Note: You can download a PDF of this appendix here.
Cornerstone: One Book
The word count for a typical paperback business book ranges from 40,000 to 50,000 words stretched over 10 to 15 chapters. That’s a lot of content that can be sliced and diced into a variety of formats, lengths, and purposes. Here’s a framework for how you could make that happen. And if your team doesn’t have the time, you can outsource much of the content and editing work to companies like Writer’s Access.
Here’s what you can create from one book:
60 blog posts for your agency’s website: Slice and dice each book chapter into five or six blog posts, then optimize that content for organic search. Post one new blog per week for the next 12 months, and you’ll have all the content for your blog created, entirely in sync with the POV in your book.
60 videos for blog or YouTube: Take the 60 blog posts, slice them down into three or four talking points, and record a short three to four-minute video of you covering the highlights. Then post one new video per week on YouTube and embed the video inside the corresponding blog post on your website to further boost your SEO opportunity. And don’t forget to optimize the title, description, keywords, and closed-captioning for the actual video on YouTube, too.
15-25 articles in owned media: Take the content of the blog posts or videos and combine, blend, and sort the content to create 15 to 25 articles you can pitch to the publications you know your target audience reads. Once the articles get published, you can share the links on all your social media channels. But be sure to put a list of where you’ve been published on your website, as well, with links to the actual articles.
60-email campaigns: Take the 60 videos you recorded for YouTube and write a short intro, explaining how and why the video could be helpful to the recipient. Think of it as a helpful hint email series, and mail one weekly to your prospects and customers. As you get your articles published, you can mention those, as well, with a link in your emails.
60 videos for Facebook: Write a short-form post that summarizes three or four highlights for each of the videos you just recorded for YouTube. You could probably use the same copy as you used in the email series. Then post the short text when you upload the video directly to Facebook.
Note: Don’t post the summary text and link to YouTube. Facebook doesn’t want its audience leaving so they can consume your content on a different channel.
60 videos for LinkedIn: Rinse and repeat the same strategy for Facebook with LinkedIn. Upload each video directly into LinkedIn, for the same reason.
540 Facebook or LinkedIn posts and Tweets: Write one Facebook post for each of the three or four talking points identified earlier when creating the content for YouTube. Then scale that across the three to four talking points you would’ve determined for each of the 60 blog posts. At scale, you should now have content for approximately 180 Facebook posts, and you could likely reuse the content post to LinkedIn and Twitter with minimal repurposing. And each of the posts will link back to the corresponding blog post on your website.
60 long-form LinkedIn posts: Summarize each of the 60 blog posts created earlier into 1,300 characters (not words) and post onto LinkedIn as a long-form “status update.”
3 e-books: Consolidate the 60 blog posts into three main topics and stitch together the content into three short-form e-books measuring about 3,000 to 5,000 words each. Then offer the e-books for download off your website in exchange for an email address, or provide the content exclusively to your clients as part of your inner-circle strategy.
4 webinars: Take your book content and break it into four sections, then use that content to form the foundation of a curriculum you might teach during a quarterly webinar series. One could argue that your webinars may also be cornerstone pieces of content that could be sliced and diced into LinkedIn SlideShare files, social media posts, email campaigns, etc.
All totaled, you can likely slice and dice your book into at least 931 separate pieces of additional content that can be shared with customers and prospects in a channel-agnostic way.
Cornerstone: 52 Videos, a Weekly Series
Each of the weekly videos you record will most likely cover one central topic connected back to your POV in the form of a lesson, strategy, or tactic your audience can take for themselves and apply to their needs. But within that one overarching topic, you’ll likely cover it by breaking it down into three or four talking points or sub-topics within the video. And if you do, there will be ample opportunities to slice and dice your videos.
Here’s what you can create from a weekly video series:
52 blog posts: Once posted on YouTube, write a short paragraph setting up the video’s content. Be sure to embed the YouTube video into the blog post, as well. You now have content for a weekly blog series designed to boost your site’s organic traffic.
15-25 articles in owned media: Take the content of the blog posts or videos and combine, blend, and sort the content to create 15 to 25 articles that you can pitch to the publications you know your target audience reads. Once the articles get published, you can then share the link on all your social media channels. But be sure to put a list of where you’ve been published on your website, as well, with links to the actual articles.
60-email campaign: Take the 60 videos you recorded for YouTube and write a short intro, explaining how and why the video could be helpful to the recipient. Think of it as a helpful hint email series, and mail one weekly to your prospects and customers. As you get your articles published, you can mention those, as well, with a link in your emails.
52 video posts for Facebook and LinkedIn: Write a brief text summary or description of the highlights you covered in the video and upload the video directly into Facebook. Rinse and repeat the process for LinkedIn. You now have content for a weekly video series for both Facebook and LinkedIn with minimal repurposing.
540 Facebook or LinkedIn posts and Tweets: Write one Facebook post for each of the three or four talking points identified earlier when creating the content for YouTube. Then scale that across the three to four talking points you covered in each of your 52 videos. At scale, you should now have content for approximately 180 Facebook posts, and you could likely reuse the content post to LinkedIn and Twitter with minimal repurposing. And each of the posts will link back to the corresponding blog post on your website.
Cornerstone: 52 Audio Episodes, a Weekly Podcast
Each of the weekly podcasts you record, on your own or with a guest, will most likely cover one central topic connected back to your POV in the form of a lesson, strategy, or tactic your audience can take and apply. But within that one overarching topic, you’ll likely cover it by breaking it down into three or four talking points or sub-topics within the podcast.
Here’s what you can create from a weekly podcast series:
52 articles for owned media: If your podcast is 20 to 60 minutes in length, you could easily write an article from each episode to pitch to the publications you know your audience is consuming.
104 blog posts optimized for search on your website: Upload each of your weekly episodes to Temi.com and order transcripts. Then split the content of each episode into two blog posts for your website: 1) show notes which essentially highlights and promotes the lessons within the episode to encourage someone to download it and listen to it, and 2) a long-form post that shares the depth of two or three core lessons from the episode.
52-email campaign: Transform the show notes into a weekly email campaign and link to your website where subscribers can download the episode.
104 video clips for YouTube and social media: If you record your episodes with your guests using Zoom, experiment by turning your computer’s camera on and encouraging your guest to do the same so you can record both audio and video. Then ask your team to select clips of the two best highlights and share them on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and YouTube, with links back to your website so visitors can download the full episode.
520 Tweets: Write 10 tweets for each episode highlighting one key nugget for listeners within each tweet.
156 Facebook posts: Each of your weekly episodes will likely provide two or three golden nuggets you could use in separate Facebook posts for your audience. Each episode of your podcast could provide you with enough content for a week’s worth of posts depending on the social media calendar at your agency. Include a link back to the show notes on your website.
156 LinkedIn posts: Similar to Facebook, and don’t forget to include that link back to the show notes on your website.
52 long-form LinkedIn posts: Take the long-form blog post you already created, cut it down to 1,300 characters (not words, but characters), and post it to your LinkedIn profile for each podcast episode.
156 Instagram quote graphics: Select two or three quotes from the content your guests shared during the interviews, or from your solocast episodes not featuring a guest, and convert them into a quote graphic, which is mostly text layered over an appropriately sized graphic for the branding of your show.
4 quarterly webinars: No matter which monetization strategy you decided to implement, having guests join you to share their insights and wisdom with your audience is an excellent strategy. That said, you should reserve every fourth or fifth episode for a solocast, just you and your audience exploring one particular topic with some real depth. We encourage you to approach your solocasts with some real intentionality because this is your opportunity to teach and share something significant with your audience. Consider this: what if at the beginning of each new year, you were to map out your 12 solocasts for the year in an editorial calendar and group the 12 topics into four categories, or buckets? Have the three episodes in each bucket transcribed, then blend the transcripts into a seamless webinar script. Your solocasts would, in essence, become the foundation for your teaching curriculum delivered via webinar to your niche.
4 lead-magnet pieces of content (or an e-book): Take the webinar script(s) you just created, along with portions of the slide deck from the webinars, and create a promotional e-book that can be used to build your distribution list with an email opt-in, or can be shared with your current clients as inner-circle content, or as part of the promotional strategy for the webinar.
1 book: The transcript from a 30 to 45-minute solocast is typically 3,000 to 4,000 words, which is very similar in length to a book chapter. Again, getting strategic about your 12 solocasts per year could give you ample content to write one new book per year if you were to use your solocasts as the cornerstone content to make it happen. And once your book is done, you can slice and dice the content using the steps found earlier in this chapter.
Cornerstone: 4 Keynote Speeches, One Per Quarter
Speaking can produce excellent cornerstone content that enhances your credibility. A key ingredient to being successful with speaking as your cornerstone content is to build out and deliver three to four solid keynotes, each including a depth of stories that are interconnected in a thought-provoking way to your POV.
Also, you’ll be able to slice and dice more successfully and leverage each of your speaking engagements, especially if what you deliver has a bit of variation from speech to speech or if you invite Q&A at the end of the presentation. All of this can provide different content demonstrating how you interact with a live audience at an event, which can help you get booked more often, and provide valuable insights when shared with your agency’s audience.
Here’s what you can create from your keynote speeches:
1 book: Some professional speakers build their keynote speeches first, test the content with audiences, and if they feel there’s traction with the audience, they’ll blend three or four of their keynotes together and publish it as a book. Publishing a book leads to additional credibility, which leads to more speaking engagements. Be sure to take and apply the slicing and dicing framework outlined earlier for “Cornerstone: Book” as part of your content strategy. When you do, it’ll be a strong example of how one piece of cornerstone content can spin off to create another big chunk of cornerstone content.
120 sound bite audio/video files: Always request permission from the meeting or event organizer to have a copy of the video recording of your session. If they’re not planning to record your talk, ask permission to have someone on your team do it. In exchange, you’ll provide the event planner with a copy. From each 60-minute keynote, you’ll likely be able to select ten sound bites out of each of your monthly speeches, approximately 120 over 12 months. Ideal clips will be stories that engage your POV, stories related to the niche you serve, or the audience Q&A portion at the close of each keynote. The clips will serve as the foundation for social media posts, or as content to build out your YouTube channel, the blog on your website, etc.
120 video clips for YouTube: The video clips selected above will give you ample content to upload and promote at least two new clips per week for your channel subscribers. Be sure to optimize the title, description, and tags for each video you upload so you can benefit from the power of YouTube’s organic search.
120 posts on Facebook: Each video clip you upload to YouTube should also be uploaded directly onto Facebook along with a short written description. Remember, Facebook won’t give your video post much organic distribution if your post includes a link to YouTube. Facebook wants users to stay within its channel to consume your content, so providing native content will make that as easy as possible. And depending on your agency’s social media calendar, you may be able to get several months’ worth of mileage out of your 120 video clips.
120 posts on LinkedIn: Apply the same process you’d use for Facebook. You should also select the four or five best clips and link them to your “Professional Summary” section of your LinkedIn profile, so people who review your profile before connecting can get a feel for your content.
12 blog posts optimized for search on your website: Each of your speaking engagements will give you the opportunity to highlight something about the organization you were there to serve, something about the audience, any Aha! moments you witnessed from the audience, or some of the thought-provoking questions you were asked at the end of your speech. All of these can be blended and shared as an optimized blog post once a month. But it’s important that the blog content doesn’t make you the central character or the “hero” of the story. You’re not. The audience is. That will make the content more enjoyable for your audience to read, more helpful, and you more likely to be invited to speak at other events. Michael Hauge’s book, “Storytelling Made Easy: Persuade and Transform Your Audiences, Buyers, and Clients — Simply, Quickly, and Profitably” is a guide to doing this with excellence.
12 long-form posts on LinkedIn-based blogs: Take each of the blogs you wrote for your website, slice and dice them down into 1,300 characters (not word count), and share them as long-form LinkedIn posts on your profile. Be sure to take advantage of hashtags, although hashtags within LinkedIn don’t seem to have the same audience attraction power as on other platforms like Instagram.
12 articles for owned media: As we mentioned earlier, you can use the 120 video clips or the blog posts you created to write 15 to 25 articles you can pitch to the publications you know your target audience reads. Once the articles get published, you can then share the links on all your social media channels. Be sure to put a list of where you’ve been published on your website, as well, with links to the actual articles.
Other cornerstone content could include a regular blog or a research project. But by now, you’ve probably spotted the recurring patterns in the slicing and dicing strategy, which can be applied to these two forms of written content, as well, should you choose them.
Again, our goal with this section of the appendix was to provide you and your team with a usable framework and to illustrate some of the possibilities as low-hanging fruit. You should be able to apply the framework for all of your content no matter what form aligns best with your gifts and talents.
And we have no doubt you and your team have already created some ideas of your own on how to take some of the suggestions here even deeper into your niche. And that’s awesome!
