Any healthy business needs content marketing today ─ including freelance writers and copywriters.
Your choice of marketing platform could be LinkedIn (like me), Facebook, Instagram, or anything else.
However, you need a strategy to execute and drive results.
But why do you need a content strategy? Can’t you just wing it?
Why Do You Need a Content Strategy on LinkedIn?
Eliminate Guesswork
Having a pre-defined content strategy adds clarity to your marketing efforts. You aren’t wondering what to post every day when you have a set plan to execute.
Minimize Cost
A content strategy takes some time to set up up-front, but saves time and consequently money in the long run.
Earn More
A content strategy helps you create a connection with your ideal clients. Eventually, these connections will turn into hard cash and long-term business.
You need a content strategy. Period. Let’s help you set it up.
5 Steps to Building a Content Strategy on LinkedIn
1. Identify Content Buckets
Dispersed marketing leads to inconsistent results. You get good leads in your inbox one month and no business the next.
To maintain a healthy pipeline of high-quality leads, you want to focus on a few topics and areas every week.
Most freelance writers can use the following content buckets. But feel free to improvise for your business.
Bucket 1: Your Expertise
What does your ideal client need to know about you and your business to believe in your credibility?
You can market your expertise through a healthy ratio of:
- Business Stories — Think of the myriad of experiences you’ve had with your clients. Journal about them. Talk about why you handled difficult situations the way you did. Also post about the good experiences inside your business. Storytelling with vulnerability can be your superpower.
- Results and Transformation — We impact our clients’ businesses and lives in profound ways. As a freelance writer, you help your clients communicate with their customers through language that informs, engages, educates, and inspires action. Your work builds businesses. Recount client results and stories of transformation as a powerful marketing tool.
- Testimonials — Nothing builds your credibility like a testimonial from your ideal client. I send my clients a short questionnaire over email or conduct a phone interview to really capture the essence of their journey with me. On the phone, clients tend to be more generous. I then use the testimonials in my marketing to reinforce my credibility. Sure, steal it from me *wink*!
- Your Uniqueness — What’s so unique about working with you? Why should your ideal prospect choose to work with you and not the next freelance writer? Show your unique processes, frameworks, and working style for your ideal prospects to know what sets you apart from anyone else.
If you aren’t currently marketing your business with content that builds your expertise, start today.
Bucket 2: Your Personal Experiences
No matter what you do online, you’re building a personal brand. Your ideal prospects are building you up in their minds one cell at a time based on the stories you post.
What if you don’t post personal stories? Well, then you miss out on the chance of building a rapport with your prospects.
It’s an increasingly popular notion that people buy from people, even on the seemingly cold and professional platform known as LinkedIn. And it’s true.
Sharing your stories with a bit of vulnerability can go a long way in establishing relatability and connection with your ideal clients.
Bucket 3: Miscellaneous
Yes, we do make room for the random. Want to share something with your network that’s neither related to business nor your personal life?
Feel free. Post memes just for fun. Share an informative article from an external source. Or write about mental health and such.
While nothing is necessarily off-limits in the miscellaneous bucket, be careful about posting things that might be considered controversial. You want to connect, not offend.
2. Assign Frequency to Each Bucket
Let’s pull out more guesswork from your marketing process by declaring how many pieces of content you’ll create each week from each bucket.
Personally, my ratio is 3:2:1.
I post three content pieces that build my expertise, two stories that show my personal side, and one random topic each week.
The good news is that you get to decide what ratio works for you. If building a personal brand is more of a priority right now, then post more personal content. Decide your bucket ratio right about now.
3. Brainstorm Ideas in Batches
I’m all about helping freelance writers save time on marketing, yet have it be effective and fruitful. That’s why I recommend brainstorming content ideas in batches. I sit down every other Sunday evening with my journal and go over the past week, year, and decade.
That allows me to draw inspiration from past events of my life and business and construct content ideas to be potentially used in the future.
I enter all those ideas in separate cards on a Trello board.
Remember, this step is only about brainstorming ideas. We will build them up later.
4. Batch Up Content Creation for Your Content Strategy on LinkedIn
Just like batching up content ideation saves time, batching up content creation also does. I like to sit every 10 days with my Trello board and turn content ideas from the last step into full-blown posts.
Historically, I create up to 15 posts in one sitting — enough for two to three weeks. Then, when I’m working inside my business serving clients, I don’t have to worry about my marketing.
I know I have enough marketing material to cover two weeks created ahead of time.
5. Schedule on Your Calendar
The final step is to schedule posting on your calendar. I typically post after dinner — so it’s around 9 p.m. my time. I refrain from using a social media scheduler and post all my content manually.
Decide what time works best for you! Scheduling time on your calendar ensures that you stick to it. At least for me, what gets scheduled gets done.
Consistency Is Key for Your Content Strategy on LinkedIn
Consistency is important for a healthy content marketing ROI. A content strategy reduces the cognitive load on your brain to carry out your marketing effectively ─ making it easier to stay consistent.
Follow the method I outlined here to come up with a strategy for you.
I can bet this will keep you consistent if you follow it to the T.
