What To Do If Your Content FLOPS

Have you ever created a piece of content that took you a really long time to make and it just totally. Maybe you wrote a meaty blog post recorded to killer podcast episode, or designed a multi-page carousel on Canva for an Instagram post. Um, those like suck up your entire day, so I know what that feels like. And then you just get a few views. It's like a total kick in the pants. It is the worst feeling ever. We have all been there likely, more often than we would like to.

that defeat likely results in us just throwing in the towel never to revisit. That content's so dramatic ever again. we suck it up to, well, I guess no one wants to see this, which you could be right about. I mean, there is that possibility that it just wasn't. A good piece of content, but it is more likely to be a number of other contributing factors that lead to a piece of content flopping. So the first one is that maybe it was just posted at a bad time of day.

We get this question a lot, is there a best time to post? Okay. My answer to this is yes and no. So I think getting really obsessed with posting at 7:00 AM every day or 12:00 PM every day is like, it's a little overkill. It's not a science, I guess it's more common sense. Don't post in at 3:00 AM when nobody is awake. But like, maybe posting in the morning for one post might really kick off because people are hopping on Instagram before they, you know, go to work.

They're getting ready, they're using the toilet, whatever they're doing. Uh, people often do like a morning scroll, but that might pop off for one piece of content but not another. So our best advice for that is just to. So, but it might have just been posted a bad time of day, which means it got no views and then it was not brought out to more people because the robot of Instagram says, people like this, I'm gonna show it to more people, or Nobody likes this.

I'm going to kill this post immediately. So that results in, no one's seen it, so, or it just didn't reach the right people that it was created for. So maybe it went out to the wrong audience, um, which made. So, um, that can happen too. It, and, you know, that is just kind of a trial and error. Maybe it didn't hit the right people at the right time, but, you know, it's really good content. So hang on to it, hang with us here.

So another a, another probability is that it was the wrong format for the type of content. you know, maybe it was, it would've hit better as a different type of content. So if you put out like a piece of long form content, like a YouTube video, that is going to probably take a little bit more time to get traffic versus a reel that can get. Shot out really fast. So, you know, long, long form versus short form. Short form's gonna be a lot less of a commitment to engage in it.

So, so really that, you know, that comes down to the case too. I mean, if it was a blog post or if it was a really long caption or me, you know, un, an uninteresting title, so, or a lack of a hook, that's another reason. The, if you have a boring hook on, and I'm talking specifically about Instagram in this case, but this also goes for your email marketing. That is, if your subject is boring and falls flat, people aren't gonna click to read the email.

They're gonna put you right in the trash or spam you, which is worse. Uh, so we want to have interesting titles and a hook that makes us, makes the viewer want to read more or engage, um, Reason that your content might be falling flat is that it is missing a relatable voice. So are you just typing out the information? Are you sounding like a robot? Are you not talking like yourself?

When we're engaging with content that doesn't sound like a human, we don't really feel like there's a human on the other end of it. So that a, could be a really big contributing factor. Uh, the visuals could be unappealing or not relevant to the audience or the post topic. So maybe, maybe the image was an afterthought or. You know, often, oftentimes, text graphics just don't do as well as like a picture of a human face. The algorithm likes faces, there are a lot of playing parts on that.

Your, uh, picture of your family or a picture of you is probably going to perform better than using like a quote block or a stock photo. are we selling, are we asking them for something when it should be a. That is also something to look back at what we're doing and recognize. Am I asking, asking, asking, or am I giving value? Every piece of content we put out should do at least one of the following value drivers.

I've restructured these a little bit to make them all start with an E, so it would be easy to remember, but that's entertain, educate, empower. Or engage. So is it entertaining? Obviously every piece of content you put out should be entertaining, even if it hits the other factors. If it's boring, then I don't know, unless it's really valuable to your brand, then maybe like rework it. educational.

So d does it educate, and I'm not saying it has to do all of these, I'm saying it should do at least one. Um, does it empower them or inspire them to make, take action or to feel something? And does it engage them? Does it, uh, make them wanna spark conversation or comment or share? So, entertain, educate, empower, or engage. it should hit one, at least one, and hopefully more than one. So how do we resolve a flop? No, no. You don't throw your computer or your phone in out the window.

You guys audit and test. So audit essentially means look at what we did and figure out what. Okay. Do I know my ideal customer and my audience? That is the first thing. And I know that a lot of us have been in business a long time, and we haven't really figured that out. But if you're listening to this podcast, then I am going to guess that you've probably heard us say it a hundred times. You need to know your customer. Do you know the content that they enjoy?

Are you speaking to them in a way that resonates with them? And are you providing. is the vehicle that you chose for the content, the right fit to get the results that you're after so long there? There's a lot of different, what I would call a ve a content vehicle, right? It's, it's the, the container in which you chose to post, right? Is it what platform, what type of post? Right. So long form means that it requires more effort and more time. to engage with the content.

So think like listening to a podcast that's two hours long. or even 15 minutes, or even 30 minutes. Uh, reading a blog post, an email newsletter, e-book, webinar, YouTube, long form video. Those are all long form content. Pieces. So, so they do require a lot more effort and a lot more time for people to con consume them.

So more likely those aren't going to do as well because they are not an instant gratification, and it's a lot harder to, to spend multiple minutes watching that because it, it requires a bigger, a bigger commitment upfront. Short form content is minimal effort. So I would say a majority of what you do, At least in the beginning, at least until you build a loyal following, will probably be short form content that is a static image post with a caption.

So, so that would be Instagram or Facebook or wherever. I mean, Twitter, whatever it is. Really simple photo caption or graphic caption. We're all familiar with that. So that is really minimal. It's easy to engage with. As far as a length of caption, that is another thing that we just wanna audit and test. sometimes short captions do well, uh, and sometimes long captions do well regardless. They are points for the, for the, uh, algorithm with, with Instagram and Facebook.

So if you have a long form caption, it is telling the robots that this person's spending a lot of time looking at this photo. or, or reading this caption, so it may help you. The same goes if no one wants to read the caption. It tells the robots, no one likes this. It's too much. The next way that you can make. Short form content is by posting Instagram or Facebook stories. So stories are something that is a continuation of a story that you're already telling.

Basically, you don't go on and reintroduce yourself in the stories. By that point, your followers al already know you. You're kind of continuing the story. It's off the cuff. It's a behind the scenes, it's unfiltered, even though they're filtered a lot. Stories are meant to be a little bite-sized engagement to what you do and what you're doing that day. And um, that being said, remember you still need to make sure that they're valuable in some way.

That we're, we're telling the story, that we're inspiring, that we're educating in some way. Um, even if, if we're just educating them. Your product or service. And I'm not saying selling, I'm saying, um, you, you need to be providing entertaining information always. So Instagram stories are relatively. Uh, low barrier of entry. You can, I, I recommend posting a story every day, or at least five or six days out of the week. That could even be just you sharing your post to stories.

A lot of Instagram consumers are just spending all their time in stories and, and so they aren't scrolling the regular, the regular feed, and. It is a good idea to repost in stories you, that's also a great opportunity for collaboration, if you are, posting other people's stuff, but we are talking about creating our own content. Instagram stories are great. That being said, also, you don't want to continuously talk forever on stories. Instagram stories are not meant to be long-term.

Okay. A lot of craters will just get on and they'll just vlog. I think every now and then, if you wanna do that, that's up to you. You're gonna, if you're doing that on a regular basis, you're gonna get people that are overlooking you. Or maybe, maybe you'll have a, a cult group that's like super into it. I personally don't enjoy that type of content, because most of the time I am watching with my sound off.

So if you are going to get on and vlog, make sure that you're adding captions so that way you are, um, being accessible to people who are not listening with sound or people who are deaf. So, The next thing is reels and TikTok. So these are short form video. They're, this is the way that you grow on Instagram because your short form videos get. Put out to a, a large audience that is not necessarily following you. So this is the best and fastest way to grow without paid ads.

Reels, I feel like pretty much any piece of content can be made into a reel. They're just, they require a little bit more., just muscle memory in what makes a good reel and how to record it and how to get everything in a really bite size, succinct way. But generally people will engage with reels because they're just so easy to consume. And if they're very, very quick or if they have a lot of information that people need to hold the screen and pause on.

You will get multiple views, which tells the algorithm robots, people like this, it brings it out to more people. So there's a lot of, just tactics and strategy with having good reels. So memes. How, I mean, that's how we're all like getting educated these days, right? Or a simple, uh, content consuming humans. We all love a good meme and I think it's a great way to teach or to make a joke or to get out your content in some way and be relatable.

So means do require, I mean, unless you're re-sharing a meme, if you're creating your own memes, then you know, it does require a little bit more planning and thought. Then there's infographic. infographics are great. They make you look smart. they please post like correct information, but, um, they're generally easy to digest. I don't really think they get a ton of engagement, but they are a great way for people who are interested in your content to consumer content.

So if you chose to make a longform piece of content, like a blog post, an ebook, how are you driving people to that content? That's another thing to think about. So if the piece of content that plots. A blog post. Did you take the adequate measures to drive people to the blog? maybe you need to, um, to chunk up the same content, into small little value nuggets and, and put them in something that's easier to digest.

So if you have a blog post that has like multiple takeaways that, that you could be teaching on, how can we condense that into something that maybe they are only getting a part and they would want to go read more. So be thinking about that, that is a really great way to chunk up your content, get a lot more bang for your buck, to where you're spending all the time, creating the blog post.

And then you can, take little snippets, for people who to kind of like get a little, get a little taste and see if they want more. Are you effectively marketing are, how are you getting out the word? If we are trying to get readers to your blog, perhaps you are directing users to that content from a social media platform or, uh, a link in an email to your email list. Hopefully you have an email list.

We need to make a a podcast episode about all about that because that's, that's a whole nother Oprah. Um, if you are trying to get more eyes on your Instagram, Did you post it to your stories? So we talked about that. Reposting your post to stories tag, collaborate with other relevant accounts to, um, inspire reposts as many people that you can post, that you can tag in stories that are relevant. That makes it very easy for them to, to share.

I mean, one button share to their own stories, which is great to get more eyes on your content. You can also collaborate with reels to where it shows up on their. too. So that is another great way to, to get your content out there. With collaboration, I would recommend talking to the other business owner ahead of time because, um, they may or may not want to accept your collaboration. You might even want to encourage a reason for others to share.

Maybe, I don't know, some kind of incentive or you know, a partnership or friendship that you're just like, Hey friend. Hey mom, can you repost my post? Like, that can go a long way because it gets you out to, a new set of eyes, a new audience, um, and maybe even paying to boost a post every now and then for that content that's really relevant and really meaty if you want it to go out farther. So for long form content in general cost your user more time and effort.

We talked about that you need to direct them there in multiple, multiple times in different ways. So you can't just like post one time like, Hey, go check out my blog. Go check out my blog, like You need to double down. This blog is awesome. You need to go check it out. This is amazing. This podcast episode is totally a must listen, like figure out ways to get the content out there and then give them short form content samples that leave them wanting more.

Another issue is, sorry, maybe your copy sucks. we talked about this a little bit, like, are you. making sure you sound like a human being. Are you, uh, giving relevant and, uh, and exciting titles and are the hooks engaging? If you're not providing a way to draw your reader in to read more, or if they're halfway through and wanna quit, there's an issue there too.

Just be cognizant of that and be really careful to make sure that you are, are speaking like yourself and that you're representing your brand in a, in a great way that's entertaining. Um, are you providing the four value, driver, ease, entertain, educate, empower, engage. So next, my favorite are your visuals interesting. Are they interesting? Do you have photos that represent your brand in a really good way? Are they fun to look at? Do they go with the picture you want to test?

So take the content that you created and try fixing one of the things that I mentioned above to see if you can get better engagement from the same. Or the same content, reworking the content in a different way. Posting again, um, if it's an Instagram post, maybe it's pairing it with a different image or an with the same caption. I know you're thinking, what have people notice? Well, they didn't notice the first time, so that's why we're here. Is that the first post?

No one saw so as long as you aren't posting them back to back, I'm sure it's fine and nobody's paying that much attention. Okay, more ideas. You could make your post into a five things listical. So can we break it down to easy, digestible takeaways? Perhaps it would be more interesting as a video. Could the listicle be a reel where you 0.5 times on the. Okay. These are all ideas. Take 'em. Create and document the results. See if you can get improvement. You don't need to do this with every post.

We're only tuning the machine. Once you figure out the formula, you'll, you'll start having better results with your regular content because it will be a lot easier to understand what happened. And if you have a broken post, a flop, again, you can head back over to this audit and figure out what needs to be changed for next. The sweet thing about building an unbreakable brand is figuring out your common themes of repeatable content and then doing just that.

You are an expert in your thing and the best service you can offer as an expert is repeating those topics that make up your brand story over and over in different. Okay. That's all I've got for you guys today. I hope this was helpful. And, um, remember to, to follow all those e's we wanna be putting out content that's in interesting and then always, you know, turn the mirror and think, would I wanna read this? Would I wanna watch this? And, you know, don't over, don't overthink it though.

Just put it out there. See how it does, test it, adjust. do the same thing again in a couple weeks and, um, you guys are going to totally fine tune this machine and I promise that creating content can and will be fun once you really just figure out how to speak to your ideal customer when you start getting that feedback. that people are loving your content. There's like nothing better in the world than helping people than in that way and being able to give back.

So, um, you guys have got this, uh, hit me up on Instagram at something businessy. I would love to hear your takeaways and you know, maybe even you could share the piece of content that you tested with me. I would absolutely love to see it and see how it's doing. And, um, just see the analytics. It's so fun to. oh, your hard work. Finally pay off. So, um, hit us up there and we will talk to you next time.