Consultant Marketing Simplified—Step Three: Automation

In this final step, you’ll organize your content marketing and automate it so you actually do it. (In case you need a refresher, here is Step 1 and here is Step 2)

Artificial Intelligence (AI such as ChatGPT and many others) is one way to create efficiencies. I use AI to stimulate ideas, take a problem and type it up in great detail and let ChatGPT outline the answer and then I take the AI-generated ideas and write them in my own words/thoughts/perspectives. I wrote some of the Passion Course using this method, and then converted it in Terry-lingo with my guidance and experience driving the way—not AI.

But beyond AI, there are so many tools that will help you create content and multipurpose that content for different channels. But, you have to get organized first before you use tools to schedule and post content. So if you’re on social, you can use Buffer, HootSuite or a ton of other social media management and scheduling tools (with free versions) that you can leverage to schedule posts and be notified when you receive comments so you can engage your audience.

Simplify your stream

Okay, so you’ve chosen your end goal and reverse-engineered your activities. Second, you’ve taken those activities and laid them out in the form of a variety of content that you can use to feed your content marketing stream. So let’s make it work for you by organizing the content and leverage tools to create efficiencies.

You can always outsource to a social media manager, video editor or other contractor to help you execute if you’re lacking in a skillset. Social media post management is also another given that most people simply don’t want to be bothered with posting because it can be quite tedious and administrative.

Frankly, I like to create content (especially video and copywriting) because I do have the skillset, the time, and I want to be the one connecting with my audience directly, versus diffusing the energy by having other “hands” in my world. Now, that can be a narrow way of thinking, but that’s the beautiful thing about having your own business and doing things the way you want to do them. You get to choose!

Plus, if you’re building a business of YOU, the most important ingredient is YOU of course, so the more you can personally be involved at least in your core messaging and audience outreach, the better. Even though solopreneurs and passion-led business owners wear many, many hats, this is one that’s the most important: AUTHENTICITY.

The downside of outsourcing is you bring in another’s energy, and they will be bringing in their efficiencies so they’ll be reusing templates from their other customers and brands and that will likely dilute you, even if they “sell you” on the aspect that they “know what works.” Well, what works for them may just be something they do repeatedly for multiple customers. Be cautious of how your brand can be diluted simply because an outsource provider is using templates and similar layouts to other brands they may represent. Create a brand that is difficult to templatize—that means YOU need to be more involved either in the authorship or the content itself, such as you on video.

Organize first

To get your content organized, you have to choose where you want to post and engage your audience. You will need to also consider your frequency and what you believe is appropriate given your audience’s tolerance for content. I don’t like to post too often, otherwise my audience gets saturated and banner blindness sets in (or that could be me telling myself that so I post less often. Interesting insight, right?).

• List the channels you want to maintain a voice and consider your favorite types of content (video, audio, copy, imagery, etc.)

• List what types of content you will post

• List how frequently you want to post to each channel

• Choose a tool you can batch your posts to (I use Buffer)

• Pick a day of the week to do 7-days worth of batch posts

Try to make each post a little different versus posting the same exact verbiage and photo on every channel. If you have followers who are connected to you on multiple channels, they may get the sense you’re not interested in shifting the post per channel, which is a sign that you care about each post.

Maximize your content creation

Here’s the best part of this three-part process: how you create your content can reduce the amount of time you need to cover all of your channels. It’s time to reverse-engineer again. Take your long-form content, such as a book, article, video or other long-form and design it so you can repurpose segments of it throughout all of your channels.

Remember my goal being about selling books? Here’s how I’m doing it:

1. Choose the audience for the book (or mini-course) I’m working on, create the content outline based on the Passion Course. So everything I write is for that specific audience. (I love writing for a specific person—it makes it so much more authentic and personal as I can bring real examples from my business into the book.)

2. Write that particular chapter.

3. Pull out elements that can drive a certain piece of content or post, make a list.

4. My channels are the following: YouTube video, podcast, newsletter articles (like this one) and helpful posts for social media. So I will record the video knowing I will repurpose the audio in a podcast. Then, I can take the video and edit segments out and create articles and content from it.

5. Each piece of content will be a lead generator for anything I’m promoting—the Passion Course, the book or a mini-course, my newsletter or podcast.

So instead of trying to come up with singular pieces of content in a vacuum, I’m leveraging one piece of content for multiple purposes. All the while it’s being scheduled and dripped out to my contacts and followers to attract more connections and interest.

As a Human Design Projector, these posts will be primarily educational and informational. Not pitchy, no launches, no gimmicks, no bro marketing, no funnels, nothing that will trigger the cautious prospect. And anyone who knows me knows that’s what I’m all about—being helpful and being all Terry all the time.

Lastly, always provide a way for people to reach out to you on every platform. Give them a pathway to engaging with you beyond simply commenting. Help them see how you can help them but at the very minimum, help them. And sometimes, the kind of help they need is something they end up purchasing from you—an engagement!