I've brought up this concept many times before here on the podcast and just throughout my content, but it's just it's got to be said again. Because if you are where I was in 2018, when I was first getting started with my podcast and trying to figure out, you know, everything that I teach you, right, like, let's figure out what the purpose of your show is, what's the name going to be who you're going to talk to in your first few content ideas. The last thing on my mind
was strategy. It really was, I was not thinking, how can I be strategic? I was thinking, why do I sound so nasally in the morning? And why is my mouth? So dry? Mind? am I drinking enough water? And what do I Am I too loud, I'm gonna too soft. And I was just trying to get overcome all the things that I was learning, how do I edit? What does this mean? How do I make you know, this one part sound a little bit better than it did
last time. Like, these are all the things that I was thinking about in the beginning of my content creation journey. But I wish in looking back, I would have had even just a little bit of strategy, just a teeny tiny bit. So whether you are just getting started, I mean, if this is you, if you are brand new to the show, you're brand new to content creation, either one of those, like, you're gonna be so
far ahead of the game. So far ahead of the game, just listening to today's episode and thinking about some of these concepts. But if you've been creating content for a while, if you are like me, and you were just like, I just gotta show up, I just gotta show up and record and have meaningful conversations with people and share those, even though I really don't know what I'm doing. I'm just gonna keep showing up. That's great. I'm not telling you that that is a bad decision. I'm so happy that
you're here. I'm glad that you have been consistent with your content, and you keep showing up. But now let's take it to the next level. Let's take it above and beyond that, instead of just saying, maybe your goal for a long time is I just want to have a manageable content calendar, I get that that's legitimately all I focused on for a really long
time in my content. But what I'm talking about here today, is I want to weave your content through your entire platform in a way that really ties everything together and relates it back to the big goal, right, the big goal that you're trying to accomplish with your podcast. And now your big goal could be I want to establish myself as an authority, I want to build a platform, I want to make deeper connections with my audience. I want to serve this particular group of humans on the planet.
Those are all awesome goals. And today, I want to talk to you about how to strategically create content to have a bigger impact with your goals. So let's get right to it. Welcome to the Prophet podcast where we teach you how to start launch and market your content with confidence. I'm your host, Krystal, Proffitt, and I'm so excited that you're here. Thanks for hanging out with me today.
Because if you've been trying to figure out the world of content creation, this is the show that will help be your time saving shortcut. So let's get right to it, shall we?
Before we really get into content strategy, and we're talking about content funnels today, which is like so much fun, I totally nerd out on funnels, and just all the things that we are going deep on, I wanted to tell you, I do have some resources that are related to this topic, and you're gonna find them in the show notes. So KrystalProffitt.com/episode350 You're gonna find a podcast episode that we did about your podcast brand strategy, and what that looks like how to create
yours. I also have two YouTube videos about content strategy, like making changes to your content. So if you're one of those people that you have been creating content just consistently, you're like, my only goal right now is I'm just treading water, right? I just want to put up a podcast, you know, as consistent, whatever consistent looks like for you. And you're thinking about making changes but you're not really
sure how to do it. I'm not going to go into that in this episode, but I do have a great YouTube video that I'm gonna link to in the show notes. Plus, I have a great podcast brand guide that I created in 2022. So If you want a little bit more help with tying the different pieces of your brand together, those are all going to be super helpful. So again, KrystalProffitt.com/episode350 is where you're going to find all the resources and of course, all the things that we're talking about here in this
episode. So now, let's start with some of the reasons why I think that people really get stuck in creating the strategy we talked about earlier, you're in this survive like fight or flight mode, when you first start creating content, if it's something that's brand new to you. Now, I'm not talking about if you were creating content, you know, you're doing a whole bunch of Instagram reels and you're doing IG lives. And then you just decided to start a podcast, I don't consider you a
beginner. Okay, I don't you have some experience, creating some type of content, because we're not just talking about podcasting, we're talking about content creation in general, all
of it. So if you're listening to this, maybe you're brand new, and you want to start creating a platform that will eventually lead to an online business, or you are just trying to really establish yourself, like we talked about earlier as an authority, you're trying to build a platform, then this episode is going to be helpful in, I'm really going to lay out basically my content strategy, I'm going to tell you in a second exactly what I do, to funnel people into people that
or just casual listeners or watchers of my content into paying customers or those loyal fans, because maybe you're listening to this and you're like, Well, I don't have a product right now, it doesn't matter, you can turn someone who just found you in your podcast or on your YouTube channel, on your blog, into a raving fan, who will share your content to other people. Now, I've said this so many times on the podcast, and I think that it just comes from my marketing, education and my marketing
background. But word of mouth, word of mouth marketing is still it's an age old principle that is still 100% relevant today. It is one of those things that doesn't go out of style. It's not trendy, it's because it's here like it is here to stay. And it's still so powerful. And what I mean by that is, think about the last time someone recommended a podcast episode to you, someone said, Oh, my gosh, this changed my life, or it gave me this fresh outlook, it would have had the best story, it made
me laugh too. I was about to pee my pants, like all these things, right? Like, the content that really impacts you and you want to share it. It's so powerful, so powerful. So as a consumer of content, I pay attention to whenever someone shares something with me that I just can't wait, I have to go jump on it like right in that second. And then I take a step back and say, Wait, why did I do that?
What did I do that? And how can I reverse engineer that information like from my own consumer behavior habits, and translate that into what I can do in my own content to make people want to share it to make it bingeable content to make it where they are the loyal fans, right? The loyal fans that are saying Krystal is a fantastic
content strategist. She is the person that you need to go to if you want to know how to podcast strategically, or how to tie your podcast and your YouTube channel and your email marketing and your social all together. These are the goals that I have in my content. And I can make that happen by using some of the strategies that I'm gonna share with you today.
So number one, all right, are you if you're taking notes, start taking notes. If you're not, that's fine, they're all going to be linked in the show notes. So don't worry about it. If you're on the treadmill, if you're driving and you're like crystal, I can't take notes right now. totally fun. They're gonna all be in the show notes. But this is the point where we are going to get down and dirty with all the things that we need
to cover. So number one, you have to think about the end goal of whatever it is that you're creating. before. And I have this like in capital letters, it's bolded in my outline right here in front of me, before you ever start creating, recording, or anything, whatever content you're creating, what is your goal? What is your end goal? Like today? I decided before I started before I hit record, before I finished prepping my outline for today. I said, What is the end goal of this piece of
content? And I'll just be really honest with you. Today's goal for this episode is to share with you some foundational principles that I'm going to turn into Do a few YouTube videos coming up down the line. So just be prepared like this information is the long form piece of content that I am going to break down into bite sized pieces and use that on my YouTube channel. That is my goal for today. This is how I'm being
strategic today. But it's also educating you on something that I get asked about a lot I do I always get asked about repurposing batching, content
strategy, all those things. And so when I'm thinking about my goal today, this is my purpose like, and I want you to ask yourself next time you sit down, before you start recording before you set up your tripod to record a YouTube video, before you get your microphone situated, you got your water next to you record your podcast, just ask yourself that question. What is the purpose? What is the purpose of today? Maybe it's
making a connection. Maybe it's talking about something that you've never talked about on your show before that has multiple times been the reason why I'm recording an episode. It's not that I love the content that I needed to create. It's simply that I got asked about it so much by people in the
audience. I'm like, I can't ignore this, like people are asking me to talk about it, I need to talk about it, you can have so many different reasons why you are creating a piece of content, but you have to have a goal. It's not enough to just say, This is my overarching goal for my entire podcast, my entire YouTube channel, you need to have individual goals for every piece of content, every single one. So that's number one.
Number two, you have to establish where you want people to go after they're done consuming your content. And we've talked about calls to actions before and I am going to link to a few great resources in the show notes. So again, KrystalProffitt.com/episode350. But you have to decide where are you going to send people, y'all it's simple. I just told you where I want to send you all I told you, I gave you my web address, like KrystalProffitt.com/episode350. I give you that information.
Because one, I want you to have extra value added resources. I told you, I'm gonna link to some podcast episodes, some YouTube videos, I'm going to share what we're talking about here today. That's all going to live on my website. But the other thing is, is part of the strategy is I would love it if you would join my email list or go check out my YouTube channel if you've never been there before. Or go look at my book, I have a book on Amazon. It's called Start a
binge worthy podcast. And it's one of the lowest things that you can purchase. If you want to learn from me. If you're like crystal, you know, your programs too expensive, or I can't afford coaching. Well, that's when I tell people I have a book that's less than $20 on Amazon. It's an audiobook. It's an ebook. It's a paperback book, whatever choice you have, like, that is literally the cheapest way that you could work for me or learn from me work for me, work from me, no, no, learn from me.
That's what I was trying to say. But this is what I'm doing. I'm calling you inviting you to my website, so that you can decide the next part of your journey with me, because there's a lot of options there. So this is my call to action in all my podcast
episodes. In most of my YouTube channel, I'm simply saying make sure you subscribe and hit the like button on this video that does a few other things that notifies people whenever new episodes are out just like on the podcast, but also the head telling people to hit the like button and make a comment, boost that video up in the algorithm. And hopefully more people will be able to see it because somebody liked it and somebody commented on it. So this is why calls to action are important.
So you have to decide before you start recording. Where am I going to send people? What am I going to ask them to do? Are you going to ask them to follow you on Instagram send you a DM of their biggest takeaway? Are you going to say join my Facebook group? Are you going to say you know, send me a tweet on Twitter. Like there's so many
different calls to actions. And I have a great resource that I'm gonna link to in the show notes, but it's all about calls to actions that you can make in your content and I want you to grab that if calls to action or something that you're like I want to get better at that. Go check that out. It'll be linked in the show notes. Okay, so that's number two calls to action. Super, super important.
Number three, ah, this is the one where people it gets awkward. Okay. Awkward is one of the words in number three. I want you to know how to weave everything into your content without it feeling forced or salesy or awkward. This I mean it's professional stuff. Selling one on one. Yes, that is a course that I took. Like it was like sales. I think it was professional selling one on one. And then I had to take
the next one. This was in my my marketing degree, Texas State University shout out eat him up cats. But this is one of the things that we had to learn. It's like how do you do this without it being forced or salesy or awkward. And I have to tell you, when I first learned this, I had no idea what I was doing. I didn't understand the class, I was just trying to get an A in the class because I'm an
overachiever. Right? At that point, I think I might have just been trying to get a B. I wasn't as ambitious in college as I was in high school, but I was having a lot more fun in college. But I just remember sitting there and thinking, I'm never gonna be able to I'm not going to be good at this. I'm not gonna be I don't I don't know how to do this without being awkward, because I had seen used car
salesmen. And I had seen other people that have clipboards at the mall that you run away from, I was like, oh, that's what a salesperson is. I didn't have the bigger picture of No, no, selling could be just selling someone on an idea. Let's like just backtrack to just a second ago. I told you all about my book. I don't usually talk about my book too much right? Start a binge worthy podcast it's been
out for. It'll be two years in October, that since it was published, and I kind of just wove it right naturally into the conversation. I told you what it was about where to find it, and why I think it would be a good fit for someone that is on a tight budget that was selling like that was that was me selling on this podcast. Was it awkward? No, I don't think so. I
mean, I'm awkward anyway. But you know, it wasn't awkward on the scale of like, normal people's awkward, forced, I don't it fit in organically, it didn't feel forced. For me. Hopefully it didn't feel forced to you. salesy. I don't know, this could be one of those. It's like up for debate. Maybe you're like, Oh, she's selling something here. But I wove it into it naturally, where it didn't feel awkward for me to say it, I was confident in it.
And I think that that's what's most important is when you're in your own content, feeling confident about the things that you have to offer to your audience. Is it one on one coaching is an online program is it just that you're trying to build your platform and you want people to come follow you on Instagram, or wherever it is, you've got to feel more confident in making these asks in your content. And we've talked about this before, you have to get people to take those
baby steps with you. So that when you do make those bigger calls to action, you're selling an expensive product, you're selling an event, you're selling your book, you're doing your launch, whatever it is, they will be more likely to do it. Because you've already made those calls to action in the past. So I want you to figure out what this looks like. It's gonna look different for
everybody. You're how I talk on my show is not how other people talk on their podcast, how I talk on my YouTube videos, isn't how other people talk in their YouTube videos, it's all going to be different for everybody. But the point is, you have to figure out what it looks like to weave calls to actions, and those big asks of your audience into your content, organically. So that's number three.
Number four, the bigger picture and just the overall strategy for your content. So this is where I told you, I am going to walk you through my content funnel. And it's funny because I used to just call this my marketing funnel. But really, it is my full blown content funnel because it is how I create everything in my business and what it really looks like. So I'm going to walk you through this picture, it is an actual drawing, it's gonna be in the
show notes. So you'll be able to see it y'all it is the simplest funnel you will ever see. And so for those of you listening, you're not looking at the picture. And you don't know exactly what a funnel is. I'm going to explain it to you like you've never seen a funnel in your life. It is where it is very a large expanded object at the top. And then as you go down, you journey down the funnel, it gets a lot smaller at
the bottom. Well, I want you to imagine that that top of that funnel is possibly all of your free content that you're putting out into the world that you have no control over, right, I can put out podcast episodes. I can put out stuff on YouTube, I can do stuff on social media, I can guest on other podcast, I could
do SEO really, really well. All of these There are things that I put out that as my free content, I have no control over it, I have no control over making you listen to this podcast episode I don't, because you could possibly have just stumbled here. And you would be what I
consider cold traffic. Okay. And again, this is going to be a lot more helpful if you look at the picture, but just stick with me for a second, I wish you could see me right now I have my hands expanded out right here on either side of the microphone. And it's like the top of the funnel. And I'm like, I'm doing this. So I hope you feel this energy coming through the mic. I'm like making a funnel with my hands, and we're gonna go down.
But this is cold traffic. So this is everything that you're putting out content wise, this is where your free content lives. Now, as we move down to your warm traffic, these are more things where people actually have to take a step with you, they have to do something you're asking them
there. Again, those calls to actions, you're asking them to do something, maybe you're asking them to opt in to your email list or join your free Facebook group, or something else that has to do with if you're running ads, then they actually have to click on something to take action. These are all this is the next step.
So it's like the lead magnets and some of the paid traffic that you would be putting out into the world whether it's Google ads, Facebook, Instagram ads, any of those, this is a little bit warmer, because you're trying to get people to take action. And then as you move further down the road, this is where I get like really silly with how I label people. So at the very top, you have cold traffic, warm traffic, then we
have red hot traffic, okay. My red hot traffic is someone who's not just on my email list, but they opt in for the big things that I'm doing next. Not the biggest things, right? It doesn't mean they're buying my product. But maybe like my big program, profit podcasting. This is my, my, I can't even talk now, my digital course that teaches you how to start launch and market your podcast. But what is in this red hot traffic area is the people that are visiting my registration pages.
They're signing up for a masterclass or a webinar, or they're purchasing some of the smaller ticket items. So this is anybody that buys my book, someone that watches one of my live streams on YouTube, and they're not a casual visitor, there's someone that shows up all the time, they show up on a regular basis, it's the people that I can call by name from visiting my live stream every single week for multiple weeks in a row. That is my red hot traffic in my content and
marketing funnel. And then underneath there is my lava. Okay, now this I know, it's so silly, but I love this. So I have cold traffic, warm traffic, red hot traffic, and then we have lava. The reason why I call it lava is because it spreads. So it's not just someone becomes a paying customer. And then all of a sudden there's this exchange of dollars. It's people yes, they become my clients, they become my students, they join my membership, whatever
that looks like. But at the end of the day, that's not is what is most important. To me, the most important thing to me is that someone becomes a loyal fan, a raving fan, and that word of mouth starts. Because it's one thing for someone just to buy something from you. But it is on a whole different level when they buy something and then they tell somebody about it. And they say chrysalis program was
so incredible. You have to if you're you're thinking about starting pregnant, you gotta go like, you gotta go buy her book, you gotta go sign up for her program, you got to go visit this workshop that I did, because it was so helpful, right? And we can get into testimonials and social proof and all those other things in another episode. But I want you to create something like what does this look like for you? What is cold traffic, maybe it's your podcast, your YouTube,
right? These are these could be your social media. Those can be the three things that are part of your cold traffic, and then your warm traffic is getting people on your email list, getting them to join your group. And then from there, maybe it's signing up for one of your affiliate programs that you're doing. I'm actually doing an episode about working with brands and affiliate partners
here really soon. But that's another thing is having people opt in like I am an affiliate for Buzzsprout This is my hosting platform and I make Commission's off of that it's not something that's bringing in 10s of 1000s of dollars every single month, but I'm still making money. And so I consider that red hot traffic because people are opting in. And I know that they're gonna love fall in love with Buzzsprout. Because it's, it's awesome. All right, I've used it forever. I love the
team at Buzzsprout. But they do such a good job, that I know, when I recommend things that are going to be helpful to my listeners, they're going to trust me, and they're gonna say me and Crystal told me about this one thing, I had such a great experience. If she tells me about something else, I'm at least gonna go check it out, it doesn't mean that they're gonna buy everything that I recommend. But they're at least going to check it out, because I recommend nothing but good
products. So this again, it's going to be linked in the show notes, I want you to go check it out. If you just want to see my terrible penmanship. My, my drawings, please go look at it.
But the last thing I want to talk about number five, is when you're looking at your content strategy, is your content going to be evergreen, or something that aligns with like a yearly promotional calendar? And the reason why I say that is because if you're publishing content, let's say you have a daily podcast, right? And this is becoming a lot more popular, which I love. Y'all know, I love the potty report, it's so much fun. But there's not really a lot of strategy that's there other than telling you about what's actually going on in real time. So that is not an evergreen podcast, even though yes, if you're this the first time you've ever heard about it, you can absolutely listen to it, you can go back two years and listen to that podcast. But some of that stuff won't be relevant anymore. Because I'm telling you stuff in real time in that show, like this, what I'm doing, I will talk about promotions as they're happening. I will talk about content as it's happening, I will often mention something on that podcast that happen on the YouTube channel, or that I'm creating for this show. But I think it's important to just distinguish, what is your content going to be more evergreen? Or is it going to align with what you do on a yearly promotional basis, because if it is, then you're going to take into consideration other things like using dynamic content and your podcast episodes, or creating things like a series of videos for your YouTube channel that are going to make your content more strategic. So again, going back to the very beginning, we're talking about it's above and beyond just having a manageable content calendar, I want you to look at it and say, You know what, I haven't promoted my own product, or this one affiliate brand in a while, maybe I should do a three part video series on my YouTube channel in the next quarter, that's going to strategically make these calls to actions that are going to mention my affiliate link, and to link to some other great resources of how I use this in my content, whatever that looks like for you. And then when it comes to launches, which again, I'm going to talk about this more in an upcoming episode. But when you talk about your own programs, I want you to do that the same way that you would talk about your affiliate programs. I think I said that a little backwards. So let me rephrase once again, I want you to treat affiliate launches, just like you would treat your own launch, I want you to take the same care, the same intention, the same strategy that you would use when you're launching something that is your own, into affiliate launches. Because it works. It works. It is how I have been able to be so successful with affiliate launches in the past and why I intend to be continued to be more successful as I move forward with affiliate launches because I take the same care towards someone else's product program, whatever it is that I do to my own, I take ownership in it, and it makes it a lot more successful. So again, I'm really excited about that episode coming up. So stay tuned if you're interested in learning more about brand partners and affiliate launches, because we're gonna have some more about that pretty
soon.
But let's do a quick recap. Okay, that's all I have. I have those five things to talk about today for content strategy. So number one, think about your end goal before you get started. Number two, where are you going to send people what are your calls to action going to be like write these down, write them down, y'all. It's how I remember all these things. I write them down. They are in my outline right now. Whenever I'm looking at this, I see everything I just told you,
it is written down. So write down those important calls to actions. Then I want you to figure out how you can weave your own programs. Emotions launches any of those things, your calls to action into your content without it feeling forced. And this might take practice. So if you do it the first time, it feels awkward, don't worry, keep doing it, it will get easier over time. Number four is the big picture and the overall strategy for
your content. This is really where I went down my funnel, I want you to go check that out, go to the show notes you're going to see, it's going to be super helpful to actually visualize and see exactly what I'm talking about. When it comes from taking somebody to a very casual browser of what you're doing and creating into a loyal fan. And it's spreading like lava. I just love that analogy.
It's spreading like lava. And then the last thing is considering Are you going to have an evergreen strategy to your content? Or is it going to be something that aligns with your yearly promotional calendar. And one more quick note about that last one, it could be a mix of both. Okay, I don't want it to make it seem like it's either one or the other. Because my content has a
mix. Most of the podcast episodes and the YouTube videos that I create, I would say about 75% of those are evergreen, meaning you could listen to this episode two years from now, and it will still be relevant. But there are about 25% of the things that I create in all of my content that will be aligned with some type of promotion or something that's happening with my promotional calendar for the year.
But y'all, that's all I have for you today. So again, the show notes, KrystalProffitt.com/episode350. How are we already at 350 That is so wild to me that we just hit 350 episodes like it just now registered in my brain, this episode 350 We need to take a pause and celebrate. That is amazing. It just gets me so fired up for what is to come with the show and everything. That it's just I mean, it's a wild, it's a wild ride y'all to I'm coming up on four years of creating content on this
podcast. And it's just it just keeps getting better and better. So go to the show notes, make sure that you are subscribed or you're following this podcast wherever you're listening. And I would love it if you would take a screenshot and share with me tag me on Instagram. And tell me your number one takeaway. So go ahead. I'll wait. Take a
screenshot right now. And then share it on Instagram and tag me and say, I loved blank part of this episode, because that will help me so much and knowing what type of content you want to hear more of in the future. But as always remember, keep it up. We all have to start somewhere.