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Market Avenue Limited | content online

Get the core system right before you flex and pump content online

I’ve recently joined a Pilates class and it’s different to say the least. It’s very slow and centred, and back to basics. I don’t mind admitting that I suffer from a bad back, a little before my time I hasten to add, but that’s what sitting on a chair and staring at a computer all day does for you.

Get a grip

As many professionals will understand, particularly those that own a business, work/life balance is difficult and as a consequence little perks like regular exercise and healthy mindfulness routines can fall by the wayside. Your business brain has a tendency to side step best intentions all too frequently.

So, I’ll get back to my point … I decided to take up Pilates because I knew the discipline would focus on my core body and provide the fundamental steps to correct posture and movement. It’s all those muscles that you don’t see or necessarily feel that are the key foundations to ensuring the rest of your body works properly. I’m starting to now understand a new way – the correct way – to stand and hold my entire body appropriately.

Social media and content marketing the Pilates way

But what’s Pilates have to do with marketing I hear you say? Great question, but it’s a simple analogy:

  • Start with the basics and core structure
  • Build on the core strength
  • Improve the overall system
  • Achieve more – mind, body and soul

Be honest, you pick up bad habits because you’re trying to be quick, maybe you’re unsure about goals and your knowledge is lacking. Producing emails, writing blogs and staying active on social media is time consuming and needs to be innovative, but where do you find the time to fit it in and how do you keep coming up with exciting and enticing content? Get the basics sorted out first.

After three Pilates sessions I’ve already noticed that I’m standing straighter, no longer slouching and holding my upper body on my hips or finding that my shoulders are chatting to my ear lobes. My perfectly capable limbs (legs and arms) are moving independently, as they should, without the input of rising shoulders, a shrinking neck and an unnaturally curving backbone.

To come back to the point I’m trying to make again – sorry, tangents are often my BFF – think about the four bullet points above in the context of your blog articles or social media content:

  • What are the core objectives – what do you want to achieve?
  • How can you best achieve this?
  • How are you measuring the core objectives to make suitable improvements?
  • Is what you are doing strengthening the return in money, time, awareness etc?

Focus on your core basics

Before any kind of online activity is implemented, you need to have a core structure in place that can support your activity, strengthen your position as a company and ensure you gain benefits. You want a positive return to what you set out to achieve.

A few elements to think about:

  • How do you determine what content to use?
  • How do you track the performance of this content?
  • How do you measure what needs to change?
  • What sales or enquiries do you gain from your online activity?
  • Do you know your numbers? Leads, percentage conversion, cost per lead of conversion?
  • How do customers perceive your business?

Don’t just think that activity alone is enough. It needs to have a purpose and in order for it to work effectively, it needs to produce positive results. It needs to be the right activity.

I thought my body moving was enough but it wasn’t. I was compensating for aches and pains by moving in other areas. Areas that weren’t supposed to move in that way and I was unconsciously making my posture worse. You see we all have systems to support us whether that be the skeletal and muscular system or a series of processes by which we build our content marketing activity. Make sure you eliminate the aches and pains (they will only get worse) by getting to grips with the core foundations of a system first.

Are you a typical beefcake?

I’ll leave you with one thought from something my Pilates instructor said in her first session (I’m paraphrasing) “I avoid the gym because it scares me. Not because I don’t like the gym but because I see so many people pumping as much iron as they physically can, eyes bulging, sweat dripping, face turning purple (the extra description is by moi). Their whole body strains to move the weight and it’s all wrong. Arms and legs are there to flex weights, not your lower back. The core principle of lifting weights has been lost and these people are damaging their bodies in other ways.”

Getting the basics right is fundamental to getting the rest of your online presence spot-on. Don’t damage your online activity with weak foundations; flexing those muscles properly will soon reap rewards!

What core systems do you follow when planning your content online and overall marketing activity?

Market Avenue Limited | content online

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