I see you. I see your disappointed, exhausted face after cranking out content after content. For free.
You consider yourself a hardworking and good student of marketing, and you know that getting your business off the ground by just relying on word-of-mouth isn’t sustainable.
So, you tune into podcasts, read up on articles and follow experts on social media to see what they suggest and what they are doing. It won’t take long before you learn it’s all about “giving away the best stuff” and “engage, engage, and engage” long before making an offer.
You roll up your sleeves and start creating content even though the process is scary and uncomfortable. You press on by navigating through fear of judgement, impostor syndrome, the dreaded feeling of how you look on camera…(or how much you hate your own voice). You are a trooper.
But…the problem is…it’s not working. You aren’t getting any traction, let alone inquiries for hiring your business. You wonder, “What am I doing wrong?! I’m grinding myself into the ground by creating content!”
You find yourself feeling resentful. Your brain is fried to the point where it’s crispy. You are on the edge of giving it all up.
The good news - you are here. The bad news - I’m going to tell you that you have been somewhat misinformed. But I won’t just leave you there. I am going to tell you what to do. So, I think that’s still good news.
Just to be clear, the advice of “giving away the best stuff,” and “engage & don’t sell” isn’t wrong. The thing that is wrong is your understanding of executing this at your current stage of business and for whom. This, in my strong opinion, is not explained well enough by those experts, but we’ll get into that in a minute.
Now take a deep breath & stop whining. We have work to do so that your content will yield results.
Take All the Marketing Advice with a Grain of Salt
First things first, you know your business the best. Stop dismissing this fact when you seek external advice of any kind. Most likely, the ones who are giving it have no stake in your business. But you do. So, don’t just let yourself get sucked into this pattern of thinking that if you do X, you will get Y.
Instead, understand that as an entrepreneur or small business owner you will need to pave your own path by referencing some of the advice you see from the experts. In other words, be prepared that you will have to customize strategies and tactics to ensure that they are aligned with your vision for your business.
This is also immensely important – Be intentional about who you listen to.
It’s one thing to admire leading figures in your industry but trying to mirror what they are doing right now is another. They are way ahead of you with a team. Trying to do what they are doing now will not generate the kind of results you are needing in your business right now.
They have the capacity to expand their reach by spending money and resources to experiment. The season they are in is not the season you are in.
You will be much better off if you check in with the community you are a part of or peers who are at a similar level as you are to see what’s working for them.
OK, now that this is out of the way, let’s get into the 5 solid steps you’ll want to take when you feel unappreciated for the hard work you’ve been putting into content creation. Shall we?
Hey! I’m Maiko.
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The 5 Solid Steps for Rebooting Your Content Creation Strategy
By the way, this year I’ve taken a 4-month hiatus from creating long form content. Truth be told, I wasn’t planning on doing this. It just turned out to be this way as I made a conscious decision to focus on something else in my business.
Consistently writing long form content was my main content creation strategy for more than 2 years. You might wonder what the repercussion of taking a break from my main content creation activity was and what impact it had on my business.
You will find all the details about this in another post. I’m only bringing this up to make a point before diving into the 5 steps. The bottom line is: nothing bad happened. You CAN walk away from content creation without having a negative impact on your business.
Frankly, it did more good than harm. Not the other way around.
So, keep this in mind while you go over the 5 steps listed here so that you don’t freak out:
Step #1: List Everything You Are Doing for Content Creation.
Step #2: Switch from “Valuable Content” to “Showcasing What’s Possible”
Step #3: Narrow Down the List by Eliminating Content Creation for the Top of the Funnel.
Step #4: Explore Ways to Reach Only the Ones who Need Your Help Right Now.
Step #5: Create a Strategic Plan to Reach the Ones Described in Step #4.
What do these 5 steps ultimately do for your business?
These steps are designed to get your focus back to lead generations that will produce revenue. All your content creation will be geared towards the right group of people that you need to be in touch with right now.
When I say “the right group of people,” I mean people who are ready to take you up on your offer and not those who need your help a year from now or those who say “someday,” when they are ready.
Earlier in this post, I pointed out that you were somewhat misinformed. You might be starting to realize what I meant by this. What “giving the best stuff away” and “engage, engage and engage before you make an offer” does is increase awareness that your business exists. That’s pretty much it.
I’m not completely knocking the conventional marketing wisdom of KLT (know / like / trust), but this is a longer route to take when all you want is a consistent revenue stream. Do you agree?
If you have been consistently creating a ton of content but have no results to show for it, then chances are, you have been creating content only to increase awareness for those who do not know that your business exists.
“Awareness” sits on top of the sales funnel. The 3 additional stages to take your audience through are “Interest,” “Decision,” and finally…”Action.” Awareness is the very first step of the entire customer journey.
The purpose of these 5 steps is to intentionally cut down the amount of content you create to only the essentials by keeping in mind the group of people with the intent to buy.
Step #1: List Everything You Are Doing for Content Creation
My guess is that you aren’t just doing one thing right now. There are many examples of ways to create content: you might be writing blog posts & doing weekly Facebook lives.
Or, you might be customizing your original written post to all social media platforms.
Or, you might have a weekly “themed” content schedule i.e. #MotivationMonday posts, #TransformationTuesday posts, #SelfcareSunday posts, etc.
Or, perhaps you are cranking out a ton of so-called “freebies” i.e. cheat sheets, check lists, resource guides, workbooks…
Most of the business owners who say they are burned out from content creation are just doing too many different activities that are less impactful. Even if you know how to repurpose your core content, there are added tasks involved to cover all the channels. No wonder you are burned out from it!
Let me take it one step further. You know that “easy on the eyes” content that doesn't solve any painful & dire problems? Why spend so much time entertaining freeloaders?
In my case, I have been super conscious about what I needed to give up in order to get the maximum results for the content I create. This is much like deciding to focus on one niche where you have to be 100% OK about letting go of things that have a lower probability of moving the needle.
It requires discipline, I know. But if you understand the benefit, it’s not so hard to let go. Trust me on this one.
Recently, I’ve been able to branch out to other avenues only because I’ve hired someone to help me along with it. Otherwise, I would have been in the situation I described in the opening of this post. Guaranteed.
Oh, remember how I took a 4-month hiatus from writing long form content? That’s also the result of not wanting to find myself completely burned out while I shifted my focus to something else. Something’s got to give, and that’s all true especially when it comes to allocating our time wisely to run our businesses.
So, as the first step, make up a list of everything you are doing content-wise big and small.
Step #2: Switch from “Valuable Content” to “Showcasing What’s Possible”
We are conditioned by marketing experts that we must provide “valuable” content to develop KLT. But very rarely will any of them articulate the definition of what’s “valuable” and what’s not.
I know what they will say. “Well, it depends on what business you are in and what problem you solve!”
Fair. But we can do better.
None of us can determine what’s valuable unless we consider what we want the people in our target market to ultimately do by consuming so-called “valuable” content.
Some content covering the basics can be considered “valuable” if it is meant to be consumed by someone who’s new to your area of expertise because you want them to be aware that you serve people like them.
Even then, the biggest mistake I see people making is creating content for the sake of creating content by offering something like, “5 Reasons Why Your Business Needs A Website,” listing out the reasons & hoping people realize that they need a website & they’ll come to you to design one.
What’s wrong with this? The people who don’t know the reasons they may need one won’t have the budget to hire you. So, they go to Wix or Squarespace & get crafty with it. Is that “valuable” content? I will let you be the judge.
On top of that, it’s a complete turn-off for those who are at the intermediate level to read that same content. They will be left wanting more, and they will not consider you as a solution provider for them because what they read wasn’t all that “valuable.”
This is the reason I want to offer another strategy that doesn’t involve the endless argument of what’s valuable and what’s not for whom. Instead, just focus on showcasing what’s possible for people who want to solve the problem right now.
Let’s use this very post as an example.
This post is clearly NOT meant for those who are:
1. Considering starting a business.
2. Want to get quick tips & hacks.
3. Non-service business providers.
4. Owners of proven sales & marketing strategies.
5. Lacking the patience required to read this through.
#1 & #4 serve as the qualifier for the experience level. #2 and #5 serve as the qualifier for specific personality traits I would like to avoid. #3 is the qualifier for my niche.
This post is designed for those I target to see:
1. I understand the challenge they are facing.
2. They gain a new perspective on the problem at hand they may not have considered.
3. They understand that I can help them without them requiring additional KLT.
As you can see, my intention for content creation is not to offer free values for people to get to know me, like me then eventually (and hopefully) trust me. My true intent in creating valuable content is for people to self-select and self-deselect based on what’s possible for their businesses.
Share | Connect | Grow
www.maikosakai.com
Step #3: Narrow Down the List by Eliminating Content Creation for the Top of the Funnel
By shifting your focus from providing free valuable content to showcasing how you can help those who need you right now, you can cut down your content list significantly. Right?
You can also cut down even further by eliminating content creation that only serves to increase awareness. This doesn’t limit the platforms and format of content. This includes what you choose as topics for your content.
You may decide NOT to:
1. Do short videos only to pique someone’s curiosity.
2. Post motivational quotes only to get likes.
3. Focus on broad topics.
4. Spend time on certain social media platforms.
Or you might even go one step further and stop creating content altogether. Instead, you might shift your focus on getting on as many podcasts as possible as a guest because you figured out that’s where you can showcase your expertise the best.
One more thing – don’t exclude running ads. There will be a learning curve, which is well worth investing in. Ads are the direct path to reach people with the intent to buy.
If your money story is, “Oh, I want to grow my audience organically. I don’t want to spend a dime on ads.” Then, you should not complain about being stuck in the content rat race. You can either decide to spend your precious time for the next 3 months or 8 months or 13 months with it, or you can give ads a try.
You will notice your precious time probably costs way more than the money you spend on ads. For more on this, check out “Bootstrap Trap.”
By doing this exercise, you may find that many small content tasks that you thought you needed to do are no longer valid. This will allow you to get ruthless about what truly matters to your business.
In case you are having a bit of FOMO for not working on increasing awareness, ask yourself if you want to continue grinding yourself down to the ground with content creation only to get dismal results.
Don’t get me wrong, it is tempting to entertain your brain with the thought of missing out on opportunities. You can look at it as another chance to harness the mind game required to run a business. 9 times out of 10, the success of your business depends on how well you play the mind game.
Step #4: Explore Ways to Reach Only the Ones who Need Your Help Right Now.
As I suggested under Step #3, this might mean that you stop creating content altogether and replace it with activities that are directly tied with lead generation. Guest posting, guest-hosting workshops, and being a guest on podcasts can be more effective in terms of showcasing your offers for those who need your help right now.
Why?
3 reasons:
Reason #1: You are going to leverage someone else’s audience that you did not have to build from scratch.
Reason #2: Being a guest and/or being featured on a 3rd party platform immediately increases your authority level, which will set you up nicely to share your offer without beating around the bush.
Reason #3: Although prep is required for these activities, including pitching in to help the hosting party to promote, the work is relatively light compared to generating content frequently.
If you determine that creating your own content brings steady business opportunities, then it’s time to be selective and strategic about what to create and how often so that you can maintain consistency over a long period of time.
Here is how to go about deciding what to keep & how often you do it:
1. Pick a format you feel aligned with and can stick with.
2. Double-check to see that this is the format your ideal customers would like to consume.
3. Choose a few core topics that are evergreen and speak to your ideal customers’ problems.
4. Explore how many ways you can repurpose original pieces.
5. The format you pick allows you to create a hybrid of high-quality content and sales copy (with call to action.)
6. Determine how often you want to output your content from 2 perspectives – 1) Your capacity limit, 2) Effectiveness.
Keep in mind that your focus is on creating effective evergreen content that speaks to people with the intent to buy as opposed to cranking out “timely for the moment” content that will pass through people’s feed/timeline like a crazy waterslide you see in Six Flags.
Also, this is not to say that you must choose one over the other, meaning that you can do both non-content driven activities and newly defined content types. Just be very clear on how much % you allocate for each.
If you want to know more about how to create evergreen written content, check out this ultimate guide.
Step #5: Create a Strategic Plan to Reach the Ones Described in Step #4.
Now that you have a better and clearer strategy in place to get you out of the content rat race, you can plan out executing the strategy.
Ideally, you want to plan out the next 3 to 6 months where you can monitor the progress on a monthly basis. That’s a start. This way, you will be able to continue tweaking the original plan and solidify your structure that is free from burnout.
Under Step #4, I laid out the process of choosing the type of content that would be most effective. Under the list, you’ll recall seeing the term “repurpose,” right? Make sure you keep the repurposing of your original content in mind so that it helps you stay consistent without putting in a lot of extra work.
The purpose of the first 4 steps is to simplify your content creation strategy so that you feel less unappreciated and resentful for the work you invest your time & energy in. Because of this, it is much easier now to map out your implementation plan.
For example, you might want to start off with 1 piece of original content plus 2 podcast guest appearances per month. One thing I want to emphasize is that you need to take “promotional activities” into consideration as every new piece of content requires promotion.
It’s the same for being a guest on other people’s platforms. You want to be courteous and helpful for those who kindly let you be on their shows, publications and platforms. This means, if you want to get the maximum results, you should do everything in your power to help them promote their channel. I’m sure you agree.
So, how do you feel now? My guess is that a huge weight has lifted off your shoulders knowing that you don’t need to get sucked into the “content rat race” in perpetuity.
Final Words: Your Objective Should Not Be Implementing “Omni-Channel” Strategies
When marketing experts say, “You need to consider your business as a media company for your own business with omni-channel strategies,” they are talking about businesses with a team of FT/PT employees generating 7 figures or more.
Once your business grows into this size, you will be able to cover all the available channels with all possible content formats to target the top of the funnel. But until then, aiming to become omni-channel ready is simply unrealistic.
If you’ve ever felt like you had to put out content everywhere, now you know that that’s the misinformed piece causing stress & fatigue. In the season your business is in, it’s far more effective to be selective with the type of content you provide and use the delivery method that works.
Having said all this, there is one caveat to keep in mind: Do not rely on a single platform that you do not own. For example, if you only choose to share your content on Instagram, understand that your account can be shut down with no explanation at any given moment.
To combat this, you want to have a content path that always leads back to your own website where you collect email addresses so that you have another way to reach people who are interested in your service.
As far as the ideal mindset goes, just to recap, there are 3 things to keep in mind:
1. Freely let go of the channels that are not yielding you any results without feeling FOMO.
2. Don’t work on content that makes you feel resentful.
3. Pour some love and abundance back into the content that matters.
Lastly, be intentional about how you spend the freed-up time you gain by implementing this strategy. The time saved can be allocated to working on your business. It can be spent on improving your customer onboarding system. It could be spent on retaining your existing customers. Or, you can finally record video instructions for internal training purposes. The possibilities are endless!
As always, feel free to reach out for any comments, feedback or questions you have about this post!
Feeling discouraged by creating content after content without seeing any results? Read this post & follow these 5 solid steps to get yourself out of a content rat race.