ArticleThe New Content Playbook
One of the common refrains I hear from clients, colleagues and the broader marketing LinkedIn-ities/Twitterverse is the importance of content creation. Most brands expect/plan to increase their content production budgets in 2024 – continuing a trend that has been in place for a decade.
Objectively, that’s not a bad thing. Producing intensely-researched, stupidly-well-written, high-quality, uber-relevant content is a good life choice. Unfortunately, that’s rarely what is meant by “produce more content”; what it usually translates to is: quickly write relatively short, solidly mediocre posts/articles that desperately try to not duplicate another article we already have, all in the vain hope of ranking for more terms that could bring us business.
As marketers, I think we’ve all been there before. We remember everything we’ve ever written, and we’re all (not-so) secretly terrified that our entire audience will remember it, too.
To be candid, this is something I’ve personally struggled with over the years – I used to create a brand-new, from-scratch deck for every conference presentation I did. I’d intentionally avoid posting about topics that my audience had engaged with at a high level, out of fear of the “Sam’s just talking about X again” commentary.
It took years before I finally embraced the idea that we need a full-lifecycle content strategy, not just an endless stream of content production. That realization started with a relatively simple diagram I made (ironically) for a conference about 5 years ago, but never really shared:
What I love about this diagram is that it forces you to think about the two things that actually matter – how interesting + relevant something is to your audience, and how much potential impact a given topic/article can have on your business (defined as traffic volume * conversion rate * expected value of a conversion). Your goal should be to move as many pieces of content as possible into the upper-right box (high impact * high relevance/interest), and to ruthlessly cut any initiatives that produce content that falls into the bottom-left box (not interesting + low impact potential).
The Myth of More Content
A few weeks ago, I wrote about the Lie of the Better Ad – the idea that there’s always a better ad that you can make, if you just try (and test) hard enough. There’s a similar principle that holds true for content: there are a finite number of topics + articles that reside in the upper-right box. While different target audiences and different business units can expand the pool, the limit still exists – it just looks a bit different. Likewise, broader macro changes (like new platforms, or new trends/technologies/techniques) can alter the pool of content that resides in the upper-right – but again, the limit still exists – the only thing that’s changed is the underlying distribution.
Once your content approaches the limit, the relative value of each additional piece of content will fall precipitously. At that point, you’re either writing content with high impact potential that just isn’t interesting, or you’re creating content that is super interesting, but isn’t going to move the needle for your business. Neither one is an optimal use of resources.
The Folly of the Internet Remembering
This is further complicated by the fear I mentioned above: everyone assumes that the internet remembers everything we say – and therefore refuses to repeat it. The best refutation to this came from my friend & colleague Aaron Orendorff, who gave the following two sage pieces of content wisdom:
- “If you have something worthwhile and interesting, repeat it until the thought of hearing/writing it one more time makes you want to scream. When you get to that point, remember that maybe 10% of your audience has actually heard it once.”
- “The best problem you can have as a marketer is the internet remembering everything you say.”
Basically: when you find a topic that resides in the upper-right of that matrix, double down. If there’s one thing you take away from this issue, it should be that: when you find a winner, push it. Don’t sit back, say, “Neat!” then go about creating the next thing on your list. Double down.
The 5-Step Plan To Build A Content Engine
The problem is that most of our organizations and marketing teams and internal KPIs aren’t set up to support that mentality. Content producers (either in-house or agency) are given production targets (write X articles per month of at least y words or create the following 12 pieces of unique content in Q1); not business impact targets. In our quest to ensure we are getting new content, we’ve neutered our ability to double down on great content.
All of the above has led me to the inevitable realization that we (as marketers, investors, business/thought leaders) need to shift our mindset on content marketing. We need to move from a “content production” to “content engine” philosophy. Done properly, this is a mindset shift that will unlock new levels of growth, productivity and impact for your entire organization.
Audit & Assess:
The first step in any shift is conducting a thorough inventory + assessment of each piece of content you already have. The number of brands I speak with that are painfully unaware of what content they already have is breathtaking – most of them don’t remember they have an article on X or a video about Y. The good news is that December is a great time to conduct a content audit – create a spreadsheet of each piece of content you have, the topic, the angle, the target audience, and the relative impact (GA4 is wonderful for this, as is a SEO tool like SEMRush, Moz, AHRefs, etc.). You’ll likely find that your content has a Pareto distribution: 20% of the content drives 80% of the impact.
Identify The Gaps:
Armed with that knowledge from the audit/assessment, find the gaps around your top-20% of content – you don’t care about the gaps in the bottom-80%. The probability of those gaps being in the upper-right quadrant of our content matrix is relatively low. Next, review your competitor’s top-performing content (again, back to those third-party tools). The articles/videos/graphics/whatever with the highest number of expected pageviews, backlinks and the highest relevant KW rankings are the winners. Finally: prioritize the gaps + overlaps.
- First: The gaps that are present for both you + your competitors. If there are topics that are exceedingly relevant, but no-one has any content related to them, that’s a golden opportunity for you to take a first-mover advantage.
- Second: Any topics where you have a high-performing piece of content + your competition does not.
- Third: Any topics where your competition has a high-performing piece of content, but you do not have any content (or you have a poorly-performing piece of content).
I’m well aware that #2 above seems odd, but it is exactly aligned with the “double down” philosophy I’ve come to love: if you have an advantage, press it; don’t be content to sit back.
Finally – this isn’t a one-time–thing; you should be iterating on your research all the time (just like you should be doing with your keyword/SERP/channel research). We do this with Paid Search research all the time, using this process (which can be easily adapted for other audiences/channels):
Create:
You don’t need me to tell you how to create content; you may need a reminder that your goal shouldn’t just be to create any old piece of content. Create something remarkable. Quantity of content produced does not drive quality of content produced. I’ve coined this the “X Content Plan”:
I also want to emphasize that “create” doesn’t necessarily involve “make from whole-cloth” – if you have 3-4 existing pieces on a topic, consider packing (i.e. combining multiple pieces together into something net-new, them redirecting all of the old links to the new one); if you have one massive piece of content that is too broad, consider cracking (breaking apart a single large article into multiple, smaller ones – then adding additional depth/content/context so it can be a stand-alone piece).
Diversify:
The typical process after creating a great piece of content (and a mistake I still make!) is to rush to publish. One commonality among exceptional, world-class creators is that they diversify before they publish.
What do I mean by that? Take a written “pillar” article – say 3,500 words. Ordinarily, you’d publish the article, maybe create a graphic header, and be done.
Not so fast.
That same article can become:
- 2 10-minute YouTube videos
- 1 Podcast Episode / Interview
- 2-3 5-minute explainer videos
- 5-7 Twitter Threads
- 3-4 emails
- 3-5 LinkedIn Posts
- 1-2 Infographics
- 1-2 lead magnets
- 5 YouTube Shorts / IG Reels / TikToks
- 10+ Quora Answers
- 5 Reddit Posts
- 3 Landing Pages
- 10+ Search Ads
- 1 Case Study / White Paper
All from the same core piece of content – little-to-no additional research or writing required – all you have to do is repurpose/remix the piece of content you’ve already created to work for each of those mediums. You don’t need a fancy studio or exceptional equipment to do any of this – a cell phone, a $10 mic from Amazon, and a $30 ring light/camera holder are all you need.
But the magic of this is that it transforms your single piece of content – your single “bite at the upper-right-quadrant” into 20+ shots. Mathematically, that increases your impact surface area – it gives the piece of content more potential areas to latch onto and gain traction; it’s the equivalent of making your own luck.
Yes, it takes work. No, it isn’t easy. But remember: there are a finite number of topics/pieces of content that reside in the upper-right quadrant. The game isn’t creating more, it’s creating and distributing better.
Distribute:
Once you’ve created everything, the real work begins (just what you want to hear ~1,500 words into an article).
Distribution isn’t a one-time thing; it’s an ongoing process. The temptation to post-and-forget is real; don’t give in to it. Pre-seed your content to influential people in your network (and if you’re not sure who they are, use SparkToro to find out). Amplify your content using your owned channels (like email) and advocate audiences (those referral partners, uber-loyal customers, etc.). Don’t just post it once on your social channels and move on; engage in conversations around the topic, and continue to share links to your content as it is relevant. As people comment/engage, reciprocate.
Additionally: consider supporting your content with paid media – whether that’s paid search around commonly-asked questions included in your article, paid social on core channels, even digital OOH or video.
Ultimately, if you spend 1 month creating a piece of content, you should spend 6+ months distributing it (something I still struggle to do, but am getting better at it). When a relevant conversation pops up 2 months after you published your article, share it again. If a new YouTube video drops on a popular channel that’s related to your article, join the conversation.
Done well, that single piece of content can produce an impact for months or years; as you stack more pieces by turning on this engine each month, the impact of your efforts here compounds.
ProTip / Reminder: ensure each piece of content you share has unique UTMs + a standardized measurement framework. Ensure you include both the channel where you’ve posted, as well as the format (video, infographic, text, etc.)
Assess:
Throughout your distribution, assess the relative impact of both the overall content program AND the individual channels where you’re distributing. If you notice that a given channel or format is performing better for a given audience/angle, take that knowledge and use it to inform your future distribution. Likewise, you may find that certain sub-topics from your content, or certain angles, have resonated while others fall flat.
If, even after all of this effort, your content isn’t gaining traction or having an impact, it’s time to get the full benefit (one of my favorite sayings/mindsets). Do a post-mortem on it. Identify what went wrong – was the research off? Did you miss an industry trend or shift? Was the content not what your audience expected or needed? Did the distribution strategy fail the content?
It’s tempting to just bag a failed piece of content + move on; resist that temptation. Failing to find the lessons in a failure is an invitation to fail again.
Iterate:
Based on the data gathered during your initial distribution, iterate your content – whether that’s focusing on a specific angle/offer/audience/problem that resonated with your audience, creating more of a medium that was widely popular and effective (i.e. video) or adding depth to your existing article.
Wherever possible, find the opportunities to double down and squeeze every drop of value out of your content: Make a case study related to the topic of your article. Shoot new videos or explainers. Add new research or a study (you can create a study using Pollfish for <$1,000) to bolster your existing piece.
The name of the game is making your winners go even further. Strategic, well-researched iteration can extend the lifetime of a piece of content by years – don’t ignore it!
Amplify:
Treat your iterations the same way you’ve treated your initial content distribution – amplify it. If the iteration focuses on a sub-topic or niche, identify the publications/channels where people who are interested in that niche tend to congregate (again, SparkToro) and distribute it there.
Evaluate:
Use the same approach from the assessment situation on your iterations – did one of those perform better than the original? Did others fail/flop? If so, why?
Repeat:
While you’re distributing, use the insights gleaned to inform your creation of new pillar pieces of content. Continue to go back and update your content priorities + gaps based on what your competition is doing – after all, research from 6+ months ago is likely out of date.
I recognize this is a LOT of work – but it’s work worth doing. In a world where brands are creating exponentially more mediocre content (thanks, ChatGPT), the content engine approach is your ticket to standing out. And the impacts of doing so aren’t limited to your organic traffic – that same piece of content can be turned into a lead magnet or downloadable PDF, multiple emails to your existing customers, upsell collateral for adjacent buyers, and so much more.
Don’t be afraid to double down. For 2024, make moving to the upper-right your north star and a content engine strategy your means to get there.
Until next time,
Sam
