5 questions to ask when creating your content

If you follow along with ANY of our stuff, it won’t be any surprise that we always, always start with goals. Posting consistently on your social media is eleventy billion times easier when you know what you’re actually trying to achieve in your business and on the platform.

So, question one: What are your business goals?

When you’re initially sitting down to do this, bite off whatever chunk feels good to you — whether it’s a year, five years, or maybe just 3-6 months. Your business is going to grow and evolve as you go so nothing has to be set in stone but it’s good to know which direction you want to steer the ship. And dream big! You don’t have to ACHIEVE all the goals (although you might be surprised by how far you get) but you need to be headed in the right direction.

• What are my biz goals?
  • Financial
  • What you want to sell / promote to get there (and how many sales you need)
  • The steps you need to take to get there – what you need to improve on and specific game plan

Question 2: WHO am I speaking to?

If you’re anything like me, you’ve done about a thousand “ideal client avatar” exercises already… and chances are, they haven’t given you as much clarity as you’d like. I don’t want to harp on the same old thing but this is a CRUCIAL step in figuring out what content you’re going to post, so here’s a quick little exercise you can do to suss out who you’re speaking to.

• What are five things you know for sure about who your perfect fit client is? 
• And who she is not?

I know, SO SIMPLE. But that’s what makes it so sticky.

I could geek out about perfect fit clients forever, but remember that this also doesn’t have to be set in stone. She’s going to grow up right alongside your business, and if you’ve got three offers there’s a solid chance that they’re for the same person – just at different levels of her business.

For example, the toolbox is for someone who might be just starting out and wants more strategy and clarity in her social media — without forking over thousands of dollars a month to have someone do it for her. She’s driven, she knows what she wants (ahem, everything haha) she’s juggling a lot of plates, but she’s also super friendly & down to earth.

Our done-for-you services, on the other hand, are for the same gal — but it’s after she’s seen some success in her business and is just too dang busy to do all the things herself. She wants it done, and done well, in a fraction of the time. 

For either offer, we can speak into how she wants to get all the things done and achieve big juicy goals but she feels a little scattered & needs some support in pulling all of the pieces together.

Question 3: What are they frustrated with right this second?

Once you know who you’re speaking to, it’s easy to imagine what a day in her life might look like. It might take you a hot second to get into the groove with this next question, but it’s worth spending 15-30 minutes ___ it out. 

Literally, grab your pen & paper and jot down what she’s up to — sunup to sundown and beyond. What is she frustrated with today? And (this is the REAL magic question) how does it physically feel for her?

For example, she might be feeling sick to her stomach because she’s sunk thousands of dollars into her biz and there’s still only $12 in her bank account. That’s a bummer.

Question 4: How can you help them?

All right, this is where your business goals are going to start to match up with their content goals. 

What information can you give them — for free, without expecting anything in return — that’ll help them win the day? An easy question to ask that’ll make it super easy: what can they do tonight that will give them a better day tomorrow? 

When a social media expert tells you to “provide value,” that’s the content that they’re talking about. But let’s get back to your business goals! If your social media isn’t getting dollars into your jeans, you’re wasting a heck of a lot of time.

Your offer was also created to help your perfect fit client solve a problem… and you need to talk about that on social media too! What are some misconceptions, excuses, “yeah buts,” or stigmas around your offer? Address their hesitations in your content so they don’t even have to physically ask you — and you’ll see a jump in your conversions. 💪

Question 5: Where are they spending their time?

How does your perfect fit person consume content? Is she more likely to sit down and binge a few YouTube videos to learn something, or is she always on the fly? (Maybe with earbuds and a podcast in her ears?!) Does she always have her thumb on the Instagram app?

Digital marketing is simply the way that you can reach your person — match up your skill set (whether it’s audio, video, or the written word) to the habits of your potential clients.

From there, nail down a cadence that’s going to work for you. Biweekly podcast? Weekly newsletter? Daily social media posts? (Personally I like to create my core content — aka long posts like these — in advance, and delegate piecing it out for other platforms to someone else. That way I am sharing my knowledge & enthusiasm, in my voice, but I don’t have to break a sweat creating allllll of the content for all of the things.)