As a marketing freelancer and business owner, I simply can’t escape content creation. It has become part of my day-to-day life. Morning routine, brainstorming ideas, my struggles, my wins, everything is content. Something I didn’t know before I started my business in 2020… I used to spend hours on end creating videos, carousels, stories, and worrying about the aesthetic of my Instagram feed or blog. Until I found an easier way.
I want to share my experience, my tips and the tools I use to make content creation an easy and enjoyable experience.
5 Tips for Content Creation
1. Done is better than perfect
Most of us seek perfection: the perfect instagram caption, the perfect blog title, the right thumbnail… And it makes sense to want to get it right.
But here’s something I’ve learned: you can’t get it wrong because ‘failure’ is part of success. My advice is to keep practising, get the work done, and don’t focus on perfection. I learned that perfectionism is the enemy of execution and that it’s a form of procrastination. It prevents you from showing up and getting the work done every single day.
2. Try new things and make mistakes
We’re afraid to do things that make us uncomfortable. We’ve been trained to do what we can to avoid failure, it’s a natural human instinct to seek pleasure and avoid pain. However, as content creators we need to fail more and we need to be comfortable with it! It’s an opportunity in disguise. A failure is the tuition you pay for success. So, whatever you do, don’t waste a good failure. Try new things and learn from every experience!
3. Connect with your why
My morning routine consists of exactly that: connecting with my goal, reminding myself why I created my business, and why I am on this journey. By doing that, I find it much easier to create content from a place of abundance versus lack and worry.
4. Being yourself is your competitive advantage
People enjoy your content for you: your personality, your unique voice, your experience. Focus on making a human connection with your audience. Don’t pretend to be someone that you’re not, be genuine! Your audience can tell, and you can’t keep pretending to be someone you’re not in the long-run.
Ignore those who you think are judging you and do your thing.
5. Get some help
When it comes to writing compelling content, know that you don’t have to do it alone. Whether it is email marketing, social media content, or blogs, you can get some help from a professional.
7 Must-haves Tools to make content creation easier
Asana is my favourite tool to stay organised and productive throughout the day. Asana is not just your to-do list, it is also your calendar, and it has templates for your workflows and systems. I use Asana to create a social media content calendar and display: my ideas, my scheduled posts for the week and for the following week including captions and images/videos.
Notion is a project management software that allows you to easily perform basic project management tasks, such as planning, tracking tasks, or sharing … I use this content calendar template on Notion to plan my month’s content across all platforms!
Click here to download your free content calendar!
Canva is a simple drag-and-drop graphic design platform which allows you to create images for your website, social media platforms, business cards, etc. It is a very intuitive graphic design tool so you do not need an artistic background or special skills. Canva also has an app so you can create content on the go!
CapCut is one of the best and most popular editing software for your videos. It is created by the same company that created TikTok, but it is far more than just a TikTok video editor. CapCut allows you to add video transitions, effects, sounds, titles, onto your videos. You can also remove the background, adjust the speed or the colours.
Later is a social media management platform and link in bio tool for every social network. This visual drag and drop calendar tool allows you to plan social posts for the week ahead and monitor engagement in real time. You can save time while you plan, analyse, and publish content in advance on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest. Create all your social media content now, schedule it, and you’re done!
Answerthepublic.com is a free tool that allows you to search keywords related to what your business offers, and it compiles the top most googled questions related to that keyword. It is your roadmap to create content that serves people every single day. It shows you a wheel with all the questions that people search on google related to the keyword, and the best part is that you can download the results as a .csv
Giphy.com is your GIF library - you can search relevant GIF’s using hashtags, and copy/paste them in your content creation tool like Canva. You can also create your own GIF to use on your social media!
5 Habits of highly successful content creators
1. Create content that you enjoy
When you create content that you are passionate about, you will naturally go the extra mile and it will touch more people.
2. Keep up with the latest trends
Trends change constantly, especially when it comes to social media. Creating content becomes much easier when you already consume the same content daily, and are aware of the trends that people are interested about.
3. Keep an eye on your competition
Competition is a big word, because I don’t believe in competition. Nobody is you, therefore nobody can compete with you! However, being aware of what other businesses in the same industry currently offer can be extremely valuable.
4. Connect with your audience
Creating an emotional connection with your audience is the best way to create high quality content. It is the key to long-term growth and business success.
5. Be prepared and organised
Allocate some time in your calendar to create content daily or weekly: editing, layout, analysing performance, and connecting with your audience. Fail to prepare, prepare to fail.
