One of the most common marketing mistakes made by business owners is focusing on content tactics instead of content strategy - obsessing over whether to start a podcast or a YouTube channel, or the best time to post on social media or which scheduling tool to use.

But creating an effective content strategy isn't about which platforms you use. Or how often you post or what time of day. 

It's about publishing the right type of content at the right time. So you can get the results you need. In other words, it's about content strategy, not tactics.

In this episode of the Courageous Content Podcast, I'll share how to create a recession proof content plan that will set you up for success in 2023.

Key Links

Janet Murray’s Courageous Content Planner

Janet Murray’s Courageous Podcasting Content Kit

Janet Murray’s Courageous Planner Launch Content Kit

Janet Murray's Courageous Blog Content Kit

Save £30 on my Courageous Email Lead Magnet Content Kit using the code MAGNET67.

Save £30 on my Business Basics Content Kit using the code PODCAST67.

Save £30 on my Courageous Launch Content Kit using the code PODCAST67.

Janet Murray’s Courators Kit

Janet Murray’s FREE Ultimate Course Launch Checklist

Planner Debrief Report

What is cash generation content (and how to create it) (podcast)

How Susan made 6k on her first digital product launch (podcast)

Janet Murray’s website

Janet Murray on Instagram

Janet Murray on Facebook

Janet Murray on LinkedIn

Janet Murray on Twitter

Janet Murray on TikTok

IMPORTANT: THIS TRANSCRIPT IS AUTOMATICALLY GENERATED. WE GIVE IT A QUICK CHECK THROUGH BUT WE DON’T CORRECT EVERYTHING AS IT’S INTENDED TO HELP YOU FIND PARTS YOU WANT TO LISTEN TO AGAIN - NOT AS AN EXACT TRANSCRIPT. SO THERE MIGHT BE A FEW QUIRKY WORDS/PHRASES HERE!

One of the most common marketing mistakes made by business owners is focusing on content tactics instead of content strategy. Obsessing over whether to start a podcast or a YouTube channel, or whether to post on TikTok or Instagram, or the best time to post on social media, or which scheduling tool to use.

In this episode of the Courageous Content

Podcast, which you can also read as a blog, I'll share how to create a recession proof content plan that will set you up for success in 2023.

So I'm going to start off with a question. Where does the majority of your income come from right now? Number one, delivering a service. For example, coaching consultant done for you services. Number two, selling digital or physical products, for example, online courses or memberships. Number three, a mix of services and digital products, but not enough digital product sales to quit the consultancy or coaching or services.

Maybe it's number four. Maybe it's something else entirely, but that's not really the point of my question. The point of my question is, where would you like those numbers to

be this time next year? So when you look back at the end of 2023, what do you want your sales numbers to be? Not just in terms of the total revenue, but where your income comes from, so your revenue streams.

Now, you might be wondering, what has this got to do with content planning? Well, actually it's got everything to do with content planning because this is where you need to start with your content strategy, and here's why. Creating a content strategy isn't about which platform you post on or how often, or what time.

That was the pre-order price of my 2023

courageous content planner and content kit. And that price and that offer was only available for seven days. Would you be happy with those kind of sales? Well, you ought to be because selling 555 of a relatively low cost digital product online without an army of affiliates, well, it's a plumbing good result.

Even if I say so myself, which I make no apology for, cuz I know what's involved to. Make a launch like that happen, and if you like EQ launch data, here's some interesting stats for you. My overall conversion rate was 6%. The average for digital products is just one to 2%. Our Facebook ad spend was just 1,155, which is a fraction of what it was last year.

Affiliate payouts 391 pounds 90, so around 1% of overall revenue. 55% of sales

came by my email list, and we only marketed to a third of my email list, so around 9,000 of the 27,000 on my list, wait list, conversions were up to 37%. That was my highest conversion ever, and there was an increase of 10% from last.

Now, I did publish a detailed debrief report where I went through all the juicy stuff, like how many emails I send, the types of social media posts and the numbers, and I will share a link to that in the show notes. But actually none of this really matters that much because the part that really made the difference was the strategy, and in particular, one aspect of the strategy, if I just rocked up in the last week of August, which is typically when pre-order sales open for my.

And just sent out some sales emails or posted some social

media content except want to buy my planner. I have no doubt that sales would've been much lower. I know that because I've been doing this for quite a few years now, and I actually have data to compare. This is what I did instead. So June, July time, actually before.

I was publishing very strategic podcast episodes around content planning, so I was educating my audience about the importance of content planning and helping them understand why they might need to invest in my planet and content kit without even mentioning it. Then in August, I was really nurturing my audience and couple of things that I did specifically, one of which worked much better than the other.

I ran a social media competition, which involved inviting my followers to vote for their favorite cover

designs. Something we do every year for micro courageous content plan launch, or ahead of it, I should say, is to invite my follow. To vote for their favorite cover design. So we start with a short list of eight, and then we whittle that down to the final four This year, we turned that into a competition.

We put a little bit of Facebook and Instagram ad spend behind it to encourage people to enter, and it worked okay. It was a good list builder, but it wasn't as effective as the very specific lead magnets that I created. I published a number throughout August. Which were fill in the gaps, social media, post templates.

contains more than a thousand fill in the social media post templates. So these lead magnets were basically a week's worth.

Posts or each week of August, we also did some Anytime templates, really simple to put together just on Google Docs. So we were actually giving people a chance to experience the product that I'd be offering them a few weeks down the line. And this converted really, really well. The reason I think the competition didn't work so well was because you just get people who liked it into competition, so they're not really interested in your product or service, which is why a very targeted lead magnet that's really closely linked to the product that you want to sell at the end usually will convert much better.

So actually launch week was a breeze, really. I say it was a breeze. It was busy. There was a lot of content to create and publish. So there were at least 10 marketing emails,

dozens of social media posts that went out. But apart from feeling busy and and feeling like there was a lot to do, that part of it was easy because we'd already laid the foundations with the content that had been published.

And not just in June, July and August, but actually all year round. I'm building my audience for my. All year round, because I know something really important. Not everybody who comes into your world, who starts following you on social media or do want your email list is ready to buy from you, and most new leads will take time to convert into sales.

So this is

typically content that you create for people who don't know about you yet. So this might be blog post podcasts, social media content that is specifically created around common challenges or problems that your ideal customers or clients have, Questions that they have, things that they're searching for.

Because this is content you're creating for people who don't even know about you. They don't care about you, They're just looking for solutions. And specifically in this audience growth phase, you need to be creating content which really relates to the product or service that you want to sell at the end.

So hence those podcasts that I was publishing specifically around content planning and content strategy. A question people sometimes ask me actually is, how do I convince people that they need my product or service? The answer is you don't. If by the time you put a product or service on sale, people don't realize that they need

It. You haven't done the groundwork and you're not going to be able to convince people that they need it. This is why your audience growth content and the next type of content I'm going to talk about nurturing content is so I. So then you've got nurturing content. So this is about building the relationship, building connection with people who are already in your world.

So typically these will be social media followers. If you have a podcast, they might be podcast listeners or blog readers. They might subscribe to your weekly newsletter. They know about you. They are interested in your content and possibly your products or services, but they typically haven't invested yet.

They're not. And just to give you an example, my courageous content plan and content kit is my lowest priced product that I sell. But sometimes people follow me for years before they feel ready to invest, which is perfectly okay. But if we're not aware

of how long it might take people to convert when we're creating our content, then it's very difficult to make.

Sales predictions, in fact weren't likely to get them wrong. So as well as that audience grows content, so attracting people into our world who don't know about us yet, but we know that we could help, that our products or services could solve their problems, we do need this nurturing content to help people in the nicest possible way, to move them over the line here to to help them develop that trust, to invest in our products or services, and also to help them recognize our authority.

And I think this is particularly true if you sell digital product. You may well think that your online course or your membership is brilliant, and it may well. But you may also have to watch somebody who you think would be ideal for that product or that membership. They'll often spend twice as much with

someone offering a similar product because they have the authority and you don't.

People would often rather spend more. With a trusted expert, a trusted authority then gave you something cheaper with someone they're not quite sure about. So it's really important when you're thinking about your content strategy that you're also allowing time. You're also thinking about specific content to help people feel confident enough to spend money with you.

And one of the most effective ways to do that is, is to show them. So the example I gave you earlier of those very specific lead magnets that I created and published during August ahead of my plan launch, I wasn't just telling people that I had these brilliant fill in the gaps templates for social media posts.

I was showing them I was giving them to people or giving people a week's words to try out for the. The third type of

content is cash generation content. Now, this will typically be content that is specifically focused on making sales or asking people to invest in a particular product or service. And while people are often very aware of the need to create like marketing email sequences or social media posts who promote a particular product or service, one thing that's really, really come to my attention in 2022 is the other type of cash generation content.

So many business owners have never even sort of, so templates for outreach, emails for follow up emails for reaching back out to clients who you've previously worked with. Those people don't need more blog posts or newsletters from you, or more email lead magnets. They just want you to reach out to them with very specific offers for products of services that solve their problem.

I do have a number of

podcast episodes on this. The best one to start with I think, is creating a cash generation content strategy. I'll link to that one in the show notes, but will worth listen if you haven't already. So if you're struggling to generate consistent income in your business, there's a very good chance it's because you've got that mix of content wrong.

So typical problems are, number one, creating too much audience growth content. So you get people who will just keep publishing this super useful blogs, podcasts, social media posts, give, give, give, value, value, value, but they never actually sell in. Then you've got people who are a bit scared of selling. So they will typically create too much audience growth and nurturing content, Lead magnets, podcasts, blogs, social media posts, Facebook groups.

And what they'll also often do is they'll make the route to say are much longer than

it needs to be. So for example, they'll create a very complex sales funnel and an email lead magnet for something that doesn't need it. So for example, a coaching package or a. Program, a high ticket group program and in making people jump through a lot of hoops to spend money with you.

So creating a funnel that you don't need to create, creating lead magnets that you don't need to create. When you could actually just send someone a personal email and say, Hey, I've got this great group program. I think that it will be perfect for you, and here's. Well, actually, that can reduce the chances of you making a sale.

And often the reason for that is procrastination and fear of rejection because it's much less vulnerable to create a new email lead magnet and tell your list or your social media followers about it than it is

to reach out to someone personally and invite them to join your group program or invest in your coaching because of course there is that risk of project.

But actually in making that route to sale longer, in creating more content than you need to, you may even actually be frustrating your ideal customers or clients because they already know I can trust you. They've worked with you before. They're working with you. Now, they'd be happy to invest more money with you.

They just need you to get in touch with those very targeted offers, emails, voicemails, text messages, however you normally communi. They don't need anything else. Another problem that can be focusing too much on cash generation content. I think we've all seen those social media accounts where all people ever do is sell, and people just tend to tune out of that type of content.

If they're never getting any value at all. If they're never getting any nurturing whatsoever, they

just tend to tune out and they don't see that content after a. So at this stage, you may be wondering how much of each type of content you need to create. So how much audience growth content, how much nurturing content, how much cash generation content.

Well, I know you want me to tell you the exact percentage of split. It's a question I've been asked a million times, but I can't because it really depends on what you're trying to achieve, and that is going to differ at different times of year and for different campaigns and for different needs that you might have in your business, but also in your life at different times.

For example, one of my group coaching clients, Carol Fair, she told me recently that she felt a bit guilty cuz she'd taken a break from TikTok to focus on cash generation content. So sending outreach emails and offers to existing clients, previous clients. And her reason for doing so is she wanted

to reach her income targets for q.

And I just thought that was brilliant because there is no point messing around on TikTok or Instagram or LinkedIn if you are worried. I don't think in this case Carol was particularly worried, but she wanted to get that income in place and she wanted to do that in the most efficient way. That would take up the least amount of time and creating and endless TikTok videos when she had a stack of people who might say yes to.

This week or this month, or even today? Well, it just seems madness to be doing that. And there are some other key times when focusing on cash generation content is vital. So for example, when you've just started a new business or maybe you've pivoted in your business and you've got a brand new offer over the last year or two, I've actually been quite

shocked how many clients have come to me who have already invested in business coaching and they don't have a single client and they don't know how to get.

And although this isn't my area, I'm not a business coach, I'm a content strategist. I found myself having to give advice on how to get clients. Telling people to do really obvious stuff like get themselves out to in person networking or. Go through their Facebook friends and send personal messages to people to tell them about their new product or service, and ask for recommendations or to reach out to previous colleagues and clients on LinkedIn and let them know about their new business or their new offer.

And again, ask recommendations or just invite people to book a sales call. Because again, there is no point pan around on LinkedIn or TikTok or creating a podcast if you don't have enough money

coming into your business, if you're worried about how you're going to pay the bills. So put your fire out first.

Focus on cash generation content. High touch. Emails, messages, voicemails the quickest and easiest route to sale. Then you can focus on your podcast or TikTok or whatever it might be. Another time when you might want to focus solely on cash generation content is if you're in a fix, if you've had an unexpected bill.

Or you've lost a client or you've wound up a particular product or service that was your bread and butter at that point, please don't waste your time posting on LinkedIn or TikTok or wherever it might be. Just hoping that someone will see one of those posts. That's the time when you need to get targeted focused.

Spend your time crafting quite specific outreach emails and follow ups and a

system to make sure that you can secure the income and the work that you need, and then that will give you the freedom to focus on your audience growth and your nurturing content. Another time when focusing on cash generation content is important is if you are a new digital product creator.

So for example, and I do have a podcast episode on. One of my clients, Susan, this year, she launched her first digital product. She had an absolutely tiny, tiny list. I've shared already that the average conversion rate for email sales is just one to 2%. So based on the numbers that she had, she was barely going to sell one.

So she took my advice to ensure that she sent personal emails and follow ups to every single person who expressed interest in her digital products, or indeed anyone that she thought might be interested. She got really,

really high touched and she had I think one of the best conversion bites I've ever had.

It was above 80%. In the end, crucially also, and do go and have a listen to this podcast episode of it's Major Ears Pick Up. I looked to it in the show notes, and it's called How Soon Generated 6,010 Sales from her First Digital Product Launch. Crucially, she didn't expect to make all of those sales from her digital products.

She was realistic, but she knew that if she was out. Posting about her digital products, emailing her lists, sending personal follow ups. That's those people who didn't want to invest in her digital products because they wanted one to one, or they wanted done for you or done with you. Just the fact that she was out there talking about that product would be hugely beneficial for her.

She ended up generating 6,000 in sales, only a couple of thousand, I think. Only a couple of thousand. It was a great result, came from digital product

sales. In fact, I think it was a thousand in the end. The rest came from a higher ticket, products and services. So when you are a new digital product creator, relying on emailing your list, especially if that list is.

Not a good strategy. That's where you really do need to get high touch. And by the way, there are fill in the gaps templates for these types of emails in a number of my content kits, including my business basics kit. So how do you take all of this and then turn it into a plan or strategy for your business?

focusing on in each quarter.

Just a rough idea of what they might be and when they're gonna be published. Don't need to get into any detail at this stage. Just taking this quick overview means you can quite quickly move on to your quarterly planning. And by the way, my Courages content plan and content kit contains all the templates to help you do this.

And also the training that goes alongside it with my Courages kit shows you step by step how to do it.

So if you know, for example, that you're going to be launching a particular product or service in August, putting event tickets on sale in July, for example, or launching a group coaching program in May, you can start to ask yourself, Well, what kind of content do I need to create in the run up to that time?

37% of those people purchased. Just imagine what kind of difference you could see in your sales. If you really invested the time in audience growth, nurturing, and implementing a wait list strategy. You could see a massive difference. So when you start to do this quarterly planning, you can start to get an idea of when you might need to start to create particular types of content, and you can start to ask yourself some tough questions.

So if you are going to launch a particular product or service in. Based on that conversion rate of one to 2%, how many sales would you make right now? So if you want to increase those numbers, how many people would you need to add to your audience? How are you going to do that? What kind of content would you need to create?

How long will you need for that audience growth? So ultimately what you're asking yourself is what's going to be the quickest and easiest route to

sale and investing more time in that audience. Growth and nurturing content will make the launch bit the sales bit so, so much. And remember, you don't need to get specific at this stage, but if you do have a blog or a podcast or a regular newsletter, something that you publish regularly, you can just start to think of ideas and start to get a sense of the type of topics that you might cover at particular times of the year.

And this in term will make it much easier when it comes to creating your monthly plan, which I would always recommend you do about month, a month ahead, and your weekly plan, you'll already have ideas, you'll already have things on your calendar. Asking yourself some of these tough questions now. Taking the time to plan much further ahead than you think you do will not only make sure that you've actually got time to implement.

So if you are going to be creating specific types of content, you've got plenty of time to do that, but it will also stop you

wasting time or things you don't actually need to do, like creating email lead magnet. You don't need to create to sell a high ticket program when you could just spend an hour drafting an email to your ideal customers or clients for that particular product.

Now, a common question or objection should I say that comes up at this stage is, but I sell the same product or service the whole year round. I can't possibly plan this far ahead. It comes up every year, a micro, courageous content live event. And this is what I say, , you can't sell the same product or service the same way the whole year round.

You just can't. And if you're not already thinking about different ways that you can talk about, That product or service at different points of the year. I call it creating peak points, then you are going to struggle to achieve your target sales or you're going to feel frustrated with your content because you are not going to really know what to

post about when.

And just to give you an example, Micros Content Planner, we sell it right round from the end of August to January. We can't just keep pumping out the same social media post. For that five month period, we have to change up the messaging. We have to come up with new ways of talking about that product. We have to come up with new offers.

And if you are thinking that you can't create a long term content plan because you sell the same product all year around, that's a business problem, not a content problem, because you can't do. So it really is time to get back to the drawing board and think about how you can create opportunities to talk about that product or service in different ways to add new features, to run offers or promotions.

Uh, we'll be publishing more episodes on content planning over the coming weeks, including one on how to create a content plan

if you sell the same product or service all year hours. We'll go into more detail on this, but this episode is really an important one just to lay the foundations. So to finish up this very important episode on creating your content plan for 23, and in particular creating a recession proof content plan, I want to leave you with one thought or one piece of advice I think will really make a difference.

So instead of asking yourself questions like, Which platforms should I be on? How many days a week should I be posting? What time's the best time to post, what's the best social media schedule? Ask yourself what type of content you need to create because platforms, posting times social media, scheduling tools, their tactics, their content tactics, that's not strategy.

But the strategy is the part that will really make the difference in

terms of helping you to achieve your target sales, and in particularly in quite challenging economic times. And over the coming weeks, I want you to ask yourself some tough questions. How is your content mix? Do you need to create more audience growth content to attract new people into your world?

Or do you need to create more nurturing content so you can demonstrate and grow your authority so people trust you enough to spend money with you? Are you wasting time on. For example, creating email lead magnets, posting on social media as a way of procrastinating when you could reach out to your hottest leads to your ideal customers or clients.

Typically, people who are customers or clients right now or have been in the past with a very specific offer, are you too scared to send that email or to leave that voicemail or send that text message? So instead you're messing around creating

email lead magnets or posting on TikTok or whatever it. And if you're listening to this around the time of courageous content live, that's my annual content marketing event, or you've invested in one of my planner bundles that includes the recordings or just in recordings themselves.

As you are listening to each of the speakers at the event. So they might be talking about Pinterest or Instagram or podcasting or email marketing, seo. Instead of getting bogged down in the specifics of a particular platform, I really want you to tune in to what they're sharing. Their strategy. Things like how far ahead they're planning, how are they building their audience?

How are they using data to build their audience or to grow their sales? What kind of audience growth content are they creating? How are they nurturing their audience? How are they demonstrating their authority? How are they building authority?

Because those are all the things that will make the difference in the long run.

I do love hearing. So if you've got any questions, the best place to reach out to me is over on Instagram at Jam Robbie uk. And if you haven't already invested in Y 2023 Courageous Content Planet and Content Kit, I absolutely recommend that you do because it will save you a ton of time on your content planning and creation.

And it does include those a thousand fill in the gaps, content templates, social media posts. There's also templates for

email, newsletters, blogs, and other essential business content. And also, An audio training that will show you how to get the most out of your planet and use it to help you implement your strategy and ensure that you achieve your objectives in 20 and of, I'll link in the show notes.