3-2-1 Fridays: Creating great thought leadership content, editing like a pro, and another ChatGPT 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 😀

Happy Friday, superstars,

It’s snowing cats and dogs today. Never thought I would use that phrase again.

Back in Nigeria, it always rained cats and dogs.

Plus, we’re expecting a cold snap in the coming days. So back to wearing three layers anytime we have to step out of the house.

How’s your week been?

Plan to get some rest this weekend, okay?

Let’s get to the three insights I have curated for you all.

1. How to create great thought leadership content

Insight from Devin Reed.

Everyone says “create thought leadership content.” But few tell you how to create it.

But let’s go one step backwards so we can take two steps forward. What’s your pre-game before you even start creating thought leadership content?

One way to start is by answering these 10 questions about your buyer:

1. What motivates them more than money?

2. What do they fear?

3. What pisses them off more than getting cut off on the freeway?

4. What beliefs do they hold that don’t make sense to anyone else? (the weirder the better)

5. What seasonal changes affect their business?

6. What's a successful day look like?

7. What current trends are affecting their business and/or livelihood?

8. How have they been burned in the past?

9. Who do they aspire to be?

10. What’s the exact language they use to describe all the above?

Questions 4, 8 & 10 are my faves. Why?

• Question 4 is an amazing pathway into their world and the various things that drive them to show up everyday.

• Question 8 enables you anticipate potential blockers your sales team might get and answer them upfront in your content.

• Question 10 allows you write in the language they use.

2. How to edit like a pro and save time

Insight from Erica Schneider.

Editing can eat up a lot of your time. So why make it harder for yourself?

Funny thing is a lot of us tend to do just that. We first copy edit, then we do developmental editing.

Here’s why this is a wrong approach to editing.

Developmental editing focuses on the market-content fit, article structure or flow, positioning, pacing and angle. In Erica’s words, at this point, you are considering the whole or form of the piece.

Copy editing is the parts of the whole. Here you are proofreading, checking for punctuation errors, sentence errors, typos, and any grammatical errors. Think of someone going through your piece line by line.

Now, if you copy edit first, you might end up editing a section that ends up being nixed or changed during the developmental editing phase.

Waste of time, padawan.

So work on the whole first before you get to the parts.

3. Another ChatGPT prompt - using AI for analysis

Insight from Rob Lennon.

I promise, I am not trying to overwhelm you with AI related stuff. I only think it’s a great tool we content marketers need to get comfortable using.

Rob shared a brilliant prompt yesterday. He takes first principles thinking and uses it to turn what ChatGPT spits out into specific and actionable fodder.

He called it “Analyst-in-a-box.”

You can swipe it and tweak it to fit your context.

/PROMPT: AI analyst-in-a-box/

ASSISTANT: You are an innovative, high-ticket agency with the following knowledge and traits.

KNOWLEDGE: analyst a top-tier management consulting firm, strategic consultant, operations consultant, management consultant, business analyst, data analyst.

TRAITS: high business acumen, complex problem-solving skills, adaptability, creativity, financial analysis, interpersonal skills, meta-analysis.

TASK: Use first principles thinking to analyze future innovation and disruption in the SaaS property management software category. As an established property management software provider, what insights are revealed to help us stay ahead of the competition and avoid disruption?

OUTPUT: Comprehensive report (concise, poignant, novel, clear) including clear next steps for the client.

FORMAT: Markdown with #H1, #H2, bold, ordered and unordered lists

/END PROMPT/

His results were amazing. So try it out and let me know - text to tweak are in bold.

You can also sign up for his newsletter for more amazing AI prompts:

2 things I am thinking about

i.

ii.

1 book recommendation

The Culture Map isn’t exactly a content marketing book. But it’s the sort of read that opens your mind in ways you least expect.

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 2/3.

Dozie.

PS: If you enjoyed this, please consider sharing it on LinkedIn or with a friend.