Content Marketing for Beginners

By Jennifer Allan August 1, 2022 12 mins read 410 Views

A simple, 2-hour-per-month content marketing framework for the content beginner.

Content marketing is vital in developing your audience’s “know, like and trust” factor. It can overcome objections before they happen, increase the perceived value of your offers, and increase customer lifetime. This simple framework will teach you how to create compelling content and repurpose it for multiple platforms in about 2-hours per month.

Core & Hygiene Content

There are two categories of content that every business needs in their content marketing strategy. Core Content and Hygiene Content.

Core Content is the core of your marketing efforts. It should deliver incredible value and include an opt-in. Creating Core Content is resource intensive, so how do you fill in the gaps in your content calendar? Hygiene Content.

Hygiene Content serves the vital purpose of staying present and relevant to your audience. If Core Content is your 6-month intensive dental cleaning, Hygiene Content is brushing your teeth daily. Creating one type won’t guarantee dental (or content) disaster but combining both is ideal.

Core Content = Quality

Hygiene Content = Quantity

Hygiene Content allows you to create the quantity of content you need to be present and relevant in the highly competitive content marketing world without draining your resources or becoming a full-time content marketer.

Core Content

It’s the most important content you create and is directly related to your customers’ biggest problems and how you solve them. To create Core Content, choose 2-5 core topics or categories. These should be the topics most important to your customer and directly related to your solution. Let’s look at an example.

Tim’s Tax Team is a small business accounting firm specializing in tax filing and corporate tax breaks. Their customers’ biggest challenges are meeting corporate tax requirements, proper record keeping, and audits.

Tim’s Tax Team Core Content Topics

Tax Filing
Audits
Corporate Bookkeeping
Corporate Tax Breaks

Tim’s Tax Team Core Content Examples

How to save money on your corporate tax filing
How to become audit-proof
Why your bookkeeping could cost you thousands of dollars in penalties (and how to prevent it)
The five most missed corporate tax breaks

Hygiene Content

Hygiene Content is the in-between content that keeps your brand in the hearts and minds of your customers without taking hours to create. It provides value and entertainment but doesn’t have the same depth as your core content.

Hygiene Content topics are relevant to your customer but don’t necessarily have to be related to the problem you solve or your offers. To create Hygiene Content, identify 3-5 topics relevant to your ideal customer or related to your industry. Let’s look at Tim’s Tax Team again.

Tim’s Tax Team works primarily with local brick-and-mortar restaurants and retail businesses. Their clients are between the ages of 45-60, family-oriented and spend their weekends barbequing and watching the local football team. They aren’t tech-savvy and rely heavily on their accountants and bookkeepers to provide technical recommendations.

Tim’s Tax Team Hygiene Topics

Football
Software & Technical Recommendations
Restaurant Finance & Tax Considerations
Retail Business Finance & Tax Considerations
How to use your business to build a family legacy

Hygiene Content Examples

Football and Finance: How to build a rock-solid business financial foundation with football strategy.
The best accounting software for small restaurants
The biggest money mistakes restaurants make
Inventory & Taxes: How retail businesses can save money with better inventory management
Family business finances: three steps to creating generational wealth with your small business

Case Studies

Let’s look at a few REAL examples.

HubSpot

HubSpot is an all-in-one CRM platform for businesses that have growing teams with growing needs and can no longer manage multiple platforms. Their customers typically have marketing, sales, operations, and service departments that are rapidly growing and collaborating and need effective strategies and tools.

HubSpot’s Core Content Topics

Marketing Strategy
Sales Processes and Systems
Customer Services

HubSpot Core Content Examples

HubSpot Hygiene Content Topics

HubSpot understands that its customers are interested in many sub-topics related to its Core Content Topics. They want to learn about the latest social media strategies, website development tips, benchmark data and industry metrics. HubSpot combines corporate humor and educational content on the sub-topics relevant to the everyday lives of their consumers–anyone working in marketing, sales, or service,

Social media tips and tactics
Relatable office moments and experiences
Email humor
Website sub-topics

HubSpot Hygiene Content Examples

TurboTax

TurboTax is an Online Accounting Software with a primary market of individuals and entrepreneurs with simple accounting needs who don’t want to hire an accountant but don’t want to miss out on deductions, incentives, or tax breaks.

TurboTax Core Content Topics

TurboTax’s Core Content Topics are directly related to solving the most common taxes and accounting problems their customers face with actionable tips and opt-ins.

Tax Basics
Credits & Deductions
Income & Investments

TurboTax Core Content Examples

TurboTax Hygiene Topics

TurboTax’s Hygiene Content Topics provide quick tips and information on tax filing and investing sub-topics.

New Tax Credits
Medical & Disability Tax Considerations
Organizing Financial & Tax Documents
Spending & Saving Tips

TurboTax Hygiene Content Examples

DigitalMarketer

As the premier online community for digital marketing professionals, DigitalMarketer provides educational resources, certifications and coaching programs for digital marketing professionals, businesses, and agencies.

DigitalMarketer’s Core Content Topics

Marketing is rapidly changing, and finding up-to-date credible information, tools, and strategies is challenging. DigitalMarketer’s solution is to provide a one-stop shop for marketing certifications and programs that help marketing professionals stay ahead.

The Marketing Professional
Effective Marketing Strategy

DigitalMarketer Core Content Examples

DigitalMarketer Hygiene Content Topics

Marketing has many sub-topics and platforms, so DigitalMarketer provides relevant information and resources pertinent to their consumers’ everyday lives–anyone working in marketing.

Email
Social Media
Websites
Content & Copywriting
Driving Traffic
Increasing Conversions

DigitalMarketer Hygiene Content Examples

The Content Workflow

Now that you understand the two types of content and have identified your Core and Hygiene Content Topics, it’s time to create a sustainable content marketing workflow. With this simple workflow, you’ll create one long-form piece of Core Content and splinter it into up to 30+ pieces for greater reach instead of making all your content from scratch.

The Workflow

Create Long-Form Core Content
Splinter
Fill in gaps with Hygiene Content
Repurpose

Step 1. Create Long-Form Core Content

Long-form content can come in many forms, including written, video and audio. Choose the format that works best for you to start this process.

If you love writing, write a blog post.

If you love talking, record audio or video.

If you don’t like any of that, invite a friend over and have them ask you questions while you record the audio or video.

Step 2. Splinter

Content Splintering is taking the parts of your long-form content to make more content for multiple platforms. You can splinter your long-form content into podcasts, YouTube videos, emails, blog posts, and social media posts.

If you are starting with long-form video or audio content, you’ll need an application that transcribes your video or audio. The program I love is Descript which transcribes your video and audio content, and as you edit the transcription, it automatically edits the video and audio.

Splintering Formats

You can splinter your long-form content into various formats, including audiograms, short videos like TikTok’s or Reels, and social media graphics and captions. Here are a few of the most common splinter formats.

Long YouTube Video
Short YouTube Video
Short TikTok’s and Reels
Podcast Episodes
Audiograms
Blog Posts
Emails
Quick Tip Social Media Posts
Quote Social Media Posts
Reminder Social Media Posts
Stats & Data Social Media Posts
Content Announcements
Summary Posts

You don’t need to be a video editor, audio expert, or writer to create great content. Practice is the fastest way to get better. Quantity, consistency, and speed are the most important things when building your content marketing engine.

You don’t need expensive applications, fancy cameras, or high-tech equipment to create great content. Great tech can turn good content into great content, but no amount of tech can turn bad content into good content. Focus on the quality of your message and information. Your iPhone and a simple video or audio editing software like Descript or Garage Band are enough to get you started.

Workflow Example: Long-Form Video Splintering

Record a long-form (10-30 min) video. You can edit or leave the video as is and post it on YouTube.
Identify 2-3 of the main points in the video and make mid-sized (3-10 min) YouTube videos.
Identify any soundbites, tips or quotes in the video and create short YouTube videos, TikTok’s, or Instagram Reels (5 sec – 3 min).
Transcribe the video and edit the transcription into a blog post with headlines and an opt-in.
Identify the main points from the blog post and create content emails. Add the emails to your automated nurture campaign and send them to your existing list.
Identify the best quotes from the transcription and create social media posts with the quote in the graphic or caption.
Identify the top tips or hacks from the transcription to create social media posts with the tips or hacks as a carousel or in the caption.
Identify reminders you can share with your audience based on the tips or actions your long-form content highlights to create social media posts.
Identify any statistics, metrics, or data relevant to the content to create social media posts.

Workflow Example: Long-Form Audio

Record a long-form (10-30 min) audio clip. Edit or leave it as is and publish it as a podcast episode.
Identify any soundbites in the audio and create audiograms. Post them as short YouTube videos, TikTok’s, or Instagram Reels (5 sec – 3 min).
Transcribe the audio and edit the transcription into a blog post with headlines and an opt-in.
Identify the main points from the blog post and create content emails. Add the emails to your automated nurture campaign and send them to your existing list.
Identify the best quotes from the transcription and create social media posts with the quote in the graphic or caption.
Identify the top tips or hacks from the transcription to create social media posts with the tips or hacks as a carousel or in the caption.
Identify reminders you can share with your audience based on the tips or actions your long-form content highlights to create social media posts.
Identify any statistics, metrics, or data relevant to the content to create social media posts.

Workflow Example: Long-Form Written

Write a Blog Post.
Identify 1-3 main points and create content emails to add to your automated nurture campaign and send to your existing list.
Create an announcement email that teases the long-form content and drives subscribers to watch, read or listen.
Identify the best quotes from the blog post and create social media posts with the quote in the graphic or caption.
Identify the top tips or hacks from the blog post to create social media posts with the tips or hacks as a carousel or in the caption.
Identify reminders you can share with your audience based on the tips or actions your long-form content highlights to create social media posts.
Identify any statistics, metrics, or data relevant to the content to create social media posts.

Step 3. Fill in gaps with Hygiene Content

No matter how incredible you are at splintering your core content, there will still be a few gaps in your content calendar. You can fill those gaps with Hygiene Content.

For the content beginner, you can write a few extra social media posts or record short videos or audio clips on your Hygiene Content Topics to fill in the gaps. For seasoned professionals, create long-form Hygiene Content and splinter it using the same workflow as your Core Content.

Repurposing Content

Just because your content has been posted doesn’t mean you can’t use it again. You must consistently remind your audience who you are and the value you provide. Don’t be afraid of being repetitive because consistency in messaging is vital when building trust with your audience. Repurpose existing content to give your older content new life and build trust with your audience.

Ways To Repurpose Existing Content

Updating
Headline Swapping
Format Switching
Copy & Paste

Updating

Content Updating is taking existing content and updating it to be relevant and current. This can be as simple as changing the design, updating the year, or adding items to a list.

Here’s an example:

Write a Blog Post
Wait for 90-days to 1 year
Update the post with relevant examples
Change the dates
Improve the design
Add any information needed to make the post more current.

Headline Swapping

Headline Swapping is reusing existing content with a fresh new headline.

Here’s an example:

Write a social media post
Wait 90-days to 1 year
Repost with a new headline in the graphic and caption.

Format Switching

Format Switching is when you repurpose an existing piece of content in a new format. You can switch a long-form blog post into a checklist, change a carousel social media post into a PDF download and turn an email into a short YouTube video. Format switching is a great way to take your splintered content and get even more use.

Here’s how it works:

Write a Checklist LinkedIn Post
Wait for 90-days to 1 year.
Switch that LinkedIn post into a short video clip and repost it to LinkedIn.

Copy & Paste

Copy & Paste is when you reuse existing content without changing it. This is standard practice on social media, where creators will repost their best-performing existing content without changing it after 90-days.

Here’s how it works:

Create a social media post.
Wait for 90-days to 1 year.
Copy & paste the social media post without making changes and repost it.

2-Hours Per Month

Creating content shouldn’t be your full-time job unless you are a content creator. By following this framework, you can create your core content, splinter it, and fill in the gaps with Hygiene Content in about 2-hours per month.

Here’s how:

Time Limit

Most people waste hours trying to create the perfect piece of long-form core content and never end up posting or splintering it. Instead of letting perfectionism hold you back, set a time and only give yourself 1-hour each month to create your core content. That’s it, and whatever you make in that hour is posted. Get in the reps first; you’ll nail the process over time.

Focus Time

Distractions are a content creator’s worst enemy. Your phone notifications start blasting, and the creativity is gone. Block off two hours each month for content creation with no distractions, and you’ll be amazed at how much you accomplish.

Templates

One of the easiest ways to streamline this process is to use templates. Here are a few of my favorite templates that make this process a breeze. It’s as simple as doing it once and optimizing the template as you go.

Video speaking points template

Video thumbnail

Video captions

Blog post templates

Podcast description template

Email templates

Social media graphic templates

Workflows and SOPs

Like any business operation, a checklist or standard operating procedure (SOP) will improve efficiency and quality control. Write out your step-by-step process as a checklist or SOP. It will save you time, energy, and a lot of frustration if you do it from the start. You can even use the example workflows from this article to get started!

With a consistent flow of valuable content delivered to your audience, you will develop trust, position your brand as an authority, and remain present and relevant in your customers’ lives. Leverage the power of content marketing with this simple framework to attract, engage and retain your ideal customers.