Imagine you’re starting a new marketing project for you and your business or organization and the designers, developers, or marketers ask for the content you’d like to feature. What are you going to say next? Have you been prepared and kept an up-to-date repository of useful material that they can turn into marketing success for you, or will you be frantically working on it while the project is well under way?
We get it, it’s a tough habit to stay on top of. However, if you work it into your schedule weekly, or better yet daily, you’ll have material that can benefit any aspect of your marketing. Here is a few key things to consider for consistent content creation and a discussion on why they’re important.
1. Imagery
I’m sure it’ll make you gag when I use the cliches “A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words” or “A Video is Worth a Million”, though both phrases couldn’t be more true. As a key member of your team, you’re always around the action and have a vital understanding of what you do. As such there’s plenty of “photo-ops” every week, or even every day, that you can take advantage of. Whether it’s pictures of happy employees, happy clients, or preferably both in the same shot, or even just an action shot of your work – every photo can make a difference in your marketing across the board!
You may be saying, “I get it, but I don’t a have a great camera or photography experience”. On the contrary, your smartphone probably has a greater camera than you think. Couple that with taking your phone everywhere you should be snapping photos as often as possible and uploading them to a safe, easy to access location such as Cloud Storage and better yet sharing them on social media. Then, when you’re ready to use it, it’s all in relatively one place and you have the benefit of selecting what can make the cut in marketing materials. On the other hand, we highly recommend getting some professional photography done every once in awhile.
2. Testimonials
Ask our CEO and Founder Rich Byrd (and any big name in the Marketing Agency space for that matter) for the most beneficial things you can add to your marketing materials and he’ll probably mention including authentic testimonials near the top of his list, and for good reason! Nothing quite conveys trust, confidence, and authenticity more than a real and great testimonial illustrating how you’ve delivered excellent service. I imagine you get great testimonials more often than you think, whether they’re verbal, in emails, on review sites like Google Local Listings and Yelp, they’re all extremely beneficial. Document them as soon as you hear them!
If it’s not organically created on a review site, send it out in a company-wide email for the whole team to see. Firstly, this can help boost morale and remind your team they’re doing a great job and, secondly, you have a digital copy of what was said. Even better is getting video recorded testimonials, but that can get complicated if you don’t have a professional team putting it together.
3. Copy (aka Text)
If you can consider imagery as the “bread”, you can consider copy the “butter.” You’ll never be short of opportunities where this is helpful, whether it’s content to fill your website or keep it current (and maintain good SEO), print materials, ads, or even just materials you pass on to others to better understand what you do. While this area may be the trickiest to keep up with on a consistent basis, make it easy on yourself and create easily accessible text documents that cover the main aspects.
I suggest Google Docs as a nifty online collaboration “Word doc” creator that’s free, easy to share and can be accessed anywhere with an internet connection. I suggest having, at the very least, sections that cover a summary of what your business or organization offers and dedicated pages that cover such topics as: About Us, Our Story, Our Team, Our Services, Contact Us, and Policies. Don’t forget to keep it as updated as possible when things change. And, keep in mind, most marketing agencies, such as ourselves, offer copywriting services that can help too!
A final, sub-point: If you’re selling products, this might be a no-brainer: A Catalog Spreadsheet. Have that handy, constantly updated, and backed up at all times. Not only is this helpful for managing an E-Commerce website, but you also never know when your digital catalog tools don’t come through for you and you lose all of that information unexpectedly. On the other hand, those tools may have nifty Import features, so doing a spreadsheet first can save you from emergency double duty later.
