How to plan social media content that attracts clients (without having to be online everyday).

Do you have a love / hate relationship with social media?

Love the potential it gives your business to meet and connect with millions of your ideal clients, who need what you have to offer and are overjoyed to invest in the transformation you can offer them.

Hate how draining it can be to be online, comparing yourself to everyone’s highlight reel, the time-sucking vortex of watching cringy, lip-synced, dodgy-danced reels and scrolling past pictures of people’s dinner/breakfast/chai pumpkin latte cacao nibbed protein smoothie shake with a flake on top….uh where was I? So distracting!

Want to be able to post engaging content that effectively communicates what you do, who you work with and how people can buy from you, so you can attract more clients and make more sales, without being on a perpetual social media hamster wheel?

In this blog I’m going to share my top-secret formula for creating content that speaks to the heart of your ideal client and is aligned to your marketing strategy. Plus, some ideas to help your business be present on social media consistently, without you needing to be online every day.

Let’s Begin With Some Coaching Questions / Journal Prompts

Discover your own truth about how your content is working for you and how you would like it to be with these coaching questions.

What is it about creating content that you are stuck with or that’s not working for you?

What would make creating content easier for you?

How would you like communicating on social media to look and feel for you?

What do you enjoy about social media? How is it working for your business?

Who have you met thanks to connecting online?

What would you like social media to bring to your business?

What insights do these questions bring you about creating content on social media?

What holds you back?

In a recent poll in the Healing Business Academy, I asked “when it comes to making content that brings leads and sales, what holds you back the most?”

57% of respondents said “knowing what to say”
14% of respondents said “confidence to show up”
27% of respondents said “other” and commented “perfectionism” and “myself” were things that held them back.
Can you relate?

Knowing What To Say

By far, the hardest way to plan and create content is to open your platform, think about what you want to say in the moment, and then post whatever occurs to you.

This method requires you to be online every day (if you want to be consistent) and is what I call “stream of consciousness” content. Of course, it is OK to post your insights, inspiration and what’s going on in the moment, however, I would suggest this is as a supplement to your marketing posts, not instead of them.

The first problem with the stream of consciousness marketing is that it’s mostly “I centric”. Meaning, it’s all about you! For example, it might sound something like: I thought this idea. I saw this and this is what I think about it. I had this idea in the shower. I am reflecting on this. I pulled this card today. I had this for breakfast! etc.

But here’s the thing. Your ideal clients are I centric too!

What would this blog read like if I made it all about me- how I love creating content and how I’ve cracked the formula and it’s really working for me? Boring!

Instead, I’ve made it about asking what you love about creating content, what you’re stuck with and how you can crack the formula so can really work for you too. It’s all about you!

Can you notice the difference in how it reads and lands with you? How can you apply this awareness to your own content?

The second problem with stream of consciousness content is that it rarely, if ever asks for the sale and doesn’t include a call to action.

Using Content Formulas

Take a step back from the day to day, stream of consciousness, all about me content, and instead put yourself in your ideal clients’ shoes. This is where you can use your intuition and empathy skills to really tune in to what’s going on with them and communicate with them heart to heart. I’m guessing you are already great at that in person. Can you stretch that skill and apply it to your online connections?

What are your ideal clients struggling with or worried about? What do they want to know about what it’s like to work with you? How can they take the next step to working together?

Create your content plan around what you are selling (not what you are thinking) and make sure your content always has a call to action for your ideal clients to take the next step – whether that is to like, share or comment or to click a link and book in.

Create Content That Communicates:

– Your business brand and what you offer – who you are, what you do, what they can buy
– Gives them something useful and of value – that leads to something that they can buy
– Tells them what the next step is – so they can buy

Are you up for a challenge? Go to your favourite social media platform and look back at your last 10 posts.

How many of your recent posts clearly speak to your ideal client and invites them to work with you? If you were someone new looking at your posts, how easy would it be to figure out who you work with and how you help them?

Create Content Formulas Using These 8 Content Categories

By creating a content formula for yourself it will be easy to get into a consistent rhythm for your posting and ensure that your posts are effectively working for you.

That means that you are cultivating a connection with your audience, sharing value with them to help them to understand what you offer and how you can help them to get the breakthroughs they want, AND attracting enquiries and new clients. It’s a win, win! The benefit of having content categories means that you never run out of ideas, and cover all the different ways you can communicate your offer.

• Sales / Call To Action. This is at the top to remind you that all your content has the opportunity to ask for the sale or some kind of engagement, like joining your mailing list or liking, sharing, commenting on your post.
• Engaging Questions are great for getting to know your ideal clients. They can be useful for market research and increasing engagements on your posts, which in turn increases your reach.
• About Me posts help you to build a connection and help your ideal clients get to know who you are, what you like, what your values are and what you’re passionate about.
• Funny/Entertaining posts can bring humour and a lightness to your brand and build connection.
•  Giving value in your posts can help to showcase your expertise and give your ideal clients an idea of what you can help them with.
• Social proof / reviews are a useful way of getting independent endorsement from and are a good way to build trust.
• Video / podcasting brings your message to life and can speed up the connection as people get to see what you’re like in person.
• Countdown posts can be used during launch to let people when they can buy, when an event is or how long your offer is available for.

Leverage Your Time and Reach

Batching posts that you make using content from your long form searchable posts (like blogs, videos and podcasts) saves you so much time!
Scheduling your posts in advance means business can be present on social media, without you having to show up every day – unless you want to!

Here are a few time saving examples:
– Instead of making one testimonial post to share your client’s stories and wins, make 10 and schedule them to go out regularly.
– Instead of making single social media posts that get lost down the feed, make evergreen content. Turn your post idea into a searchable blog that invites visitors (or in marketing lingo “drives traffic”) to your website. Make 5 social media posts, that you can schedule, to promote the blog and invite your followers to visit your website. Add a call to action on all your blogs to join your list or buy your product/service. You can use this strategy for video, podcasts etc.
– Instead of relying on social media to share your message, build your email list so you can communicate directly with your ideal clients and not have to rely on the daily ebb and flow of the algorithms.

Next Steps

Have a look through your previous posts and see which categories you are sharing consistently – and which ones you never share.

Set time aside to be strategic about what posts you are sharing and what outcome you would like them to give your business.

Remember, it’s not about filling up social media feeds with noise so you can tick the box that you are being visible. It’s about creating marketing assets that work for you online to speak to your ideal clients and invite them to buy your product or service. 

The Social Media Content Planning Masterclass

 Still not sure how to move forward and create engaging social media content, that attracts clients? It’s OK, I’ve got something for you!

Discover how you can easily create a social media content plan that aligns with your marketing strategy and creates sales. Everything is made with your ideal client at the heart and allows you to focus on your marketing goals. This masterclass will help you to:

+Be more strategic in what you post
+Make more sales and increase engagement
+Be consistent and organised
+Never run out of ideas for what to write about
+Keep things simple and reduce overwhelm

No more feeling like you’re posting randomly and getting little to no results. This masterclass is designed to help you to bring your ideas into a grounded, solid, action plan that saves you time and gets you results. Get of the social media hamster wheel and feel calm, focused, pro-active and productive.

Includes a BONUS video on how create evergreen content and use Dropbox and Trello to create a social media asset bank, saving lots of time. Learn how to get organised, batch your content and repurpose so you never run out of ideas and allow things to be easier and easier as time goes on.

Come and share your insights!

Come and share with your social media content planning insights and questions with us! Go to Healing Business Academy Facebook Group or drop a comment below.