As a content marketing studio, one of the biggest challenges that our team face every day is coming up with new, fresh ideas for our clients. We are big advocates of “if you don’t have anything interesting to say, then don’t say anything at all”, but we also have a responsibility to our clients to ensure that we are communicating with their audience on a regular basis, so that their brand stays top of mind.
So that begs the question – what do you say when you’ve got nothing to say?
Content Marketing Frequency:
Consumers are bombarded with thousands of messages every day – the last thing that you want your brand to do is get lost in all of that noise because you’re posting content that is meaningless and forgettable.
This is why we advise our clients that is ok to go 2 or 3 days without posting if you don’t have anything meaningful to say. The problem is when 2 or 3 days turns into 2 or 3 weeks and suddenly any goodwill and brand awareness you had previously established is starting to fade away.
You know you need to say something, anything, just to remind your audience that you still exist.
So what do you do? Do you throw up one of those tacky motivational quotes or a funny meme that has nothing to do with your brand or product? Or do you re-post an old article that you wrote, or that same picture of your product that you’ve already used 20 times? How about a hum-drum pic of your staff doing their job? A cute pic of the office pup?
None of the above options are bad – they just need a bit more work-shopping to make them great.
Here are some of our top tips to help you generate consistent content marketing ideas for your day-to-day digital marketing channels.
Content Marketing: What to Say
1. Invest in some branded ‘props’ for photos
We have a pink letter board from K-mart that cost $8. It matches our branding perfectly. If we need to post an inspirational quote or message that is text-based, we put it on our pink letter board and take a snap – instant branding.
Another brand that we work with created postcards in their brand colours that featured their brand hashtags – they give them to their staff to use as props in photos, instantly adding branding to every pic they post.
The point of the brand prop is to make your ‘filler’ content more interesting and branded – it adds consistency to your social media feeds and makes your content more memorable, even if it is just an inspirational quote that the user has seen ten times before.
2. Re-purpose Existing Content.
Rather than just re-posting a blog article from last year, spend 10 minutes updating the article. Add in a few paragraphs of fresh content, or update the information or examples to be more timely – talk about what has changed in the past 12 months.
When you post the link to Facebook, LinkedIn or elsewhere, let the users know that you’ve revisited the post and added new thoughts and ideas – people who read and enjoyed the original will want to re-read it if they know that there is something new.
3. User Generated Content.
Rather than re-posting your professional product photos for the millionth time, try searching your brand hashtags and find some user-generated content from your audience to re-post.
This shows your audience that you are listening to them as well as showcasing applications for your product from real people. Give a shout-out to the original account that posted the pic in the caption and thank them for their pic.
4. Office and Staff Pics.
Pictures of your office and staff are great when implemented well. This kind of content needs to tell a story – pick an item or area of your office that has significant meaning and share the story behind it.
Like, “when we first opened our offices, we didn’t have the resources to do a full fit-out, so a lot of our furniture and fixtures were purchased second-hand. While most of that furniture has since been replaced, we kept this mis-matched lounge suite to remind us of our humble beginnings and how far we have come”.
If you’re going to feature staff, then do a bit of a profile on them – tell your audience a funny story about how they came to work with your brand, or an interesting fact like something that makes them uniquely qualified for the job that they do.
Congratulate them on an achievement that they have made outside of work, like running a marathon, purchasing their first house or winning a pie-eating contest. These types of posts show your audience that you know and care about your staff, which contributes towards building goodwill with your audience.
5. Create Content Opportunities.
If you are routinely running into this lack of content problem then you might want to consider creating content opportunities.
I am going to be pretty blunt here – if you don’t have any content opportunities then you must have a pretty boring office. It means you aren’t celebrating people’s birthdays. It means you never have special morning teas or events like Pink Ribbon Day.
It means you don’t encourage teamwork and creativity.
So creating content opportunities is a win-win – you’re lifting staff morale by giving them something fun and interesting to work on or look forward to, plus you get some great photos to post on social media!
Here are a few small and simple content opportunity ideas:
1. Start bringing in a new treat for your Monday morning staff meetings – get a shot of everyone holding their doughnut, slice of watermelon, cupcake or what ever and post it on Facebook with a caption about how your meeting was productive and the team are ready to charge head-first into a busy week.
2. Encourage staff to bring their pets into work. People love animals. It is a fact. Office pets are great for staff morale AND offer up a great source of feel-good content. Pictures of animals elicit emotions – a funny pic of a pup sitting behind a computer puts a smile on people’s faces and a kitten curled up in someone’s lap makes people say ‘awww’.
3. Start celebrating holidays and birthdays. St Patricks Day, Speak Like a Pirate Day, Valentines Day – pick a few that work well with your brand and run with them.
A pic of your team all wearing red and pink paired with a Facebook post about how much you love your customers is cute and heartwarming. Get your staff to jump on board the planning and execution of these days – it will result in higher levels of participation on the day.
4. Provide opportunities for your staff to collaborate in creative ways – feature stories about how two people from different departments worked together to create an innovative solution for a specific problem. Celebrate their creativity and ideas – it will feel motivated because their efforts and talents are being recognised, and it will show your audience that you have the industry’s best and brightest working for you.
Keyword Research: Powering Your Content and SEO
Keyword research is another great way to generate content ideas for your daily social media activities.
Keyword research isn’t just a term tossed around by SEO consultants Brisbane; it’s an essential tool that fuels both your content marketing activities and SEO campaigns.
By employing a targeted approach to keyword research, you unlock a treasure trove of insights into what your audience is actively searching for online. These keywords act as windows into the questions, topics, and information that resonate with your potential clients. As a business owner, you can leverage these insights to create a ‘suite’ of content that addresses these high-search traffic keywords.
Imagine employing the expertise of an SEO service Brisbane to craft content that speaks directly to what your audience wants. It’s not just about improving search rankings through SEO copywriting; it’s about crafting blog posts, social media updates, and other digital content that meets your audience where they are, across various channels.
By aligning your content strategy with the insights from keyword research, you ensure that your message hits the mark, every time. Brisbane SEO isn’t just a locality-specific term; it’s a philosophy that integrates understanding your audience with delivering exactly what they’re seeking.
In essence, keyword research is more than a handy tool; it’s the compass guiding you towards content that engages, resonates, and ultimately, converts.
Want some content marketing help?
Creating content doesn’t have to be expensive or time-consuming – the team at BeKonstructive Marketing can help you with your content marketing strategy. Get in touch to set up a free initial consultation.
