Small business content creation can be tough. It’s time-consuming, often frustrating and arguably one of a small business owner’s least favorite jobs. It’s also necessary if you want to succeed.
Content is still king, despite what you may have heard — except now, it has to be great content. No more hiring foreign “writers” who work for pennies but haven’t quite grasped the concept of verbs. No more keyword stuffing. No more clip art. (For the love of all that is holy, no more clip art!)
Today’s content needs to be original, use multiple mediums (text, graphics, pictures, videos, infographics and more) and capture the audience’s (admittedly limited) attention immediately. If that sounds like a tall order, it is — but we’re sharing some of our favorite tools to help you make your content pop!
5 Tools You Can Use to Improve Your Small Business Content
Canva: Are your Facebook likes lagging? Are your comments non-existent? Add an image! This study by Hubspot shows that Facebook posts that include visuals generate 53% more likes and 104% more comments than text-only posts or those that use a standard thumbnail.
The numbers don’t lie — you need to take a more visual approach with your content on social media. Canva makes it easy to create the original graphics you need, no degree (or credit card) required. If you can use a mouse, you can use Canva.
Ilys: Do you often get in your own way when you’re writing a blog post? Do you spend more time re-reading the paragraph above than you do writing the paragraph you’re working on now? Ilys is the answer!
On the surface, it’s a pretty straightforward word processor. You set your word count and get to work. But there’s a slight catch — once you start writing, you’ll only be able to see the last letter you typed, and you can’t go back and edit anything until you’ve hit your goal. Weird? Yes. Effective? Also, yes. When the only way through is forward, you won’t waste time looking back!
Sniply: Yes, original small business content is crucial — but sometimes you come across something you just have to share with your audience. And that’s okay, as long as you have a good mix of creation and curation.
Sniply allows you to share those found gems with your fans and followers, but it takes it a step further by generating custom links that include a call-to-action and lead people straight back to your website or blog.
Venngage: Some people love to read. Others would rather have someone draw them a picture. Infographics combine the best of both worlds into an easy-to-digest, standalone piece. But no one said they were easy to create — until now!
With Venngage, the hard work is (mostly) done for you. Just choose a template, add your charts, facts and figures, and then customize. When you’re done, you’ll be able to share it to your blog, website and social media pages or download it to a PDF for later use.
Wondershare Filmora: Is video your thing? If you haven’t experimented with this medium yet, you should, because it’s not as difficult as it seems.
Wondershare’s Filmora is a video editing software that can turn your smartphone-shot videos into virtual cinematic masterpieces. Edit, add text and music, include stills and utilize some of the great filters and animations that are updated monthly. Videos are still the most widely liked and shared content on social media!
With all the great original content available, standard stock “meh” content won’t cut it anymore. These tools (and the thousands more available online) will make you stand out from the crowd!
Does your content need a bit of pizazz? Are you confused about the best medium to use? Mischa Communications can help! Reach out today and we’ll make your small business content shine!