EP52 - HOW TO PIVOT YOUR CONTENT STRATEGY
If pivoting is on the horizon for your business, are you in the middle of a pivot? If you said yes to either of those, this episode is for you because we will be going over what to consider when content marketing. You might be thinking about ways to communicate that to your audience, especially if you’ve already grown an audience.
Content isn’t just about sharing information. It’s a conversation starter.
Ever since the pandemic started, we have seen many businesses shift priorities as a way to adapt to the current circumstances, and then came the time to PIVOT. Pivoting isn’t necessarily an easy process because as a small business owner, you’re wearing all the hats and doing all the things. Even if you have a small team, you are still the one spearheading the journey. Business isn’t for the faint of heart so your heart needs to be all in, when you start the business, and when and if you decide on doing a pivot.
In my 10 year business of business, I’ve pivoted twice. Once 3 year into the business, and then 2 or 3 years after that which is when the pandemic started.
When I started my photography business, I was focused on fashion and portrait photography, however I wasn’t getting the traction I decided to start photographing weddings. It took me two weeks to fully commit to it because I needed to visualize how life as a wedding photographer would look like. I needed to define how many weddings I would do a year, and how often because I wanted to prioritize time with my husband on weekends because he works 9-5. To my surprise, my clients started coming in and I quickly was hitting my yearly booking goals, and I quit my 9-5 at the time.
Then covid started right when I was in full swing of things, and then there were no more bookings. Right around that time I started the podcast and little by little my passion to create educational content started flourishing more and more to the point where I shifted from weddings to brand photography and marketing strategy. All together this pivot has taken me 2 years. Slower than what I would have liked it to be but still. I needed to figure out what I wanted and where my passion was. Fun fact, for many years, when I was a kid, I would always say that I would never be a teacher. Mostly because I remember seeing my mom spend hours grading papers with her infamous red pen!
If pivoting is on the horizon for your business, are you in the middle of a pivot? If you said yes to either of those, this episode is for you because we will be going over 5 things to consider for when and how to pivot your content marketing.
You might be thinking about ways to communicate that to your audience, especially if you’ve already grown an audience.
Communication is crucial
Prior to your pivot. How often have you communicated with your audience whether it is on social media or on your email marketing? If you don’t have email marketing, this is a perfect time to start. However, if you don’t then, you want to consider reaching out to your email audience first to communicate your pivot and set new expectations as to what they will expect from you moving forward.
When you do this, you want to express your gratitude for them being there. Talk about what you’ve been doing behind the scenes and share what is leading you to this pivot. Is it a new found passion, or maybe pivoting is the result of your business telling you that it’s time to level up and this is what that looks like. Maybe life has taken you this route and that is ok. I believe that sometimes we have a bigger purpose in life and at times, it may seem hard to see it, and we just have to trust.
In your communication, talk about what’s new. What type of services you will be offering but don’t go into sales mode, just “have a conversation with a friend”
Invite them to reach back to you if they want to learn more about it. As open ended questions or if you feel it's appropriate, as for feedback.
If your new service or focus is somewhat different from what you were doing, see if there’s a way that you can meet them where they are and connect the dots with them.
Keep in mind that, you are likely to loose some of your current audience, and that is ok. You want to build authentic relationships, and you do this by connecting with people, and understanding where they’re coming from, and what their pain points are.
It is possible that you may even need to rethink who your audience is.
As you redefine your brand, and begin to think of your content strategy consider the following:
When it comes to content you want to build that like, know and trust. To do so, you’ll need to create content that inspires, educates, or entertains.
Create how-to posts, and create videos with meaningful information.
Catch people off-guard, and step outside your comfort zone by creating fun and entertaining videos.
(BY THE WAY, YOU DO NOT NEED TO DANCE TO MAKE THAT HAPPEN, BUT BY ALL MEANS GO FOR IT!)
Experiment with different content types to stay on their radar and monotony.
This here is important not just while you are rebranding and creating new content, but also on a regular basis. There are trends that come and go and it’s worth testing some of those to see if your audience connects with that.
It’s also important to know that these categories intertwine themselves quite organically, so don’t worry about making it strictly one of the other.
Pivoting your content plan can be challenging more so if you are in the process of rebranding. However, it is doable if you go in knowing the purpose behind it, and understand the “how” of it all.
In this episode we go over:
The three components to a video:
Communicating your plans with your current audience
Presenting and option to make a connection between your current business model and your new one
Ways to present new content when rebranding
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Hola, I’m Yesenia!
I help purpose-driven photographers and service-based entrepreneurs, create an intention-driven, content strategy through 1:1 coaching, and brand photography, so they can build, and scale their business with joy.