3-2-1 Fridays: Logical writing 101, a workflow for content repurposing, and content flows

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, Hi, Howdy everyone,

How’s your February going? Good? Slow? Great?

Now and then, I get some subscriber love. And my writing heart does a happy dance.

This had me grinning like a toddler who discovers the deliciousness stored in a moist, fluffy Red Velvet cupcake.

Thanks for the kind words, Bo.

So, I need yall’s help.

Do you remember this piece I shared last Sunday? The Future of B2B SEO is Audience Development by John-Henry Scherk.

Well, I reached out to John and asked him if he could come on a Friday Deep Dives.

He said YES. But he’ll be recording a video.

Do you have any questions you would love him to answer on audience development and B2B SEO? Please send them in, you geniuses.

Now, let’s see what I have for you all.

Estimated reading time: 3 minutes, 50 seconds. 

1. Logical writing 101

Insight from Erica Schneider.

One of the biggest reasons our writing tanks is we leave too many questions in the readers’ minds. It’s like a carpenter leaving nails sticking out of a piece of furniture.

It’s functional. But dangerous.

One way to write without nails tripping up your reader is a framework Erica shared called:

Claim —> Support —> Takeaway.

Setting out your sections with this framework in mind allows you to:

• Answer the “Why” and “How”

• Go from “I don’t know” to “let’s go” faster than a cheetah on the hunt

• Increase the likelihood of the reader taking the desired action

Here are Erica’s go-to questions for helping you get going with the framework:

• Why should they care?

• Can I back this up with data?

• What's the impact of this?

• Who's done this well?

• Who's failed at this (and why?)

• What examples (real or hypothetical) would make this more impactful?

2. Content repurposing 101

Insight from Cierra Loflin of Superpath.

Content & SEO is changing. Everyday. But that’s part of life.

And while content repurposing isn’t a silver bullet, it feels like it’s one part of our content workflow that A.I.’s cold creative hands haven’t fully snaked into yet.

The following insight explains this better.

Yes, A.I. can help you summarize the copy from your long-form posts. But it can’t choose the channel. Or the format. Or the insights that suit the medium or context.

So, if you’ve been thinking of content repurposing like me, here’s Cierra Loflin’s 5-step workflow for content repurposing:

1. Find your best-performing content. Ahrefs, Google Analytics, or any other SEO tool can help with this step.

2. Use an A.I. tool to summarize the copy. Or think of your headlines as themes and turn each into social posts (this is my preferred approach).

3. Pick your distribution channels. Remember, pick the channels your audience lives on.

4. Depending on your channel choices, adapt your posts (text-wise and image or video-wise) to the channel and share. For example, threads work well on Twitter, while LinkedIn loves carousels.

5. Finally, think “distribution-first” when creating content. When outlining your article, bake distribution in.

3. Build a Content Flow

Insight from John Bonini.

If you’re anything like me and you hate constantly publishing for the sake of publishing, you’ll love the concept of Content Flow.

First off, John Bonini is one of my favorite content marketers. You should probably sign up for his newsletter.

The key lesson here:

Go further than thinking of content repurposing as turning your content into another media type or format. Instead, think of repurposing as taking a big idea and creating new and unique content and formats across the different channels your audience lives on.

An excellent way to think of this concept is to imagine your content repurposing model as a hub and spoke.

Here’s how John explains it:

• Your blog: Think of your blog as the anchor—the hub where the central idea emerges from.

• Podcast: If you have a podcast, the podcast becomes a channel to discuss the ideas shared in the blog post.

• Video: Record a video that covers the highlights of your big idea. It’s also suitable for sharing short but insightful perspectives from S.M.E.s on operationalizing the concept. Or other things they should be thinking about.

• Newsletter: Your newsletter could become a channel for curating external perspectives or pulling together the different insights from the various mediums you shared the core idea on and resharing with your audience.

Using the hub and spoke analogy, your blog is your hub while the rest are the spokes.

Capisce?

Two things I am thinking about

i.

ii.

One book recommendation

Direct-response copywriting isn't exactly content writing. But there's so much content writers could learn from copywriters. And one of the best masterclasses you can get in copywriting is from the late and great Joe Sugarman's The Adweek Copywriting Handbook.

So I am recommending this brilliant book again. Get it.

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 2/17.

Dozie.

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

P.P.S.: Next week, I have a surprise Friday Deep Dive topic.