17 Questions to Ask Before You Create a Content Strategy

Creating a content strategy is all about figuring out who you are, who your audience is, and what type of content you want to create. To begin, you might want to ask yourself the following questions.

What is the biggest selling point of my brand?
Who are my competitors?
What is my story?
What sets my brand apart from other similar brands?
What solutions does my brand create?
What are my goals?
Who is my target audience?
What is the tone that my audience would most appreciate?
What does my audience do on a day-to-day basis?
What is going to keep my audience engaged?
What keywords are relevant to my industry?
What sort of time do I have to create unique content?
How much time can I spend brainstorming content?
What days of the week will my posts receive the best feedback?
How early do I want to start promoting content?
What type of feedback do I want from my readers or clients?
What form do I want my feedback to be in?

These questions will help you begin to think about your content strategy in a more focused way.

Feb

23

The Ugly Truth About Facebook Advertising

According to one scientist, it’s better to say no to Facebook ads. Let’s say you pay $10 for a Facebook ad and you get 40 likes. That’s cool, right? That’s supposed to mean that your page engagement is going to go up. That’s supposed to mean that you’ll have 40 new customers, right? Not exactly.

Even if you go through “legitimate” means of advertising by using Facebook ads, you aren’t going to get better followers. Why not? Because according to Veritasium, an educational YouTube channel, “click-farms click the ads for free….they like pages other than the ones they’ve been paid for to seem more genuine.” Even though you aren’t paying for fake likes, you’re still getting fake likes.

It’s a tough pill to swallow, though, because there’s a lot of pressure from society to advertise on social media. If you skip it, you’re told you’re missing out on valuable engagement. And while you are missing out on some activity, its legitimacy is debatable. What’s the point of traffic if it’s not real? Exactly – there isn’t one.

So while you’re planning your marketing budget for 2015, you might take another look at the ad money you’re dedicating to Facebook. We’re not telling you what to do, but if you’re going to spend money, we want it to make an impact on your brand. A real one. One main issue is that online advertisements through social media sites like Facebook are largely automated. There aren’t any real people behind the scenes. According to one study, “more than half of online display-ad buys last year…were made using automated systems.” Why waste your time?

Advertising isn’t a one-click-fixes-all sort of thing, so instead of just checking the “advertise here” box, why not talk to someone who manages these sorts of campaigns? You’ll get more for your money and you’ll be able to advertise the right way.

Feb

15

General

Show You Care on Valentine’s Day

Valentine’s Day is all about expressing your love and care for the people in your life. So why not extend that to your customers and clients?

There are many ways that you can reach out and show your clients you care, and we wanted to touch upon our favorites.

Handwritten letters are at the top of our list because they’re fun to make, they can be customized, and who doesn’t love receiving mail? Keep your card simple. Your Valentine’s Day card should provide one or two sentences about your feelings. As long as it’s appropriate and on time, a mailed letter or card will be an unexpected way to reach your customers and clients.

Well-written content, like cards, will show your customers that you’re thoughtful, you’re interested in providing quality information, and you’re focused. You want to make sure all your content is relevant, brand appropriate, and engaging. That includes blogs posts, Tweets, Facebook posts, social media content, newsletters, brochures, and so on.

Candy is obviously also on this list. When you send candy or small tokens of appreciation, your clients will be thinking about your brand and your company for that entire day. Or at least until the candy’s gone. There isn’t a better way to reach clients, make them happy, and say thank you all at once than with candy or small gifts.

This Valentine’s Day, spend some time thanking the people who’ve affected you positively– whether you send a letter, write engaging content, or mail out some candy, your clients and customers will appreciate the time you spent thinking about them.

Feb

14

Workstation Playlist

EM-Playlist

Where else can you hear Amy Winehouse and Rookit in the same playlist? We love coming to work, and with this workstation playlist, we stay focused and bumping through all 23 songs.

Passion Pit- It’s Not my Fault, I’m Happy (Gossamer)
Hercules & Love Affair- I Try to Talk To You
Little Dragon- Klapp Kalpp
Rookit- Real Love
Passion Pit- Sleepyhead
Amy Winehouse- Rehab
Oscar Peterson- C Jam Blues
A Case of You- Joni Mitchell
Pharoah Sanders- You’ve Got to Have Freedom
Bill Evans Trio- Porgy (I Loves You, Porgy)
Radiohead- True Love Waits
Awolnation- Sail
Devendra Bahart- Little Yellow Spider
Passenger- Whispers
Matt Corby- Brother
Daughter- Youth
Joanna Newsom- The Book of Right On
Alloy Orchestra- Into the Amazon
Edith Piaf- La Vie En Rose
Hudson Taylor- Battles
Fritz Kalkbrenner- Sick Travellin
Sia- Under the Milky Way
Hudson Taylor- Drop of Smoke

Feb

10

Creativity

How to Tell Your Story

So you have a business! Woohoo. You have clients! Yes! You have a website. Yay. But you need more than a business, clients, and a website to last. You need to understand your brand. What are you all about? What type of clients do you want to reach?

Here are some questions you should think about before you start branding, creating content, and marketing to a specific set of clients.

What makes your business happy?
Who is your ideal client or customer?
Who needs your business?
Who wants your business but can live without it?
How are you going to communicate with your customers?
Who is your competition?
How do they market themselves?
How are you different?
Where do you see yourselves in 1 year? 5 years? 10 years?
What is your projected growth and how would you like to get there?
What type of site do you want your customers to see?
What is the first thing you want people to think of when they think of your business?
What are some aspects of your site that you would like to hide or change?
What drives your business?
What is the ideal vision that you have for your business?
How would you describe your business in one sentence? One word?
What do you believe in?
How are you going to show your customers that?

Once you ask yourself these questions, you can start creating a consistent brand with a consistent vision. Branding and marketing your company isn’t a one-night thing–it happens after a lot of thought, energy, and goal setting. Once you create your vision, you can become it.

Jan

22