Speaker 1: We are talking about content funnel strategy today. Because this is the thing that I wish somebody would have pulled me aside back in 2018 and said, hey Crystal, you really don't have a strategy and you kinda need one, so let's work on that. It's what I wish someone would have told me, but I, probably like you, was just in this area of I just need to create content, figure out what I'm doing, and do it on a consistent basis. Does that feel familiar? Because I've really, my old self really feels that because it's what I had to do. So in today's video, I'm gonna show you what it means to take something beyond just your manageable content calendar and actually apply strategy to what you are creating. So let's get right to it. Hey y'all, Crystal here today and in this video, we are talking about your content strategy and what that really means. There are five key things that I wanna share with you today that have to do with taking your content from I'm just creating it and I'm showing up on a consistent basis and really being strategic with your show, whether it's a podcast episode or you're creating YouTube content or a blog or maybe social content or email marketing. I want you to think about your content as something that is all encompassing because whenever I think about content, it's not just one specific thing across my platform. It is little multifaceted pieces of what I'm creating and how I can be strategic with it. So let's dive in. So the first thing that I need you to do in order to be more strategic with your content is you have to think about your goal before you ever start recording, writing, or creating like doing any of the things that you have to do in your content. You have to ask, what is my goal? Even if it is just moments before you hit record or you start writing, just take a breath and take a second to say, what am I trying to do here? Like, what is my actual goal? And it could be a number of things. It could be, well, I'm trying to bring a topic to my audience that they've never heard me talk about before or I'm trying to entertain them. I'm trying to educate them on something that's really important or I'm just trying to make them laugh so hard that they pee their pants. This could literally be the entire goal of your piece of content, but you have to establish that from the beginning. Call it out. Even if you have to write it in your notes as you're making your outline, I want you to say, this is the goal of this particular piece of content. So that is number one. Think about the goal of what you're creating before you ever start creating. The second thing I need you to do to be more strategic with your content is focus on intentional calls to action. Now, we have talked about calls to action many times on this channel, so you can check out these videos here and they're gonna be linked below in the video description, but calls to action are so important. Where do you want people to go? What do you want people to do whenever they're finished consuming this content? Whether it's a podcast episode, a blog post, something that's on Instagram, or maybe it's a great reel that's on TikTok. I just completely blurred two platforms together, reels and TikTok, no, that's different, but you get what I'm saying, right? No matter what it is, I want you to call it out in your content what you want people to do after they are finished consuming what you're creating. Just like in this video, I'm gonna say, hey, make sure you hit the thumbs up on this video if you found it helpful, subscribe below, that way you don't miss our future videos all about creating content with confidence. That is an example of calls to action. I actually have a great resource that I want you to see in the video description below, and it's all about 25 calls to action that you can make across any piece of your content. It's gonna give you some ideas to really get some of that creativity flowing around what you can ask people to do, but you gotta know what this is before you ever start creating. So if you wanna get more strategic with your content, start focusing on those intentional calls to action. And then number three, piggybacks a little bit off of number two, we had our calls to action. Now I want you to figure out how do you weave those into your content without it feeling forced or salesy, or let's just call what it is, awkward. It can be super awkward whenever I'm listening to a podcast episode, and I can tell that the host is really uncomfortable making their call to action. It's like they want you to follow them on Instagram, but only if it fits within your schedule, and if you're okay to do that, like it's this weird dance of, I want them to do it, but I'm actually not that confident in myself to ask people to do it, so it's gonna come out all weird and salesy, and it's gonna feel really awkward when you do that. So this is something like take a deep breath. You can get the hang of this if you practice. And this is why I think calls to action are so, so important because people will come to me and say, well, I don't know how to promote my program, or I have a book coming up, and I don't know how to talk about it. I wanna launch this event to my audience, but I don't know how to do that. And for those of you, like if you fall into any of those categories that you eventually wanna use your platform and your content to sell something that you're creating, you've gotta start making those baby steps now. Get your audience to take those little baby actions, whether it's getting on your email list, joining your Facebook group, but you have to figure out a way to weave that into your content now. Don't wait until you have something to sell because it will come off salesy. They'll be like, well, they've never asked me to do anything then all of a sudden they're pitching this $2,000 program that they want me to sign up for. No, no thank you. You have to make sure it's an organic, natural relationship that you're building with your audience over time. You can't rush these things, folks. Like at the end of the day, that is what I'm gonna stick to is you have to make those calls to action, figure out a way to weave them into your content. So over time, you're building upon the foundation of your relationship with your audience, which it's just, it's the most important thing whenever you're creating content. So remember that the next time you want to create calls to action, figure out how can I do this intentionally where my audience will still find value no matter what it is I'm asking them to do. Speaking of calls to action, I'm actually really curious what else you want to know about being intentional with your calls to action. So tell me in the comments below, do you wanna see more of the behind the scenes of how I do this in my own content, maybe how I add calls to action in my outlines for my scripts for my podcast or for these videos, tell me in the comments what other questions you have about calls to action in your content. Okay, let's get back to the video. The fourth thing that we need to talk about today is your overall strategy. So we're talking about your content strategy today, right? But I also wanna zoom out just a little bit and ask you what is your overall strategy? What's the big picture? Why are you doing this? What is your purpose? Because what I have done is I have written down, don't worry, I'm gonna show you some amazing artistic skills that I am telling you I have, but I really don't. And I'm gonna walk you through my actual marketing funnel here in a second of what content means for me and why I do all the things that I do in my business, here on the channel, as well as on my podcast and everywhere else. But at the end of the day, what is your purpose? Why are you doing what you're doing? I am doing this. I'm recording this video right now because I wanna help creators just like you create your content with confidence. This is what I'm doing because it's something that I have been able to do over several years of trial and error, making lots of mistakes. I've been able to show up here with confidence today because of all the things that I am showing and sharing with you. And just, I like being a teacher in this regard of doing something and then turning around and saying, hey guys, you don't have to struggle anymore. Here's what I did to avoid this. It's kinda like showing you the map of the landmines that are ahead of you. I want you to avoid a lot of the mistakes that I have made. And it's why I keep showing up. It's why I'm so passionate about helping creators just like you. So let's go to the computer and I'm gonna show you a quick little tour of my marketing and content funnel. Okay, so I told you about my artistic abilities, but really what we need to talk about is my penmanship because I can barely read what this is and what this says. But I created this marketing funnel as a demonstration a few years ago. And it was just for my own, I guess, realization of what I was trying to do. This is whenever I first got super strategic with my content and my business. And so what you have up here at the top is you have cold traffic, which leads to warm traffic, which leads to red hot traffic, which leads to lava. We're gonna talk about lava here in a second. It is my favorite piece of this. But at first we have to start at the top. So for cold traffic, I think about people that find my podcast episodes, stumble upon my YouTube channel. They are seeing my posts on social media. Maybe they heard me guest on a podcast. Maybe someone else told them like, hey, you gotta check out Crystal. And they're like, well, who's Crystal? Like, what does she do? And they Google who I am. Or maybe it is stumbling upon something that they Googled and my SEO is working. These are all ways that I reach the cold traffic in my audience. And it is where people start at the very top of my marketing and content funnel. But from there, we move down a little bit. So this is my free content, everything here and above. And then we dive into making people take that next step or asking people, right? Because I can't make you do anything. You could listen to my podcast all day, but you're like, I could care less about signing up on your newsletter or doing anything. That's fine. I'm asking you to join me. I'm asking you to take that next step. And this is where I have warm traffic. So what this looks like is people joining my email list. Maybe it's a Facebook ad or a Google ad that I've run. I'm asking you to join my Facebook group and you're opting in to my email list or a free lead magnet that I have. So you're taking this micro baby step in the journey along the funnel. So you see how it's super wide out here at the top, then it gets a little bit skinnier. And then from there, we get into the red hot traffic. Now what this is, is this could be watching one of my free masterclasses, attending one of my workshops, hanging out with me on a live stream and getting in the comments, or maybe it's going to a registration page and opting in, or you're participating in like a smaller affiliate launch. This is when people are red hot because maybe you're making the small budgetary purchase, right? Like you're, it's some of the low hanging fruit. It's not something that's gonna break the bank. It's like my book, if you haven't seen it, I have a book, it's called Start a Bingeworthy Podcast. You can check it out here. I'm gonna link to it below, but this book is less than $20. There's an ebook, there's an audio book, there's a paperback book that you can order, but this is one of the cheapest ways that you can work with me. And it's part of my red hot traffic because what will happen is usually people participate in one of these programs or buy one of these products. And then I'm showing them, hey, this is what it's like to work with me. And I'm hoping that they're gonna take the next step and journey down to the next step in the funnel, which is buying one of my programs. It's signing up for a membership that I have, or it's participating in one of the larger affiliate launches that I do throughout the year. And this is what I call Lava. This also contains raving fans of your content. So if you've been looking at this, you're like, Crystal, I have a product. I don't have an online business right now. I'm just building a platform. This could be your raving fans because what Lava is, is it spreads. You know this, right? This isn't a science experiment that you've never heard before. Lava spreads. And what I'm trying to do with all of my content, you see it gets from this wide mouth funnel and it goes all the way down to your paying customers, your loyal fans. Well, those people are hopefully telling other people about your amazing content, about your book that changed their life, about that event that you created that helps so many people. This is the idea behind not just getting people to buy your stuff or to subscribe to your podcast. You want them to tell someone else about it. Word of mouth marketing is still so relevant today. It never goes out. Like it's not a, what is it? A trendy fad. I was gonna say a fatty trend and then that didn't make sense. But it's not something that goes out of style ever, ever, ever, ever. So I want you to consider this when you're thinking about your content. What are some of the things that you can do to help people tell other people about what it is that you're creating? And then the last thing that I want you to consider when you're thinking about your content strategy, number five, I want you to ask yourself, are you going to have content that is timely? Meaning it's happening in real time and you're sharing information that is important to your audience right now? Or is it going to be evergreen content that is relevant five years from now? If someone stumbles upon what you did at the very beginning of your content, is it still going to be relevant to them? Or is it gonna be a mixture of both? This is really how I have set up my podcast, my YouTube channel, the things that I share across social media. I want it to be something that is relevant to someone that finds me a few years from now. Not just the people that show up every day, even though, thank you so much, if you are a loyal fan and a subscriber that hangs out here all the time, I so appreciate you and I'm grateful for you for hanging out with us and listening to all the tips that we have about content strategy. But I think it's really important for you to make that distinction. When you're looking at your content, are you creating something that's going to be relevant to a future audience? Is it going to be something that people need to watch in the next 48 hours or the next two weeks in order for them to really derive value from what you're creating? And this is something that you have to decide. Maybe it's something you have to ask yourself every single time you're creating a piece of content. Going back to what we were talking about earlier in step number one, think about what is your goal? Maybe at that point in time, you have to also establish, is this going to be something that's evergreen or something that people need to consume in a timely manner? But that's all I have for you today. So I hope that you found this video helpful all about content strategy. Make sure you hit the thumbs up if you did, I would so appreciate it. Hit the subscribe button as well, that way you don't miss our future videos all about creating content with confidence. Check out these other videos right here all about tips, resources, and other strategies that will help you avoid those landmines that we talked about earlier in this video. But that's all I have for you today. So as always, remember, keep it up. We all have to start somewhere.