Overcoming Obstacles to Content Creation
We engage businesses today primarily through a digital experience. According to a 2018 Marist University survey, 69% of the respondents reported shopping online as opposed to not shopping online. This is not breaking news. We’ve been living in a digital world for years. For businesses, this means acclimating to the modern marketplace and digital shopping methods. This not only means getting familiar with e-commerce and setting up a website. This means getting digital in your marketing.
Creating a presence online is how a majority of brands create awareness of their products and services, and engage with their audience. Ad campaigns aren’t the only important way to market your business now—it’s about getting personal with the other person behind the screen. The way to accomplish this kind of relationship is through content creation. Busy small business owners are already tasked with so many responsibilities and roles that content creation. You know creating quality content is not just a nice-to-have, it is a need-to-have. However, for different reasons, it remains difficult to get a good handle on. No worries, in researching the content economy landscape, we’ve pinpointed three of the most common pain points of content marketing and how to resolve issues surrounding them.
Understanding the 3 C’s of Content Creation
In our experience, business owners cite three most common challenges to creating effective content: creativity, consistency, and cost. A good digital content strategy accounts for and addresses each of these areas. We’ve identified the problems you may be having with each of the 3 C’s and how to solve them. As you read, think about which of these common issues may apply to you and keep reading to see their solutions.
Creativity may be the most underestimated challenge to content creation. You might be ready to sit down and design, edit, or film, but then your mind goes blank. You might have no idea of what kind of content to create, and that’s okay! It can be easy to think that all the good ideas have been shared already and there is nothing new or innovative you can offer the marketplace. A lack of creativity can hinder your progress when you’re not sure how to differentiate your content from others. Additionally, you want to make content that is fun and helpful, not just advertising how great this product is. Viewers can tell the difference between clear marketing and engaging content.
Being a business owner, you may not have had as much experience in film, writing, or design, so it is normal to feel this absence of ideas and fear of creation. Content creation is vastly different from traditional marketing in this way. You might be afraid to make ‘bad’ content, but this fear is what will stop your creativity.
Consistency is the next on our list of challenges, and it is probably the most common challenge that businesses cite as an obstacle to quality content creation. Again, whether you own a large or small business, content creation is just one more task to add onto a large to-do list. Many times, there is not a built in position for this role, so somebody else has to add it to their to-do list. As a small-business owner, you wear too many hats to add another layer on. This can lead to not creating enough content to post consistently. Sometimes there just isn’t enough time in a day to create enough content that is creative and high-quality.
Cost is another major roadblock separating good content from great content. You want to produce quality content but you may not have the resources to hire a writing or production team. A lot of content development resources and tools that you may hear of are expensive. In the growing economy of influencers, many competitors pay somebody with a large presence online to speak about their business, growing their own presence. Outsourcing a well-known influencer or content team may be a superfluous cost for a lot of businesses.
Not enough good ideas, not enough time and/or not enough money are three of the most common reasons businesses don’t get around to actually creating the quality content they want and need. So, how can you address these challenges and actually achieve success in your brand’s content strategy and execution?
Overcome the 3 C’s of Content Creation
For Creativity, start by thinking the alignment between your target audience and your brand. How do these align? In other words, think about the WHO? before diving into the WHAT? in terms of content. What content surrounding yourself can you make that will fit the needs of your audience? You can answer these questions by doing an audience analysis and brand audit.
Look at the content your competitors are making, especially name-brand accounts, and brainstorm ideas based off of them. Don’t copy them exactly, but use what they make as a foundation. Personalize it and stamp it with your brand. You’re going to be remembered by being unique, not a copy of somebody else. Looking at the marketplace for inspiration is a great way to brainstorm if your mind is going blank. Keep a notebook, folder, file system to keep track of things that resonate with you and have value that you can remix in your own way.
If you don’t have the skills needed, research tutorials online! There are thousands of videos and articles that can teach you about film, design, and editing.
For Consistency, planning is key. Create content calendars and agendas for planning what content you’re making and what day they’re being posted. There are many free content planning templates and tools available online. When you know what content you’re making, you can set aside the time needed to “batch” your content, that is, to make the content at the beginning of the month or week, and do it all at once. Set reminders for yourself, doing it first to get it out of the way.
Another trick to keeping yourself consistent is narrowing down the scope of your content. Research which channels your customers are most likely to browse, and choose 2-3 platforms/apps to focus on. Then, research data analytics on those apps further to learn how to strategize your content, and optimize it to reach as many people as possible.
For Cost, use as many free resources as possible. There are several apps and websites that have free, high-quality features. Canva, Picsart, and Inshot, are just a few great editing and design resources. You can find more by watching YouTube videos for suggestions. A lot of creators are open about what they use to create content.
Lastly, you can use yourself and user-generated content (UGC) as another affordable way to get content! Instead of hiring an influencer, you can make your own content. While this does come with the cost of time, it is cheaper than outsourcing. For example, the company SHEIN has a feature on their website that allows users to upload pictures in their reviews. People trust people more than brands, and user-submitted reviews and testimonials are a great way to promote this. This way, you can speed the process of converting interested buyers into consumers.
Conclusion
Creativity, consistency and cost are three of the top challenges businesses face on the way to developing high-quality content that helps them build their brands. We have developed a simple Content Development Worksheet that allows you to start the process of overcoming these building your own dynamic content strategy. You can download it free here. We hope this resource helps you tackle the 3 C’s to develop new and better content that helps your brand achieve its online goals.
For more information and resources for content creation, check out our recent Lunch & Lab with the LV8 Your Brand team here.
Enthuse Creative Can Help
Enthuse Creative can help your business to develop and deploy quality content. Reach out to us today for a free consultation.
