In last week’s issue, I told you that you need all 4 types of content. This week, we’re mapping them to goals.
I have yet to have a strategy session or a Growth Intensive where I don’t ask my clients “Why did you publish this?” or a variation of it.
The question isn’t meant to insult the quality of their content. In most cases, I choose pieces that are at least good, if not great. Or my clients ask me about pieces that they were expecting to perform but didn’t.
I ask this question when I can’t see the goal or the intention behind it. Yes, the content is good in the sense that it’s easy to read, entertaining, challenging, novel, or a combination of these.
But what does it actually do for your business?
The most common error in content strategy is the lack of a goal. Let’s fix that.
First, a message from our partner today, who fights against random acts of content as fiercely as I do. My friends at Content Circle are generously offering a few guest slots in their community events for Strategic AF readers.
📣 Brought to you by 📣
Content Circle
Come see what Content Circle, THE LinkedIn community, is all about.
This is a rare opportunity to sneak a peek into a private community because Content Circle is opening the doors for a few special guest days this month. Pick the one that fits your schedule and join us.
Content Circle is a live, hands-on membership where business owners plan, write, and get real-time feedback on LinkedIn content that builds trust and brings in leads (without the pressure to post daily or sound like everyone else).
Join as a guest for a coworking + coaching session to see how they help you turn ideas into content that actually connects.
No pitch. No pressure. Just good people, smart strategy, and space to write.
Choose your guest day:
👉 November 11
👉 November 18
👉 November 25
P.S.: I’ve been a guest speaker in Content Circle and I can confirm it’s a great place to hang out. So don’t miss out on this!
Want your name up here? Reserve your slot!
Random acts of content are why it often feels like you’re screaming into the void. Yes, volume matters. Yes, you should show up on your channels as often as humanly possible.
But not randomly.
Listen, I understand that churning out content every damn day, for at least a couple of platforms, is HARD. And that inspiration is sometimes elusive.
I’ve been in content marketing for 15 years and I still feel the temptation to post something, anything, just to check a box.
My favorite way to fight this temptation is to ask a simple question:
Why the F am I posting today?
Sure, to stay top of mind. But what’s the purpose of this particular piece of content?
Largely speaking, there are four goals your content can achieve
Wherever you post (social media or not), your content should serve one of these four goals:
Authority building
This is the kind of content you publish to position yourself as an authority in your field. Your BIG idea shines in authority-building content.
Think:
- Esther Perel: infidelity doesn’t need to be the end of a relationship.
- Katelyn Bourgoin: buyer psychology at the root of every marketing decision.
- Me 🙂: strategy and resonance over hacks
Authority building content usually shows up as essays or how-tos. It shows people that you have the knowledge and the receipts to be taken seriously in your field.
This is why it also doubles up as audience growth content.
Typical CTAs: “follow me for more”, “subscribe”, or questions that spark a discussion. If you choose the latter, please go deeper than “Agree or disagree?”
Lead generation
Lead generation content also relies heavily on your BIG idea because people rally behind ideas, not (just) expertise.
In lead generation content, you will usually talk about:
- Your process — how do you get results for your clients?
- Case studies — here’s what I did for this client.
- Your positioning — I do X but not Y because [insert reason and receipts]
You want to give people a reason to consider you as the solution owner. You’re not selling directly, but this is as close as it gets.
Typical CTAs: “join the waitlist”, “DM me if you want to know more”, or the usual “subscribe here” — if you have a sales funnel in place.
Direct sales
The name says it all here. This is where you sell directly. You can do it on literally any channel, from social media to email and from podcasts to workshops.
Direct sales content can live on its own OR it can be merged with any of the other types of content. For instance, you will find a section that suggests the next logical step at the end of this email.
Typical CTAs: “buy now”, “schedule a discovery call”, and so on.
Entertainment
Contrary to popular belief, entertainment content isn’t just memes and other funny stuff. It’s everything that doesn’t seem to have a direct connection to business.
It’s human content, personal stories, bloopers, and more. You need this kind of content because nonstop teaching is exhausting for both you and your audience.
Plus, this type of content has the highest virality potential.
The key is to avoid overdoing it because that might turn you into a personal brand cliche.
Typical CTAs: the world is your oyster here. You can invite people to share a similar story, or simply laugh react. The less you overthink this, the better it will perform.
How do you alternate between content goals
Typically, I recommend something like this:
- 40% authority
- 30% lead generation
- 20% direct sales
- 10% entertainment
This balance makes sure that you get paid today (direct sales), that you plant the seeds for tomorrow’s sales (lead gen), that next year’s sales will be even easier (authority), and that your audience grows constantly (authority and entertainment).
However, this is the best-case scenario and you and I both know life and business couldn’t care less about best-case scenarios.
In practice, things look closer to:
- Direct sales during launch seasons or when you need money fast.
- Lead generation when you want to sell services.
- Authority content as the staple — if you have the bandwidth to produce it
- Entertainment on weekends or when you feel like your (social media) audience is stagnant.
I don’t think anyone can consistently keep the 40-30-20-10 ratio because there’s a seasonality to any business, and your content strategy needs to take it into account.
Content-business alignment in the long run
Depending on what your business needs, you will choose one of these goals for everything you post/publish. That’s already progress and a far cry from random acts of content.
But what if you went deeper and got more intentional about your content?
Let’s say you’re a nutritionist who decides to launch a holiday meal guide — a small product that’s ideal for your clients in December AND that will offer you a quick revenue boost.
Instead of dropping the news on your audience out of the blue, try this:
- Plan your content 3 months in advance — at least for your core platform.
- Use it to pre-suade: introduce the subject that ties to your upcoming launch. Following up on the example above, you can include topics like “How the winter holidays mess up our healthy eating habits”, “What are the silent saboteurs at the holiday dinner table?”, “Can you keep your healthy habits during the holiday season?”
- End each piece of content with a soft CTA, either telling people that you’re about to launch something connected to the topic or inviting them to join a waitlist.
- By the time you launch, your audience will know exactly whether your product is right for them or not. And the size of your waitlist will give you an idea of how many sales you can expect.
Always start with your business goals, not your content
Unless you’re a journalist or you have a paid newsletter, the content you produce is there to serve a business purpose.
If you only remember one thing from today’s issue, make it this one: always start any draft with the business goal in mind.
Consider the season your business is in and evaluate what your primary need is: revenue, authority, audience growth, fostering a deeper relationship with your audience?
That’s how you’ll know whether the content idea you just had should be published now or added to the queue for when its season rolls around.
✋ Limitations
As my friend Reuben Swartz reminded me, the tall ask here is that all of these goals need to be aligned with your audience’s. So it’s a double alignment of sorts.
If you’re tone deaf to what your audience needs, any alignment between your content and your goals is useless because nothing you publish will resonate.
This means:
- When you build your authority, you need to do it on topics that matter to them.
- When you do lead generation, you don’t spam people who don’t need your services. You spend the extra time to make sure your offers are relevant to each of your leads.
- When you sell, you don’t sell crap products just because you need money NOW. You make sure people can actually use what you’re selling.
- When you entertain, you don’t turn into the court jester. You never, ever mock your clients.
Fun fact
Almost everything in this newsletter issue is part of The Profitable Content Engine masterclass, where we go even deeper on connecting the dots between content and business goals. Covertly Lab, the custom GPT it comes with, will keep you on track and help you avoid random acts of content.
If you feel like you need a deeper dive on content-business alignment, grab the masterclass and the custom GPT.
Need me in your corner? Here’s how I can help you:
- Promote your brand to 30,000+ entrepreneurs and creators.
- Need a bigger, more relevant audience? Who doesn’t, right? The Audience Accelerator course will teach you how to get it with zero hacks and sleazy bro tactics.
- Grab the Strategic AF Welcome Sequence to delight and convert subscribers from the first emails. Plus my framework to personalize it through automation.
- Boost your chances of success by 400%: document your strategy with The Guided Strategy Template.
- Get my product launch email templates that sell: 5+1 emails you can send to your list in 45 seconds.
- Book a 1:1 strategy session with me. Let’s unlock your growth in 60 mins!
