Many solopreneurs start marketing services on social media or blogs because they are accessible, free, and seemingly straightforward. Platforms like Facebook, Instagram and TikTok along with evangelizing social media and popular online business coaches make it especially tempting to believe that mastering the platforms and their algorithms is the key to faster success. Some algorithm-chasing trends are encouraged with the opportunity to make more money by monetizing your accounts as a content creator or with creators touting their earnings by simply following trends (ex. the #facelessmarketing and #facelessdigitalmarketing). Even long-tail Google SEO algorithms are continuously shifting, especially with AI entering the mix, but every time there is a change there’s a push to update content to hold on or build any ranking. Following the ever-changing tides of what’s trending algorithmically can leave you burnt out from reacting to create the ‘right’ type of content, or spending precious time learning the technicalities of the platform to give you traction with the hope this translates to sales.
The content creator trap
This reactive approach often leads solopreneurs to unintentionally become professional content creators. Tools like Canva make it especially easy to produce visually appealing, branded social content at scale. AI is helping write more blog articles faster, some even promise to be SEO optimized out of the box. This constant cycle of creating content and chasing the latest algorithm trends can lead to an exhausting energy drain and confusion. It becomes especially deflating when the constant content creation and posting isn’t leading to audience engagement, leads, or sales.
If you find yourself burnt out on the algorithmic changes or getting overwhelmed and lost in even what to talk about in your content, it’s time to take a step back and focus on developing a strategy more in alignment with you and your business.
Breaking free with a roadmap
If you’re finding yourself stuck in the marketing content creator trap, it may be time to pause to evaluate what’s working for you and what’s not. During the pause, it’s an opportunity to take inventory of how things are aligning in terms of your capacity, offerings, audience, and business goals. Time to identify areas where it may be more impactful for you to focus as opposed to following social media trends or business advice that works for others that may not be working for you.
By first locating where you are in key areas, you can then begin building a roadmap towards a more sustainable content creation strategy. An approach that harmonizes with your personal creative capacity and business goals.
Identifying the offering availability
Is your service offering evergreen (available anytime) or seasonal (temporal) or mix of both?
Evergreen service offers are available all the time (ex. website design) whereas seasonal offers are temporal (ex. workshop). Depending on the type of business that you run and how your services are offered will help inform how you market your business. It may be a mix of business models with services and digital products and may require varying systems and strategies. Mapping the availability of all your current–and future offers under development–is a foundational step to inform taking an evergreen and seasonal approach to your content messaging and the timing. It can also help select which marketing channels to focus on as some channels have a longer term (ex. SEO with blogging) or shorter term (ex. social media ads or promotion) impact.
Aligning your audience
Is your audience composed of different ideal client segments and are they aligned with the offers and topics you’re crafting content around?
The target audience refers to a broad group of people who are most likely to be interested in your service, product or content. The ideal client is the person who not only wants your service, but also aligns well with your business values. Defining your target audiences by offerings will help to speak more directly in our messaging to the people we are wanting to call in as ideal clients.
Crafting content themes and pillars
Do you create content in themes and pillars to guide your messaging in alignment with your business goals and audience(s) and does this content feel organic to create?
Content themes are core topics or ideas to help maintain messaging consistency, relevance, and can provide a structured approach to content creation. Content pillars can live within the themes as types of content such as educational, personal share, testimonial, offer promotion with a call to action. By developing content themes and pillars it can help guide your content creation cadence as well as ensure the messaging is aligned with your offers, audience, and business goals
Focusing on aligned marketing channels
Are the marketing channel(s) in alignment with the audience(s) you want to reach, offerings you want to promote AND what creatively lights you up in the ways you want to create content?
Marketing channel refers to the various platforms, methods, or pathways a business communicates, delivers, or sells services to its target audience. If you’re in several channels online and offline, it may be time to reflect and assess which channels feel aligned with the audience(s) you want to reach, where leads and clients have come from, and how services are delivered. It is also a time to evaluate if these channels are working for you personally and if you’re creating and optimizing content in a way that attunes to you organically or are you creating content to feed an algorithm.
Leveraging support tools and process
Is there a tool or process that would be supportive in planning, creating and distributing content, including repurposing where possible?
An important and under considered aspect to content creation is workflow and process. If you’ve been at it for a while, consider what is working for you or what parts do you struggle with that could potentially be cut, streamlined, maximized, or reconsidered. This could be anything from ensuring you make time for content batch creation and repurposing to trying new software tools to help organize and empower the creative and publishing process.
Building an aligned roadmap takes time and effort, but it could be an impactful step in moving from reactive, algorithm-chasing tactics to a more sustainable approach. Instead of being overwhelmed by the latest trends, you’ll have a clear focus that aligns with you and your business goals.
If you find yourself burnt out from the content creation trap and define a roadmap that aligns with you and your business, we offer one-on-one marketing mentorship for solopreneurs.
