Developing reusable templates makes content creation much faster, easier, and more sustainable. We'll explain how to create and leverage content templates to maintain consistency and save time. Templates will allow you to focus on delivering value to your audience without the constant struggle of generating new ideas from scratch.
The why
If you ever started actively posting on social media and generating content on a serious schedule, you likely had the initial enthusiastic period where you had countless ideas of what to post. After a month or two, you probably got to the bottom of your unique idea archive, and generating new content became a lot more difficult. The truth is that for most people, regularly producing unique content is unsustainable. Sooner or later, you reach a limit of what you can come up with. That's why a long-term content strategy requires what we call content templates. Instead of producing a completely unique piece of content every time, you develop a few templates to use as a structure and then create content within them.
💡 Keep in mind
You have to be able to create content for years to come.
Templates
This concept is easiest to demonstrate using examples, so here are a few of how content templates can look like:
1. 30-second vertical video where you'll address the most common problems your clients face. You'll spend 10-15 seconds explaining the problem and the rest by offering the solution. It requires a dynamic tone of voice and constant talking - an alternative to the latter is to cut out all silent moments from the video. The video will have no background music and will be slowly zooming in while you're formulating the question. Once you start with the answer, the video will suddenly zoom out, and dynamic music with beats will start playing in the background. In the end, you'll always say, "You're welcome," but in a way that these two words are part of the last sentence, and you won't make a natural pause before saying them.
2. A long-form text post that will be 300-400 words long and consist of two introduction sentences, three paragraphs, and one call to action sentence at the bottom. Intro sentences will start with a surprised face emoji 😮, each of the three paragraphs will start with a backhand index finger pointing to the right emoji 👉, and the call to action sentence will start with a mailbox emoji 📭. The post will pose a question based on an interesting statistic from your industry that will be formulated in the two intro sentences. The three paragraphs will offer your analysis and explanation of the stat. The call to action sentence will always look like this: "I'm John Doe, and I specialize in [insert your field here]. For more insights like this, sign up for my newsletter - link in the comments." The post will include an image with the visualized statistics and numbers you address in the post, along with the source of the stat, your brand logo, and your website. This post has to be always posted manually because immediately after that, you have to post the link to your newsletter in the comment section.
Why so specific?
You certainly noticed that these templates are very specific - well, that's the whole point. The templates are meant to completely remove most of the creative process - to use our first template as an example, you won't have to wonder how long the video should be, how long you should talk, what video effects to use, when, whether, and what music to use, etc. Everything is set - the only thing you have to figure out is the question you want to address and the answer you will give. After recording it, you'll edit it based on predefined parameters, and the video is ready.
To avoid any confusion, the word "template" we use here doesn't have to refer to a technical file on your computer that you'll use as a template. By "template," we mean a predefined form of content that precisely states all its parameters.
💡 Keep in mind
Apart from avoiding the inevitable creativity crisis, templates also save you a ton of time. All you have to create is the "filler" content, which will have a predefined form and length - it doesn't sound like much, but it's a big deal.
Your target socials
Consider the type of content and social networks most prevalent in your industry - this will set the tone for what you'll do. You'll have to prioritize since you don't have a four-person media team around you. Each profession and topic has go-to social networks - this is where your focus should be. This doesn't mean you shouldn't post on others - yes, you should post there, but that's about it. It would be a shame not to put your content everywhere you can - just don't consider the trends or popular practices from non-relevant social networks when creating your content.
Inspiration
When figuring out your content templates, don't rely on your judgment a lot, but rather look at successful influencers and emulate them. Now that we discussed what your content templates should include, you'll know what patterns to look for when viewing their content. It would be best to take inspiration from someone outside of your industry so you don't look like a copycat. Some content templates are very similar across the industries, but there are individuals able to give it a spin that sets them apart.
Don’t sell all the time
Create content that provides value to your audience. Don't post about what you offer all the time - people learned to ignore this content. They care about stuff they're interested in - that's how you'll reach them, demonstrate your expertise, and make them want to follow you. You don't have to trumpet all over the place that you offer marketing consulting when it's already in your profile. It's fine to mention it occasionally, but not too often.
You should write or talk about yourself only if it's connected to something you did or that happened to you that provides value to your audience. This advice doesn't apply to a short call to action at the end of the content where you mention what you do and the action you want people to take - follow you, sign up for your newsletter, check out your website for more information, etc.
Remember
👉 Content templates help you produce consistent, high-quality posts without burning out your creativity.
👉 A specific structure for your templates minimizes decision-making, and speeds up and simplifies the creation process.
👉 To make your content relevant, adapt templates to match the dominant social networks in your industry.
👉 Avoid self-promotion-focused posts. Provide value that engages and educates your audience instead.
👉 Study successful influencers for inspiration, but customize templates to avoid looking like a copycat.
👉 Templates make your content strategy sustainable over the long term.
Homework
1️⃣ Find successful creators and study their content to spot recurring patterns they use. Notice all the key elements we mentioned in the lesson. It's best to do this on YouTube, where the templates are easier to spot when browsing the creator's videos and looking at the thumbnails.
2️⃣ Look at the content you have produced until now and create templates for each, where you'll define its basic elements and structure.
3️⃣ Keep a list of template ideas where you can brainstorm and keep everything that comes to mind.
👏 Look at you go!
Next lesson
Repurposing content →
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