I’ve met and worked with many entrepreneurs whose marketing strategies and mindsets helped pave their way towards success. By observing their shared patterns, I was able to craft a content marketing strategy system and framework that shifted my business model towards the right path.

What was that commonality that guided these people to success? I found that it simply boils down to their content marketing strategy.

Quick Links:

• TIP: How to Develop Your Content Marketing Strategy [Infographic Download]
• Episode Overview – Content Marketing Formula
• Personal Note from Jenn Neal: Imitation and the Content Strategy Framework
• Episode audio [Podcast on Spotify]
• Blog Post – The Content Marketing Strategy Formula
• Related Posts

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TIP: How to Develop Your Content Marketing Strategy

What’s In This Episode

Jenn has taken some cool framework structures and put together a way to remember Content Marketing, unlike any you’ve seen before and promises it’s going to stick with you. You’re going to be able to figure out exactly where you are and what you need to do with next steps.

Imitation is the Sincerest Form of Flattery

-Jenn Neal

Imitation is the Sincerest Form of Flattery

Growing up, my little brother always used to imitate me and it drove me crazy!

Countless times, I can recall complaining that he was copying me again and to tell him to stop. 😉 My parents must have laughed at that SOO much!

My dad used to say “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery” and I didn’t care what flattery was or why he was doing it I just wanted him to stop!!!

However, now looking back with a bit more wisdom/ years under my belt…. I can see that my dad was right. (UGH saying that – don’t tell my dad!)

But – in all truthfulness… we DO imitate that which we want. It’s how we learn and grow.

So fast forward to my preparation for our Smart[er] Content Formula event when I was prepping guests. 

I remember listening to Kathryn Jones’ presentation on DESIGN.

And it pretty much blew my mind. It was so simple – using the word to help remember all of the steps. And it was so simple and straight forward and easy to follow that it became her signature talk, and one that helped to launch her CF Design School into the multi million dollar mark.

So – I felt like it was little baby me following Kathryn around wanting to imitate her with my own signature framework that would help to define the movement I was creating.

When I interviewed Kathryn for her speaking spot at our virtual summit, I told her flat out I was going to copy her idea.

“DO IT!” she encouraged. 😉

And let me tell you – the DOING is MUCH harder than it looks!

I spent an entire weekend with a notebook and thesaurus to find the right way to visualize the steps for my content marketing framework.

But – I made it! And the result – I LOVE.

Simple, easy to remember, and it’s been an instant hit ever since the release.

I shared the framework for the first time at our Smart[er] Content Formula Event and the visualization of it got dubbed the “death star” which is a nickname that stuck.

Don’t miss out on this – a simple, easy to remember and follow system that guides you to setting up your own content marketing strategy using the acronym CONTENT.

Enjoy!

The Content Marketing Strategy Formula:

Content That Converts

Finding the right way to convey your message is key because, at the end of the day, you need to attract your market to effectively let traffic flow to you. And, with the right content, that traffic can easily be converted into sales.

Putting together the success patterns I observed, I was able to draft the Content Marketing Journey, which can help you figure out your next steps by first identifying where you are in this journey.

This was also inspired by Alex Charfen, who created the Billionaire Code, which I highly recommend you check out!

Content Marketing Journey

Looking at this spreadsheet I created, you need to first determine which stage of the journey you are on. Doing this will give you a clearer picture of how you want your content to serve you. At one to five months, you may be just dabbling in content marketing strategy, but at 51 to 1,000 weeks, it’s possible you’re already using your content to control traffic towards your many platforms.

After figuring out what stage you are in and content marketing’s importance to you, you then need to focus on the important questions that weigh most heavily on your mind. Because from that point, you can easily shift your focus to crafting the message that best addresses your greatest needs.

Finally, you need to figure out the one step that indicates you are ready to move on to the next step. But remember that whatever stage you are in, it is important to look to the left and be confident that you’ve mastered those earlier stages. Progress is the goal, but without a solid foundation, things may fall apart, which may force you to start the process all over.

Content Spots

Now you may be producing content without an idea where it will go. In this spreadsheet, I’ve listed what I call Content Spots, which is where different types and levels of content can be designed for and placed in.

• Stumble: This is basically content you produce that is encountered by people in their everyday social media viewing.
• Star Status: Like celebrity endorsements, this involves you being a guest in somebody’s spot to promote your product or service. It’s kind of like Stumble, but instead of producing your own content, others produce it for you.
• Share: This provides a more in-depth way of sharing more about yourself, like through joint ventures and training you put together.
• Search: This is where search engine optimization comes in. This is for content people find through platforms like Google search, Pinterest, and YouTube.
• Subscribe: This is for content you produce regularly that people can opt to follow to continue receiving whatever information you choose to share.
• Sell: This entails paid-for traffic through things like pay-per-click ads.
• Stuff: This includes printed marketing collateral that people receive in the mail.
• Stalk: This involves targeted and even personalized content like email marketing or personal consultations via phone calls or Zoom.

Note how the complexity in content production increases when moving from left to right.

3 Big Content Marketing Strategy Mistakes

Besides remembering the positive patterns I’ve encountered, I also took note of the three biggest mistakes people make that lead to poor content utilization and results.

Reusing Poor Content

Content repurposing is great if you’re doing it the right way, but many people constantly reuse bad messaging that effectively gets them nowhere.

It’s important to look at your metrics first before repurposing any content. Make sure it will stick by having a good story that can emotionally connect with your target audience.

Pushing, Not Pulling

Many marketers constantly push their message through paid ads or fear-based marketing. I’ve found that the more effective way is to instead pull people towards you. Make yourself attractive. Offer enticing solutions to their problems so they come to you.

Not Having a Strong Foundation

Before even attempting to sell anything, establish a strong foundation. Set up the framework and all the elements you need to be able to nurture and deliver what your audience is looking for.

Conversion and retention requires optimizing your performance to offer your audience a customer journey worth sticking to.

The Content Activation Formula – Content Marketing Strategy Visualized

You’ve now established where you are on your content marketing journey, where to place your content, and what things to avoid. You know that the basic flow is to create, attract, and then convert. Next up is my content marketing formula – a framework for an effective content marketing strategy.

Create

Imagine your business as its own little world. The content that you create will act as a road that connects your target audience’s world to yours. Connect to them by establishing a strong emotional bond.

Optimize

Once you’ve established an effective message, optimize that by enhancing all of that information through content repurposing. It’s like turning that initial road into a major highway, leading the flow of traffic towards your business.

Notice

Now that you’ve attracted their attention, you want them to focus all their attention on you. You want them to remain in your world, absorbing all your content until they are ready to engage in everything your business has to offer.

Turn and Engage

Through engagement, they are now paying some sort of toll for access to your world. They can pay by opting in to your services by sharing their email address or phone number, by signing up for a free trial, or by directly buying.

You can encourage engagement through your lead magnets.

Nurture

Once they’re onboard, follow their customer journey to make sure you can provide them with the best possible experience while also letting them know that there’s more to your world and they can keep going.

Track

Finally, track every aspect of the journey. By doing this, you can assess how everything is doing. How is engagement? Are they being nurtured? What are people buying? Where are people dropping off? How is our attraction marketing doing?

Tracking all those metrics will provide you all the information you need to elevate the customers’ experiences.

It’s a continual optimization process.

To help you remember this formula, notice the first letter of each word:

• C: create
• O: optimize
• N: notice
• T: turn
• E: engage
• N: nurture
• T: track

Clever, isn’t it?

Now all that’s needed is putting all of this together according to where you are on your content marketing journey so that you can move forward towards the next stage.

Related Posts

Developing a Strategy

Content Marketing Tactics That’ll Skyrocket Your Search Traffic

Content Repurposing Workflow and Starting Out With A Bang

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