Content Creation & Biz Tools I Can’t Live Without

Today, I want to talk about some of my favorite business tools for content creation, client management, and everything in-between. I think sometimes it can be helpful to understand how other people use certain tools in their business to make things more efficient and to help keep things organized. By looking at how others use specific systems and tools, you can gain a better understanding of what might work well for your own business. Let’s dive into some of my favorites!

Airtable

Airtable is my absolute favorite system. As soon as I got started with Airtable, almost 2 years ago, I was hooked. It’s my favorite tool for organizing, structuring, and planning. I personally love that Airtable offers a spreadsheet-like format with a variety of filters and sorting options that make grouping, organizing, and separating information easy and seamless.

I also use Airtable to keep my clients and their businesses organized, as well. Airtable allows me to intake their information through a form, and then I can take all of that information, divide it into spreadsheets and sections that work for me and my team, and delegate tasks to the appropriate team member (ex: copywriter can access the information they need to create relevant copy, graphic designer can see all of the specific information regarding the brand, etc.)

Airtable makes it easy for my entire team to see an overview of my specific brand information, along with an overview of each client’s unique brand information. This allows us to work effectively and create cohesive content that can be used to implement a successful marketing plan. If you’re dealing with a lot of data or information that needs to be organized, Airtable is a great option.

Hyperlapse

When it comes to content creation, Hyperlapse is my go-to. With TikTok and Reels taking over social media in the last year, Hyperlapse has become one of my favorite tools because it allows me to quickly record myself taking photos, running photoshoots, and managing different behind the scenes tasks. With Hyperlapse I can capture this kind of video content, save it, and then use it at a later time to create Reels. Hyperlapse makes it easy for me to set up my tripod, set up my phone, hit record, capture the content I want, and then go back and adjust it, or save the video for later use. If you’re creating a lot of video content (ex: behind the scenes, boxing, unboxing, etc.) I highly recommend checking out Hyperlapse.

Canva

If you’re not familiar with Canva, it is an excellent tool for creating graphics and content in a faster way than going through Photoshop. If you’re creating content and graphics quickly, or you’re turning out content on a more frequent basis, Canva can be a great tool. Canva allows you to upload high quality photos and videos, and then use them to create unique graphics. Canva also has a variety of Reels and video features that can be useful when working with video content.

Plann That

This is an online system that is coordinated and set up to allow you to push out your content.  Plann That stays on top of the latest content trends and was the first scheduling platform to add a Reels scheduling feature to help you stay on top of posting. I really like Plann That because of their visual setup. They offer a visual calendar that makes it easy to see the specific content and the specific day/time it is scheduled for. This platform also allows you to schedule Reels, which many other platforms do not offer at this time.

Flick

I love Flick because it is great for Hashtags. The majority of people have caught onto the fact that having 5 key hashtags for your brand, industry, or product/service is what’s trending. Flick allows you to research and see if you’re getting the right kind of hashtags. It also allows you to search specific hashtags and will automatically pull up additional hashtags that are related to the one you searched. Flick also helps you identify how often hashtags are being posted and whether or not a specific hashtag may help you expand your reach, or may hinder it.

Template Memberships

Sometimes going through and creating templates can be half the battle. Being part of a template membership makes it easy to grab templates that fit your unique brand or your unique style and input your own content. Template memberships also tend to offer new templates on a regular basis. This means you’ll have access to new, updated templates, rather than cycling through previous templates that your audience will have seen over and over. Template memberships will usually range from 15-50 dollars per month and provide you with access to all of their current templates, as well as new templates.

Stock Video

Stock video can help alleviate the need to create new video content on a regular basis. As we continue to see video become the primary form of content across platforms, it’s important to have some alternatives. We need video content that can easily share tips, or fill in when we don’t have the time to create something brand new. I love using stock video and I have my own stock video shop that I created because my business was growing and I needed to have some alternatives so I could show up and engage consistently.

These are all of my favorite tools that I use on a regular basis (daily, weekly, monthly, yearly). If you have any additional questions, please let me know. I’m always happy to share tips, tricks, and information to help you grow your business and get crystal clear on your path to having great content!

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4 Tips for Creating Video Content

Hey friend! Though most of us can easily create 30-60 second videos for social media, it’s important to look at what type of content is converting best and identify some of the best practices for creating video content. Today, let’s discuss 4 important tips for creating video content!

1. Short Form Video Performs Best

Even though we’re slowly moving toward the ability to create longer Reels (45-60 seconds), it’s the 15-30 second window that continues to work best. The reality is, we are consuming video content at an incredibly high rate. But, with the availability of video content across a variety of digital platforms and our short attention spans, shorter videos (15-30 seconds) continue to be the preferred form of video content. When creating your video content, it’s important to look at the content you are making and identify ways you can more quickly address the main points. Can you break down your main points? Can you create simple tips & tricks?

2. Create Something That Is Simple Enough To Be Sustainable

Many of us can bust out of the gate with a variety of cool ideas or creative concepts, but sometimes video can feel overwhelming. That’s why it’s important to establish a rhythm that feels sustainable. Maybe that means setting up your tripod and capturing behind-the-scenes footage, or creating some step-by-step content. It could also mean using stock video. Stock video is becoming incredibly popular across many platforms, like Canva where you can pop in, add a video, and create some fun movement that helps capture your audience’s attention.

3. Use In-App Audio Features

With the constant changes across social platforms, it’s incredibly important to download videos, with no audio, and then go into the app and use the in-app audio features. There are a lot of third party apps and places that you can go to, to get music. Using each platform’s in-app audio feature will help your video content perform better on each specific platform.

4. Establish A Plan

Put a plan in place so that you can easily sit down and batch as much video content as possible. Whether it’s choosing a specific day to capture various aspects of your process, or selecting specific stock video to use for sharing promotions, deals, or holiday specials, make sure you have an established plan.

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4 Things To Boost Your Product Sales

1. SEO

Many small business owners tend to overlook the power of SEO. SEO stands for search engine optimization. SEO often involves utilizing keywords and terms that are best for the specific season, a specific industry, or best for your business, services, and the things you have to offer. SEO is a powerful tool that will help your ranking on search engines, like Google. For example, if you’re using a blog, or Pinterest to link back to products, using specific keywords can help your site rank higher. SEO is all about the long-term game. If you want people to continually be able to find your brand over a period of time, or you want to see a gradual momentum in your business, you need to look at your SEO efforts, keywords, and terms. 

2. Optimize Your Website

This is incredibly important because as business owners, we spend a great deal of time working to drive traffic on platforms, like Instagram, TikTok, etc. But, without a properly optimized website, you may fall short when it comes to your actual sales. Optimizing your site can include: checking plugins to ensure you’re running the most updated versions, checking your website speed, verifying that your photos, videos, and graphics are the correct size to allow for optimal website performance. If you’re looking to optimize your website you can check with your website developer, or work with your marketing team to optimize your site and make sure your customer journey is flowing, effortlessly.

3. Use Short Links For Tracking

How are you determining the success of your efforts? Bitly short links provide the ability to create short links that can be added to stories, or other social features that don’t allow you to add direct links. Short links provide your customers with another quick reference and a place for you to track clicks. Take advantage of short links, or setting up something like a Linktr.ee, that you can have in your bio. These will give you a chance to discover what is working well for your business and where you can allocate more of your effort and time.

4. Plugin Pixels And Link All Accounts

This often gets overlooked in marketing. The ability to plugin pixels and link all of your accounts allows you the opportunity to track website traffic, determine which pages are working, identify what type of content is performing well, see where visitors are spending the majority of their time on your website, where visitors are jumping off pages quickly, etc. Setting up pixels for platforms, like Facebook, and plugging those into your website will allow you to look at numbers and more effectively, quantify your efforts. You can then make decisions regarding where to spend more time and money in your business, in order to reach your goals.

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