I’m 20 minutes late starting this newsletter…
I’m due to hit send at 4:00. It’s already 3:20. Normally I give myself an hour to write and publish it, about 50 minutes of which are spent in the writing process, and 5 minutes publishing, with a 5 minute window at the end. Today, I’m already down to 40 minutes for all of it.
When I started writing Breakthrough Marketing Secrets as a daily newsletter in April 2014, that’s what I did. I gave myself an hour to hit send. And it’s what I largely still do, with the occasional exception of having a schedule conflict or another reason to write it early. (In which case, I still write it in an hour or less.)
The reason I admit this surprisingly risky timeline of publishing each daily issue is that I believe it’s part of why I get emails like this from readers…
—
Roy,
You know, I’m subbed to a lot of newsletters, some related to the job and some not, and yours is the only one putting out something worth reading on a daily basis. Most newsletters are pretty fluffy, but yours gives a good serving of meat every day.
One of these days I’d like a newsletter, about how you do your newsletter.
XG
—
Well, I don’t normally reply to questions in my daily emails. But honestly I needed to write something. And the deep dark secret of effective marketing I was thinking about writing about today just feels a little too raw to put it into a newsletter. At least today — so keep reading every essay and maybe I’ll reveal it soon.
But back to today’s topic: consistently putting out great content.
Make it a habit…
I’ve often proclaimed the power of habits. Daily writing is one of the biggest ones.
If you want to write consistently-great content, you have to write consistently. Make it a habit. And make it a priority. Do it, over and over again. And then do it some more.
An analogy:
I exercise 4-5 days per week now. But I haven’t been doing very many pull-ups as part of the exercise. So my back muscles, needed for pull-ups, are not super developed.
Well, a few weeks ago I decided to get more serious about pull-ups. I went from being able to do 4 in a set to 7 in a set pretty quickly.
Then, I heard that my brother-in-law is completing a pull-ups challenge. He’s trying to do an extraordinary 100-per-day for 30 days (and now a few days into it).
I wasn’t going to jump into that, but I figured I could work up to 100 in a day. So I created a plan to build the pull-up habit (and muscles).
Starting on my birthday, September 30th, I did 6 pull-ups. Then each day, I’ve added 2 per day. Today, I have to do 14 pull-ups. If I keep up this habit, I’ll build up to 100 pull-ups in a day, on November 16th.
That will be impressive. But what’s even more impressive is that simply doing the habit every day will be what got me there.
When I started writing Breakthrough Marketing Secrets, it was pretty good. But I’ve gotten better as I’ve gone. Because I’ve built these daily writing muscles through regular exercise.
Understand the role of input in output…
This is a big one. I probably wouldn’t be able to write as much as I do, at the quality I do, if I weren’t HUGE on continuous learning.
And I’m NOT just talking about marketing books. In fact, in the past year I’ve been through a TON of content on relationships and history, especially. And I’ve focused much less of my learning time on business content.
If you’ve ever heard the phrase, “There’s nothin’ new under the sun,” know I tend to agree.
Most of what we do is based in timeless principles and classic strategies. Most of life as we know it (aside from technology) hasn’t really changed much in thousands of years. The human experience — and especially how we think, feel, and make decisions — is really the same as it’s ever been.
So principles from a 100 year old book on advertising still apply, even if the technology, techniques, and tactics need to be refreshed for today’s world.
Not only that, lessons from one discipline often apply in the next. So if I’m learning about human relationships, there’s a whole pile of ideas there that apply to marketing — that you won’t necessarily get from most marketing books.
By consistently reading for my client work plus my enjoyment, I get a TON of quality input that I can rehash and draw my own connections around for the purposes of these essays.
That said…
Think for yourself and develop a perspective…
Nobody reads these essays just to get what they could get elsewhere.
I’ve developed a perspective. I’ve grown comfortable in who I am. I’ve become a reasonably well-adjusted adult (though not in every moment!).
And in that, I’m ME.
And I see things in my own unique way. I draw connections others might not. And through that, I’m able to share even old ideas in a new way, from my unique perspective.
This is HUGE.
Most great writers that people follow have perspective. And it doesn’t matter what medium they’re writing for. It doesn’t matter the topic. People follow people because they have an interesting perspective, that’s unique and somehow resonates.
That only comes from thinking for yourself, and using your unique perspective to inform your writing.
In that vein…
Tell stories and use analogies…
Everything I write that’s at least somewhat personal to ME, feels more personal to YOU.
Early in this essay, I talked about:
— How I can’t always think of what to write, including today, and sometimes that leads to a really tight deadline.
— How I got an email that spurred today’s issue.
— A pull-up challenge that demonstrated how habit helps you build both physical and mental capabilities.
All of those are tiny slice-of-life stories (like I teach about in Story Selling Master Class) and they do at least four things to my written content…
— First, they make the writing more personal and connected, which is a big part of keeping it interesting and emotionally compelling.
— Second, they allow me to come at many of the same topics from new angles over and over again, to always be shining a new light on them.
— Third, stories are more engaging ways to get across the same content.
— And fourth, stories tend to make my writing simpler, more sensory, and more readable.
Next up…
Figure out what you want to talk about first…
Before I started writing the body of this essay, I quickly brainstormed the ideas that I wanted to talk about. These are the subheads you now see in the document.
It’s really important to stay focused around one big idea. In today’s case, that’s writing great content, consistently.
But to really bring that idea home, it helps to hit on multiple supporting points. In order to do that well, you have to have structure to what you’re writing, you have to have at least a rough plan for where you’re going.
And so before you write, don’t just consider the topic of the essay. Consider all the subtopics that support it. Then, map those out and follow your map as you write.
This limits tangents, keeps it focused on the value you promised in the beginning, and it helps you write much faster.
Finally…
Monetize it…
One of the big reasons I have to keep cranking out these daily essays is that with every essay, I’m depositing more value in your emotional bank account.
The more value you consistently get from me, the more you’ll turn to me in the future to get more value.
This is practicing what I preach in The Value-First Funnel Strategy.
I give you value, to establish myself in your mind as someone who provides value around copywriting, marketing, and business strategies. Then, when you’re ready to go deeper on related topics, you’re prone to come to me.
Plus, I often inject at least subtle plugs in the essays, to go check out relevant training.
I didn’t always do this. I used to make money from these more sporadically.
But in creating a consistent monetization strategy, it creates even more obligation in MY MIND to make sure I’m delivering top-shelf value to you in every essay. Because any one essay could be an inspiration to you to go deeper with me.
I’ve put more at stake, to motivate myself.
Time to publish!
I’m now at nearly 1,500 words with a couple minutes to go.
Yours for bigger breakthroughs,
Roy Furr
