Lean Content Kick-ass Content Creation for Teams of One by Ian Lurie © 2016, Portent, Inc 506 2nd Ave, #1700 Seattle, WA 98104 www.portent.com Seriously? We had to do a copyright statement? Fine. Don’t steal this. It’s ours. If you want to pass it along, reprint, re-use, re- broadcast, use as a movie script, add to a magazine, read it out loud at Carnegie Hall or anything else, please contact [email protected] for permission. We’re pretty cool about that stuff, and we’ll probably say yes. You may use this to line a birdcage, housebreak a dog or as a chip container. Also, funny sailor hats. Those are OK, too. Who This Is For ............................................................................ 4 Using This Book .......................................................................... 6 What You’ll Learn ........................................................................ 7 What Is Lean Content? ................................................................ 8 What “Lean” Really Means ......................................................... 8 Set Up Your Toolset .................................................................. 15 Find Ideas ................................................................................... 30 Plan ............................................................................................. 53 Produce ...................................................................................... 67 Polish ........................................................................................ 103 Publish and Promote ............................................................... 128 Repurpose ................................................................................ 137 Building a Site That Leans ...................................................... 147 Where to from here? ............................................................... 148 Who This Is For You know content’s important. You know you need to steadily produce it. You know that quality beats quantity. You know saying all this is one thing and delivering another thing entirely. It requires resources that, for most of us, are in short supply: Time, ideas, and expertise throughout the creation process. Writing? Sure. But also, all the little things, from imagery to HTML, that separate the “OK” from the “holy crap” content. That’s what this little book is all about: Independently creating great, polished content. 4 It requires minimal computer and web knowledge. If you can write and publish a simple blog post in tools like Wordpress or Tumblr, you’ve got the required experience to jump right in. If you can’t publish a blog post yet, that’s OK. If you have trouble with things like images, editing, proofreading, and formatting, by the time you’re done reading this, you should be all set. You need to enjoy getting your nerd on, just a little bit. Or aspire to getting your nerd on. We all have a little nerd in us. You’re going to tap your inner propellerhead. I talk tools, formatting and a few tricks I like to use. That means you’ll muck around with text files, images and such. It’s fun, I promise. This book focuses on producing content for the web. I talk about PDF and mention workflows for other formats. But I’m assuming most readers want to create blog posts and other web pages. I’m not a video or audio guy. So, I stick to written content in this book. I’ll research. The next edition may include other fun formats. First, I have to learn to set up a mic so it doesn’t sound like I’m spitting into it. 5 You don’t need to know: • Markdown. If you don’t know what this means, no sweat. You’ll learn shortly. • HTML. It’s a good skill to have, but you don’t need it for this book. You’ll learn some straightforward ways to generate HTML without learning it. • Photoshop. Nothing in this book requires it. Again, it’s not a bad skill to have, but you don’t need it. • FTP, SSL or various other three-letter acronyms. You’re AOK without them. So you need to know how to write a sentence, use a computer, and publish online using existing platforms. That’s it. Using This Book Chapter One talks about what “lean” means. It’s a good place to start. But, if you want to get right to the tools, go to Chapter Two. If you want to skip all the basics and jump directly to production, go to Chapter Five. CAUTION: If you do that, you will miss tips on idea generation, setting up tools, and secrets for how I generated $1 million in a week using only Lean Content. Ignore that last part. I’ll stop messing around now, I promise. 6 What You’ll Learn You’re going to become a more independent, effective content producer. You’ll have a good toolbox, spend more time creating, and less time dealing with logistics. Small, cute, hypo-allergenic creatures of your choice will frolic in your office. Maybe not the last part. But the processes in this book have made independent content production a pleasure for me. I hope they work for you, too. 7 What Is Lean Content? 1 This book describes a process that lets a single writer brainstorm, write and publish great content. It uses the concept of “lean,” but not in the traditional sense. What “Lean” Really Means Marketers often equate “lean” with “lightweight,” “minimal,” or “without waste.” It’s a system to which you aspire. I’m all about aspiration, but to me, lean is a much more immediate action. In cycling, to handle a turn at high speed, you lean. As you enter the turn, you push down on the outside pedal. That forces the tires into the pavement to increase traction. You preserve as much kinetic 8 energy as possible and complete the turn. Then you sprint out of the corner, leaving your competition behind. You also lean on your own. People can coach you, and you have a team around you, but in the end, you need to be able to lean without help. "Lean” Is a Verb, Not an Adjective (or noun) In content marketing, lean is what you do, not how you do it. To lean: • Get good, relevant ideas • Produce in a disciplined but streamlined manner • Polish, making every piece of content 10x • Publish when you’re ready, not when it’s perfect • Promote what you create, using a repeatable process that respects diminishing returns • Do it all on your own That’s it. Ponder if you like, but at some point, you have to lean. Start producing. Improve along the way. Lean. There are all sorts of reasons not to lean. Pedaling a bicycle takes a lot of energy. You’re tired. You’re sweaty. It’s hard to lean. Those corners could be a nice chance to slow down and catch your breath. But a lousy lean means you 9 lose momentum coming out of the turn. Then you have to spend even more energy to get back up to speed. You get more tired and slow down even more. It creates a spiraling deficit. Catch your breath on the descents, instead. Producing content takes a lot of energy, too. You face a lack of resources, bureaucracy, and interruptions. They can cause delays, so they’re a good chance to slow down. Don’t do it. Like resting in the turn in a bicycle race, it takes more energy than it saves. Instead, turn those problems into advantages: Lack of resources? That probably means you have a small organization. Smaller organizations are lighter. They’re better at cornering because they can lean fast and sprint to the next turn. Use your size to your advantage. You don’t have a huge review process. You’re closer to the brand itself. Be nimble as heck. Publish super-relevant, current information. Big organization with crazy processes? Look ahead. Create a content pipeline. You’ve got the resources to create lots of great stuff. Set yourself up for the turns. Processes are tools that can help you polish and produce at a high level if you plan for them. Interruptions? Write in small bites. Use interruptions to step away from your writing and refresh. Pass your content along for edits while you’re distracted. 10 Also: When you’re on two skinny tires, cornering is scary as hell. Sure, someone can explain it to you. But talking about cornering doesn’t make you better at it. At some point, you must lean and sprint, lean and sprint. You build confidence and skill. Along the way, you may crash (trust me on this). When you’re sitting at a keyboard, content is scary as hell. Publishing is even scarier. You get zero response. You get nasty negative comments. At some point, though, you must write and publish, write and publish. You learn to create winners. Don’t Wait for a Perfect Map Knowing the corners ahead of time is great, but impossible. Conditions will change. In cycling, people drop water bottles right in front of you, or they crash, or it starts to rain. In marketing, products break, you get a good review or industry news means you need to act right now. Don’t wait until you’re “sure what will work” or until you’ve written a content strategy. Write the strategy, by all means! It’s a huge asset. But write content now. Waiting produces zero results. Lean, or talk about leaning and never produce anything. Up to you. 11 A One-Person Process This is a process designed so that one person can independently create basic blog posts, PDFs or and Word docs. You can use it for slide decks, too. Team efforts are great, but very few organizations have the resources to routinely dedicate a team to production. Leaning requires a measure of independence. You need a process that minimizes demands on external resources like designers, HTML coders, and developers. This ebook provides it. Scaling Up Note I said this is designed to be a one-person production process. If you have a whole content production team, excellent! You can still use this book. You’ll get more efficient, and team members will have more time to focus on their strengths, contributing more to production efforts.