially the chances one of your followers has of actually saying what your content is is somewhere ridiculous between like five and 20%. So a follower who's committed to looking at Watching your content ongoing, has a five to 20% chance of just stumbling across your content with the volume of ads and other content that's out there. So there's nothing wrong with coming back to the same topic from a couple of different angles in consecutive days, because it's pretty safe to assume that they won't have seen all three different angles, you've come at that particular topic three days in a row. And if they do, it might be even better because it's that dripping tap principle where each time you might be further solidifying that idea in their head. So by the third time, they really understand its value and how it works into the bigger picture of doing business with you. 

Meredith Paige  15:38

There's nothing wrong with consistency, there's nothing wrong with repetition. I mean, if any of you out there have got toddlers, you understand full well that that's how they learn by repetition. That's why they watch the same movie every day. It's why they want to read the same book every night, while their days at, you know, daycare, and preschool are full of repetitive games and repetitive actions. That's how we learn. That's how humans learn through repetition. So there's nothing wrong with repeating yourself and making the same point consistently, as long as you're making it engaging and giving people a reason to know it, to understand it, to do it, showing them and illustrating to them how it's going to have a benefit to their life and move them that one step one step closer to your business, but also close to the goal they're looking at. 

Meredith Paige  16:20

And then there's the idea of scheduling. Now, it's still to this day amazes me how many people don't know that you can actually schedule a lot of a lot of different marketing components in advance. Like for example, you can jump into an app called later, which are really love. And I'll try to link to that in the show notes. Or you can just go straight to the business side of Facebook and Instagram. And you can actually schedule posts to happen in advance. So you can set it up today, put your caption hashtags, everything in any you can schedule it for next week. So if you happen to be able to make one or two or even three core pieces of content at once, because you might get on a bit of a roll, you can then create all the supplementary content that comes off the back of it and schedule it a week in advance. Like I always tried to get my clients to at least a month in advance because it gives them a month month breathing room for then ongoing content creation. Because what happens then is as we all inevitably do get busy in business, it means you don't have this gaping hole in your social media, in your newsletter rotation in your YouTube channel, you have actually that buffer built in where you can make up ground again, and you don't lose that consistency, because you've just had one really full on week. You can also schedule emails, so I schedule my MailChimp emails out in advance. So my myself and my VA will work on the content together, we'll fill the newsletter with a couple of different aspects of what I've been working on the week prior. And then we'll schedule it to go out the next week. So we're always trying to work at least one or two weeks ahead of ourselves. I mean, ideally, we'll try to get four weeks in advance mark as well. But as most of my trading mates will know, I'm like that Carpenter with a half built set of stairs, it is what it is, you know, we all should really be taking our own advice. But suffice to say I'm a big fan of scheduling. I'm a big fan of batching. And a big fan of all that coming off the back of a really rock solid piece of content that has value that positions you as an expert, and gives people an insight and what it might be like to actually do business with you but in a really like genuine giving helpful way. That doesn't feel sleazy or salesy or pushy, it's just like saying, here's what I know, here's what I'm really good at. And here's how I'd love to use that to help you get ahead in life. 

Meredith Paige  18:29

So guys, I hope that gives you a good action plan for how you can get your marketing on rails and get it more consistent. The next step I'll recommend you take is have a think about the kind of content you can create on the regular that is both consistent and sustainable for you, but also likely to be consistently consumed by those most likely to do business with you. Once you've chosen something commit to do it every week, for three months. This is so you get a decent amount of data as to whether it's working for you or not. Come up with a system for making it and getting it out there that you can easily loop someone into to help you out and also keep you accountable. 

Meredith Paige  19:07

And remember, it doesn't have to be perfect. It doesn't have to be super polished and professionally done the first time. Commit to doing the first two or three just for the sake of getting them done. They won't be fantastic. They won't be everywhere. But then each week layer something else in whether it's one week, it just is a live video that goes out on Facebook and Instagram. And then the next week you layer in maybe a pullquote where it's like oh, this was a really good point. I'll turn this into a separate post and the week after that layer in a newsletter. And so don't try to do everything at once. Just establish the habit of creating this core piece of content and then once you've established a regular routine, then layer in extra opportunities to get more out of it more bang for your buck without spending less time stuck to screen. 

Meredith Paige  20:20

if you have any questions or you'd like to know more, please feel free to email me at hello@meredithpaige.me . Have a really good week guys and I'll see you next time.