Social media marketing is a critical component of any well-rounded content strategy. Solopreneurs and small businesses must master the art of creating relevant and interesting content for their ideal customers to drive growth. With more than 100 social media platforms available, how do you know which ones are the most effective for achieving your goals? It’s easy to become overwhelmed quickly at the thought of creating content for multiple sites. Spreading yourself too thin is never the right approach. You can crush your competition with a less-is-more social media marketing strategy that helps your brand shine online. Our latest blog post answers the most common questions to guide you through the process. Should I be on every social media platform?Kaiya Williams, the founder and executive director of KAW Management Group, said she gets this question a lot from her clients. It’s mostly people who are newer to social media for business instead of personal use. The short answer to the question is no. “You definitely don’t need to be everywhere all at once,” she said. “It’s rare cases where you see a brand that needs to be or should be on every platform.” Instead, she advises her clients to choose 1 to 3 social media platforms and focus their efforts there. That’s because most small businesses have limited resources. Maintaining an active and engaging presence on more than 3 channels is nearly impossible. “My only exception is if they have a team of content creators who each specialize in different platforms, or if they’re comfortable with repurposing content. Otherwise, they’re going to get burned out,” said Williams. Some other reasons why trying to have a presence on every social media platform isn’t necessary for small businesses include:
How do I pick key social media platforms for my brand?Creating a detailed customer persona is the most effective way to determine which social media channels you should focus on. “It all goes back to your ideal client or customer persona,” said Williams. “If you’re not clear on that, then there’s probably already some challenges you’re seeing in your marketing because it’s not converting very well. Without that, your copy isn’t speaking to the right person.” For instance, if your brand serves mothers aged 25 to 32, then it’s unlikely you should focus your efforts on TikTok. Creating a customer personaCreating a customer persona can feel overwhelming, especially for solopreneurs and small business owners who are wearing many hats. Answering the following questions can guide you through the process:
Creating content that hits the mark“When creating content, find what people like and keep doing it,” said Melina Oliver, the social media influencer behind Maples Neigh-borhood. Oliver describes herself as an accidental sensation who went viral on TikTok for a simple video of her then 2-year-old son calling their horse in from the pasture. She wasn’t trying to go viral with the post. But once it happened, it was hard to put that genie back into the bottle. She’s continued to create content that pleases her followers and monetizes her channels, noting the key to her success is simple. “Being authentic is always best. Don’t write a script. For me, just showing the authentic interaction between my son and horse is what people want to see.” How much time should I commit to social media content creation?This is always the million-dollar question for solopreneurs and small business owners who are already stretched too thin. Building organic awareness and engagement takes time. You can expect to invest at least 6 months into the process before seeing actionable results. “You have to be patient,” said Oliver. “It takes a lot of time and effort to grow on social media and you will have ups and downs. Be patient. Be consistent.” However, if you’re not getting leads and building a solid following after 6 months, it might be time to investigate all aspects of your content, not just how often you’re producing fresh stuff. “Let’s say your ideal customer is on Instagram, but you’re writing entire books of blog posts in your captions,” said Williams. “So, no one is really reading that so it’s not converting.” Instagram is designed to appeal visually to your followers. High-quality images or videos – including Instagram Stories – work better than long-form text posts. Another critical factor is learning how to use SEO keywords in your content. The Write Reflection teaches this method to solopreneurs and small business owners as part of our 1:1 content training. Williams agrees knowing how to SEO your social media is critical for gaining visibility. “SEO is becoming more important on Instagram, so are you engaging the right keywords?” she said. “If not, it might be a visibility issue, not that your people aren’t there.” Ultimately, Williams said how long you invest in a particular platform depends on your available resources. “Founders trying to manage social by themselves, this isn’t a great way to allocate your time,” she said. “Do some research and decide if you should table a platform or bump it down in your priority list.” About the Author - Shari Berg
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Social media platforms are filled with AI content creation gurus singing the praises of tools like ChatGPT. They offer step-by-step instructions on how anyone can gain Google’s favor by following their guidance. Technically, some of their techniques work (even if just temporarily). One of the latest brags online is how easy it is to boost your brand’s SEO by asking AI to create thousands of articles focused on top-performing content from your competitors. It’s true you can quickly and easily create large batches of optimized content for your website with ChatGPT and other similar tools. The downside is the AI output is neither authentic nor high-quality. Still, it’s hard to resist leaping head-first onto the AI bandwagon when you see marketing folks posting screenshots of the insane traffic they’ve generated with the technology. Let’s explore both sides of the coin to help you decide whether AI-generated content is a friend or foe to your content marketing strategy. The rise of AI content creationAI-powered technologies such as natural language learning processing and machine learning algorithms paved the way for AI content creation. The release of advanced AI systems like ChatGPT-3 in 2020 made the technology accessible to everyone. Entrepreneurs and small business owners can now choose from ChatGPT, Jasper, Claude, and Google Gemini (to name a few) to instantly produce articles, social media posts, and website copy by simply entering a few prompts. AI is convenient, affordable, and fast, evolving from an emerging novelty to a widely accepted marketing and business solution for automating and scaling your content creation. The pros and cons of AI content creationUsing AI for SEO gains is a controversial topic these days. On one hand, data supports the notion that AI-generated content can perform well in search rankings. On the other hand, concerns continue to grow that AI-produced copy is pushing high-quality human-created content off page 1 of the search results. A quick perusal of Google’s preferred top content validates the fear that subpar content is taking over. Google’s ranking system is supposed to be designed to reward high-quality content. However, it doesn’t penalize content produced with the assistance of AI unless it’s used nefariously to manipulate search rankings (we’ll talk more about that later). For now, let’s take a comprehensive look at the pros and cons of using AI to support your SEO goals. The prosAI chatbots collect user behavior and preferences, plus other feedback data that can inform SEO strategies. There’s no doubt this is a valuable service with long-lasting effects on the SEO industry. Some of the other benefits of AI tools include:
The consIt’s easy to get excited about all the ways you can use AI tools to boost your content marketing strategy and forget that it’s not all sunshine and roses. One of the most significant issues with relying too heavily on ChatGPT and other AI chatbots for content creation is the potential loss of control over search rankings and referral traffic. Human content creators provide backlinks to the source material, giving the original creators credit for their hard work. Those backlinks, in turn, boost the original author’s credibility with search engines, making their content more visible. AI doesn’t provide attribution unless specifically requested by the user prompting it. Other downsides to AI content creation include:
The infamous SEO heist (and how it backfired)Remember when we said that we’d talk later about how trying to use AI to game the SEO rankings can backfire? It’s later. We’re about to give you a real-life example of how misusing AI to manipulate Google and other search engines can end up negatively impacting your SEO efforts when you’re caught. Case in point: tech entrepreneur Jake Ward gleefully bragged on his social media about how he stole 3.6 million clicks in what he dubbed an epic “SEO heist.” Here’s how he did it:
Wrong. While he managed to generate 3.6 million in total traffic in 18 months, the gains didn’t last long. Other content marketing professionals began calling him out for his tactics, which attracted the attention of Google. Let’s just say Google wasn’t amused with the gaming of their system. The search engine giant downgraded the site that was used to pull off the heist. Ward is unapologetic about the methods he used to achieve these SEO gains, even though they can be easily classified as Black Hat SEO. He also argues that no one was harmed by his actions. The business owners who run Exceljet – the website AI scraped to create that 1,800 pieces of content – disagree with Ward’s assessment. Exceljet co-owner David Bruns commented publicly on Ward’s brag post on LinkedIn about what he’d done. You can see a screenshot of his comments below. Ward’s tactics failed to follow the EEAT (Expertise, Experience, Authority, Trustworthiness) model Google uses to determine the credibility of websites. He may have cheated the system successfully for a while, but Google and other algorithms continue to evolve, making it harder to get away with this kind of unethical behavior. It’s about the conversions, sillyBesides getting penalized by Google, there’s another problem with Ward’s approach to using AI to boost SEO. Getting traffic to your website is just one phase of a solid content marketing strategy. Converting that traffic into paying customers is the real measure of your content’s value. Traffic vs. conversions is another one of those heated topics among content marketing professionals. Yes, you need traffic to your site to make sales. However, once you get eyeballs on your content, is it going to engage your ideal customers and convince them to part ways with their hard-earned money? If you’re not sure you can answer that question with a resounding yes, then you have a big problem. More traffic doesn’t automatically mean more sales. You must target your audience and give them the kind of content that educates and entertains. Create something new instead of using AI to simply regurgitate content that can be found on all your competitors’ websites. That’s the secret sauce for targeted traffic that turns into guaranteed conversions. Future of AI content creation for SEOGoogle isn’t opposed to AI-generated content. There’s no evidence it’s penalizing copy written entirely or in part by the likes of Chat GPT, Google Gemini, or Claude. However, the key to continuing to rank well for SEO is to make sure all of your content is produced for people first, and SEO second. Not sure how to do that? The key is to find an AI content creation consultant who understands how to create compelling copy that engages and converts your readers while following SEO best practices. About the Author - Shari BergHow to Strategically Reinvent Your BrandService-based small businesses experience a similar challenge at some point in their journey. They onboard more clients than they can reasonably handle out of fear of not having enough income to survive. Eventually, the pressure of finding more hours in the day to meet all their clients’ needs leads to burnout. That’s where Elena Herrera of West Coast Psychology Specialists found herself at the end of 2023. A licensed psychologist, she worked in agencies and as a supervisor for psychologists in training before transitioning into private practice. She operated her private practice part-time at first, continuing to serve in her other positions. In January 2023, she decided to go all-in on her independent therapy services. Thirteen months in, she began to feel the pressure of being a service-based small business owner. “I love the work that I do,” she said. “I work with couples, men in tech careers – especially engineers – but it’s stressful relying on my appointments for income. Whenever people cancel, that’s income that I’m losing. For peace of mind, I knew I needed a backup plan.” Establishing a Small Business Plan BElena didn’t want to completely abandon her desire to help people. It’s why she became a psychologist. Instead, she began exploring options that would allow her to use her psychology degree to continue to make a difference. What she landed on was consulting opportunities that required her expertise. One of her passions as a therapist was helping men in technology careers. “The way engineers cope and reach out for help is different,” she said. “One of the biggest stumbling blocks for these men is they feel like they must use logic to solve problems and therapy can feel vague and unclear at first.” When she was regularly counseling men in this industry, she discovered a lot of their anxiety stemmed from the way they were treated in the workplace. Drawing on that experience gave her an idea for her new business direction. While she could offer stress-management workshops for men in tech, she decided her time was better spent addressing the root of the problem. “Where the work needs to be done is with leadership,” Elena said. “I think smaller tech companies would be more receptive to this.” Leading the way to a healthier workforceElena doesn’t envision a one-size-fits-all solution to the problem. She must ask a few questions – some of which might be uncomfortable to explore – before she can work her magic. The first step is to uncover what’s going on with the leadership team, which requires a leadership assessment. “Are they on the same page?” she asked. “How do they communicate their expectations with their employees? Once I know the issues, then I can intervene and customize a plan that fits the situation to solve the real problems.” She doesn’t believe in taking an “I know more than you do” approach because that doesn’t help people feel comfortable enough to open up and trust her throughout the entire process. Now that she has a new service model in place, Elena said she’s excited about the possibilities. “It’s a way of doing something new using my brain differently,” she said. “The expectation that I have is that I’m going to make some good connections and use my style – which is approachable and connective – to come in and help people.” Navigating the bumps in the roadFiguring out a new direction doesn’t mean the journey is without bumps in the road. For Elena, one of the biggest challenges she faces is cutting through the noise to stand out among her competition. There is a lot of competition in the mental health therapy space with therapists who have made a similar transition. They’ve left their clinical roles completely to write articles and do consulting work. She’s discovered the key to getting noticed sometimes comes down to who you know in the industry. “It’s inspiring and frustrating at the same time,” she said. “Inspiring because they’re women who have all taken these bold steps. Frustrating because they aren’t necessarily any more skilled than I am, but they’ve met the right person or have the right connections. I’ve learned that’s really the key. I feel like that’s a roadblock because if you don’t have that, you’re just hustling and hustling.” Marketing strategies to support the shiftElena said she has learned to take a deep breath and continue putting herself out there. To overcome some of the obstacles standing in the way of her new business growth, she’s spending a lot of time networking with others in the industry. “As a naturally introverted person, I’m doing things that make me feel very uncomfortable,” she said. “I’m posting a lot on Alignable and LinkedIn, which I never did before. I’m networking with a lot of people and planting seeds. I don’t see it as a waste of time. I’m making valuable connections.” Besides virtual networking, Elena said she plans to host a paid event for other therapists who are early in their careers. She’ll offer them advice about how to build their practices and give practical tips for growth strategies that work. She also welcomes any interviews or speaking engagements where she can discuss her new business direction to generate new leads. “I’ve already been on two podcasts for people who have a passion for working with men,” she said. Small business owners who want to share their expertise as part of their marketing strategies can find opportunities on HARO. Additionally, she’s working on revising her website to align with her new business direction. Getting active on social media is another way to generate awareness and connect with your ideal customer. Small business owners struggling to find their footing with social media content creation can schedule a 1:1 content marketing training session with a member of The Write Reflection team. Ongoing content creation support also is available in the soon-to-launch Mainstreet Marketing membership community. Get on the waiting list to reserve your spot. No matter which marketing approach you take, Elena said she’s a big fan of relying on other professional women to help her grow. “It’s OK to reach out to other successful women to get ideas,” she said. “It’s in our nature to be helpful and nurturing. Leaning into what’s natural for us, we can still do that, even in business.” About the Author - Shari BergLet’s be honest. Coming up with new content ideas day after day can drain even the most creative person faster than a smartphone battery scrolling Instagram. Creating fresh content for your brand’s digital assets is time-consuming (and quite frankly exhausting). You feel pressured to perform because you know the benefits of producing consistent high-quality content. Stop posting for even a few days, and the Almighty Algorithm punishes you for your insolence by downgrading your content in search results. AI content creation tools can help alleviate that stress. I’m not suggesting you use AI to generate new posts for you. As we learned in our last blog about best practices for AI content creation, you must review, edit, and customize the output before it meets the high standards for your brand. There’s a better way to use AI to reduce the time you spend creating content. Refreshing and reusing existing content is a task at which AI excels. Some of the ways AI can breathe new life into old content include:
Revive your best stories: turn top blogs into social media postsYou’ve probably figured out by now that your social media audience prefers a different style of content than visitors to your blog. Shorter, punchier posts tend to perform better on social. One of the easiest ways to repurpose in-depth content from your blog is to turn it into bite-sized chunks of compelling copy for your social accounts. Here’s where AI content creation tools come in handy. Pick the AI content generator you prefer and upload your blog post in its entirety (for the best results). Then, create a prompt that details how you want to use that information to create smaller social media posts. Get specific, right down to the tone of voice you want to use and the purpose of the content (drive more website traffic, generate more leads). Take it one step further by asking AI to generate attention-grabbing captions or questions for polls and quizzes to accompany your posts when appropriate. Adding polls and quizzes is an effective way to boost engagement. Blogs to social media carouselsBlogs with multiple talking points make excellent social media carousels. Visually pleasing carousels draw people in. Once they’ve found your post, you can impart the same wisdom from your blog in a more palatable format for social media scrollers. Remember not to put too much text on each carousel slide. Likewise, creating a 60-page carousel is overkill. Limit it to 8 to 10 pages maximum for the best results. A note of caution: never upload content that contains sensitive information about your organization or its customers to AI tools. Everything you feed to AI is stored in its database for reference later. You can get yourself in hot water if you overshare after signing a non-disclosure agreement. Repackage podcast gems: turn audio insights into viral blog wisdomAccording to the Pew Research Center, 42% of Americans over the age of 12 listen to at least one podcast a month. That’s a marked increase from the 12% who tuned in just one decade ago. It’s not difficult to see the allure. Podcasts are an engaging, amusing way to pass the time. You can use them to learn new information or explore topics in depth. They’re also an effective way to create a sense of community among your brand loyalists who feel connected to the podcast host and each other. If your small business has invested in producing a podcast, you can easily take episodes and turn them into blogs. Several AI tools specialize in performing this task. You’ll want to do some fine-tuning to the output to add links, images, section headers, and other elements that make blogs more engaging. Consider adding an introduction and conclusion in your brand voice to add some personality to the piece. Bring your content to life: transform written insights into viral visualsSocial media is the perfect opportunity to pack your content into snackable visual media bites. You don’t have to be a skilled graphic artist to take data from blogs, case studies, and even podcasts and turn it into an appealing chart, diagram, or other graphic. AI tools such as Adobe Creative Express, Midjourney, and Dall-E 2 can take text prompts and turn them into eye-catching social graphics, quotes, and charts. The image that accompanies this section was generated by using Adobe’s text-to-image generating software. For instance, a key statistic from a podcast episode can become a colorful infographic that educates and engages your audience. You can even use it to direct them back to the podcast to learn more. As with anything else AI produces, check the output for accuracy before publishing. Give your content the Hollywood treatmentYou don’t need fancy video equipment to repurpose written or audio content into video clips. Using an AI text-to-speech narration combined with royalty-free media gives your content the Hollywood treatment, red carpet entrance and all. Most AI tools that do this task work similarly. You input your existing blog post text or podcast transcript. Then, select visual themes, graphics, and music to match your brand style. When prompted correctly, the AI should spit out a video clip you can share on social media or use in digital ads. Touches that individualize the video can include an intro and outro of you or another brand representative. Always manually include captions to ensure your content is accessible to everyone. AI content creation repurposing saves time and moneyAI isn’t a magic wand for repurposing your content. You can’t just wave it and expect miracles. You must invest your time to learn how to breathe new life into old blogs, transform podcasts into long-form content, and create eye-catching visuals from written passages. With some strategic effort, you can get significantly more mileage out of your high-quality content. Do it well, and you’ll save time and money down the road while keeping your brand top-of-mind. Need help with AI content creation tools? The Write Reflection offers 1:1 content marketing training for entrepreneurs and small business owners that’s customized to meet your needs. Reach out today to schedule a session. Mention this blog to receive a 25% discount on your first session fee. About the Author - Shari BergIt’s difficult to forget an encounter with Emida Roller. She’s fearless about approaching people with her warm smile and shining personality that draws you right in. Before long, you’ll find yourself asking about her passion and what she does for a living (only to discover the two are one and the same). The genius behind Emida Roller Productions, she’s turned her love of art into a thriving small business. It’s not an exaggeration to say she’s mastered the art of the deal. Luckily, she’s willing to share her must-have marketing tips to boost your brand’s visibility. Conquering the fear of connectingTerrifying is a word some entrepreneurs and small business owners use to describe marketing themselves to others. If in-person networking events are part of the process, you can kick that terror up a notch. Approaching perfect strangers and striking up a conversation doesn’t come naturally to many people. That’s OK, said Emida. “You start small, you get more comfortable, and then you push yourself,” she said. Emida recommends an effective strategy for coping with the anxiety that comes with convincing yourself to put yourself out there. Pretend you’re an actor on stage. The networking event is a production and you’re the star. “You have to switch it on,” she said. “If you do it enough, you’ll get more comfortable.” Another coping mechanism is to find yourself a networking buddy. Her daughter is a wonderful artist. However, Emida said she struggles with the networking part of marketing. To quell her fears and give her a confidence boost, Emida goes to networking events with her daughter to serve as her personal cheerleader. “Go with somebody,” she said. “You get that moral support and you’ll be less anxious if you’re talking in a group.” If you’re new to in-person networking, Emida has one more trick up her sleeve. She suggests starting with a smaller event to break yourself in. Once you build up your confidence, then you can attend larger events more comfortably. Networking strategies that stickEvery small business is different. Marketing strategies that produce sustainable growth for one brand might fall flat for another. However, learning about different approaches can help you decide which approach resonates with your ideal customer to give you a starting point. “Find people who are doing similar things – someone who is doing it better – and find out how they’re marketing and putting their names out there,” said Emida. “Most people want to share their techniques and help you if you just ask.” When you go to community events or other in-person networking opportunities, go the extra mile to stand out in the crowd. One of Emida’s best ideas for an upcoming conference she plans to attend in March is to make a jean jacket with a scannable QR code about her business on the back. Doing so shows off her artistic skills and makes learning about her business easy and entertaining. “Sometimes, networking and promoting yourself is boring,” she said. “You have to find a way to make it fun.” Besides in-person networking events and community gatherings where she can introduce herself and spread the word about her services, Emida has found success in making valuable connections on Alignable. An online referral network for small businesses, Alignable boasts more than 8 million small business and micro small business owners as members. Think of it as a virtual Chamber of Commerce. Its targeted approach and community-focused features help small business owners forge meaningful connections in their local or niche markets. “Joining Alignable has been a great way to find people who need my services and whose services I can use,” she said. “One good thing about Alignable for me is there are a lot of marketing people there. I can tell my story better than anybody else, but there comes a point where I know I need help, and (Alignable) is a good place to get it.” Solving setbacks and other growth challengesWhen Emida first started out, her business was called Wall Designs by Emida. She concentrated on creating unique wall art in the interior of homes and businesses. To promote her work, she sent letters to local building contractors introducing herself and offering to personalize the interior walls of their model homes with her unique designs. “I was surprised because four of them took me up on my offer right away,” she said. It turned out to be a good marketing move. “You have 10,000 people walking through those homes in a 2-week period and that’s great exposure for my art.” Eventually, she started getting enough work to keep her going as an independent artist. She also began doing outdoor murals, which required figuring out many things – including how to set up a scaffolding by herself. “When you work by yourself, you have to tackle many challenges,” she said. Emida became so proficient at setting up a scaffolding alone that she had her daughter film the process. “Then, I uploaded it to my YouTube channel and shared how to do it with other people. I showed all the tricks I use by myself. Those videos have more views than the ones of my actual art stuff,” she said, laughing. Today, her business name has evolved to reflect the full experience customers can expect from working with her. “I’d been thinking about a name that encompasses everything I do. I don’t just show up and paint a mural and go home. Now, I have a conversation about the theme, get ideas from the community on what should be in the mural, and involve them in the whole process,” she said. “My big thing is how I engage with the community. That’s part of my branding. I’m not just an artist. I’m a community engager.” Her unique approach to community involvement earned Emida a lot of free press. Reporters would give her their numbers and ask her to call when she started her next project. Starting over again (and again)One of the challenges Emida has faced with marketing her business involves her and her husband’s shared passion for moving to new places. The couple recently moved to Georgia after spending about 3 years in Connecticut. Every time they move, Emida starts over again with marketing her brand. Instead of getting frustrated, she finds ways to connect with her new community to spread the word about her business. She attended a town meeting and contributed to a discussion about creative ways to get people involved. In the process, she naturally worked in how her business brings communities together on an art project. “Marketing is like a boulder rolling down a mossy hill,” she said. “The more you do, the more the ball rolls and gathers moss.” Even though her challenge is unique, the lessons about how to solve it apply to any small business struggling to market itself. Emida recommends looking for different places to spread your work and to do a good job when hired so those customers will keep recommending you to others. “Every 6 months, reach out to former clients to thank them again and remind them you’re still doing the work if they know anyone who needs your services,” she said. Keeping the pace (and peace)One of the lessons Emida learned early on in her business was the value of having a solid contract before beginning work with a new client. “I started out without (contracts), and I had problems,” she said. “Having a signed contract eliminates a lot of problems.” Another struggle she encountered in the early days was second-guessing herself through the slow times. “I would wonder if I could sustain myself with my business model,” she said. “But I found ways to keep the flow by spreading out the work.” Instead of trying to do 2 to 3 projects simultaneously, Emida staggered the start dates and rotated between large and small jobs to give herself breaks as needed. Final words of marketing wisdomRunning a small business comes with a steep learning curve. Generating enough leads to turn a profit is one of the many lessons you’ll either pass or fail. Learning to embrace the challenges as opportunities and stepping outside your comfort zone to build a strong network are surefire methods that have helped Emida survive and thrive. “Be prepared,” she said. “Know what you bring to the table and be willing to give a bit more than expected to leave a lasting impression. Be assertive, and you’ll close the deals.” About the Author - Shari BergAI content creation tools like ChatGPT, Claude, and Google Bard took the spotlight in 2023. Content creators oohed and aahed about the benefits of using them to streamline your content marketing process. Since most entrepreneurs and small business owners value tools that save them time and resources, they quickly began harnessing the power of AI to generate content quickly and affordably. However, like any powerful tool, AI content creation requires careful consideration and commitment to following best practices for its use. The problem is the technology exploded before industry professionals could weigh in on and establish accepted approaches for its use. It’s impossible to put the genie back in the bottle. If you plan to use AI content creation as part of your marketing strategy, consider the following guidelines to maximize the benefits. 1 – Become a prompt engineerThe quality of the content AI produces is only as good as the prompt you give it. Generic prompts deliver subpar results. Don’t just say, “Write a blog post about market trends.” You’ll end up with copy that isn’t what you had in mind when you asked AI for assistance. A well-crafted prompt explains the topic, purpose, target audience, tone, and any key points you want covered. AI language learning models like ChatGPT and Claude are trained to follow your instructions closely. The more information you provide, the better the output. Going back to the example about a blog on market trends, a better prompt would be: Act like a financial analyst with expertise in market trends. Write a detailed, 800-word blog post discussing current market trends and economic conditions in the U.S. as of January 2024. Cover topics such as GDP growth, unemployment rates, inflation, consumer spending, business investment, manufacturing activity, housing starts, stock market performance, interest rates set by the Federal Reserve, and other key economic indicators that provide insight into the overall health of the economy. Provide context by comparing current trends to historical norms over the past decade. Analyze the data to identify areas of strength, weakness, or uncertainty in the economy. Discuss what factors may be driving observed trends, such as government policy, consumer behavior, or global market conditions. Include perspectives from economists and industry experts on the outlook for the rest of 2024 and implications for businesses or investors. Make sure to cite any statistics, quotes, or findings from reputable published sources. The tone should be professional and analytical, written for an audience of business leaders and market analysts interested in understanding the current landscape to inform strategy and investment decisions. 2 – Review and edit outputThere’s no argument over whether AI can generate content efficiently. When prompted well, most AI tools can produce hundreds of articles in a few hours. However, the speed of AI content creation isn’t a substitute for quality. Raw AI output should never appear on your digital or print assets without the skilled eye of a human reviewing it first. You’ll want to tweak the copy to align with your brand voice. Verify the accuracy of any data the AI included in its content. One of the most concerning issues with AI-generated content is that it’s not always true. These factual errors and misleading results happen so frequently that industry leaders have given the phenomenon a name: AI hallucination. While it sounds cute, the problem can tarnish your professional reputation. Just ask Manhattan attorney Steven Schwartz, aka “the ChatGPT lawyer.” With 30 years of experience in practicing law, he was caught using case law generated by ChatGPT that didn’t exist. A New York federal judge sanctioned him in June 2023 for the faux pas. Schwartz claimed he had no idea that ChatGPT made up facts before he used it in lieu of human paralegals and then failed to check for accuracy. Don’t end up like Schwartz. Establish a thorough editing and review process to guarantee the final output meets the highest standards for your brand. 3 – Customize content to avoid plagiarismReviewing and editing any AI output involves customizing the content to avoid plagiarism. While AI tools like ChatGPT are supposed to write original text, that’s not always the case. Some output has failed to pass plagiarism checker tools because it contained significant chunks of exact wording from the original source. One of the most effective techniques you can use to combat this issue is to put your original spin on what AI spits out. Add new paragraphs that include your insights on the topic to demonstrate your subject matter expertise. Expand on thoughts the AI suggested to make the content meatier and more engaging for your ideal customer. If you use any statistics or quotes the AI generated, check for accuracy, and cite your sources to lend credibility. 4 – Steer clear of copyright infringementInformation is readily available in today’s digital age. With just a few strokes of your keyboard, you can find search results that match your queries. AI is no different. Some AI language learning tools, including ChatGPT4 and Google Bard, can access the internet to scan for documents and other materials they deem relevant to your prompt. Sounds great, right? Here’s the rub. AI tools may inadvertently generate content that includes copyrighted materials. If you’re really unlucky, it might replicate those sources word-for-word. To avoid getting into legal hot water, educate yourself (and any team members) on the basics of copyright and implement best practices that help you steer clear of infringement. Check usage rights for any external sources cited in the AI-generated copy before publishing them and offer attribution to any sources directly quoted. 5 – Offer transparencyAI content creation raises some ethical concerns around transparency. While not mandatory, it’s recommended to disclose when content is generated by artificial intelligence. Doing so builds trust with your target audience. Consider including a brief disclaimer on your website or within the content that states AI tools were used to enhance creativity and efficiency. Here’s an example of how that might look: At Pipefitter’s Dream, we value transparency as part of our commitment to customer service excellence. We want our valued visitors to know we use AI tools to create all or portions of the content they engage with and enjoy on our site.
Embracing the future of AI content creationAI content creation tools aren’t going anywhere, so we may as well learn how to use them responsibly to streamline our workloads. You can learn to harness the full potential of AI while maintaining your integrity by following the suggested AI content creation best practices in this article. Still have questions about the best approach for implementing AI tools into your content creation process? Entrepreneurs and small business owners who want to learn how to create best practices for AI content creation can schedule a 1:1 training session with a member of our team. Contact us today to schedule your lesson. About the Author - Shari BergSuccessful entrepreneurs and small business owners often have a do-it-yourself mindset. They take pride in single-handedly building their businesses from scratch and aren’t afraid of rolling up their sleeves and putting in the hard work to get things done. Combine that go-getter attitude with a creative personality, and it’s no wonder so many of them are interested in handling their brand content marketing assets. Before donning a content creator hat, it’s worth exploring the differences between DIY small business content marketing versus outsourcing the work to a professional content marketer. Both have their merits and drawbacks. Becoming a content creator isn’t for everyone. Using this guide can help you decide whether you’re ready to become a brand content creator in training or if you should leave the work to someone more experienced. DIY Small Business Content Marketing: Empowering the EntrepreneurCarving out your brand’s unique voice in the digital landscape is a thrilling experience that comes with its share of challenges and rewards. It’s empowering to control the direction of your brand’s messaging, adding your unique perspective to every piece of content you create. However, it’s sometimes frustrating when things don’t quite go as planned. Let’s explore the most common pros and cons of DIY small business content marketing to help you decide whether you’re up for the challenge. DIY Small Business Content Marketing AdvantagesPlenty of reasons exist for giving DIY content creation a try that appeals to entrepreneurs. Three of the biggest drivers include:
DIY Small Business Content Marketing DisadvantagesDIY small business content marketing isn’t all sunshine and roses. All it takes is one unhappy customer or social media troll to gaslight your efforts to make you question why you ever agreed to handle content creation yourself. The two biggest downfalls to this approach include:
Outsourcing to a Professional Marketer: Tapping into ExpertiseThe excitement of creating your brand’s content can quickly get overshadowed by the daunting nature of how frequently you must post fresh content to keep your audience engaged. Most marketing professionals recommend posting to social media between 2 and 5 times a week. If your website includes a blog, posting fresh content to it once or twice a week is recommended to boost engagement levels. Posting is the easy part. Strategizing and creating the content is what takes the most time. And sometimes, small business owners simply don’t have it to spare. They may start out strong with the initial excitement of serving as their official brand voice, only to find that task falling by the wayside as their business grows and they become overwhelmed with other responsibilities. Content Outsourcing AdvantagesAddressing the huge time suck of content creation by outsourcing the work to a marketing agency or consultant is one way to alleviate the pressure. It’s also one of the most common reasons why eager do-it-yourselfers eventually offload the responsibility. Besides the time-savings advantage, here are some other reasons why delegating the responsibility to a content pro benefits small business owners:
Content Outsourcing DisadvantagesIt might seem like the pros of outsourcing your content creation outweigh the cons. The truth is that they’re about equal. One of the biggest disadvantages of handing the reins over to someone else is the cost. The average monthly retainer cost for marketing agencies and professional marketing consultants is $3,500. Costs can swing higher or lower depending on your content needs. Some other downsides to outsourcing include:
Striking the right small business content marketing balanceDeciding between DIY small business content marketing and outsourcing can feel like a tug-of-war. It’s important to remember there’s no one-size-fits-all solution to guide your choice. An optimal approach depends on individual factors such as budget, the level of control desired, the need for specialization, and any time constraints. Some businesses might find blending the two strategies works best, while others go all-in with one approach. Ultimately, the key to choosing wisely is to align your chosen approach with your overarching business objectives. About the Author - Shari BergAn effective small business content marketing strategy is an essential tool for growth. Without it, you’re flying blind without a clear destination. Many entrepreneurs and small business owners struggle to effectively convert curious prospects into brand loyalists. Embracing the transformative power of marketing funnels turns stagnant traffic into engaged leads and one-time buyers into repeat customers. Understanding and leveraging the power of content marketing funnels gets your brand in front of your ideal customer to build trust and establish authority in your niche or industry. Constructing a conversion-focused funnel allows you to map out an optimized path that aligns with your marketing objectives. Cracking the marketing funnel code unleashes your brand’s potential. Here’s how. Marketing funnels and their importanceA marketing funnel is a strategy that takes prospects through a series of touchpoints, moving them closer to becoming customers. The funnel method attracts a wide pool of prospects, and then narrows it down to the most qualified leads as they progress through each stage. Think of it like a master fisherman at work. First, they cast a wide net into the open waters, gathering an abundance of fish in their initial haul. But not all the fish match the kind the fisherman’s customers prefer. To sort their catch more efficiently, they feed the fish through a funnel that separates the keepers from the toss-backs. Only the prime, healthy fish that meet their standards move into the live well to go to market. A marketing funnel works the same way. Some content is designed to capture initial attention and traffic. Once you have interest, the next step is to turn that traffic into viable leads with more targeted content that educates, entertains, and solves the problems of your ideal customer. They continue to move through your small business content marketing funnel to become loyal customers, while lower-quality leads are tossed back out into the digital sea. Why marketing funnels are importantMarketing funnels are important for improving conversions and maximizing the ROI for marketing initiatives. They provide extra benefits to entrepreneurs and small businesses by:
Understanding the pitfalls of stagnant trafficStagnant traffic refers to website visitors who enter at the top of the marketing funnel but fail to move through the subsequent stages to become loyal customers. Your small business content marketing funnel is negatively impacted in several ways when traffic becomes stagnant:
Common stages of a small business marketing funnelThe stages of an effective marketing funnel vary depending on your specific business goals. While customization is possible along the journey, most small business content marketing funnels follow a similar underlying structure. Stage 1: AwarenessThe initial phase focuses on introducing your brand to potential customers and getting on their radar. Entrepreneurs and small businesses must prioritize awareness in their content marketing strategies if they hope to survive and thrive. Some of the most useful types of content for awareness include:
Stage 2: ConsiderationAfter prospects have regularly consumed your content, they start considering their options. This is where targeted content comes in handy to help them decide what to do next. Some of the content types that fit nicely with this stage of the funnel include:
Stage 3: DecisionOnce prospects know your brand exists and have explored some of the benefits of your products and services, they’ve reached the critical juncture where they decide to buy from you or shop elsewhere. Here’s where a little creativity goes a long way. Produce content that offers the following:
Stage 4: RetentionYour work is far from over once you convert a casual visitor into a first-time customer. This is where so many entrepreneurs and small businesses fall short in their marketing strategy. In this final stage of the funnel, the focus is on keeping existing customers engaged, satisfied, and loyal to your brand. Ideal content for this phase includes:
3 keys to implementing marketing funnelsWhile the stages and methodology behind marketing funnels provide a solid foundation, executing an effective funnel strategy requires honing in on some key elements. Three core focal points small businesses must concentrate on to put impactful marketing funnels into practice include:
Taking a strategic approach with your small business content marketing strategy centered around moving prospects through the funnel transforms how you acquire and retain customers. Common challenges in funnel implementationCreating and implementing a marketing funnel isn’t without its challenges. Understanding and addressing these roadblocks head-on enhances your ability to seamlessly convert stagnant traffic into valuable leads. Two of the most common obstacles include:
Quality content’s role in traffic activationHigh-quality content plays a pivotal role in activating marketing funnel traffic. It serves as the catalyst for capturing the attention of potential customers, engaging them, and seamlessly guiding them through each stage. Key roles include:
Crafting an irresistible lead magnetNo marketing funnel is complete without an irresistible lead magnet. It serves as an initial point of engagement and plays a pivotal role in shaping the prospect’s journey. Do it well, and a lead magnet kickstarts the customer journey, fosters trust, establishes authority, and sets the stage for successful marketing funnel progression by:
Kick your small business content marketing into high gearA strategic marketing funnel is the fuel that accelerates your small business content marketing efforts toward reaching your business goals. Marketing funnels convert passive traffic to engaged customers. Constructing your funnel with conversion-focused content tailored to each stage of the process empowers you to attract ideal leads. Consistently analyzing your funnel metrics enables you to identify and eliminate weak points that are costing you leads. The power of marketing funnels is yours to harness. About the Author - Shari BergEveryone is talking about how to prompt AI for better content creation. At least that’s how it seems when visiting networking platforms like LinkedIn. You can’t scroll two clicks without landing on several how-to guides on the topic. Prompt engineers impart wisdom about how to get AI language learning models to do your bidding. Most of the advice centers around AI content creation and how to use the technology to replace professional copywriters and content creators on your marketing team. It’s possible to use AI like ChatGPT, Google Bard, and Claude to create content with precise directions from a human. However, that’s not necessarily the best way to leverage the power of AI technology. Michael Goldrich offers a more effective way to use AI to achieve your marketing goals. The founder and chief advisor at Vivander Advisors LLC, Goldrich relies on a 5-step process to guide companies through an AI transformation. His new book, Too Many Hats, Too Little Time explores Generative AI and its transformative impact on the business world. Innovators and leaders can learn how to integrate AI while preserving human judgment and creativity. Thinking outside the AI content creation box“I see a lot of stuff online where people are selling tools for specific business problems, but I think it’s backward thinking,” Goldrich said. “You need to look at the entire company and see how people work before offering them specific solutions.” So, what exactly does that mean? When you understand the business's overall challenges, you can provide more robust solutions. Instead of prompting AI to create content for your brand, Goldrich suggests something more groundbreaking: AI personas. An AI persona is a character or identity created for an artificial intelligence system to interact with users. Creators give the AI persona a specific personality, tone, and style of communication to mimic a human-like quality. Think of the last time you interacted with a chatbot or virtual assistant on the website of your favorite brand. They were created with an AI persona tooled toward improving the customer experience. What Goldrich proposes cranks AI personas up a notch to serve a more innovative purpose. Last year, he spent considerable time experimenting with ChatGPT 4. He first learned the art of creating effective AI prompts. “One of the first principles of creating a good prompt is to create a role. For example, you are a digital marketer, or you are a social media manager. After the role is created, you write the prompt to provide enough context that is associated with the role to deliver the output you want. Writing good prompts is the key to getting the AI to do what you want it to do,” he said. “Once I had that down, I started getting specific with it and asking the role to persist through the chat.” Asking ChatGPT to persist means it maintains continuity and context throughout the conversation. Requesting persistence creates a more coherent and meaningful interaction between a human and AI. Goldrich then used what he’d learned to create two separate AI personas and directed them to interact through ChatGPT. Each persona had unique characteristics such as a profession and a tone of voice. After much experimentation, he succeeded in using the AI personas to solve a specific conflict by interacting with one another based on his prompts. He continued to experiment with creating AI personas until he had an entire “board” of them, each with an area of expertise beneficial to his business marketing goals. The personas could converse with one another and with him in a similar way you would expect to see a board of directors operate, Goldrich said. 5-step plan for AI persona successHe was so stunned by the results he decided to share them. In his book, Goldrich outlines the steps he took to tailor personas to align with company goals and have them interact in meaningful ways. He includes screen captures of real, unedited conversations he had with his team of AI personas to demonstrate how the process works. “A quarter of the book is these back-and-forth conversations,” he said. Goldrich expresses in his chapter on strategies for engaging with AI personas that how you choose to engage with the digital entities significantly impacts the quality of insights they provide. He provides basic and advanced techniques for prompting and AI persona creation so you can get the results you need. Goldrich likens AI language models like ChatGPT 4 to a remote employee on the first day of work. “You can get them to do what you want, but you have to be clear and concise on what you want,” he said. One of the challenges of prompting with AI is drift, Goldrich warned. “You can’t use the same prompt over and over because you won’t get the same response each time.” You must give it adequate context. For instance, you can’t just say, “be a copywriter” and expect it to understand your input and produce quality output. “One of the reasons people get so frustrated when prompting AI is because Google has trained us to type a series of keywords into a search bar,” said Goldrich. “ChatGPT is the exact opposite. It’s not 3 or 4 words but three or four comprehensive sentences. The more thoughtful you are, the better the output is going to be.” His step-by-step guide makes understanding the purpose of AI personas and creating ones to suit your needs easy. Whether you’re seeking specialized advice from a legal AI persona or want a panel of AI collaborators, following his instructions makes it possible. Goldrich’s plan is ideal for startups and small to medium-sized companies that lack the resources to hire expert advisors. “You can have a sandbox environment of advisors to help you identify the ‘gotchas’ with ideas for growth or other business operations,” he said. His book includes a cautionary note about using AI personas. “It’s important to remember these AI personas draw upon training data to respond in a way that’s consistent with an expert’s public persona,” said Goldrich. “It’s emulation, not impersonation. They can’t capture the full scope of that person’s knowledge, experience, or consciousness.” AI’s take on AI personasPerhaps the most entertaining part of Too Many Hats, Too Little Time is the conclusion. It features book reviews from each of the AI personas he created. “Some of them liked it, some of them didn’t,” Goldrich said, laughing. “The lawyer (persona) was concerned about privacy, while some of the others were concerned about losing the human in the loop.” You can find Goldrich’s book on Amazon. Interested in learning more about how his company helps organizations transform with the power of AI? Feel free to connect with him on LinkedIn or send him an inquiry via email. About the Author - Shari BergYour 8-Step Guide to Creating a Content Marketing Strategy That WorksSmall business content marketing success requires an effective strategy tooled specifically for your ideal customer. Before you ever craft a single word, you must establish a list of marketing objectives and how your content helps you achieve them. Whether you want to boost brand awareness, direct more traffic to your website, or generate more leads, your content efforts must tie in with measurable goals. Maneuvering your brand’s content creation and distribution to align with goals requires an upfront commitment. However, a limited budget doesn’t have to hold you back. You can learn how to craft a content approach that gives you a competitive edge that pays dividends over time by following these 8 steps. 1 – Know Your AudienceBlindly creating content without first nailing down your target audience is a rookie mistake in small business content marketing. Conducting customer research helps you understand the demographics, interests, pain points, and values that influence your ideal customers’ buying habits. Combine the following research methods for the most comprehensive customer profile.
2 – Set Measurable GoalsOnce you’ve identified your ideal customer and understand how to meet their needs, the next step is to set measurable goals for your content marketing plan. The most effective way to determine if your content marketing strategy works is by tying content goals to business objectives. Using the SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, time-bound) method for setting content strategy helps you identify marketing goals that align well with business objectives. Let’s examine a few of the most common goals and measurable metrics you can track to determine effectiveness.
3 – Create a Content GuideSome small business content marketing agencies call these content calendars. They may recommend creating a year’s worth of content materials and publication dates for your brand to help improve content consistency. Mapping out content topics for each month and pairing them with promotional tie-ins that align well with your brand’s products or services isn’t a bad idea. However, don’t over-plan your content to the point that you squash creativity. Leave room for original thoughts inspired by industry trends and other insights that might not present themselves that far in advance. Your content is more likely to stay fresh and relevant for your target audience if you leave some wiggle room in the planning process. Repurposing ContentOne way you can get the most bang for your buck is by repurposing content. Finding ways to recycle and reuse your content saves you time and money. Don’t worry about people realizing you’ve published a specific item before. You might retain customers who visit your digital assets regularly. However, as your brand grows, you’re going to attract new people to your website and social media feeds who have never seen any of your earlier content. Even if someone views your content frequently, the chances they’ll remember you made the same post 4 or 5 months ago is slim. Don’t be afraid to take posts that have performed well in the past and republish them again later. If aspects can be updated to provide more value, then feel free to make some minor adjustments before hitting the publish button the second (or third) time around. 4 – Focus on Quality Over QuantityNever lose sight of the fact that you’re producing content for people, not search engines. Does that mean you shouldn’t pay attention to SEO best practices for helping your content get found online by consumers eager to do business with your brand? Not at all. However, getting found by search engines like Bing and Google doesn’t mean much if you can’t close the deal once someone finds your content. Small business content marketing strategy works best when it includes content that builds brand awareness, educates your ideal customers, and solves problems. The key to creating relevant content that keeps your ideal customer coming back for more is to conduct thorough research, relying on subject matter experts to provide valuable insights not found elsewhere. Don’t forget to promote your best-performing content across multiple platforms to get the most out of your content strategy. 5 – Distribute on Multiple PlatformsContent that performs well is ideal for this small business content marketing strategy to maximize your ROI. You can take a blog post that’s generating significant traffic on your website and turn it into smaller chunks of information presented in stunning graphic mode for your social media platforms. Just make sure you’re meeting your audience where they already consume content. More than 100 social media platforms exist. Narrowing down which ones work best for your brand goes back to the first tip in this guide about knowing your audience. E-commerce brands do exceptionally well on platforms like Instagram and TikTok because they’re set up for visual success. You can feature photos and videos of your products and services, customer testimonials, and even snippets of your products in action to boost engagement. A common mistake small businesses make is to try to be everywhere online. The only thing spreading yourself too thin accomplishes is unfocused content marketing that leads to burnout for the person handling your social media feeds. Start with two platforms your audience frequents and begin creating shareable content that aligns with your marketing goals and prioritizes quality over quantity. Track your metrics to determine if your efforts are producing results. Don’t be afraid to experiment a bit to discover which social media platforms yield the best results. However, give content creation enough time to work before jumping ship. You can expect a solid 6 months to get reliable measurable results. 6 – Diversify Your ContentA solid content marketing strategy uses a variety of formats. While some customers may prefer infographics that deliver snippets of valuable information, others may connect most with in-depth blog posts or instructional videos that educate and entertain. Go back to the first tip in this guide about knowing your audience. Social media listening is especially valuable for determining the content formats your audience prefers. As with social media platforms, you’re going to want to experiment a bit before you determine which content types generate the most engagement from your ideal customers. 7 – Analyze PerformanceSmall business content marketing success relies on analyzing performance data. Otherwise, you’re just taking shots in the dark. Refer to the second tip in this guide to learn some effective ways to track metrics for common small business marketing goals. Analyze patterns to determine which topics and formats resonate most with your ideal customer. Identify any content gaps where competitors are outperforming you and figure out meaningful ways to plug the holes. Lastly, review buyer journeys to reveal how prospects interact with your content, then refine your strategy to increase your ROI. 8 – Outsource Small Business Content MarketingCreating content isn’t as easy as it looks. Designing pretty graphics doesn’t do much good if the messaging behind the visuals doesn’t resonate with your target audience. Plenty of courses exist for learning how to create content. However, not everyone is cut out for creating content that achieves your marketing objectives. If you’re a small business owner struggling to use the power of content marketing to build brand awareness and generate leads and revenue, there’s no shame in asking for help to achieve your goals. Consider hiring small business marketing content creators who can manage your digital assets to reach your audience more effectively. Large agencies may charge more than you can afford. Options include working with independent content providers who align with your budget and take on increased responsibilities as your brand grows. Outsourcing to the right content creation partner allows you to focus on your core business while still executing a smart content marketing strategy. Small Business Content Marketing Solutions to Help You GrowFocus on the 8 tips in this content marketing guide to find the solutions you need to consistently provide value through content. With a strategic, targeted content marketing strategy in place, your content can effectively attract prospects and convert them to loyal customers over time. Invest the time to research your audience, set measurable goals, and focus on quality over quantity, and your ideal customers will reward your business with engagement and trust. About the Author |
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