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How To Create An Awesome Content Marketing Plan

How To Create An Awesome Content Marketing Plan

  • Struggling to keep up with your social media marketing?
  • Not sure what to post on your social media channels?
  • Losing productivity by spending too much time on social media?

How do you manage your social media effectively and efficiently?

A (well thought-out, strategically planned, eye-catching) social media content plan is your answer. In short, an awesome content plan.

Having a social media presence is a necessity in today’s digital world, even if you are just on one platform. Managing it well and learning to work with tools that can make you both productive and efficient in your business can make a whole world of difference to the outcome, not to mention your mental health!

Many small business owners don’t realise or understand the need to create a content plan, it’s often done on a day-to-day basis and is based on whatever the person is feeling that day. There’s no strategy or thought behind it, just what comes to mind when they remember they have to post. This can create chaos on your social channels, with no real meaning behind any of it.

We understand that everyone is busy, marketing is not always at the forefront of your mind, but when you get distracted or side-tracked into doing other things within your business, your social media marketing is often the task that gets pushed aside and often forgotten, creating an inconsistent pattern. Not only does this provide inconsistency for your audience but it doesn’t give you direction or help with long-term targeting or strategies for marketing, and in turn, sales.

The most basic tool for your social media planning, is getting to grips with a content plan.

A content plan will be your best friend for life!

Here at KJP Creative, we use a pen and paper for this at the beginning stage, and write everything down so we can see everything clearly and laid out in front of us – usually working to a month’s plan. Here’s our top 5 tips for creating an awesome content marketing plan:

#1 – Map out

Create a blank view of your calendar for the month ahead, and start to fill in the gaps… Tip: use a different colour for each type of content so you can see at a glance. The more you start to fill in, you’ll see gaps of where you need content, or where you’re putting too much of the same thing together etc. Learn to spread things out, or manage a campaign at a glance.

#2 – Get thinking & start writing

Write in certain things that you know you want to share that month, these could be things that tie in with overall goals, things that work towards wider targets. Next comes some of your own content, blog posts, or articles that you’ve written. Then think about telling people about what you do, detailing different aspects of your business.

Utilise evergreen content from your website for your social media content plan

#3 – Use curated content

You can then start to drop in articles that you’ve enjoyed reading, or content that would be beneficial to your readers – it doesn’t have to be all your own content, it’s good to get an all-round view on topics. There might also be people or accounts who you can reshare content from, make notes of dates that this might be applicable.

#4 – Utilise awareness days

How about some awareness days to get your audience talking? We wouldn’t advise jumping on every awareness day that happens, but choose ones that are relevant to your readers and get them thinking and talking about real issues they face and ones they can resonate with. These are great to keep up with trends, things that happening around you, world events etc.

Awareness days for social media can help build relationships, and give people something in common to talk about.

#5 – Tap into emotions

The key to your content plan is to create content that is going to be engaging for your readers, and is going to tap into an emotion. Emotions are so important, and there are so many out there to trigger, but hitting a nerve can be the difference between someone stopping to take notice of you, to scrolling right past and not. Find the balance, find what works well with your audience. Do they enjoy a joke, or would they prefer a motivational post?

What’s next with the content plan?

Once you’ve got your content plan together, it’s about writing the content to go with the plan, creating the images/ graphics, and scheduling. Everyone works differently, so find a pattern that works for you. And find a scheduling tool that you can get on with. Some are easier than others, some have analytics, some integrate with other platforms, some are easy for a mobile device… the choice is really down to personal preference – the key is to actually find time to doing it!

Don’t have the time? Block out sections in your diary for each part of the plan:

  • Content planning
  • Research
  • Writing
  • Graphics
  • Scheduling

If you’ve only got an hour one day and half hour the next, block these times out and stick to them. Make this a regular part of your to-do list. Once you get into the habit, it’ll become easier and quicker – promise!

However, if you’re still reading and wonder how you’d ever get time to create a proper strategic content plan, or it’s simply not your forte, or what you want to be focussed on right now, we can help! That’s what we love to do, and it’s our speciality. Just contact us, and we’ll be in touch to talk further.

But for those who are ready to see your social media take off to new heights – we challenge you to take content planning seriously and give it a go. And we’d love to hear back from you once you have!

In the meantime, why not checkout our FREE Awareness Days calendar to get you started…

free Awareness Days Calendar / KJP Creative

 

 

 

How To Optimise Social Media For Maximum Results

How To Optimise Social Media For Maximum Results

So, you’re a business owner looking to make an impact on social media, but just can’t seem to generate the results you imagined. Sound familiar?

That’s ok, you are not alone in this and there are many small business owners who simply can’t get past that first hurdle. Let’s face it, the bigger the impact on social media, the more traffic driven to your website, the better chance of seeing an increase of sales and business expansion. We all want it, but it seems so out of reach for many, especially when you’re just starting out.

With this in mind, we’ve put together 3 top tips to optimise your social media channels to get results.

Optimise your social profiles

The first thing to make your brand stand out online is to optimise your social media profiles. It’s easy enough to get started and set up a social channel, but to have real impact and to reach the audience you’re looking to attract, your profile has to be unique – and click-worthy.

Consider the basics and what would attract you to a certain brand profile:

  • It is branded? Brand colours, logos, theme?
  • Does it have relevant information in the bio / about sections?
  • Is there a working link to direct people to your website?
  • Are you utilising keywords or hashtags for search purposes?

 

Have a content plan of action

The second thing to consider is the actual content that you’re posting.
Are you posting for a reason, is there meaning behind what you’re saying and are you actually speaking to an audience?
Or, are you just posting for the sake of it, writing about what you want to say rather than what your audience wants to hear?

  • Are you following a content plan?
  • Do you have a thought process behind the flow of content and does it flow together between the various posts and channels?
  • Is the content engaging, interactive, give call to actions?
  • Are you telling people what you want them to do once they’ve read your content?

 

Integrate Paid Ads

And lastly, consider using paid ads as part of your marketing strategy. Once you’ve built up a good base of content, once you’ve established some good foundations, now could be a good time to test out paid advertising. They can be highly effective in reaching a much wider and targeted audience, giving you the right following for your brand.

Paid ads harmonise with your organic content and former a bigger aspect of your marketing strategy. Wider reach, more impressions, bigger chance to be seen, more targeted efforts.

 

Note: Paid ads do not have to be expensive. You work with the budget you have. Work out how much you can afford to put aside each month, not money that you hope to not have to use and could do with getting back, get away from that mindset and think about a set amount of money that you can do without. It could be £100 per month, it could be £1000 per month depending on your business. Create a budget and stick to it.

By working on these top 3 tips, you can set your brand apart from the many who simply do not put the effort into the detail. Your brand is your identity and you want that first impression to be the best it possibly can. The better the optimisation, the better the impression, the better the outcome.

All these points together will help maximise your social media presence and give you a better chance to increase leads, become visible and to grow your brand.

If you’ve any tips to add to the list, feel free to let us know in the comments!

And if you’re ready to take your brand to the next level, KJP Creative can give you the boost you need to see visible growth in 2022. Don’t sit on the fence, take the steps necessary to succeed. Get in touch today, and let’s get the conversation started 🙂

 

 

How To Make Social Media Fun For Small Business Owners

How To Make Social Media Fun For Small Business Owners

Are you a small business owner looking to engage more in social media? Here are our 8 tips to make social media marketing fun for every small businesses owner.

 

Social media marketing is one of the best and most enjoyable ways to reach new customers and get them to like your brand. But it can also be a lot of work. If you’re not having fun with it, then it’s going to be hard to keep up with.

 

We’ve put together 8 ways that can make social media marketing fun for small businesses owners:

#1 – Make Everything Visual

Social media is all about visuals, so use photos and videos whenever possible. Even if you’re posting links or articles, include an image that helps tell the story behind the link or article. It will make your posts more interesting for your followers and increase their engagement with your content.

Visuals are crucial for social media marketing because they have the power to make your posts go viral. If you’re not sure what visuals you should use, try using photos and videos of your products or employees in action.

Even if you don’t have a graphic designer on staff, there are plenty of affordable tools available that make it easy for anyone to create great graphics in minutes. You can use free tools like Canva or Snappa for creating amazing visuals.

#2 – Collaborate With Other Brands

Collaboration is a great way to connect with other businesses and build relationships with them. It’s also a lot of fun! You can collaborate with other brands by doing something like running a contest or giveaway together or by offering discounts or special promotions for customers who shop at both of your stores at once. If you’re interested in collaborating with another brand, reach out to them with a proposal that includes information about what you want from the collaboration and what they can expect in return.

When you have a limited budget and time, collaboration with other brands can be a great way to increase your visibility online and make your own brand better known. Collaboration helps to spread the message of both brands by providing more content for people to see and share. It’s also a great way to build relationships with other brands in the industry that might help grow your business down the line.

#3 – Host Contests and Giveaways

If you’re looking for a fun way to engage your audience, there’s nothing better than hosting a giveaway. There are tons of options available, including:

Photo contests – You can ask your followers to submit images with a certain theme or hashtag. The best photo wins!

Fan polls – You can ask your followers questions and see which answer is more popular. For example, you can ask them what their favourite type of food is or what they want to be when they grow up.

Video contests – Ask participants to create videos around a certain topic or theme. The best video wins!

Quiz games – Quizzes are another fun way to engage your customers by asking them trivia questions about your business and its products or services.

 

social media growth - host a competition or giveaway

 

#4 – Tell Stories with Instagram Stories

Instagram Stories is an amazing feature from Instagram and it allows users to share photos and videos that disappear after 24 hours. It’s a way to share behind-the-scenes moments from your company, such as office parties or team outings. You can also use stories as an opportunity to interact with customers directly and answer questions they might have about your product or service offerings. These are easy to create, seconds even, so you can create them as you go and just keep posting!

#5 – Go Live on Facebook and Instagram

If you haven’t tried live video yet, now could be the time! You can go live from your phone or desktop, which means you don’t have to schedule anything in advance or worry about having the right equipment. All you need is a smartphone and an internet connection.

Once you’re live, viewers can chat with you and ask questions in real-time. Live video gives people the opportunity to get up close and personal with your brand — and they love it! A scary thought? Just jump on in and give it a go 🙂

#6 – Start a Podcast

A podcast is an audio show which you record and then upload to iTunes, Spotify, Audible, Stitcher or your other favourite podcast platform., for others to listen to. If you already have an idea for a topic you want to talk about, this is an easy way to get started. You can interview experts or people who are involved in the industry you want to target and then share those interviews on your website, blog or social media. Try it out with a friend or colleague and see how it goes, before you go big with someone you don’t know.

 

social media growth tips - start a podcast

 

#7 – Create a Facebook Group for Your Customers or Fans

Leading a Facebook group is a fun and brilliant way to build your credibility as a market leader. While you share your knowledge, provide guidance, and create opportunities for expansion and growth, it only improves your professional image as a reliable resource. Besides, you will also learn many things about your customers and followers which will help you create better services or products for them.

#8 – Try a New Social Media Platform Out

If you’re using Facebook, Twitter and Instagram but are bored with them, try another platform like Pinterest or Snapchat. These platforms might be less popular than the big three right now, but they have unique advantages that could work well for your business – you don’t know unless you try.

Takeaway

Social media marketing can be fun if you come at it from the right angle. After all, your customers are there to connect with you and other people on the platform just as if it were face to face. We understand that not all small business owners have the time to create amazing social media content, but that’s ok. We suggest doing what you can, snapping photos and videos along the way, in whatever you are doing (having a bank of images is so worthwhile) and then setting a pace that works for you. If you’re still struggling to keep up, or you simply don’t enjoy social media, then reach out and let us take the reins. Your brand deserves the best chance possible, so don’t hold back, if you want to grow your business, let your social channels do the hard work for you.

Why not download our FREE social media checklist to help you stay on track – it’s our gift to you.

We look forward to hearing from you – get in touch today!

social media checklist free download

 

 

Small Business Marketing Tips – Build Your Brand!

Small Business Marketing Tips – Build Your Brand!

Brand awareness = Business growth

Where are you in your business plan right now? Are you just starting out or have you been going for some time?

Everyone has their own journey and go about this at different rates, it’s not a competition, it’s about what’s right for you at this moment in time.

It takes time to build a brand, but the best bit of advice we can give is to let people know what you’re doing­. If you’re shy or quiet about what you do, how do you expect people to know what you’re about! There might be someone right there who is your perfect customer, but if you’re not telling people what you do, they’ll never know you exist.

 

How do you build your brand?

There are a few vital things you need to do to grow your reputation and become established and these few tips will help:

Document everything

Whatever you do, document it. Take notes, take pictures, write it down, detail what motivates you, where your inspiration comes from, what people give you the nudge to get going. Create your own story and make it possible to share that journey later down the line. When the time comes, you might be the person who will inspire someone else to start their business – telling your brand story and having the proof of what you have been through and achieved will help others.

 

Put yourself out there

Don’t be afraid to talk to the people around you. Many people starting out in business are shy about telling their friends or family, but actually these are the people who you need to tell first. Why? Because these are the people who know you and will believe in you. They know your abilities and your strengths, and they have the desire to want to see you succeed.

A reputation grows when people start talking about you, word of mouth is a great marketing strategy, the more people hear about you, the more chance there is for someone to discover you. If you’re passionate what you do, why wouldn’t you want to talk about it!

What situations can you put yourself in that will help boost your brand awareness? Are there places you can go, people you can meet, networks you can utilise, advice you can give… put yourself out there to make the most of every opportunity that comes your way.

 

Use social media to share your stories

Everyone is online. The pandemic has driven more businesses to use online marketing to grow their brand. You need to be there too. If you’re not yet using social media for marketing, you’re missing a treat! It takes more than a few Facebook posts here and there. It takes more than posting a few posts on your personal profiles in the hope that ‘someone’ will notice you.

Create branded social media profiles, across various channels, post regularly, engage with your with your audience, give value through all your content.

If time is an issue for social media, don’t be afraid to outsource. This can seem like an expense that you don’t need in your small business, but in reality, this is such an important part of business growth that when you spent time focussing on what you are good at and utilising your skills to do the things you love – you can budget in for someone else to carry your marketing, so you don’t have to.

 

Join other like-minded women who want to grow their business and see their brand scale and grow. Search for our Facebook group "Inspirational Business Women"

Join our Facebook Group!

 

Sidenote: if marketing is not your forte, there seems little point to wasting time doing it to a ‘half-standard’. The more your marketing works for you, the more clients you can bring on, or services/products you can sell. Make the most of this to your advantage and work as a team to build the brand and see the results.

 

When your business starts to build, you will have more opportunities to do bigger and better things. Scale and grow, and look at different strategies as you go through each stage. Take hold of the things that cross your path which will help you grow your brand. Don’t hide away, speak out where possible and let people see the passion you have – let them catch the enthusiasm with you!

If you’re looking to scale and grow your small business, we’d love to chat with you about your online marketing and how we can help you achieve your goals. Step out today and contact us – and let’s start the conversation.

In the meantime, download our free “Social media checklist – don’t forget the basics”, to get you tracking the basic social media ideals.

 

social media checklist free download

Extreme Weather? Take Extreme Action!

Extreme Weather? Take Extreme Action!

There’s a storm blowing… who’s been watching intently and with anticipation at the extreme weather we’ve been experiencing recently? If you’re in the UK like we are, it’s been quite the picture in the past 24 hours.

Extreme weather causes for extreme action

 

This got me thinking about how we can reflect this in business terms. How can we turn what we’re watching out the window into full-blown action for our brand?

Here’s what I came up with for today:

  • Focus on my main goal of the month – prioritise this goal over the smaller ones and give it 100% attention.
  • Communicate with my regular clients and ensure that we’re on track with everything they expect.
  • Deep dive into some paid advertising to keep leads coming in and the sales funnel open.
  • Do my best to follow up on everything that comes in.

 

Goals = Results

 

These may not seem like extreme actions to some, but we all have our personal goals and end game, we all have the targets that we need to meet in order to accomplish what we set out to do. Focus on your personal goals, focus on what is important to your business and use your marketing to help you get there.

 

business owners, take action in your marketing, don't let extreme weather stop you achieving

Marketing is a powerful tool which really can do powerful things. Just like a storm can do damage to whatever gets in its way, marketing can hit an audience at just the right time, in just the right way to create just the right results – when done properly.

 

You may be new to marketing, you may be a small business owner or start-up entrepreneur, but whatever angle you are coming from, your marketing plays a big part in getting your business noticed and raising your brand awareness. A plan of action and focus are the foundations to a good marketing strategy.

 

When extreme weather happens, don’t take your eye off the ball, but keep your head above the storm and striving for results. Utilise the marketing tools and people around you to get where you need to be and to reach the people who will benefit from your business, product or service.

 

If you’d like help pulling your business goals and marketing strategy together, get in touch or book a free consultation to start a conversation.

Karen x

 

PS – download our free social media checklist to help ensure you don’t miss the basics in your social media marketing

social media checklist free download

Here’s Why You Should Measure All Marketing Results

Here’s Why You Should Measure All Marketing Results

Do you test and measure marketing results?

What a question. For small business owners on a pretty busy schedule, the thought of going back through everything to see what results actually happened, can not only be a time-consuming task, but a dreaded one.

You’ve put in all the hard work, it’s out there, social media posts have been put across all channels and if it works, great! Does this sound familiar?

So many people we talk to do not actually look at the results of their social media marketing and therefore have no idea of whether it’s beneficial or not. And realistically, if it’s not working, it’s costing you a lot of time.

Gain clear judgement and understanding by regularly measuring your social media efforts.

Don’t stand by and HOPE that something will work – test it!

via GIPHY

When you have a clear understanding of what impact your marketing is having, whether it’s hitting the right audience and above all – achieving your goals – then you’ll know which direction to go in next. A marketing strategy will help map all this out, giving a foundation to work from and a base to be able to grow and improve. Take action on the strategy and create a working plan that you can follow in each and every piece of marketing you do going forward.

  • Sound time-consuming?
  • Sound difficult?
  • Sound not important for your small business?

… well, the truth is, that if you don’t measure and test, you could be doing it all for nothing. Therefore you are already wasting time, making marketing difficult and not helping your small business grow!

Use the metrics and performance measurements as a way to prove value and demonstrate the contribution of marketing to your business.

 

Here’s WHY you should test and measure your marketing:

 

Enhance your existing marketing content – improve or tweak

When you can see what is working, or not, you are able to make adjustments to give better results. Just a small tweak in the copy or a change of background in a Paid Facebook Ad could make all the difference to having just one sale, or to having one hundred sales.

 

Understand tangible metrics that help in costing and performance

When you deep dive into the ins and outs of the performance in each part of your marketing, you can help bring down costs and gain a better return on investment (ROI). You may find that advertising is expensive, or you’re spending too much time creating social media content, but if you can understand exactly what works and focus on this, you’ll spend less time and money in failed attempts.

 

Map out a customer journey and see what a customer actually wants, rather than what you think they want

Your business wouldn’t survive without customers, they are what keeps your business going. The more customers, the better the revenue and the greater the success. Knowing what makes your customers happy, having an understanding of what they are seeking, will help you create the right marketing content that resonates and has impact.

 

Hit goals and targets, allowing yourself to reach bigger achievements

Do you know what your targets are? Do you have big goals and ambitions? Your marketing is a tool to help you achieve. Within your strategy, create goals; small goals and big goals, short-term and long, and then map out steps to help you reach each step – targets. With each accomplished marker you’re closer to getting to the end goal.

 

Customer retention – vital in business growth.

Yes, you want customers to stay with you! It’s much easier to keep customers than to find new ones, right? Think about that for a moment, how much time do you spend acquiring a new customer? Once you’ve got them, you want to keep them. Customer service is a vital part of your marketing, ensuring customers – and potential customers – are happy.

 

Marketing works, when you know what works. Testing and measuring marketing results is so important in order to grow a business, and putting in the time and effort to structure this so that it works for you, rather than against you, will have a big impact in the future. Get it right now, and save time and money.

 

What are you waiting for? Are you measuring your results?

If not, we absolutely suggest that you start today. And if you’re not sure where to start, ask us, we’re happy to help.

 

In the meantime, start off with our FREE downloadable ‘Social media check – don’t forget the basics’, which will help you get an understanding of what you should be doing on a regular basis on your social media channels.

Speak soon!

 

social media checklist free download

 

 

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