Small Business Content Series: How To Create Content Part 2
In the last post (How To Create Content Part 1) you learned about how an HVAC company in New England would use the season to create some great video content. Now we are going to take that one piece of content and turn it into multiple pieces of content to save you time and expand your reach.
Putting Your Message Out There
When we're thinking about content we need to be thinking at a high level. In the last post we talked about how you want to create a piece of content that your customers need - we want to create content that can enhance their quality of life, whether it can make their job easier or help them grow mentally, financially or personally. Content has to give value. Even when you create content that's selling your product or service, you're still pushing out this idea that there is a benefit to buying this product or service.
And you've got to know that sales is not a bad word. Profit isn't a bad word either. You're in the business to make money for the product or service that you sell.
If people choose to connect with you online, whether it be following you on social media or subscribing to your email list, if they choose to engage with you then they know that they're going to be hearing sales messages about your products or services.
If they are choosing to connect they want to learn more about the product or service you sell and see how it could benefit them. They want your expertise! So I want you to keep that in mind. You're always trying to add value of some kind. Now, that being said, let's go back to the video that we spoke about in the last post. So just to set the scene, it's winter up here in New England…
New England HVAC Company Part 2
I own an HVAC company, I install heating and air conditioning units. In this case I'm talking about heating equipment, keeping yourself and your family warm, keeping your house warm during these cold times because it's snowing out. I would create a video that we call “5 Tips To Think About As You're Starting Up Your Heating System.”
These five golden nuggets are coming from a place of service. We're coming from a place of value. We're coming from a place of education. So, again, if you can make sure that you're adding value, that's great - people will watch this video. But the challenge here is, how do we make sure that the money and the time that we spent creating this video is worth it?
Getting The Most Out Of Your Content Piece
We did a lot with it. How do we get the most out of it?
Essentially we want to squeeze water from the stone. Looking at a video like this, it has a lot of value and we have five different things to play off of with each of the five tips shared in the video. We’ve already created at least one blog post from the video in our last post so what next?
I could take the video and create at least five different social posts, one for each piece of advice in the video. This might be a Facebook post, a LinkedIn post, a tweet, an Instagram post or a pin on Pinterest. It could be one of them or all of them depending on where your customers are.
Maybe I'm also going to put the video into an email campaign. I could embed the video - meaning I could take that video and plop it right in the middle of the email so someone clicks on it and opens them right up to YouTube. I could also link out to it or the blog post I’ve created about it. I could share one tip in the email and link out to the rest.
Now if we're keeping count, we have about eight different pieces of content, at least. Now if we have a goal of posting at least three times a week, we've just helped ourselves cover three plus weeks of content!
Final Thoughts
The whole goal here is for you to understand that taking the time to make one video can turn into a mountain of content. You can dissect it, expand it and turn it into different posts and different mediums. Not only are you adding value, you're now saving time and becoming a more efficient marketer and you are reaching potential customers on a variety of different platforms with a valuable message.
How do you know when to post or how often to post? Stay tuned! We'll talk a little bit more about content scheduling and a content calendar in our next blog post. Happy creating!
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