the content mint newsletter

If you are an expert or a specialist of some sort, one way to drive demand for your service is to use your content to teach people how to achieve the outcomes you deliver on their own.

This seems counter-intuitive, but what it does is filter your customers into those who have the time or ability to solve their problem on their own, and those who don’t.

Those who can achieve their own outcomes have a lower need for your offering, which means they will value it less.

It’s those who still need help even after being given all the information needed to DIY it who will have the greatest appreciation for your offering (and therefore be the most willing to pay for it).

Have you ever had the feeling that certain brands seem to create content that doesn’t actually come from the real world?

I think the clearest example of this is Apple. All of Apple’s marketing comes from a fantasy land in which there are no other computing brands besides Apple.

Gone are the days of the Mac vs PC ads. Now, rather than wasting time comparing themselves to anyone else, Apple just ignores the existence of PC altogether.

Apple may be an extreme example, but the point is this:

When you start creating media, you are building a world in which your offering exists and you get to decide what else is in that world.

Apple decided that there are no alternatives in the Apple fantasy land.

What does it look like in your fantasy land?

Sometimes when discussing online content, a distinction is made between “long form” and “short form” content. I won’t go into the distinction here (frankly, there is a good bit of gray area between the two), rather my point is that there may be a better distinction in the first place.

Long form and short form are both concerned with outputs, but I think a more useful consideration for the value of our content are the inputs. If we look at content through the lens of how much time and care went into a piece, we’ll find that the final length is neither good nor bad but thinking ahead makes it so.

For instance, on the one hand, it’s very possible to record an hour long podcast with zero preparation that ends up being a series or rambling tangents which provide very little value, while on the other hand you can take the time to make a long piece shorter.

Ultimately it comes down to making sure we are developing and nurturing our content in such a way that the value gained by the audience outweighs the time-cost of whatever format we choose, be it long or short.

This is the one hundredth post of the content mint!

I just wanted to take this chance to say thanks for spending a couple of minutes of your daily attention to think through what makes media valuable with me.

There are a few new things in the works, including some real-world content strategy discussions! Updates on all that will come to you directly right here via the newsletter.

I’d also love to hear from y’all what has been the most valuable part of the newsletter for you personally? Do you have a favorite topic or post? Feel free to let me know—or, better yet, let someone else know who might also find it valuable.

Thanks again for reading!

— JSS

primum non tempus perdere

Think about what you want your business to be five years from now.

What does this business look like?

What kind of customers does it have?

How do those customers perceive this business?

What is the relationship between that business and its customers?

Now consider . . .

What kind of content would that business be posting?

I recently came across a benchmark report by Rival IQ about the state of social media across a variety of industries.

They examined all kinds of statistics related to how frequently businesses in each industry post on the various platforms, what types of posts they create (video, photos, reels, carousels, etc), and which types of posts and hashtags get the most engagement.

But, in my opinion, the most important piece of information came near the beginning of the report:

Engagement rates are dropping year-over-year on all social media platforms across all industries.

So . . .

What’s your long game?

audio

Always check your sound with headphones, don’t just rely on your audio meter levels to tell if you’re capturing good sound. The levels will tell you if your audio is in the right volume range, but you won’t be able to determine if there is excess noise or static.

This seems like an obvious tip, but I have come across this problem more than once in the last few weeks, even people who know what they’re doing can get tripped up on it.

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video

When recording something happening, shoot the same action from multiple perspectives if you have the time and opportunity. For example, if you are recording two people in conversation, you might get these shots:

• a wide shot (shows the two people and surrounding environment)
• a medium shot (both people in frame about waist up)
• and two close ups, one for each person

When you start to edit your clips together you will be able to cut from the wide to the medium to the close ups which will make the action more dynamic and give you more creative options. This tip can also apply to photography.

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video editing

If you’re looking for a desktop-based video editing software, DaVinci Resolve is a cross-platform, professional-level editing application which makes the majority of its features available in the free version. It’s definitely worth getting to know if you are getting started and want something to grow into.

Want more random DIY content creation tips? Check out vol. 1 and vol. 2

It’s all well and good to decide that you should be posting content consistently, but when you’re in the day-to-day of a busy season in your actual work, keeping up the content can be challenging.

So how do you maintain momentum?

Here are a handful of considerations:

make it a habit

The more frequent you make the habit, the less likely you are to drop the ball. This is a daily newsletter because it’s pretty easy to remember that every day I need to post something (although that doesn’t necessarily make the actual content generation any easier, tbh).

self-queue triggers

This would involve thinking of events that happen on a regular basis that you can use to “trigger” you to make new content.

For example, you might decide that every time you get back from a job site you need to post an insight of what you learned or something interesting that happened. That way you don’t have to think about posting content until you’re out in the field and are in a proper context for developing insights.

seasonality

Don’t feel like consistency necessarily means non-stop. You can fluctuate between periods of high- and low-intensity publishing, the key is keeping these period rhythmic and, if not predictable, then at least clearly communicated to the audience when you’re taking a break or start publishing again.

create a content plan

This is the most strategic approach. It means not posting any content for a period of time during which you can decide on a high-level communication goal (say, you want to change your customer mix, so you need your communication to resonate with a new demographic).

Once that goal has been defined, you can plan out the kind of communication you want to develop (form, context, etc) and start gathering the materials (photos, video, graphics, etc) which can be turned into content and more easily posted on a regular schedule, or even scheduled to be posted automatically if it’s all pre-made.

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The great thing about creating content based on value rather than algorithmic optimization, is that you can take the time to get creative and decide a publishing schedule that makes the most sense for your personal voice and for your offering, without stressing about hitting a quota based on attention-maxing.

The traditional wisdom regarding content creation is that you should be posting content with some degree of consistency. I agree with this advice, but maybe not for the usual reasons given by digital marketing gurus, which typically revolve around SEO and algorithm hacking (i.e. spamming).

While ultimately your content should match your offering, here are three reasons, rooted in value creation rather than capture, that posting regularly can be a useful approach:

meta-value

Creating content consistently keeps you thinking about your business at a deep level on a regular basis, which should mean that you are steadily growing and improving your ability to deliver value to your customers through your offering. Doing this publicly by publishing content demonstrates this steady growth to your customers.

expectation management

If part of your content strategy is to provide a vicarious experience of your offering, posting consistently means that customers can be fairly certain the vicarious experience of your offering will be consistent with the actual experience. Less frequent updates can create dissonance when it comes to the purchasing phase.

ritual

Depending on the kind of value that your content offers, providing it in a frequent and predictable manner can potentially increase its effectiveness by transforming it into a habit or ritual for the audience. Educational or personal development offerings are good examples of content that may benefit from this approach.

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Each of these benefits of consistency is predicated on a fairly high-touch method of content creation. When high-frequency is combined with outsourced or automated generation, there’s a good chance the underlying motivation is exploitative.

If your goal is to post all your content on social media in hopes of going viral and converting those followers into customers somehow, then—congratulations!

You’ve just entered a competition to become the most interesting business in the world

In a game like that, no matter how successful you get, you’ll pretty much always feel like you’re losing.

So, why not change the game to one with better odds?