Why Most People Are Failing At Content... Don't Be That Person

Summary

Content Is Profit Podcast: “Why Most People Are Failing At Content... Don’t Be That Person”

Release Date: November 14, 2024
Host: BIZBROS
Episode Title: Why Most People Are Failing At Content... Don't Be That Person

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Introduction

In the November 14, 2024 episode of the Content Is Profit podcast, host Luis delves into a critical analysis of why many content creators struggle to achieve success despite having clear messaging, robust creation processes, and high production standards. Drawing from his extensive experience working with prominent brands such as Red Bull, Orangetheory Fitness, and F45 Fitness, Luis identifies a common bottleneck that often hampers content effectiveness: distribution. This episode aims to bridge the gap between content creation and revenue generation by offering actionable insights and strategies to enhance content distribution and, ultimately, profitability.

Identifying the Content Bottleneck

Luis begins by recounting recent conversations with long-term collaborators, which led him to a pivotal realization: the failure of many content creators isn't rooted in their messaging, creation, or production quality. In fact, many have these aspects well in hand. Instead, the real issue lies in the distribution of content.

“It's not about your messaging. It's not at your creation, it's not at your production levels. It’s none of that... these people have their messaging is very clear, their creation process is dialed in, production level is as high as it can get.” ([02:15])

The Six Levers of Content Success

Luis outlines six critical levers for successful content creation and distribution:

1. Messaging: Understanding who you’re speaking to and the problems you’re solving.
2. Creation Process: Establishing a reliable method for producing content, whether it’s podcasting, video creation, or other formats.
3. Consistency: Committing to a regular content schedule (e.g., recording a podcast twice a week).
4. Production Quality: Ensuring high standards in editing and overall content presentation.
5. Distribution: Effectively putting content out into the world through various platforms.
6. Feedback Loop: Gathering and analyzing data to refine and improve content strategies.

The focus, however, is on the often-overlooked fifth lever: distribution.

The Critical Role of Distribution

Luis emphasizes that while creators invest significant effort into crafting their content, many falter at the distribution stage. This oversight prevents content from reaching its intended audience, thereby stalling any potential feedback and subsequent growth.

“Do not neglect distribution. Please pay attention to that. A lot of people focus on the production and how it's going to look like... and when it comes down to distributing that content there's a big, big bottleneck because we don't account for that.” ([25:40])

He explains that distribution involves more than just uploading content; it requires a strategic approach to ensure content reaches the right platforms and audiences consistently.

Case Studies: Real-World Examples

Luis shares two insightful case studies to illustrate the pitfalls and solutions related to content distribution.

Case Study 1: High Volume, Low Distribution

In the first scenario, a collaborator was producing an impressive volume of content—70 videos in a short period. Despite this output, only two videos were actually published.

“Out of 70 videos that have been delivered, only two have been out there.” ([15:10])

The reason? The individual struggled with distribution. The underlying issue was the lack of a structured process to release and promote the content, leading to a disconnect between creation and audience engagement.

Solution: Establish a Baseline Distribution

Luis recommends creating a consistent distribution schedule to establish baseline metrics. Whether it's publishing once a week or daily, adhering to a regular timetable allows creators to gather meaningful data and feedback.

“Establish your baseline distribution... make that commitment and stick to that and build the resources to be able to do that.” ([18:45])

He suggests leveraging tools like Metrical for social media or Buzzsprout for podcast distribution to streamline the process. Additionally, delegating distribution tasks to virtual assistants or team members can help maintain consistency without overwhelming the creator.

Case Study 2: Experimentation and Feedback

The second example involves a creator experimenting with different content styles—ranging from podcasting and talking head videos to "day in the life" segments. Initially, this experimentation led to inconsistent publishing, resulting in a stagnation of feedback and engagement.

Upon reinstating a daily publishing schedule, the creator received positive feedback on two specific video styles. This feedback loop enabled the creator to double down on the most effective and enjoyable content types, optimizing both engagement and personal satisfaction.

“He got very positive feedback from two of the videos... he decided, okay, I'm going to double down on the one that I actually enjoy and have capacity to create.” ([30:20])

Implementing Data-Driven Decisions

Luis advocates for a data-driven approach to content distribution. By systematically testing different content formats and analyzing performance metrics, creators can identify what resonates most with their audience and allocate resources accordingly.

“Going off of the data it might be a little bit better for the audience and the people that you're serving online.” ([37:05])

Practical Strategies for Effective Distribution

Luis provides a comprehensive guide to overcoming distribution bottlenecks:

1. Commit to a Schedule: Determine how frequently you'll publish content and adhere to that schedule rigorously.

2. Utilize Distribution Tools: Employ platforms and software that automate and streamline the distribution process, saving time and ensuring consistency.

3. Delegate Tasks: Whether hiring a virtual assistant or assigning distribution responsibilities to team members, ensure there’s dedicated support for getting content out.

4. Establish Feedback Mechanisms: Monitor performance metrics regularly to understand what’s working and what isn’t. Use this data to refine your content strategy.

5. Prototype and Test: Introduce new content styles or formats on a trial basis. Produce prototypes, publish them, and analyze their performance before scaling up.

6. Balance Passion and Practicality: While it’s essential to create content you enjoy, ensure that it’s also sustainable and aligns with your audience’s preferences.

“Create one of these, one a week for the next month, we commit to that. We created, we produce it, we distribute it, and then we see what happens.” ([35:30])

Conclusion: The Imperative of Distribution

Luis wraps up the episode with a passionate plea: Never underestimate the importance of distribution. Even the most outstanding content can fail to generate revenue and reach its potential without a strategic distribution plan. By prioritizing distribution, creators can ensure their hard work translates into tangible results and profit.

“Let this be my warning. I love you and I hope this is helpful.” ([40:15])

Luis closes by encouraging listeners to implement these strategies and share their experiences, fostering a community of informed and empowered content creators.

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Key Takeaways

• Distribution is a Critical Bottleneck: Regardless of the quality of your content, without effective distribution, it won't reach your audience.
• Consistency is Key: Establishing and adhering to a regular publishing schedule is essential for building an audience and gathering feedback.
• Leverage Tools and Delegation: Utilize available tools and delegate distribution tasks to maintain consistency without overburdening yourself.
• Data-Driven Strategy: Use performance metrics to inform content decisions, ensuring that your efforts align with audience preferences and behaviors.
• Iterate and Adapt: Continuously refine your content strategy based on feedback and performance data to optimize engagement and profitability.

By addressing the often-overlooked aspect of content distribution, this episode provides valuable insights for creators seeking to transform their content into profit. Implementing these strategies can help bridge the gap between creation and monetization, ensuring sustained growth and success in the competitive content landscape.

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For more insights and strategies on turning your content into profit, subscribe to the Content Is Profit podcast and join the community of successful content creators.

Transcript

[A]

We've got some new talent. I'm Luis. I'm Louise. And you're listening to the Content is Profit podcast. Hi, guys, and welcome back to Content is Profit. Today I'm coming with a mini rent, and I had two conversations yesterday with a couple people that we've been dealing with for a long time. In a good sense, we work together, we work on projects together. And I came to the realization that this is maybe why most people fail in the content game. And it's not about your messaging. It's not at your creation, it's not at your production levels. It's none of that, because these people have, you know, their messaging is very clear, their creation process. One of them is kind of working on it, but the other one has it dialed in. Production level is as high as it can get. And we've encountered this bottleneck in a lot of the people that we've helped over the last five years. So I want to come in here, maybe share that story and help you move the needle forward with your content, because I am 110% sure that you're probably experiencing the same thing we did at the beginning of our story. And once that was unlocked, it helped us gather a ton of feedback and move the content, the podcast, everything forward and find our voice out there. Right? So we talked about the six levers, like I said, your messaging. So let's assume that you know who you're talking to. Let's assume that, you know, what problems are you solving for people online and in your business, right? Then we have the creation process, which is, you know, how do you actually record this content? So let's assume also that you have that figure out whether that's you're recording a podcast in your podcast studio, whether that's on your phone, however you produce that content consistently, right? So you're recording, you know, once a week, twice a week. What is your consistently, your consistency commitment? Let's assume that you have that under control, right? In our case is we record this podcast twice a week, for example, right? Then you have your production kind of figure out. So that could be you editing yourself or somebody, a team editing it, or if you work with us, our team editing the content that comes out and then is the dreaded. And what I call that bottleneck is the distribution, putting the content out there. And I think, like, a lot of people take this for granted because when we start thinking about creating content, we think about, you know, what am I going to say? Or like, what is the setup going to look like? Or how do I actually edit this thing? Or like what team do I hire to do this? Right? And then if, more than likely, if you're tackling this yourself, which I know a lot of people on the podcast, you know, are super encouraged to do their own things. And again, we started there. No. Shame on that. Amazing, right? I do feel like I do believe that everybody has to control their own processes and there's a stage, this is the distribution, putting the content out there, right. So the first conversation that I had, it was very eye opening. It was somebody that, you know, we've worked together for a couple months now, they have a very, very big content output every single week. And there's a pro, there's a part in our service where one, you could be a customer and we just give you the content and then you as a company or as a team distributes that content. So we support there as in we can jump on a distribution call, explain the framework, what is the content that we're delivering on a weekly basis. And on our side we assume that you have that under control. The second part of the service is we take over organic distribution of the content. We don't run any ads, we don't do any of that. We have different marketing partners to do that. But we can take that content and put it out on the podcasting platforms, YouTube, Rumble, if it's social media, content on social media and so on. And then your community manager or social media manager can take over from there. So there's a gap sometimes between that and maybe a lot of people are not allocating resources to do that, whether that's your own time to distribute this content. Which by the way, a good example could be a one podcast episode and let's say six clips a week that takes about two hours to put out there, writing the captions and so on. So my encourage is pay special attention if you feel like you're not posting enough or if you have content and sometimes that's going to stop you from creating more content. Because I produce this, I haven't put it out there into the world, I'm not going to create more. So then the circle breaks and we don't receive feedback and we don't get better as creators. So pay special attention to putting the content out there. Right? So this person had massive volume. We are delivering all the content and on the conversation that we had with them on our weekly check ins, we find out that out of 70 videos that have been delivered, only two has been out there. And the reason I discovered this is because the initial feedback was like, hey, my content is not performing how I need it to perform, for example. And this is not just specific to him. It could happen to any of us. Or maybe we have an idea on how that content is going to perform when we put it out there, but it doesn't. And then my question is like, okay, perfect. What's the baseline data like? How many pieces of content have we published? What is the average of the metric that you want to measure? And there was no answer is because the content hasn't been out there. So as a first step is we need to establish that baseline. So if you know whether it's a YouTube content, whether that's podcast episodes, social media content, establish your baseline distribution. I want to do this, I want to put it out into the world once a week, twice a week, three times a week, daily, three times a day, doesn't matter to me. But make that commitment and stick to that and build the resources to be able to do that. So that's even you if that's you distributing the content. There's tools out there. We use one called Metrical for social media content is amazing. Do you have buzzsprout that puts your podcast episode in all the audio platforms? So there's ways to make this process a lot faster. But just make sure that you put a process in place to be able to do this. If it's not you, you can hire a virtual assistant that you know. Prices for that range anywhere from like $3 to $10 an hour. Up to you who you decide to do that. It could be an intern, it could be your son, your daughter, like, who is going to put that content out into the world and establish a consistent framework. Be like, okay, every single day of the week. Again, if this is, this is. If you don't have a process every single day of the week for social media content, we're going to put a piece of content at 9am for the rest of the month, for example, and you stick to that. And then you're going to get these numbers that are going to be a baseline where you can start then testing things like, you know, changing the type of video that you're creating or changing the, not only the type of video that you're creating, but also the style or maybe making a little shorter test something longer. I'll give you an example. We have the football show. We publish a 20 minute episode. It did X amount of downloads on TikTok, for example. And then we tested a six minute segment which did significantly More than those. And we're like, well, that's an interesting concept. Can we do more of these segments? And can we afford to do that with a team or with ourselves or so on? And you can start testing and see how you can reach more people. So the second story is very similar, but this person is creating content from his own phone, right? He's creating his own framework, and he's trying different things like podcasting, talking head videos, almost like day with me type of concept, let's go train together type of concept. And he's been creating, but then there was a stage where he didn't publish, so he didn't get any feedback. And then last week was the first time that he was able to publish every single day of the week. And he got very positive feedback from two of the videos. And from that very positive feedback, he then one of those was really hard to make. Like, he would be taking a lot of time out of his day to be able to do that. So to do that consistently was really hard. And then the other of positive feedback was he actually enjoyed the process of making that style video. So from the two outliers that performed really well because he collected data over a week, he then decided, okay, I'm going to double down in the one that I actually enjoy and have capacity to create. So once you receive that feedback, you can go and adapt and you can do these things, right? So another example with like podcast episodes and clips, for example. So in our specific case, we have a consistent cadence, I.e. podcast episodes distributed Tuesdays and Thursdays. And then we have clips almost daily going out every single day. That's our baseline, right? So let's say we have an average of X amount of downloads every single week or every single month. If we want to try a new piece of content or a new style of content, then we can go and create that initial, what we call a prototype, and then we can put it on the feed and see what happens, right? And we're like, okay, we're going to create one of these, one a week for the next month, and we commit to that. We created, we produce it, we distribute it, and then we see what happens. And then you compare both average and be like, okay, these clips took X amount of resources to create, money, time, team, whatever those resources are. And then the second style video took X amount of resources to make. We really enjoy doing it. It's something that we see ourselves doing a long time. Okay, perfect. Which one performed better? And then once you get that data, then you can go ahead and start introducing the new style to do something. So what it kind of boils my blood is trying to make decisions on that side just because I feel like it. And again if you're doing it, you do your thing but I feel like going off of the data it might be a little bit better for the audience and the people that you're serving online. So as my rant I just want to come in here and share a little bit of that lesson. Do not neglect distribution. Please pay attention to that. A lot of people focus on the production and how it's going to look like and how I'm going to edit this and then when it comes down to distributing that content there's a big, big bottleneck because we don't account for that. So let this be my warning. I love you and I hope this is helpful. Please let me know if episodes like these are helpful and we'll see you on the next one. Take care. Bye.