Content is king!

Content can make or break you

After you determine what channels you should start with, the next important topic is content.  Good quality, well written and error free content is one of the best things that you do to build your online community.  There are a few important points to remember when thinking about the content that you publish:

• publish content on a consistent basis – maybe when you start it will be monthly or bi-weekly and what ever you decide is best, establish a goal and stick with it.  (I have a goal this year for publishing content everyday).  I would suggest that you ease into it and as you get going, if you can add more content, add more content.
• the published content doesn’t have to be a book, in fact for me, if I am going to publish everyday – who has time to read a book everyday?  Posts can be short and simple, I aim for 300-700 words.  For many they may be reading on a mobile device and I sometimes will start to read my own email and when the emails get complex and long, I tend to wait till I get on my computer.   If you keep it simple, allow people that are on their mobile devices to devour it quickly, that is sometimes better.
• make your content interesting, helpful or engaging (I know easier said then done, we will focus on that later)
• content doesn’t always have to be so formal, it helps to show your character (stay away from slang or offensive style too!)
• use video (hosted on YouTube) where possible on your channels and web page
• try to include a call to action, or a reason that they should come back to your site again (to subscribe)
• channel appropriate (which is my next topic below)

There is so much to say about content, but in this 30,000 feet view of your overall strategy, it is important that you obtain some direction and get moving.   I will take the time to focus more specifically about content and other ideas for generating traffic with your content in upcoming weeks.  My second point with content is making sure that your content is channel specific.

I know that some may argue about what type of content goes on what channel and they might use a service that will push out the same content to all their channels.   Some content may be good for all channels, however, I think that sometimes each channel calls for a different engagement strategy.   Take facebook for example,  there are few instances where someone posts a technical topic and that is shared or liked by a lot of people.  Now take the same facebook channel and post a motivational saying or community event and step back and look at the engagement.   The key to any content is not necessarily judged anymore by the number of fans that you have or the number of subscribers, but more by how much your content is shared.  It will be my intent to give you creative ideas for each channel in the coming weeks so you can use that info to plan your actual strategy specific to each channel.

In closing, I want to share an example with you of something that I stumbled on while reviewing tons of insurance agency websites. (hate to pick on insurance again, but I am going to)  I was looking at how many agencies had a blog on thier site, how often they blogged, when the last blog was published and finally what they blogged about.   My conclusion is just what I thought – many businesses, not just insurance need help.   The idea of a blog on your business page is to generate customers and leads.  I was amazed at the poor content that was on the websites.   One agency posted recipes on their blog?  I will be kind and not share any names!  Seriously, if I am in the market for insurance and the company is blogging about recipes – I am going to move on. That might be something for facebook, but it just didn’t fit in on the company blog.

Prepare yourself for being able to generate good content by keeping a electronic file, I use an excel document titled blog posts.  When I am out and about and I think of a good topic, I email or text myself the topic and then add it to my running blog ideas.   I am up to over 1000 ideas for blog posts now so I am good with content for a while.  Coming up with content ideas is also a good employee brainstorming session.

Start thinking about content.  Good Luck and thanks for visiting The Sales Plan.  Be sure to subscribe s