Realistic Content Plan For A One-Person Marketing Team 

She had an “in” with a product buyer at a department store and took her chance. They asked for more than her product could deliver.

But she pulled it off.

She didn’t stop there. She paid friends all over the country to go buy her product. And the department store was thrilled - it’s flying off the shelves!

She even sent a sample to Oprah. Who tried it and loved it - and recommended it to her HUGE audience.

I’m talking about Sarah Blakely, who recently sold her company, Spanx. 

This is not a B2B story, but it’s a story of an entrepreneur's dedication to both creation and distribution. 

That, in essence, is what content marketing is all about. It’s about putting your “product” - either your knowledge, your content, other people’s content (in the case of Oprah), your expertise, your business - out there and earning the eyeballs and the trust of your potential buyers.

If you’re an entrepreneur or small business owner, it’s 2022 and time to get real about content marketing. There is no other way in this day and age. Your prospect is looking for your services. They want to be informed, they want to be understood, and they want to know that others trust you as well.

This post is an “all hands on deck” content marketing PLAN for you to follow. Even if you’re strapped for time, cash, and strategy as a busy small business owner or entrepreneur.

Keep reading to learn how you can realistically:

• Stay top of mind
• Increase engagement
• Get massive awareness
• Gain critical positioning in your market
• Do it all while leveraging your time
• AND gaining peace of mind that it’s actually getting done
• Without paying an arm and a leg
• OR spending all your time on content

Content Marketing Clues from True Stories

If you talk to small business owners and entrepreneurs, you’ll notice that they all know and recognize the importance of keeping their online presence up to date and active, but there are a few things holding them back.

“Thank you for solving a problem that has been nagging at me for almost 2 years!”

April Bliss wrote that to us after she saw the results from working with my team to deliver quality content on her behalf.

“I've been a digital ad agency with no consistent social media plan and now I can have the presence I should without the time and hassle. I can focus on client relationships and building my business! Thank you!

You might be thinking, if April is a digital ad agency, she’s got to know how to market herself, right? Why did need help if she could do it herself?

Because she’s already stressed for time.

Here’s another clue -

“Love not having to think about what posts to schedule. Also love that I can have multiple accounts running under one plan! peace of mind that social media accounts look "alive." :)”

For this entrepreneur, Frank Ramey’s business is focused on data-driven SEO and conversion rate optimization. He gives us a clue to what gets people stuck before they even start -

What to post
When to post
And where to post

The result when you’ve got that dialed in? Peace of mind.

Here’s yet another -

“[...] I am getting probable cost-efficient suspects/prospects for follow-up! I love:

1. The concept

2. The volume of help

3. The varied scheduling of the posts through time.”

Phil Sher wrote that to us after we’d helped him with his social media strategy. We were able to completely take the question of “What do I do on social media?” off his plate.

Your Content Strategy

I share those stories because I want you to know it’s possible for you to see success on content marketing as well - 

Even if you’re a one-man/woman show, or even if you have a small team but you’re strapped for time and resources.

Here’s how we approach content marketing in a way that attract prospects and gets you on their radar consistently -

Use a two-fold strategy -

Social Media
And your blog

What to Do On Social

1. First, you need to find the right audience and platform. 
   
   LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Youtube. I recommend starting with one platform and expanding from there, especially if you don’t have a lot of time at first. Realize what each audience is looking for on each platform and post what will interest them. More on that below.

2. Post regularly. 
   
   What does that mean? It means posting consistently. Preferably daily. At least. Posting daily shows your audience that 1) you have the ability to show up, ie you’re reliable. Whether they articulate that or not. 2) You have more opportunities to show you understand them. 3) You have more opportunities to stay on the radar once they’ve found you.
   
   Also, remember that social media can be used as a hub for your content and/or as a distribution platform for your content. Either way, you can use it to attract prospects and stay in front of them. To achieve this…

3. Post on topics that interest your audience.
   
   This doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to write an article daily, or make a video daily. You could, but you could also be the “curator”. Like Oprah. She’s an expert at curating content her audience will be interested in. The key is to KNOW your audience, their interests, their struggles, and post things that align with that. Whether you created that content or not.
   
   Note: Some people get confused about this. They inevitably end up posting what is interesting to THEMSELVES. Now, if your audience is interested in what you’re interested in, great. But many times, as an expert or service provider, you will have interested they won’t. For example - If you’re an IT consultant who helps tech startups, the tech start up may or may not be interested in the in’s and out’s of your industry, but only in what solutions they need. They’ll be interested in growing their business - your expertise needs to show them how to do that.

Is Social Media Enough?

Social media is a great starting point. You can use it as the primary outlet for your content (again, whether or not you’ve produced it yourself), but you will also want to establish a channel that you have full control over: 

Your own blog. 

There is no need to become a “blogger” by trade. The point of this is to:

1. Drive people back to your site
2. Update your blog often enough to gain some authority leadership in your market

As I mentioned earlier, you do NOT have to create enough original content to post on social media daily. However, it is smart in this digital age to update your blog at a least once a month with a quality article. This cements you and your business as leaders.

With consistency, content marketing, even at just one article a month can gain traffic and get more eyeballs looking at your business. The same rules follow about what to write about. Here are some tips to keep in mind:

1. Write about what will interest your audience. 
   
   Again, this implies that you know your audience. You’ve done the research. You’ve spoken with them. You know what their professional interests and motivations are. You know what their bottlenecks are. You know what will happen if they don’t address those bottlenecks. You also know what interests they have outside of professional boundaries. 

2. Give specific examples. 
   
   This is what will set you apart from everyone online. Specific examples of use cases, of how problems have been solved in your experience, of results… all of this cannot be googled and regurgitated online like so many other articles are. Your readers will appreciate your specific insights. Thorough, quality articles do better than in the long run for your business than fluffy opinion pieces.

3. Be consistent. 
   
   The same applies to social media content. It’s not enough to put out content once in a while and expect to gain momentum. You’ve got to be consistent. And this is where most entrepreneurs and small businesses struggle - the consistency. Below, I’ll give you some ideas to ensure that you stay consistent and can actually make your content marketing a priority in the long run.

How To Make Content Marketing Doable

Say you’re not a writer. Say you have no idea where to start. Say you’re already super busy and can’t imagine how to fit content marketing into your day to day. Here are some tips to help you make it a priority AND make it easier to follow through -

1. Realize the importance of content marketing in your long term strategy. This is a mindset issue here. If you understand that content is what brings people to your business, to your site, and into your arena online, you understand that in the long run content is crucial. Prioritizing time in your schedule on a weekly or monthly basis to make sure it gets done starts with how important you believe it to be in the long run. 

2. Make “Content Blocks”. As you arrange time every week, even if just an hour to curate some interesting articles to share on social media, or to work on an article, it helps to make it a consistent time. Get the whole week’s social media content done in one sitting. You can also use software like Hootsuite to schedule the posts so you don’t have to worry about it throughout the week. 

3. Keep a running notes document or sheet to capture ideas. Articles to share, or ideas for articles come from all sorts of places. From your sales calls, from your clients (this is best as they will tell you exactly what they’re looking for and why – if you’re listening carefully for it). This way, you can plan out ideas in advance and you’ll never be left hanging.

4. Get help. Alternatively, you can hire help. There are many benefits to this, especially if you believe that content is where the world is right now, and where it will stay for the foreseeable future. You can hire an agency to help or use a service like Emphatic to help you create and post your social media on your behalf. This relieves you of the necessity to learn from trial and error because you can rely on their expertise and proven strategy. You also ensure that your online presence stays relevant and active, without dedicating the time yourself to manage it.

Your Turn - How to Create an Automated Process

The biggest problem most entrepreneurs face is threefold:

Time
Strategy
Funds

Most don’t have the time to actually dedicate to content marketing. They’re busy in their own businesses and working with clients - or getting new clients. So it gets put on the backburner.

Most question exactly what to do and how to do it. They lack strategy and the confidence to go forward. So they stay stuck. 

And most don’t have the budget to pay marketing agencies large retainers every month. So they don’t look for help.

The good news is that you do have options. Emphatic is one of those options. 

In fact, we’d like to show you how helpful - and affordable it is - to work with our Emphatic team of writers who will create and post your social media content for you with our service.