Big Ideas

A fascinating guide to building an entrepreneurial venture before creating any products or services. Whether you want to go all in on the Content Inc. business strategy or you're looking to improve the content marketing strategy at an existing business this is a must read. It's probably an understatement to call this a controversial business book. Pulizzi has actually laid out an entire methodology for starting, building and selling a business based primarily on the notion of building an audience.

In a nutshell the content inc model is:

• Use your existing skills and knowledge to identify a target audience that is poorly served by existing content providers.
• Create uniquely great content for that niche audience.
• Monetize that audience in whatever ways make sense based on your knowledge of that audience.
• Automate and scale content creation to create a valuable audience asset independent of the founder with multiple revenue streams.
• Sell that asset.

Notes

• "By focusing on building an audience first and defining products and services second, a person can change the rules of the game and significantly increase the odds of financial and personal success."
• "I believe the absolute best way to start and grow a business today is not by launching or pushing products, but by creating a system to attract, build, and retain an audience. Once you've built a loyal audience, one that loves you and the information you send, you can most liekly sell the audience anything you want. This model is called Content Inc."
• "Smaller organizations have no resources compared with those of their much larger competitors. That means they need to play an entirely different game."
• Content Inc Model
• ~The Sweet Spot - "the intersection of knowledge or skill set and a specific audience desire."
• ~The Content Tilt - "the differentiating factor, to find an area of little to no competition."
• ~The Content Base - "consistently generating valuable content through one key channel."
• ~Audience Building - "convert one time readers or viewers into ongoing subscribers."
• ~Revenue - "you are armed with enough subscriber information that you'll see a multitude of opportunities for generating revenue."
• ~Diversify - "diversify from the main content stream and create brand extensions."
• ~Sell or Go Big - "keep the asset and grow it, or sell it."

Starting the Journey

Beginning with the End in Mind

• "Two daily behaviors have made all the difference for me: writing down my goals and consistently reviewing those goals."
• "Great content marketers do two things differently from the rest:
• ~They document their content marketing strategy in some way
• ~They review and refer to the plan on a regular basis"
• Goal setting process
• ~Record. Document your desires.
• ~Repeat. Review them consistently every day.
• ~Remove. Distance yourself from the clutter in your life so you can be successful.
• Goal Areas
• ~Financial
• ~Family
• ~Spiritual
• ~Mental
• ~Physical
• ~Philanthropic

The Content Inc. Opportunity

• Major shifts in the communications market that affects all business
• ~No technology barriers
• ~Talent availability
• ~Content acceptance
• ~Social Media
• ~Search
• "Today's technological availability means that any business in any industry can develop an audience through consistent storytelling ... businesses are now rewarded for the substance of their messages and the audience they can attract through a consistent flow of information."
• From Think and Grow Rich
• ~Desire
• ~Faith
• ~Specialized Knowledge
• ~Imagination
• ~Decision
• ~Persistence
• Drawbacks of Content Model
• ~Patience - model takes time to work
• ~Lack of funds - is not an immediate get-rich-quick-scheme
• ~Against the grain - most business and startup experts disagree with this approach
• ~Going small to go big - many companies fail because they don't pick a content niche that's small enough

The Sweet Spot

Expertise +  Desire

• "The sweet spot is the intersection of your expertise (knowledge or skill) and an audience's desire or pain point."
• The first step is identifying what your expertise is

Audience Deep Dive

• "Countless businesses fail with their Content Inc. model because they focus on what they are good at communicating - and not on the specific audience and what it needs."
• As the following about your target audience
• ~"Who is your typical audience member? How does this person live an average day?"
• ~"What's the person's need? This is not 'why does this person need our product or service?' but 'what are this person's information needs and pain points as they relate to the stories we will tell?'"
• ~"Why will this person care about us, our products, our services? It's the information we provide that will make that person care or pay attention."
• Initial strategy design consists of answering the following questions:
• ~Mission
• ~Key Audience
• ~Sample Titles/Functions
• ~Why is this group important?
• ~Sample topic areas

The Content Tilt

Tilt or Bust

• "We need to differentiate our content enough to break through the clutter, which is almost impossible without content tilt."
• "The content tilt is that area of little to no competition on the web that actually gives you a chance to break through the noise and be relevant.It's what makes you so different that your audience notices you and rewards you with its attention."
• Possible approaches for discovering this tilt are looking at unique intersections of market cohorts (think "Nerd" + "Fitness" for example).
• If your content were gone, would anyone miss it?

How to Find and Test the Tilt

• The Amazon.com Press Release Method - write a press release that answers a set of questions about your content
• Leverage Google Trends - find breakout terms for which they are few instructional resources
• Ask a questions google can't answer
• Leverage Udemy
• Ask your potential readers
• Listening posts - ways to get feedback about audience/customer needs and interests
• ~One-on-conversations
• ~Keyword search
• ~Web analytics
• ~Social media listening
• ~Customer surveys
• Test different tilts
• Reposition the content area - define a new term for what you do or position yourself in a new or under explored content arena
• Tilting Examples
• ~Audience focus - target or create a new audience definition or niche that isn't being spoken to
  ~Platform tilt - be the first on a new platform
  ~Recombination - "takes to successful independent concepts and combines them to create something new."
  ~Personal Tilting - use your own personality to make your content unique
• "Do the work" you just have to write enough content to figure out what the audience wants

Finalizing The Content Mission

• Formulate an editorial mission statement
• Content mission statement
• ~"Who is your specific target audience"
• ~"What will you deliver to your audience"
• ~"What's in it for the audience"
• "The content is mission is all about the audience and about getting the team focused on something bigger than just making money."
• "The best content inc. programs revolve around aspirations more than needs ... to get to the hear of your customer's aspirations, you have to focus on what they want to be and help them get where they really want to go."

The Base

Do one thing ... great

• Pick a single content channel and focus, do it really well
• "How will you tell your stories? What is your core content type?"
• "Where will you tell your stories? What channel will you choose to distribute your content?"
• Successful Base is
• ~One key target audience
• ~One mission (content tilt)
• ~One primary content type
• ~One core platform (blog/website)
• Six key principles
• ~Fill a need/want
• ~Be consistent
• ~Be human
• ~Have a point of view
• ~Avoid "sales speak"
• ~Be best of breed

Selecting Your Platform

• Platforms
• ~Social media content
• ~Videos
• ~Blog posts or articles
• ~Email newsletters
• ~In-person events
• ~Webinars / online events
• ~White papers / e-books
• ~Print magazines
• ~Podcasts / Audio
• "How do you best tell your story? This means you, the human being, with all your gifts and talents."
• "What channel offers you the best opportunity to reach your target audience?"
• "What channel gives you the most control over presenting your content and building your audience?"

Coming Up With Ideas

• "Look at any leading informational resource on the web. The content first developed at launch is usually significantly different from newer material. Over time the content evolves to better meet audience needs."
• Process for generating new ideas
• ~The content audit - review existing content (if you have it)
• ~50 Questions - list of questions your audience would like answered
• ~Leveraging free writing - just brain dump
• ~Google alerts
• ~Hashtags
• ~Analyze your analytics~Employee discussions
• ~Ask your social networks
• ~Talk to you customers or prospects
• ~Read a completely irrelevant book

The Content Calendar

• Consistency is key, whatever that means for you
• Questions to ask:
• ~"Who are you creating content for?"
• ~"Why are you creating content?"
• ~"What resources do you have at your disposal?"
• ~"How can you stand out?"
• Create a content calendar to track dates things are due, status, topic etc.
• Quantity required depends on the impact, likely you'll want to establish a content base and then build on that
• Work ahead to ensure consistency

Finding Content Help

• In order to scale the business you'll need to develop a team of content creators
• Roles
• ~Chief content officer (founder)
• ~Managing editor
• ~Chief listening officer
• ~director of audience
• ~Channel master
• ~Chief technologist
• ~Creative director
• ~Influencer relations
• ~Freelancer and agency relations
• ~Content curation director
• Freelancers
• ~Test first
• ~You usually get what you pay for
• Repurpose older content
• Collaborative publishing and partnerships

Audience Building

The Metric that Matters

• "Activity metrics are critical to measure the success of your content, your ultimate goal should always be to get and keep an audience."
• Not all subscribers are equal and your focus should be on channels that you own, social media and other content sites own your audience and can start charging you or changing the rules to limit access to your hard earned audience
• You need an email offering.
• ~Autoresponders matter
• ~~Make the signup experience great
• ~~Use it collect information about your audience to segment them and create better content

Maximum Findability

• Take advantage of SEO
• Make guest appearances in "other peoples content" OPC
• Create more lists
• Create unique research
• Answers questions at quora
• Syndicate your content
• Leverage HARO
• Make sure most of your content is ungated (i.e. free and does not require adding an email address)
• Try brandscaping i.e. strategic partnerships which leverage another brand with reach
• Test your titles
• Consider paid content distribution options
• Advertise on social media
• Use news release services

Stealing Audience i.e. Influencer Marketing

• Why influencer marketing?
• ~They have a pre-established audience that trusts them
• ~The influencer can help you create the content for that audience because they know their audience best
• What's the goal?
• ~Brand awareness
• ~Engagement
• ~Lead generation
• ~Sales
• ~Customer retention and loyalty
• ~Up-sell or cross-sell
• Create content worth sharing so that influencers get value from the partnership because they know their audience will benefit
• Be personalized, human and thoughtful in your outreach
• Offer something valuable to the influencer whether it's cross promotion, content for their audience, monetary compensation etc.

Social Media Selection

• "You don't have to be active on every social channel. At the start, choose the best two or three and put resources behind just those."
• Social media is most useful during the following marketing processes:
• ~"Listening to the people in your audience to understand what they care about, so you can create content that they will find engaging and relevant."
• ~"Distributing content from your business"
• Focus
• Test
• Customize
• The key elements of a social media content plan
• ~What is the goal?
• ~What is the desired action?
• ~What specific type of content does the audience want int his channel?
• ~What is the right tone for this channel?
• ~What is the ideal velocity?

Revenue

Survival Monetization

• "It will take time to find the right monetization model for you business. In the meantime begin to experiment with different ways to make money from your content asset.
• "Successful Content Inc. companies don't just get to an MVA (minimum viable audience) point or specific number of subscribers and then decide to sell a product. All along the way, these savvy entrepreneurs are leveraging creative thinking to sustain the business model while it's under development."
• Sell your expertise
• ~Consulting
• ~Coaching
• ~Sponsorship and events
• ~Speaking
• Start monetizing the platform/audience as soon as possible

Building the Revenue Model

• "Some of the best Content Inc. models use multiple ways to make money from their audiences."
• "You should always be thinking of how many ways you can monetize the asset of content you are consistently creating."
• 10 Ways a Content Inc. Model Drives Revenue
• ~Revenue generated directly from the audience
• ~~Advertising/Sponsorship
• ~~Conferences/Events
• ~~Premium content
• ~~Affiliates
• ~~Donations
• ~~Subscriptions
• ~Revenue opportunities as a result of the audience
• ~~Products (win)
• ~~Services (win)
• Better customers (grow)
• Loyal customers (keep)
• Does the content model make sense if I already have a product? If any of the following are true then yes.
• ~Are subscribers more likely to buy?
• ~Are subscribers more likely to buy new products?
• ~Do subscribers stay longer as customers?
• ~Do subscribers talk more about us on social?
• ~Do subscribers close faster?
• ~Do subscribers buy more on average?

Diversify

Building Out Extensions

• "Once you've built the base and started to drive revenue, you need to lower the overall risk in the model. Now it's time to diversify into other channels and build extensions."
• "Most business start with just one way to generate revenue."
• Do not build out a second revenue source until "the audience for your base has had enough time to trust you and your content."
• Choosing the right extensions
• ~Adding channels within the same platform.
• ~Extending current brand into new platform.

Acquiring Content Assets

• "If you determine the properties you want to purchase and build relationships with those owners over time, you improve your chance of buuing the property at a good price."
• The process of acquiring a content platform
• ~Determine your goal
• ~Clearly identify the audience
• ~Make your short list of platforms
• ~Approach the best opportunity
• ~Determine the purchase value
• ~Make your offer and finalize negotiations
• ~Maintain the quality of the acquired asset

Sell or Go Big

Exit Planning

• "Regardless of your ultimate goal, every entrepreneur needs an exit plan."
• Process
• ~Have a plan for what a sale might look like
• ~Come up with a list of potential buyers
• ~~Why would they want to acquire you?
• ~~Who are they contacts?
• ~Meet the prospects
• ~Nurture the relationship
• ~Grow towards the target size that would make an exit financially feasible
• ~Get your financial and legal house in order
• ~Find a financial advisor
• ~Send out the investment memorandum
• ~Complete a NDA (non disclosure agreement) and provide further financials to interested companies
• ~Receive LOI (letters of intent) for those looking to buy
• ~Pitch the company
• ~Go through financial hell and negotiations to arrive at a price and finalize the deal
• ~Notify the team

Evaluating Your Options

• Selling part of the business
• Be careful with the transfer of ownership of intellectual property
• Avoid taking venture capital because you surrender a lot of control over how to exit and the ultimate goal
• Valuations - your company is worth what someone will pay for it
• You don't have to sell

Next Level Content

Putting It All Together

• Timetable Approximation
• ~Sweet spot and content tilt: 2 months
• ~The base: 12 months
• ~Audience building: 4 months
• ~Revenue: 6 months
• ~Diversify: 12 months
• ~Sell or go big: 24 months
• BUT be patient, this is a rough timeline
• Getting stuck, you may be struggling for any of these reasons
• ~Selfish content marketing
• ~You stop
• ~You're focused on engagement more than building an audience
• ~Haven't spent enough time promoting the content you've created, too much time on making content
• ~No point of view
• ~No process for creating content
• ~No call to action in content
• ~Forgetting to leverage employees
• ~Insufficient editing