Hi everybody. My name is Josh, and I am the co-founder and CEO of Interact, an AI-powered quiz platform. Today, I want to share how content marketing has been pivotal in our business growth and how AI can ease common barriers for business owners. We’ll dive into the importance of consistent content creation, the observed “content effect,” and how AI can streamline your content marketing efforts.
The Power of Content Marketing
Content marketing is the process of creating and sharing digital content—like social media posts, blog articles, and online quizzes—to connect with your audience. It serves multiple purposes: educating your audience, telling your story, building your brand, and ultimately staying top of mind for potential customers. Even if your audience isn’t ready to buy today, regular, well-crafted content ensures they think of you when they are.
The Content Effect Explained
Over a decade of working with small businesses, I’ve observed what I call the “content effect.” Simply put, businesses that consistently create content outperform those that do not. This becomes evident over a longer period; those who maintain a regular schedule of content creation start to see a significant revenue increase compared to those who do not. My observational study of 1,000 small businesses over the last decade clearly shows this trend. The ones who show up and put in the work to create content consistently are the ones who thrive.
Challenges: Time and Ideas
Despite the clear benefits, many business owners struggle with consistent content creation. The primary reasons are a lack of time and a difficulty in coming up with ideas. Busy schedules push content creation to the back burner, and the task of crafting stories or educational posts can seem daunting. This is where AI comes in to bridge the gap.
AI: Your New Content Assistant
AI can significantly cut down the time required for content creation by turning your ideas and expertise into polished articles, social posts, and even quizzes. For instance, if it’s easy for you to record a voice memo, you can use AI to convert that recording into a blog post, a social media post, or a quiz. This not only saves time but also ensures your content is optimized and engaging. Content Creation as Practice To draw an analogy, think of content creation like Steph Curry practicing his three-point shots. Even the best need to practice regularly to maintain their skills. In business, showing up regularly with content ensures you stay top of mind for your audience. The more you practice, the easier it becomes, and like Curry, you’ll start to see more ‘wins’ as your efforts yield results.
Generating Content Ideas
One common barrier is coming up with ideas for content. Here are some questions to get you started:
- What’s something unique that you do in your business?
- What’s a unique process that you have?
- What have you learned from running your business over the years?
Answering these questions can reveal content topics that may seem ordinary to you but are fascinating and valuable to your audience.
Turning Ideas into Content
Once you have your ideas, use the following process to create content:
- Record yourself answering a question about your business or write stream of conscioussness.
- Use ChatGPT to turn that recording into a blog post and a social media post.
- Use our software to create a quiz based on your content.
Here’s a general prompt you can use:
I’m going to tell you about a subject I know a lot about, but tell you using stream of consciousness. I want you to convert my stream of consciousness into a formatted, concise, and engaging blog post, written in my voice. Include paragraphs for all relevant topics discussed in my stream of consciousness. make the overall post 1,000 words or less.
Print in this format, remove all markup including <format> when you print and don’t add any additional symbols or explanations.
<format>
Title: [Use as few words as possible at first, then add in a few more words to make this sound like my voice]
Introduction: [3 sentences introducing the content to be covered in this blog post, listing the main points that will be talked about]
Paragraph Heading: [Describes the paragraph succinctly]
Paragraph text: [A few sentences to convey this paragraph, in my voice but transformed into engaging and concise content]
Conclusion: [3 sentences to conclude the post, reiterating the main concepts from the paragraphs]
</format>
Here’s my stream of consciousness: Talk or type here
By following this process once or twice a week, you’ll build a body of valuable content that connects with your audience and boosts your business over time.
Conclusion: Embrace the Content Effect with AI Consistent content creation, it is crucial for long-term business growth. Through regular practice and leveraging AI tools, you can overcome the barriers of time and idea generation, ensuring your business stays ahead of the competition. I truly believe that this approach can place you on the positive side of the “content effect” chart, leading to sustained success and growth for your business.
Thank you for your time and I hope this inspires you to leverage AI in your content marketing efforts. Follow us on our social channels for more tips and updates. Get started today, and be on the right side of that 10-year growth chart. Thank you!