This week on the podcast, we are continuing our coverage of common mistakes established businesses make in and around content planning–and this week we’re talking about consistent content and the huge downfall of not committing to a nurture content plan. Real talk: consistency is a choice. Most will agree the average entrepreneur knows they “should” be doing a lot of things, but established online business owners need to stop “shoulding” all over their content.

Trust is a two-way street, and ghosting your audience will lead to a dead end in that relationship.

Here’s what we cover:
1. How to authentically automate your marketing and build up your trust factor with a nurtured, engaged audience.
2. What are the consequences of ghosting your audience, and how can you build trust and avoid it?
3. What are the three kinds of consistency you need to nail for successful content marketing?

[00:00:51] It’s time to stop shoulding all over your content.

[00:01:33] Ghosting your audience does not build trust.

[00:02:43] Marketing is not a one-time event.

[00:06:44] You can moan and groan about content creation or you can do it.

[00:09:42] An example client nurturing content plan

[00:11:16] Crappy content is time-wasting for you, the creator. And it wastes time for your audience, too.

[00:13:10] There’s really no excuse to fall down on content between launches.

Listen to this episode on:

Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Stitcher | Google Play | Amazon Music | How To Subscribe

Stop “Shoulding” All Over Content

Moaning and groaning about content planning won’t make it go away–it’ll just delay the excellent results you could be receiving by getting strategic.

That means owning:

• Ghosting during the off-season does not build trust
• Being consistent is a choice. If you’re not consistent, it’s because you’ve chosen not to be.

Ghosting your audience does not build trust

It wasn’t all that long ago that Black Friday and Cyber Monday passed, and afterwards I made a proud declaration:

I didn’t receive a single email from someone I hadn’t heard from in six or twelve or more months, just because they were having a sale. (I did receive a full blast of sales emails from one particular list I’d definitely unsubscribed from, but that’s another trust-losing story for another day.)

Cheekily, I said this on Facebook, and my friend Dara Sklar replied that it’s probably because I have a healthy attitude about culling my email subscriptions rather than marketers out there actually getting better about this.

She’s probably right.

Ghosting, sadly, is still alive and well in the marketing world.

What is ghosting, and what does it have to do with marketing?

“Ghosting” refers to the act of suddenly and without explanation cutting off all communication and contact with someone.

In a dating relationship, this makes sense. You go on a few dates or get together a few times, and then suddenly... silence. All you get in response is the ghost of what once was, the memories rather than the experience.

On the marketing flipside, your audience will also feel disrespected, ignored, and hurt. Unlike a romantic relationship, though, they won’t be wondering what went wrong. They’ll assume they know what went wrong: they didn’t buy, and they are no longer valuable to you.

At the very least, they’ll feel unsupported. More likely, it makes it difficult for the audience to trust the business or brand in the future.

Marketing is not a one-time event; you need to be consistently present and engaged with your audience. This means not just marketing when you are launching something new!

Ghosting your audience increases spam reporting

It’s well-known, whenever you change email service providers and mail your list for the first time, you get both a mass of unsubscribes and a mass of spa...

Get your business content organized and systematized for success! I’m here in this episode and blog post to explain how to organize and manage your content for business success. I suggest three key elements to make content creation a regular, easy part of your business: a content system, a content database and a strategy. I ... Read more

The post The 3 Things You Need to Bust Through Content Planning #210 appeared first on Content Strategy by Britney Gardner.

This podcast episode discusses the three types of content to include in your visibility plan to build trust with your audience and accelerate your business. You will learn how to create content that is essential for any marketing strategy. If you’re struggling to build a visibility plan, feeling frustrated with your marketing, or just want ... Read more

The post What To Do About Your Love-Hate Relationship With Content #211 appeared first on Content Strategy by Britney Gardner.

If you’re struggling with marketing fatigue, this episode of the Know, Like & Trust Show with Britney Gardner is a must-listen. I’ll walk you through a time when I had a problem with marketing fatigue. I found I was doing a lot of work, but not seeing the desired results. When I decided to take ... Read more

The post How to Overcome Marketing Fatigue #213 appeared first on Content Strategy by Britney Gardner.

When an overwhelmed online business owner attempts to balance content creation and marketing with living their life, they find an unlikely solution in utilizing social media scheduling tools, batching tasks, and repurposing content to build a personality-driven marketing machine.

Here’s what I cover:

1. How to authentically automate your content marketing to build up your know, like and trust factor with an engaged audience.
2. How to save time and money on social media tools and techniques like scheduling, content curation, and batching similar tasks.
3. How to manage real-time interactions on social media to preserve the quality of your interactions.

Listen to this episode on:

Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Stitcher | Google Play | Amazon Music | How To Subscribe

[00:00:06] We’re going to talk about time saving social media techniques for busy entrepreneurs.

[00:02:01] Will scheduling and content tools cost a little bit of money? They will. But this money that you spend on these particular tools has so much ROI.

[00:04:33] Batching cuts down on my context switching, therefore, it saves me productivity and efficiency.

[00:06:22] One of the biggest time-saving things you can do is recycle published content. Understanding the Content ROI and the content insights about your business come into play.

[00:08:19] Mastering social media as a business owner does not mean you’re a hostage to it.

[00:10:44] Staying consistent on social media is easier when you remember you’re in business to make a difference. Your people want your voice.

Time-Saving Social Media Techniques for Busy Entrepreneurs

This is a continuation of our End the Social Media Busy Work series. Did you catch the first article?

Use social media scheduling and content curation tools

Social media scheduling and content curation tools are essential if you don’t want your business to run your life. For any business or organization looking to use social media as part of its content system, these tools save immense amounts of time.

Schedulers automate posting to every social media channel, allowing you to create and post graphics, videos, articles, and other posts all at once instead of manually doing it. Some, like Buffer, can automate Instagram carousels and tweet threads, even beyond normal post styles–another big time saver. Others will send you a notification for these special posts and you’ll have to be more hands-on. Managing multiple social media platforms is easier than ever. Other tools I’ve used in the past for myself or clients: Edgar, Planoly, Later, and Facebook’s own Creator Studio.

Content curation is a valuable perspective apart from your normal content, and using a scheduler can help reign in the time spent on each platform. Tailwind is a popular Pinterest app that makes curating others’ content a breeze.

If you’re looking to maximize your time spent on social media management, be sure to incorporate a scheduler so you can manage social media accounts all in one place. Not having to move from site to site will save you another passel of time.

Batch similar social media tasks

Social media tasks can be tricky to manage, especially when it’s regular posting that requires input from others. A simple example: we can’t publish the show notes for a podcast episode until we get the audio back from the editor.

To run with my podast as the example, I write the show notes, social media captions, and email to my list all in one session. Same with the graphics–I’m currently making them and I pull the quotes and make the quote graphics at the same time as the episode artwork.

This works best when you have a large number of content tasks that need to be completed on a regular basis, which is anothe...