Ep 153 : The 5 E's of Creating Content & The Benefit of Repurposing

Want to know one of my biggest tips when it comes to creating consistent content - repurpose!

Repurposing old content can save you so much time and offer a new perspective on a subject you've shared before.

In this episode, I'm sharing all my juicy content-planning strategy that boils down to the 5 E's that ensure that I'm posting content that will be valuable & engaging for my followers.

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Transcript

[Chelsea Peitz]: 0:24

Hey friends, thanks for returning back to the show today. We're talking about an oldie but a goodie, and this is, I'm practicing what I preach where I'm going back to my old content and I'm recycling because I have fresh eyes and a fresh perspective. Because if I posted something a year ago, well, you know what, you probably weren't here a year ago or maybe you forgot all about it. So I just like to point out that I'm also learning along with you and I'm reminding myself that, yeah, I need to go back and recycle my content. So. I wanted to talk about, gosh, and I even hate to call them this, content pillars, areas, types, forms, just content in general. And I think the fallback usually is the word pillars. Like you may use these pillars of your content and you'll never run out of ideas. Well, this is just sort of how I categorize it. Maybe category for me is where it's at because I was always struggling like, okay, give me like categories or buckets or like where should I be? pulling from basically for ideas. And I also want to tell you that, you know, you might pull from categories or buckets way more in one than another. Like you might be constantly in this one category or bucket and then be like, oh my gosh, it's been a while since I've been into the other ones. Also combining, combining these different categories is also a very good way to enhance the context or quality of your content. So. for some of you have been here for a while, you might know these as the five E's of content. I wrote about this in my book a few years ago, but I wanted to kind of give you a little bit of a different perspective on it as well. So the way that I categorize them, and if you know me by now, you know that I love something that rhymes and I love something that has the same letters, the five S's, the five E's, the three C's, blah, blah, blah. Not very creative, but that's just how my brain works. I like to keep them all in the same letter. So this is the five E's of content. The first one is educational. I'm just going to give you the five because if you want to record this or if you want to hear the notes, educational, engaging, entertaining, emotional, and exclusive. Educational, engaging, entertaining, emotional, and exclusive. Now this is not to say that there isn't another E or another type of content out there. This is just how I personally categorize them. So take this, use it as a guide, and then add to it. So the one at the top of the list that I feel like we really get stuck in a lot, me too, is educational. And yes, you do need to build your authority. You need to build your expertise and also share your perspective on things and topics that you're educating around. But let's be honest, this is the one, the easy one. This is the one where we're like, okay, three ways to X or how to Y. And this is where a lot of those content lists and ideas come from. So, I'm going to give you some maybe different ways to think about educational content because educational content not only is about educating your ideal customer on helping them identify a problem they didn't know they had, but also solving the problems that they do know they have, their pain points. A lot of us lean into sort of the pain points and aren't necessarily bringing up ideas where people say, oh gosh, I didn't... you're right, that is a problem. I didn't even know that I had that and that's really powerful. So just bringing awareness to the problem they don't even know that they have, but certainly solving it as well. And the way that I like to suggest creating educational content is think in terms about what your disruption point could be, or do you have what's called a hot take, which is basically kind of an unpopular opinion. Um, are you using analogies and metaphors to educate your customer? Because let's be honest, like a complex topic, like a two, one buy down. If you don't give me an analogy about something that I totally already know about, I am never going to understand easily what that actually means. So educational content doesn't have to be purely just here's what this is or how to do this or a tutorial. It can be, and it also can be disruptive education, taking a different stance, an unpopular opinion, a little bit of a controversy, your hot take, it's your perspective. Also, it's making it so simple that a six-year-old can understand it. And that's where you're going to remove the jargon, and you're gonna use analogies that are gonna help people understand that educational complex topic. Also, educational content doesn't necessarily have to just be about the market or what you do. You can educate people about what it's like to work with you, what your process is, what are your non-negotiables, what are your boundaries, and why do you have them, what is it like to work with your team, what is it like to work on your team. So education doesn't stop at like, here's a fact. It can also help someone understand more about what it's like to work with you or who you are or why you're uniquely qualified. So think in terms of not only educating about your topic or your market, your expertise, but educating people about you and who you are and what you do and why you do it differently or why they should trust you. So educational content, really easy to come up with. That's where most of us are living. You could also take content. from an article or somebody else's comment. And you can use that as your green screen. If you're going to make like a reel and you're using data, you can put data behind you in the green screen and still have your face and your voice layered on top of that so that it's a little bit more interesting in that educational nature. And you can really kind of dive in and say, and here's what this means. You can read the stat and say, and here's what this means for you. So educational content, that's where most people feel the most comfortable. Let's move into the next one. Let's talk about engaging content. Engaging content is any kind of content where you're going to ask people questions or ask for their feedback, their help, their advice, a poll sticker, a question sticker. It's question based. content that is going to stop the scroll or get people to engage. Now I also would put into this category kind of a pro tip about creating engaging content is you need to have, especially on a video, you need two hooks. You need the verbal hook when you're going to say the actual hook, the question is to stop the scroll. Like have you ever wanted to know? Do you feel like? Do you want to know the number one mistake? You're asking those questions, right? You're addressing them directly as you. But a lot of us are missing out on the verbal hook, which is making sure you use the text that's built into the editing feature in Instagram reels or Facebook reels or TikTok or wherever else you're making these videos or even a YouTube thumbnail so that it tells people, here's what this video is about. Engaging content also is going to do two things. Number one, it's going to make quote unquote boring content more interesting because when you ever ask someone their opinion or for feedback, they always wanna give it, especially if you ask for it. So you have something and you're asking, hey, have you ever done this? Can you relate to this? Is this something that you do as well? I just did this the other day when I asked people about, do you save the bags from Target because they're the good bags? And a lot of people said, yes, of course, Target has the best bags to reuse. And so engaging content and asking a question around your content or asking for feedback or advice is going to take seemingly boring content and make it much more intriguing and interesting because you're asking people to engage. Remember, if you're making a video, you need to have the visual hook and the verbal hook. How do you also increase people engaging? It's a call to action. Do you have a call to action in everything that you're doing? Are you asking people if this resonated with you, or you felt this, drop me this emoji. Are you going to try this? Do you agree? You need to tell people what's the next step and or ask them to engage with specificity. Because if you're just saying, well, does anybody have any questions? Well, then my brain has to think of a question, and we know how that goes. So engaging content is inviting people in, it's asking a question, it's also storytelling. And storytelling can be in all of these. And I highly recommend that you include stories and relatability in every single one of these categories. So just ask yourself lately, have you done anything that's engaging? Are you asking questions? Are you asking people for recommendations, for help, for feedback? And the other thing that this is going to do, because I mentioned there was two things that engaging content does. The other thing is that it makes the people feel like they're a part of the journey. And it gives this little hit of dopamine when you feel like you helped someone. Because think about it, when somebody asks you for advice and you can give them something like a recommendation or referral, you still feel good about it no matter how small it is. Because you feel like you helped someone out. So give people the opportunity to help you out and feel good because then that makes everybody win. The next one is entertaining content. Entertaining content is where a lot of us get tripped up. We're thinking, oh no, I don't want to dance. I don't want to lip sync. You don't have to, you totally can. I love a good trend. I love a good lip sync. In fact, I just recorded one. I don't do it very often, but when I do, I do it because it makes me laugh or it brings me joy. And I'm all about having some joy in your life. Entertaining content doesn't necessarily have to be that. Entertaining content can be you documenting your day to day in stories. It can be the funny thing that happened to you yesterday. Like for example, I did go to Target because we were talking about Target bags and I bought this bowl that was $5 because I was like, oh my gosh, this is a nice size bowl and it's $5. And anyway, long story short, those probably aren't good reasons, but I still bought it because you know, Target. And. When I got it home, my husband's like, this is like the ugliest bowl I've ever seen. It looks like a bar of soap. And I'm like, it does. And now I can't unsee it. And I posted about that, which seems like such a weird, insignificant thing, but that is entertaining content. And if you want to layer on top of it, you could literally ask people, do you think this looks like a bar of dial soap? Like yes or no. And That entertaining content is the personality and the relatability. That is really the content where people are going to be connecting with you. So it doesn't necessarily mean that it has to be funny or a trend. It absolutely can be, but how often are you sharing stories and relatability and things that have nothing to do with what you do for work? How often are you sharing something that is your sense of humor or your quirk or your personality, because entertaining content absolutely is something that we see. resonating with so many, especially if you can combine entertaining and educational. What do they call that? Like edutainment. I don't know who came up with that, but I didn't. But edutainment is, you know, a way that we think about reels. Now, maybe you're making a quick little video that's kind of visually entertaining or has some sort of entertaining trendy type of sound, but you're also giving like an educational tip with it. Like that's a text layered over. So that's something that you can think of, but stories and storytelling and personality, specifically, I think we can get really, really honed in on entertaining content with stories, stories format, stories and reels. Emotional is our fourth category, and this is about creating that context of you as a human being. And I say this over and over again, human is professional. We've all learned lessons, we've all had mistakes, we've all had ups and downs, and I don't think we share those enough. And when we do, I know that for me, every time I share something that I'm like, oh, I don't know if I wanna share this, it's absolutely the content that resonates the most. And there's always someone that was like, oh my gosh, I'm so glad you shared this, because I feel this way too. Emotional content doesn't have to be you going live and crying on live video. I mean, you can if you want it to be, but emotional content is like the human side, the personal side, not necessarily the private, but the personal side. And so your hobbies, your interests, your passions, your dogs, things that you love, mistakes, the things that you've learned along the way. I just made a podcast about how I got into real estate and there was a lot of lessons that I learned in there. along the way. So what are the things that you can go back and think in terms of what was a big mistake that I made when I was just getting into the business? What was a mistake I made last week? What was something that I learned a lot from but was embarrassed about? And how can you tie those stories together to something that might be a lesson or just, you know, personally sharing that story? So just as a recap, educational, engaging, entertaining and emotional. Emotional, I'll let you get away with too, if you have your face and your voice and your personality, because let's be honest, that's part of emotions. Feelings and feeling those emotions and that connection are absolutely a part of content creation and context giving. The last one is exclusive. And this one's my personal favorite. Now, when you hear the word exclusive, typically you're thinking in terms of oh, well, this is something that nobody's ever seen before. I have to make this huge original impact of whatever it can be. It also could be behind the scenes because not everybody gets to go home with you, but they can watch your content on stories. They can see you behind the scenes. They can see the real you that isn't in front of a, you know, videographer. And it's being edited. It's actually you talking to them. So that's more of a behind the scenes exclusive vibe versus, oh my gosh, this is my brand new thing that nobody's ever seen before, which is exclusive. But it's also doesn't have to be that grand. So in summary, friends, the way that I kind of break down content categories, we have educational content, don't get stuck there too much because that's the easier one, engaging, which is asking questions. entertaining, which is showing your personality and relatability, emotional, which is sharing those times that are wins for you, that may have been lessons for you, and the truth about sort of where you've been and where you're at and how you're feeling. And then exclusive is the behind the scenes. And storytelling is woven through all of those. If you're looking for a really great book on storytelling, I highly recommend Story Brand by Donald Miller. I'm reading Seth Godin's All Marketers Tell Stories. And that's such a quick and easy little book to read. Really good little takeaways. And of course, Kendra Hall, who read Stories That Stick. I would highly recommend that you check those out. Probably I would say start with stories that stick, because I like that it gives you a framework on how to share some stories, how to share your origin story, how to create stories around what you do for work. And you'll find that storytelling is in every single one of these areas. So thanks so much for tuning in. And thanks for allowing me to recycle something, give it a new perspective. And I look forward to connecting with you on the next episode. Thanks everyone. Bye.