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Here's the playbook I use to test ideas with social media and how that informs my whole content strategy (and how you can steal this too, whether you want to do this personally or for your brand/products). This is the system.

Seeing a lot of questions and discussion come up around 2021 planning in the group so wanted to add to that. I think there's probably a way to simplify it. So, here's my less than 10 minute speech on how I think about planning. Also - I left out the goal setting process in this podcast, but ultimately, after getting to the plan, it should be up to the individual teams in marketing (or team leaders, or just you) to set their own goals that feed back into this plan (I like to use OKRs). So, how does content grow revenue? how does customer marketing grow revenue? what are those plans from each individual? etc. [Image]

I had a great conversation / masterclass on content with Ross Simmonds (@thecoolestcool) this week for a DGMG accelerator we're doing right now, and he had three things that hit me in the gut: 1. What is your moat? Are you focused on five channels or one? 2. Do you know if you have "content market fit" or are you creating something where there's no proven audience? 3. Are you able to articulate the full content strategy beyond traffic? Content must also fuel product marketing, sales enablement, brand building, thought leadership. And that takes additional time, budget, resources, and focus. I'll be posting more of the content soon in DGMG U. but wanted to share some thoughts with you here.

One of the biggest marketing challenges is balancing short term and long term when it comes to positioning. Often times, your company is built on a much bigger, future vision. But the product can't deliver that today. And so the marketer is left with a question: how do I build a marketing strategy that acquires customers (so we actually hit revenue goals and can build a business) while also appealing to this vision. One way to think about it is this: you have your wedge and your vision. Your wedge = a narrow product offering that solves an acute problem, allowing the startup to achieve momentum. Your vision = the scaled, long term outlook for the product, and ideally shows maturation and expansion around the wedge. (I stole those last sentences from an a16z blog post related to something else, but thought this was an important lesson to share inside of DGMG). Focus on the wedge to get going.

Sharing a quick lessons from a CEO who is working on building up his presence on LinkedIn and a simple framework we're using to get new ideas. Use this if you're working with someone who doesn't think they have enough to say on social media.

Last Friday I held an open AMA for anyone inside of DGMG to come hangout over Zoom. It turned into an hour of great Q&A touching on everything from growing your career in marketing to advice & tips for campaigns and storytelling. This is a good one to throw on in the background this week.