Before you plan another month of content, stop and run an audit first. Creating content takes real time and real energy, and I don’t want you pouring either into a strategy that’s built on a shaky foundation. Maybe you took the summer off and you’re ready to get back on the horse. Maybe you’re branching into a new platform. Whatever brought you here, I want your content to actually work for you, not just fill a calendar. So before you sit down to plan or batch, run through these four checkpoints with me.
1. Revisit Your Ideal Client
This isn’t the ideal client exercise you did back when you first started your business. This is about taking a fresh look at who you’re actually targeting right now, because it’s easy for that clarity to get lost in translation over time. Get specific on who you want to attract and who that dream client really is. Remember that messaging trickles down, not up. You always want to speak to your most ideal client, the one furthest along, because the people who aren’t quite there yet will still listen up. They still want the secrets, even if they know they’re a couple of years out. But if you create content for the beginner while trying to attract the agency owner, that agency owner is going to tune you out completely. Talk to the top of your range and everyone below still leans in.
2. Sharpen Your Messaging and Positioning
Ask yourself honestly if what you do is actually clear. Ask if you’re communicating it in a way that sets you apart from everyone else offering something similar. Your messaging and your positioning are what make you the authority in a crowded market. Here’s the good news: even if there are thousands of people doing what you do, your ideal client is only following ten or fifteen of them. You’re not competing with a thousand people. You’re competing with a handful, and your job is to stand out enough that the decision feels obvious. My own positioning is built on simplicity. I help you build a business that makes six figures on part-time hours, and I layer in the real parts of my life, being a mom, protecting my time, not grinding around the clock, because those details attract the right people to me. Another coach might build their positioning around massive scale, and that’s not wrong. It’s just a different message for a different person. Know exactly what makes you different, make it unmistakable in your content, and don’t be afraid to repel the people who aren’t your fit.
3. Reevaluate What You’re Actually Selling
Content and offers have to move together, and I watch too many people create content that has nothing to do with what they’re selling. Revisit your offers regularly, whether that’s every quarter or once a year depending on how solid they feel, and make sure you actually want to be selling what you’re selling. From there, make sure your content supports it. Not every post has to sell directly, but there should be a thread running through your content that connects back to your offer. Here’s my rule of thumb: if you can’t easily segue from a caption into a call to action for what you sell, that piece of content has drifted too far off the path. Personal, human posts are the exception, because those exist to build connection and show your humanness, not to sell. Everything else should tie back.
4. Clean Up Your Online Storefront
This is the big one. Your online storefront is anywhere you show up online that represents your business, your offers, and you. Since most of us don’t have a physical storefront, your website, your social profiles, your sales pages, and your signup pages are doing that job instead. Think about how you personally decide whether to try a new restaurant or a new gym. You check the reviews, you check the socials, you look for enough online presence to feel confident making the decision. Your potential clients are doing the exact same thing with you. If someone likes your content and clicks through to a profile or a website that looks unclear, outdated, or thrown together, they’re gone. Your storefront needs to support the authority you’re building through your content, or your content is working against itself instead of for you.
Run the Audit Before You Create
Your ideal client, your messaging and positioning, your offers, and your online storefront are the foundation everything else sits on. Skip the audit and you’ll keep creating content that takes just as much time and energy but doesn’t move the needle. Run through these four checkpoints first, and every piece of content you create after that will work harder for you. This is exactly the kind of foundational work we dig into inside the Grow Business and Marketing Membership. If you’re ready to build a content strategy that’s actually connected to a business built for six figures on part-time hours, I’d love to have you inside.
