Your content marketing strategy. There's no one size fits all solution to how much or what you should share online. But with this approach, you'll work out the best plan for you. Marketing isn't all about shouting at people with a megaphone come by my thing isn't complicated either. As much as some people will make you think the way I see it, marketing can be approached in an incredibly creative way, which also happens to be the way it actually works best. Content Marketing is a term that you might have come across before.

If not, here's a quick primer. In its simplest form, content marketing is simply a way of communicating with the hope of building an audience's awareness, trust and desire for a brand's product or service. That also means it has to be of some value to the right audience, and relevant to whatever the thing is that the brand is pitching. If you're thinking Can I just make my art? Don't worry, I get you. I've been there.

I have some good news and some bad news. The good news is yes, to an extent you can just make your art or whatever creative offering you have. But you also need to give it some context. The bad news is just one great work of art is seriously unlikely to make you any cash if all someone ever sees if you is that piece. The same is true for one great song, or one great poem. Audiences need a reason to stick around to see the body of your work.

Good content marketing is storytelling. It's not churning out crappy articles and blog posts just to get search engine attention. It's not spamming your followers on Facebook and Twitter. Learning to tell a story in a compelling way across multiple mediums is the key to good content marketing. One of the reasons many of the creatives I speak to find marketing such a slog is that they don't feel like they have anything to say. As thump his mom told him if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all.

Replace nice with valuable or worthwhile and you get an idea of the problem. But unless you're somebody who doesn't have any hobbies, read any books, magazines, blogs, or watch TV, Netflix or YouTube, or scroll through Facebook, Twitter or Instagram, you do know what kind of content interesting. You do know it's out there, it does exist, people are churning the stuff out. Not all of its worth a glance, I'll grant you. And some of it is actually useful, creative and inspiring. Hopefully, you also know now that you could be producing great content too.

Don't worry, I won't just leave you with just create great content without some practical good content marketing is answering the questions. Why should I the audience member care? What does this tell me about you, the creator? What's the call to action? And is it relevant? Let's have a look at each of these in depth.

Why should I care? The first question relates to what you can post that will apply Apply is worthy of your audience's attention. questions to ask yourself are, does it entertain, like cat videos? Does it educate? Like advice articles? And does it emote?

Like personal stories? If you can get an answer to at least two of the above, your idea is unlikely to fly well as a piece of content marketing. Ultimately, it's these characteristics of something that make us willing to share it with others. When you can produce content that's share worthy, you won't have to worry about being the one choosing your own horn, your audience will do it for you. The next question, what does this tell them about you the creative relates to what somebody is really buying when they hire you or buy an album or a book. A great deal of that decision is in their perception of you.

Again, I'm not saying you have to have your face plastered all over your website, or take photos of your most intimate moments on Instagram. But I am saying you need to give some kind of evidence to let someone know you're a real person with a story and a motivation for creating this work. You can read my actual story on my about page of the website. But it also crops up in nearly every podcast I record or email I write, I'm letting my audience know about my past, how I came to do the work I do, as well as some of my beliefs regarding the topics that we discussed, like personality type, and someone. Finally, I let you in on my struggles and what I've learned along the way. Of course, some of this will and some of this won't apply to you.

But hopefully, you can imagine what an artist who paints exotic places to visit could reveal about herself and her work, from finding a love for painting to preferences for painting mediums, to stories about places to visit. All of this is wonderful fodder for content that not only puts your work into context, but also helps you connect with your audience in a meaningful way. And what's the call to action Finally, I didn't Easy way for your audience to take action. This isn't just an attempt to capture a credit card number. This serves as a reminder for you to make sure that your content, the content you produce is relevant to your end goal. It's tempting to see somebody else's popular blog post or look at what they're posting on social media, and how many likes or views they're getting.

But unless you're doing this purely for fun, I encourage you to think about the purpose of each piece of content you produce. Sometimes you create content that doesn't have a direct call to action, but it still serves the purpose of educating your audience about something that may ultimately bring them closer to you or your work. It's worth paying attention to what some of the creatives that you follow are doing and trying to spot how and where they are using content marketing effectively. Now you have some ideas for what a piece of content marketing should contain. It's time to figure out how do you communicate best and there are a few options To consider number one written content. This suits most introverts in particular, because the written word is our loyal friend, he gives us time to think.

It removes some of the pressure that speaking out loud does, and clarifies our ideas in a way that thinking alone cannot. In addition, we can put you. In addition, we can put to use our skills of listening and empathy. When we get to express ourselves through writing. All the nuances we pick up on in daily life gets crystallized on the page, and we have a chance to process everything from the small details to the big ideas that have come to our attention. Not everyone likes writing, of course, it can feel a lot like a slog to many.

And just because introverts are stereotypically seen as natural writers, doesn't mean you have to be lumped in with that assumption. Ask yourself if you ever write for fun or feel better once you've had the time to write about what you've experienced, or thinking about, have you ever kept a journal? Did you enjoy creative writing at school? Just because you don't need much But now it doesn't mean it's not something you can start to visual content. Well, this class isn't intended just for visual creative. I'm going out on a limb and saying most folks watching this aren't visually inclined, and whether or not it's your primary creative outlet.

You're you've doodled on a note, booking class or a meeting or taking a picture with your phone. Every social media platform website and even emails now, for the most part benefit from a visual element. I've also seen a strong bond between the audio and visual world, whether it's through album artwork, music, videos, or merchandise. When it comes to communicating with your audience, having a visual style, something that can be identified as part of a hole that points to your brand, will help people make sense of what you're about what you can offer them. If I see a social media account with no consistency across messaging or visual style, I might feel confused on some level and leave because I don't know what to expect them. The truth is We like predictability, we like to be sure that something is for us or not.

For us. This is exactly what great or even just good, as long as it's consistent visuals will do. Before you write this off as not very introvert friendly, give the spoken word a chance. It only gets me after I'd been listening to podcasts for over two years, virtually every day, that starting my own might just be a good idea. If I looked at my situation, rationally, I might have seen the obvious seana my line of thought went something like, I need to create content for my ideal audience. My ideal audience is a lot like me.

I get nearly all of my information and education and entertainment from podcasts. And if my audience are doing the same, and if they're anything like me, they are I should probably give podcasting ago. So that was it. I began that the scariest experiment I'd ever run in my business. And without a doubt the best decision to date. The spoken word doesn't require you having the gift of the gab.

It doesn't mean you have to get on camera, though, if you're interested in it, video is definitely worth considering. It doesn't require having elite speaking skills. Particularly in the first year of the creative introvert podcast, I wrote out my script for each solo episode. What what? If you're already dabbling in blogging or have an established blog, I see no reason why you wouldn't try turning those posts into a podcast. That said, I'm not trying to encourage you to start a podcast if you have no interest in the medium yourself.

Rather, I'm trying to encourage you to produce content in the form that you personally consume. This will make content marketing feel a lot more like creative work, rather than adult school projects that you see no purpose. And like I said, video content, maybe the least introvert friendly, but arguably the most effective currently. So if you are willing to get on camera or create a video with slides, then I strongly recommend dabbling in this as well. Now that you have an idea of wanting to share what to share, and how To share it, it's time to learn the most valuable way to distribute your content in a way that leads your audience directly to your door of your gingerbread house. I'll explain the gingerbread house in a second, the breadcrumb trail.

A lot of advice you find on content marketing will stop before you even get hit. You'll be told to start a blog, make it good and just wait for the sales rolling. Unfortunately, this is not generally what happens. The real brilliance of content marketing and the only reason I'm still going with the creative introvert as a business is because I learned about the breadcrumb trail. This is my way of explaining the journey you're taking your audience on the one that takes them from a curious visitor to your most hardcore superfan. There's an awful lot of people throwing as much spaghetti at the wall as they can before something sticks.

It's true. Some will indeed stick but I know that from past experience that purling spaghetti gets tiring and messy. You want to pick the most sticky looking spaghetti before hurling it's at the wall. Be prepared to sling quite a few. I'll stop with the spaghetti analogy. All I want is for you to provide the universe with enough routes to your door as possible.

So that clients, customers or anyone else you want knows exactly how to find you. Enter the breadcrumb trail. This is a way of getting your work discovered. It's a route for somebody to follow so that the chances of them finding you and actually wanting what you have when they get there are as likely as possible. Of course, nothing is your thing. This is why having several breadcrumb trails is so important for maximizing your chances.

Let's look at an example of the breadcrumb trail in action. Tara swagger is someone that you might be familiar with. But I personally came across her in Gary Vaynerchuk book Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook. I remember I remember clearly reading this stuff on a stuffy train when I was commuting to another thankless client. I figured that this swagger woman was someone I could really learn a lot from and when I googled her name, I was delighted to find reams of content freely available from a podcast to an excellent blog to some great downloadable guides and courses. From there, I became a superfan.

I was on her breadcrumb trail. From that target keep tricking me more breadcrumbs from podcast episodes. I was subscribed so each episode would reach me without her doing a thing. email updates. Again, I subscribed to her email list and usually based on that week's podcast, she would email me and she didn't have to worry about creating new content for each platform, and social media posts. her Instagram Stories alone are amongst the cream of the crop, in that they're uplifting, educational and adorable, especially when her pups make a guest appearance.

When it comes to Torah making an offer. I'm all ears because I've been nibbling on these breadcrumbs for all this time. This may sound like a long, lengthy trial, but it's reality. It probably will come as no surprise that overnight successes are few and far between. and expecting somebody who's literally just found your Instagram account from a hashtag search to go and visit your shop and buy immediately is very unlikely. It takes time and multiple breadcrumbs to lead someone that's your gingerbread house.

So now you know the breadcrumb trail. It's time to figure out how you might map this out on your own business. It breaks down into the following the first crop, this gets placed strategically, somewhere your potential superfans unlikely to find it. guest posts on other people's blogs, interviews on other people's podcasts, like seen or press coverage, events and craft fairs, flyers and local businesses paid advertising on Facebook and Instagram hashtags, Pinterest posts and blog posts to your on your own blog. Even though this is I would argue more difficult than it used to be. But for now, just have a think back to where you find your creatives and why Your potential superfans are likely paying attention to the second Chrome.

In order to keep these folk who find your first chrome on your trail. You'll need a tasty looking second chrome not far off. Why would somebody hang around? Well, the promise of more great content from you Your best bet here, getting them on your email list. email list. Yes, your email list.

You've likely seen plenty of annoying pop ups, including this one on the creative entrepreneur.com offering you some kind of free goodie or discount code in return of your precious email address. This gives somebody permission to keep you on their breadcrumb trail. While you get to enjoy your second Chrome. It's easier than you may think to get the setup. I recommend MailChimp calm, particularly now they offer landing page style forms to grab email addresses. Deciding what you want to offer as your second crumb or your opt in, in marketing speak.

Doesn't have to be brain surgery. Some ideas discount code to use on your products. A free guide that educates somebody on how to use your products, a free sample chapter, a free sample track every digital wallpaper, a free digital thing. If none of these appeal to you in the slightest, no worries, you can simply say that this is a way to keep in touch with your visitors who find your site. That's been enough for me many times, particularly with artists who run events or have a store with products that I'm not quite ready to purchase. But one day I will be.

I don't trust my memory as far as I can throw it. So email is a great way to keep notes of the creative side, find your third crumb and beyond. Now it's your job to keep the breadcrumbs coming, and this would be a no brainer. Now you know about content marketing and have a 90 day content plan. This is another reason to keep your content coming regularly. I can't tell you how many times I've signed up for an email list and haven't heard a peep from somebody until months pass.

Then an email asking for a sale pops up And I wonder who the heck is this person? And why should I give them my money? Had they stayed in touch and kept dropping crumbs for me, this could have been a sale for them. Oh, gingerbread house. So this is your offer. And depending on what this is, it's worth having a think about your big reveal.

How can you best communicate what you offer? This could be a new product launch a special sale on your Etsy store, a new package of services, a new book or album. Pick one thing to focus on for now and have a think about how you want to tell your superfans about it. Thanks, step, plan out your breadcrumb trail