In my last email, I promised you that picking up the role of content marketer in your business wasn't actually going to add more work for you—because I know the last thing you need is another set of to-do list items piling on top of the mountain of unfinished tasks you already have.

Trust me.

We’re not adding new work to your plate, we’re adding a layer of strategy that will actually reduce wasted work. Making this mindset shift will be a total time saver and anxiety saver.

Because here's the thing: If you have been on a hamster wheel of content creation that doesn't feel like it's moving you forward, it's because it's not. Hamster wheels are fixed in one place so the little guys can get exercise without leaving their cage.

If content creator are in hamster wheels, content marketers are in hamster balls.

You know, those clear plastic balls that allow hamsters to careen wildly around the room, taunting the pet cat and giving you panic attacks when they come hurtling into the kitchen?

(I think my metaphor has officially broken down.)

The point is, content creators are producing content that keeps them stuck in one place. Content marketers build systems that move them forward.

Content marketing cycle

Here’s what that looks like:

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​Step 1: Audience and Goals

Start by really understanding your audience and goals at both a macro level and a micro level.

In other words:

• What does your overall marketing funnel look like for your business?
• What does your audience need to know at each stage of their journey through that funnel?
• What launches are you planning, or business initiatives do you have coming up?
• If your business has cycles, where are you in those cycles?

⌛ Time saver: When you give yourself a solid foundation, it lets you set goals for an individual piece of content and make sure it’s aligned before you’ve wasted a bunch of time and energy creating it.

Step 2: Plan your content calendar

Use the understanding of your business goals and knowledge of your marketing funnel to plan your content calendar in broad strokes.

I'm not saying you need to decide in October what you’ll post next March—and, in fact, most of us shouldn’t. Instead, outline your quarter/year in broad strokes, then get more detailed week by week.

Think of your content calendar like a living document. It will guide you, but shouldn’t box you in. You’ll revise it as you go along.

⌛ Time saver: When you know what you're going to write ahead of time, you don't waste valuable writing time figuring it out.

Step 3: Create your content

Once you have goals and a plan, put on your content creator hat and execute on those content pieces in an efficient manner.

They should be easier to write because you have a plan and goals—and in a later email, I’m going to show you some tips and tools to help make content creation faster (and get around any perfectionist blocks).

⌛ Time saver: When you have a plan, you can more effectively direct "content creator you" to work more efficiently (and enjoy the process more).

Step 4: Publish and repurpose

Publish your content, and also repurpose it in a repeatable way. Maximize on the work your content creator self did! It’ll help you get off that hamster wheel!

Come up with a strategy for distributing and promoting each piece across multiple channels, and then repurpose it smartly to create multiple pieces that reach your audience in different ways.

Don’t be afraid to repeat yourself. Only a tiny fraction of your audience will follow you in every channel, or see everything you post.

⌛ Time saver: Get more reach with less effort when you strategically repurpose content.

Step 5: Learn and reflect

Track and assess how things went—both with real metrics that matter to your business and feedback from conversations with customers.

Then, use what you’ve learned to refine your plan.

⌛ Time saver: Spot trends and learn what's working and what's not more quickly, so you don't keep creating content that doesn't serve you.

Step 6: Rinse and repeat

You’ll notice that this cycle takes you from Strategy and Planning into Execution, then through Learning on the way back up to Strategy.

You'll also notice that all but one of these steps falls into the realm of content marketer rather than content creator.

Which, yeah.

That makes it look like a ton more work than you’re already doing, right?

But it doesn't have to be. Stick around, because as we get deeper into this content marketing series, I’m going to tell you how to put systems in place that make this cycle flow smoothly—even if you’re a one-person shop.

Besides, what if you could shave off 50% of the time you spend on content creation time by adding an hour or two of content marketing strategy time per week?

If you still aren’t sure, keep your eye out for my next email. In it, we’re going to get you a quick win that will set you up for the rest of the year and save you a ton of time and stress in Q4.

Talk soon,

Jessie

P.S. I’m developing a course to help people develop a custom messaging blueprint that maps out exactly what their audience needs to hear at each stage of their marketing funnel.

Interested in hearing more when it’s ready? Click here to join the waitlist.