206: Your Ticket to Good Content Marketing | Doreen Vanderhart
I have your ticket to good content marketing in 2024...
Right here.
Host Mariah and Founder of Knap Creative, Doreen Vanderhart come together to share the 5 things we will see happen with content marketing in 2024.
This is part of our new campaign - Around the World in 90 days - your ticket to good content marketing!
Welcome aboard flight CQM222, I am your pilot, Mariah - you have your ticket to good content marketing in hand.
While on this flight the flight attendants will be here to assist you to get off the content creation hamster wheel and onto a new way of marketing to help you live a more freedom based lifestyle.
Each week you will be given a new stamp in your passport and by the end of the 90 days you will be on your way to explore the world of Content Marketing as a solo traveller.
This is week six - get ready, it is going to be a wild ride!
If you LOVED this part of your trip (the episode), make sure you share this on your Instagram stories and tag us @contentqueenmariah and @knap.creative.
✨ GET YOUR TICKET TO GOOD CONTENT MARKETING ✨
KEY EPISODE TAKEAWAYS 👇
What good content marketing looks like
5 core "trends" of content marketing in 2024
How you can develop your content marketing strategy
Small business content marketing advice
SHOW RESOURCES 👇
CHECK out the Knap Creative website - https://knapcreative.ca/
FOLLOW Knap Creative on IG - https://www.instagram.com/knap.creative/
CHECK out the POST - https://www.instagram.com/p/C0eY5idOeDq/?img_index=1
JOIN US for the next 90 days! https://sales.contentqueenmariah.com/90days
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If you like this episode, don't forget to share it to your Instagram stories and tag me @contentqueenmariah!
Other than that, enjoy - chat next week 💕
ABOUT THE GUEST
Knap Creative is a social media marketing and website design agency located in Alberta, Canada. They know that your business is about more than, well, your business — it's your family, your lifestyle, your community, and so much more.
Working with them (or even following along!) means you get friendly, down to earth advice and support to help you create a business that's the stuff of legends WHILE you live an intentional, meaningful life.
PODCAST TRANSCRIPTION
This is your pilot speaking. My name is Maria and welcome to this special series of the content queen podcast. You have boarded flight CQM 222, and you have in your hand, your ticket to good content marketing. We hope you have a safe journey on this 90 day trip strap in and get ready to experience all the strategy and learning you need to enter 2024 with a direction on how to create content.
That is unique to you and your business. While on board, you'll have complimentary access to all the learnings that will help you attract your own new passengers to grow and expand your own trip. While on this flight, the flight attendants will be here to assist you to get off the content hamster wheel and onto a new way of marketing to help you live a more freedom based lifestyle.
Each week, you'll be given a new stamp on your passport. By the end of the 90 days. You'll be on your way to explore the world of content marketing as a solo traveler seatbelt on. We are ready to take off. Hello gang. Welcome to the last episode of 2023 of the content queen podcast. It's very exciting. We have an amazing episode and amazing guests helping us navigate what actually good content marketing looks like, especially in 2024.
So this is a really good collaboration. Interview style podcast with the founder and owner of Knapp Creative, um, Doreen. So we'll be touching on five key things that we expect to see happen in the content marketing space in the new year. And some things you might already be doing, some things you might need to consider, some things might not align to you.
It's really your journey and it's up to you to decide what's going to work towards your business goals and vision. But this is the last episode for this year. We are going to have a break. We'll be back on the week of the, with a podcast episode all about my juicy reflections on, um, the last year. And I'm going to give a lot of value into how it can work for you and your business.
So. January, we have an awesome guest lineup and I'm excited to deliver some more amazing episodes, but yes, just a bit of a break, um, just to reflect, unwind and enjoy some time with family. I did actually do a post, um, on Monday about if you want to stay on social media or you're not sure, but you want to have a break, some of the things that you could think about.
So, uh, definitely. Check that one out because if you're undecided, I think this will really help you. But before we dive in, I just want to take some time to thank everyone for the amazing support that you have given us on this journey. I couldn't be here without the support of everyone, the support of my team.
You listening, following me on socials, all the things. And this year has been interesting. It's been a lot of change. It's been a lot of travel and a lot of lessons about, um, business and marketing content, and I've really. Skilled and I'm ready to share more. So I just want to take a minute to thank you all for supporting the content queen podcast and all the amazing guests that we've had on.
It's just been so, so, so special. And I can't wait to do it all again in 2024. So let's introduce Doreen and Knapp Creative, which is a social media marketing and website design agency located in Alberta, Canada. They know that your business is more than just your business. It's your family, your lifestyle, your community, and much more.
So working with Canapp Creative and following along means that you get friendly down to earth advice and support to help you create a business. That's the stuff of legends while you live an intentional, meaningful life. So aligned, Doreen and I are on the same page with so many different things, and you'll hear all about it in this interview.
Thank you so much, Doreen, for coming on the podcast. I'm so excited to have you here. Can you please tell everyone a little bit more about who you are and what you do? Yes, my name is Doreen. I am the owner of Knapp Creative, which is a digital marketing and website design agency based out of Alberta, Canada.
And we are here to help women make a joyful, consistent living doing what they love without sacrificing the best moments of their lives. So we're all about sustainability and just, you know, putting in, this is going to sound bad, but the minimal amount of effort for the maximum amount of results, that's what we want to do.
Absolutely does not sound bad. You are, you are talking our language here because yeah, I think. Um, time is a big, uh, pain point when it comes to marketing our business. So before we dive into the things that, um, you know, the trends or the, what we want to see in our content marketing in 2024, I'd love to hear a little bit more about your story and how do you got to where you are today as an agency owner?
Oh, okay. So this started, I mean, I feel like part, partly just marketing and design is who I am as a person. I've done this ever since I was a kid, but this job did not exist when I was a kid. Um, social media marketing, none of this, none of this stuff was here when I was a kid. So it really started out as, you know, I think I was, I was probably around, like, I would say like, ooh, 13 to 16 ish.
And that's when like the Internet was, you know, it was still dial up. It was more of a bigger thing. And my mom took a website design course. And I always loved, like I said, design anything like that. And I nerded out probably harder than she did. Um, and I just immediately was super invested in that and like learning everything that I could about it.
Um, and I've been really ever since then, I've been kind of dabbling in the design and marketing world. So, um, originally I started out as a designer where I was doing like brand identities and websites. And then I found I was doing a lot of. I would do the design and then I would pass it off to the client and be like, bye, good luck with your business.
See you never, you know, and that was not really a great feeling for me as an Enneagram too. I don't know if you follow the Enneagram, but I love to help people and I want to be along with you on the journey in building this business. So that's kind of where the marketing piece came in. I love human psychology.
I love learning about what makes us tick. And then when you can just combine those things all together, that's just for me, that makes me so delighted. So. Um, yeah, really just kind of, like I said, been dabbling for a long, long, long time. In 2018, I officially hung my shingle and hired my first staff member shortly after.
And it's just been, it's not a huge company, but it's just been kind of, you know, humming ever since. So, um, yeah, that's really, that's really what got me here following my curiosity and loving every minute. Well, almost every minute. Oh my gosh. I love that. Yes. There, there are some, some downtimes in any business.
Um, I love them. Awesome. So why I wanted you to come on the show today is to really talk about, um, giving people their, uh, ticket to good content marketing. It's part of this campaign I'm running around the world in 90 days. And I'd love for us to give the people listening their ticket. So next year they can.
Come in feeling a little bit more, uh, fresh and rather than putting too much on their plate and taking all the shoulds that we see, and you know, you should be here, you should be there. They can make a decision for themselves based off some things that we're going to talk about today. So we have in total, uh, six things or six trends that we're going to see in 2024 and the content.
Marketing space. I would love to hear your two and then I'm going to share my two and then of course we have a joint one that we were really passionate about together. So I'd love for you to dive into your first two sort of trends that we will see in 2024 around content marketing. Yes, for sure. So I think a lot of the conversation in the marketing world right now is around the use of AI.
So artificial intelligence, chat GPT, all of those things. This has been a big conversation for us for most of 2023. Um, and I predict that it's only going to get bigger and better in 2024. So. Um, there's been a lot of conversations around it because it can be a little bit polarizing. Um, a lot of people feel like it's cheating or, you know, that it's not that great or that you shouldn't use it or like there's a million reasons to not use it.
There are just as many reasons to actually use it, but you have to know how to use it properly. Uh, to really harness the power of artificial intelligence in your marketing. And I do think it's a good idea in 2024. It's only going to get bigger and bigger. I love this. And there was something that you mentioned around, um, this like human connection piece.
So how can we utilize AI, but then still get this, I guess, human connection element that content creation really does help us achieve. Yeah, so I think there's, I mean, I can't give you, uh, you know, uh, three steps to use AI properly in your social media marketing, it doesn't work like that. It's very much an art form.
I find it's just like anything else where you You know, you learn how to use the tool. It's like Instagram, right? Like, I started on Instagram, I guess it must have been in about 2018, somewhere in there, um, and I started out with kind of like generic stuff, but we're just kind of playing with it. The platform, the platform evolves as you go, your business also evolves, and you're learning and you're just continuing to improve on what you're doing, right?
Same thing kind of goes for like any, whatever industry you're in, your service that you offer, the product that you're providing, you're constantly evolving and growing. And same thing for artificial intelligence. Like that is going to be an industry that is continuing to grow, but also your, your experience in using it, right?
You're going to learn it and you're going to do it better. Every time that you use it, you're going to learn another little trick or another little thing that you can do. That's going to make it better. So. Um, I find for me, like, we don't use it to generate content. I wish you could, well, I don't know if I wish you could do that.
Um, I just wish that you could do that. But also, like you said, I think, like, the humanity of the content is the thing that's the most important. And ChatGPT can't help you with that, really, right? So, Um, I think the more that we're using artificial intelligence to create content, the more you're going to be seeing things like the kind of like the buzzfeed style click baby, you know, 5 ways you can X, Y, Z, blah, blah, blah, that kind of stuff.
We're already seeing a lot of that. That's just going to go up more and more. So what the most valuable thing is, is your take on this. So we want to hear about your experience. We want your human presence on your social media. And the beauty of this is that you can still do, like, let's use Instagram as an example, because it has all of the pieces.
I love Instagram because it has so many parts that other platforms have only a part of. Um, but in the grid. It's going to be less human than something that like your reels or your stories, right? That's where you're showing up with your face as a person, but you can use artificial intelligence as a tool to help you generate those ideas so that, you know, how you can be showing up.
If that makes any sense. Is that helpful? Yeah. I totally agree. We are so on the same page, like, obviously we all have different strengths in our business and that's where we use AI, I guess, to help us fill those, but I did a video like, oh, maybe four months ago. I'm like, I know when your caption is chat GPT.
We know it like, and, and now like places like Amazon will pick up if you've written a book on ChatGBT and it'll block it from you being able to be an author. So there are going to be like, and Google is probably going to pick up on the fact that you're using ChatGBT purely to write your content. And I think it just, it, it does eliminate that human connection because there is no depth that you've added.
And you said, we want to hear your life experience. The robot is not going to know your life experience, doesn't have your brain. Of course you can feed it with things, but I think we have been using AI for a long time. If we schedule content, we generate hashtags, we use Canva, like all these elements have AI.
And I think it's just utilizing it for your weaknesses in a way, but then for content creation, using it as your foundation. I mean, I think when we use it for the. The backbone and then we can fill it with our own experience that saves us so much time, but when we're just copying, pasting and putting it in a caption, I think you do see your audience going, Hmm, I kind of, I kind of feel like this is not you, people will pick up that we're energetic beings too, so, you know.
That's that it lands on the other what you're putting in on one side does land on the other side 100%. Also, there's no shortage of information out there right like literally anything we want to find out we can Google it and if you're pretty savvy like you can you can find the information that you're looking for on the internet it does exist.
So it's not a matter of. Putting information out there. It's a matter of putting your perspective out there right and let like putting it in your expertise and your story. That's the thing that's going to land like humans just love store. We want to hear that. We don't want to read a generic. We can Google that.
Like, that's no worries, but we want to hear it from, like, like you said, from that person. And that's that's where the magic is. That's where the energy and on the other side to Yeah. Oh, a hundred percent. We've been storytellers for thousands of years, you know, like we know how much storytelling plays a massive part in human society.
So it only makes sense that it would in the online space or in our marketing. So I'm a very big advocate for storytelling and I love storytelling, even the simplest story of, or an analogy or, you know, something that people can connect with that. is from you is super relatable. People, people connect with it.
And of course, like our opinions, our thoughts, like I know on especially Tik TOK opinionated content, uh, or people's certain opinions on things are what we want to consume. We want to hear from that person. And it's interesting how we think, Oh, you know, no one cares about what I have to say. It's so not.
The case we're seeing it online with influences, right? We, we, that's how influences became so successful. They started sharing their life and their stories and everyone became addicted to it. I watch a woman on Tik TOK that cooks dinner and she has about her day and they're 10 minute videos on Tik TOK and I watch them every day.
I was actually, this is really interesting. This is another trend. I actually, after I responded to your email this morning, I saw this popped up. You know how this works, right? It always pops up cause it's on your radar. Um, but another one of the trends was. Um, it's, it's almost like anti influencer, I forget, she had like a special term for it, but it's basically like we have been influenced heavily, right, and very obviously, and as time goes on, consumers are getting savvier and savvier, consumers being us, and a lot of times, like, the influencer life is not, it's not really what real life is, like, they're getting all this free stuff from these companies to promote it, and all this, that's a whole process, right.
So, yeah. But real life is, things are actually really hard right now for a lot of people, you know, and it doesn't look like new nails and a spot, you know, all of these things that these influences are pushing. So it's not landing like it used to. So really the new, the new trend, according to this person, I can send you a link after if you want, if you want to link to this content so that we can credit it.
Um, the new trend is like, like anti influencer where it's, it's, it's real life influence and it's maybe a little bit more of a downer, but it's that much more realistic. And that means that it's landing and it's resonating that much more deeply with your community. Does that make sense? Yeah. No, my partner and I started doing this on Tik Tok, um, the real life of travel because we travel full time and it's not always super glamorous.
And, um, yeah, we started doing that because they're like, Oh, there's just so many people like, Oh, travel is amazing. It's like, yeah, it's obviously awesome. It's such a good opportunity. But there are so many things that people do not show of how like it's hard. And I think like, you know, even not sharing it all the time because it can get a bit.
Yeah, they all look at your privilege, you know, you are traveling, but it is does open people's eyes up to, oh, okay, well, this is what it actually is like versus what I'm seeing on social media, because it's always a highlight reel. And that's what influence is there to show their highlight reel. But I always find every time an influencer actually shares when things are tough, that is when they get the support from their community as well.
So it is interesting. Um, yeah, I totally, I can totally see that. We're, we're sick of just seeing promotional content online. We want to see the actual real and, and a lot of influencers start off doing real raw. Content of this is my opinion, but then obviously they get influenced by the brands to then make it all positive.
So, um, that is super interesting. We can definitely link it, uh, in the show notes. So, I'm keen to know your second one. So, the first one is, you know, AI and, and utilizing it as effective as possible, but also adding in that human connection to our content. So, what, what's number two? Number 2 is that social media will increasingly be used as a search engine.
So this is something that again, we've seen this starting up and this is not brand new news, but something that, you know, it starts up in 2023 and it ramps up in 2024. So, with the rise again, like, these, these all kind of 2 and I find even with the stuff that we're going to talk about later, it all ties into each other very.
Organically, so, um, social media being used as a search engine is also related to AI, like, AI is what's helping us use it as a search engine, right? So that just, that just makes sense. Yeah, I actually saw, uh, Wikipedia is now embedded in TikTok. Isn't it crazy? It's so crazy. Yeah. Wow. And, and yeah, like my, like I've actually, you know what, I am a bit of an old fashioned Googler, but I've seen, I see myself changing my partner.
Every time we go somewhere new, he doesn't go to Google to find the best places. He goes to Instagram and finds, goes through the location and then finds the pictures. And I thought he's been doing that for a long time. And it's super interesting. And now we see it even on Tik TOK, as soon as you click on someone's video, there's already a key word at the bottom.
Of what other people are searching and you find yourself in this rabbit hole of these keywords and I think it's so important to start thinking about that. So if the things that you're recommending at the moment, I guess to harness. The power of keywords on social media. Yeah. 100%. 100 percent because it's even, even if it's not like officially in the system yet, which I think a lot of it is much more there than we think it is.
Um, it's a matter of time before it does become official and it's like, okay, no, you have to do this. Like, you might as well start now because it's, it's going to be. More and more of a thing in 2024 versus what it was in 2023 and even 2023 versus 2022, like 2022, it was much less like, do you find like you're using it more and more as a search engine?
Yeah. And the way that sometimes it's, it's like the search engine of your subconscious, especially tick tock. Right. Because you don't even know. And then it's coming your way. Like the way that the algorithms are designed, it's just, it, it is, it's a giant search engine that can basically read your mind. So how crazy and cool is that?
Yeah. And, and we know that there's this listening on our phones and you say something and then all of a sudden it pops up. Yeah. So, and I remember when I worked in corporate and, um, yeah, the agency we worked with, we had a. An ad agency, we outsourced all of our paid marketing and they used to have quite a good connection with Facebook, Google.
And every time they'd go and they'd ask, is social listening a thing? They would just completely ignore the question. So this was in like, this was in 20, 2018, 2019. So like, imagine what it's like now. I feel like it's literally plugged into our heads. Yeah, yeah, it's crazy. Well, because it is, it's almost like before you have the thought, there it is, right?
Like it, it, yeah, it's pretty intense, so I can, I can totally see that. And then also, like, I think it's, it's the way that the, the social media, because that's what's keeping people on the platforms, which is all that they want, right? So it's the way that they're designing their user experience, but it's also the way that we're using it is also shifting along with it.
Like we're, we're only just a very short step behind what they're doing and we're following right along just like we're supposed to. Yeah, that, that documentary, I don't know if they've seen it, The Social Dilemma. Yeah. It is. Oh, that's an eye opener. I almost wanted to quit. I know. I know me too. I watched it and I couldn't sleep.
I was like, what am I doing? But here's the thing is you can be, you can join them, but also you can be a voice of reason in the middle of all of that chaos, which is what we're doing. Um, but yeah, I, I had a hard time with that one when I watched it, I was like, Oh, interesting. It's wild. Um, yeah, but this, this sort of, and even I've seen things are starting to like social media posts are starting to index on Google now, which I knew was something that they were going to bring in.
And it's super interesting, um, because now Google are kind of conforming with the platforms as well. So. Either way, you're going to end up on social media in some way or another when you search something, whether you're on Google or the actual platform, um, which is super interesting. And I think, um, I mean, the good thing about it is eventually it'll, it'll pick up your voice and not just text.
So, but at the end of the day, you just got to be strategic about what you put in your captions, which could make caption writing a lot easier, really, rather than harder because you, you just have to make sure you're covering the, you know, the content. Um, well, I think it's fascinating. Yeah. When I think of search, it's always like, you can get very wrapped up in the, the checklist and the shoulds, like you talked about earlier, where I was like, oh, I need to do this.
I need to make sure that I have all of these, these, you know, things crossed off. But really, if you think about the end user and reaching the person on the other side of the phone or the device, that's what's going to get you the furthest also with SEO. That's really the thing energetically that's going to land, but also people are searching and when they find what they're looking for, because this is what you're producing, they're going to linger there and then that's going to signal to the, you know, we make it sound so complicated, but it's really that simple.
Um, yeah, that brings us very organically to to. Um, using the bigger platforms, like where we're not just using Instagram or TikTok, but we're also using the, you know, Pinterest, YouTube, um, those, those are giant search engines and they're awesome. And I think a little bit, not underrated, but I think people forget about search as a social strategy and that's a big part of those platforms too.
Oh, absolutely. Like, you know, having this podcast, having my blog, like most of my website traffic comes through my blog. And that's because obviously people have been searching it and I've come up because I've consistently created blog content for the last two years. And then not only that, that the podcast is on my website as well, which is another, another form of people how to find me.
And I think. A lot of times we get really caught up in social media and what should I be doing there and, and, you know, making that social media presence really strong and then we neglect all the, the, the owned channels that we have, like a podcast or a blog or a website or an email list. And we're focusing on these borrowed channels that could be taken away from us tomorrow.
And really, if we focus on that, uh, that owned channel or that long form channel, like a blog, a podcast, I mean, YouTube's obviously borrowed, but you know, those longer form pieces of content, then we already have our social media content there because that if you spend more time focusing on what your audience needs and putting it into a longer form piece, it can get repurposed.
So I think, you know, we can kind of flip the narrative there. Yeah, you've got the whole meal. You just have to, you know, put the bites out. It's really weird. Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. No, I agree. A hundred percent. It's very easy to focus on. Instagram is so shiny, you know, it's right. You open when you're, you know, you're just, you have five minutes or you're waiting in the checkout line.
That's what you, so that's top of mind for everybody. But I, I agree a thousand percent. Yeah. And I'm like, and, and don't get me wrong. Like obviously people, I think what gets me is the social media marketers or the business gurus, as we like to call them that do say, Oh, I created a million dollar business of Instagram without a website and an email list.
And it's like, but now they have one. So like it kind of, you know, and of course, when we start out, the easiest thing is to go to Instagram, create an account, start creating content. Also, like I have clients where, you know, we're building up to longer form channels because they are more time consuming, of course, but then we can start to build on the sustainability piece that you mentioned at the start of what you help your clients with is this level of sustainability that We can't get, if we're just always on, on social media, just like creating new, creating new, creating new.
And this is where, like, I guess these like trending audios or social media trends really, um, can be damaging if we just focus on them because we can't then repurpose them later. Like I have blogs now that I can go and edit and redate, you know, obviously make them timely and I don't have to reinvent the wheel, create a new blog.
And the same thing can happen on social media. A post that performed well last year, I could take the bones of that. I could directly repush it out, or I could, you know, tweak it. But if I've created a reel, that's got a trending sound every single day, then I don't have room for that. I don't have space to repurpose at all because I'm doing something that's now not going to be on people's radar in.
You know, a month's time. And that's, I think that's where trending audios are really good to get content out there on top of funnel. But I think it can be hard to then put in a repurposing strategy when you're focusing just on trending sounds. Which I think is, I think with your strategy needs to cover all of those parts, right?
So like you need if you in a season of your business where you need to attract a lot of new faces Then maybe that is the way to go But that's not going to be all the time like you're going to want to nurture and convert the audience that you already have So that's going to be I don't know for me.
That's the bulk of where I spend my time. These people are here Um, why do I need to attract more people when I haven't even dealt with the people that are here already, you know Oh, absolutely So just look at your strategy and the season of business that you're in and plan accordingly. Like maybe for a month you're going to post reels and then you're going to launch something.
I don't know. Um, so it really just depends on what's happening, but yeah, but it's just not a long term, like you said, sustainable strategy that you should be leaning solely on. And I also love what you said about blog posts, where it's, um, it's something that's going to work for you for years to come. You know, you're going to put out that one blog post show up in search forever and ever.
So. That's not happening with your trending social media content. So I do love that about long form content. Yeah. You know, and like, I mean, if you, I have a client that has a pretty big following, so her content is a little bit evergreen in the fact that people will watch her content for, you know, years and years.
That's a macro macro talking about like micro, like where, you know, most of small businesses are at. And I mean, tick tock to an extent, you know, you see stuff, I've got people that see content from last year, but as you say, it's not, once you've posted it, it's almost gone within 24 hours. I mean, it's getting better.
But that's, that's the problem. And with podcasts, I usually, I think I saw my unwrapped and the first episode people landed on when they first come to my podcast and listen for the first time was episode 17. Yeah. Wow. Of my podcast. I'm up to 205. So like, isn't it crazy that people are listening to episode 17 because of the title, it was how to never run out of content ideas and people were like, yep, I need that.
So. It's, it's, it's one of those things when you're creating a strategy, as you say, it's depending on the season of business. And I guess, you know, repurposing was our number three and that leads into my, my first one, which is our number four using marketing campaigns and sort of content themes to build your strategy for impactful content.
And what I sort of mean by this is exactly what you said, where are you at in your season of business? If you are creating a marketing campaign. Then of course, at the beginning, you do need a lot more top of funnel to get eyes. And then, as you mentioned before, maybe you launch something off the back of that.
And that's what a marketing campaign essentially is. It's that, you know, it could be anywhere from six to eight week window where you're sort of getting more new audience, nurturing them and then converting. And of course you can bring on the. Current followers that you already have or your current audience.
And I've been really enjoying marketing campaigns because there's something very fun. And there's a woman that does these really well. Her name is Mia Fileman. She's an Australian and she worked for quite a few big companies on really fun marketing campaigns like this one around the world in 90 days, where you have this sort of big idea and then you build content off the back of that.
And in that process, you're building awareness, you're creating consideration, and then you're converting off the back of that. And it's just been really fun to create. Like this because it's not and I've got a lot of clients that are doing it as well and it's not that hard launch. It's more of a fun flow on building people through your funnel and creating stuff that's fun, which I've really enjoyed actually been really good with creativity when you have no limits.
It's actually very hard to be creative. Like, you need a box to kind of live in, and that makes it a little bit easier, if that makes any sense. Like, out of limitations, creativity really lives. And with Instagram or social, like, a lot of times, like, you're getting a lot of advice, you're getting a lot of input.
You're getting a lot of shoulds and you can do literally it's your business. You can do whatever you want. And that's paralyzing for a lot of people. Right? So when you can, you know, frame it inside of a marketing campaign, I feel like the overthinking is, it just, it just gives you a little bit more of an intention behind it, even just from like, yes, from a marketing perspective, but also just from a human perspective of, you know, I need to create content.
I don't know what to post, blah, blah, blah, all those questions that you hear all the time, you know, like you said, how to never run out of content ideas. This is the thing that people are struggling with. Um, and when you container the campaign to put it in, it makes it more impactful, first of all, but also easier to create on the backend too.
So I love everything about that. Yeah, absolutely. And I think we do need that roadmap and that's what the strategy is, right? That's what building our strategy out. The episode I had, um, a couple weeks ago was really, um, encouraging people to look at their sales plan and then build marketing campaigns off the back of that sales plan with that sort of runway.
And then from there you can start to create that big idea and that, um, fun piece of content or fun concept that you're gonna create that, you know, puts together that marketing campaign. So there is like a, a framework, like you said, people have something to follow and then the creativity comes. From that, and that's so much easier to get creative when you have some kind of structure, but when it's like, oh, today I could post like something interesting and funny about my husband and how we work together or my dog and then tomorrow I could create, you know, and that's where people get like, it doesn't make sense.
Like, I remember when I first started my business and I was creating social media content, I was doing more content writing rather than marketing. And I'd get to 5 p. m. and I'd be like, Oh, this pretty flower from Vietnam looks cool. I'll just put that on my feed and post a quote. And then wonder why I wasn't getting any clients because as you said, it was endless of what I could do.
And that's what made it paralyzing because you're like, Oh, well, what do you actually put on social media? That's where the strategy came in. So I love that. Yeah. Agreed. And then I guess off the back of that, which is my last one. Is this concept of no more fluff and that's where marketing campaigns can really help because I find what is now dying is that sort of content where it's like filler posts, but they're more like, you know, a picture of brunch and it was like Sunday brunch and then maybe an emoji and a heap of hashtags that is now not moving the needle and that is getting lost in a sea of content as you mentioned before, there is so much content out there now because of AI and people are finding it easier to create.
So now we do have to step up and create more engaging content. And I think that fluff, filler content of, Oh, let's just post, you know, Sunday brunch and put a, put some hashtags is getting lost in the sea of noise. And it's not really creating impact. Yeah. So I feel like, like with this whole conversation that we've had, I'm going to, I'm going to ask you kind of a tricky question, but I feel like people might have.
So we've talked a little bit about like the rise of AI and having more of that, the content that you're talking about, but then, then on the other hand, the fluff isn't working, but we're also telling people to be more human. So how do you, how do you, how do you be more human without being fluffy, if that makes any sense?
Like, how do you tie those two things together? And I have some ideas, but I would love to hear your take. Yeah, so I guess for this one, this is where I guess. You know, if you have a story or a piece to me, fluff is just basically the stuff that has no meaning to you either, you know, if you saw, if there was a quote, I don't know, from Albert Einstein and you just posted on your page.
But if you added, like, as you said before, the meaning, the story, if you went on social media and did a video and said, I saw this quote from Albert Einstein the other day, it was da da da da da, and this is why I connected with it and this is how it can help you. So adding a story and a tip, that's what I always kind of do, like a story and then a lesson.
That's where you can build that content rather than it just being like, Oh, I'm just going to chuck, put this, you know, I see these things like how to generate 50 posts and they just generate all these caps, these quote caption, the quote tiles on Canva, which, you know, have a purpose in some strategy maybe, but then there's no like input in the actual context of the content.
So like Sunday brunch, okay. Sunday brunch, like if you were a business mentor, and every Sunday you went for brunch to do a strategy on the week of your business, that's how you give it more context, right? That's how you give it more value for the audience, so they can take that and go, Ah, so that's a really cool concept.
Every Sunday I could take myself to brunch, and I could do my planning for the week. And thank you, that business mentor that taught me that I really like that they do that. That really me. And then maybe they start to dive into it more rather than just like no context. I think that's sort of the fluff that I think is just not resonating anymore because people are saying, well, what's in it for me?
Like, what are you trying to tell me? I don't understand. Like, tell me something that I can get value from. I agree. Yeah, 100%. And then also when you're looking for, because you kind of almost have to go into your life and mind your life for those moments, right? And I think that can also be something that's like, wow, that feels like such a big thing to tackle.
But these moments are so small, like it doesn't even have to be as big as brunch. It can be like stubbing your toe or something like that. You know, waiting, washing machine or like switching the laundry or who know, like things that everybody experiences, like if you just go through your day and look for moments that like make you roll your eyes or make you feel really happy or like make you feel literally any emotion, that's something that you can probably play off and turn into a lesson or, you know, something that your community can, you know, something that's relevant to them and something that they can take away, which to me, this is one of the funnest things about creating content.
It's so fun. So that's where the storytelling. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. And then that turns it. And like with the whole fluff piece, like it turns it around. It doesn't make it just to fill a post for the sake of posting on social media. It's because there is an actual emotional connection to that.
And it's interesting with storytelling because a lot of people think, Oh my God, I have to have these life changing things happen to share it on social media. I did have that life changing thing personally. Um, and I could share it on social media. But now I don't talk like I don't share it as part. I have never shared it as part of my, in terms of like my business.
I actually moved away from the Instagram account. I was talking about my health journey to start my agency page because I was like, I need to separate these two. Having this big audacious story does not change anything. It's like having those small relatable stories is what makes the difference. As you say, like, you know, you might be.
And even like the thoughts that come in the shower, you add context to that and people go, Oh my God, I can totally relate. And I think the key message in that is being relatable to your audience and not, and not just, um, you know, showing that dream life and what everyone can have all the time. Not just sharing like, Oh, my life is amazing.
This, this and this. But it's also creating like, Oh, well, you know, this is what happened to me today. And this is how it relates to business. And this is how it can help you. I think that at the end of the day, it's like, this is how it can help you, or this is what it means to you is the most important part of it.
Absolutely is. Yeah. It's that's how we're scrolling. What's in it for me? What's in it for me? What's in it for me? That's all. It sounds terrible, but it's true. Of course, and that's what it's about. But I absolutely love, um, you know, the concept of this conversation, because I think, you know, as you say, the key message really is that, you know, relating to people, being creative with your content in your own way, but then having sort of, I guess, a structure around it, which comes through marketing campaigns and strategy that can help us save time because.
As you said, it's like you're given like how long is a piece of string, what to talk about on social media, but actually having that, um, concepts, those campaigns, those plans really helps you then tackle that creative element and then repurposing it, repurposing it everywhere as much as you possibly can.
Yeah, yeah. I love how everything is like. You know, five separate things, but then it's also actually one thing at the end of the day, it's all one thing. Absolutely. And, and, and about, and that's what I think I love about this conversation too. It's nothing like, Oh my God, that sounds like a big change. I need to make it my business.
It's just having the strategy that aligns to you and then implementing it off the back of that and adding your own life experience. And I think at the end of the day, I never forget a podcast guest. I had to come on that talked about. Your lived experiences are your expertise. I think we forget that a lot.
And I had the same thing that came up for me the other day, um, to share my own personal story. I created a social media group, a Facebook group, off the back of this life changing health journey that I had. And I had a girl message me how she's really mentally not doing well. And I'm off, I'm sort of on the other side of my health journey and my surgery.
And I know I connect with a lot of people that are still very much in it. And she. I mean, she's like mentally, I'm not really good and all these things. And I thought, Oh my God, I'm really not qualified to help her. But then I was talking to one of my clients who is a psychologist and she said, yes, but your experiences will help her so much.
So if you can just obviously give her the advice to go and seek the support she needs, if you can give your experiences and share them to help her, that is going to help her a lot as well. And I thought it's so true. And that's where that lived experience is your expertise that comes into play. And we see this with so many things.
From health to, you know, really big, um, you know, events in the world when people get on social media and share experience. I think, um, yeah, that's, that, that is what makes us human is connecting with each other. So I absolutely love that. Thank you so much for sharing your expertise and your lived experiences on the show.
Doreen, how can people find you and connect with you and yeah, reach out if they need any more support. Yeah, so my website is knapcreative. ca, K N A P, creative. ca, and I honestly social media wise love Instagram. I don't think that's any secret if you have more than a five minute conversation with me. So, uh, my Instagram is at knap.
creative and yeah, come say hi! Absolutely love that. We'll have it all in the show notes. Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge. And I can't wait to see what everyone creates in 2024 with the support of their tickets to good content marketing that we have just given them today. All right, let's recap these five.
So of course we had AI playing a major role in the 2024 space. But making sure we add that human connection and then we were talking keywords. I want to dive into this. I'm going to get a podcast guest to come on in 2024 to touch on keywords in content. So stay tuned for that one. And of course, repurposing being a big piece.
Um, it's a big part of the strategy at Content Queen and it's just becoming more and more part of everyone's strategy as we realize that we can't be here, there and everywhere without a repurposing. Strategy, basically. And then I went in with talking a bit more about marketing campaigns. I've started mentioning this a little bit more.
I'm hoping to get some guests to come on to talk more about marketing campaigns. So if that feels super aligned. I've been having really meaningful conversations with entrepreneurs that are like, Oh, this just sounds so much nicer than that really hard launch. You know, sell, sell, sell, be on social media, active, active, active.
And yeah, rounded it off with no more fluff content and how we can be more intentional and make sure that when we are creating content, we realize and reflect on what is in it for my audience. So let me know what one resonated with you. Come over to socials. Tell us, tell us all the things, but again, have the most amazing time off.
If you're having time off, if you're not. Enjoy this time. It's always nice and quiet. Um, even when I've worked these periods, I'm working a little bit and it is a nice quiet time for reflection. You don't have to make any like big audacious goals. We have something for that in 2024 for you to join. But, um, yeah, just enjoy this period of time and be a content queen or king.
And remember that developing your strategy allows you to have time off over Christmas and your story develops your business. Thank you so much for joining me on this flight with our co pilot as well. Stamp your passport and don't forget to share this with all your travel buddies, aka your business and entrepreneurial friends.
You can do this by adding it to your Insta stories and tagging us at contentqueenmariah or just tell them about it. Now if you take a minute to rate and review, if you've loved This year of content. It helps me get more episodes out and get more amazing guests like Doreen on the show. And follow us on Instagram and TikTok.
Let me know any topics you want me to talk about in 2024. We will be offline for most of the break, so we will see you in 2024. Bye!