I’ve been overthinking my Content Creation work to death…
Creating content from our ideas – our thought leadership – can seem like a big job. And that’s why we put it off. It’s got to be right, brilliant, beautiful, perfect… before we’ll publish. Right?
That’s what I thought too. Then I realised I’d been overthinking it, complexifying it up!
It needs to be valuable, to the reader and to you – you will both gain. It needs to be the smallest, minimum, useful explanation of the idea. It needs to be an asset – something you’ll be proud of and won’t need to update every 5 minutes.
So, make it easy on yourself. Have a simple repeatable system. Know who does what and when (you’re not still trying to do it all yourself are you?) Outsource the bits you’re not great at. Focus on the expression of an idea that adds value to your client. Turn your content into an asset, not a ‘to do’ list liability.
Scott Adams (funny guy, author, How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big): “Goal-oriented people exist in a state of continuous pre-success failure at best, and permanent failure at worst if things never work out. Systems people succeed every time they apply their systems, in the sense that they did what they intended to do.”
Here’s my recipe (or system) for content creation. It’s based on making more output than input so you reach your outcome.
Input < Output ⇒ Outcome
Which means you need to know your outcome for the content before you begin.
Step 1: The Most Wanted Response
What is the one thing you want them to do after reading and watching your content? What will make a transformation for them, and for you?
Outcome: The A to B transformation of knowing, doing or being
Step 2: The Idea
Write up a minimum valuable idea in less than 500 words. It must be evergreen (asset) and valuable to your reader & to you.
If you’re stuck for ideas come to the Uncover Your Hidden Assets Sprint to find out what you already know.
Output: Post it on your blog (your central repository of ideas – what I call your CommonPlaceContainer)
Step 3: The Person (you)
Make a 3 minute video about the idea so viewers can get to know, like and trust you. Don’t just read out the blog, be natural, relaxed, get the idea across in less than 3 minutes. Keep it simple and real. Record it on your smartphone.
Output: Video uploaded to Youtube, LinkedIn, Facebook
Step 4: The Image
Create a sharable image based on the idea. It could be a quote (yours), short bullet list of ideas, a single action, a funny meme. Use canva.com or get an assistant to create the image.
Output: Image shared on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram
Step 5: The Gift
Create a gift – the Minimum Valuable Asset. It could be a 1-pager PDF of an infographic (like this), a checklist, a cheat sheet, a template, slides from a deck…
Output: Give freely (LinkedIn, Facebook, etc…) or create a lead generation page to get people to sign up to your email list
Step 6: The Touch
Write your newsletter using ‘The Idea’ and send it to everyone on your email list. Link back to the video to give them an insight into the person. Use the image and give them the free download gift. Nurture your contacts with gifts of value.
Output: Nurture email to your list
Step 7: Do It Again
Repeat the sequence weekly, fortnightly or monthly – whatever works for you and your audience. Aim for high value and consistency not world domination.
Measure your results, hone your system.
Do you want to download the handy cheatsheet? Click here to get your copy of the Content Creation Minimum Valuable Asset cheatsheet.
Let me know what you think.
