Marketing To Win

You need a framework.

To source content. To create content. To distribute content.

So here's a the framework for building frameworks 😁

1. Dedicate time. You have to be committed to it, which means get time on the calendar that you know you can dedicate to it. Me? I've got an hour every morning scheduled to get my personal content work done. Doesn't always take that long, but I've scheduled it, and I don't miss.
2. Turn it into a machine. I mean make it a process, with steps that you know you can do within your time frame. Set yourself up for success. Make so if someone were to come in your place you know they could pick up where you left off. This often makes it easy to collaborate and work together to get it done.
3. Document it. DON'T spend mental energy thinking through all the steps. Once you have the steps down, write them down and reference those steps every time you hit your process. Relieving that mental burden helps you execute and focus.
4. Let results take care of themselves. Don't over think it, be patient, but also set up measurement in a way that means you can adjust your process as you learn more. Don't spend too much time measuring, because you don't want that to take you away from executing.

#marketing

You may have noticed I missed some days on the podcast, and moving forward there may continue to be some days I miss. Some of it has been unintentional, but moving forward much of it will be intentional. I walk through my thinking on this episode, how it's built around a new content strategy I'm testing, and what I'm trying to accomplish with it.

You get more experience on a small team. Especially a start up.

No, come on, I did not say BETTER. But yes, I did said MORE.

And that's still important. 👇

Gaining experience comes from, well, doing things.

And in start up/small team land, there is LOADS to do, across lots of different areas.

Plus, in start up world done is often much more important than perfect, which means you incentivized to move quickly.

So you get MORE done.

Trust me, I worked within a larger org before. And I've worked now in a start up for two years.

The difference is pretty crazy (in my experience).

The 3 tiers of content and the type of engagement they drive:

1. Entertainment. It's witty, clever, really funny, and relatable. It's typically short and can be consumed without too much in depth thinking, but drives a quick emotional reaction with the consumer. That emotional reaction leads to a high level of literal post reactions, which amplify the post and give you a large amount of reach.
2. Educational. In depth, helpful, thought provoking content that gives consumers "value" in the traditional sense of which we think of it. It teaches a principle, concept, or maybe even a specific task that someone can take back to their work. Requires more reading, but if consumers read through will deliver a higher level of trust than content in level 1. Of course, because of the mental load and time it takes to get that value, not as many do. So if "valuable" will deliver a medium level of reactions and comments, although those comments will typically be more meaningful.
3. Everything else, the content where we try and do 1 or 2 but it is not received that way. Where we try and fail. The bulk of what we write lands in here.

What do you think?

A subject matter expert will always create better content than a writer.

Someone in the space. That actually knows what they are talking about.

EVERYONE hires out writers and marketers to create the content they need for their site.

But only a few companies mix in generated content from the people that actually live in the industry they are selling to.

And if you aren't including that kind of content in your mix, you're probably missing out on the greatest value you can give to your audience.

#marketing

Think about email as a content distribution platform as opposed to a sales channel, and good things happen.

It's the whole reason there are entire businesses built on an email newsletter.

And it can be a critical way to get momentum on your new content.

The best marketing orgs are creating lots of content, and there should be plenty of value.

But SEO takes time.

And social is dominated by personal brands.

Email though? Still the world where business content rules.

Which is why email isn't dead.

Create really good stuff, and send it to your audience. Often.

They look. They like. They learn. They share.

They trust.

So rather than always asking for something in email, give.

And give and give and give and give. Then ask.

#trust

What you think you need:

A massive contact list for your email distribution so you can get quick sales.

What you really need:

A ton of content that people trust and want to receive more of so they sign up for your newsletter.

Audience first. Business will take care of itself.

#marketing

3 things the few great emails newsletters have in common:

1. They are content driven, not sales driven.
2. They are not afraid of delivering ALL the value in email, not making their contacts click to a site
3. The send out OFTEN. Like really often.... daily?

Simple reasons I've seen that separate the elite  from the rest of us.

#marketing

Should you really gate your content?

3 principles to guide your decision 👀:

1. Does acquiring information from my contacts actually help them consume the content? Think live webinar... By getting the contacts information they have a better chance of actually attending.
2. Am I gating it to hit a metric? Putting a form just in front of content so you can fulfill a number is a sign you're not thinking audience first.
3. Are you promising to deliver over time? Forms that gate a single piece of content have fleeting impact. However, asking someone to sign up for a newsletter that delivers consistent value? That's a completely different mindset from the contact's perspective.

In most cases, gating content will not help you distribute it, will not help your users consume it, and is a transactional way of thinking.

So use gates appropriately.

#marketing

I'm surprised.

I thought people would all agree with me.

That long form email content gives the most value for folks.

But several people in the comments of my post said they liked shorter form newsletters, with a bunch of summaries with links to blog posts.

It acted as a filter for them to see whether or not content was worth their time to read or not.

And this makes sense.

We consume content in different ways.

Just another lesson that one size does not fit all :)