There's no content hack

To get straight to the point, bluntly, there’s no hack for creating amazing, effective content. Sustainable success isn’t built on big moments or on AI; it’s built on mastering the basics and repeating them relentlessly.

One of the most frequently asked questions from my clients is how to get more content at a lower cost. 

Sorry, not sorry to tell you. This is not how it works.

→ The secret, what actually works, is doing the boring content very well and consistently.

Let’s reveal the boring stuff and what you can do.

What is the boring content?

Doing boring things is your foundation. I get it; the social campaigns are sexy, but if you don't master the basics, you'll never nail the rest. 

What is the boring stuff? It's your ‘why’ and ‘how’ content. The information about your brand and products. Why you do what you do and why that matters to your audience. This boring content: 

• Claims your thought leadership and brings your brand to life
   
• Feeds SEO and AI search

This is the content that gets cut first. 

What if your content budget is cut

Often, you see that the content budget is cut due to costs. And usually, the boring content gets cut out first, to make room for the sexy campaigns. 

In my humble opinion, that's exactly the opposite of what you should do when your content budget is cut. Why? Because campaign content is volatile and has a short lifespan. It evaporates before your eyes and usually has less impact on your long-term upper funnel than having your reusable basic content in place.  

Now, let’s see some more benefits. 

The benefit of investing in the content basics

So instead of investing in the sexy campaigns, you invest in the basics and your team.

The benefit is that once you have this, it becomes really easy, fast, and cheap to multiply.

A second benefit is that most of your competitors skip this step due to the same budget constraints as you have. So you’ll also have a head start with SEO and AI search.

What to do

As mentioned, invest in the quality. 

Invest in craftsmanship

You don’t want bogus marketers who act like project managers and miss the in-depth knowledge, hands-on experience, or grit for their craft. Make sure your team has time to learn and grow (and make some mistakes along the way).

Hire the senior

Invest in a heavyweight senior to manage and train the team. The mistake most often made is cutting the expensive seniors and sticking with the mediors and juniors.

But please realize that it’s the senior who pulls the content quality from mediocre to good to great. 

I've seen this a few times; you'll stay afloat with the medior-junior team for a while. But after a year or so, it nibbles away; the team stops learning and being innovative. 

Use AI for strategic things as well

This is a no-brainer. 51% of marketers want to use AI, but over 66% struggle with how to.

Provide training and time, so your team knows how to work with AI. Not just for production but even more so for strategic research. That's where it can make the most difference and impact.

Wrapping it up, 3 key takeaways

If you are looking for a hack or a shortcut to engaging and effective content, sorry, not sorry, for being the bearer of bad news. There’s no such thing.

The secret of great content is in doing the boring things really well and consistently. Practice makes perfect.

3 Key takeaways

1. Invest in the team and fundamentals of content before you think about sexy social campaigns
2. Use AI to improve on quality, not quantity
3. Build a team with strong senior leadership to drive quality and consistency

Once you have that in place, you can ramp up on quality and quantity. Easy, fast, and cheap.

About me and ‘Confessions of a content strategist’

A little bit more about me and my rant as I have a feeling of sharing some background information with you – why what I see and think matters and why I humbly think that I have a point. 

I'm a content strategist with a university background in marketing, media, sociology, and psychology who fell in love with technology, creativity, and data. I have been around in the industry for 25+ years and have worked for over 50+ top-notch brands and agencies. 

I've seen quite a lot. Made many mistakes. Learned even more. 

Now, I share all this with you to nudge and inspire everyone working in marketing, communication, and corporate to do an even better job. Let's be honest; there's already too much crappy content out there; no need to contribute to that, right?

Need help to start with AI today?

If you need any help setting up this new process and getting your team started while hitting the ground running, don’t hesitate to drop me a DM on LinkedIn. 

If I'm not your designated person, I can certainly recommend someone in my network who can help you.  

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