245. Accelerate Your Business Growth with these 7 Content Strategy Tips in 2024
Hey there! I'm Ash Roy, founder of Productive Insights. After 12 years of creating content, I'm sharing my best tips to help you build a killer content strategy. You'll learn: 1. How to truly understand your audience (hint: it's not just about surveys) 2. Why a content calendar is a game-changer (and you don't need fancy tools) 3. The power of diversifying your content formats 4. How to use AI tools like ChatGPT to analyze your audience and content performance 5. The importance of documenting your journey, challenges and all 6. How to systemize your creativity for better results 7. My PRPR content repurposing framework 8. Tips for YouTube success, including the crucial role of thumbnails and titles 9. How to promote affiliate products ethically Whether you're just starting out or looking to level up your content game, these strategies will help you build a brand your audience trusts and values.
Links Mentioned:
- ClickUp - https://clickup.com/
- Trello - https://trello.com/
- Asana - https://asana.com/
- Opus Pro - https://www.opus.pro/
- Descript - https://www.descript.com/
- Timebolt - https://www.timebolt.io/
- ChatGPT - https://chatgpt.com/
- Instaflow 360 - https://amzn.to/3WZQ0u
Timestamp:
00:00 Introduction to Content Strategy
01:19 The Importance of Understanding Your Audience
01:42 Gathering Audience Insights: Surveys vs. One-on-One Conversations
03:14 Planning Ahead: The Power of a Content Calendar
04:11 Diversifying Content Formats
04:22 Leveraging AI Tools for Content Creation and Repurposing
05:22 Engaging with Your Audience and Building a Community
07:52 Systemizing Creativity and Repurposing Strategies
09:51 Final Tips and Recap
Ash Roy's Video Transcript (This transcript has been auto-generated. Artificial Intelligence is still in the process of perfecting itself. There may be some errors in transcription):
In this video, we're going to be talking about how to get your content strategy to work for you and help you to build your business and your brand. So, stick around because I'm going to be sharing valuable tips that will help you completely transform your content strategy and leverage artificial intelligence.
So, your content is easier to create and you can deliver deeper insights to your audience with the time that you get back from leveraging AI.
Behind me is a conservatorium of music. People come here to train for years and years and years, practicing the same notes, the same scales over and over again until they master their skills.
Building a content strategy that works for you is no different. It takes time, it takes effort, and it requires you to learn constantly. I've been producing content for the last 12 years at Productive Insights, and I'm going to be sharing some of the best tips for you. I've learned so that you can do the same thing in much less time.
I remember when I first started creating content back in 2013. I was overwhelmed by the amount of information I had to learn, the changes in algorithms, the importance of SEO or search engine optimization. I poured hours and hours into creating content for years and years only to hear the deafening silence.
It felt like I was screaming into a void. Today I want to share some of the lessons I've learned so you don't have to make the same mistakes I did. And if I was to do it over again, the first thing I would do is deeply understand my audience. That's the biggest mistake I made and that's where I would start.
So, if you want to create an engaging content strategy, it's very important that you understand your audience. And you create what is called an audience avatar or an ideal audience persona. Some people call it an ideal customer persona. Now, how do you get data about your audience? What's the best way to do it?
Well, I spent years trying to get people to complete surveys and questionnaires, and I found that the completion rates were really, really low. Ultimately, I realized that surveys are great because you can get data at scale, but they don't give you the nuances. and the detailed non-verbal clues and insights you get from speaking to a person one on one.
This is great. What I stumbled on was very surprising. When I launched the Productive Insights Membership Program, I started doing a lot of these one-to- one sessions, which I still do as part of my service offering. And I found that speaking to my audience over video calls, one to one, gave me deep insights into what was important to them.
Insights I couldn't have gotten otherwise. possibly got from sending out surveys. For example, if I ask a client how they feel about their revenue growth and I notice there's a slight hesitation in their response, I may not even notice the hesitation, but as humans, we notice micro expressions, which actually don't even reach our conscious minds.
Well, these nonverbal clues often help me to understand that this is actually a pain point for them. You see, this is qualitative data that you can't get from a survey. Okay. I've learned that one to one conversation over an extended period of time is a great way to really understand your audience and stay in touch with them.
So, while I'm not saying surveys and questionnaires are redundant, I am saying that they should be complemented with one-to-one conversations. Next up, we're going to talk about the importance of having a content calendar. Planning ahead is an absolute game changer. AI tools like ClickUp or Trello can help you plan your content.
Especially to take account of things like seasonality and help you to maximize affiliate opportunities by promoting the right products around things like Amazon Prime Day or Christmas when people are more likely to buy your products. But you don't need a fancy tool like ClickUp. or Asana or Trello.
You could just use a simple little notebook. I have this little financial diary which I paid about two bucks for, that I bought from Officeworks, which is a local chain of stores that sells stationery products here in Australia, and that works perfectly well. In fact, I prefer the analog element, where I can hand write my ideas and develop them and not be overwhelmed by distractions that come with having a screen on which I'm looking at things like Trello or ClickUp.
Okay, next up, we're going to talk about diversifying your content formats and how to do it. Let's go. So, the key here is to mix it up. How do you mix up your content and how do you take advantage of content repurposing? You can use tools like Opus. pro to repurpose your long form content into YouTube shorts, Instagram Reels, and TikTok Reels, which can help you.
Reach a broader audience and new audiences. What I love about Opus Pro is it transcribes the entire long form video and figures out which pieces of content are likely to be most viral. And then it turns those pieces of content into YouTube shorts, Instagram reels, and TikTok reels. I'm nearly out of smoothie.
Tools like Descript are incredibly useful because they leverage AI not only for content repurposing, but also for editing. You can actually edit from within the transcript. Now, I've found the editing isn't perfect yet, but these tools are constantly improving, so I would strongly recommend checking it out.
One tool that I've found great in terms of accuracy when it comes to using artificial intelligence for editing is a tool called Timebolt, and I'll link to that in the description below. I think I'm going to need to get a cup of coffee because I'm out of smoothie. Okay, so the next tip I have is to respond to comments, interact with your audience and create a community around your content.
You can use tools like ChatGPT to take a screenshot of all your comments and even Reddit threads that your audience hangs out on. and ask it to analyze the key pain points your audience has, and then go on to create more content around that. This is a great way to build a following of engaged buyers that will then help you to scale your business in a way that is meaningful to them and to you.
I use ChatTPT to analyze screenshots of my YouTube analytics, and it does an amazing job in terms of telling me what's [00:06:00] working, what's not working, and often picks up things that I don't understand. miss because I don't have the time or the patience to scrutinize reams and reams of screenshots. It also taxes my limited neurons a lot less.
By using this screenshotting approach and uploading it into tools like ChatGPT, you can not only analyze your YouTube analytics, But you can also get a deeper understanding of content and topics that are resonating with your audience. And this will help you establish your content pillars. My audience are small business owners between the ages of 25 and 45 who are looking to monetize their knowledge and skills that they gained in a profession and generate extra sources of income.
using digital strategies. This might be by productizing their knowledge in the form of courses, in the form of YouTube videos, and monetizing their YouTube channel, attracting ideal consulting clients, and so on. So how can you use this incredible facility that CHAt GPT offers to extract insights that you can then use?
To understand your audience better and to deploy a content strategy that really resonates with them. Another great idea is to document your journey. Don't just create content, but share your learnings along the way, including your mistakes, warts and all. Because when you're real and honest with your audience, they connect with you.
They can relate to you better. And you build deeper engagement and build a better community. James Clear shared his reports for a long time, and so did Ali Abdaal. I found those to be very helpful. Now, I've chosen not to do that, and you may choose not to do that either, but it certainly helped me to connect with James and with Ali, and get a better understanding of who they were as people, and the fact that they had vulnerabilities.
They face challenges just like I did. And it wasn't all unicorns and rainbows. People don't talk about the challenges enough. They just talk about the good times. And I don't think that's a very balanced view because the truth is building a business is hard work and we need to be honest about it. The next tip I have for you is to systemize your creativity.
We normally associate creativity with being very free form, but the truth is constraints are one of the best ways to promote creativity. Creating a content calendar, for example, is fantastic way to build these restraints that then allow your subconscious mind to start working on those content ideas and allow them to percolate and mature over time into fully formed useful ideas that your audience is interested in.
The key here is to create content that addresses pain points. In a way that is actionable and meaningful to your audience. And speaking of systemizing content, my next tip for you is to have a robust repurposing strategy. We use something called the PRPR repurposing framework. Reach out to our team at team@productiveinsights.com and use the letters PRPR in the subject line of the email and we'll organize for that framework to be sent out to you. The key here is repurpose your content. Use tools like OpusPro to turn your content from long form into short form, but also combine format. your delivery formats. For example, you might have a tutorial style video combined with a vlogging style video to make it a little bit more interesting for your audience, which is what I'm doing right now.
So have a think about how you can combine your delivery formats to make it more engaging for your audience, especially if you're using a platform like YouTube to build your audience by watch times. are absolutely critical in terms of building your audience and maximizing your reach. If you are using YouTube, be sure to prioritize thumbnails and titles.
Your videos need to be findable and solve problems that your audience is searching to solve by typing in keywords on YouTube. I also recommend hiring a professional thumbnail artist if you're using YouTube because somebody with experience in creating thumbnails Can improve your click through rates and these can dramatically help your YouTube channel, but be sure to create content that is useful or you're not going to have the watch times that you need to be able to build your audience.
And the final point is to create content that enables you to promote affiliate products. You might, for example, want to promote a tool like Instaflow 360, which is what I'm using to record this video, but be sure to promote products that you have actually used that you find really great. And they're produced by companies.
that align with your values. Promoting products that are scammy and don't deliver value will only hurt your brand over the long term and will mean that you lose trust with your audience and cause you to lose repeat buyers. Remember, it all comes down to building a great brand over the long term. So, to recap, we've covered several points.
Importance of understanding your audience really well. How to create content that solves their problems. Repurposing your content using tools like artificial intelligence. Uploading screenshots into ChatGPT so you can analyze data effectively, delivering content in diverse formats, repurposing video content into shorter form content using tools like Opus.
pro and mixing and matching your delivery formats by combining a tutorial style video with a vlog style video. The most important thing here is to build a brand that your audience trusts and values so that you can attract high value repeat customers. And when you do promote affiliate products, people choose to buy from you because you recommended them.
Don't forget to like and subscribe and please do share this video with somebody else who you think might benefit. My name is Ash. I'm the founder of ProductiveInsights.com. I'm a CPA and an MBA, and I love helping small business owners to build their brands and their businesses using content marketing and digital marketing strategies.
If you'd like to learn more about our membership program, head over to ProductiveInsights.com/membership. Thanks for watching and I'll see you in the next video.
