This is a continuation of the Daily Golden Nugget from yesterday. As a recap, I just finished explaining how you need to use video to document the process of creating a custom jewelry design, and how that video was converted into a written case study and a polished video.The next step in the content creation process is to upload the video to YouTube and publish the case study to your website, but don't announce them yet.
Do you have a custom design archive on your website? Make sure to upload a photo of the final item into that archive.
The next step is to pick one aspect of the custom process, perhaps some finite details you left out of the case study and the video that would be a good educational piece. Have someone write up an educational article about it, and publish that into the educational articles area of your website. Make sure you link that article to the videos and the case study so people can link over and see more. You should also link this article to the photo you uploaded into the custom design archive.
The next step in the content creation process is to blog about the whole experience. By this time there are probably several people who have been part of the process. It might be good to have a fresh perspective on the project from an employee or an outsourced temp. That person should read the case study and watch the video, then write a blog about the process.
The blog should explain that this was a recent custom design you recently worked on for Jane and John Smith from the local town of Smallville. It should describe how the design progressed from a simple sketch to a final item, and how satisfied Jane and John were to finally see it.
The blog would need to show the original sketch and the final item, as well as a photo of the customer. The blog also needs to mention the full case study, and link to it as well as the PDF of the case study. Don't forget about the video too, because some people would rather watch the video than read the case study, especially if they know it's the same thing.
Oh, and of course you shouldn't forget about the educational article you wrote, so link to that from the blog too.
This blog needs to be posted to your website in the blog area.
The next step is to create an email newsletter that you will send out to your entire email list. The focus of this newsletter won't be about the custom design process, or the videos. This newsletter needs to be a human interest story about the customers who came into your store looking for the jewelry of their dreams, and how you made it come true.
Show their original sketch, and tell the story behind the sketch. Then show the photo of them when they saw the final item for the very first time.
Email newsletters shouldn't be very long, so keep it brief, but interesting. Let the photos sell the story but give a link to the blog and to the custom design archive so the reader can get more information. Another important part of your content building is to archive all your email newsletters somewhere on your website. Typically this will be a real newsletter archive that's separate from your blog and articles.
Now we're down to the final step in what has probably been a 5 month content creation process. This is the social media step.
Officially, you won't announce any of the published content until the day you send out the newsletter. People are more inclined to read a story about other people than they are about a boring custom jewelry design process. So wait until you send the email and then share that newsletter to Twitter, Facebook, and Google+.
Early on in this strategy I told you to post some photos socially during the actual process. It doesn't matter what social network you used at the time, or if you used them all, because now you will post another photo to show them the final outcome.
Along with that photo you could include a caption that reads, "A few months ago we were working on this custom jewelry design. This is how Jane Smith reacted when she final saw the finished item. Want to see the video of how we did this? Click here: {link here}."
The goal of that post is to trigger a memory from your fans and followers who saw the progression of photos months ago. That "oh yeah, I remember that" moment should be enough to get them to click over to your website.
Between the video, article, newsletter, blog, and case study, you should now have enough content on this single topic to share to different social networks for a while. Don't share it all at once. Start with the newsletter the first week and share one more thing every 2 weeks or so.
Pulling it all together, what I just lead you through was probably a 5 or 6 month content creation process. I didn't write this to be simple; actually, I wanted you to get a real sense of the magnitude of a truly well rounded content creation process for a single topic.
Nothing in the strategy is easy, well, maybe it's easy to take the photos, but everything after that requires commitment.
I used the video as your underlying source material because I've used this example before, but there always seems to be a lack of details to write about. Documenting the process with video should solve that problem while it also gives you an additional level of online marketing to tap into.
Unless you have your own in-house computer wizard, you're probably going to need to outsource the video editing process. You should probably find someone to do this before you even start the first recording. You should be able to find a local video production company that can edit and write a script. Worst case scenario, you could ask a wedding videographer, who might be especially inclined if you also let them include a commercial for their service in the video.
Don't be afraid to outsource the transcripts and the writing of the case study. I recommend that you get involved with the writing of the educational article since that will need some of your technical expertise. I also recommend that one of your employees write the blog and the newsletter so you have direct input on how they turn out.
One important note: make sure you get photo and video releases from everyone. The person editing the video for you should be able to help you write one of these up. Even if you don't use all the video footage or photographs, you still need to get permission from anyone on film.
In conclusion, I want to say that this is by no means the only method of creating a well rounded content strategy for a single topic, but it's a solid example of how to pull it off for custom jewelry design. Using this full process will also help you stay focused on a single topic over a very long term, rather than falling into the typical content building trap where you narrow your focus on a single keyword phrase longer than you should.
