Time… it’s a fickle beast. When you’ve lots of it to spare, it’ll just drag (as all those furloughed workers can attest to), but as soon as you’ve a pressing deadline, it’ll just fly by.
Small business owners are the first to cite a lack of time as a reason for not having any content on their website. In spite of clocking up more than 60 hours a week in the office, business owners often complain of being time-poor which has a knock-on effect on those holistic marketing efforts which take a while to reap any reward.
Finding the time to write content is a challenge, but it’s one that can be easily overcome. Our advice to all business owners is to work smarter, and not harder, and by putting content at the heart of your marketing efforts, you’ll achieve this.
But how do you find time? FINALLY has some tips for writing more – and better – content which can make a real difference to your business. For some content tips tailored to your business, get in touch today.
Step one: give yourself some time (and space) to plan
Coming up with great content ideas is easy – but you have to give it the time it deserves. Now, for someone who is time poor, this probably doesn’t seem that doable, but bear with us. You’ll be pleased to know that the bulk of your content strategy can be covered in a single meeting.
Bring some of your core team members together and think of some content that your prospects would find useful. What are their pain points? Which questions or misconceptions do they have about your product or service? For more tips, check out our guide to finding ideas for content.
Step two: think about your content formats
Not everything you create has to be a 1,000-word article which takes you an age to finish. If writing isn’t your thing, explore the different kinds of content formats you can produce (we’ve a great guide here) and decide whether these would be quicker, with respect to your in-house resources, to produce.
So, if you’re already a dab-hand at making videos for your clients, or have some super-skilled graphic designers on your books, consider using these content formats instead. Every content format has its place. Get in touch to find out more about how each can help your business to achieve its goals.
Step three: don’t give up
What’s worse than producing no content? Producing inconsistent content. A scattergun approach to creating content is not only unprofessional; it can alienate your audience and lose you subscribers, both on social media and email newsletters. Worst still, it can affect your SEO rankings.
But we all do it. Statistics show that 60% of businesses struggle to create content consistently. So how do you avoid this? If you’re not sure how much time you have to devote to creating content, our advice would be to start small. Producing one piece of content per week may not seem like much but over a year, you’ll have acquired a bank of over 50 articles, vlogs and/or infographics – more than enough to transform your walk-up website visitors’ experience into something truly worthwhile.
For more help with creating consistent content for your website, get in touch with the FINALLY team.