First things first, this is the plan here is a long-term play. This ain’t a get 10k followers overnight. The goal is to help your brand grow to a point that people know you as the go-to person for XYZ.

This will be done by showing you how to create content to answer the questions your target audience is looking for.

We are going to break this down into phases. 

• Phase 1 — Target Audience (who are you talking to?)
• Phase 2 — Content Creation (what type of content will you create?)
• Phase 3 — Research (figure out what questions your audience has?)
• Phase 4 — Planning & Creation (organize your schedule to win)
• Phase 5 — Repurpose (bring back what works)
• Phase 6 — Your Brand (what message are you putting out to the world?)

As the numbers imply each phase is to be completed in order. You’re probably wondering why I have Your Brand and in the final phase, the goal here is to get you to take action as fast as possible.

With the preliminaries done.

Let’s Dive in 🤿

Phase 1 – Target Audience

Who are you talking to?

By now I am sure you have heard the term “Riches are in the Niches”. Let’s be honest, we don’t want to waste our time and energy trying to make everyone happy.

The goal of this phase is to help you figure out who your ideal client is. To the point that when they read/watch/listen to your content they feel like “Holy crap they are talking directly to me”. When you get that effect then you have yourself a true fan.

The first step is to create your ideal client avatar. 

What is an ideal client avatar?

An Ideal Client Avatar helps you understand your customers (and prospective customers) better. The avatar focuses on one person and outlines everything about them. This makes it easier for you to create your content, messaging, and services to meet their specific needs, behaviours, and concerns.

By the end of this, you will have a clear idea of who you are talking to. To the point, we will even give them a name. From here on out everything you create will be directed to that one person. 

But wait!! If I am only talking to one person wouldn’t I lose out on other potential clients? Not one bit, there will always be an overlap of information. 

Having you talk to that one person will make it easier for you to be chosen. Once they get to experience your amazing service they will recruit more people to you. Word of mouth BABAYYY!!

How do I create an ideal client avatar?

A. Service Based

Let’s start by asking some important questions

1. Think back to past and current clients and ask yourself who do you…
   1. Enjoy helping the most or who is the most common type of client that you help?
   2. What is the common reason they are coming to you for help?
   3. How have you helped them?
   4. On a demographic level, what do your clients all have in common? (gender, occupation, hobby, etc)

By now you should have figured out what that one thing your ideal client comes to you for. Now we are going to dive in and better understand who that person is and give them a name.

At the end of this, you should be able to have a sentence that reads: 

“I serve Sally, she is 25 and comes to see me help her with solving how to grow her personal brand organically. Her hobbies include hiking, trying new recipes, and yoga. She is single and lives with her parents. She recently graduated from university.  Her biggest struggle is knowing who to market her yoga & nutrition services to. Her goal is to build a waiting list and recurring revenue so she can move out and live in Mexico”.

As you see this is quite detailed, I am sure you can picture who Sally is and how she dresses. You can probably guess that she shops at Lululemon. That is the type of clarity we want to have.

B. Product Based

Let’s start by asking some important questions

1. Think back to past and current customers and ask yourself…
   1. What were your customers looking for before buying from you?
   2. How did your product help make their lives easier or better?
   3. What is the most common feedback past clients have given you?
   4. On a demographic level, what do your clients all have in common? (gender, occupation, hobby, etc)

By now you should have figured out what is the common problem you help solve in our customer’s lives. Now we are going to dive in and better understand who that person is and give them a name.

At the end of this, you should be able to have a sentence that reads: 

“I sell healthy Supplements to Bob. Bob is a competitive marathon runner who also works full-time for Microsoft. When he is not running he enjoys weight training, playing with his kids, and reading about health and fitness. Bob graduated at the top of his class and hates to lose. His goal is to run Badwater 135 in Death Valley. His biggest struggle is his ability to recover 100% by the next training day.”

As you see this is quite detailed, I am sure you can picture who Bob is. You can probably guess that he lives a high-stress life and hates to lose. That is the type of clarity we want to have.

C. I Haven’t Sold Anything Yet

If you have never sold anything we are going to have to create a fictional character based on what you know best about your ideal client. To help better understand you will want to search Google and social media to know who you want to target.

If you get stuck you can use a tool like Sparktoro to help gain some clarity.

Sparktoro is a tool that will help guide you in where to look to learn about your ideal client.

Once you have a better idea you need to figure out if you are selling a service or product. With that figured out, you can now follow the steps above for either service-based or product-based. Then come back down for the next step.

Build the Persona

Their Background & Demographics

• Age?
• Geographic location?
• Work (ie. Employers, Job Title, Schools)?
• Relationship status?
• Education?
• Home type (ie. Homeowner, renter)?
• Income?
• Lifestyle?
• Name (choose anyone you want?)

Their Interests

• Hobbies and Activities (arts and music, home and garden, pets, travel, politics, travel, vehicles)?
• Entertainment (games, events, movies, music, reading, tv)?
• Fitness and Wellness (bodybuilding, dieting, gyms, meditation, nutrition, physical exercise)?
• Food and Drink (alcoholic beverages, cooking, food, restaurants)?

Identifiers

• Social media platforms?
• Communication preference?

Goals

• Primary/secondary goals?  
• Personal vs professional goals? 
• Role-related vs company goals?

Challenges

• What does this person struggle with concerning meeting goals? 
• What serves as a roadblock for this person’s success?

How can you help…?

• Them achieve their goals?
• Overcome their challenges?

Extra

• What about your product/service matters to this person?
• How do you solve a need, pain, or make them feel good?
• How does it improve their life?
• What are their values?
• What are their habits?
• Where do they spend their time online?
• What keeps them up at night?
• Why would they not spend money with you?

Alright so at this point you have enough detail on your ideal client avatar that the CIA and FBI are envious of the amount of detail and clarity.

Before we bring an end to Phase 1 I want you to fill out one last document. This one will give you clarity beyond 20/20 that Owls and Eagles couldn’t match you.

This final step is my favourite because it helps you set up in a story format who and how you are going to help them. If I am totally honest I copied this from the book StoryBrand by Donald Miller. Yes, I just saved you a few hours of reading. 🤓

The Final Step – Click Here

You should easily be able to fill out the following sentence:

I help____ achieve____.

Phase 2 – Content Creation 

What type of content will you create?

Now that you know who you will be talking to the next step is to think about what form of content you will create. You will want to have two methods a primary and a secondary content type.

What type of content to create?

When it comes to creating content here are the options you have:

• Video – long form
• Video – short form
• Video – webinars
• Video – how-to guides
• Video – going live
• Written – blogs post & articles
• Written – ebooks & reports
• Written – newsletter
• Written – how-to guides
• Written – Case studies
• Images – carousels & infographics
• Audio – podcasts

Primary Content-Type

To move as fast as possible, I recommend you make your primary content type being the one format that is easiest for you to create. The reason for this is that it will help you with being consistent. The less friction you have to create the better.

Secondary Content-Type

Here you are going to want to pick the format that best suits your ideal client avatar. What is the platform they consume the most? That is where you will want your secondary type to be.

Ideally, the second content type is of a different format than your primary type. If you chose written as your primary, you will want to have video, images or audio as your secondary type. 

Why pick two types?

The reason for having two types is so that you can build your consistency in one format and use the other format to help improve your communication. Plus your ideal client will most likely consume content in more than one format. We want to make sure that anywhere your avatar looks for a solution you are there to provide it.

Content & The Customer Journey

Definition: The customer journey is the process by which a customer interacts with a brand to achieve a goal.

This is also known as a sales funnel or a flywheel. The main goal of the customer journey is to understand how to build a relationship with your ideal avatar. To create content that fits each section of the journey

The easiest way to break things down is into 3 phases:

1. Attract phase
2. Engage phase
3. Delight phase

Attract Phase

The goal here is about using your expertise to create content and conversations that start meaningful relationships with your ideal client.

You will attract your ideal client with useful content and eliminate barriers as they try to learn about your service/product.  The key is to earn people’s attention, not force it.

Engage Phase

The goal here is about building lasting relationships with your ideal client by providing insights and solutions that align with their challenges and goals.

At this phase, you want to make it easy to shop and buy from you by enabling your ideal client to engage with you on their preferred channels. Focus on opening relationships, not just closing deals.

Delight Phase

The goal here is about providing an outstanding experience that adds real value, empowers your ideal client to reach their goals, and then become promoters of your company.

At this phase, you help, support, and empower your ideal client to reach their goals. Remember, client success is your success.

For the visual people here is a good example of what the journey looks like. 

As you see your ideal client goes through the 3 phases they start their journey off as a stranger then become a prospect then become a customer, and then become a promoter. This is the formula to becoming the go-to person.

Each piece of content you create will fulfill each of the three phases. We will dive deeper into what content to create in Phase 3 – Research.

For now, here is a quick example.

Phase 3 – Research 

Figure out what questions your audience has?

So now you know what type of content format you want to create. You now need to know need to figure out content ideas for your target audience.

This is where you can easily go down a rabbit hole. I will give you a short and long answer.

Heads up this is not considered doing keyword research.

The Short Answer

If you already have your business running I will help you find your first 20 content ideas. Think about:

What are the repeated questions every customer asks you? What are the responses you are giving out several times a day?

BOOM! There you have it. Your first 20 pieces of content. This entire blog/video/ebook is a culmination of the most common questions I answer on a day-to-day basis.

Ok but Chris I hear you, but what if I have not started my business and I have no customers. What do I do?

Simple, look at the client avatar you created above. 

Think about who do you know that fits the description? Then invite them for a coffee and ask them what are the many ways someone with your skillset can help them.

If nobody in your immediate circle fits the description, you need to go out and find them. You will want to find local and online communities your target audience spends time in. 

If after all that, you still can’t find them. Then my friend you need to implement the Long Answer.

The Long Answer

Disclaimer. If you have spent any number of years in college or university, you will get the feeling of doing a research paper all over again. I promise you one thing you will not be graded on the outcome. 👍🏿

The journey we are about to embark on is going to give a glimpse into the world of SEO. (Search Engine Optimization)

If you want to skip past the Explanation and get straight to taking action. Jump down to the section titled. Easy Steps to Finding Content Ideas

Search Intent

First things first you need to understand what search intent is.

In SEO we break things down into 4 categories

• Informational
• Transactional
• Navigational
• Commercial

These are 4 important points to understand when we start talking about the funnel. Let’s break down the search intent types.

Informational Intent

The user is looking for information. This might be an answer to a simple question like “who won the World Cup?”. 

This could be in the form of a how-to guide, a recipe, or a definition. That said, not all informational terms are questions. 

Users searching for simply “Jay-Z” are most likely looking for information about Jay-Z.

Examples of informational searches:

• Bill Clinton
• How to tie a tie?
• Soldiers stadium directions
• What is blockchain?

Transactional Intent

The user is looking to make a purchase. They’re in buying mode. They’re looking for a place to buy it from. 

This could be a product, service, or subscription. In either case, they know exactly what they’re searching for. 

They are no longer looking for information about the product; instead, they are looking for a location to buy it.

Examples of transactional searches:

• Buy iPhone 12
• Netflix coupon
• Spotify price
• Samsung tv cheap

Navigational Intent

The user wants to get to a specific website, and it’s often quicker to do a quick Google search than it is to type down the URL.

The user may be unsure of the exact URL or searching for a specific page, such as a login page.

Examples of navigational searches:

• Amazon login
• Yelp
• Instagram
• Rogers support

Commercial Intent

Users are looking for a specific product or service but are unsure which solution is best for them.

They often compare products and brands to discover the best solution for their needs.

They are wanting to get the best bang for their buck.

Examples of commercial searches:

• Nike vs Adidas
• Best internet service
• Top Restaurants in Montreal
• Photoshop review

Ok, ok Chris this is all cool but how exactly am I supposed to implement all of this? I just want to create content that people will click on.

Don’t Worry I got you. Here is the TL;DR. A list of keyword “modifiers” that indicate a certain type of search intent:

Easy Steps to Finding Content Ideas

I am going to share with you the simplest and FREE ways to get content ideas. The examples of methods will help you create some DOPE content.

As I mentioned before if you have no clients to ask questions to this is the most important section for you. For everyone else

Let’s dive in. 🤿

Top Websites For Content Ideas

1. Quora
2. Reddit
3. Facebook groups (make sure to click on most recent)
4. Answer The Public
5. People Also Asked
6. SERPs
7. Buzzsumo (see what competitors are doing)
8. Sparktoro (get a clear picture on your client avatar)
9. Social Media (look at bigger accounts in your niche for inspiration)

Alright, let’s break each down and how to go about it. To make this as actionable as possible, I will use the example of Diving School looking for content to create for its students.

Finding Content Ideas on Quora

I start things off by searching for the term ‘scuba diving’

You want to make sure to click on questions [red arrow].

Right off the bat, you can see I’m getting a clearer idea of what to create.

Here are a few of the other questions that were asked:

• Can you scuba dive if you’re asthmatic?
• Is it mandatory to know swimming for snorkelling or scuba diving?
• What’s it like to scuba dive at night?
• What are important safety tips for scuba diving?
• What should you know before scuba diving without certification?

As you can see that isn’t so hard. I invite you to dive down a rabbit hole and write out 10-20 questions people have asked.

Find Content Ideas on Reddit

If you never heard of Reddit, punch yourself in the face. Reddit is the front page of the internet. If you were around for the Reign of Facebook. 

Reddit is the place where everyone got their memes from. Enough of the history, let’s dive in. 🤿

Oh and please don’t punch yourself in the face.

One thing you need to know about Reddit is they separate their groups/channels/rooms into what they call subreddits. 

This is the equivalent of going into the sports or comic (Sunday was the best. If you know you know) section of the newspaper.

Now let’s really dive in! 🤿

The same rules here apply I will use the term ‘scuba diving’ to see what comes up.

In the photo below I have the subreddit in a green square.

The orange arrow points to a thread.

Now I am going to dive into the scuba diving subreddit. Hehehe See what I did there.

As you can see the green rectangles are giving topic ideas of what people want to know more about. By clicking into the thread we can then scan through the conversation for more ideas.

A great example of that is pointed out by the orange arrow. Where we have a person that listed out their top questions related to scuba diving.

Here are a few of the other questions that were asked:

• Where can I buy scuba diving gear?
• How much lead do you need?
• What are diving hand signals?
• Best place to scuba dive in Greece?
• Do I need an equalizer diving mask?
• What are the best dive knives for general use when scuba diving?

I invite you to dive into the Reddit rabbit hole and write out 10-20 questions people have asked.

I warn you of all the rabbit holes this is by far the most addictive of them all. I recommend putting a 20-25 minute timer.

Finding Content Ideas on Facebook Groups

Unless you have been living under a rock you have heard about Facebook. I am sure you are familiar with Facebook groups.

The great thing about Facebook groups is that they are communities built by and with people who share a common interest. Some may even call them a tribe.

To find your tribe you start by placing a common term in the search as in point #1

Then click on Groups then select public groups (more on this below the photo).

Then on a group and begin your research.

I used the term ‘scuba diving’ and found very few groups, unfortunately.

Depending on your niche and your avatar you may need to join Private FB Groups. This will require being active within the groups to build trust and authority. This is 100% a Longer play, but when masterfully maneuvered it is a free way to build a fanbase.

After a few scrolls, I came across my first question.

Here are a few of the other questions that were asked:

• How do you deal with a bad underwater experience?
• Which are better monofins or tech fins?
• What does liveaboard mean?
• What are some of the most beautiful dive locations in Europe?
• How do I patch up a hole in my dry suit?

Find Content on Answer the Public

Is one of my favourite sites. You enter a word and it spits out lists of questions people have asked about your topic.

Heads up you get a max of 3 searches per I.P. address. Make sure you choose the correct country.

I’ll start things off as always by searching for ‘scuba diving’

As you can see it pulls up a ton of ideas. What I love is that the break results down by prepositions, questions, comparisons, alphabetical, and related.

Here are a few more questions that were asked:

• When scuba diving what are the bends?
• Can scuba diving delay your period?
• What is the history of scuba diving?
• Scuba diving and snorkelling difference?
• Can scuba diving cause a heart attack?

Finding Content Ideas on People Also Asked

If you have Google Search before you have without a doubt clicked onto the People Also Asked section.

This is where Google pulls information from a website and gives the user the answer without having to open a webpage.

With the search term ‘scuba diving’ this is what the PAA looks like.

Here are a few more questions that were asked:

• Do sharks attack scuba divers?
• How long does a scuba tank last?
• Can you die from scuba diving?
• Can you fart in a dry suit?
• Why do scuba divers wear black?
• Who is the most famous scuba diver in the world?

Find Content Ideas on SERPs

SERPs stands for Search Engine Results Page. The great thing about coming through SERPs is that youtube to know exactly what Google wants to see for your search term.

When I say what Google wants it doesn’t mean that Google is handing picking what they think is best. It is more democratic than that. 

Google essentially promotes pages that users click on and spend time on. Just like the Billboard Top 10 does with music, Google does the same with websites.

With the search term ‘scuba diving’ this is what the SERPs look like.

As you can see the results show more of a commercial Intent. The results are showing more brands for scuba diving than information along the lines of what is scuba diving?

Switching my term to ‘what scuba diving gear do I need’ I get pages that all look similar, listing out the gear that is needed.

Finding Content Ideas on Buzz Sumo

Buzz Sumo will let you know what are the most popular and most shared content related to your topic.

Head up you get a limited number of free searches

Here are some of the results for ‘scuba diving’

To help narrow things down you will want to go into ‘More Filter’and check off ‘exclude large publishers’ for Publisher Size and select ‘.com’ for Country LTDs.

Our search results for ‘scuba diving’ now give us the following.

Now, these results make much more sense. To achieve them I also had to Check off ‘video’ and ‘article’ under Content-Type. I did this to remove video and any webpage coming from a new channel.

Find Content Ideas on Sparktoro

Sparktoro is dope as it allows you to find your audience based on your search term. It will give you social media accounts, hashtags, websites, youtube channels, and press posts. 

The tool was designed for the sole purpose of you getting a better understanding of your audience.

The free plan gives you 5 searches a month.

Here is a great example of the data Sparktoro pulled for the search term ‘scuba diving’

I highly recommend you test it out and see what type of information you can learn about your ideal client.

Finding Content Ideas on Social Media

This one is pretty simple. Take a look at the most popular accounts in your niche. Get inspired by their most popular and highly engaging posts.

Continuing with the search term ‘scuba diving’ I am sad to say not much came up other than dope photos.

Know What Content-Format to Create {Optional}

Now that you have your continent ideas. Before we dive into the steps to creating content. You know to know what content format fits best.

This is pretty easy you put a content idea in Google, then take a look at the top pages and get an idea of what content format wins. 

The different content formats you can create are:

• Short-form blogs
• Listicles
• Long-form articles
• Listicles
• Infographics
• Videos
• Images
• Case Studies
• Whitepapers
• Ebook
• Webinar
• Quizzes & Polls
• Presentation
• Email
• Checklist
• Podcast

As you can see you can create many different formats. The best part is you can also repurpose one content idea into each format type. [more on this in the future]

I am going to use a content idea from above ‘How long does a scuba tank last’ and we will see what format is winning.

Out of 6 sites that I looked at 5 of them were short-form blogs. This tells me that when I plan to create content for the term ‘How long does a scuba tank last’. 

What we see here is that Google is letting us know that short-form blogs are the way to go.

Phase 4 – Planning & Creation

Organize & schedule your content

Alright so you now have your content ideas, now we need to organize & plan things out.

To organize your content you need a system that is easy to use and easy to visualize. There are many ways to go about this my favourite way is the 8×8 Content Method.

8×8 Content Method to Organize Content

The 8×8 Content Method is used to help you group your content ideas into groupings. This is brainstorming on steroids!

The great thing about this method when it comes to SEO is that you ended up creating what is called Content Pillar. Simply put Content Pillar is a piece of content about a certain topic or theme that can be divided down into many different sections.

As you see, you have your main topic that connects to subtopics. That’s about it. I’ll show you below how the 8×8 Content Method makes it easier for you to see how it all connects.

Easy Content Organization Method

In the center, you put your main topic. Then letters A to H will be your surface-level subtopics. I say surface level because these subtopics have subtopics of their own.

This is where you take a look at all the questions and keywords you have gathered so far. You will group them into categories. Each category you create will fill in a letter of A to H.

If you are anything like me, you are a visual creature. I will break down an example here for you, using Health & Fitness.

Here is what the main topic cluster looks like:

Now let’s dive deeper into Muscle Gain:

The great thing about this is that each subtopic in a coloured section will also link to another subtopic. In the example above you can see how ‘Best foods for muscle gain’ can link to the main subtopic of ‘Nutrition’ in the previous photo.

Content Planning

If you Google content planning you will be told things like plan out the next 12 months, think about the seasonality of content, etc.

Granted all that is correct if you are anything like me, you want to execute on an idea when you have it in mind. 

If you are a solopreneur or running a small business you already have a million things on your mind.

I’m going to give it to you straight and simple. 4 simple steps to content planning

1. Organize your ideas (8×8 Content Method)
2. Create the content (blog, video, carousel, etc.)
3. Share your content (website, social media, etc.)
4. Repurpose your content (guide coming soon)

Those 4 steps are all it takes to plan. If your business does have a season theme you can always repurpose old content from the previous period.

There you have it, a simple and easy-to-follow guide to organize and plan out your content.

If you enjoy the use of a calendar then you can use tools like Buffer to plan out your social media posts.

Phase 5 — Repurpose

Bring Back What Works

This right here my friend is the golden gem to never-ending content. The day I figured this out my life became easier in terms of figuring out what to create.

If this were music repurposing would be the equivalent to creating a remix (Thanks P. Diddy). 

The Benefit of Repurposing Content

The goal of repurposing your content is to take it from one format and sarong it in a different format. 

Time for some quick math. If you have followed from the start you have 2 content formats you are focusing on creating.

Using the 8×8 Content Method you now have 8 main subtopics and 8 subtopics for each.

8(main subtopics) x 8(main topics) = 64 posts

64(posts) x 2(content formats) = 128 pieces of content

Let’s say you have 3 different content formats you are creating. 

64(posts) x 3(content formats) = 192 pieces of content

BOOM! Just like that off of 64 content ideas you were able to double or triple the amount of content you created. The best part is you don’t need to rewrite the whole thing.

Since you and I are both visual I will share with you a personal example.

Repurpose Content Example

I will share with you how I repurposed “7 Steps to Maximize Loving Life”

Main Content Format – Instagram

First I started by creating an Instagram Carousel on Canva.

Notice how short the caption and each point are. Which is great for IG.

Repurpose Content – LinkedIn

The next step was to repurpose the content to LinkedIn.

As you can see for LinkedIn I am stuck using only one image. I was able to take the points from each image on IG and create the text for LinkedIn.

Repurpose Content – Facebook

The next step was to repurpose the content to Facebook.

With Facebook, I was able to put all the images but still had to write out the same copy I had on LinkedIn. Although I was able to place all the images on Facebook, the layout is not the same as an Instagram Carousel.

Repurpose Content – Blog Post

The next step was to repurpose the content to the website.

With a blog post, more content is necessary. Here I decided to expand on each point that I had, even added some visuals to help get the point across.

As you can see the possibilities of repurposing are endless. At this point, you are probably asking how I keep track of all of this. 

Simple, I created a Google Sheets to track it all. The first thing you will notice is that I have no dates. That was an intentional choice.

So far none of the content I create is time-sensitive. This allows me to share content from 3 months ago with people I have on a different channel. 

My thought process here is to not bombarded someone on multiple channels with the same message. Granted if I was selling a course or product that would be a different case.

Low and behold there is my Repurposing Content Calendar (I know I know it’s not a calendar. It does sound better).

Simple and easy is the name of the game. I plan to expand on the “7 Steps to Maximize Loving Life” and create a newsletter and video. That one content idea will have netted me 6 pieces of content.

Quick Math 

64(posts) x 6(content formats) = 384 pieces of content 🤯

That’s content for each day of the year. BOOM!

Get your access to the Repurpose Content Calendar.