I’m on a mission to help entrepreneurs get out of the weeds when it comes to their content strategy and a big part of that is helping them simplify the number of platforms they’re attempting to use so they can focus on doing less of them, only better.
To that end, I’ve created the E.A.S.E. Content Strategy Method which helps you increase your content R.O.I. by simplifying your approach to content. It leverages the Pareto principle (the 80/20 rule) to get you focused on the 4 most essential content platforms that generate 80% of your results, instead of staying stuck in the weeds, trying to manage and grow 10+ content channels at the same time.
The E.A.S.E. represents the 4 different types of content platforms that every business owner should include in their strategies – an Expertise Platform, an Attraction Platform, a Selling Platform, and an Engage Platform.
The reason I created this is because I see a really interesting paradox with entrepreneurs when it comes to their content – they're both trying to do too much, and yet not trying to do enough at the same time.
The second reason I created the E.A.S.E. Content Strategy Method is to help make sure that you’re covering your bases in terms of the types of content platforms you’re including in your strategy. Oftentimes, a business owner will focus entirely on engage platforms (social media) and wonder why they’re not selling, or all on expertise platforms but not at all on traffic platforms and wonder why no one is viewing their content.
The E.A.S.E. Content Strategy Method brings all this into balance by making you’re able to focus on each of the four content platform types: Expertise, Attract, Sell and Engage.
This blog post focuses on the Expertise part of the framework and how you can use it to create valuable educational content that your audience both wants and needs.
Purpose of Your Expertise Platform
Your expertise content is at the heart of your content strategy and generally refers to your blog – no matter whether it’s written, video or audio. It’s the content that helps establish you as the expert you are and shows your audience that value you have to offer them – the more consistently, the better.
It also establishes your website as a hotspot for that value and gives people a reason to keep coming back (without that, what reason do people have to come back to your site? I guarantee it’s not simply to read your about page for the umpteenth time.)
Expertise Content Secret #1: Choose 1 Platform
Instead of trying to master multiple platforms for your expertise content – choose just one to publish content on regularly.
It doesn’t matter if it’s written, video or audio. The only requirement is that it lives on your website so it gives people a reason to keep coming back.
So that means if you’re creating video content, you may publish it on YouTube but you also create a blog post for each one and prioritize driving traffic there instead. Similarly for a podcast, you may publish it on Apple Podcasts but each one will also be a blog post on your website.
Decide how frequently you’re going to publish expertise content and commit to it – whether it’s weekly, biweekly or monthly. In an ideal world, you’ll choose either weekly or biweekly, but as always the choice is yours and should be what works best for your business (as long as it’s a pace you can maintain long-term).
Expertise Content Secret #2: Choose 1 Freebie
The next step for implementing the expertise part of the E.A.S.E. Content Strategy Method is to choose one freebie that you are going to focus on. Even if you have other freebies and content upgrades, this chosen one will be your flagship freebie and be an entry point to your evergreen sales funnel and call-to-action for any blog post that doesn’t have a specific content upgrade.
Expertise Content Secret #3: Come From a Place of Service
The main obstacle that comes up for people when creating their expertise content is imposter syndrome. They think something along the lines of, “Who am I to help people with this?” or “There’s nothing new I can add on this topic that hasn’t already been said before.”
The best reframe to help you escape this mindset is to come from a place of service. So instead of trying to create something smart, unique or that proves your expertise, simply be helpful and try to answer questions people are actually asking. #NoBrainer
Expertise Content Secret #4: Build a List of Questions
Related to the previous point, invest time in coming up with a list of questions to answer. Continue to add new questions as you come across them and pull from this whenever you need to create a new blog post.
This list will become one of the most important assets you can have when creating your expertise content.
My challenge for you is to come up with a list of at least 50 questions that people are asking.
Here are some places to search for questions:
- Facebook groups
- Amazon book reviews
- AnswerThePublic
- Questions you’ve received from customers and clients
Expertise Content Secret #5: Define Your Golden Standard
The final step here is to come up with your golden standard. Can you come with one post that represents your golden standard of expertise content that you're going to be publishing?
This is a post that represents the best of what you’re all about – it’s well-written (or filmed/recorded), sounds like you, people have responded well to it and it relates to your products or services.
Start by going through your past blog posts. And if you can’t find anything, your challenge is to create one that becomes the standard for your expertise content moving forward.
Or if you have a piece that's almost there, can you make some changes to it so that it comes up to this golden standard level?
Want to Learn to Put This Strategy Into Action?
Get instant access to my E.A.S.E. Content Strategy Workshop where you'll learn the 4 content platforms and strategies to focus on to scale your results and sales from content. Plus you'll get my exclusive EASE Content Planning Spreadsheet for FREE ↓
