A simple and scalable content strategy framework

Cheers my fellow marketer,

We got some exciting news for you today. ??????

Most of you are probably not yet aware that we have a?marketing community on Slack?going (in partnership with?RGH, a growth hacking accelerator). These guys have done an amazing job building a hub with over 350 marketers already discussing and sharing insights, posting jobs and hosting online- and in-person events.

And this is where this newsletter comes into play. Since we have an existing little tribe of creators, marketers and founders like you in here, why not connect the two together in a more meaningful way?

So we decided to dedicate a section of this newsletter to the community. The content will vary, but it will include new job postings, favorite articles, upcoming events and curated questions from the internal discussions.

We’ll call this new section the???Community Hangout.

And if you are not already part of the community, you can sign up here:

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...Today's topics

?? Content Strategy: A simple, scalable content strategy framework

???Tools of the Trade: Curated articles, tools and inspiration for marketers

???Reflections from the Trenches: You don’t have to do it all own your own

???Community hangout: Selection of new jobs, events and discussions

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?? Article: Content Strategy

A simple, scalable content strategy framework

I have been following?Justin Simon’s?(who’s the content lead at Metadata) thoughts on content marketing for a few months now and wanted to share one of his concepts with you.

During my time as an in-house marketer and also now for our agency?GrowthBay, I have used a similar content marketing approach and can vouch for its effectivity.

Hence, I was excited to see that Justin put out a framework for people to understand how to create?a simple content program that scales with the amount of people and resources you have at your disposal.

Why consistency is the key

You want to get away from the?spray and pray?campaign approach you have been using thus far. Writing the occasional blog and peppering it with some LinkedIn posts here and there is not going to cut it anymore.

The game has changed. There is a lot of content out there and consumers have the luxury of choice.

If you want to avoid drowning in that sea of content and stick out instead, you need to think about how you can create a constant stream of content to educate your future customers on the topics they actually care about.

Your future customers will get their information from?somewhere. If you don’t do it, your competitors will.

One solution is to setup a content program specifically designed for a?consistent output of?targeted and high quality?educational information.

Enter the 3Cs framework.

The 3Cs of a successful Content Strategy

To repeat: What you want is to set up a simple system that is scalable. A system that guarantees a filled content calendar and ensures you squeeze the most out of all the content you already produce.

(image credit: Courtesy of Justin Simon)

How it works in a nutshell

Step 1: Start with Cornerstone Content

You create one high quality piece of content every quarter (i.e. densely packed with actual value and not your company pitch) such as an online event with a couple of speakers, or an in-depth course / guide on a relevant topic for your potential customers.

• Content Formats?- original research, events, ultimate guides, courses
• Quarterly cadence

Step 2: Spin off into Core Content

Out of this cornerstone material you can then summarize and expand the key ideas into blog posts, podcast discussions or video content. This means you have most of the content already produced, all you need to do is to shape it into a format that fits the channel and you will have a constant stream of high quality, targeted content for your blog, your YouTube channel or your podcast show.

• Content Formats -?blogs, podcasts, webinars, videos, newsletters
• Monthly, or bi-weekly cadence

Step 3: Cut into social media content

Finally, every blog, video, podcast or webinar you produce can be cut into “snackable” highlights for social media and community content. We again distill the best quotes, insights and graphics out of existing content and repurpose into a continuous stream of original content. You never have to think of what to post again.

• Content Formats -?highlight videos, recaps, slide shows, quote graphics etc.
• Weekly and daily cadence

How can I implement this system?

As with any new system or framework. My maxim is: Start small. For this particular framework, I have a few tips that helped me implement it successfully and with decreasingly less headaches:

#1: Start with what you have -?There is no need to go on a content creation frenzy. You probably already have plenty of blog posts, webinars videos etc. to work with.

#2: Start bottom up -?First get really good at extracting highlights for social media from existing core or cornerstone content. Once you got that locked in, go start working on getting a bi-weekly rhythm of core content going. And only then think about expanding your capabilities to big quarterly cornerstone content projects.

#3: Start with ONE social media channel -?I know you want to do three channels (plus maybe TikTok), but trust me on this. Start with one. It’s really hard to do one channel well, and if we are not already doing that, what makes us think we could produce results on five channels at the same time?

Next Steps

1. Take Justin Simon’s?course on content repurposing?and start implementing this system step-by-step.
2. Book a call with me?and we’ll discuss how we can support you in creating a content strategy and implementing the 3C content system at your company. We have partners in place to enable you to have this kind of system in place within 4 weeks time.

Over the course of the next newsletters, I will dive deeper into the different elements outlined in this article, and into content marketing strategy in general.

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???Tools of the Trade

?? On making the most of what you have

“Where I was born and where and how I have lived is unimportant. It is what I have done with where I have been that should be of interest.” –?Painter Georgia O'Keeffe

?? ???Marketing & Leadership Education

• What does it mean to build community at the speed of trust??- How trust is the deciding factor for how community can grow and stay healthy.

???Brands that caught my eye

• ???Refind?- Every day Refind picks 7 links from around the web for you, according to the interests you choose (from Web3 to Roman History). They apparently already have 50k+ users.?And it’s free!
• Ghost?- A fantastic platform to publish your content on. Also our soon-to-be home for our blog, newsletter and podcast.

???Interesting reads

• Rise of the 10X Class?- “The "robber barons" of the 21st Century are the people who used to sit next to you at the office.”

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?? Article: Reflections From the Trenches

You don’t have to do it all own your own

As our marketing agency, as well as our content operations at?GrowthBay?are growing, Kevin and I are increasingly faced with difficult questions of how we want to deal with new incoming opportunities and the increased workload.

The only way to escape the time-for-money trap that many agencies and freelancers face, is to look for levers that maximize the impact of every hour that we put into the business.

There are really only three leverage possibilities (hat tip to?Naval):

1. People?- there a million people out there who already know how to accomplish what you are trying to achieve.
2. Product?- building a piece of software that has no marginal cost of replication.
3. Media?- three hours of writing a newsletter results in hundreds of people reading it.

And while we are working on a product, producing content with the newsletter and the podcast and are collaborating with people on pretty much every client project, it becomes harder now to juggle it all.

Why HOW is the wrong question to ask

Author Benjamin Hardy, hit the nail on the head:

"Whenever you imagine a bigger and better future, there’s a problem. You don’t currently know how to achieve the goal, because it’s bigger and better than your current situation and capabilities."

And if you are anything like me (or most people for that matter), the first thing you usually do when you imagine a bigger future is to ask yourself: “How do I achieve this goal?” Although this question seems intuitive, I came to realize that it’s actually a pretty bad question in the long-term (assuming you want to be happy and successful while not living in a constant state of anxiety).

Let other people help you

While reading the book?Who Not How?by aforementioned Benjamin Hardy, I have come to realize that there are many, many more opportunities to involve people in my life so that together we can solve each others How's that plague our dreams.

A much better (and saner) question to ask yourself is: “Who can help me achieve this?”

Think about it:

• What would happen in your life if you asked this question about everything you wanted to accomplish?
• What would happen if you asked this question about everything you’ve been procrastinating to do?
• How would your goals change if you could find people—Whos—that could help you achieve everything you wanted in your life?
• How would your confidence change if you had several Whos producing the results with you?
• How would your time be spent if you were no longer the one doing everything?
• How would your income change if you could achieve all your goals, and not just some of them?

Or in Hardy's words:

"When you’re trying to accomplish something challenging or difficult that you’ve never done before, you probably need a Who. Let me say that another way: You absolutely need a Who if you’re trying to accomplish something new and challenging, unless you’re fine not getting the result you want in the near future."

You just can't do it all by yourself. Of course you could try to figure out all the Hows yourself, but putting in all the hours to learn something that other people have already figured out (and that you actually don't enjoy doing) is not a particularly good use of your time.

No, your time is best used on the things that only you can do, or that you are uniquely capable of (or that you enjoy the shit out of at least).

So next time you are trying to figure out HOW to do something, maybe sit down with a piece of paper and instead make a list of all the people WHO could help you with what you are trying to achieve.

It’s an exhilarating exercise.

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??Community Hangout

???Events

• GrowthLed Afterwork Beers?(Zurich) ??

?? ???Jobs

• Senior Growth Marketer - at Jurata
• (Junior) digital marketing manager at Wingtra in Zurich
• Customer Success Manager at emonitor (80%)

???Recommendations from the community

• Katja Preisig?was recommended by Tim as an illustrator to work with.
• How to Track Email Link Clicks in Your Cold Email Outreach?- recomm. by Lucas Maliczak

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That's it for this week.

Talk soon,

Sandro