Having a readily available list of content to be created will help you when you go to create your actual content and help ensure you are not being too repetitive.

Promotional posts

Firstly you will be promoting your business, service and products so it will help to

Create a list of all products and services

Create a list of the benefits of these products and services

List ways in which these products and services are used

This is particularly useful for B2B and service-oriented businesses where it’s often hard to think of interesting ways to promote and some with boring subjects or products, this will help you to generate ideas that will  give your posts more meaning and make them more effective and relatable to your target audience.

For example in the B2B Cleaning consumables industry you will have a list of cleaning products you are selling but it’s important to bear in mind what you are actually selling is the benefits of the cleaning product, which are hygiene, cleanliness and essentially clean spaces, while ways in which the products are used could be i.e. cleaning toilets, limescale from bathrooms, taps, drains etc. This is useful for brainstorming ways to create different product posts but also importantly, in B2B, would be where these products are used i.e. care homes, offices, workshops etc. See how considering these will help with tailoring your product posts to your target customer? They will be more likely to get their attention as the posts will be more specific to them and more interesting.

Another example in the service industry would be; You’re an electrician, the services you sell are electrical work on fuse boards, lighting, wiring, sockets etc. but what are really selling is peace of mind, light, security, electricity, warmth, comfort and so on. See how these could be marketed using the benefits of your services that clients could relate to, rather than an abstract image of a fuse box or a man working with some wires. Then if you think further into how these services are used, think about all the appliances in a kitchen that make people’s daily life function, an electric heater on a cold day, someone reading a book by a desk lamp… you start to get more of an idea of all the different ways you can promote your services that will appeal to your typical client.

Value Posts

Value posts as discussed are posts that are of interest or use to your typical or ideal client. It’s important to understand who your typical or ideal customer is, the type of voice they respond to and the sort of content or news that they are interested in or affects them.

Value content could be very different depending on your industry but would typically include:

Interesting or informative news or blog articles curated from influential or recognised sources in your industry and/or your own written content.

Educational content like ‘How to’ instructional articles or videos. Ideas or tips on using your products or relating to your services.

Entertaining, fun or inspirational content.

Competitions, games or giveaways; while they can be promotional they could also be considered value content if it is the sort of thing that would be of interest to your client. These can be brilliant for getting your customers involved with your brand and to interact with you. Depending on your business they can be a great source of user generated content, like getting your customers to share pictures of your products in use or getting them to comment on and share your content.