Do you have a content strategy?
Most people don’t. For those people who say they do, they often don’t follow their strategy. Now please know I’m not trying to shame you. I know the struggle too! You’re busy. You’ve got a lot going on. But I don’t have to tell you that.
Just putting up new content feels like a win, let alone being strategic about it.
So, as promised, I want to help you build a fresh content strategy in just 20 minutes. I know that’s a tall order. But that’s what we’re gonna do. Let’s dive in.
See this image?
That’s right, it’s a forest. And this image shows how most people approach content. Each topic you create content about is a tree.
Let’s say you like to write about entrepreneurship, personal development, writing, productivity, marketing, technology, and maybe even some fiction.
That’s a lot of trees! What if you were to focus on just one tree?
When you look at just one tree, you start to notice the trunk and the branches that lead to other smaller branches.
First, pick one topic and grab a piece of paper.
Start your timer for 10 minutes. Now brainstorm as many topics as possible that are connected to your topic. If you were to choose marketing, you might put down things like copywriting, images, A/B testing, email, and whatever else comes to mind.
There are no wrong answers. Think of any problems and challenges for each of the topics that you just mentioned too. If nothing comes to mind yet, no problem. Just keep writing. Don’t stop moving that pen!
When your timer goes off, look at the ideas you’ve just written down.
What do you have? Do you see any topics that you know you can explore further? I know I mentioned email, let’s say we choose that topic.
What are some smaller — more detailed — branches that are on that tree?
- Starting out with email marketing
- Comparing how others do email — a case study
- Looking closer at popups and how to make them
- Creating landing pages
- Writing good subject lines
- A/B testing
- Improving open rates
- Having a compelling call to action
- Which email provider should you use?
Wow, see all of those topics? If you were to just help with each of those problems, that is 9 topics right there. Depending on how you break those down, it could easily be even more. Say you handle each topic as a video, podcast and blog post. That’s 27 pieces of content.
Digging Deeper Into Your Ideas
Now, let’s spend 10 more minutes digging even deeper. Focus on key points. Get specific. Think about what problems you’ve had in the past with these topics. Examples are essential too.
- Starting out with email marketing—Providers, opt-ins, autoresponders
- Comparing how others do email — A case study
- Looking closer at popups and how to make them—Which providers? Case studies with examples
- Creating landing pages—Different examples, Leadpages, Click Funnels, Elementor
- Writing good subject lines—How to do it, good vs. bad, examples, tools
- A/B testing—What does that mean? How do you start out? Emails, blog posts, repurposing.
- Improving open rates—Improving open rates where? Emails? Okay. Case study time!
- Having a compelling call to action—Examples of what to do, how to make a mediocre CTA a compelling CTA.
Break down parts of those pieces of content into Tweets or Instagram posts and that’s 45 pieces of content! Next use the video for YouTube, Facebook Stories, Instagram Stories, and LinkedIn video and that is another 36 forms of content.
Add them all together (36+45) and that gives you 81 pieces of content — all from one simple topic!
Pretty awesome, right?
You can absolutely do this. Here’s how to do it, one step at a time.
Step 1. First, create a super helpful blog post from the original idea.
Screenshots are super powerful. Make sure you keep in mind that you’re telling a story and solving the end user’s problem.
Step 2. Turn the audio into a podcast by using your post as a script for a podcast.
It’s really, really easy. Here’s a step-by-step guide for how you can start podcasting today using really simple tools. Best of all, you can start your podcast FOR FREE. There’s no reason not to get started.
Step 3. Next, make a video using the blog post.
The podcast you just made was great practice to help you create videos. The following post will get you jumpstarted on how to do that.
Step 4. Use your content on social media.
Take some of your blog posts and share a memorable part as a tweet. You can take a screenshot of the tweet and share that as a regular Instagram post. Next, use some of the videos that you created for Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube.
Look at you, you’re a content machine.
I know that’s a lot of stuff. I’m not saying you do it all at once. You can use cool apps like If This Then That to take an Instagram post and automatically put that on your Facebook page. The less you have to do, the better!
Keep it simple or you won’t do it at all.
The Ultimate Content Trick
You can focus on just one form of content or platform per day. For example, Friday could be your “Video Day” or “LinkedIn Day.” Monday could be “Writing Day.” And it doesn’t take a lot of time once you get into a rhythm.
Want to make things even easier? Use a tool like Recurpost. This service has a free option that you can use for posting text on one social media platform. The handy part about this tool is it allows you to repost your content in places several times so you aren’t just posting content once.
You can create a content queue and mix things up however you want. There is a paid option you can use with video that is $21 per month. If you want to save some time, it’s definitely worth the investment.
The Takeaway
Don’t wait any longer to give yourself a fresh content strategy. The more content you create, the more you can engage with your audience.
If you are not creating as much content as possible, in the eyes of many people you simply don’t exist. Don’t let that happen.
You have powerful stories to share with the world. Create a content strategy today. Don’t wait any longer. So, if you email me, and share some of your content with me, I’ll create a short helpful video for you on how you can take your content to the next level.
👋🏼 P.S. — Want to know how you can blog, write a book, and build a platform at the same time?
