How to Reach Your Audience Through Content
Have you ever caught yourself wondering…
“What else can I do to reach my audience through content?”
Do I need to write more?
Does the content marketing success lie in how long my blog post is?
What will it take for me to create high quality content that builds visibility AND credibility without being ‘snoozed’ on social media?
Honestly, I get why content has been such a long-standing dilemma for both upcoming and veteran entrepreneurs alike…
We used to be able to do it all.
The emails, social engagement, content, and whatever else.
But now, we have more plates spinning…
Running a business is a handful, so I can see how that might get frustrating and overwhelming at times.
Sometimes, we simply don’t have the time to sit down and churn out content. Even with multiple cups of coffee☕️.
Other times, the inspiration seems to elude us and just don’t know what to talk or write about.
But regardless of what’s holding you back content-wise, I think you’re going to find value in this episode’s featured guest! 🤩
ABOUT THE GUEST:
In this episode of Bite-Size Tips, we have the Founder and Chief Content Officer of Story Fuel -- Melanie Deziel!
Melanie is a renowned speaker, trainer, and author of the best selling marketing and communications book, "The Content Fuel Framework: How to Generate Unlimited Story Ideas."
I met her over at Social Media Marketing World and happened to catch her presentation. I loved how dynamic she was on stage! She was the kind of speaker who just naturally gave tips that you can walk away with and implement right away.
Melanie has taught countless marketers all over the world to brainstorm better and become more confident, creative, and on-brand storytellers.
“I've spent the last few years on my own with a company I founded called, ‘Story Fuel.’ What we do is we train marketers and creators on how to use some of the best practices and tactics from journalism to make their content more compelling, more creative, more credible. It lights me up! I love this work that I get to do, to be able to take the things that I love about storytelling and content creation, and share it with other people.”
- Melanie Deziel
What you’ll learn in this episode:
✅ How to find the intersection of consistency and quality
✅ How to create process-focused content
✅ How to experiment with new content format
✅ And more insightful tips!
ACTIONABLE CONTENT MARKETING TIPS THAT WILL DRASTICALLY IMPROVE HOW YOU CREATE CONTENT:
The following tips are based off Melanie’s own content formula and will help you produce better content minus the overwhelm.
FIND THE INTERSECTION BETWEEN CONSISTENCY & QUALITY
According to Melanie, finding the intersection between consistency and quality often lies in what you’re primary content language is.
Does writing content come easily to you?
Or are you more comfortable hitting ‘record’ and talking into a microphone?
Or perhaps shooting videos are more your style?
Whatever it is, make sure you identify your preferred content language. Stick with the one that you see yourself consistently doing and it might help you discover the content creation path you should be on! 😉
“When I talk about finding that balance, you really have to ask yourself, ‘What can I do to show up consistently AND still deliver quality?’ That’s really how you find the sweet spot. It is much more important that you show up every other week with something of quality than showing up every week with mediocre stuff.”
— MELANIE DEZIEL
BATCH YOUR CONTENT
When asked the question, “Is it helpful to have days dedicated for content?” Melanie shares that it’s always a good idea to add anything of importance to your calendar.
Brainstorming.
Creating content.
Your days should be planned in detail, so make sure you create a realistic schedule for yourself based on your calendar and when you think it’s best to put your content out.
“Have an idea in your mind of ‘where do I want to be on what days?’ Then decide how often you want to show up in those places, spread it out in a way that gives you a chance to do all of those things without burning yourself out
”
— MELANIE DEZIEL
CREATE PROCESS-FOCUSED CONTENT
Since the pandemic hit, there has been a spike in searches for process-centric content such as tutorials, how-tos, DIY, instructions, and the like.
People have an urgent need to learn how to do things themselves since resources aren’t as available as they were pre-COVID19, so you should cater to that need by sharing your insight on things that you are highly capable in doing.
“Think of a specific process that they’re going to have to go through. It could be fixing something, making something, deciding between various things, installing, breaking, you know, combining whatever that process is think of that verb that they have to do, and then create content that guides them through it. ”
— MELANIE DEZIEL
MAKE CONTENT ACCESSIBLE
We asked Melanie, “What’s your advice for someone who wants to start experimenting with new content formats?”
First off, Melanie shares that you should find the overlap between your:
PRIMARY CONTENT LANGUAGE + TARGET AUDIENCE PREFERRED CONTENT LANGUAGE
There will be instances where your primary content language and your audience’s preferred content language would be one and the same, BUT there’s also a possibility that it can be something you least enjoy creating.
For example, you might enjoy recording audio content for your podcast, but don’t quite love the idea of writing your own blog posts.
Under these circumstances, Melanie suggests that you bridge the gap by either finding a tool that allows you to make creating that kind of content easier OR team up with someone whose passion is in creating that particular piece of content.
“We have to remember that people learn and absorb information on different levels. Some like to see it, or hear it, and others by doing - we all learn differently. So, I think that to be the best business owner and to really take care of our audience, we do need to reach out using different mediums.”
— MARY FAIN BRANDT
CONNECT CURRENT EVENTS WITH CONTENT IDEAS THAT’S TIMELY & APPROPRIATE
When creating content, Melanie strongly recommends that you create timely content, but with broader windows so that you can create relatable content without pushing yourself too hard.
For example,
You can create content based on the seasons vs one specific event, doing so allows you to be able to use the same elements for later, and will shorten the process of repurposing them.
You should also ask if your participation is appropriate.
Melanie says that the two most important questions you should ask before posting or publishing these rather sensitive content are:
Does it need to be said right now?
Does it need to be said by me?
If the answer is yes to both, then you have free reign to hit ‘Publish'.’
If you can’t answer yes to both questions, then you should probably hit the brakes!
“There are current events happening that may very well and probably should cause you to question whether now is the right time to put out a particular message. So, the questions you want to ask yourself, if you’re worried about current events and how your message is going to land is, “Does this need to be said right now and doesn’t need to be said by me?” Those are two really important questions when there’s a bigger social conversation and emergency, the pandemic a natural disaster... If you can answer yes to both of those questions, consider putting it out. If not, then it’s wise that you don’t.”
— MELANIE DEZIEL
QUANTITY & QUALITY DOESN’T MATTER WITHOUT CONSISTENCY
So, maybe you’ve heard an expert say that you should post 10x a day to get traction.
The real question is, “SHOULD YOU?”
Melanie shares that, unfortunately, the majority does not have the same niche as these experts or even at the same level. Comparing your output based on those in the industry who are already well-established might end up frustrating you since these big fishes often have bigger teams.
“You have to remember, not every platform deems it necessary to post multiple times a day. In the end, it’s not just quantity or quality that wins the day — IT’S CONSISTENCY.”
— MARY FAIN BRANDT
CONTENT SHOULD SUIT THE PLATFORM
Repurposing is not the same as copy-pasting the same piece of content you’ve used for one specific platform.
Most social platforms have their own way of doing things, so to give your content maximum impact, you’ll want to shuffle it up a little bit to suit that platform.
“I think what happens here is sometimes we want like a secret easy way out where we can just take the link to our blog posts and just paste it on LinkedIn, paste it on Facebook, paste it on Twitter, and that exact strategy rarely works the way we want it to. We can definitely share the same content in those places, but we often need to adapt the way that we share it.”
— MELANIE DEZIEL
CONCLUSION:
My conversation with Melanie was nothing short of insightful and I am hopeful that you managed to learn a lot from listening in.
To recap, you can reach your audience through content more efficiently by doing the following:
Finding the sweet spot between consistency and quality
Make time to batch your content
Create process-centric content for things that your audience is interested in learning or completing
Make your content accessible by experimenting with different formats
When posting content, ask yourself if it needs to be said right now and if you should be the one saying it - if the answer is no to either one, then you probably shouldn’t post about it
Quantity, quality, and consistency should be part of your strategy and not just one or the other
Repurpose your content, but make sure you adjust it to best fit the platform you’re on in order to achieve maximum impact
Whew! This has been real interesting and I’m glad that we shared such an action- and information-packed episode with you.
So, what’s your takeaway from all this? Better yet, what else is there you want to learn about?
Let me know in the comments!