Has this ever happened to you?
You’re working on a piece of content, say your blog post, and it’s not getting done. You’re working on it, sure, but you notice you want to make your blog post good.
I mean, really good.
You have a decent topic, something you want to share with folks, and yet you’re having trouble finalizing it. You keep thinking of different, better, wittier, or more creative ways to express the idea.
The blog’s not getting done, but you’re having fun, you insist.
You like writing creatively!
There’s something that a lot of coaches, healers and creative entrepreneurs who are struggling to finish content pieces might not immediately realize. Writing articles or blog posts has a particular marketing purpose for your business and just doesn't have anything to do with writing creatively. (The same is true for other types of content you share in your business, like videos, podcasts, etc.).
In this article I’m going to be talking about writing, but the same principles apply to other content you create to share for your business’ marketing.
One important caveat: if your business is focused exclusively on selling your art, this teaching won’t entirely apply to you.
The Why of Your Content
Your primary marketing content serves two important purposes to building and growing your business.
First, it helps your ideal clients.
In reading your articles or listening to your podcast, your ideal clients get your support. For free. They learn things from you; they receive practical, free guidance. They get help from you addressing the things they’re struggling with. They get inspired with a fresh perspective, with understanding something in a new light.
In this way, your content is a beautiful way to bring transformation and healing into the world.
Your content also helps your business.
When you write well-crafted, resonant articles, they serve to demonstrate tangibly to your clients and potential clients, that you're an expert in the field. They show that your work has the potential to be useful, to help them with the problem they're having. It lays the foundation for your audience to see and trust you as someone who can help them.
In short, your content also gives voice to you and your expertise.
In addition, people, when they connect with your content deeply, also begin to share it with others, bringing your business to new people.
This is why content creation is a cornerstone of authentic marketing.
What Your Content Is
It’s easy to think that with all the writing you must do as a business owner (blogs, promotional emails, social media posts, personal emails, guest articles, and so on) that this is a perfect way to exercise your love for creativity!
The thing is, though, from a marketing and growing your business perspective, your blog posts or articles (and other mediums) are meant to be educational. To serve their purpose outlined above, they need to help guide your clients, potential clients, and readers and inform them about something they might be struggling with.
Even if a post has a more inspirational or lighthearted tone, at the end of the day, the content is meant to help show your readers something they might not know.
It’s meant to inform. To enlighten.
For example, perhaps your ideal clients freeze when someone criticizes them, you might share with them something about what’s going on so they understand it better. You might then demonstrate how they can ground in the moment or how to address their thoughts.
Or, perhaps your ideal clients are struggling with communicating in their marriage, you may share a conversation strategy to help them connect more productively with their spouse or partner.
All of this is really good, really helpful to your potential clients. It’s helpful to your business too.
And What It Isn’t
Your content is not meant to be your creative outlet.
First of all, it couldn’t be if you wanted it to.
To create effective educational content, there are elements that need to be considered and included. Boundaries to be respected. A way of writing that is effective, founded on clarity. And teaching something needs to be done in as simple and accessible a way as possible so your ideal clients can find your work valuable.
All of these are valid constraints, but they fly in the face of truly tapping into your creative powers. Trying to find a release for your creative hunger in your content creation is bound to be frustrating.
That’s not to say there is no room for creativity in content creation.
There is so much space!
You can be creative in how you choose your topics, bring issues to light, tell stories to illustrate or in how you express the solutions. And there are lots of avenues for creative expression on so many social platforms like Instagram or in creating meaningful collateral. I frequently share my channeled messages and visual inspiration on Instagram, for example, and a wonderful coach I know shares her paintings with their creation stories on Facebook.
And, this is also not to say you can’t ever share your creative writing or content as part of your business’ communications either!
There is so much room for this too!
If you are a writer, painter, visual artist, fashion designer or literally any other type of creative, sharing who you are and what you through these mediums is important. Actually, I’d say it’s essential.
But it should be in support of a robust, consistent, resonant and really grounded steady stream of informational content.
That way your marketing content can do what it’s intended to do – reach your potential clients, connect and offer support to them while also demonstrating to your expertise and unique voice and approach to what they’re struggling with.
If you’re having trouble completing your content and find yourself revising, constantly looking for a better or more creative way to express yourself, you may be unconsciously viewing your content as a place to cultivate your own creative expression.
The truth is your content needs to serve both your clients and potential clients and your business. You do this by creating your content to consistently share insights, teach new ways of understanding and guide your readers to new ways of being with the problems they struggle with. The process isn’t devoid of creativity, but it’s not a surrogate for expressing it either.