Brandmerry Blog Archives
How to create great content
Content is such an integral part of the branding process, it's ultimately how you share your brand and message with the world. As a result we want your content to not just be good, but GREAT! Easier said than done, isn't it?! Yes, just like you've I've struggled with creating high-value content for my audience. I’ve discovered there are 3 tips to create high-value content. Learn more by clicking the picture. #contentcreation #branding #entrepreneurtips
PREFER TO WATCH, INSTEAD OF READ? I’VE GOT YOU BOO.
WATCH THE VIDEO HERE!
I know how it feels to spend tons of effort and energy to come up with content for social media, write the post, choose a picture and then hear freaking crickets.
Content is such an integral part of the branding process, it's ultimately how you share your brand and message with the world.
As a result we want your content to not just be good, but GREAT!
Easier said than done, isn't it?! Yes, just like you've I've struggled with creating high-value content for my audience.
What I've found is that in the beginning we're all just creating content to create content. We know we need to post in order for people to find us online and to build brand awareness, but there's no strategy behind it. And this posting to post mentality isn't helping move your brand forward.
Now, I’m not sharing this to get you all nervous and terrified that your content isn’t good enough, what I want to do is challenge the way you create content for your brand.
So, again right now you’re probably just creating content because that’s what you’ve been told to do online. However, your content is not working with engagement, community building or differentiating you from others in your niche.
And the reason it’s not working is that it’s all over the dang place. Your content doesn’t have a clear model in place to work in your favor. Right now it’s just content when what we want is an evergreen brand awareness machine. We want all your content to showcase your brand in the best light.
Your content should do two things:
showcase you and your brand
be highly relatable or valuable to your audience.
It’s time to start thinking of content as one of the most for brand expansion.
What you need to make this happen is a strategy! Building a brand isn't just about creating some visuals, taking some photos and posting. It's about strategic content and messaging.
3 Steps to Take:
1. Start With Brand Messages
Start with clear brand messaging (CBM taught to my students) as a whole, not just an offer or product or something you decided to create today. It’s all about your big-picture brand and not just about the product or service. What does your brand stand for? What do you offer your community/ clients? Why is that important? How does it benefit them?
Clarity on this will allow you to create a unified, cohesive message for your brand that will show up in the content you create.
2. Create Brand Containers
Create content containers (brand containers) for ways to connect with your audience using story, experiences, client behavior and more. Organize your content to keep it fun and interesting.
Your audience isn’t going to stick around if everything you’re talking about is pitchy or salesy, these are real people. There is a time to do all of the selling, but we want to build trust by sharing different parts of our brand (which is so much more than just your product or service). Your brand should already have values and core pillars, these can become your brand content containers.
3. Organize your content based on your brand and business goals.
It's ongoing you're always wanting to attract new people while keeping existing people engaged, so you need to think of the big picture. Stop throwing content out onto the Internet with no clear plan it isn't helping move your business forward. I recommend always mapping out content for at least 30 days so you can understand how each piece of content connects to or leads to the next.
Content can be one of the best tools to build your brand awareness and ultimately community. It’s about really taking the time to strategically understand content creation, and even deeper than that you need to understand your brand. If you don’t know the core of your brand, the values and essence of what you’re creating and how you want to attract then you’re going to have a hard time connecting the pieces.
My biggest tip for engagement online is paying attention to your brand. Making sure you’ve taken the steps to create a strong core for your brand so that things like social media content, emails, sales pages, etc work the way you want them too. I’m sharing my 3-step method in my free masterclass and you can join us now.
Please share your biggest takeaways from this blog post and how you’re going to implement this information in your own business!
P.S. Planning and creating your content doesn't have to be a constant struggle. There is a better way to research, plan, and create your content as an entrepreneur and it's all inside the Content Planning Blueprint!
The Content Planning Blueprint is perfect for online business owners who know the power of content creation but are tired of spending all of their time coming up with ideas, organizing their content, and wondering what will attract their dream clients.
In just a few hours, you'll have 90 days of content planned, a repeatable workflow to save you hours on creating and distributing your content every week, and content topics that will keep performing for your brand for years to come! Get your blueprint now >>
How to increase your engagement on social media
Tired of hearing crickets when you post on social media? While, I don’t suggest basing everything off of likes and hearts, it’s important to know social media engagement is the name of the game for building a brand online. Learn 3 Tips to Boost Engagement on Facebook and Instagram in this blog post. #socialmedia #facebook #instagram #branding
How to increase your engagement on social media
September 11, 2019
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I know how it feels to spend tons of effort and energy to come up with content for social media, write the post, choose a picture and then hear freaking crickets.
I’ve been there too and it’s not a great feeling.
Let’s just remove the stigma around this and make it clear, everyone experiences this! Even established entrepreneurs will have this happen from time to time, but over the years I’ve come to find some core pieces that improve not only my overall engagement, but also conversions.
After all, it’s not just about likes, it’s about sales if you’re running a brand and business, so before we dive into the three tips, let’s talk about engagement.
Please know that we don’t care about vanity metrics here. Engagement isn’t just about likes and hearts, those are great, but it’s more about comments, direct messages and my personal favorite link clicks.
All of which you can monitor and I encourage you to pay attention to. So even though your post might not have as many likes as Suzie, please don’t get discouraged, what we care about is true fans and conversions (plus, you can buy likes online so it’s a shady metric).
Tip #1 - Your Brand Messaging
Often times when we start posting content online we’re just “posting to post” and it’s totally not your fault. You’ve been taught that you need to post daily, sometimes multiple times a day, in order to stand out. As a result, we’re just whipping up content without a clear strategy in place - that’s where brand messaging comes in.
You want to create strong Brand Messaging for your brand and business as a whole, BEFORE you start creating content. This is going to allow you to create high-value content for your audience that connects to your brand as a whole.
For instance, if you take time to create a list of all the things your brand provides your ideal client and how it benefits them (this is huge) then you’ll be able to create content containers and individual content that relates back to that.
For instance, if I know one of my brand messages (a consistent message across all my products and services) is around storytelling and how to use storytelling to standout on social media and create a profitable brand, then I can create storytelling as a container for my brand and create a bunch of ideas under that one thing.
This does so much more than just allows me to create content, it makes sure that everything I create connects to the overall purpose of my brand. Everything goes back to what I do, why I do it and how it benefits my audience.
Having a clear messaging strategy is key when it comes to increasing engagement and views online because it allows you to become known for very specific things, you’ll build a community around it and again it plays on the benefit, so you know that what you’re creating will benefit your audience and as a result they will be more likely to engage.
Tip #2 - Bring Your Story to Life
A fundamental piece of connecting with your audience, which will increase engagement is sharing parts of your story in a relatable way.
Some of my most engaging content has been when I talk about how I live full time in a trailer, how I work with my son, things we’re doing behind the scenes as a family that travels full-time and that’s because your audience doesn’t just want to be bombarded with sales, pitches and tips and tricks. Sometimes they just want to be inspired or feel like they aren’t alone.
When you start sharing parts of your story it’s important to keep a few things in mind.
1. Always ask yourself, “Is this valuable to my audience? Why?”
2. Pay attention to your metrics. See what people are responding too and create more content around that.
Tip #3 - Ask for Engagement
Seems so easy doesn’t it? But we often miss this step. If you want people to engage we must give them the opportunity to do so. I know you’re on social all the time, but your audience might not be and they might not instantly think to comment or click or DM. You can simply say things like, “Give me a heart if you agree” “Drop an emoji if you needed this today” “What would you do in this situation?” “What additional tips do you have?”
Something so simple can make a big difference in inviting your audience to engage with your content.
My biggest tip for engagement online is paying attention to your brand. Making sure you’ve taken the steps to create a strong core for your brand so that things like social media content, emails, sales pages, etc work the way you want them too. I’m sharing my 3-step method in my free masterclass and you can join us now.
Sign up for The Build a Better Brand Method at brandmerry.com/brandmasterclass
Please share your biggest takeaways from this blog post and how you’re going to implement this information in your own business!
P.S Don’t forget to join me for my free masterclass at brandmerry.com/brandmasterclass
P.S.S. Are we connected on Instagram? No? Well lady what’s happening here we’ve got to fix that. Come hang out with me on my favorite social media platform. Follow for inspiration and send me a DM to know we’re connected.
Not sure what to post on social media? 5 tools to help!
Does coming up with content for social media seem overwhelming? Maybe you feel like you get a good start at the beginning of the month, only to fall off the wagon come the 15th. There are five tools I use every single day in my business to make sure I constantly have a stream of high-quality content ideas. No matter what your industry there tools will work for you.
Not sure what to post on social media? 5 tools to help!
September 5, 2019
PREFER TO WATCH, INSTEAD OF READ? I’VE GOT YOU BOO.
SCROLL DOWN TO WATCH A QUICK VIDEO!
Does coming up with content for social media seem overwhelming?
Maybe you feel like you get a good start at the beginning of the month, only to fall off the wagon come the 15th.
There are five tools I use every single day in my business to make sure I constantly have a stream of high-quality content ideas. No matter what your industry there tools will work for you.
Running out of ideas won’t be a problem after this post #youcanthankmelater.
The reason these tools work so well, whether you have an audience or not, is because they are based off of what people are searching for online! Seriously, even if you don’t have an audience you can get started right now creating content to build your online community and expand brand awareness.
As always, if you want to watch the video or see some examples of how I use these tools you can watch the full video below.
1. Answerthepublic.com
Using this free tool you can type in a topic, let’s say you type in photography and it will share with you what people are literally Googling. This is so powerful because it gives you hard data as to what people are searching for online + allows you to further explore that topic via Google.
You can find specific questions people are Googling (i.e. your ideal client), the category they fall under (ex: Why, What, Where, How…). From there you can explore what others are sharing around that topic and fill the gap with your own content and start to brainstorm specific topic ideas that answer those burning questions!
Answerthepublic.com is a free tool.
2. Keywords Everywhere
This is a Google Chrome extension and something I use every single week for my blog and youtube content. The reality is, it’s important that the content you are creating is actually being searched for online and this tool not only can give you great topic ideas, but also tell you if what you’re thinking of creating content around is actually being searched for.
Once you have the extension downloaded you can simply type anything into Google. From there you can see how many people are searching for this keyword every month, the top posts and on the bottom right of your screen you can see “like” content or similar content that people are also looking for.
This tool in and of itself can give you tons of content ideas as they pertain to your specific niche.
Keywords Everywhere is a free tool.
3. Simple Internet Search
This option can be one of the most effective ways to come up with content ideas and it involves stalking...ok, not real stalking, but you are going to browse the internet for ideas.
You can use platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Youtube to browse the comment section to see what people are asking. For instance, let’s say I know a bunch of my target audience are in a specific Facebook group, you can go into that group and use the search bar to find questions and posts about your specific topic.
I use to do this every single week when I was starting my business. I would simply search “branding” and see what questions people were asking about this specific niche.
Another hack I love is finding influencers who are in the same niche as you. Take a look at their videos and content and see what people are asking in the comments section.
Seriously, there is an influencer I follow who asks her community about once a month what topics they want her to cover on her podcast - this is a top rated podcast so she had a lot of fans. These fans are also my target audience, so I find that post and catalogue the questions people are asking as it applies to my niche and create content around that.
All I have to do is go look through that post and bam I know what people want.
4. Start Sharing Your Story
I couldn’t do an entire piece of content and not talk about sharing your story.
If you’re ever at a loss for what to create it’s important to know that sometimes just sharing your own story can not only be a valuable piece of content, but also can get great engagement.
I’ve found time and time again that when I share a piece of content that is centered around sharing a relatable story with my audience, then I see the most engagement of all my posts.
When doing this, it's important to be super strategic and make sure the story you are sharing is relatable to your audience. If your audience can’t relate to it, they won’t be as inclined to engage. A couple questions I recommend asking before posting a story are:
☑️ Will they find value in it?
☑️ How does it support them on their journey?
☑️ Does it build trust?
Be sure to watch my video on Brand Story if you want more tips on sharing your story online.
5. Ask Your Community
Everything I’ve shared up until this point can be done without a community, but I wanted to include this at the end because I know so many of you already have a community started.
Even if that community is only 10 people who follow your brand that is enough to ask and start serving them at the highest level. Seriously, some of my most popular content has come from my audience and it can be super simple to get ideas.
I suggest using tools like polls in Facebook groups or on Instagram Stories, asking open-ended questions on social media or having my community complete a short questionnaire (again with open-ended questions).
Every 90 days in my business, I survey my audience to ask them what kind of content they need to reach their desires to make sure I always have a bank of content ideas.
I’m telling you we make this so much harder than it needs to be. Of course, there will be times where you know exactly what to share and times when you feel a little fuzzy, but now you have 5 tools you can use to quickly get out of that content rut.
Content is such a core part of the branding process, it’s ultimately how you create a thriving community that leads to a revenue-generating business. In my new masterclass I’m sharing The Build a Better Brand Method, where you’ll learn my 3-part branding process to stand out on social media, create high-value content and build a community that leads to a revenue-generating business.
Watch the class at brandmerry.com/brandmasterclass
Please share your biggest takeaways from this blog post and how you’re going to implement this information in your own business!
P.S Don’t forget to join me for my free masterclass at brandmerry.com/brandmasterclass
3 Tips to Repurpose Content
Ever wonder how so many people can take a single piece of content and spread it around like hot cakes? It’s all about repurposing and understanding the art of repurposing. Ultimately, you want a way to quickly repurpose your content so you can reach more people on more platforms, without sacrificing the quality of your content. In this blog you’ll learn my exact process I use in my business to repurpose one single video + my top tips to extend the life of your content through the art of repurposing.
PREFER TO WATCH, INSTEAD OF READ? I’VE GOT YOU BOO.
WATCH THE VIDEO HERE!
Ever wonder how so many people can take a single piece of content and spread it around like hot cakes?
It’s all about repurposing and understanding the art of repurposing.
Ultimately, you want a way to quickly repurpose your content so you can reach more people on more platforms, without sacrificing the quality of your content.
In this blog you’ll learn my exact process I use in my business to repurpose one single video + my top tips to extend the life of your content through the art of repurposing.
I get the pain of creating a piece of content and then watching it wilt away online. I mean you go through a lot of trouble to decide on a topic, write the post, pick a picture and more just to what, have it disappear in less than 24 hours?
Sure, if you’re using an evergreen platform like your blog, Pinterest or Youtube then great, that content lives there and is searchable, BUT how can use that content to increase the odds that more people will actually consume it?
That’s where repurposing comes in.
Before I dive into my three tips, I want to let you know that in the video below I’m sharing the same three tips + my exact 9-step process for repurposing a single video and how it allows me to show up 7 times on social media.
You can skip straight to the video below to hear all the goodies or keep reading!
Tip #1: Repurpose your long form post
What I mean by this is that it's easier to take a video, blog or email and break that up into various social media posts than it is say an Instagram post. So you always want to create your primary piece of content first.
For instance, I’m wanting to grow my Youtube channel so I create a piece of content native to that channel. I’m taking into consideration what works best on that platform.
Let’s say you write an email to your list every single Tuesday. You could take that email and turn it into a blog on Thursday and share that blog post on Facebook and Instagram on Thursday as well in order to drive more traffic. You could then take the same email and create a social media post on Sunday.
Let’s say right now, you’re just focused on social media, well you could take a Facebook post and two days later take the same exact post and share it on Instagram. Then two days later take the same concept of that content and create an Instagram story. So you’re taking a single social media post and showing up three different ways.
Tip #2: Get over your fear of bugging people
Seriously, it’s not going to happen. We’re always so worried about sharing our content more than once; that we’re going to annoy someone if they see our content on multiple platforms or twice in one week. But the reality of someone seeing it the first time is already super slim.
You’re doing yourself a disservice if you don’t repurpose your content. It’s taken you time and energy to create that peace don’t you want to extend the life of your content?
Tip #3 Think of the long-term brand strategy
Thinking long term isn’t about creating content for this week alone, it’s about thinking of the next 30 days, six months or even a year from now. Start paying attention to what’s doing really well. If you have a social media post that gets great engagement, you can copy that same copy and switch out the photo to share it 30 days later.
If something is really in alignment for you, on brand, part of your brand containers, why not keep that content alive for longer and allow new people to discover some of your core content.
Another example is if you write a blog. I see this too often in the online space where someone writes a blog post and just waits for people to find it. This strategy is not working. If you’re writing a blog post, put that post out into the world. Take that same post and email your list, share it on social media, create a pin image and share on Pinterest.
And don’t stop there - take it even further. Use a tool like Smarterqueue to recycle your content. This means you can take that blog post and add them to Smarterqueue and set a schedule to post a blog every Thursday. Smarterqueue will cycle through your blogs, posting a different one every Thursday. That means a post you share this week could be shared three or six months from now, just increasing the views of your content.
Let’s do one more, shall we? If you have a podcast, which I hope you are emailing your list and posting on social media when that podcast goes live, but then what? Why not do a monthly roundup of episodes in case someone missed them. You could even do the Smarterqueue strategy here as well!
Like, I said I absolutely love repurposing because it has saved my business time and time again. If you’re a busy mom like me, working a 9 to 5 or just have a jam-packed schedule and TRYING to build your brand you want to embrace this practice.
Don’t forget to watch the video below where I’m sharing the exact steps I follow to repurpose a single video on Youtube, Facebook, Facebook Group, Instagram, Insta Stories, IGTV, Pinterest and my website.
Please share your biggest takeaways from this blog post and how you’re going to implement this information in your own business!
P.S. Planning and creating your content doesn't have to be a constant struggle. There is a better way to research, plan, and create your content as an entrepreneur and it's all inside the Content Planning Blueprint!
The Content Planning Blueprint is perfect for online business owners who know the power of content creation but are tired of spending all of their time coming up with ideas, organizing their content, and wondering what will attract their dream clients.
In just a few hours, you'll have 90 days of content planned, a repeatable workflow to save you hours on creating and distributing your content every week, and content topics that will keep performing for your brand for years to come! Get your blueprint now >>
How to Choose the Right Social Media Channels
Choosing the right social media platforms for your business can be overwhelming. Understanding where you should be dedicating your time and energy online to attract the RIGHT people is definitely something that so many entrepreneurs struggle with. Should you be on Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, Youtube…? There are so many possibilities. I’ve worked with my clients to find the right platforms for them so they love showing up on social media and today I’m sharing that process with you.
How to Choose the Right Social Media Channels
August 23, 2019
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Choosing the right social media platforms for your business can be overwhelming.
Understanding where you should be dedicating your time and energy online to attract the RIGHT people is definitely something that so many entrepreneurs struggle with.
Should you be on Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, Youtube…?
There are so many possibilities. I’ve worked with my clients to find the right platforms for them so they love showing up on social media and today I’m sharing that process with you.
The reality is you can’t be everywhere, especially in the beginning and trying to post mediocre content, on a bunch of different platforms is not helping you build a following or community. In fact, I recommend 1-2 platforms in the beginning and the questions I’m sharing are going to help you decide just what those platforms are for you!
1. WHAT DO YOU ENJOY?
You've got to like where you are showing up. If you don’t like social media, now is not the time to tell me you don't like social media (I see you), you've got to choose at least three to start so go for it. Where do you like to spend your time on social media that would feel like the next step?
While we are here on this question, start thinking of how you like to show up. Do you enjoy video, audio, posting, photos (editing and curated), photos more natural, writing, etc.
2. WHERE IS YOUR AUDIENCE HANGING OUT ONLINE?
Ok now we need to figure out where your audience is. If you're showing up somewhere and your audience isn't there then you aren't going to have a great conversion rate. So we have to make sure to put you where your audience is going to see your content.
If you've done Market Research great you should know this, if you haven't then now is the time to find out. Simply asking your community, ideal clients, existing clients or paying attention can all point you in the right direction.
3. HOW WILL YOU SHOW UP?
How do you like to deliver content? Is it video, writing posts, blogging, live/ pre recorded, photos? This matters when choosing your platform.
Let’s talk about what this means. Say you realize you like live video then Facebook and Instagram could be your jam. If you like writing long form content, then focusing on blogging and Pinterest would be a win. Prefer to pre-record video, then let’s think Youtube. Love the idea of recording audio, hello, let's start a podcast. You get it?!
4. HOW OFTEN WILL YOU SHOW UP?
Listen we’ve all got different schedules and availability.
Do I recommend you show up multiple times a week, absolutely.
Is this realistic for everyone? No.
Does it make you a bad business owner if you don’t? Absolutely not.
What matters is consistency.
So if you know you don’t want to show up more than once a week, then Instagram and Twitter probably aren’t the right move.. If you’re not a fan of picking photos as your main form, don’t choose Instagram. If you’re all about writing a post a week and optimizing the crap out of it, then let’s focus on blogging.
I want your content to do its job and consistency is part of that equation.
5. FOCUS ON SEARCH ENGINE TOOLS.
I mentioned in the beginning to choose 1-2 platforms; one of those platforms should be focused on search engine. These are platforms like Google (Blog), Pinterest and Youtube. What happens with these platforms is that you’re attracting targeted leads, they are specifically searching for your specialty and you’ll set yourself up long term by choosing one of these platforms in the beginning and focusing on building it.
I recommend choosing one social media platform, like Facebook, and one search engine platform, like Google/Blog and using them multiple ways.
For instance, you could take a single piece of content written on your blog and send an email to your list, then post about the blog on Facebook.
By focusing on two main platforms you’re going to see better results and not waste time. The reality is if you’re trying to be everywhere you’re going to feel stretched too thin - and that’s when we stop being consistent.
Start with one to two and then add another one after you get a rhythm. The goal here is to snowball your platforms, until you’re on more than one and feeling dang good about it.
Want more insider tips on how to show up on social media and glimpse into repurposing? Watch the full video below.
Please share your biggest takeaways from this blog post and how you’re going to implement this information in your own business!
P.S. I’ve got a free masterclass where I’m sharing The Build a Better Brand Method. You’ll learn how to create a brand that stand out on social media, results in high-value content for your audience and builds a community that scales you to a revenue-generating brand. Sign up at brandmerry.com/brandmasterclass.