The Unbelievable Surprise on My Hook
I never expected it to happen, but it did.
It was a warm day in Alabama and I was fishing with my dad at a lake.
We both had a line in the water and we were waiting for a bite.
When all of a sudden it happened. My bobber started bobbing!
I grabbed the pole and pulled hard.
Then I started reeling in the line.
When I got it in we found out that I had a pretty good size trout on the line.
For a 10-year-old, that was good in and of itself. I was happy.
And that’s when we discovered the unbelievable thing that had happened.
As we pulled the trout off of the hook, we found a small minnow on my hook.
When my Dad saw it he said, “Wait a minute. You used a worm right?” I said, “Yeah! I did.”
He then took the minnow off the hook.
And what did we find? A worm!
The minnow had taken the worm and then the trout chomped down on the minnow.
I couldn’t believe it! I had caught two fish one hook!
This a true story, but I’ll be really honest with you.
I have never done this again. And I probably never will.
I tell you that story because the best way to catch multiple fish has a lot in common with the best way to see multiplied results from your content marketing.
The Best Way to Catch More Than One Fish at a Time
I would never try to suggest to anyone else that if they’d like to catch two fish that they should try using one hook.
If someone really wanted to catch more than one fish at the same relative time, then I’d recommend:
- Using two hooks on the same line (See #6 here).
- Or better yet, I’d suggest using more than one pole.
These ways are all much more effective than trying to catch multiple fish on one hook. They all work better because you have more than one place (or chance) to catch a fish.
Why don’t we think this way when we create content marketing?
How Podcaster John Lee Dumas Uses Content Marketing
On Paul Colligan’s Podcast Report – Episode #40, I heard him mention John Lee Dumas’ 7-day a week podcast called “Entrepreneur on Fire“.
Paul said that he once asked John about his reason for doing his podcast so many days a week.
John told him that by posting a new episode 7 days a week, it gave people 7 opportunities to share his content.
Did you catch that?
John has 7 “poles” in the water!
In case you haven’t realized it, John’s extremely successful podcast isn’t just designed to help you.
It’s content marketing! Now don’t get me wrong.
It’s full of awesome, powerful, and even helpful content that his listeners gobble up (and share).
But it’s content that’s meant to lead people to buy the products that will help them achieve their goals.
Here are some of the products that John offers:
You see, John is smart enough to realize that when it comes to content marketing the more hooks (or poles) in the water, the more fish!
The Content Marketing Principle John Uses: The more pieces of content that you put into the water, the more “fish” you have a chance to catch!
Why don’t more businesses think this way?
How Many Content Marketing “Hooks” Do You Have in the Water?
Somehow many businesses post up one blog post, one white paper, etc. and then expect that one piece of content to bring in all the prospects and customers that they’ll ever need.
And then, when they don’t see any results, they think content marketing is useless!
That’s like betting all your money on catching two fish on one hook.
Yeah, that’s not likely to happen.
Instead business owners need to think like a fisherman and like John Lee Dumas does. Many poles in the water increase the chance you’ll catch more (or at least some) fish.
How You Can Apply This “Many Poles in the Water” Principle
Now I am sure that by now some of you are thinking, “Well I don’t have time to podcast (blog, etc.) 7 days a week! I have a business to run!”
There are ways for you to follow this principle without having to write 7 days a week.
Here are two ways you can follow this principle without focusing all of your (or your staff’s) time on creating content.
1. Same bait different ponds
You need to realize that there are different sites that you can post your same content on. For example, a few months after you (or your team) post a blog post on your site, you can post the same post on LinkedIn.
That will allow a new group of people to get exposure to it. (I post old blog posts on LinkedIn and have gotten great exposure this way.)
Another thing you can do is have you (or your team) write a new post, but this time get it posted on some other website. Where? There are plenty of sites that are looking for content. You just need to look around.
There are many places you can look online:
- Look for websites that accept guest posts (Peter Sandeen and EffectiveInboundMarketing.com both have great lists of sites that accept guest posts.)
- Check your local newspaper websites and see if they’d like to republish one of your posts or have you (or your staff) write a new blog post for their site
- Another thing you could do is search for other local businesses that have blogs. Look for businesses that sell to the same prospects, but offer non-competitive products or services. Then approach them and see if they’d like to republish one of your posts or have you (or your staff) write a new blog post for their site.
(NOTE: Your content needs to be good for any of this to work, but I am assuming that it is. Otherwise none of your content marketing will work anyway!)
2. Same pond different bait
You need to realize that some people are readers and others hate to read. Some people love to watch videos and others would rather read that same information.
Some people love podcasts and others don’t know what they are. That means that if you only provide your content in one format, then you are limiting who will consume it.
The people who hate reading will usually not read your blog posts. The people that prefer reading probably won’t watch your videos.
How do you create content for each of these types of people without taking too much of your time away from running your business?
One of the best ways to do that is by re-purposing content. You’ve heard of recycling right? Well, you can think of re-purposing content as recycling your content.
Here are some ideas for re-purposing your content:
- Take a blog post and record it into audio format.
- Take a bunch of blog posts and compile them into a book. (That’s what I did with my book “51 Content Marketing Hacks”.)
- Take a white paper and record a video about the same ideas.
- Or you can take your white paper and use it to create an app. (You just take the knowledge you shared in your white paper and create a “how-to” app.)
(BONUS TIP: It’s best to add to, or change, your re-purposed content some. Why? So that the people who consume content in more than one format will still enjoy it, even if they consumed it in the original form.)
The Only Way to Build Momentum
To see momentum in any area of life takes repeated action.
To try something once is not much better than never trying it at all.
How many of you have seen any major results in your life from only doing something once?
You’re only going to see results from the things you focus on and keep doing!
It’s the same with content marketing.
I am not going to pretend that you aren’t going to have to create at least some additional content to see this principle really work. You will!
But if you apply the ideas I’ve given you in this post, then you’ll be able to maximize the content you do create and multiply its impact.
This will enable you to harness this principle without having to create as much content as other businesses.
But the truth is, once you start reeling in some more fish from harnessing this principle, you’ll be excited to put more poles in the water! You’ll finally understand the wisdom of John Lee Dumas’ 7-day-a-week podcasts.
Final Warning:
Every top fisherman knows that if you don’t use the right bait, then you’ll never catch the fish you are hoping for.
This principle I’ve shared with you is based on the assumption that you understand the content your prospects are hungry for. You must know this in order for any of this to work!
(NOTE: This isn’t the only thing that John has done that’s helped him achieve such great success. But it is one of the key principles that he’s tapped into.)
Other Related Posts That I’ve Written
- Without This All Of Your Content Marketing, Products, And Services Are Useless (RecessionSolution.com)
- This Is the Real Secret to Unleash Your Content Marketing Creativity (B2BMarketingInsider.com)
- How People Limit the Value, Usefulness & Portability of Their Content Marketing (RecessionSolution.com)