3 Questions to Ask Before Creating a Content Strategy for Your Solopreneur Business

"Blog consistently," they said. 

"Start a YouTube channel!" 

“Have you ever considered a podcast?”

There’s clearly no shortage of mediums and platforms to share content around the internet, and there’s no shortage of content either. 

The online world is noisy, and it may have you wondering, “do I really need to be creating content consistently for my business?”

That’s a great question to ask, and for a few reasons:

1 - Creating high-value and quality content isn’t a 5-minute task and you’re done. If you truly want to create content that has a longer shelf-life than a 24-hour Instagram Story, it takes effort and energy. 

2 - No, you may not actually need to be blogging/vlogging/livestreaming/podcasting for your business at all, it all depends on the type of business and the audience you serve. 

3 -  What does consistently mean for you? <— Okay, that’s another question, not a reason, but it’s important to ask, and you’ll see why in a second.

In fact, there are three questions, in addition to the one above, that you need to ask before jumping on the content creation bandwagon to save yourself a whole lotta time, energy, and in some instances money. 

Question #1 - Who makes up my audience of ideal clients and customers?

Before crafting anything related to a content marketing plan or a content strategy, you have to know who exists within your audience of ideal clients and customers. 

Not only is deeply understanding this question crucial for developing your suite of services and/or products, but also determining all of your business’ marketing efforts . 

For example, our audience (i.e. you!) is comprised of solopreneurs (primarily female with the way our branding is positioned), thus, when we set out to write this blog post, we had to ask ourselves, “what does a solopreneur need to know about content marketing for their business?”

We asked this because, believe it or not, the way you do content marketing as a solo biz owner can be vastly different than that of someone with multiple team members, primarily in the sense of how multi-faceted their content strategy can be since someone with a team can do more with their resources to dedicate more time and attention to content vs. a solopreneur. 

By understanding your ideal clients and customers, you’re better able to craft a content strategy that actually provides value to your ideal clients through the content medium that is most accessible and beneficial to them, but this also ensures that your time and energy investment in creating content receives a return. 

Question #2 - How do I serve them?

The answer to this question is critical because depending on whether you deliver a product or a service to your audience, not only will the topics of your content vary, but so will the structure and the calls to action as well as the format and medium. 

For example, if you are an online course creator and you’re teaching your customers how to do something you’ve mastered, your content needs to be focused on teaching bite-sized, approachable elements of your subject matter.

Why?

Because you need to demonstrate that you know your area of expertise, and you also want to give your audience a taste of your teaching style. 

However, let’s pretend you’re a service provider. 

Your ideal clients likely don’t want to learn how to do what you do (that’s why they would be looking to hire you). Rather, they could use insight on how to best prepare for hiring a service provider like you or signs that they’re in the right spot to hire someone for your services. 

See the difference? 

Knowing who your ideal clients are and how you’re serving them dictates the structure and the takeaways of your content. 

Question # 3 - What is my goal with content marketing and content creation?

Content for content’s sake is the quickest way to send yourself into a creativity burnout. 

Not to mention, does creating content simply to “keep up with the Joneses” or because you “should” do your ideal clients/customers any favors? Most likely not. 

If you’re going to invest the energy and resources into marketing your business through content, you need to know what the end goal is. 

  • Are you aiming to increase website traffic?
  • Increase email subscribers and/or leads?
  • Book more consult calls?

Your content marketing plan as a whole needs to have an overarching goal, and each individual piece of core content (my term for a larger piece of content that can be broken down and repurposed into various other pieces of micro-content) needs to have it’s own goal. 

This ensures that you’re, again, getting a return on your investment

Bonus Question #4 - What does consistency mean for you? 

Bringing it full circle! 

We mentioned this question in the beginning, but it bears repeating…the concept of “creating content consistently” is pushed hard by marketers, and for good reason as it helps you rank higher in Google and it aids in building your credibility with your audience, but what is often confused is consistency vs. frequency. 

Being “consistent” in your content publishing doesn’t mean posting a new blog/podcast/vlog every week. It means choosing a frequency (maybe for you that’s bi-weekly, once per month, or quarterly) and sticking to it. 

Of course the more frequent you publish, the faster you stand to rise the ranks via SEO and establish yourself or your brand as a thought leader, but not if your frequency means sacrificing quality and value. 

In other words, you’re better off posting a stellar piece of content once per month than four mediocre pieces of content once per week. 

So, define the consistency level that feels good for you, and if you’ve answered the other three answers in a way that leads you to believe that have a content marketing strategy could be a powerful piece of your business, go forth and conquer your content! 

Do you want to dive deeper into crafting a content strategy for your business that will actually bring you results in 2020 and beyond (plus, be fun to implement and not a drag!)? 

Then join us for our January Masterclass - A Crash Course in Content Marketing on Friday, January 24 at 12 p.m. EST/ 9 a.m. PST

Registration closes at 9 a.m. EST on January 24, so click here to get all the details and save your seat in the masterclass!

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