Tips for choosing, creating and managing content for small businesses and non-profits.

1. CONTENT
STRATEGY
SMALL BUSINESS SECRETS FOR SUCCESS

2. Start with
basic
questions

3. WHY AM I DOING THIS?
• To help my
reputation?
• To directly sell
something?
• To serve my
existing customers
better?

4. WHO IS YOUR AUDIENCE?
• Do they want to talk to me?
• Do they need to talk to me?
• What are their interests?
• How do they use media?

5. Before you
start planning

6. KNOW YOUR MEDIA
Text - persuasion
• Details
• Specifics
• Links
Photos - attraction
• Impressions
• Holistic view
Videos - emotion
• Processes
• Feelings

7. KNOW YOUR CAPACITY
What kind of content do I know
how to create?
How often can I create content?
If your photos look like this, maybe pick a different
medium…

8. Plan the work

9. GET IDEAS
Places to look
• Customer interactions
• Employee interactions (reward idea
contributions)
• Successful strategies for others
• A news-reading habit
• Social follows
• RSS
• Trade press

10. MANAGE THE IDEAS
Use a system that works for you
& bank ideas before you start
• Shared .doc
• Private Pinterest board
• Trello or similar
Leave space for
inspiration/crises/trends

11. SCHEDULE
When will content be created?
• Routine systems work well
• Plan people, time for editing
• Business lifecycle matters
Who will create it?
• System for employee ideas
• Who will re-purpose existing content?

12. Work the plan

13. GETTING IT DONE
Give yourself two weeks of slush
– stuff you can publish any time –
before you publish anything.
After the first month, check your
process.
• Content quantity
• Content quality
• Stress of production

14. LEARN AND IMPROVE
• What did I want to accomplish?
• How can I tell if I did it?
• Did I?
• What can I learn from what I
did to do better?

15. Whose content is it
anyway?

16. QUICK TIPS
Routine will save your bacon
Don’t start what you can’t keep up.
Corollary: if you can’t keep up, take down.
Reuse when reasonable.
Blog post
Instagram the images over time
Tweet the quotes over time
Use social to bring back seasonally
Do annual follow-ups where it makes sense