As I was writing the last essay for this newsletter, a call-to-action for young marketers to create, I started to think about the rules I follow to do the same. There are two of them I can point to and explain. Taken together, they are most powerful and helpful ideas I have in terms of thinking about content creation.
I encourage you to think about them as ideas as well, so you can apply them to different areas in marketing and business.
First, embrace the finite.
Never attempt to do something creative without imposing some kind of explicit limit. For example: a five blog series, a set of three webinars, three e-books. These give you enough time to do something well, and also don’t put pressure on you to keep delivering something that may drop down in the list of organisational priorities.
I once attempted to execute a company blog calendar for 100 days. I predictably failed. After about 15 or do days, something came up, as it invariably does, and I couldn’t continue. Aim for the crisp deliverable, execute, and then get out before something else comes up.
Second, understand and use the power of scale.
This one is simpler: Do things that scale easily. A document worked on for three weeks, carefully written and constructed, can be sent and used hundreds of times, and only needs updation, if at all. It will carry your name forever, and at every touchpoint, your contribution will be recorded. That’s scale.
Webinars can become on-demand, and keep giving you leads. These are low risk, but high reward. Contrast that with company events, which are difficult to execute to everyone’s satisfaction. And even if you do, process can’t be replicated, you have to get down in the trenches and do it all over again.
Early in my role at Freshdesk, Girish asked me to come up with the names of the pricing plans. It needed to be in the ascending order, and go with the brand idea of fresh. I came up with Sprout, Blossom, Garden, Estate, and Forest. They are used even today, across all the Freshworks products. Scale.
In conclusion:
Constrict, so you can unleash your creativity within limits. You’ll produce something valuable quickly, and won’t run the risk of being blown off course.
Amplify, so the work you do once can be used again and again. Or can be translated into different forms, creating new value each time.
Do both, and your creative work will be near invaluable.