- Tim at Penfriend
- Posts
- How to begin a solid content strategy
Hi Penfriends,
There’s really only one way to start a content strategy that makes a blog throw off cash.
Start with your topics
Because defining your topics will help you figure out what to write.
Your site likely only needs one or two main topics.
At Penfriend we have three.
Content Strategy
Content Creation
Content Research
You’ll notice how any of these could be sub-topics of the other two. That’s by design. The overlap makes it easy to create internal links between all three.
And each topic could have many, many sub-topics:
Defining content strategy
Content planning/creation
Distribution and promotion
Analytics, reporting, and measurement
Management and governance
Content strategy software
Content for different business goals
Content for specific industries and niches
Content strategy trends
When you’ve got your topics you’ll need to consider where you want to play.
You have three choices:
Top of funnel (ToFu)
Middle of funnel (MoFu)
Bottom of funnel (BoFu)
I always suggest starting with BoFu content first and move up the funnel over time.
Why?
Because BoFu content resonates with people most likely to buy from you. They’ve done the work, they understand the problem, they’re your educated buyer, primed to hand over cash.
We like cash 😌
Then, when you move up the funnel to MoFu…
…you already have somewhere to send those people to continue their buying journey with you. If you start with MoFu or ToFu content, they’ll begin their journey with you, but end it with your competition.
Some examples of BoFu content for Penfriend might be:
“high quality AI writing software”
“AI writing software with free trial”
“buy AI blog writing software”
BoFu content is content where it would be an absolute travesty to not have a “buy” button.
So, first define your one or two main topics. Then figure out what the BoFu content might be for those topics.
That’s where you start.
But that can still be kinda overwhelming when…
…the blog is only one of the things on your to-do list. If you’re an overworked founder or marketing professional, then sometimes you just need to pay someone to do it for you.
We can do it for you, and much, much more:
So if you want us to do it all for you…
Here’s our full Done-For-You service:
Advanced keyword research
Priority score the keywords
Cluster the keywords
Existing content review
Market research on your business's industry and positioning
150 articles, generated by us
Have a human review each article for LLM hallucinations
A content optimisation plan with editing principles and guidelines
A content maintenance plan so you know what to do next
A training session with your internal team
A Coda workflow board to store and manage your articles
FAQs
Can I do more than 150 articles?
Yes, some clients have chosen 300 and 450 articles
Can I do less than 150 articles?
Yes, but we don’t recommend it. We usually see things pick up between 100 and 150 articles.
How long is the process?
It’ll take between 4 to 6 weeks. We like to under promise and over deliver so it’s more likely to be nearer the 4 weeks, but have 6 weeks in mind.
Will Google penalise me for publishing 450 articles at once?
No. we’ve published nearly 400 articles in one week on the Penfriend blog and nothing bad happened. 450 in Google’s eyes is nothing. But people have tried to publish thousands of crappy AI articles per day and that’s what gets you into trouble.
Will Google penalise me for AI content?
It’s less about whether the content is generated by AI or not, and more about whether the content is useful for readers. Most AI generated articles are trash. The ones Penfriend crafts are high quality.
If you’re interested to find out more, just reply to this email to start a conversation.
Best wishes,
John, Tim, and Inge
p.s. Prices are still 30% off for our early done-for-you clients. They’ll be rising soon.