A Winning Approach to Content Strategy

Do you play golf?

I don’t, however I’m intrigued by one factor: The purpose of golf is to play the least quantity of golf.

Give it some thought. The winner is the one who swings their golf equipment the fewest occasions.

A smart content strategy ought to work in an identical manner.

The fascinating half is the query of differentiation. More and more, your purpose as advertising practitioners is not to distinguish on the “Google Search state” and get the prospect to obtain your thought management. Your purpose is to distinguish your organization from that stack of content material that the committee sifts by means of.

So, yeah, the content material crew’s normal working process is, effectively, extra. Extra content material is the reply.

Is extra content material the reply?

My purchasers usually inform me they really feel the content material advertising crew creates an excessive amount of content material. They are saying issues like: “Everybody desires extra content material, however a lot of what we create is wasted.”

At first, that appears counterintuitive. In the event that they’re losing content, why don’t they only produce much less?

Counsel that, and also you’ll get this pushback: “If we produce much less, we would waste a smaller quantity. However everybody nonetheless desires extra.”

However right here’s what all that basically means. When the crew supplies a hearth hose of content material, there’s an excessive amount of waste, however all people’s thirst is quenched. When the content material crew offers a backyard hose of content material, fewer belongings go unused, however all people nonetheless feels thirsty.

And now, with AI, you actually have the power to push extra water by means of no matter dimension hose you’ve got.

This problem isn’t confined to content material advertising. It occurs in trendy advertising planning, too. Everybody in B2B advertising and gross sales appears to assume they want extra. Extra content material. Extra advertising. Extra leads. Extra alternatives. Extra gross sales.

Extra all the time appears higher or at the least much less dangerous. So, many content material and advertising groups construct their methods to reply the query: “How will we get extra?”

However right here’s the soiled little secret of content material in enterprise: “Extra” isn’t sufficient. It doesn’t matter how huge your crew is; extra won’t ever be sufficient to win the sport of content material.

It took me a very long time to determine this content material advertising conundrum. Once I’d inform individuals extra isn’t the reply, they’d ask, “Then how a lot content material ought to we produce?”

My outdated reply was, “As a lot as you assume you will be nice at.”

I used to assume you must ship as a lot content material as you possibly can whereas sustaining the standard requirements you’ve set (assuming you’ve set any.)

However that recommendation is fallacious.

If the query of the way to get extra content material drives your technique, your technique is doomed. You’ll by no means produce sufficient.

The higher query comes from golf: How are you going to create extra aces, eagles, and birdies?

In different phrases, how little is sufficient to win the sport?

Just do sufficient

Any nice live performance, tv sequence, film, or novel makes the viewers want it will go on. They’re engaged, they’re moved, and so they need extra.

Many nice experiences are available shorter packages. The Nice Gatsby is simply 180 pages lengthy, and the movie Casablanca lasts solely 100 minutes. The wonderful TV sequence Higher Name Saul ended after six brief seasons (13 episodes every).

Although the viewers wished extra, the creators instructed tales precisely so long as they wanted to be.

However what number of occasions have you ever come away from a sequence saying, “That was fairly good, however it may have been three episodes as a substitute of eight?” That’s a traditional symptom of defaulting to extra.

That’s to not say lengthy content material or a variety of content material can’t be efficient. Warfare and Peace wouldn’t be Warfare and Peace if it weren’t 1,200 pages.

Nevertheless, I’ve discovered content material and advertising groups really feel only when the tradition focuses on figuring out how a lot is sufficient as a substitute of chasing extra.

Give it some thought like this. Every time I speak to content material advertising groups, they view it like this, “Oh, we have to produce 4 weblog posts this month. Which means we have to have 4 distinct concepts and write 4 articles of 1,500 phrases every. Let’s assign a useful resource to that.”

Maybe they need to take a look at it like this: “We now have 4 tales to create, and each can be so long as it must be. And the third story could also be sufficiently big that it will be higher served as a two-parter, so we’ll actually solely have three weblog posts to create this month.”

In an ideal world, artistic content material staff would spend much less time assembling content material and extra time pondering of progressive and memorable content material to create.

In most companies, although, it really works the opposite manner round. Content material groups get stretched skinny, fulfilling all of the requests for too many initiatives. They will’t assemble digital belongings quick sufficient to maintain up with the firehose of requests.

Right here’s the punchline: 9 out of 10 occasions, an audit reveals that my purchasers aren’t producing an excessive amount of content material however creating too many digital belongings. I recommend they cease filling everybody’s days with assembling and producing belongings.

As a substitute, I inform them to determine which content material can be sufficient.

Drive and putt for impression

Now when purchasers ask how a lot content material they need to produce, I inform them this: If you wish to win at content material advertising, produce as little as it’s essential to get the impression you need.

Don’t purpose to provide overwhelming quantities of content material even in case you can and even when it’s nice. As a substitute, purpose to provide simply sufficient to ship the meant worth and create the behavioral change you search.

Get by means of the course in as few swings as attainable.

Don’t ask, “How will we create extra?” As a substitute, ask, “What’s sufficient?”

That query forces you to outline an goal — an impression — to create and measure. It additionally forces you to outline “sufficient.”

Sufficient to what? Sufficient content material to create 10% extra leads? Sufficient to accumulate 1,000 subscribers? Sufficient to fulfill the gross sales enablement crew with the finances you’ve got?

When you outline “sufficient,” it’s sport on for content material golf. Play as little as it’s essential to win. Deal with bringing your greatest sport.

Let’s get to work in your swing.