3-2-1 Fridays: Bin rhetorical questions, choosing topics for an early stage B2B SaaS content strategy, and another AI prompt

Hey friend, welcome to today’s issue of Efikó. This newsletter by Dozie Anyaegbunam helps you make smarter decisions in content marketing and life. Anyway, hello, it’s good to see you. You’re doing great 😀

Hello superstars,

Sorry for sending this in late. I am in a bit of a mental funk.

I need to crawl back out and get back to my usual self.

But not everything is blue with me.

Dodo started piano classes yesterday. And the little man loves it.

He forced me to get him a keyboard from the store last night so he could practice.

Here’s to raising a future Chopin.

So, what do we have for today?

Estimated reading time: 3 minutes.

1. Don’t use rhetorical questions. Use provocative claims instead

Insight from Nathan of Animalz.

I love using questions when writing. I like the curiosity gap they open in the reader’s mind.

Now the trick is to close that gap quickly. Or you have a frustrated reader burrowing through your article, looking for the answer.

If they stay around, that is!

But in a world where our readers are slalomed from all sides, you probably want to be direct.

No one has the time for curiosity gap games.

So go direct. Use self-assured, provocative claims instead.

Here are some examples:

Rhetorical question: Have you ever heard of an SDR who doesn’t like a full pipeline?

Provocative statement: Every SDR likes a full pipeline.

Rhetorical question: How often do people keep their New Year’s resolutions?

Provocative statement: Most people fail to keep to their New Year’s resolutions.

Go straight to the point. Or, as Nathan puts it:

Ask the rhetorical question in your draft.

Answer the question in your final copy.

2. How many topics should I focus on in early-stage B2B SaaS content strategy?

Insight from John Ozuyal.

When I started at UserGems, I wanted to write about everything.

Thankfully, my boss quickly reined me in.

And we focused on the “jobs-to-be-done” of our ICP, which is why people would use UserGems.

As John puts it, this might differ based on your business strategy, resources, and industry. But often, you don’t have the resources to go all out with content.

Heck, you can’t even blanket all the channels your ICP hangs out on simultaneously.

So, sticking with topics, it’s probably best to pick one or two topics per quarter. And cover it adequately from an entity point of view.

My topic strategy for the past 20 months has been to have one primary topic and a secondary or support topic. And then focus on converting every aspect of it for at least six months.

So, pick two topics and write about them from the following angles:

• Jobs to be done

• Solution-focused content (I suspect you can collapse this into the jobs-to-be-done pieces

• Pain points of your ICP.

3. How to use ChatGPT to generate great headlines

Insight from Lexie Flick.

1. Find a blog you love their headlines

2. Copy-paste 15 - 20 of the best into ChatGPT

3. Write a thesis of a blog piece you are working on or copy-paste the outline of the blog into ChatGPT

4. Ask it to mimic the style and write some headline ideas for your blog outline

5. Seat back and watch the magic

Two things I am thinking about

i.

ii.

One book recommendation

Tim Urban, creator of the WAIT BUT WHY blog, has released a fantastic book titled WHAT’S OUR PROBLEM?

I am just a few pages in. But it’s a fantastic read for the world we live in today.

Thanks for reading to the end. You all make writing this newsletter worth the trouble.

Be good out there. If you can't be good, be careful.

I'll be back on 3/03 with a Friday Deep Dive.

Dozie.

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