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I think the saturation of “create a month of content in one day” and “tips to make more content” on Instagram tells us that many of us are struggling to keep up with the content creation game. I guess there’s comfort in this though, at least we’re not alone.
But, the flip side of all this is that there is so much potential to harness content creation for brands and businesses to succeed. And, the vast number of tools that have been made just for this purpose help make all the difference in creating content for your business.
Let’s get started with the basics because having a solid foundation is essential to success.
What is content creation?
Content creation is the process of making content to be read, watched, or listened to by the creator's audience. This can include everything from blog posts and reels to podcasts and youtube videos.
If you’re online you’re consuming content — whether it’s a paid ad or the emails you’ve signed up to get.
The constant presence of content makes it seem like content creation should be quick, easy, and deliver immediate results. But odds are if you’re creating content for your business or brand, you’ve realized this isn’t the case. (In fact, that’s probably why you’re here reading this.)
Why bother with content creation?
If content creation isn’t easy why should we be bothering with it? And to that, I say, content creation is an amazing marketing tool for your brand.
There are what seems like endless success stories of brands gaining traction with their content and growing to become the business owners' dreams turned into reality.
So if you have huge dreams and visions of a thriving, revenue-producing business, hold on to them. Keep that vision of future-you clear in your mind. This is what you’re working towards.
But before getting completely lost in dream clouds, come back down to reality with me here. Because we need to be taking baby steps to get there. We need to be building our knowledge and putting it to the test (and then likely circling around to start the learning and testing again a few more times).
When content is created with purpose and a plan, it can deliver incredible results. So, before you start creating content, sit down and make a content plan.
This brings me to why we’re here: to offer you tools and resources to help you create content that serves your ideal audience and makes your visions a reality.
Tools to create content
A lot, and I mean a lot, of work goes into successful content creation — especially if it’s content you’re creating to nurture, grow, and engage your audience.
The good news is that as content has evolved and become prolific, so have content creation tools. There are so many tools to help you organize your content planning, strengthen your content, and to even give you content ideas.
So, let’s look at helpful tools for each stage of content creation.
Tools for planning & developing content topics and content ideas
Planning and developing content ideas is one of the first steps in creating effective content.
You want to be taking the time to understand your target audience in this phase: what questions do they have? What do they find interesting? What’s their preferred type of content?
You’ll also want to creep through what your competitors are doing to see how you fit into the mix.
There are quite a few tools to help you do this. I’ve listed some of my favourites below.
You don’t need to use every single one of these tools — after all, you’ve got a lot on your plate and can’t spend every minute on content. I recommend exploring the free version of each of these and then continue using the one you like the best and that fits your budget.
Tools for creating content schedules & calendars
Once you have an idea of the type of content you’d like to be putting out into the world, it’s time to start thinking about the when, where, and how of getting it out there.
In this phase, we want to create a realistic schedule that breaks down all the steps of creating the content we want and gives them deadlines.
For example, if you’re writing a blog post you’ll likely want to break it into steps like researching, outlining, drafting, editing, adding images, and publishing.
Helpful tools for keeping you on track and setting up a schedule are:
Tools for writing content:
Whether you’re blog writing, podcasting, or creating videos, written content is involved. As a content writer, there are a few writing tools and helpers I absolutely love! Particularly these three tools:
These will help you write engaging captions and scripts, and enticing video and podcast descriptions.
Tools for creating graphics and videos
Thankfully tools exist to help us quickly make beautiful graphics for all of our socials. A few of my go-to's:
Adobe Creative Suite (InDesign, Photoshop, Lightroom, and Premier Pro)
Stock photo sites to add to your designs & videos
If you’re not a photographer or videographer (or are simply pressed for time), stock photo and video sites just might save your day. Here are a few of my go-tos and popular stock websites:
Tools for scheduling, publishing & sending out content
You don’t need to use every tool on this list, but I do recommend working a few into your routine to save you time, stress, and headaches. If you’d like further support for your business, let’s schedule a chat.
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