Sometimes it’s fun to roll up your sleeves and learn something new. With all the extra time at our casa these days (social distancing, hand-washing and all), I’ve carved out some time to tackle that laundry list of things I’ve been wanting to try someday, that ever-growing catalogue of podcasts I’ve bookmarked to listen to “when I have time”, that stack of (dusty) books I’ve been meaning to read… Can you relate?
So this pandemic has turned me into a budding #plantlady. Like many of you, I’ve spruced up our house with little pops of greenery to brighten things up and add a little daily ritual for self-care and mental health. I’ve adopted an array of indoor and outdoor plants this year to make our home feel… well, more like home. Some of the plants have names (like my vivid green ficus plants, Leif — for obvious reason, and Phil – short for “chlorophyll”, naturally). Some plants have thrived, others not so much.
The garden boxes in our backyard – and the trusty seed packets we found tucked away in the garage – were finally(!) put to good use this season. Our eyes were on the prize: our first crop of home-grown root vegetables and leafy legumes. Spoiler alert: the carrots were miniature at best, the beets were more beet greens than beets, and the rhubarb is still going strong and rounding out its fifth lap this season!
And while I do have a long way to go with honing my green thumb, my first go at gardening this year has brought about a small haul and handful of farm-to-table-esque moments and taught me a few things… (surprisingly) about content! Here goes…
Get rid of the weeds to get to the good stuff
If you’re anything like me, you really dislike weeding the garden. It’s tedious and annoying and probably the last thing you want to do on a beautiful sunny day. But, there are definitely merits to devoting time to getting rid of the weeds – and I’m not just talking about gardening here.
You want your content to stand out. Those pesky weeds (ie, empty filler and irrelevant chatter that your target audience doesn’t care about) can just get in the way and steal the spotlight. Be genuinely helpful and serve up choice content at the ready – anticipate FAQs, share your subject-matter expertise and open up the conversation. With some extra legwork and some routine maintenance (yes, you do need to de-clutter your content marketing library from time-to-time and keep your ‘house’ in order), you can set your brand apart from the pack, stay relevant and help guide your customers’ path to purchase.
Timing is everything (and patience is key)
There’s a reason why the garden seed packets have a recommended timeframe for harvest printed in black and white. Perhaps I shouldn’t have tossed the envelopes in the recycle bin so quickly (and here I was thinking I was being efficient). A forecast of frost is what got the wheels in motion for the early harvest. I eyeballed it and saw all the leafy goodness and carrot top bunches scattered across the garden and it seemed like the right time to gather the bounty. My gut was wrong and it was too early to pull the plants out of the ground; they needed more time to nurture and grow to their full potential.
The same thing can be said for the digital customer journey. You want to make sure you’re there every step of the way to shepherd the customer through the funnel from awareness > interest > desire > action. Though you also want to strike that fine balance of being helpful and persuasive, but not too pushy and not too much of a hard sell. Too soon and you risk scaring away your customer on the first date. Too slow and you may have nurtured your customer for your competition to jump in and reap the rewards. Food for thought.
Progress not perfection
“Done is better than perfect.”
“A good plan today is better than a perfect plan tomorrow.”
We’ve heard these sayings time and time again. And yet, many of us find ourselves stuck in the rabbit hole of endlessly tweaking projects and never getting to the finish line. I’ll be the first to admit that the garden haul this year was modest – but I’m happy that a fraction of the seeds managed to sprout and grow and develop into something edible! If I had hemmed and hawed about harvesting for too long after the change in season, I may have missed the window to enjoy that proud, gratifying feeling of eating food grown literally in my own backyard. I’m hopeful that next year’s harvest will be even better (progress, right?!), but for now, I’ll happily enjoy my own little version of farm-to-table dining – baby carrots, beet greens and rhubarb sauce for the win!
Same goes for content marketing: “If you look for perfection, you’ll never be content.”
Growing your own food – or creating meaningful content for that matter – is truly a labour of love. You can really get a flavour for how passionate brands and businesses are, and how much they truly understand their customers, when they offer up nourishing content that is meaty, vibrant and satisfying.
Looking for some fresh content ideas to cultivate and inspire? Let’s chat.
- michelle