How to not fall behind on putting out content when you're the little guy
DIY tips for 1-man brands, short-staffed SME's, and content beginners
This breakdown was inspired by a newsletter that just came into my inbox. You can see a screenshot of the email I refer to, and a link to her website, at the bottom of this article.
Ultrella is a New Zealand brand of natural deodorant still in its infancy.
It looks gorgeous, and from someone who tries a lot of natural products (reviews & reps some, too), the concept is pretty good: baking-soda free as a lot of natural deodorants use that but it can cause reactions on some skin, lots of natural deodorants don’t seem to actually care about tackling BO, and the idea of a detox is awesome for underarm stink.
I haven’t tried the product yet.
I signed up for the emails and expected it to be the same hum-drum from an online natural brand: Instagram-perfect images, this and that percent off if you order NOW, beautiful centred sections with buttons to the website, tiny blurbs about the product.
What it turned out to be: the founder telling us stories, letting us into the brand’s struggles and goals, being honest and transparent at all times, and finishing with a little product feature.
These things endear people to a brand and make them want to support their growth. So many product-based businesses are only about emailing with a promotion or putting on a facade, and it makes us care less about getting emotionally invested or curious about the brand.
This especially applies to start-ups as it shows us they have passion and a strong why, instead of seeing themselves as just another business doing businessy thangs.
Not Mel. She is happy to email in her voice, with her face, and in her style. Well, she might even have someone writing for her, but that transparency is there.
In her honest vibe, her intro included this: “Confession time. I was meant to write this email weeks ago. Sorry!!!! The past month has been a huge juggle for me, and I feel like I've been trying to 'mum' and 'ladyboss' at the same time and not really succeeding at either.”
I hope she knows she ain’t alone!
Big, established businesses have full-time content creators on top of it all, but for the rest of us, consistent marketing can easily become a “When I get around to that” job which becomes an “Oops I never edited that draft and now it’s irrelevant to send” job which becomes a “Hey I haven’t sent anything to my email list for 3 months” job which becomes a “Shoot! I need more sales this month! I’ll send ANYTHING to my subscribers, I’m desperate!?” job.
If any of that is familiar, here are some tips I scribbled for her, in case any of them help you or her:
Sitting down to write often takes time, and requires drafting and editing and then some more editing. The first draft is often just our thoughts, so quite jumbled and disorderly. You have a lot on, Mel. Sometimes you’re probably having ideas WHILE you’re getting dinner or driving the kids to school or unpacking boxes from suppliers. Pull out your phone and open a Voice Recorder app. Hit play and just start thinking out loud. This is your “first draft” and you will find the ideas far simpler to organise after doing this. Or, if you’re in a setting where that’s not fitting, open a Notes app. Jot the basic ideas. But I find voice better, as it lets me nut something out quickly.
“Second draft” requires paper and pen. Sticky notes can also be helpful. Or, maybe a whiteboard or a digital drawing app. All you’re going to do is listen to the voice note and scribble the main points on paper and THEN circle or move the sticky notes around to order them. The point being, when you visually see them it will be obvious how to order them, which saves a ton of time if you often find yourself saying “ugh, the tangents are all over the show” or “do I really need to include this bit?” as you write. You might also think of things to add that you hadn’t in draft one. Or, funky ways to say things or ideas of an image to add or whatever. Right, this looks way more tackle-able now, doesn’t it?! All it needs is fleshing out!
“Third draft” is actually draft time. Open a document. Turn a timer on for 30 minutes - even if you need to go longer than that, it will help you be in flow mode. To help you have a clear sense of purpose, you can start by noting at the top:
Who the piece of content is mostly for (e.g I think Mel’s target audience is women who are interested in sustainability and/or want products for sensitive skin - she may have even more reasons a group of people want her products, so its good to know which of those categories we will serve this time around)
What you want them to learn about your brand or product as a result, or mindset you want to influence. If you have multiple, still pick one as the focus, or call-to-actions can get messy (e.g. in Mel’s email, it would have been the mindset around packaging, or that natural deodorants can reduce sweating, etc)
A catchy title or name, for example with email, choose what will go in the subject and subheader (e.g. Mel’s subject line was “2021 and counting”. Which was pithy enough to stand out in an inbox. I couldn’t see a subheader, so something like “Testing times with testing time” could have been popped in there because humans are suckers for puns)
Alrighty! Scribble away, don’t worry about adjusting sentences to sound better, or proofreading. You don’t have time for that! Just get it all down.
Sweet. Time to edit. Now you can swap things around, make stuff fancy, take stuff out. When you think it’s ready, read it out loud. Yes, out loud. There will be stuff autocorrect hasn’t picked up (or has stuffed up, LOL), and sentences that are confusing until you swap the order of words around. Once you have sorted that, chuck it all into MailChimp or whatever you use, add any pictures, tinker with any settings that you prefer, send a test email, and schedule it to go.
The funny thing is, you might be thinking “Woah that’s a long process, its four whole steps!”
But it’s designed to be done in bite sizes, not one sitting. Step 2 can happen days after you made the voice note. Days later you might finally get a chance to do step 3. Because content calendars or dedicated days to publish is ideal, but sometimes as a small biz you just have to inch your way towards that, so progress is better than perfection, and building a habit based on a process is the easiest way to get closer.
Try it and see if you save a ton of time! You’ll get more drafts to the publishing stage, and what’s more, you will get faster at the process each time, and end up with more content ideas - so you can pick and choose which of those deserve to go beyond step 2.
You may not need to do all the steps but tinker with this process to make it suit you.
You may be able to adapt this process to other formats such as video.
Or, you might find that one person does the voice noting/brainstorming and somebody else takes over with the writing, editing and publishing.
For example, if you outsource the copywriting, doing step 1 and 2 will help you have a clearer brief to give them and save a ton of time and expense during the reviewing process.
I’d love to hear feedback or adaptations of this process, so flick me a note if you try it: hello@bernadettejudd.com
The email from Ultrella in today’s case study (top marks for storytelling):