For Content Creators: How to Grow Your Audience by Adding New Content to the mix

So, you've found your niche on Instagram, YouTube or your blog, built a loyal fan base and have landed a number of branded sponsorship deal. You're basically dominating it! But, now you want to branch out and start incorporating new content into the mix with hopes of growing your audience and attracting new brands. Should be pretty easy, right?

As an influencer, discussing new topics or creating new content can be a little risky mainly because you don't want to turn away fans you worked so hard to capture! On the flip side, diversifying your content can really help grow your audience and attract brands from different industries for sponsorships and collaborations. In other words, varying your content can really be the to for taking your personal brand to the next level! But, there are a few things to think about before completley deciding to revamp your content calendar and put all of your effort into creating new content. Let's get started! 

Figure Out What Your New Topic Should Be

Inspiration for new content ideas can come from anywhere and everywhere. But, sometimes nailing down what to focus on next can be daunting because there are so many possibilities. You also want to make sure it will be relevant for your current audience. Try and answer these 3 questions to help narrow down your options!

• What am I already doing?

Think about what you’re already doing on a daily basis. For example, let's you’re a restaurant blogger.  You’re probably doing a lot traveling to get to those sought out restaurants. Since your fans are like-minded and enjoy discovering new restaurant too, they probably also do some traveling. So, start blogging about your adventures! 

• What do I have to offer that others can learn from?

You’re an influencer, your followers are inspired by you and want to learn something! When trying to figure out what type of content to add to the mix, think about what will be valuable to your audience. A great example would be Cassey Ho of Blogilates. She initially started as a fitness YouTuber but began teaching others how to eat healthy by creating recipe videos. Like Cassey, you don’t have to a nutritionist or scholar in the new topic, you just have to be willing to learn more and give it your all!

• What do I talk a lot about with my friends?

Start observing the conversations you have with your friends, especially your friends on social media! What topics are constantly brought up? What content do you find yourself liking a lot on Instagram or Pinterest? Sometimes paying a little more attention to your daily life can help you pinpoint your other interests!

Still Confused? Ask Your Audience! 

No one knows better than your viewers what type of content you should be making! If you start to feel like your audience is getting bored with your content or you simply just want to try something new, ask for their advice. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve watched videos from top YouTubers who’ve asked their viewers to leave comments suggesting new video ideas. Not only is this a great way to build a deeper relationships with your fans, but it will really help you to understand who your followers are and what they want next. Aside from your makeup videos or outfit posts, maybe they want to know more about your workout routines or what you eat on an average day. You’ll never know unless you ask and it will really help guide you as a creator!

From there, start making a list of the most common requested videos or post ideas and begin gradually implementing them into your content calendar. Also, make sure to test them out, which I’ll go into more detail on later in this post!

Stick to Your Own Style & Make it You

While expanding your content range will help grow, you definitely don’t want to turn away the audience you already worked so hard to attract! In reality, if you’re a blogger or social influencer, you probably have a range of different people who view your content. But, try to really think about who they are, what their interests are and what inspires them.

Take it from reputable fashion blogger, Julia Engel, AKA Gal Meets Glam. Julia is most notably known for her chic, classic take on fashion. But, she also adds a unique element to her content by offering travel advice and bringing her readers with her to beautiful places all over the world through breath-taking imagery. Although her blog was initially centered around fashion, Julia has been able to captivate her existing and new readers by integrating travel content into her blog that is consistent with her overall brand and aesthetic.

If you’re looking to expand your content into different verticals, keep it consistent with the brand you’ve already built! To give you a more visual example (since we’re visual people, right?!), check out these two images posted by Julia. These two posts from her Instagram give you a perfect representation of how she is able to seamlessly incorporate travel into her content by making sure to add the fashion-forward aesthetic her followers thrive off of.

Test, Test, Test!

Whether you’re a blogger, YouTuber or Instagrammer, when first starting out, you probably did a lot of testing in the beginning to learn what worked and what didn’t. Same goes for introducing new content onto your platform. Test it out!

Thanks to Google Analytics, bloggers can get a little more insight and have an idea for what will and won’t work before actually testing new content. Google Analytics is a powerful tool that provides extensive data for who your readers are, how they are using your blog, what they’re clicking on, etc. Use this information to your advantage!

For Social Media Influencers, though, data like this isn’t as easily accessible so, testing content and measuring success through average number of likes, comments and views is essential! After testing out a new post, compare its results to those of your traditional posts. Did it receive fewer or more likes? Did your viewers trail off a few minutes in or did they finish the entire video? These results can be a very useful source for understanding what works and what doesn’t. While you do definitely want to stay true to yourself and post what makes you happy, taking your audience’s interest into consideration can really help you connect and build a community with them!

Consider Creating a Spin-off Account

This one’s a little more geared towards social accounts, since adding new categories to blogs can be a bit easier. Once you’ve created a successful Instagram or YouTube that focuses on a niche category, trying to implement new content can be a little risky. So, consider creating a spin-off account! Here’s a really great example of how to do this on Instagram:

Popsugar, which is a diverse media brand and blog, created these different accounts, which allows them to target different audiences while still sparking overall brand awareness (since their brand name and logo are still present on each account). This is a great alternative if you’re, let’s say, a foodie Instagrammer and have already made a prominent name for yourself in the space but want to create content surrounding beauty. Consider creating another account and encourage your foodie fans to follow your new account. 

YouTubers have also been seen to do this with vlog channels or if they're bilingual and want to appeal to two different demographics. For example, YouTuber Diana Saldana has separate channels for beauty/fashion, vlogs and videos in Spanish. By doing this, she's really able to tap into different audiences and grow her fan base!