[Guide] THE 4 TYPES OF CONTENT MARKETINGThought Leadership Marketing
Meet thought leadership marketing.
Top Qualities: people will be drawn to your ideas, not your constant unpaid social media labor . . . and you don’t need a lot of content to make this work
Bottom Qualities: it is not easy to implement and requires openness to a completely different relationship with the Internet, social media, and content creation
Note: these are not real posts; they are stock images with captions I made up to highlight what I mean by “influencer content.”
Wait but, what’s wrong with content like this?
My goal is not to offend anyone, so I’ll start by saying: there is nothing wrong with content like this. It has its place in certain people’s businesses. But, when you are doing community-shaping, perspective-shifting, deep work . . .
influencer content is not your friend.
I hope to explain why, clearly and succinctly, below.
Even though, at this point, you’ve probably come across so much of it you don’t need any help at all imagining what I’m talking about.
Before I fill this matrix in, I’m willing to bet you can guess where “influencer content marketing” goes.
I’ll explain some of the axes to help. (I really wanted to say “axises” there, fyi. I had to look it up and convince myself it wasn’t a word.)
The top row of this matrix (top-left square and top-right square) contain content/marketing models that cause an empowering reaction.
Meaning: the content inspires people to think for themselves, to consider new things, to try out ideas and measure if they get meaningful results, etc. This content excites people who know there goals are gonna take some real work, and who are happy to have a new path, task, or strategy for their work to make it better.
This top row of the matrix is also reserved for deep content that people spend more time with.
This means: there’s a higher “barrier to entry” and engagement with this content. People will have to (A) care about this topic + (B) want to think about it more deeply + (C) have a desire to find a healthier/better way of doing something that this content seems to help with + (D) have the time to really dig into the content or at least bookmark it for later.
A+B+C+D = higher barrier to entry = it’s not just designed to tap “like” on and have people keep scrolling.
Deep content also means (surprise, surprise 🎉) the content has depth, layers, or steps. Most of the people who are interested in this type of content are mid-level or high-context in this topic—they’re not beginners who just started yesterday.
The bottom row of this matrix (bottom-left square and bottom-right square) are reserved for content/marketing that causes a disempowering reaction.
Meaning: this type of content most often inspires desire (“I want that.”), envy (“Ugh. I wish I had her life.”), or desperation (“I need to make more money, now, and they’re saying they know an investing hack that works for anyone willing to learn 3 quick steps.”).
This content works best on people who (A) are only trying to fill a small/unimportant need (they don’t really need a new swimsuit, but you posted a cute one so they click over and buy it) or for people who (B) have a big, important goal (starting a business, traveling full-time, remodeling their home) but they think it can be easy/fast, or that they’ll be the exception to the rule of hard work.
Note: I’m not making fun of anyone in this last statement. I mean, I once thought learning a new language would be fast (“Oh, I’m sure I’ll get the hang of it.”) so I kept downloading apps, buying inexpensive “hack” products, and using said products once every few months. Which meant I was “learning” the language for almost 11 years 🤦🏽♀️ before I actually learned it through immersion.
The bottom row of the matrix is also reserved for shallow or surface-level content that people spend less time with.
This means: there’s a low “barrier to entry” and engagement with this content. People don’t have to think about it too hard to “like” it, comment on it, or want it. It’s either:
pretty 🤩, or
click-bait sensational (“I made a million dollars my first year in business.”), or
promises to be easy (“This weight-loss hack is so fast and no one is talking about it!”
No deep thought, deep reading, long pauses, note-taking, etc. required.
Like—we’ll all be alright if we don’t ever have to read another post that promises “This tea is so slimming and detoxing. I drink it every morning. [And that’s why I look this good.]” . . . from a 23-yo with flawless skin.
The left column of this matrix (top-left square and bottom-left square) contain content/marketing models that sell low-ticket (and sometimes mid-ticket) products or services best.
“Low-” and “mid-” and “high-ticket” are relative to your industry.
Low-ticket means it’s at a price people don’t have to think about for very long (if at all) before deciding to spend it.
Mid-ticket might mean the person is double checking their budget and making sure they can (and want to) spend the amount.
High-ticket means the person is extremely sure this is the best way to proceed, because they consider it a significant investment. It’s an amount that would likely make them upset to not get any results from. Also, it may be necessary for them to save for the item for a while.
It’s not a rule 100% of the time that you can’t use the models (that will be filled in on the bottom-left and top-left squares) to sell high-ticket items, it’s just much rarer and requires a really large audience to work.
The left column of the matrix is also reserved for marketing models where very frequent posting is required.
The two content marketing models that belong in these squares (bottom-left and top-left) require a lot of posting because people feel like they’re gaining value and tips/skills/hacks for free, so they end up trying out the free ideas for a long time (thinking they’re making improvements) before buying anything. They’re a very DIY (do-it-yourself) audience in the topics you’re addressing, or the topic is not that life-altering for them, so they get as much as they can for free. And there’s no problem with that.
The right column of this matrix (bottom-right square and top-right square) are reserved for content/marketing where infrequent posting is suitable, yet the posting leads successfully to mid-ticket and high-ticket offers.
That may seem like a typo, but it’s not. We’ll explore why in the other pages of this training.
But now that you have the backstory, which square do you think influencer content marketing belongs in?
To sum it up:
The top-left square of this matrix is at the intersection of [empowering reaction] + [low-ticket to mid-ticket prices] + [deep content that people spend more time with] + [very frequent posting required].
The bottom-left square of this matrix is at the intersection of [disempowering reaction] + [low-ticket to mid-ticket prices] + [shallow content that people spend less time with] + [very frequent posting required].
The bottom-right square of this matrix is at the intersection of [disempowering reaction] + [mid-ticket to high-ticket prices] + [shallow content that people spend less time with] + [infrequent posting is suitable].
The top-right square of this matrix is at the intersection of [empowering reaction] + [mid-ticket to high-ticket prices] + [deep content that people spend more time with] + [infrequent posting is suitable].
—
If you guessed that influencer content marketing is the bottom-left square, you are correct. I wish I had a shiny prize 🎁 to give you, but instead, you get an explanation on why this is the case, and where all the other content marketing models fit.
Influencer content marketing claims its spot in the matrix because:
It’s all about aspirational content.
It’s the simplest and easiest content to imagine and create—get people to want what you have so they’ll buy what you recommend.
You can have great intentions or terrible ones. You can be recommending a life-changing product or a complete and utter waste of money . . . but the content marketing model is the same—create things designed to get people to want what you have.
Now, before you go report me to your favorite influencer, note that I’m not saying the influencers themselves lack depth or are purposely creating disempowering content . . . I’m saying that the most effective influencer content is often shallow and disempowering.
Shallow because it has a low barrier to entry and is targeted at people who want to immediately improve some area of their lives, homes, businesses, or relationships . . . yet those people are engaging with content they don’t have to think too hard about.
Disempowering because (not necessarily at the fault of the content creator) their audience member is potentially making purchasing decisions from a sketchy place: they have high desire, or maybe even desperation, and they love how easy/pretty the content creator makes X sound/look, but this all started from a surface-level post not designed to be thought about for very long.
So whereas the average funnel or customer journey is often described as “know-like-trust” . . . the average “influencer funnel” is want-follow-get.
Want this thing that I have. Follow me to get more ideas for products, tips, and tricks that will help you be like me, and every so often when the time is right for you, get what I’m recommending.
Since:
the audience member is making a purchase decision from a disempowered place (“Follow me because I can tell you all the best products to buy and hacks to try.”), not a place designed for them to think for themselves and do careful research to find the thing that is the best fit; and
the audience member is typically lower context on the topic (they’re not an expert on how/why/where to do this thing); and
they often want the solution to be fast, easy, and cheap . . .
. . . the content creator is typically only able to recommend inexpensive, easy, and “pretty” things. This means they have to create a lot of content to make enough money from affiliate commissions or their own low-priced products. And they typically have to have a large audience to make a reasonable amount of income from business who want to get in front of the influencer’s audience.
Coming back to the examples I shared earlier . . . there’s nothing wrong with this content.
I’m not suggesting it’s some great evil that we must fight at all costs. It has its place. More than once . . . more than twice, I have purchased an item (a desk, a swimsuit, some jewelry, a software program, a mini-course, etc.) after coming across a non-deep post or ad on Instagram. These items didn’t fill a super meaningful need inside of me, but I was grateful to not have to think too hard about which X to buy.
I’m suggesting that if you are an activist, a coach, a thought leader, a consultant, or an author/speaker who is doing your life’s work . . . work that you want to reshape your industry, or a specific community, etc., influencer content marketing is probably not your path.
You want (and need) people to spend time with your ideas . . . to think for themselves . . . to learn new ways of thinking about things . . . and to make decisions from an informed, empowered place.
Let’s talk about a type of content marketing that’s a little closer to your desired goal . . . expert content marketing.