The Odd Creator’s Guide to Content Marketing That Brings You True Fans

First, it’s important that we get something out of the way.

I fucking hate the term content marketing.

Marketing is marketing. Content marketing makes it feel as though all of your content fits into this little category and because of that, most creators follow a templatized method of content creation.

It makes their content dull and unoriginal. It looks like the content you see everywhere else all because they feel they have to follow content marketing best practices.

Whatever the hell those are.

Here’s what I believe.

Your content is a representation of you. It’s who you are. It’s your voice.

When you hit the bar, club, or grocery store looking for your future partner, are the words coming out of your mouth marketing? I guess technically you could see them like that, but nobody does.

So why does your content need a term? That’s just how it is I guess, but I needed to let you know how I feel about that issue.

With that being said what is effective content marketing and how do you stop saying “fuck content marketing” and switch to “I looooove content marketing”?

Well, I suppose we should tackle what is content marketing first to appease the SEO gods.

What Is Content Marketing?

It’s nothing more than content used to pull people to your offers.

YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Podcasts, TikTok, Newsletters, Blogs.

All of those things are content marketing. Its goal is singular.

Pull people one step closer to buying from you.

You might be saying that all of it shouldn’t be geared toward getting people to buy. That sounds like selling!

But I never said that all content marketing includes a pitch. I just said it pulls your people closer to buying.

The Greatest Marketers Build Worlds

I truly believe that the greatest marketers today are able to build worlds. If you can learn how world building relates to business building then you can become unstoppable and for me that’s the appeal of content marketing.

Look at this post as an example. The language and images I’ve used have started to paint a world. The idea that content marketing isn’t what you think it is also continues to pain the world.

If you enjoy this world then you might want to explore it more and that’s the true value of content marketing.

It’s able to pull people in without pushing them towards something. Instead, it lets those who want to explore continue to explore. It’s the whole basis around building a Feel Good Funnel.

Notice how I used the two forces push and pull?

Push vs Pull Marketing

Bad content marketing feels like you’re being pushed towards something. Nobody likes to be pushed.

Great content marketing feels like you’re being pulled into a new world. Its gravity is inescapable but that’s a great thing for you because you’re drawn to it.

You can feel the difference between content that respects you versus content that simply wants you to take action. The great thing about today’s online marketing world is that the majority of brands use push marketing.

They try to strike fear in you. They want you to feel bad.

Because their thing is THE thing that will save you.

It definitely works and if that’s the kind of marketing you wish to do then this isn’t the place for you. I’m sure I could recommend some people to go to if you ask nicely enough.

And don’t get me wrong. I don’t hate that kind of marketing.

It’s just not the type that I build my brands around anymore. Am I leaving money on the table?

In the short-term most likely, but in the long-term I think I’ll make even more simply because pull marketing leads to Superfans and push marketing leads to churn.

An Effective Content Marketing Plan

So with all of that in mind, what is a good content marketing plan?

Well, no content marketing plan can start without understanding your audience.

Start With the Outcome

But instead of starting directly with the audience we are going to start with the outcome that you’re promising your audience. It can be really difficult trying to understand your audience without understand the outcome that you’re going to help them achieve.

Once you understand the outcome then you can do a better job of pinpointing the audience. Again, let’s look at this post.

The outcome I’m going to promise is that you’ll learn a new way to look at content marketing. That means I know I’m not talking to the people who want the 20th Century definition of marketing.

I’m talking to those who understand how the world has changed and doing what has been done before isn’t enough.

So who is the ONE person that you’re talking to right now? The person where the outcome you’re promising will be perfect for.

You don’t get 2,000,000. You don’t even get 20 people.

You get ONE.

Who is that person? What do they want? Why do they want it? What’s preventing them from getting it?

If you can’t answer these questions well then your content marketing is going to struggle and I’ll explain why in a minute. It’s easy to tell the Creators that understand their audience and those that are struggling to find theirs.

Can everyone be your audience? Not really. Even content creators that are strictly entertainers can’t appeal to everyone.

So why is it important to nail this down to one person?

Attention.

Too Many Voices In My Head

There are over 5,000 brands trying to get your attention every single day.

That’s not a small number. You’re competing with every single one. It doesn’t matter if they are in your niche or not.

In high school, I wasn’t competing against other boys for the attention of my girlfriend. I was competing against books.

If you don’t know who you are talking to then you won’t know exactly what to say and that’s important. It’s the messaging that makes you stand out from the crowd.

And the reason why is simple.

People want to feel heard.

When they come across you on social media, will they see a message that feels like it’s speaking directly to them or will it be the generic message meant for everyone?

Because if it’s the latter they’ll ignore it. There are enough creators already doing that. There doesn’t need to be another one.

Your job is to be the one voice that feels like they are talking to the person in a way that they can understand. If you can do that then the other 4,999 voice will not matter at all.

Create Your World

After we’ve established the outcome and the audience that wants that outcome we’re going to build our world. I think the traditional advice is to get started on social media and that makes sense when you need to test your messaging, but I like to see how my own worldviews.

Because everyone sounds the same online it’s important that you figure out the opinions, worldviews, and experiences that you have that will set your content apart.

Some of you will know this right away but most of you won’t discover this until you start to write. Forget SEO and all of the technical things that you think you need to worry about and just start writing.

The more I write in this post, the better I’m getting at formulating how I view content marketing. This will lead to better insights on social media that will pull more people toward me.

How deep do you need to get into world building? Not deep at all.

For Pocket Business, I started with a free course that walks through the process of what we do with all of our brands. That was the only content on the site for a very long time, but that content helped to dictate what was posted on social media.

Send Out Messages in a Bottle

With a couple of pieces of content on your site now you can work on getting people to know that your world exists. Pick a social media platform and start posting.

Okay, that advice was a bit too simple because you’re wondering what do you post?

It’s important to understand that there are two layers of content. Those who succeed are able to implement both layers.

Layer 1: What’s In It For Me?

You might’ve heard of this before but your audience is constantly thinking about what is in it for them. If it’s not obvious to them then they will dip out.

So how do you make this obvious? You talk about the following:

• Outcomes: What I can help you with
• Problems: I understand the things that are preventing you from achieving the outcomes
• Mechanisms: Here’s how you can solve the problems

Those are the things that will stand out to your audience.

Layer 2: What Makes You Different?

The problem with Layer 1 is that anyone can replicate it and that’s what many people do. It’s why so many sound the exact same on social media.

So what can you do? You can add in the following:

• Opinions
• Experiences
• Worldviews

Those are the pieces that put YOU into the content and can help you stand out. It’s what the majority of people are missing in their content marketing strategy.

By having these your content begins to stand out from the crowd.

Email Completes the Ecosystem

We haven’t spoken about email yet and email marketing is its own beast but it’s the one piece that ties everything together.

It’s easy to think that you can get away with simply sending people from your social media to blog posts but the problem is retention.

Instead of getting an audience that will continue to consume your content you end up having to constantly seek new people. Yes, you’ll be doing this anyways, but why not also keep the people who do come across you?

How?

If you get them to sign up for your mailing list using some type of opt-in, then you can create emails that send them to the valuable content on your site. That means people are becoming more familiar with your content and what you have to offer.

The Three Engines

The whole goal of the content marketing strategy discussed above is to keep the 3 engines of your business running.

1. Awareness
2. Acquisition
3. Award

By following this content strategy you’re able to consistently get people through each engine and grow your business. It ensures that one engine isn’t neglected in favor of others and more importantly, helps you to solely focus on social media if you plan everything else out correctly.

This is the exact strategy that we use for all of the brands at Makers Mob and also the one that we help to teach our students.