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.