Waste not, want not.
Content creation is important for bringing in new business, building brand authority and keeping customers engaged. Content marketing is highly cost-effective when it is used correctly. If you are working hard to brainstorm and create quality content, you don’t want to miss out on using that content to it’s full potential.
Don’t Waste Sharing Opportunities
Waste Not: Thinking you can auto-share across platforms and get the most out of your posts.
Stop using a blanket statement and link to share your content across all platforms. Different platforms have different capabilities and audiences. When you share something on Twitter, it is all about the snappiness and catchiness in order to get a like or Retweet. When it is on Facebook, slightly longer captions, often with an engaging question or call to action, and a captivating image or video is more likely to get attention. Linked in is normally more serious in nature, while Instagram and Pinterest are all about the image and a searchable description (or hashtags). Different platforms might even have different peak engagement times.
Instead:
- Know your audience and what sparks higher engagement on every platform
- Treat platforms individually
- Learn key peak engagement times and days
- Share content with different captions and images to best fit the platform
Don’t Waste Evergreen Content
Waste Not: Thinking you always need new content.
Evergreen content is the valuable content that doesn’t stale or age out. Some of your content is going to be time-oriented, some will be seasonal and other content will be classic—or evergreen. You can share great evergreen content more frequently than just when it’s first produced.
Instead:
- Make notes of posts that get the most engagement
- Also note content that performed worse than expected due to poor exposure
- Plant out how to integrate great content reposts in with new content posts
- Recycle content during different post times
- Use different captions/hashtags/images for content reposts
- Go over old content before posting to ensure links are updated and information is still correct
Don’t Waste Viral Opportunities
Waste Not: Thinking engagement has to be only organic.
Many brands choose to boost the posts that get the best engagement. By choosing to pay for sponsored posts on social media, you can reach new faces and pay only for the exposure you receive. By taking a popular post and marketing it to your specific target audience, you are more likely to get more of the customers already engaged in your brand. Plus, you know you are promoting the content that your audience clearly finds valuable. Platforms, like Facebook, allow you to select certain countries, age ranges, max daily price, campaign duration and more. You can choose to target people who have friends that like your page or people who have visited your content in the past but didn’t act.
Instead:
- Take out ads for your top performing posts
- Be specific about the audience you promote to
- Always include a call to action (“Like this page if you agree!”)
- Set a goal for each ad and have metrics established to see if your goals are met (new page likes, email opt-ins, website click-thrus, are examples of what you might be looking to increase in a specific way)
Don’t Waste Your Audience in the Hand
Waste Not: Thinking content is only for attracting new leads.
Yes, content marketing acts like a great magnet for your brand—drawing in new leads. But, many brands get so focused on bringing in new prospects they forget about the customers they already have. A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. Or, according to Invesp, existing customers are 3-14x more likely to purchase than a new prospect and spend 31% more when they do.
Instead:
- Start promoting content in your email newsletters to subscribed customers
- Track where your leads are in their journey in order to appeal to them appropriately
- Differentiate email lists so that you are sending supportive content and sales content to the right customers (content that provides support for a product should be sent to those who purchased it, while promotional content should only be sent to those who have not purchased that product yet)
Don’t Waste Great Ideas
Waste Not: Thinking quantity over quality.
Evergreen or seasonal content are the gold mines that keep giving returns on your investment. Don’t undervalue the importance of creative brainstorming and great writing. You can even hire a writer to help you take your ideas to the next level. Don’t waste these opportunities to improve SEO, increase reach, boost authority and build customer relationships by pumping out mediocre content.
Instead:
- Brainstorm and create topic clusters to cover ideas valuable to your target audience
- Avoid over-selling yourself or your product—focus on the topic and only include CTAs that fit naturally
- Take time to write and edit content before publishing
- Cut language that isn’t to-the-point
- Create a content calendar so posts can be planned, written, edited and posted when they are ready and not rushed
Don’t Waste Supportive Opportunities
Waste Not: Thinking sales, marketing and customer support should be separated.
Write content that supports your staff. Encourage staff to share relevant content with their leads and customers when providing support. Use your content as a staff tool and don’t waste a golden opportunity to show brand authority.
Instead:
- Write content designed to answer FAQs in detail
- Offer clear solutions to specific questions, problems or topics
- Ask sales and customer support what content would help them answer questions faster
- Share content with your staff and make quick link sheets they can pull up to answer questions
- Don’t remove personal support from your process—just offer tools to help make the customer experience better
Are you ready to create content and take every opportunity to utilize it? Check out some of the great writers here if you need any help brainstorming ideas or producing your articles!
Alethea M graduated from the University of Saint Francis in 2009 with a B.A., double-majoring in Communication 
Arts and Graphic Design and double-focusing in Illustration and Computer Arts. She photographed the Saint Francis football team for a paid work study all four years she spent at the school. Immediately after graduating, she got a job at a non-profit company teaching art to young children and running their art program. She moved on to work as a copywriter and graphic designer for another non-profit company in Indiana as a Marketing Assistant for two years. She now spends her time as a wife, mother, freelance writer, and photographer.
