Creating Clarity Newsletter #008
Hey 👋🏻
Is your content one-sided? Chances are it is, which means you’re missing out on an opportunity to grow a bigger audience.
People consume content differently, and as a result, you need different types of content to capture your audience’s attention.
I introduced the Content Pyramid concept in my first book, CareerKred. Unlike the sales funnel pyramid, the Content Pyramid consists of the different types of content you can and should produce.
Using the sales funnel pyramid and the Content Pyramid together is like a one-two punch for your content.
The Content Pyramid
The Content Pyramid defines the different types of content you can – should – produce, and it consists of four parts, each building on the next.
- Written
- Images
- Audio
- Video
Sure, there are more, but these four types will cover 90%+ of the content you’ll publish. I’ve listed the parts of the pyramid in order of technical difficulty. Let’s take a look at each.
Written content
Despite being listed first, from a pyramid standpoint, written content is at the bottom and serves as the pyramid’s foundation. Written content is exactly what it sounds like; the content you publish using words.
This newsletter is written content; other forms include:
- Blog posts
- Social Media posts
- Articles
- Newsletters
- Tweets
- etc.
Written content takes time to create, but for me, at least, it is a great way to flush out your thinking into something cohesive. Nearly everything I do on the internets starts with written content.
Images
Next up are Images. Images as content are much more prevalent today and come in many forms.
- Pictures
- Gifs
- Memes
- Quote images
- etc.
Images are very effective at stopping the scroll in our news feeds on social platforms, and they break up the text and add a bit of flair to our written content. Great images capture attention and don’t require a lot of expertise to create.
Just make sure you use licensed images, such as Creative Commons or a paid subscription.
If you’re looking for images on Google, make sure you click the More button to select Creative commons via the Usage rights dropdown list.
Even if you go this route, give credit to the source of your images.
Audio
Now we’re getting a bit more technical. I define Audio on the pyramid as the recoded voice, specifically yours. The most common audio you’ll find today is podcasts.
Podcasts are a great way to build an intimate audience, but they do require a level of technical knowledge to create, or at least they did at one time.
Today, creating audio content is as easy as recording yourself reading your written content with your phone. In addition, there are various plugins now that create an audio file of your published content directly from your written content.
Video
At the top of the pyramid is Video. Video used to be technically challenging to create. Today, you can pop out a high-quality video on your phone in no time.
The more significant struggle with video now is not the technology; it’s you. Many people shy away from video because they “don’t like how they look” on camera.
This is a shame because Video is the most potent form of media, and you have direct access to create it and use it to build an audience.
If you struggle with video, here are the four steps I have my clients walkthrough to get comfortable with video.
- Take your phone out of pocket.
- Record yourself reading your blog post.
- Delete the video.
- Repeat.
Do this as many times as necessary to become comfortable.
And that is the content pyramid. Four types of content you can produce when creating content for your sales funnel. Next week, I’ll walk you through how to get the most from the content you produce, but for now, go practice making videos because videos need to be the cornerstone of your media empire.
That’s it for this edition of Creating Clarity. See you next week.
Cheers 🍺
Ryan
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