So let’s talk strategy, right?
Because content without strategy is just, well, content.
And what even is content, right?
It might make you visible, but it’s not going to make you profitable.
Not without a strategy anyway.
So to me, every piece of content should have a job.It should either build trust, drive traffic, generate leads, or convert to sales.
And if it doesn’t do one of those things, then why are you even posting it to look popular?
Because that’s not going to win you business.
So let me give you an example.I’ve seen creators with 50K plus followers who can’t even fill a free webinar.
It’s ridiculous.
You’d think that a free webinar people are going to line up to to go attend that because it’s they’ve got 50K people.
They can’t even get 10 people to come to their webinar.
And why?
Because their content is too broad, it’s too trendy, it’s too for the algorithm and it has no clear funnel behind it.
And you know what?
The whole thing’s kind of ironic really, because these guys are posting educational content every day, basically about how to post educational content every single day.
And the ones who perform best on each other’s social media channels, whether that’s on LinkedIn or Instagram, are those who are talking about how to perform best on LinkedIn and Instagram.
And, and who are the people who are sending the most courses?
They’re usually the ones who are teaching you how to sell courses.
Honestly, we’ve now reached peak Meta.
It’s ridiculous because essentially the problem is everyone is playing a game they don’t really understand.
Most entrepreneurs are confusing content strategy with content scheduling.
They think that having a Monday meal, a Tuesday quote, and a Wednesday carousel is a strategy.
It’s not.
It’s just a calendar.
Like a strategy.
A real strategy actually tells you what you should be saying, who you’re saying it to, why it matters, and where you’re driving them to next.
But that stuff just doesn’t trend well on LinkedIn.
So instead we see these endless posts with no CTA, no funnel, no connection to any offer.
And then the creators are wondering why their engagement doesn’t lead to income.
And it’s because the gurus have told us to show up and be vulnerable, to tell personal stories and not to sell because it’s icky.
And you know what?
I’ve been doing that for years.
And that’s just because I never intended to say on, on social media.
I just wanted to show up and share my opinion, my voice.
It was almost like an outlet for myself, right?
And I built up a really engaged audience because of it.
So I know it definitely works in terms of engagement and growing a following, but I didn’t make much money from that audience at the beginning.
Not like not at all really.
I was running my agency and I had no intention of doing it because I had other marketing efforts that my agency was making money.
We had so many referrals and my SEO was good.
So I was getting an in band lead.
So I didn’t need anything from LinkedIn.
But obviously when I started a new start up and I started going towards more freelance stuff, I had to be a bit more intentional.
So I didn’t make the money that I wanted to make until I started putting CTAs on my posts and actually being intentional.
The thing is, when I did that, my stats massively dropped.
And when I’m saying stats here, I mean in terms of reach, likes and engagement, the stuff that people live for, right?
Because no one really cares about the selling.
It doesn’t interest them.
What did they get benefit from that, right?
It’s only me, the benefits because I’m going to sell my stuff.
But, well, a handful of my right audience, right?
It did because they were interested in using me as my services and actually getting to know how I can help them.
The thing is now every single time I actually put a CTA in my post or mention specifically what I do for work and how I can help other people, I get leads come from that post every single time.
And that’s kind of crazy really, because 100% success rate from the post, It’s, it’s totally wild, but it means I now have the right audience And it, it means that I don’t have to, that I don’t feel the need to do it that often, right?
I can just do my usual Valenti posts and opinion posts and then every so often I can show up with the right intention and, and, and actually sell like I don’t have to be salesy.
It should all still work as long as it fits within a strategy.
And here’s another stat that I feel like will really hit hard.
Pharma, the content marketing Institute, they did AB2B report last year and it actually said that only 16% of marketers say their content marketing is actually very effective 16%.
And that’s on the pros, right?
So imagine what that number is for solopreneurs who are trying to wing it in between client calls.
It’s, it’s ridiculous actually.
And a huge part of the problem is this recycled advice that you see online, right?
The add values show up consistency, don’t sell, educate all that stuff.
And it’s like, cool, but value to who?
Consistently where?
Educate on what and then what?
Because this generic advice leads to generic results.
This is the same bullshit that you see all the time.
And it’s not strategy because if you’re not clear on your positioning, your offer, and your audience’s actual buying journey, then you’re just shouting into the void and hoping the algorithm’s going to throw you a bone at some point and reward you.
You cannot do business like that.
You can spend your 10 hours a week making content and still earn 0 from it.
And trust me, I’ve seen this happen with brilliant founders who do have value to share, but they just had no content plan behind posting.
So I think we need a bit of a wake up call.
And remember those numbers I mentioned earlier?
Let’s please go back to that tonight because at the end of the day, everything needs to come down to ROI.
And even if you’re just starting out and you’re not at your £100 an hour, let’s say you’re, you’re charging half that because I think that anyone starting a business doing any sort of professional services, you should be at land at least £50 an hour, right?
So if you’re just starting out, you’re, you’re charging £50 an hour.
But you know what, if you’re just starting out, you probably haven’t streamlined your processes when it comes to content so that you’re only spending 10 hours per week on content.
You’re probably going to do something a lot more than that, right?
But let’s just say you are for, for again, for ease.
So that’s £500 a week, which is like 2 KA month.
Are you getting a return on that?
Now bear in mind you need to be getting that only from your content.
For example, you may have more than two KA month coming in, but other channels may be working better for you.
And sometimes you don’t know where your leads find you, right?
You, you, you do you know what, like I feel like people always like, I don’t know where my leads come from.
So how do I know?
It might be because from that, it might be from that.
And I was like, do you know what the best thing to do is just ask them.
It’s always great data to find out where your leads come from and if it is social media, ask them which post, why did they do it.
Like this info is gold.
So if you’re actually not getting your positive eyeing on content, it’s time to ask.
What is the point of posting every day if it doesn’t align with your offer, your customer journey, and your overall business goals?
Because otherwise you’re just being busy.
And you’re better off spending that time building a solid offer, improving your funnel, or following up with leads manually.
Like there’s nothing wrong with that.
And don’t get me wrong, consistency isn’t bad.
It’s essential to build trust right and stay top of mind.
But consistency without strategy is basically just self-imposed pressure.
I’ve, I’ve totally done it to myself and it’s not fun.
So what you actually need is message clarity.
It’s who are you actually speaking to and what do you stand for?
If you don’t have that clear to start with, that’s where you’re starting.
You also need to have platform relevance.
So not just recycling your content at every single platform.
You need to tailor your message to where your audience actually hangs out.
Just because everyone’s saying they’re going viral on TikTok does not mean you need to be on TikTok.
So think about where your audience actually hangs out.
You also need audience alignment.
So speaking to real pain points, not just the trends, like trends are cool for a bit.
Ryan, you might get more views, but are you getting more business and strategic repetition, not just repurposing because it’s easy.
Repeat your key ideas and don’t just churn out random posts because posting every day is an impressive.
But you know what is converting more with half the content and half the effort.
So let’s try and make that happen.