Content Flow
Old tactics don't need to die in order for new ones to prove effective.
(Remember when people were declaring email dead at the hands of social media? Or cold outreach dead at the hands of inbound marketing? Or forms dead at the hand of chatbots?)
We don’t need to keep doing this. And I won’t do this here.
So before we get into it, let me first say that the pillar-cluster model of content and SEO is not dead.
That being said, a lot has changed since the time when we, as marketers, were able to place all of our bets at the SEO table and walk out winners.
Monthly podcast listening saw growth year-over-year among those aged 35-54, as 43% are now monthly podcast listeners, up from 39% in 2021. (Edison Research)
From 2019 to 2021, there was a 77% increase in the number of annual video plays. (Wistia)
The average TikTok user spent an average of 95 minutes on the app daily (leading all social apps.) YouTube was second with an average of 74 minutes daily. (Statista)
People consume content across different mediums and they also consume short-form content more now than ever.
This is why content feels more challenging right now—how are we supposed to serve all these different mediums, channels, and content types effectively?
By establishing a Content Flow.
Let’s get into it.
Content Flow
What’s your Content Flow?
Most marketers would respond with some sort of project management process that involves adding new topics (blog, podcast, video, etc.) to a spreadsheet, Trello board, or Asana project.
And that’s it. That one piece of content isn’t connected to anything else.
Brands are out here publishing blog posts, recording podcast episodes, video, sending newsletters, etc., without any connective tissue between all of these different mediums and assets.
They’re running separate editorials with different processes across all of them.
They have no Content Flow.
Content Flow is the connective tissue between all of the content assets and channels your brand creates and invests in.
It’s how one piece of content connects and leads into another.
How a blog post becomes a podcast episode, a newsletter, and a social media campaign.
Or maybe it’s how your podcast becomes a blog post, a newsletter, and a social campaign.
Or, maybe it’s how your newsletter becomes a podcast episode, a blog post…you get the idea.
The starting point may change, but the idea behind Content Flow is this––your content is more effective when it’s connected.
This isn’t necessarily a new concept…
The New Pillar-Cluster Model?
…Marketers have been long on the pillar-cluster (or hub and spoke) model of SEO and content marketing for the better part of a decade. (The earliest mention I could find on the HubSpot blog for “pillar-cluster” content was 2017.)
You know it well––you create “pillar” pages that act as “hubs” for broad topics that are of high interest to your audience. Then, you create “topic clusters”, or individual blog posts covering specific topics related to the pillar, that work to link back to and ultimately support the pillar page.
This still works. It might be harder to gain market share these days, but as a concept, it still works.
However, my experience over the last few years is that there is increasingly less upside in this approach due to all of the places our collective audiences are now spending their time.
In addition to searching Google, your audience is listening to podcasts, watching video––especially short form via YouTube Shorts, Instagram Reels, and TikTok––and subscribing/reading more newsletters, paid and/or free (email with the comeback!)
Attempting to create good content across all of these mediums is almost impossible…UNLESS…unless you create a Content Flow that connects all of these channels and mediums together.
A Content Flow typically starts with one topic and one medium.
One topic published one that one medium should inspire unique content across all of the mediums you invest in.
Whereas the pillar-cluster model focused on creating one page and then others to support it, Content Flow focuses on publishing on one medium and then expanding on that topic across the other mediums you’re investing in.
You’re never starting from scratch or struggling to maintain separate editorials for your blog, podcast, video, newsletter, etc.
They’re all part of the same Content Flow. Once you input a topic into that Flow, everything else in the Flow is triggered.
It starts with one topic and one medium.
Your Takeoff Topic
The pillar-cluster model focused on publishing one page, or a topic hub, and then other related cluster pages to support it.
Content Flow focuses on publishing one topic on one medium and then expanding on that topic across other mediums.
But, where do you start?
You start with your Takeoff Topic.
A Takeoff Topic is the first piece of content in a Content Flow that inspires additional content pieces across other mediums.
For example, you might publish an original research report on your blog.
Then, you record a podcast episode discussing the key findings and sharing your reactions to them.
You then might package those key findings, along with your reaction/analyses, in an email newsletter that’s shared on a regular basis.
Lastly, you’d have a distribution process that shares those key findings, your analysis/reactions, in social posts shared natively.
This is Content Flow. You publish one piece of content which triggers additional pieces across different mediums that work to support the original piece, but also, cross-pollinate engagement across all of the other mediums, too. (The blog post helps generate more podcast subscribers. The podcast helps generate more newsletter subscribers. And vice versa.)
Ideally, you want your Takeoff Topic to have the same starting point, or medium, every single time. Maybe it’s the blog, or your podcast, or a video series, or even a newsletter. Any one of those can be the starting point for your Content Flow.
Which one should it be?
There is no universally accepted right answer here, only a right answer for you and your team based on people’s skills and interests.
The medium itself isn’t important, it’s the decision to choose one medium as your starting point that is.
Here are some examples of how specific mediums can act as the start of your Content Flow.
Takeoff Topic: An interview-style podcast.
Content Flow: (1) Report on key learnings on the blog. (2) Summarize/package together key findings/themes from multiple episodes in your newsletter. (3) Post Twitter threads and LinkedIn posts summarizing those key learnings. (4) Create short from clips from the podcast of those key learnings to share across YouTube, Instagram Reels, TikTok, etc.
Takeoff Topic: Investigative blog articles using original research.
Content Flow: (1) Summarize key findings and share your and/or other subject matter experts’ reactions to these findings in podcast episodes and/or a video series. (2) Publish the research as well as your and/or other subject matter experts’ analyses of the research in a newsletter. (3) Post key findings from the research, as well as the analysis from you and other SMEs, on social media.
It all starts with one topic and one medium.
From there, you can fill out a content strategy that leverages the different mediums your audience is engaging on.
So. What’s your Content Flow?
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That's all for this week. I hope your 2023 is off to a good start. And if not, well, it can only get better from here : )
See you next time.
- John
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