How to Create a Content Strategy That Drives Traffic (for Free)

Apr 4

Why did you start your business?

I started mine because I wanted more from life and I figured other people did, too. I was tired of being present online 24/7 and figured there had to be a better way to do business. Since then, I’ve helped tons of business owners leverage the power of YouTube to clone themselves and get more done without actually having to be there.

And I imagine that if you’re reading this, you probably started your business with the same idea in mind. But no matter how you got your start, I think we can all agree on the one common interest we share — to make money.

Money isn't a dirty word. You need money to run your business. Without profit, your business probably isn't going to have the reach and impact you probably wanted it to have in the first place. To make money, you need people to see your content.

If you're not interested in spending (wasting) a ton of money on ads, you need a content strategy that drives traffic for you!

Driving traffic to your offers starts with great content but, before you can make effortless YouTube vids and other content, you need a plan to make it all happen.

Even if you have zero idea where to start, or you're the kind of person with a thousand and one ideas but just don't know how to get the ball rolling, these tips will give you some easy yet strategic ways to think about how your content can start generating traffic.

Your Target Audience and Your Dream Client

This is who you want to be creating content for. You've gotta create content that resonates with them, enough for them to feel like you really understand them and know how to solve the problems they're facing.

Get into their mindset and start thinking about the customer journey they'd have. What words are they searching on YouTube? What's catching their attention and making them click? What kind of freebies would they instantly download?

Knowing who you're talking to makes the content creation process much easier and more successful.

Content Pillars

I only focused on niching for the first few years of my business. Niching isn't a bad thing — knowing your audience like the back of your hand helps figure out how to offer real solutions.

But overniching? That's when burnout happens. You talk about the same topic too much, you're tired of speaking about it, and your audience is tired of hearing it.

Just like people in real life, your channel should be multifaceted. No one likes only one thing. Plus, a lot of people may know they need help with one topic but may not realize the solution is a totally different topic!

When I started talking about creating YouTube content, growing your email list organically, and repurposing content versus just the ABCs of creating a YouTube channel, that’s when I grew my audience.

Your content pillars will vary based on your industry and your business. For example, mine are:

YouTube strategy
Content creation (including my calendar and the actual process)
Business Tips (mainly about business tools and launch strategy)
Behind the scenes content

A client of mine is a launch copywriter with pillars for:

Website copy
Goal setting
Business finances
Launch copy
Social media copy

With content pillars, your audience is better prepared to follow your business' customer journey to get the full perspective on what you offer. You'll also get some creative freedom from not having to talk about the same topics on repeat.

Finding Your Content Topics

When thinking about what you want your content pillars to be, you can first explore idea buckets to figure that out.

Idea Generation

This is where you start brainstorming ideas. Maybe you have loads of ideas. Maybe you only have a handful. Either way, these ideas get segmented into categories to keep everything organized.

Drawing a blank? Head over to YouTube to see what people in your industry with your same target audience are talking about. Check out podcasts your audience would like to listen to. Tune in to the types of questions you get asked often and what questions people ask other businesses like yours.

And a super straightforward way to do that? Post a poll to your Instagram story!

HUB Content

One topic needs to serve as the basis and the main focal point of your content. It can be YouTube, podcasting, blogging…your call.

Then, repurpose it!

One of the things I learned a little later in business than I would have liked is that it's totally fine to repurpose your content [Jan 10 Blog]. You don't have to come up with new ideas for every post (and I WISH I knew this way earlier).

Use it on social media, emails, and blog posts — especially if you're a video content creator. Take the main idea and break it down into smaller bits of info. This creates cohesiveness in your content (something my copywriter tells me is a good thing!)

Cross-Promote Your Content

I have a podcast and a YouTube channel. But the podcast isn't to bring in new people to my business — that's what YouTube is for. Instead, it's to build a relationship with my current audience because this type of content is more raw and unscripted. But the podcast ALWAYS points back to my YouTube content.

That's how you cross-promote. Start talking about your other platforms on other platforms.

Get Binge-Worthy Videos

YouTube loves it when people binge (even more than Netflix does, which I imagine is a lot).

Plan out a month of YouTube videos and tie them together with a theme. I call this the firework strategy.

The main concept is that you have one core video that goes into depth with something SUPER valuable, then every other video that month talks about a tiny piece of that big idea, ultimately drawing them back to the core video. That way, if someone sees your spark video first, they'll head to the core video, then to your website, then to your offer.

Putting It All Together

The key purpose of your content is to either get people to binge your videos or draw them to your offer. When you start with a piece of HUB content, you know what your other content will need to talk about to stay strategically cohesive. From there, you can loop in your other social media platforms and get the most bang for your buck (or, ya know, your time).

Get started on YouTube today!

These tips are great — but they’re just the start. If you want to see my entire process for getting started with video content including my YouTube script template and my workflow…then check out Going Video!

Inside, I also share how I turn my YouTube videos into reels and how I edit those Reels. You’re basically getting a glimpse into a 360 video content strategy that utilizes multiple platforms, including YouTube! If you are ready to get serious with video content, follow me here to grab the course for just $37!