Content Burnout: What To Do For Real (The Matrix)(not really)(yes really)

In previous posts in this series, I was tackling the problem of how you can keep on creating content for the same product or company day after day, year after year. It can be a creative challenge, particularly given the resources of your team, and burnout is inevitable.

In Part 1, we covered what not to do to address burnout

In Part 2, we covered how to address it, using conventional wisdom from the content marketing industry

In Part 3, we covered how to address it, using strategies I have developed to leverage the brain’s tendencies, while managing a team

In Part 4, we moved on to addressing it when you are largely working alone.

This post isn’t really about burnout, but I want to go on to complete the thought, and talk about what to do with a big raw list of content ideas, because what’s the point of having a whole bunch of ideas if you aren’t deploying them strategically?

Because it’s me, I take my raw ideas back to my old friend the spreadsheet, but you could use any system that works for you. But your content planning should be driven by a matrix that looks something like this:

In other words, you want to have a library of every possible type of content for every phase of the customer journey.

(Yes, this is an imperfect tool; social media needs to be broken down further, because each channel has its own segments and conventions. And the exact number of steps in the customer journey varies depending on who you read. But it illustrates the idea)

Ideally, all the existing content would be tracked in this same way, so that as the content library expands, you can identify gaps and fill them.

As you come out of the brainstorming session with a big list of content ideas, assuming you go over it briefly and combine duplicate ideas and remove ones that are just bad and won’t work, you can begin to look at each content idea and determine how/where it fits into this matrix.

For example:

• A video interview with the founder of your company. This is great content, and very useful for customers in the Consideration phase (especially B2B), who are interested in the product but want to know more about the company. Also of interest to Evangelists who like more insight into the personalities. Depending on the length of the interview, you could ideally cut it for the two segments, and cut it again for different channels. Post a short version on social media, and a longer one on YouTube. (Incidentally, it’s best to host videos on YouTube even if you are going to embed them into your own web pages; it makes it more findable and increases YouTube rankings). So the same interview footage, with some clever editing, could be deployed in multiple places for multiple segments.
• Product comparison with a competitor. Another great piece of content, always of interest to customers in the Awareness and Consideration phases. Typically this would go on the product’s web page, but it’s also really good to make an infographic if you have the resources. Some people strongly prefer visual information rather than written, and infographics make good, sharable social content.
• Company attended a conference or a seminar. Great! This is fantastic social content, Evangelists love it, and it may boost Awareness. Make social posts and take pictures during the event, write a recap blog post after. Maybe add it to your email newsletter, if that’s how you manage email.

In this example, I can already see that I’m a bit lean on content for customers at the purchase and post-purchase phases. And that’s the beauty of this kind of tool; it lets me know what is missing and for whom.

Organizing a content library in this way, with every type of content for every phase of the customer journey, helps prevent content burnout because it always informs you what is missing from your content library. If the system has been in place for a while, then it lets you know what’s old, and therefore what audience needs some fresh content.

This specificity makes identifying new content much easier. It’s easier to sit down with your team or by yourself and know you want to send email(s) that drive retention because you haven’t for a while, or create images and infographics for your brand evangelists because you don’t have any. Narrowing the scope actually heightens creativity.

It’s important to do big, collaborative blue-sky brainstorming sessions periodically. And it’s deeply important to create from the place of your own personal passion and commitment. But adopting a tool like this matrix is the next step, helping to organize and prioritize all those ideas so that they connect with your audience, where ever they happen to be.

image courtesy of Internet Archive Book Images, except the screenshot. That’s all me, baby