Robby: The branded podcast Robbie Fowler, episode 99, conquer
Your Content Planning Six key challenges and how to overcome them.
Part two.
Here's the central question we're asking in this series.
How do you feel about your content marketing over the past six months?
Do you feel great?
You've got your act totally together.
Do you feel pretty good?
Sometimes you do well, it's hit or miss, or do you feel guilty?
You haven't shown up.
You've struggled to get content created.
And, you know, you should be doing better.
My goal is to help you create a content plan you can actually execute
so that you can grow your business.
I want you to be able to expand your brand and ultimately have it
show up in your bottom line revenue.
And the first episode of this series, episode 98.
We looked at the problem and the problem is what is missing.
Is, we don't have a simple plan, that's connected to a
sexy goal and someone who cares.
That's what's missing in most of our content planning.
That's why we are feeling overwhelmed in spite of all of the tools, all
of the resources, all of the things available to us intended to help us with
content planning and content marketing.
We still feel overwhelmed.
Why?
Because we don't have a plan, that's highly doable, highly desirable, and
has a high degree of accountability.
And today's episode, we're going to talk about the second challenge.
I call it the Chart the Course Challenge.
First let's divide our year up into quarters quarter one quarter
two quarter three, quarter four.
The chart, the course challenge goes like this.
What in the world should I be doing with my content planning in this quarter?
And here's the question I want you to ask as you begin to create a plan.
For whatever quarter of the year, you find yourself in.
The question is, do you have any big rocks in this quarter or do you
have tiny pebbles in this quarter?
So at the time I'm recording this, this is quarter two of 2023.
So you'd be asking yourself in this quarter, do I have any big
rocks or do I have tiny pebbles?
Now a big rock is something that you're launching this quarter.
If you're getting started out, maybe you were about to launch your podcast.
Maybe you're about to host your first webinar.
Maybe you are.
You're about to release your first.
Offer.
Or your first.
Product.
That would be a big rock.
Maybe you're about to release your first book in this quarter.
So those are examples of big rocks.
In other words, the intent is in this quarter, I'm focusing the majority of
my efforts on something that's intended to have a big splash for my business.
That's called a big rock.
The second option is if this is quarter two and you don't plan on
launching something big this quarter.
In other words, this is just a regular rhythm quarter where you still have
products and services and offers available, but you're not introducing
something big or something new.
Then this is a tiny pebbles quarter.
This is where you're just trying to turn the dial up on your thought
leadership on your expertise to expand your reach into expand your influence.
So that's the first problem.
Most of us have a hard time with our content planning, because we're not
sure quarter by quarter where we're going and when you don't know where
you're going, it's very hard to plan for nowhere or maybe even worse.
It's hard to plan for anywhere I could be going anywhere.
So you've got to decide, is this a big rock quarter?
Is this a tiny pebbles quarter?
And here's the action step I want you to take with you.
Your action step is to decide your course direction for the quarter that you're in.
So if this is quarter two, you've got to decide your course direction.
If you're launching a big rock this quarter: an offer a webinar
or releasing a book, something big.
Then here's what you want to be doing in your content planning
and your content marketing.
You want to take all of that content planning and you want to
aim it at the primary pain and problem that your big rock during
this quarter is going to address.
You want to talk about the benefits and the transformation that you were
big rock that you're launching this quarter is going to provide your
ideal customer or your audience.
And you could even consider a three-part attack that talks about the
opportunity, your offer your product or your service, or your big rock is
going to provide for your audience.
You talk about the transformation that it's going to make available to your
audience, and then you challenge them to take a sense of ownership in relation to
whatever it is you're about to launch.
So if you were about to launch a webinar, you would say something like I'm going
to be hosting some upcoming training.
That's going to really.
Really help you do X, Y, Z.
If.
You're wanting to go accomplish this next thing, whatever the topic
of the webinar is going to be.
So in other words, you're beginning to create some of your content plan around.
Hey, the thing I'm about to launch is going to present you
with a really great opportunity.
And then you would also talk about the transformation that the thing
you're going to launch is going to make available for your audience.
And then you challenge them to take ownership.
So if you're ready to take ownership of XYZ, then you're going to
want to join me on the webinar.
You're going to want to hop into this course or join my community or
whatever the big rock offer is.
So that's what you're deciding.
If you've decided that this quarter is about big, a big rock that
you're launching, then that's what your content planning goes around.
And addresses the pain and the problem, the benefits and the transformation.
Or you can think about that three part framework, the opportunity,
the transformation, and a challenge to ownership for your ideal
customer or your ideal audience.
But what if this quarter is more about just tiny pebbles, you're not
launching something huge or big or significant this quarter, you are
just moving ahead in your business.
In that case, when it comes to casting tiny pebbles out on the water.
Those don't make a big splash, but they have a ripple effect.
If you imagine picking up a handful of really small rocks and chucking
them out into a Placid lake, you would see a bunch of little small ripples.
That's different than launching a huge rock out into the middle of
the lake that creates a tremendous splash and a massive ripple effect.
So if you're in a tiny pebbles quarter, here's your goal in that quarter.
It's not to launch something.
It's to establish your expertise and your thought leadership.
It's to establish your brand.
Now if you're a business to business.
Or a business to consumer business.
You're really looking for going from free in this quarter to fee.
You're looking to move your ideal customers from something
free to something fee.
And if you're a personal brand, then you're looking to establish
expertise and thought leadership.
So you want to, in this quarter, you want to add value.
You want to educate your audience around the pain or the problem
that your business helps solve.
You want to solve problems for your ideal customer for free.
So you're releasing content that's going to help them with some of their pains
and problems and give away free value that actually solves their problem.
And you also want to advance your brand.
Your brand in this case, I want you to think about this very
simple sentence or explanation from Marty Neumeier, who's a branding.
Genius and expert.
The only blank that blanks.
So the only, and then you insert the category of the business that you're in.
That blanks you insert the key differentiator and example would be
if you were a tea company, you would say we are the only healthy tea.
That's the category where the only healthy tea.
That the whole family will love.
That's the key differentiator, or you might say.
I'm the only brand consultant Building life giving brands that
bless the company and the customer.
So the only one, but that's.
That should be coming through in your content marketing, because your goal in.
Quarter where you're casting tiny pebbles.
Is to advance your expertise and thought leadership, or if you're B2B or B to
C, it's really to move people, your customers from something free where
you're giving away free value to.
To a fee, something that they're paying you for.
That's the goal, even if you're not launching something significant,
you already have products, services available, and your goal
is to draw more people into your.
Audience that would be potential customers and to move them from free to fee, if
you're a B2B company or a B to C company.
If you want a killer example of this as a B to C company.
Check out a Sunday lawn care, you can find them at getsunday.com.
I'll put a link to this in the show notes, but here's a company
that does this extremely well.
If you just look at their blog for their content marketing.
There's categories, like explore your shed home.
Lawn how tos, right?
How to do things, yearning your lawn, gardening guides, weeding tips.
Pest pointers.
You can get product instructions about how to use their different products.
They do a great job of releasing content and moves someone from free
help about your lawn to fee signing up for their lawn care services,
where they send you stuff in the mail.
So I would encourage you to go check that out.
If you want to see an example of a company that does that well, and then
go check out their Instagram, where they're not typically selling things,
they're delivering helpful advice.
They're really establishing their brand as a company that's safe and
free from pesticides that helps you create beautiful green lawns that are
safe for your kids or for your pets.
So that's their brand distinction.
They're the only lawn care company.
Maybe they would say we're the only online lawn care company that provides.
Chemical free, safe.
Lawn care.
For your, that's safe enough for your family and for your pet.
So go check them out for a great example.
I'll put a link to those in the show notes.
So I hope that helps you think about your content planning.
One of the struggles is it's much like trying to plan a trip when
you don't know where you're going.
So that's why the Chart the Course Challenge is the first
challenge we need to tackle when it comes to content planning.
Where am I headed in the next quarter?
Is this a big rock quarter?
If so.
Here's the implications for my content planning.
Is this a tiny pebbles quarter?
If so, here are the implications for my content planning.
I hope that helps you begin to get your mind around, "Okay, that would
bring some clarity about how I get my arms around this content planning
that has me just suffocating under the weight of the expectations."
Chart your course.
Decide where you're going first and that will clarify the content
planning that you need to do.
Join me on the next episode of this podcast, as we jump into part three
of this series, now that we know where we're headed, what do we do next?
I look forward to seeing you on that episode.
Until the next episode, thanks so much for joining me.
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Until next time go and build a life- giving brand