Robby: The Brand ED podcast with Robby Fowler, Episode 1 0 1 , conquer Your
Content Planning Six Key Challenges and How to Overcome Them part four
. We're continuing our series on these six challenges that stand
in the way of our content planning and our content marketing.
I wanna recap real quick where we've been, and then we'll
dive into today's challenge.
We started with the first real challenge, which is how you and
I often feel about our content marketing over the past six months.
Most of us feel like we're falling short.
We don't feel like we're doing enough.
We don't feel like the quality's enough.
We don't feel like the results are coming in that we're wanting.
We're hit and miss.
And so that's the initial challenge is we just don't feel great
about how things have been going.
What we said is something is missing.
And I think what's missing for many of us is a simple plan.
Something that's very doable, connected to a sexy goal, that's something that's
very desirable, and then someone who cares, and that's accountability.
So we need something that's doable that we can actually pull off.
We need something that's connected to something that we actually want or desire.
So it's not just content creation for the sake of content creation.
Which feels terrible.
And then we need somebody who cares.
We need some sense of accountability.
The action step for that first challenge is this, if your content marketing
was a success, what big audacious goal could it help you reach in two years?
That's really the action step I wanted us to start with.
If your content marketing was actually a success.
What big audacious goal could it help you reach two years from now?
That's that kind of sexy goal.
The very desirable goal that's going to accompany your very simple plan.
Something you can pull off, and then you're gonna tell somebody
about it so that you can stay account accountable to it.
Next, we talked about the chart the course challenge.
That's where you wanna decide where are you headed in the next quarter?
Are you launching something big?
We call that a big rocks quarter.
Like you're launching a big rock into a lake and it's going to create a huge
splash, or is the next quarter for you.
You're in normal operation mode.
No huge new launches of anything.
So that's a tiny pebbles quarter.
So your action step was to decide your course or your
direction for the next quarter.
Is this going to be a big Rocks quarter where you launch something
big, or is this going to be a tiny Pebbles quarter where you continue
offering the same sorts of products or services that you're offering?
Third, we looked at the content challenge, and that's the challenge
of coming up with content.
The action step there was to determine your three to five content pillars,
the three to five buckets or topics or subject matters that you're
going to talk about regularly to establish yourself as an expert.
And that helps take away the pressure of, what should I say?
And then that brings us to this episode where, We're gonna talk
about the channel challenge.
This one's pretty quick, but a lot of us face this now that we've
decided the content pillars, the kind of content we want to talk about.
A lot of us still struggle to actually come up or create the content.
And I say that what a lot of us are rubbing up against
is the channel challenge.
And I want you to think in terms of either the mode or the medium
that comes most natural to you.
So the first question I want you to ask when it comes to the channel challenge
is what comes most natural to you?
If you've got to create content, even if it's not social media content
or even marketing content, just any content around your business,
what comes most natural to you?
If given the choice, would you prefer to write things out?
A lot of times people that enjoy writing things out, like the ability to process
ahead of time to scribble and scratch some things, to move ideas around and
that's what comes most natural to you.
Others?
Video actually comes most natural.
You could come from a video background.
Age can play a difference in your ability to do that.
I grew up in an age where I didn't have a phone that shot video, but
there's lots of folks that run business and they've always had.
Video's just been a part of their life, the ability to shoot video.
So for some people that comes very natural.
Just let me stick a camera and let me start getting ideas out just on video.
And then there are some that prefer audio.
Maybe you come from an audio background or you study that in college, or you
just like to take a walk, grab your phone and start dictating things
into your phone and recording audio, it allows you to get your ideas out
and capture those ideas initially.
So the channel challenge is really first determining what
comes most natural to you.
It's easy to look at others that are trying to help you create
content or content marketing.
Most of them will have a lane that they prefer.
Whether that's written or video or audio, and like I've heard someone
say most advice is autobiographical.
So someone that enjoys writing and that's how they've built their business or done
their content marketing well naturally they're going to encourage you, or even
dictate that you have to do this starting in writing, or you have to do this on
video, or you have to do this on audio.
That usually is gonna line up with whoever's, whatever expert
is giving you that advice.
That's what comes most natural to them.
So that's how they've answered the channel challenge or the mode or the medium.
I'm saying let that go.
If you want to actually create content and make this doable, you need to
start with what is most natural to you.
So decide, are you best at writing?
Are you best at just flipping on a video camera and talking,
or are you best at audio?
Recording your thoughts on audio and just getting them recorded somewhere.
The second question, when it comes to the channel challenge, now that we've
can relax and exhale and go, oh, so I have the freedom to do it my way and
to start with a form or a mode or a medium that comes most natural to me.
Yes.
Secondly, what channels do you want to connect with your audience on?
You need to start thinking when it comes to the final form of this content that
you're creating, what channels do you want to connect with your audience on?
Now, those words are important in that question because if you pick a channel
just because either an expert tells you to pick it, or perhaps right now it
seems to be the hot channel or social media platform or whatever the case may
be, that honeymoon phase is going to eventually dissolve or disappear, and
you're gonna be stuck doing something that you don't really enjoy doing.
So you need to choose a channel or channels that are meaningful to you.
So if you can't stand video, you don't ever want to think about video.
Keep that in mind before you choose YouTube or something as your primary way
that you're going to deliver this content.
But we, when we start thinking about what comes most natural to us to start
generating the content, and I'm thinking more along the lines of ideas or first
drafts, that's the channel challenge.
Hey, I just need to get something out there to get a, to vomit up a first draft.
We'll pick written video or audio, what comes most natural to you, but you
need to keep in mind what channels you want to connect with your audience on.
And the two key factors there are picking a channel that resonates
with you or channels, and you need to match that up with your audience.
So if you love writing long form blog content, But your audience
doesn't read that kind of content for whatever reason either they're busy
or generationally they don't read long form content or whatever that is.
You need to be aware of that.
So when you're thinking in terms of the final output of this, you know
what channels this is going to be on.
So if you start most naturally writing, but you, the channel you
want to connect on is YouTube.
Then obviously, somewhere down the line, you're gonna have to go from written form.
To video form, and that's fine.
You just want to be aware of that, and you want to be where your
audience is to a certain degree.
You have the ability to connect with an audience and tell them
like, this is where you find me.
So there, I don't know that there's a hard and fast rule that you absolutely
have to bow down to your audience or vice versa, that you demand that
they come find you on some channel that they just don't Hang out on.
So you wanna match that and marry that in the middle.
But those are the two questions . What comes most natural to you?
That's how you overcome the channel challenge.
Start with writing video or audio, whatever comes most natural to you.
Question two , determine the channels you're going to want to
connect with your audience on.
And then here's your very simple action step, which you
probably already saw coming.
Choose your starting mode for content creation.
Just pick the one.
I'm gonna write things out first, however you do that.
I'm gonna shoot some video first, however you do that.
I'm gonna record some audio first, however you do that.
Right now, I want you to just choose your starting mode for content creation
to make starting and getting going as easy as possible for you, and that
will help you move past the channel challenge of, I've gotta start some other
form that does not come natural to me.
That's it for this week's episode.
Next, we're gonna look at the, what I call the creator challenge.
hope you enjoyed this episode.
If so, hit the share button on your phone or your podcast player.
Share this episode with someone else.
I'd love for you to do that.
Join me on the next episode if you've ever found yourself wondering, how
do I get that first draft going?
Not only do you need to pick the channel, we're gonna take a look at that creator
challenge because all of us are different.
And again, most of the advice comes at us as if we're all one
kind of person or one kind of.
Content creator.
So show up.
Join me on that Next episode, we'll talk about the creator challenge.
Until next time, go and build a life-giving brand.