4 ways to use repetition in your content to drive enquiries

Repeating yourself in your content isn't necessarily a bad thing...

Worried about repeating yourself in your marketing?

Don’t be.

Repetition can be a powerful force when creating content that drives clients.

I’m going to share why that’s true and some examples of how to build repetition into your content shortly.

But first, what’s the root cause of this worry?

I had a couple of conversations with practice owners in the last few weeks that were concerned about repeating themselves in their content.

They wanted to start posting more on social media but felt like there was only so much they could say.

Let’s unravel this a little further…

From my own experience, there are 2 things primarily driving this:

1. A lack of content strategy & plan 

2. Fear of what others think

I’m not going to go into too much detail about strategy & planning in this newsletter.

Just know that having a plan to track & follow will help you to realise you’re not repeating yourself as much as you might think.

I want to address the other key driver…

Fear of what other people think…

Posting anxiety is completely normal and more common than you might think. 

If you’re naturally introverted like me it can feel like the most unnatural thing to do in the world. I post on LinkedIn most days and still weird feeling in my stomach just before I do.

Here are some things that I’ve found to help manage this:

• Sell yourself on the benefits of posting: I know (and have seen) the impact it has on my business. The more I see this, the more I feel comfortable with the uncomfortable 

• Use a scheduler: Adding your content to a scheduler takes away some of that pain of actually hitting post. LinkedIn has a really simple built-in scheduler that I use most evenings to schedule the next morning’s post. This way the post goes live without you needing to worry about it

• Start small and build consistency: There’s always an ideal posting cadence (I wrote more about that here) but in reality, you have to start with something that feels comfortable. Set yourself a program to follow to try and build up your comfort levels eg. Weeks 1-4 post 1-2x, Weeks 5-8 post 2-3x. Once it feels more like a habit it will naturally feel more comfortable 

So now we understand a little more about what drives this worry, let’s look at why repetition is something that can actually work in your favour…

Here are 4 reasons why:

1. The majority of your audience won’t see your post 

When you post a piece of content, it’s likely that only a small % of people will actually see it.

Unless they’re in your core group of ‘active engagers’ (the people that regularly like & comment on your content) the chances of the same people seeing each post are pretty slim. 

2. Even if they see it, they likely won’t remember it

Can you remember all of the posts you read on social media yesterday?

What about last week?

People’s attention spans are short and they’re often consuming content whilst doing other things.

Even if they see your posts, the likelihood of them remembering it when you share a similar post 1 month later is pretty slim.

3. Most people need to hear the same message several times before it clicks 

How many times have you been told something and it’s only after the Nth time that it finally clicked for you?

The same is true for content.

For lots of people, what you say today might not resonate or make sense but when you say it a 2nd, 3rd, 4th time then finally it starts to fall into place for them. 

4. Repetition reinforces 

Let me say that again…

Repetition reinforces.

Notice what I did there?

Even a small written repetition like that has a powerful impact on whether you pay attention or remember something.

If you have a strong message you’re trying to push to your target market, you need to keep repeating it. Bang that drum, and keep banging it over and over again.

You might notice that this is something I do in my content…

Virtually every newsletter I’ve written includes in some way a reference to the importance of having a strategy.

Some newsletters focus purely on that as a topic, others focus on related things (like this one) but I’ll still mention strategy (scroll back up to the 6th or 7th paragraph). 

This is my drum that I keep banging because it’s the one thing above everything else I want you to think about.

This leads me nicely into…

How do you build repetition into your marketing?

Repetition does not mean copying/pasting posts from 3 weeks ago and using them today.

(Note - that can work if you have really high-performing posts but I’d wait at least 3 months)

The main ways to build repetition into your marketing include:

• Repeating key messages (what’s the one thing you want to be known for and want your target market to think about)

• Repeating content themes & topics 

Your repeated message should tie directly back to your core value proposition.

For example, if your value proposition is…

We help bars & restaurants understand the financial performance of their business, control costs, and grow sustainably

…then your key message might be the importance of real-time financial data and reporting. Then think about how you weave that into all of your content.

In terms of themes & topics, here’s a simple way to break it down…

Content theme 1 - Accounting & Finance (what you do). Topics here relate back to the services you offer and the problems you solve for clients.

Content theme 2 - Industry pains/gains. Topics here relate back to the specific challenges or opportunities your target market is facing.

For each content theme, pick 10 topics. For Accounting & Finance that might include: cash flow forecasting, cost control, profitability, integrated financial systems etc.

That should give you 20 topics.

Assume you post 3x per week, that’s 7 weeks of posting right there. On week 8 you could go back to the beginning or choose a different hook/angle.

For example, if your topic is cash flow forecasting and your first post was 5 benefits of cash flow forecasting, then your second post might be a ‘how to’ post or a ‘common mistakes people make when’ post. 

The options are limitless with this approach.

So let’s recap on a few of the things we’ve covered:

• Fearing what others think when posting is natural 

• Overcoming it takes time and with the right process (and strategy 😉) you can slowly build your confidence 

• Repeating yourself does more good than it does bad

• You can build repetition into your marketing with a core message + core themes & topics

Hope this helps.

Sent from the warm Lanzarote sun…

- Jordan