How to Organize Your Ideas So They Become Content
I could have alternatively titled this post, “organizing your content will change your life”, but I thought that was a bit dramatic. Also, when I hear myself say “organizing content” I realize it sounds a bit like marketing jargon and words that marketing professionals may understand, but entrepreneurs may not.
“Organizing Content” means that we are organizing blog posts and social media posts and our email marketing materials. It also means, and what I really want to talk about today, is how to organize the ideas, expertise, and thought leadership which is really the means by which you change your clients lives and move the needle in your business.
Organizing your ideas will clear the mental clutter which often comes before creating marketing content.
What do I mean by organizing our ideas so they can become content? I mean that what comes out of your brand starts out as a seed of an idea, a specific experience, or a particular piece of education. Your ideas become your thought leadership pieces. Your ideas, your thoughts, your education, your experience are the cumulative efforts which transform the lives of the people who work with you. You may have SO much to say to your audience; so much you want to teach about, share ideas about, and the repository of topics may feel endless and overwhelming. If this is you, you have a wonderful predicament.
A more common issue I hear from business owners is that they aren’t sure what to say, or they feel like they’ve shared all the relevant content they can. They feel like one more post will make them sound like a broken record. They feel like the well of good ideas has dried up. I assure you that this is not true but it falls into the same categories as writers block and mental blocks. It can pose a real problem. A frustrating problem, but it is something you can overcome.
There are two issues here: One is that many of you have an overwhelming number of things you want to say to your audience. This can make your brain feel like it’s on overdrive, like you can’t get the words out fast enough and it may feel, well, messy. The other is that some of you may think you have nothing to say. This may breed self-doubt, or feeling defeated, or like you’re in a market that is too saturated. The good news for both parties is that there is a way to organize your thoughts and ideas in a way that will present a cohesive, professional looking content stream to your audience. Even if you’re in the camp which believes there’s nothing to say or nothing left to say, I assure you that you’ll finish this post motivated to brainstorm, and with NEW TOOLS to come up with some ideas.
If you’re one who likes to make a list or organize, this will come naturally. If making lists don’t come naturally to you, you’ll certainly appreciate the tips on how to make life easier when it comes to your marketing efforts.
The first thing to remember here is that:
Great marketing is rooted in knowing who your customer is.
Knowing the person (not the demographic, not the personal but the actual person) who you want to buy your services and benefit from your offerings is the secret sauce to great marketing. If you don’t know with exceptional clarity the person you want to do business with, your marketing efforts will be unsuccessful. Listen to episode 15 of The Marketing Solutions Podcast, How To Attract The Perfect Client. It will give you detailed advice on how to begin. This really is step one and it’s not worth whipping through. Take your sweet time because it sets the trajectory of your business.
Knowing who your ideal client is like having the coordinates to a buried treasure. If you’ve read Atomic Habits, you’ve likely read that the trajectory of the route of an airplane is exact. Change the trajectory of the plane by even a degree or two will cause you to land in a different location. Such is the case with marketing to our beloved audience: Your coordinates are the visibility plan for your brand as well as the message that they see when they discover you.
If you need help understanding who your ideal client is and how to reach them, you can schedule a free consultation with me and I’ll help you nail this down.
Now, let’s assume you have done the good work of understanding your ideal client. What they hope to achieve, what they’re worried about, why they may NOT work with you. You know their strengths, you know what keeps them up at night, and you know the change they want to see in themselves and in the world at large. How can you serve them the content that they need from YOU in a way that keeps them excited to come back for more? Simply put, you can serve it up to them in an organized and thoughtful way.
Our brains can only handle so many options. We can only handle so much stimulation and input before we shut down and feel overwhelmed. If you have a neuro-divergent brain or highly sensitive to stimulation then then the way you consume content is even more interesting and nuanced.
During our strategy session, my clients will go through an exercise where we flush out their most important content topics. We determine what’s most important to the AUDIENCE. This is an important point.
It’s not what’s most important to YOU, it’s what’s most important to your audience.
The larger themes that these topics fall into we call content pillars. Some people call this core content. Think of your content pillars as the headlines or titles of a list. You can see why it’s necessary to understand your ideal client deeply. You need to offer solutions to their problems and their problems can be named in the content pillars.
So a way to wrap your head around this is to visualize five buckets. Each bucket has one label on it. Each label is a larger, broader topic. Each one of the buckets holds all the ideas and thoughts your audience would want to hear from you. If we were talking about my business, a marketing agency, I might label one of my buckets “Identifying Your Ideal Client” – Inside of that bucket you’ll have topics that will be inline with that larger topic. They’re subtopics of that bigger, broader theme. So if one of my buckets is “Identifying Your Ideal Client” inside of that bucket you might find topics like, “what problems or worries keep your ideal client up at night” or “why wouldn’t your ideal client want to work with you” or “how to find out the buying habits of people in your niche” or “where does my ideal client hang out online” … things like that.
You can also think about this in terms of a spreadsheet: Each column has a title with your larger theme; The name of your content pillar. Underneath that title are all of the sub topics that would fall in that category. This method is a good practice for someone who feels like they have NO ideas or nothing to say. The labeling of the categories as step one is the activity that generates momentum. If you’ve named a category your brain will naturally think about what topics would fall into that category. This can be a great place to start if you’re feeling that sense of writer's block.
This also works in the inverse: Just brain dump a big old list of ideas, thoughts and topics. No organization necessary for the first step, just write down freeform what your audience needs to know from you. Then, when you have your long master list, get out different colored highlighters and start categorizing your ideas. Don’t get too broad here. I said five buckets for a reason. Too many topics and you water down your message. Try to categorize your big beautiful brain dump list into specific categories, look for the similarities. Don’t eliminate anything just yet, just organize your list. This is an especially good activity for those of you who are just overflowing with ideas.
Now, if you have identified five or so larger themes, or content pillars, and you can identify say ten to twenty subtopics in each category, then you’re looking at approximately 50 to 100 topics that you could share with your audience. These subtopics could become your blog posts or your podcast episodes. They are the core content of your owned media, whatever that may be. The good news here is that these are all topics that matter to your audience. The medium by which you share the content matters, yes, but more so the substance of what you’re sharing. You have the capability to speak ad nauseam about each of these topics AND they are just the thing that will help your ideal clients make better decisions.
Another benefit to this is that it keeps you on point. When you’re all over the place with what you put out there it can cause confusion and whiplash your audience a bit. We don’t want to confuse our audience. I’ve said it before, but:
A confused audience doesn’t buy because an unclear message doesn’t sell. The messaging of your brand should be crystal clear, precise, and consistent.
And by consistent I mean that you don’t take a stance on a topic one day then change your position on that the next day. If I say “a confused audience doesn’t buy because an unclear message doesn’t sell,” then you’ll probably never hear me say something like “just write a blog post about whatever you’re feeling that day” because our feelings and attitudes can be fickle. This is a marketing strategy, not a therapy session. Is it ok to change your position, totally. Do it professionally and with care. There should be no confusion about your areas of expertise or how to work with you.
Another thing that makes for an excellent content pillar is your story. Perhaps your story has a Hero’s Journey arc to it. Have you overcome some trial or tribulation and made it successfully to the other side? Your story holds a lot of weight and credibility and builds the trust that your audience is looking for. Would you rather work with someone who has lived out the path, walked the walk, or someone who hasn’t? Perhaps your story is its own bucket and the individual stories and experiences you’ve had along the way are the subtopics that fill the bucket.
Now if you’re not one who wants to sit down and make a list of ideas, perhaps you may be one to talk this out. Many of my clients appreciate that during our strategy session, we have a period of time blocked off where they can simply share with me the things that their audience needs to know. We take copious notes while they share all the amazing things that they know their ideal clients need to know. It’s a verbal brain dump. It’s glorious. It’s cathartic. They love it. And the end result becomes a significant piece of their marketing plan: It’s the future content that will come out of their brand. They have the time and space to think out loud while we capture it all then organize it and polish it.
Oftentimes, they’ll have new ideas for services or offers during this part of the strategy session. It’s a very creative and thoughtful experience. Sometimes there are tears, sometimes this process can feel raw. It’s beautiful and a wonderful privilege to hold the space for my clients to share in this way.
Sometimes these topics or ideas come out as a story. Sometimes as a list. Sometimes it can be just verbal vomit and that’s good too! It’s my job to capture what they’re saying and then organize it later. This step is all about getting it out of their head and into a repository we can access later.
If you’re more of a verbal processor, go on a walk and record yourself sharing your ideas. Take an audio note that you can later transcribe. Or perhaps you have an assistant who can capture your ideas while you think out loud. Maybe you have a friend who’d be willing to take some notes for you as you simply “think out loud”.
The point is that in your beautiful brain, body, and soul you have stories to tell, ideas to share and solutions to problems that people are trying to work through. The means by which you get those out of your head and into the ears and eyes of the people who need them matters. It matters.
This is what makes for successful marketing material, material that solves problems and builds trust, 2) lends to your credibility and earned market share, and ultimately will grow your business.
If this blog spoke to you, I’d encourage you to schedule a Strategy Session. Not only do we capture those ideas of yours, we ask the deeper questions you may not think to ask… ones that we know your audience would want your help with. We know how to get to the heart of what matters to your audience.
Schedule a free consultation to get customized advice on your marketing activities and be sure to subscribe to the newsletter.
Thanks for being here,
Kelly Smith.
