The following blog post is a guest blog post written by Julian Vaca, Switcher Studio.
If you own and operate a boutique business, we’re betting that you’re extremely busy. Chances are, the last thing on your mind is when to develop a sustainable, repeatable organic content strategy for your store.
Here’s the thing: Creating reusable marketing content for your brand is easier than you think, and below we’ll tackle some easy first steps to get you started.
What should a boutique create content around?
Gone are the days of needing a full-blown marketing agency, expensive video equipment, and a robust production team to capture high-quality content for your brand. All you need is a smartphone and a subject to film. Which brings us to: What should a boutique create content around?
New products. Any time you get something new for the store, film, film, film! In fact, overshoot: Get content unboxing the product, setting it up in the window, etc. This is content ammo for you to be able to slow drip across multiple weeks.
Trends related to your merchandise. Live selling is really big on TikTok and Instagram Live, and often there will be new, daily trends related to the products you’re selling. Keep an eye out on social media for opportunities to capitalize on trending content. While you can’t predict what’s going to go viral, you can smartly ride the coattails of popular organic content.
Special offers or discounts. Nearly every business—small or large—offers special, seasonal discounts throughout the year. Whether it’s a Black Friday offering or a summer flash sale, you’re going to want to create some simple content around these discounts to spread the word to your customers.
Behind the scenes. Some of the best organic content for brands showcases the business’s personality. Give your audience and customers a snapshot into the “day in the life of” a small business owner!
How do I map out a content strategy and calendar?
A goal without a plan is just a wish! An important step to creating organic content is planning. We recommend creating a shareable Google Sheet that outlines a simple posting cadence — one month ahead.
Spending ~1 hour at the beginning of every month to just think through what content should be shared, and on what channels, is going to be a huge time saver — especially if you use a tool like Sprout to schedule the content.
Now, this content calendar isn’t meant to box you in. You’ll still have flashes of inspiration throughout the days/weeks and want to share content or go live. But frontloading the planning for each month will free up a lot of brain power.
Here are some free, downloadable content calendar templates to get you started.
Making your content stretch
TikTok, Instagram Stories, and Instagram Reels were made for short, “snackable” videos. So, if and when you live stream or create long-form videos for your store, know that you’re equipping yourself with a lot of content down the line. You can “edit down” these videos into short, social videos, draft some blog content to support the videos or schedule a few emails highlighting the content.
In other words: Live streamed content is just begging to be repurposed into other forms of content, bolstering your content strategy. Work smart and hard, friends.
Now that you have a quick overview of what type of organic content to develop for your boutique, and—more importantly—how to create it, you’re set. And remember, this should be fun. If you’re passionate about what you’re selling at your store, then you’ll be passionate about sharing your products through organic content.
Learn more about Switcher Studio here!