5 of the most effective content channels for solopreneurs
Think of content marketing, and you might think of blogging, or sharing downloadable eBooks. You’d be absolutely right, but content marketing really goes a lot further than this.
If you think about it, every piece of interaction or communication you do with your audience can be classed as content.
A 90-character Tweet about the latest news in your industry? Content.
A Youtube video explaining how to use your online ordering system? Content.
A personal reply to send to somebody asking a question in a Facebook Group, for advice about your niche - you guessed it, that’s content too.
There’s a whole lot to successful content marketing, and it is ultimately underpinned by having a successful strategy.
Content can be categorized in 3 ways
What I want to talk to you about today are specific content channels. Content can be divided into 3 key areas -
- type, which is linked to the specific goal you may have,
- medium, which relates to how your content is delivered - is it longform text format, video content, etc.,
- and then you’ve got your channels. Think of your channels as the environment within which your audience interacts with your content.
So, what are some examples of the most commonly used content marketing channels for entrepreneurs and freelancers?
1. Your blog
Your blog is an important element of your owned media. Completely controlled by you, you’re able to fully manage the content that appears on your blog and can even adjust the ways in which you do (or don’t) want your audience to interact with it. Of course, readers have to find a blog somehow. You can’t post 500 word updates once a week and expect somebody to just find them. This is where, of course, having a clear strategy for the use and goals for each channel comes into play.
2. Your Facebook page
Hopefully, as a freelancer, entrepreneur or small business owner, you’ve already been convinced of the power of Facebook and have set up your business Facebook page. Depending on your type of business, there are a number of ways to share content using this channel. Photo updates, video uploads, even Facebook Live videos are all great examples of engaging pieces of content that can really help your Facebook page in its mission. Remember, though, that Facebook’s pesky algorithms means that only around 20% of people who ‘Like’ or ‘Follow’ your page will actually see a piece of content you post. There’s a whole host of ways to build a successful Facebook strategy.
3. Facebook Groups
Whether you created it, or joined somebody else’s, Facebook Groups are a perfectly valid channel for sharing and seeding content. It may not look like the typical pieces of content that come to mind, though, so think this through carefully. An inherent part of content strategy is about establishing your authority and capability. Sharing downloadable eBooks and instructional videos as mentioned above are one way to do this. Often though, and this will vary depending on the size of your business and your niche, communicating 1:1 with your potential customers is the most effective way of establishing your own credibility. Maybe you run a webshop selling handmade jewellery online - in that case, joining Facebook Groups for jewellery enthusiasts may be a wise move. Somebody might ask a question for recommendations on the durability of one gemstone over another. You make handmade jewellery. You’re the expert, even if at times you don’t feel like one. By confidently and helpfully adding value to your audience, giving them ideas, suggestions and advice you are constantly seeding little pieces of content out into the online space that establish you as the go-to person for handmade jewellery pieces.
4. Youtube
Video is a medium; Youtube is a channel. There are other video channels of course, like Vimeo, Periscope or even Snapchat! Every channel has a different set up and will work for different goals.Interestingly, though, which do you think is the 2nd largest search engine in the world, after Google? Yahoo maybe, or Bing?
Nope. Youtube.
Using Youtube as a channel to share value-added video content can give you huge benefits to SEO indexing. And don’t forget, ALL content that you produce and share should be seeded across multiple, (relevant) channels. That means that whilst your videos may live within the Youtube sphere, you should definitely still be embedding them into your Tweets and sharing them with Facebook fans to improve your organic reach. It’s a matrix, people!
5. Email marketing
Oh, email marketing, where to start. Contrary to popular belief, email marketing is still hugely successful - WHEN it’s done right. Automation tools means that you can now customise the email experience for each and every member of your audience on an almost 1:1 basis, simply by implementing a set of ‘if this, then that’ rules. Email as a channel can be used for a multitude of different business goals - increasing traffic to your sales pages, growing your social media communities, establishing your thought leadership within your niche and nurturing leads from stone cold to red-hot-i-want-to-buy-right-now! Email can be a phenomenal channel if you take the time to plan your goals, content and automation strategy first.
So, there you have it - 5 of the most effective content channels for solopreneurs. There are hundreds of different channels and we could discuss them all day long. I’m curious to know - which channels have you found most effective? Did you decide not to use any of these 5?
Dani x