Tag Archives: content buckets

Content Buckets: More Ways to Plan Your Content

Person reviewing analytics beside text: Which metric is the most IMPORTANT? Reach vs. Impressions – Does it matter? Stop stressing over Vanities! Am I looking at the right numbers? Engagement Rate: A key indicator? Followers are just numbers? How to prove ROI? Which one REAL success? Is CTR important? Save time: Track only vital stats Data overwhelm! Likes are vanities! Traffic to Followers are just numbers? Stop stressing over Vanities! Can I ignore SHARES?

In my previous post, I explained what content buckets are and how they can help you organise your social media and content marketing. The idea is simple – choose the types of content you want to use, then put different topics and ideas underneath each one. This gives you a bank of ideas to work from instead of having to think of something completely new every time you post.

In this post, I’m going to look at some more content buckets and then show you how you can use them to plan your autumn and Christmas marketing.

Conversational content

Conversational content is very similar to engaging content, but it’s more about encouraging two-way communication. Social media is about posting content for your audience, but also listening to them and interacting with them.

You could:

  • Ask questions and respond to the answers
  • Comment on other small businesses’ posts and start conversations
  • Host a live Q&A
  • Ask questions during a live session
  • Follow up on the results of a poll with another post

For example, if you ask your audience which Christmas product they’d like to see you create, don’t let the conversation end with that post – or poll, however you decide to do that. Use the results.

Talk about what people chose, ask another question and perhaps explain what you’re going to do with their suggestions. One piece of content can then lead to several more.

User-generated content

User-generated content is content created by your customers and shared on social media or other channels. It can be incredibly valuable because your customers are helping you promote your business.

It could include:

  • Testimonials
  • Reviews
  • Customer photographs
  • Social media comments
  • Customer posts
  • Customer stories

For example, if a customer sends you a photograph of one of your handmade products in their home, ask if you can share it. You could tell the story behind their purchase or simply use the photograph to show your product being used in real life.

The great thing about user-generated content is that your customer has done the creating for you! Just remember to ask permission before using someone’s content for your own marketing.

Listicles

A listicle is simply content presented in a list format.

You see these all the time and I’m a fan of using these in my content…

  • 5 ways to…
  • 10 tips for…
  • 7 things you need to know…
  • My top 5…
  • 3 mistakes to avoid…

They’re popular because they’re easy to read and give people useful information in a format that’s easy on the eye!

Listicles are really useful for seasonal marketing too.

Think about:

  • 5 Halloween products your customers will love
  • 10 Christmas gift ideas
  • 7 things to do before your Black Friday promotion
  • 5 stocking fillers
  • 3 last-minute Christmas gift ideas

Success stories

Success stories show how your product or service has helped a real customer. A customer story focuses on their experience with you and your business, while a case study tends to look more closely at the situation, the solution and the results.

You could:

  • Create a success stories page on your website
  • Write a blog post about a customer story
  • Create a case study
  • Share testimonials
  • Share customer photographs
  • Use video testimonials

This type of content helps potential customers see what it’s actually like to buy from you or work with you. And it can be particularly effective during a sales period.

Instead of simply saying, ‘Our Christmas gift boxes are now available!’, you could tell the story of a previous customer who bought one as a gift and explain why they chose it.

You’re still selling, but you’re doing it through a story.

Promotional content

Of course, promotional content is important. At the end of the day, your business needs sales. There’s nothing wrong with telling people what you sell, showing your products and letting people know about your offers.

It only becomes a problem when almost all of your posts are promotional or selling. If someone follows you and constantly sees ‘Buy this’, ‘Sale ends today’ and ‘Last chance’, they may eventually stop paying attention.

Your promotional content works much better when it’s surrounded by content that provides value, builds trust and helps people get to know your business.

I’ve always advocated the 80/20 rule – 80% engagement and only 20% selling, but you don’t need to follow a rigid rule like this and I’ve changed my tack a bit over the past year. I’d say that now it’s much more important to think about the following questions…

  • Are you helping people?
  • Are you entertaining them?
  • Are you starting conversations?
  • Are you showing them who you are?
  • Are you demonstrating your expertise?
  • And, of course, are you also giving them opportunities to buy?

Product content

Product content is the text, images, videos and other information that tells your audience about what you sell. Whether you sell a handmade product or a service, your content should help potential customers understand:

  • What is it?
  • Who is it for?
  • What problem does it solve?
  • What are the benefits?
  • Why might someone choose it?
  • How can they buy it?

When creating product content, make sure you:

  • Speak directly to your target audience
  • Focus on the benefits as well as the features
  • Use good-quality photographs or images
  • Show the product being used where possible
  • Give people the information they need before buying
  • Make it easy to find out more or make a purchase

Now let’s make this seasonal

This is where I think content buckets become particularly useful.

We’re heading into one of the busiest marketing periods of the year, with Halloween, Black Friday and Christmas all coming up. It can be tempting to think you need completely different content for each occasion. Actually, you don’t!

Your content buckets can stay the same. You simply change the topic and message to fit the season.

For example, your Halloween content could include:

  • An entertaining Halloween post
  • A behind-the-scenes post showing what you’re making
  • A poll asking your audience to choose their favourite design
  • An educational post relating to your product
  • A customer story
  • A product showcase
  • A fun Halloween question

Then, as you move towards Black Friday, you can start talking more about your offers, products and services while continuing to provide useful and interesting content.

Christmas gives you another opportunity to use those same buckets with new topics — gift guides, customer stories, product demonstrations, behind-the-scenes content, Christmas tips and, of course, your seasonal offers.

The framework stays the same – it’s the topics that change. That’s what makes content buckets so useful.

One idea can become several posts

You also don’t need to create completely different content for every marketing channel. You can easily repurpose different posts for other marketing tactics. For example…

  • A blog post can become several social media posts.
  • A customer story can become a newsletter.
  • A product photograph can become an engaging post.
  • A question from your audience can become a future blog post.
  • A Christmas gift guide could become a blog, several social posts and an email to your subscribers.

You’re taking one useful idea and making it work harder for your business. Your content buckets are your starting point.

If you’re struggling with what to post, try this.

  • Write down 5–10 content buckets that suit your business.
  • Underneath each bucket, write down as many ideas as you can – the topics.

Don’t worry about creating the actual posts yet. You’re simply building your content bank. Then you can start mixing them up across your social media and other marketing.

And when Halloween, Black Friday and Christmas come around, you can look at those same buckets and decide how you can use that type of content to talk about the season you’re working on

That is much easier than starting from a completely blank page. Your content buckets give you the structure. Your seasonal marketing gives you the topics. And that means you can create a marketing strategy that is varied, interesting and, importantly, still gives you plenty of opportunities to sell your products or services.

If you’d like some 1:1 coaching around content marketing for your specific business or would like help with your wider strategic marketing planning, please feel free to email me or message me on social media.

Featured image generated with the help of AI.

Content Buckets: What They Are and Why You Need Them

Colorful buckets spilling craft supplies across a wooden worktable

Most small businesses are on social media, and having a good presence is an important part of building your brand. But one of the biggest challenges my followers tell me they have is knowing what to post. You’ve probably got loads of ideas running around your head at all times of the day, but when you actually want to post, your mind goes blank! Or you can’t think how to organise all the ideas you have into something a bit easier to manage.

This is where content buckets can help. They give you a simple way to organise your content, make sure you have variety, and take some of the pressure out of deciding what to post.

What are content buckets?

The first step in creating an effective content strategy is deciding what types of content you want to share.

Content buckets are the different categories or types of content that you choose to use regularly in your marketing, based on what will appeal to your target audience and support your business goals. I’m not talking about topics to cover; I mean types of content. Typical content buckets could include:

  • Educational
  • Entertaining
  • Engaging
  • Inspirational
  • Personal
  • Conversational
  • User-generated content
  • Listicles
  • Success stories
  • Promotional
  • Product content

Let’s look at some of these in more detail.

Educational content

One of the content buckets I use regularly is Educational. I’m sure you already know this and it is one of my most popular content types.

Under this heading I have a list of different things I can create to teach my audience something useful, such as:

  • Blog posts like this one
  • How-to posts
  • Tips and tricks
  • Infographics and statistics
  • Answers to frequently asked questions
  • Q&As about my business and what I offer

When I’m planning my social media and blog content, I can choose something from this list rather than starting from scratch every time. You can use the same principle in a product-based business.

For example, let’s say you sell personalised drinks bottles.

  • You could create a short video or series of photographs showing you making one from start to finish.
  • You could also create posts showing your customers different ways they could use it. Perhaps it’s handy to keep in the car, great for picnics and days out because the lid seals securely, or useful at the gym because it won’t leak in your bag. It could be for your children to take to school or college.

You might even give someone an idea they hadn’t thought of before.

It’s about painting a picture, so your potential customer can imagine themselves using your product – it’s that ‘imagining themselves using it’ that often gets a sale.

Entertaining content

Not everything you post needs to be educational or related to selling. Your audience also wants to be entertained!

Entertaining content can include:

  • Memes or GIFs
  • Jokes
  • Funny things that happen behind the scenes
  • Throwback posts
  • Fun days out or holidays
  • Pets
  • Light-hearted videos
  • Relevant current trends
  • Competitions or giveaways

Seasonal occasions can be useful in this content type. Halloween, Christmas and even Black Friday can all give you opportunities to create something fun and different.

Engaging content

Engaging content encourages your audience to participate rather than simply scroll past.

You could:

  • Ask a question such as “What’s your favourite…?”
  • Use a poll
  • Create a “this or that” post
  • Ask for opinions about a new product
  • Ask your audience to choose between two designs
  • Ask for suggestions for new products

For example, if you’re creating a new Christmas product, you could show two possible designs and ask your audience which one they prefer. You’re not only creating content — you’re also starting a conversation and potentially learning something useful about your customers.

Inspirational content

Inspirational content can make people think, motivate them, or simply brighten their day.

You could share:

  • Motivational or inspirational quotes
  • Something that inspires you
  • A book, podcast or person that has influenced you
  • Your story and why you started your business
  • Something you do that helps or inspires you

Your story can be particularly powerful because people often connect with the person behind the business, not just the product.

Personal content

This is about helping people get to know you and increasing awareness of your brand. You are part of your brand.

People often choose a small business because of the person behind it. They want to know who they’re buying from and what makes that business different – they like to see personal posts from time to time and feel like they’re getting to know you. This helps with the relationship building side of social media.

Personal content could include:

  • Introducing yourself regularly (and pin that post to the top of your page)
  • Sharing a little information about yourself
  • Action shots of you working
  • Pictures of your workspace
  • Your hobbies and interests
  • Something you’re currently enjoying
  • Your likes and dislikes
  • Behind-the-scenes moments

You don’t have to share your entire personal life. Just let people see enough of the person behind the business to make that connection.

Why use content buckets?

Content buckets work because they give your content variety. If every post is ‘Buy my product’, people may quickly become bored. But if you mix promotional content with useful, interesting, entertaining, and engaging content, your audience has more reasons to follow you and keep coming back.

They also make planning much easier. Instead of sitting down every week and thinking: “What on earth am I going to post today?” you can look at your content buckets and choose something from one of them.

You can then plan and schedule your content in advance, saving yourself time and effort.

And there’s another big advantage! Once you have your content buckets established, you can use them repeatedly — including when you start planning seasonal marketing.

In my next post, I’ll look at some more content buckets, including user-generated content, listicles, success stories, and promotional content, and how you can use your buckets to plan your marketing for Halloween, Black Friday, and Christmas.

As always, thank you for taking the time to read my post and if you need any help with your content buckets, just drop me a message or email and we can arrange a free call.