Category Archives: Marketing

How do you create great content? The answer’s in your pocket

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You want to grow your business. Become well-known. Make it easy for people to find you.

Great content is the answer.

Great content will bring you customers. Great content will help grow your business.

And creating great content doesn’t have to be hard. It doesn’t have to be expensive. Yes, you’ll need to invest some of your time. The answer you’re looking for is in your pocket.

create great content
When we’re busy we can think of all sorts of excuses not to spend time creating content.

Excuses

Putting together good content is hard, isn’t it? That’s a frequent reason people put forward.  How do I find the time to be a content creator? What do I write about? What do I make videos about? Will people want to listen to an audio show about how to solve the problems they face as a business?

And it costs a fortune to produce videos doesn’t it? Recording a distributing audio is almost almost as expensive, isn’t it? And I haven’t really got time to write long articles, let alone pay anyone to write them for me.

It’s true just 10 years ago it would’ve cost a fair amount to create a video. You’d have to hire a cameraman. Have someone edit the video. Get DVDs made and pay to post them to your customers. For audio you’d have to rent a studio to record your audio and make a CD. You could have tried to get on local radio. But a live appearance would be over in seconds.

But now everything you need to create great content is in your pocket.

  • A high-definition TV studio in your pocket.
  • A radio station in your pocket.
  • A virtual assistant who can take dictation in your pocket.

Yes. It’s your smart phone. Your iPhone. Your android. Here’s what it can do for you and the content you want to put together

Video

Most smart phones will capture broadcast quality HD video. Some even capture 4K video which is better than broadcast quality. What is stopping you from creating great videos for your customers? Answering their questions. Offering solutions to their problems.

Audio

Smart phones allow you to record audio. What’s stopping you from creating great podcasts answering your customers questions and adding value to your customers experience.

Written word

A smart phones will allow you to dictate into the microphone and your words will magically appear on the screen, often without any spelling errors. All you have to do is tidy up the punctuation. And as an added bonus you get to write just like you talk. Much better than bloated copy full of corporate management speak and jargon.

So you the equipment you need is in your pocket to create video, audio and the written word. There is no excuse. Other than making time to get to it.

What should your content do? Answer the questions your customers are asking. Use Google or social media to find out what those questions are. Then answer those questions with video. Answer those questions with audio. Answer those questions with the written word.

And you’ll have created the content you need to start to grow your business more.

Now it’s your turn:

How do you use your smart phone to create great content? Leave a reply and let me know.

If you need help with your content strategy, please get in touch and let’s have a chat about how I could help you.

Keep it Simple: It’ll Still Be Delicious

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Does complexity bug you?

It bugs me too.

Why does business have to be so complex? Some of us try to sell complex products that customers don’t want. Or at least they don’t want the complexity. We use bloated marketing language to convince them to buy. We use management speak, jargon and gobbledegook.

Sometimes the complexity creeps up on us. We add stuff to our products to keep pace with our competitors. Then they add more stuff. And then guess what? We’re stuck in a spiral of complexity and no one benefits.


I’m on holiday in Barcelona. Taking a short break. The dish you see in the picture is a plate of Iberian cured ham, truffle oil with garlic and tomato bread.

That’s it.

  • Iberian ham.
  • Truffle oil.
  • Garlic bread.

And it’s one of the most delicious meals I’ve had in ages. Maybe years.

So good I went back to the same restaurant two evenings in a row and had the same dish again.

Some chefs may have chosen to add complexity to the dish. Some chips perhaps? Peppers lightly fried? Corn salsa? A sauce?

Anything added would have taken away rom the awesome simplicity though. It was tasty. Yummy. Delicious as it was.

Keep your products simple. Keep your language simple. Avoid bloat.

It’ll still be delicious.

And your customers will come back for more.

Now it’s your turn:

If you need help with your marketing get in touch. Perhaps I could talk you through my 7 steps to simpler business copy. Or help you work out a simple marketing strategy.

Just Answer: How to come up with shed loads of ideas for Blogs, Videos and other Content.

Marketing

You write articles for your business. You might make videos or podcasts.

Do you ever find the ideas drying up?

Maybe because you’re busy. Or you have other things on your mind.

Sometimes it’s because we fall victim to the Curse of Knowledge.

What’s that?

We assume our customers know as much as we do. That they know our jargon and terminology. Or at least they know the basics. So we avoid answering what to us are the bleeding obvious questions.

And yet answering those questions lets you create great content.

Check out this session with me, Pascal Fintoni and Leon Howe talking about coming up with shed loads of content ideas. It’s all about back to basics. Brevity and simplicity.

Just answer!

We chat about:

  • Overcoming the Curse of Knowledge.
  • Creating content for your customers and not for you.
  • Finding a unique blogging voice. Or video voice.
  • Using tried and tested structures like, “Problem. Agitate. Solution”.
  • Other tricks and apps you can use to pile up ideas.

I really enjoyed appearing on Pascal’s show – The Content Marketing Studio – you can click here to visit his site.

Now it’s your turn:

What are your tips for coming up with content ideas? Please share them here or on social media.