Content is not easy.
Wait, that doesn’t sound right.
Producing content is easy. Anyone can sit down and push out a post with no thought at all.
But you know that’s not how it works.
You know that content has a job, but sometimes you either don’t know how to execute the job or don’t know what the job is.
That’s why frameworks are important.
For the past decade, I’ve been creating content that does a job and that job is to create Superfans. All I do is ask a simple question.
Does this piece of content fall under the OPQ Framework?
What’s that?
I’ll tell you in a second, but first, it’s important to understand the problem people have with content creation.
Creating Pointless Content
Your audience isn’t all the same.
Different sections of your audience are in different parts of their journeys. Marketers tend to break these groups up into the different parts of the funnel:
- Top of the funnel
- Middle of the funnel
- Bottom of the funnel
That’s not what this post is about.
To keep it simple, let’s assume this OPQ Framework is only about social media content. That will make things easier.
With social media content, you have an even tougher task of getting the content to successfully complete a job.
Why?
Because you have no idea who is reading your content and where they’re at with their journey.
Let’s go through an example.
You know you can make money online. You’ve been trying to do it for a bit.
However, your Twitter feed is nothing more than people posting quotes and telling you that it’s possible to quit your job and make 6-figures a year.
None of this is helpful to you.
It doesn’t make you stop and see what else the person is talking about. It doesn’t make you visit their profile to click a link.
You continue to scroll until you find something that makes you stop in your tracks.
You’re trying to make money and you’re stuck.
You can’t figure out why your emails have a low clickthrough rate.
As you’re scrolling through Twitter you see a tweet with the headline:
How I increased my email CTR by 400%
You stop to read it because this is exactly the problem that you’re having right now.
And guess what?
The content is actually good.
Because the author of the tweet helped you out you check their profile.
You click their link.
You sign up for their workshop.
You buy their course.
The original tweet had a job and it did it.
Most people misstep with their content because they only focus on one aspect of it and that’s why the OPQ Framework exists.
What is it?
The OPQ Content Framework
The premise behind this framework is that your audience has a vision. They can know who they want to become but something is preventing them from getting it.
Your content should be helping them achieve that vision.
But the only way you can do that is by getting them to notice you. That means creating content that pulls them in because it alerts them that it’s meant for them.
I’m not talking about fancy hooks. Yes those work, but they aren’t the reason Superfans are created.
What I’m talking about is creating content that is meant for a single person who needs it at that specific time.
That’s how you get people to notice.
So what does OPQ stand for?
- Opportunities
- Problems
- Questions
Every single piece of content that you create (besides the personal stuff) should fall under one of these categories.
Opportunities
This is the most prevalent content on social media and for good reason. It gets the most engagement.
You too can make $10,000 a month by starting a social media agency.
But who would that headline work best on? Someone that is already making $15,000 a month or someone that hates their dead-end 9-5 and wants more?
That’s why you can’t focus too much on social media metrics. They don’t tell the whole story.
Problems
For me, this is the most important type of content in this framework.
Opportunities are great, but people with problems are looking for solutions now.
If I can help you solve a problem now then that means you level up and that’s very powerful. You’ll listen more because I helped you do that.
Telling you about an opportunity will get you to notice me, but not a guarantee to get you to pay attention to me in the long term.
Looking at the customer’s journey, some people need time to know they have a problem. They have to get to that roadblock first.
Questions
This is my least used type of content in the framework. Mainly because it’s more specific.
Sure it can be broad such as “How do I make money online?” but it’s much better when it’s specific.
How do I create an effective sales funnel?
Remixing the Content
You’ve probably heard the gurus tell you that you need to repurpose your content. This framework makes it a whole lot easier.
Watch this.
- Subject: Sales Funnels
- Opportunity: You can make $10,000 a month through automated emails that run forever
- Problem: Working too hard on your business? It’s probably because you aren’t using sales funnels.
- Question: Wondering how you create an effective sales funnel? Let me show you.
Now, sales funnels are a pretty broad topic so I probably could’ve done better.
But you might’ve noticed something else with the remixing above. You can continue to go wide or deep with the content.
- Here’s why your sales funnel isn’t converting
- What’s the best number of emails to have in a sales funnel?
- A Star Wars Funnel can make you 6 figures a month
- You can sell without selling
- Writing a newsletter isn’t enough
The OPQ Framework helps you look at a single topic in multiple ways. You do this because again, you don’t know when your content will get in front of someone and you have no idea where they’re at in their journey.
If you want to succeed with your business you have to repeat yourself.
Constantly.
But that doesn’t mean you have to say the same thing the same way every single time.
