“You’ve got to eat your own dog food.”
That’s a quote from Russ Henneberry regarding how to go about marketing yourself.
One of the first things to do when planning how you’ll market your copywriting services is to consider what those services are… and then think through how you can use those same services to build your own business.
So, if you offer SEO copywriting to your clients, make sure your own website is well-optimized…
If you provide email newsletter writing, consider creating a newsletter of your own…
And, if you write content for your clients, then a smart way to market yourself is to devise your own content-marketing strategy.
Now, obviously, you know how to write content for yourself and around what you do in your business. You’re a digital copywriter, after all.
But today, I want to go deeper and talk about how you can create a cohesive content strategy… and why it’s a good idea for you to do so.
So, let’s start with what I mean by “strategy” and why it’s worth your time and energy to devise one for yourself.
Why Is Strategy So Important?
Things online move fast. And sometimes, that sense of speed can cause you to dive into a marketing tactic without really thinking through the best way to use it.
In the case of content marketing, this happens a lot. You hear you need a website, and that regular publishing is the key to getting traffic to your website. So, you start writing whatever comes to mind and putting it up on your website.
On the one hand, I commend you for your sense of initiative. And I think it’s awesome that you’re taking action.
On the other hand, what are you trying to accomplish with your content? Who are you trying to reach? How will they find what you’ve written? And what do you want them to do after they’ve found your website and started reading your work?
A strategy answers all these questions, and then those answers can guide how you create your content and what to do with it.
Now, if you like having a plan and knowing what to do next, I’ve probably already sold you on putting together your own content strategy.
But… if you’d rather get into the writing, the creating, and the publishing, the idea of devising a strategy might make you feel a little impatient.
So, let me add this: According to research gathered by the Content Marketing Institute in 2020, 69% of the most successful companies interviewed used a documented content marketing strategy. Of all the companies interviewed, only 41% of them could say the same.
Thinking about and writing down your strategy makes a big difference in how well it pays off over time.
What You Need to Decide to Create a Strong Strategy
Now, while a documented content marketing strategy will give you a more sophisticated approach to how you create and distribute your content, it doesn’t have to be difficult or overly complicated.
Really, you just need to answer a few simple questions.
Who do I serve?
It’s tempting — ever-so-tempting — to say, “I serve anyone who needs help with their copy.” But, it’s important to narrow your focus. It’s far easier to have a conversation with someone when you know who you’re taking to, what they value, and what they need help with.
You can figure out who you’re talking to by choosing a niche, by thinking about who typically hires you if you already have clients you enjoy working with, or by deciding who you’d most like to work with.
Even just knowing you like working with small businesses in your local area is enough to help you start figuring out what kinds of things would be best to write about.
To start out, make a list of 50 to 100 companies you think you’d like to work with. Then scan that list for patterns. Maybe there are a bunch of health and wellness companies on there. Or maybe you notice you have a lot of emerging tech companies on your list. Let those patterns inform your answer to this question.
How do I serve them?
Really this means — what is your offer? As a digital copywriter, you have a lot of ways you can serve your clients, and you don’t need to limit yourself, but it’s useful to have an offer you lead with.
Maybe, you write content for your clients, you do SEO, and you also write landing pages.
Your lead offer might be to create an editorial calendar. It might be to write a content series. It might be to update and refresh half a dozen high-performing-but-aging pages to increase SEO performance.
Your lead offer is something you’ll highlight. You’ll highlight it on your website, on your LinkedIn profile, in your warm emails, in conversations… just about everywhere.
It may not be the only thing you offer (although it could be), but it is usually the first thing you offer.
By having a well-defined offer, you establish your value and authority faster.
And, as part of your content marketing strategy, the answer to this question helps you determine some of the first content you’ll create as part of your strategy.
What do they need to know before they hire me?
In addition to knowing what you offer logistically, you also want to think about what you offer in terms of change.
When someone hires you, what will be better for them going forward? Will they save time? Earn more leads? Make more sales? All three?
Think about how your services provide a positive change to the companies that work with you.
Also, think about what you do as part of your process and workflow and what you know based on your own experiences that sets you apart from your competition.
For example, I have a lot of experience and knowledge regarding user experience, so I bring that to every project. That makes working with me a little different than working with most digital copywriters.
How will they find my content?
When you start creating content, what are some of the ways you will help your target audience to find it?
Will you share it on social media? If so, which platforms? How often? What will that process look like?
Will you republish your work on platforms like Medium or LinkedIn?
Will you send it out to an email list?
Will you drive paid traffic to it?
If you’re going to go to the trouble to write and publish content, you want to think about how you’ll get it in front of people who want to read it.
What will you create?
Now that you know a little bit more about who you serve, what you offer, how you help, and how you want to get found, the next step is to take that information and think about what topics you can write about that will be sought after by your target audience and that will plant the seeds for a future relationship.
Each piece of content you create should have a business goal tied to it. (Perhaps you want to get 100 visits to it within the first month of publication — a modest goal, but a good starting point.) And it should have a point for your audience — what do you want them to learn, take away, or feel? How do you want them to benefit?
Start by zeroing in on your target offer and what your audience needs or wants to know about that service and come up with 10 distinct topics to write about with business and user goals for each. To come up with topics, think about questions clients have asked you and questions you’ve encountered on social media. Also use your common sense… you know a lot about what your audience needs to know around the services you offer. Finally, a tool like Answer the Public can also provide ideas and inspiration.
For example, if your lead offer is to create an editorial calendar for your local professional service providers, your initial list of 10 topics might look like this:
- What an Editorial Calendar Is and How It Can Help You Attract Local Clients
- Business Goal – Traffic
- User Goal – Clarity on the Importance of an Editorial Calendar
- Too Busy to Keep Up With Content? An Editorial Calendar Is Key
- Business Goal – Traffic + Leads
- User Goal – Helps Solve a Problem
- Step-by-Step Guide to Planning Content for Your Professional Services Website
- Business Goal – Traffic + Authority
- User Goal – Resource to Solve a Problem
- Tying Local Events Into Your Editorial Calendar
- Business Goal – Traffic
- User Goal – Inspiration
- Building a Product Launch Into Your Editorial Calendar
- Business Goal – Traffic + Leads
- User Goal – Inspiration and Problem Solving
- Editorial Calendar Tools
- Business Goal – Traffic + Affiliate Sales
- User Goal – Research
- 5 Editorial Calendar Approaches With Examples
- Business Goal – Leads
- User Goal – Inspiration and Guidance
- Integrating Social Media into Your Editorial Calendar
- Business Goal – Traffic
- User Goal – Problem Solving
- Seasonal Tie-ins for Your Editorial Calendar
- Business Goal – Leads
- User Goal – Inspiration
- Evergreen Versus Timely Content
- Business Goals – Traffic
- User Goal – Education and Inspiration
Each of these topics helps your reader see how they might use an editorial calendar to better plan their content and get in front of their publishing. Some will take what you share and apply in on their own. But others will see how helpful your services could be and will reach out to see if they can hire you.
Launch your content strategy by creating these initial 10 pieces. And then, from there, get onto a regular publishing schedule. For a digital copywriter serving a specific audience, publishing once or twice a month is usually adequate.
But make sure each piece ties in with your audience’s needs and the services you offer. And make sure each piece has a clear goal for your business (whether that’s related to traffic, leads, awareness, or to fully cover a topic you know would be valuable to your audience), and a defined purpose for your readers.
In addition to your regular publishing schedule, consider doing something bigger every quarter or twice a year — writing a pillar post, another series like your initial series, or a special report. These more in-depth pieces can make a bigger splash in terms of traffic and social sharing, and you can use them to help grow your email list.
Make Distribution Part of Your Plan
For many businesses, especially smaller businesses, publishing content on their website and then maybe posting a link to the new piece on Facebook or LinkedIn is common practice.
That’s a fine start. But a more deliberate distribution plan will get you better results.
Think about where you can find your audience online. Are they on LinkedIn? Facebook? Twitter? What kinds of blogs do they read? What kinds of videos do they watch?
Knowing a little bit about how your audience behaves online can help you share your content in a way that gets it found by more of the right people.
Here are a few ideas to consider for better distribution:
Social Media: Once you’ve finished drafting an article, look for pithy quotes and interesting facts or points of view. Use these to create several social media posts for your top-performing platforms. Creating customer graphics with a quote, a question, or a fascinating stat can help draw more clicks when you share on social media. Custom craft your posts to fit each platform you use. Also, don’t share just once. Share when you publish, and then share again a few days or a week later. If something performs well, plan to share it periodically in the future.
Republishing: A week to a month after you publish on your own website, republish your article on LinkedIn or Medium (or both), with a note about the original publish date and location.
Create a Slide Show: If your article uses a listicle or a how-to format, consider using it to create a slide show, and post it on Slideshare.net.
Create a Video: Turn your slide show into a video, by reading your post and syncing your audio to the slides. Then post that on YouTube.
Let Your List Know: And of course, if you’ve got an email list, drop your readers a note about what you’ve just published.
You don’t have to use all these ideas for distributing the content you create, but do plan to share your content in a deliberate way across at least two or three platforms.
To start gaining traction with your audience and seeing a good result from your content strategy, it doesn’t take a grueling publishing schedule. What it does take is deliberate planning and consistent publishing. If you’re able to keep to a consistent schedule and give your audience what they want and need, you’ll see good success, if you just give it time.
