Startup Central
Content Creation 101: How To Create, Distribute, And Monetize Your Content
During a recent conversation about networking and cross-promotion, a colleague expressed doubt about her ability to promote my business because she had little traffic on her website and social media. She said creating content would be futile because nobody would see it. The implication was, “I need to build an audience before creating content.” She had the equation totally backward. Create content first, and the audience will come, over time. In this article, we will go over several strategies that show you how to create content and help you build your audience online!
Introduction to Content Creation
Consider this analogy. You just moved into a house and want to host a party. Are you going to invite guests over to an unfurnished home? You need couches, chairs, tables, food, music, activities, etc. Is your website or social media page an unfurnished home? Do you provide anything to entice people to stick around? If not, don’t expect many people at your party. Would you visit an online magazine without any articles? How do you feel about a website when the last entry on the blog was 18 months ago? I get a mental image of tumbleweeds blowing through a ghost town.
People are attracted to websites and social media pages that provide engaging, valuable, current, and relevant content. We live in a time where we can create and publish our own content whenever we want! We don’t need the Yellow Pages or an advertising firm to share our message. If you want to promote yourself and build your brand, content marketing is paramount. There is no excuse for failing to create content. If you are passionate about your project, there are plenty of formats you can choose to broadcast your message, including:
Blogs
If you enjoy writing, this is a great vehicle to share stories about your product or service and to share yourself. You can incorporate pictures, link to other sites, and share on social media.
Social Media
You can share your product or service on several outlets, both on your business and personal page. Share stories about the evolution and improvement of your product or service. Post pictures and show your product or service in action.
Shared Content
Share articles relevant to your project, but it is critical that you add your own commentary. Don’t Just Share, Comment and Share!
Videos
People want to know the real you, and this is a great vehicle to share yourself while sharing your product or service. People need to know if they like and trust you before they decide to buy from you. Live videos are starting to explode on social media, so get out of your comfort zone and try it.
Cross-Promotion
Find strategic partners and cross-promote each other. Write guest blog posts, share each other’s content on social media, shoot a video together, or even create a page on your website where you promote and link to your partners.
Regardless of your preferred medium, the following factors are critical to creating quality content: Value, Patience, Relevancy, Non-Monetization, and Storytelling.
Provide Value For Your Audience
It’s all about your audience, not about you! You need to give them real value. Don’t waste people’s time talking about how great you or your product/service are. Talk about how your product/service will improve the reader/viewer’s life by filling a want or need. When I’m scanning a website, I’m looking for content that provides value to me. I’m subconsciously looking for content that makes me think, “I need to read/watch that.” I am looking for content that is conducive to my growth or appeals to my needs and wants.
Hooking Their Attention Within 15-30 seconds
Your titles and substantive content should demonstrate how the material will appeal to the reader/viewer’s self-interest. When reviewing content, I take about 15-30 seconds to decide if I’m receiving any value. Time is too precious and attention spans are too short. I’m sure cat video metrics might suggest otherwise, but I venture that most people don’t go online looking for cat videos. When I find myself sucked into trivial content online, it’s almost always by accident, and I get out of there as soon as I recognize I’m wasting my time.
Don’t Mislead Your Audience. Give Them What You Promised!
Give your content real value. Don’t lure people with the promise of content as a ruse to grab personal information or even worse, hit them with a paywall. Don’t do the bait and switch. Have you ever been tantalized by a link description, you click, and then presented with a landing page demanding your email address before revealing any content? When this happens, I know the content is just bait, and I will have to manually opt-out from daily email blasts to escape the funnel. You might generate some leads that way, but you aren’t giving value or building a positive brand. Provide value on the front end, no strings attached, you will draw more people in overtime, and you will build a brand that people appreciate. This leads to my next point.
Content Takes Time
It takes time to build a brand, so manage your expectations. Even if content unexpectedly goes viral, your fame will be short-lived if you don’t have other content to entice people to stick around or return.
Adjust Your Expectations
You cannot have a mindset or expectation of immediate gratification. I once shared with a friend that I boosted a blog entry on FB, and he smugly responded, “What’s your ROI on that?” I wasn’t looking for immediate ROI! I boosted a blog post I thought would resonate. It led to hundreds of clicks, dozens of likes, and new followers on my business page. Certain people didn’t know about my business before, but they knew about it after. That’s the ROI I was looking for. The immediate business would have been great, but I am patiently building a brand here.
Play The Long Game
When you are creating content for your business, whether it’s a blog post, video, or social media post, don’t expect an immediate ROI. If you’re doing paid advertising, then you certainly want to track ROI, but this article is about content creation, not advertising. Content marketing is a long game.
No Instant Gratification Here…
Don’t get discouraged if your content receives little or no engagement at first. Keep plugging away, keep improving your craft, keep putting your message out there. The mere existence of substantive content on your website improves your SEO. Some people need to see you post multiple times before they click and check you out. Some people need to review your content several times before they engage or buy. Those people never would have engaged if you decided, after posting a couple of videos, that you weren’t getting enough ROI, and shut it down. There is no instant gratification or overnight success in business, and anything violating this rule is likely illegal or immoral.
Relevancy
Simply put, your content must be relevant to your business’s mission. By all means, have some variance in your content. Change it up. Be original. Push the envelope, but ensure that all of your content is somehow relevant to your business.
For example, if you own an auto body repair shop, don’t post about politics! (Avoiding politics is good advice to any business.) If you own a nail salon, don’t post about gardening; if you’re an SEO consultant, don’t post about woodworking. You get the gist. I know someone in the printer repair business who shares random content on social media having no relation to his business, and every share includes a preamble pitch for his service. The shared content and the message have no synergy or place together. Would you prefer grapefruit with your steak or mashed potatoes with your steak? The whole point of content marketing is to increase brand awareness. This purpose is frustrated when you post irrelevant content.
Monetization
The subtext of your content is for people to create a mental association with your brand. You want people to associate your product or service with their needs, and quality content creates that connection. This is a legitimate quid pro quo. You provide valuable and engaging content, and consumers provide brand recognition and loyalty. Over time, that leads to revenue for your company. This kind of monetization is subtle, indirect and takes time, but is very powerful because the consumer ultimately initiates the sale.
Don’t OVER-monetize Your Content
People are turned off by content that is overtly monetized. Unless one is shopping or sees an ad with cute animals, people do not actively seek advertising. Remember, people view your content because they are enticed by the proposition of receiving free value. People are guarded when they feel they are being sold, especially when they did not expect a sales pitch.
I once attended a “seminar,” where the ostensible purpose was to teach about marketing, but the speaker could not stop interrupting himself to pitch his coaching service. He would tease with some marketing nuggets, then pull away saying we could hear the best parts if we signed up for his program. “Seminar” was written in quotation marks because I felt I was attending a live infomercial against my will. I got fed up and walked out. I feel the same way when I’m viewing disingenuous content online. Don’t publish thinly-veiled advertorials. The value of your content is tainted when it is overtly monetized.
Don’t get me wrong here. There is nothing wrong with selling. If you want to overtly sell your product or service, then go for it! Just don’t be deceptive.
Story Telling
Facts tell stories to sell. Couch your messages in terms of stories, and people will engage with your content on a deeper level. People remember stories that touch them emotionally, and they remember the source of the story – your business. People are attracted to stories, it’s just human nature. Most people lack the attention span to delve into dense factual material, and you’ll lose most of your audience
Do not wait for an audience to build before you start creating content for your business. Start creating and publishing content now, and you will grow a following over time. If you seamlessly weave facts about your product or service into a story, while giving value and avoiding overt monetization, you can create powerful content and a powerful brand.
Bulk SMS Messaging campaigns are a great way to reach large audiences. You can open engagement with your customer base with online memberships or telling them about new promotions. From there, you can send well-placed SMS messages that can drive clicks and sales if done the right way. If you aren’t using bulk SMS messaging as part of your digital marketing plan, you are missing out. Many clients assist with SMS marketing – all with different features. When it comes to bulk text messaging, we found the ClickSend has the most to offer.
Not all SMS marketing clients are made to support bulk messaging fully. Contact list size, user-friendliness, and reports can all be an issue. It’s not enough that you can send a text to a large audience. The process should be straightforward. And because there is a fine line between engaging an excited audience and pestering customers to the point that they don’t want to be bothered anymore, it would be good to get reports on how the messages are received.
ClickSend’s user interface is clean and easy to use. Sending a bulk SMS messaging campaign is very straightforward and took little effort. Simply put, ClickSend checks all the boxes.
Sending Bulk SMS Messages from Your Computer
Using your computer to send bulk texts is simple. To start, you will need to sign up for a ClickSend account.
Setting up your ClickSend account
Before going any further, you need to know that ClickSend is a paid service. Their homepage gives you the option to ‘Get Sending for Free.’ This only allows you to test their service with a small free credit briefly. This does you no good if you’re looking for a one-time free message.
On a positive note, ClickSend only charges for the outgoing messages.
Creating a contact list
If you have a massive address book that you want to use for bulk message sending, importing all your contacts can be very taxing. ClickSend thrives where other bulk SMS marketing clients suffer. From their Dashboard, click on ‘Contacts’ and click the add button to create a new contact list. Here you can create multiple contact lists with different audiences. This helps if you are running multiple SMS campaigns at once.
Click on ‘New List for Campaign’ to find two options. You can import contacts manually. If you have a relatively small list or if you want to add one or two contacts to a larger list, manual entry is the way to go. However, if you have a large list, click ‘Import Contacts.’ ClickSend will allow you to import a spreadsheet, and they give you an example spreadsheet to download that you can edit with your own contacts. Simply copy and paste your contacts and import.
Adding credits
ClickSend works on a credit basis, so you will need to add funds before sending your first text. Click on your existing balance in the ClickSend dashboard, and you can ‘Top Up’ your account. ClickSend offers different packages ranging from $20 for 877 messages to $5,500 for 679,000 messages. The more you spend, the more you save. Based on your contact list, you should know exactly how many texts you need to spend and, therefore, how much money you need to spend.
Your campaign
Creating an SMS marketing campaign is simple once you have the funds and your contact list is imported.
From the dashboard, click ‘SMS Campaign’ under ‘SMS’ and click ‘add campaign.’
You can name the SMS campaign, direct which contact list to send the messages to, and create the message. You can create a custom short URL to direct readers to your site. ClickSend also gives you a list of templates to use and the option to add an opt-out for recipients who do not want to receive any more texts. You can also choose to send the text message immediately or schedule it for a later time.
Review
After you send the SMS campaign, you can refer back to the dashboard to check important data. You can check the number of links that were opened, from what device, and what region.
Final Thoughts
The beauty of ClickSend lies in its comprehensive use and simplicity. For those who benefit from bulk SMS messaging campaigns, it does everything you need it to do – nothing more, nothing less. Its prices are competitive, and you do not need to sign up for a subscription. You add funds and use them as you please. ClickSend is an overall great tool for marketers.
When you’re getting your startup off the ground, there is no shortage of people telling you ways to spend your money. You spend ten minutes browsing the internet for something for your small business and your laptop is haunted with ads for products that you ‘have to have’ to build your business. True, there are great ways to spend your money if you want your startup to be successful, but what about startup budgeting? Here are 5 great ways to save money with your startup.
Bring Your Own Equipment
One of the best ways to help with startup budgeting is to eliminate as much communal equipment as you can. You do not need to provide your sales team with cell phones. Google Voice allows you to port a second phone number onto your smartphone.
Instead of supplying your staff with computers, have them use their own laptops in the office. You can incentivize your employees by sharing costs for repairs or upgrades. You could even offer to pay for part of their equipment.
Look for Free
There is a ton of digital software you will rely on as a business owner. The internet can provide everything from accounting software to in-office communications – to more industry-specific services. Many digital products out there will offer a free trial and then charge you after that. But for every product you pay for, there is usually a free version somewhere out there. Do your homework before you agree to pay for anything. Facebook groups are a great resource to find the best free software within your industry.
Ditch the Printer
This may sound obvious but stop printing so much. Paper isn’t exactly expensive, but toner sure is. Wasting ink and paper needlessly on documents that can just as easily remain digital crushes your bottom line. Apps like Adobe’s ‘Fill and Sign’ and Scanner Pro can help you stay away from the office supply store.
Outsource
Staffing can take up huge chunks of your startup’s budget. You need sharp, experienced professionals that care about your businesses’ success. Consider taking the a la carte approach to your staff. Graphic design is essential for small businesses that want to promote their brand. Why pay an in-house graphic design team a competitive salary and benefits?
Instead, consider Penji, a subscription-based unlimited graphic design company. If you need a flyer, an image for social media, or even a logo – Penji’s team does impressive work with a quick turnaround at a fraction of the cost of hiring your own design department.
What about HR? Bambee is a subscription service that handles all your human resources needs. They help with everything from compliance to staff training and terminations so that you don’t have to.
Hire a Virtual Assistant to handle all the boring stuff. Outsource Access can take over all your admin work, manage your social media, organize and maintain your calendar and your emails. Small business owners count their spare time in minutes. Don’t waste valuable time on the minutia.
Everyone’s least favorite part of running a business is accounting. There are many accounting services out there. We recommend Escalon for small businesses and startups. Escalon fully integrates into whatever system you are already running. They manage cash flow, bookkeeping, invoices, and end-of-year reports. Their reports are transparent and easy to understand
Incentivize Success
An advantage of being a small business owner is that you have a keen sense of your staff’s abilities. They are not a small cog in your giant organization. Oftentimes, they sit right across the room from you. A disadvantage of being a small business owner is you can’t always offer your staff the salary you would like to. Instead, you can offer reward-based incentives based on their production. This is a great way to recognize your employees’ value while not spending money on poor performers. If your staff contributes to your businesses’ success, pay them accordingly.
Work from Home
Do you need all that office space? COVID has opened the world’s eyes to the ease of remote work. Studies have shown that working from home does not hamper productivity. Your staff is more motivated when working in their own space. With services like Zoom and Slack, staying connected with your staff from afar is easy. Host virtual meetings, share ideas and save on rent and gas. This is startup budgeting made easy.
Do you want to try a Design Pickle alternative? Graphic design has evolved to serve a wider market. Unlimited graphic design subscriptions are popular amongst entrepreneurs, small businesses, and even corporate giants. The model is simple: you pay a flat monthly rate every month and get access to unlimited graphic design help. It’s a great option for companies that have consistent design needs, but don’t have the budget to pay for an in-house designer or the time to manage freelancers.
We went ahead and ranked some of the top unlimited graphic design companies in the industry. You can see the full list here.
If you’re looking for a Design Pickle alternative, these are the top 15 companies to put your money on.
1. Penji
The first company on the list probably won’t surprise most people. Penji is one of the biggest unlimited graphic design providers in the industry and has consistently received positive reviews for their work. For a Design Pickle alternative, Penji offers much more for a lot less.
We signed up for both companies and did a complete breakdown and comparison of Design Pickle vs Penji. Check out the article to see how Penji and Design Pickle stack against each other.
Why we recommend:
– Designers are matched to your project based on their skillset and your needs
– Offers logo designs, illustrations, and UX/UI
– Responsive and quick customer support
– Has the most design categories for you to select from
– Advanced custom client dashboard for communication and project storage
Price: $399 – $899/m
2. Design Doctor
Another Design Pickle alternative that’s been making waves is Design Doctor. The company offers the same perks and benefits as both Design Pickle and Penji, with more competitive pricing. They offer web and app design in their mid and higher tiers. So, if you’re a business who needs a new website or want to redesign an existing one, Design Doctor can complete the project to your brand standard.
Why we recommend:
– Competitive pricing.
– Skilled designers.
– The company offers a wide variety of design choices.
Price: $329 – $899/m
3. Lead Pixels
Lead Pixels is a high-end competitor to Design Pickle. Their plans start higher than just about everyone on this list, however, unlike others on this list, their team is US and Canada-based. Their premium pricing also comes with a claim of high tier designers. This is a great option for those who are on a serious time crunch and cannot go through a dozen rounds of revisions. While pricey, project turnaround is very prompt.
Why we recommend:
– US and Canada-based team
– Fewer revisions
Price: $1499 – $4999/m
4. Kapa99
Kapa99 is another Design Pickle alternative making the list. Their signature brand is consistency. They also offer 2 graphic designers instead of just 1. This ensures that there is no confusion in the communication between you and the designer.
One drawback of Kapa99 is that they’re one of the few companies on this list that uses Trello for managing projects. If you’re familiar with Trello, Asana, Jira, or other similar online project management software, then you’ll be fine. If not, they may not be the best fit for you. Third-party software may be offputing for some.
Why we recommend:
– 2 project managers
– Great if you prefer using Trello
Price: $399/m
5. Manypixels
Manypixels is a newcomer in the unlimited graphic design space and also offers a similar service to Design Pickle at a comparable price. One interesting benefit is that the company can also design 2-3 second GIFs. This can be useful if animated GIFs are something you frequently need for your social media campaigns. Not just for fun.
Why we recommend:
– Have their own online platform for communication and storing files
– Animated GIFs are a part of the package
Price: $399 – $549/m
6. Kimp
One of the more interestingly branded Design Pickle alternatives on the list is Kimp. Their website is cohesive and sports a monkey as their mascot.
Kimp offers unlimited graphic design, however, their team model is interesting. They claim to offer a project manager and 3 designers to work with you. However, similar to Kapa99, Kimp also utilizes Trello for managing projects, which also means they share the same complexity if you’re not familiar with the platform.
Why we recommend:
– Work with a custom team that they create for you
– Great if you prefer managing projects on Trello
Price: $389 – $789/m
7. Dark Roast
Dark Roast is also a new name in the unlimited graphic design space from Canada. The company charges significantly more than most other companies on the list except for Lead Pixel. At $949 per month, it’s a pricier subscription.
Their portfolio looks great and Dark Roast features their own proprietary platform for you to submit and manage projects. While the location of their designers could not be confirmed, they claim to be able to have the same benefits as a creative agency.
Why we recommend:
– Great portfolio
– Claims to replace agencies
Price: $1199/m
8. Delesign
Delesign has been around since 2017 according to their website. The graphic design provider offers some of the best value for $499/m. For the same price as many others on the list, Delesign also offers 2D animation videos. We’re not sure of the quality, length, or requirements, but this is still a great bonus to have. Unlike their competitors on this list, Delesign doesn’t offer a higher-tier for their graphic design offering. Their highest-tier is the $499 package that includes both graphic design and 2D videos.
Why we recommend:
– 2D animation videos are included in the package
– Custom client portal
Price: $349 – $499/m
9. Limitless Design
Quite possibly the cheapest one on the list, but with one caveat. Limitless Design‘s base price is just $179/m, but you only get 4 graphic design requests per month instead of unlimited. This may be a great value if that’s all you usually need anyway. Their truly unlimited design plan costs $299, which is the cheapest on the list.
Why we recommend:
– Lowest cost
– Great if you do not need too many graphics completed per month
Price: $179 – $299/m
10. Tucan Go
In addition to providing graphic design, Tucan Go touts its environmental impact and offers a wide selection of services such as marketing, web development, photography & video, and even hosting.
However, these services are NOT all a part of one plan. Each service has its own pricing structure and treated as independent memberships. So you’ll need multiple subscriptions if you want more than just their unlimited graphic design offering.
Why we recommend:
– Offers multiple categories of creative work
– You can choose the type of services based on need
Price: $390 – $780/m (Graphic Design plan)
Depop: Etsy’s $1.6B Ticket to Access Gen Z’s Market
Most Eco-conscious Scooter Rolls to Next-Gen
Penji Review: How unlimited is it REALLY? (+25% Promo Code)
Graphic Design Tips You Need to Know
The Best 8 Websites For Freelance Writers
Providing The Feedback Graphic Designers Need to Hear
