Creating Sponsorable Content with Melanie Deziel

09/12/22 • 60 min

Streamlined Solopreneur: Tips to Help Solopreneurs Automate Their Business

Perhaps it’s fitting that today’s interview is a play in 3 acts. After all, I’m talking to Melanie Deziel, speaker, author, and founder of Story Fuel. It makes sense that we talk about creating good content in 3 acts: idea generation, brand deals, and coming up with headlines. This discussion is completely packed with fantastic advice to help up your content creation game.

Top Takeaways:

When it comes to content, we often focus too much on the format, and not the actual message. instead, determine what you’re saying first. Then figure out how to best say it. The “how” drives the format and where you’ll publish.
Brand-sponsored content is being created in collaboration with or on behalf of a brand that wouldn’t be created otherwise. They are leveraging your trust, so find overlap between what the brand wants to say and what your audience wants to hear.
When writing headlines, remember they are a formula. Ask “What’s the purpose of this headline,” or put differently: what is this content doing? That should help you determine the type of headline to write.

Show Notes:

Sponsored by: Nexcess | LearnDash

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Top Takeaways:

When it comes to content, we often focus too much on the format, and not the actual message. instead, determine what you’re saying first. Then figure out how to best say it. The “how” drives the format and where you’ll publish.
Brand-sponsored content is being created in collaboration with or on behalf of a brand that wouldn’t be created otherwise. They are leveraging your trust, so find overlap between what the brand wants to say and what your audience wants to hear.
When writing headlines, remember they are a formula. Ask “What’s the purpose of this headline,” or put differently: what is this content doing? That should help you determine the type of headline to write.

Show Notes:

Sponsored by: Nexcess | LearnDash

★ Support this podcast ★

Previous Episode

Building a Niche Podcast and Newsletter Through Free Content with Jeff Utecht

Imagine being perfectly positioned to deal with the pandemic from a k-12 school's standpoint. That’s Jeff Utecht. Instead of just being in the K12 space, he specializes in technology implementation for K12 schools. But he didn’t just fall into that. He spends years building a brand, understanding his audience, and giving away content. How has that helped him? Listen to find out! Plus, we get deep into education during the pandemic in Build Something More.

Top Takeaways:

You create great content by understanding your niche and your audience. Jeff and his team know what their audience is asking, and created content to answer those questions.
Their podcast is a big piece of their sales funnel. Every time they put out a free guide, they do a podcast episode and encourage people to download the guide, which requires an email list. As a result, they have a great list to sell directly to (as well as continue to provide free value).
If you’re going to leverage social media, make sure to be where your audience is, and further, find the right hashtags people are following. Doing that allows you to target the right people and grow your audience!

Show Notes:

Sponsored by: Nexcess | LearnDash

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Next Episode

Define Your Business’s Values to Prevent Burnout with Shante Cofield

“Get a real job.” “If you’re going to start a business, you need to grow.” “Hustle.” If you’re starting a business, you’ve probably heard this “advice.” You’ve also probably heard that you need to do exactly what someone else did. But all of that is poison to our creator businesses. And Dr. Shante Cofield has the antidote: Moar You. If you want to know the importance of values-based marketing, how to be vulnerable enough to grow, and the seasonality of life, this episode is for you. My conversation with Shante is real — and it’s important for anyone who works for themselves to hear.

Top Takeaways:

On imposter syndrome: We need to get objective and trust the data. It’s easy to get down on yourself, not want to brag and feel like you’re not the real deal. But you need to listen to what people are telling you. If you help them, you are helpful.
It’s easy to want to talk implementation of your new business or content because that’s concrete. But you need to define your values first. Without values, you are directionless.
On values: value-based marketing is not shouting your opinion on Twitter. Values are verbs. They are things you do, vs. the things they say. They are how you build your best life, and they need to be at the core of your business.

Show Notes:

Sponsored by: Nexcess | LearnDash

★ Support this podcast ★