Dose #116: Content Creation Tips

Matt here with your weekly Subscription Prescription 💊

This week’s dose is all about content. No matter what you’re selling, content can help educate and attract customers. Keep reading for my strategy on creating content, tips for improving, and some additional resources you can steal that I’ve used myself.

This week’s dose is also a podcast! Watch or listen on your platform of choice:

Get Better at Creating Content

In a world where content is necessary for so many different parts of your business, how do you keep up?

Yes, AI is making many things easier, but with articles, posts, newsletters, product pages, and more - the need for content is only increasing.

I have the same problem with my business; it’s difficult to keep up with all the content demands.

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Why Content is Crucial

Content is vital for any subscription brand. From ads to blogs to social posts to emails and inserts, content plays a huge role in how subscribers are acquired and nurtured.

Creating content, however, can feel overwhelming, especially if you’re trying to maintain consistency across communication channels.

In this week’s dose, I’ll share a bit of my approach to content, including a strategy that can be powerful for creating various content pieces, some more tips, and resources that I’ve used to up my content game.

Let’s dive in!

Content Creation Strategies

Content creation does require a strategy. When you’re making ads, emails, websites… it’s easy to feel like there is too much going on.

As a founder or person leading the content charge, here are some strategies for improving your content game (and thereby getting more sales).

Start with What You're Good At: Identify your strengths—whether it's writing, being on camera, or talking passionately about your subject.

Lean into what you’re good at. If you love taking photos, Instagram is a great place to share your talents. Good on camera? TikTok and YouTube are calling. Great writer? Blogs and SEO are ready for you.

Think through how you can leverage your strengths to reach your desired audience. You can always get a little outside help on optimizing videos, blog articles, emails, etc., to get you over the top.

Cookie Content: Make one big piece of content that you can use in many other ways.

I call this cookie content because you’re essentially baking a giant cookie and breaking it up into little pieces you can share in various ways.

Instead of thinking about how you can possibly create content for emails, blogs, and videos, you start with one main piece and repurpose it.

As a personal example, I make a lot of different content pieces, but I start with a podcast. Every week, I release the podcast (video + audio), but use that transcript to help me write this newsletter. This newsletter is then used to create social posts for Twitter and LinkedIn.

Power of Storytelling: Tell a story more than anything else. Whether you’re sharing your own personal journey or the story of a customer, stories are the best way to resonate with your audience.

A story draws people in, gives them something to relate to, and allows you to share your point of view without coming across as too salesy.

When you combine what you’re good at with a main piece of content and tell a story, you’ve taken a big leap in creating content.

Content Consistency and Optimization

As you start to create content, here are some tips to make things work better for you long-term.

Consistency is Key: Regularly creating content is more important than perfection. Develop a habit, then seek expert advice to optimize. The content you make today will look a lot different in a year or two, but consistency is how you hit your stride with content.

Experiment and Learn: Test different content formats and gather feedback to refine your approach. Even though it may seem different, trying something new with content can have great results. Just be sure to pay attention to what you’re testing to see if it’s giving you the results you want.

Frameworks and Techniques: There are many different ways to create content across different mediums. In copywriting, for example, I like the PAS framework (Problem-Agitation-Solution), which gives me a format to write with. The framework makes it easier on me, and is a tried-and-true method for writing better copy.

Resource Recommendations

My own journey as a content creator has been greatly influenced by the resources below, and I hope that they can be of help to you as well.

Story Brand: The ultimate tool for learning better storytelling, not just in writing but from a brand perspective. This is a book and framework that helps you position your content from the user's perspective, making it more relatable and effective.

Exit 5 Community: For B2B marketing, Dave Gerhardt is one of the absolute best. He has a podcast and community you can join. I relied on this heavily as I got more and more into B2B marketing.

Justin Welsh: If you’re creating content for LinkedIn or Twitter, there is no one better. If you’re trying to create cookie content to repurpose, he has a lot to share as well. He has a ton of templates you can use.

For almost anything else, like making videos, writing blogs, and creating email sequences, I highly recommend finding experts in your network. Many of them create content about making better content, and you can use that to level up your skills.

Final Thoughts

Still unsure where to start? Write or record your journey to this point. What made you want to start a product company, get into sales, or pick the job you did?

Turn that journey into a story! Dive into the reasons why, the obstacles, the rewards… get into all of it! That one big piece of content, told as a story, will give you fuel for emails to new customers, social posts, or videos.

You can always hire content creators, but having a handle on your story and what you want customers to know about your product and brand will make a huge difference in what other people create for you too.

That’s the secret! Getting started with your story.

That’s it for this week! Stay tuned for next dose #114 out next Tuesday.

 - Matt Holman 🩺

The Subscription Doc