Content Strategies and Planning: Achieving the Know, Like, and Trust
This week for Tip Tuesday we are wrapping up the month of content tips. So far we have covered the 3 key must-haves - your content needs to be RELEVANT, you need to be CONSISTENT and you need to ENGAGE. We talked about repurposing content and last week we touched on batching your content to save time. Today we are covering off on the last few strategies and planning your content. Let's make sure your audience: KNOWS, LIKES AND TRUSTS you and your brand. If you missed the first three Tip Tuesday episodes this month on content, you can watch them here in the blog to help you on your content journey.
Let’s start with your content pillars or buckets. These are subjects you talk about regularly and that would be of interest to your ideal customer. When you create these you want to think about accomplishing the following:
KNOW - you want people to know about your brand
LIKE - you want them to like the brand and to keep coming back for me because your content resonates with them
TRUST - You want your ideal customer to trust you because we buy from people/brands we trust
So let’s break that down.
KNOW - the easiest way to accomplish this is to SHOW UP! Be CONSISTENT and intentional with your social media plan. If you have a weekly blog, stick to posting it every week. Don’t post a flurry on Instagram and then not post for weeks. be there for your customer!
LIKE - The easiest way to like someone is to see their personality. This one is a hard one for many. You aren’t comfortable being the center of attention or you don’t want to be on camera. Do it anyway. You will see a spike in your engagement and your following. Let people see the personal side. Show behind the scenes of the brand, a day in the life video or 5 facts about you or the brand.
TRUST - If you can successfully do the first two ( Know and Like) then Trust should be easy. We tend to trust people we know and like and people prefer to do business with people/brands they Trust! When examining your content plan look for opportunities to educate your audience, solve a problem they may be facing or answer their frequently asked questions. All of these will establish you as an authority, as a brand that is there to serve and bring value and that helps build trust.
If you are struggling for content ideas in these pillars there are a few things you can do to find inspiration. Take a look at trends. What is going on in your industry? Can you tie your content to a specific event or day? Poll your audience. Polls on Instagram stories are a great way to not only tap into the mind of your ideal customer, but they also generate content ideas. You can take those questions and answer them on your social channels, in your blog and position it as the top questions from our customers. By doing this, you can answer a potential customer’s question that they may not have even know they had!
Everyone likes variety - so be sure to mix it up when planning out your content. Don’t just stick with one medium. Make a mix of static posts, photos, carousel, reels and and remember when in doubt, go with video. We are a visual society and people tend watch more video. You want to be ENGAGING. And mixing it up helps the algorithm as well ( if we are talking about Instagram).
Look at what your competitors are doing. Don’t copy them but get inspiration and do it differently to make it your own. Ask yourself “What does my ideal customer want to know about _____?” Create content around that.
Once you have the ideas, you want to sketch it out so you know what you are posting and when. There are lots of apps out there like Planoly or Later that can help you schedule content, but you can simply use a Google doc to lay it out so you can see it all in one place. Planning it out also helps you to see the gaps. Maybe you wrote down the blog launches on the 5th, but you don’t have any social scheduled to promote it. Seeing it laid out will help you recognize that in advance and plug something in to your schedule.
Above all remember - DONE IS BETTER THEN PERFECT!
Just get started putting out content you think will resonate with your audience. That is the beauty of analytics - you can check your insights, see what is doing well and then double-down on more content like that!
If you have any questions or need help building a content strategy, email hello@cascadecreativegroup.com