Creating content for your brand is not just about posting product pictures and hoping for the best. If your social media feed feels disconnected or lacks authenticity, it’s time to rethink your strategy. Alisan Matthews, Head of Email and Social Media Marketing at Tier 11, joins me to discuss how to align your brand’s message with your audience to boost engagement.
Alisan explains how you can identify the core pillars of your brand’s messaging and use them to create a content matrix that guides your posts. By organizing your ideas into clear categories, such as education and community engagement, you can maintain consistency while diversifying your content for better engagement.
Chapters:
- 00:00 Meet Alisan Matthews
- 03:01 Crafting your brand’s unique story with content
- 09:27 Why authenticity on social media is critical
- 11:53 Getting started with the content matrix
- 15:14 The four pillars of content creation strategy
- 21:56 Implementing the product promotion tier
- 24:54 Does the content matrix apply to all industries?
- 27:38 Education and value: leveraging engagement & trends
- 34:11 Webinar announcement and Black Friday tips
Mentioned In This Episode
Download our content matrix today to refine your strategy, map content that connects, and discover fresh angles that keep your audience engaged. https://www.tiereleven.com/content-matrix
Sign up for the free Black Friday & Cyber Monday Creative webinar at – https://tiereleven.com/bfcm
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READ THE TRANSCRIPT:
Episode 728: The Content Matrix–Content Creation That Actually Converts with Alisan Matthews
00:00:00:00 – 00:00:14:02
Alisan
When you get to the social media page of a brand, like you want to immediately feel the personality that they’re putting out there, and then when that’s inconsistent, that’s when the followers are manufactured from paid ads. You’re not connecting with your audience. You’re not building engagement and community.
00:00:14:03 – 00:00:21:03
Ralph
How do you actually think of the right stuff to put in your news feed, in your email, in your ads? All of that.
00:00:21:04 – 00:00:28:21
Alisan
If you’re a new brand and you’re just starting or you’re just starting to get organized, I would always recommend starting with.
00:00:28:23 – 00:01:00:20
Ralph
Hello, and welcome to the Perpetual Traffic Podcast. This is your host, Ralph Burns, founder and CEO of tier 11, not alongside my amazing co-host Lauren Petrillo today, but alongside another amazing guest, which took a little arm twisting to get her on today because she’s a bit camera shy. But that’s okay because sometimes those are the best people to have on shows like this, because they’ve got the best stuff, because nobody ever hears about it.
00:01:00:22 – 00:01:22:13
Ralph
And that’s why we have today on the show, the head of email and social media marketing for tier 11. Yes, I’m bringing another tier 11 person on this podcast because they’re awesome. And this guest is awesome. None other than Alisan Matthews. Welcome to Perpetual Traffic.
00:01:22:15 – 00:01:24:19
Alisan
Thank you all. That’s quite the introduction.
00:01:24:21 – 00:01:45:20
Ralph
Yeah, well, you are awesome. So I said this the other day, if I could, if I could what? What if I could clone Alisan? I would, and it’s because you’ve got such a diverse, group of skills, obviously, you know, social media marketing, you know, email. But at the heart of all of this is really is content.
00:01:45:20 – 00:02:04:23
Ralph
And content is the thing that you kick my ass on all the time on the marketing side, as well as really drive all the tier 11 marketing. But you’re also behind some pretty huge brands that we have that we work with here at tier 11. And I think there’s really a specific specialty that you really enjoy, which is beauty brands.
00:02:05:00 – 00:02:28:19
Ralph
And it’s obviously a specialty that we’ve talked about here a lot on the show where obviously focusing on that industry just in general as a business, which is sort of a vertical ization strategy. But at the heart of all of that, whether it’s paid ads, whether it’s email, whether it’s social media, whether it’s just creative ideas in general, it comes back to content.
00:02:28:19 – 00:02:51:07
Ralph
And how do you actually how do you actually think of the right stuff to put in your news feed, in your email, in your ads, all of that? And that’s something that I think a lot of people really struggle with. And we were on a call, you and I with, a friend of ours who is sort of struggling with her new e-commerce business, and this was really her question.
00:02:51:07 – 00:03:19:16
Ralph
She’s like, where do I start? And you went through like a lot of different sort of steps. And I said, first off, that would be a great episode for professional traffic. One of the reasons that you’re on here, but it’s like, how do you think about all this stuff? And then how do you kind of organize that? And I know you’ve got this matrix that we’re going to show here today and give a giveaway as well, but let’s just start sort of from there, because all the things that we talk about here on perpetual traffic, especially now the Andromeda update begins with great content.
00:03:19:16 – 00:03:21:20
Ralph
So what are your thoughts?
00:03:21:22 – 00:03:44:09
Alisan
Yeah, definitely. I think it’s really hard for businesses in the beginning because they just kind of want to talk about everything. But I always recommend that business owners sort of just go back to like their About Us page on their website and read it and like, what is the message that you’re trying to put out to your audience about your business specifically that’s going to make you different than other businesses?
00:03:44:11 – 00:04:03:15
Alisan
And what are your business goals? So all the content from email to social sort of always centers around answering those two questions. Who is my audience? What do I want them to know? And what are ultimately the business goals that I’m trying to achieve with the content that I’m putting out there on every channel?
00:04:03:17 – 00:04:29:22
Ralph
So, on the call that we had with this e-commerce brand, very distinct sort of style, that was the big message, is that there are a lot of apparel companies that are out there, but your look and feel, plus your story is how you actually came upon. This business is kind of the the pitch is the basis for a lot of the content.
00:04:29:22 – 00:04:50:00
Ralph
Is it just kind of that simple? And plus the fact that, you know, she she discovered the idea when she was on a trip to India, she sources everything and actually has her own sort of supply chain, not like just reselling other people’s stuff. So it’s like, is it just that sort of simple and then take us through like a step wise approach to it?
00:04:50:00 – 00:05:18:01
Ralph
Okay. Look at my About Us page. What is my founder story so to speak. Like what makes me different than everything else that’s out there. Like what’s sort of the the deal behind the brands, sort of behind the scenes kind of thing or the beats. So you always tell me, so how do you sort of compartmentalize that and also systematize it at the same time so that it doesn’t come out is just a bunch of crap that is just discombobulated and nobody really knows what the direction is.
00:05:18:01 – 00:05:36:20
Alisan
Yeah, definitely. I think especially with this woman that we met up with, like she had a lot of the answers, which most founders do, but I think after, a certain amount of time, they forget like how unique they are, because you notice, like, both of us are asking her questions like, oh, you design the clothes yourself. And that only came out like 30 minutes into the call.
00:05:36:20 – 00:05:58:04
Alisan
And for me, that’s like huge, like gold. Like you founded it because you wanted styles. I mean, that that is like your gold right there. Like, why did you start this business? The why. And that’s where I would start with anyone. Founders are obviously amazing to have access to, especially if they’re willing and able to get behind the camera and make content for you.
00:05:58:04 – 00:06:17:18
Alisan
But it’s really just like that. Why? Like, why did you start this business? Because more than likely that’s going to be your unique identifying factor of your company. And exactly what you should lean into for all of your content. And then from there, just working through those questions of like, what I want my audience to know about why I started this business.
00:06:17:18 – 00:06:39:07
Alisan
Like, do I start this business because I felt like there was like a gap. It’s kind of like your Shark Tank pitch, like, what’s your shark tank? That’s like, why did you start this? Because you saw a gap in the industry for X, Y, and z reasons. And then regurgitating all of those answers into something like the content matrix is really what’s going to path.
00:06:39:09 – 00:06:50:06
Alisan
Create this path for you on your social channels, email, paid ads, whatever, even your website to really hone in on that story. And it doesn’t have to be like overly complicated.
00:06:51:03 – 00:07:04:07
Alisan
It doesn’t have to be like a million reasons. It’s just really like what is different? Like anyone can start a fashion brand. There’s millions of them. Beauty same thing. But like what is the differentiator with your brand compared to others.
00:07:04:09 – 00:07:05:01
Ralph
Yeah.
00:07:05:03 – 00:07:07:23
Alisan
And normally that comes from the founder’s story.
00:07:08:01 – 00:07:34:11
Ralph
That’s such an interesting and simple way of looking at it, because, I mean, we look at 10 or 12 new businesses every single week, and then we obviously one of the first things that we do is we go over to what their ads are, what their socials are, and the vast majority of businesses, whether it’s business, whether it’s e-commerce, whether it’s any other industry, is it’s the ads in the content are pretty much by my stuff.
00:07:34:13 – 00:07:35:12
Alisan
Yeah.
00:07:35:14 – 00:07:54:17
Ralph
You know, here’s a picture of this thing. If you like it, cool. Buy it and you will get a certain subset of individuals that will buy that. And if you do a website conversion campaign on Advantage Plus and you just put all those in there, you will get buyers for sure. However, there’s a finite number of them. Yeah.
00:07:54:22 – 00:07:55:19
Ralph
And second.
00:07:55:21 – 00:07:56:17
Alisan
Purchases.
00:07:56:18 – 00:08:29:19
Ralph
And you probably won’t get repurchases. And if you discount it, they’ll come back and look for a discount. That’s another huge thing. Oh, sitewide sale 10% off. You know, I mean I’m all for the coupon codes. Opting in all of that, which not something we probably talk about here on the show. The point is, is, like most of the ads that you see have a content problem, most brands that we see have a content problem and if you sort of start from the beginning, it’s like, why does you start like Simon Sinek?
00:08:29:19 – 00:08:52:09
Ralph
Start with why? Why did you start that brand? What makes you unique? There’s thousands of other choices, maybe even millions of other choices when it comes to women’s apparel or beauty brands. We’re doing this right now going through, you know, literally hundreds. If not thousands now of different beauty brands. Why are they different based upon, you know, what they actually do?
00:08:52:10 – 00:09:12:02
Ralph
What’s the end result? Each one of them has a unique story, and I think that oftentimes gets lost. So you sort of start there. And when you’re doing this like you’re doing it for a really large brand right now is which is going through a rebranding and they’re in the e-commerce space, the drinkware space. And that story of like who we are, what we are.
00:09:12:03 – 00:09:27:10
Ralph
I assume that’s kind of part of this overall rebranding to sort of set the record straight, as opposed to just competing as ten other brands that they’re an undifferentiated product that just so happens to be, you know, purchased in a very large retail outlet.
00:09:27:10 – 00:09:48:23
Alisan
Yeah, definitely. And I and honestly, it’s so much easier to work with a brand that has a true brand story than it is to work with a brand that already has a social media presence. Like, I would take a brand with a brand story any day over a brand that has a ton of followers already and doesn’t have a brand story behind it, or is pivoting their brand story.
00:09:49:01 – 00:10:10:06
Alisan
It’s really, really important to have brand identity, and I think a lot of the bigger brands lose that if they’re not doing it well. I mean, some don’t and they’re killing it. On social media, but the ones that aren’t and you go to their social media and it just feels like this lifeless feed of just random trends or chasing like there’s no personality.
00:10:10:06 – 00:10:29:03
Alisan
Like when you get to the social media page of a brand, like you want to immediately feel the personality that they’re putting out there. And then when that’s inconsistent, that’s when you know the followers are manufactured from paid ads or they’re boosted posts, or it’s just not you’re not connecting with your audience. You’re not building engagement and community.
00:10:29:03 – 00:11:01:02
Alisan
And I can’t tell you how many brands I work with personally, that when we first audit their account, they’re big, they have this huge following and everyone’s really excited. Their engagement rate is like point 5%. They don’t know who they’re talking to. But then you have these smaller brands where the founders doing most of the heavy lifting because most people don’t want to invest in a social media manager in the beginning anyways, and their engagement rate is solid because they’re actually just regurgitating the truth and what they want to get out there.
00:11:01:02 – 00:11:21:06
Alisan
Like why I started there being real, like people on social media. I want to see real, authentic content that’s relevant to the product and to the brands and something that’s really exciting about the brand that you’re talking to is, I would argue right now they don’t have, a really deep brand story. And I know that they know that, and they’re working on that.
00:11:21:06 – 00:11:44:16
Alisan
And now they’re going to shift into, Japanese heritage and like where their bottles really came from. And the founder’s story, like getting back to the roots, like, why did this brand ever, like, exist in the first place? And I think watching that is going to be incredible, like seeing that story come through on the socials. I mean, that is like music to my ears when I hear something like that, because you punch it all into this content matrix.
00:11:44:16 – 00:11:53:21
Alisan
I mean, it’s easy if you don’t have a story organizing that content that you’re putting out there. It feels messy and it comes across messy on socials as well.
00:11:54:02 – 00:12:15:15
Ralph
For somebody who’s listening, they’re like, all right, well, brand story, I don’t really care about brand. I just want to sell my stuff. Yeah. And that’s always been that, like my performance marketing or on my brand marketing. And I would argue that they’re both inextricably linked, especially now. And when we talk about like, how to organize it like that is a part of it.
00:12:15:15 – 00:12:40:22
Ralph
But is that a story, origination story, just one pillar in the content matrix or is that and then you kind of move on to the next one, like how do you kind of do it like a flare? And we can kind of show what we’re talking about here. This is the very cool graphic that we’re going to give away here that Allison, I think put together like overnight one night, like, I don’t know how you did this this fast, but anyway, it’s super cool.
00:12:41:03 – 00:13:00:10
Ralph
It’s called the content matrix. You can get it over at tier 11.com/content-matrix. Or if you don’t know, dashes I suppose we’ll put a redirect in content matrix. So take a look at this here. So anyway so oh this is an updated version. I don’t have the updated version.
00:13:00:10 – 00:13:05:21
Alisan
Yeah. We had, I made it, but then we had our designer. Decent match.
00:13:05:23 – 00:13:08:12
Ralph
Wow. So this is even cooler. Okay.
00:13:08:14 – 00:13:19:20
Alisan
Yeah. Getting started to your point is usually the hardest part. And I fully recognize not everyone has this really great founder’s story, so I felt like it was almost cheating starting there, because that’s really easy.
00:13:19:22 – 00:13:31:04
Ralph
But doesn’t every business like it didn’t like it? Every business wasn’t created by spare parts. And I like there’s even our business. There’s a founder’s story.
00:13:31:06 – 00:13:31:22
Alisan
Yeah.
00:13:32:00 – 00:13:37:09
Ralph
You know, like, as as lame as it might be, but I think there is one, you know.
00:13:37:11 – 00:13:54:03
Alisan
It’s really hard to get founders behind. Like, I specifically work with brands where I’m like, you know, something’s not working. Usually when people call us, it’s because something’s not working. And so you diagnose. Right. And then I’m just, you know, I’m slacking. Lauren, while we’re in the calls, I’m just like, they need to lean into the founder’s story.
00:13:54:03 – 00:13:57:19
Alisan
Like, every hanging out, every time, every time.
00:13:57:20 – 00:13:59:14
Ralph
So every time, it’s that.
00:13:59:14 – 00:14:19:06
Alisan
When you get on, like a discovery call with a client and they can’t even really tell you, why do you have this business? Like, why is your product different? You know, like there’s a million water bottles in the world. Why should I buy your water bottle? Why should I buy your lipstick like, why? Like why is yours better than, you know everyone else out there.
00:14:19:06 – 00:14:49:18
Alisan
So when brands can’t answer that question, that’s where it’s really hard because it comes through on all the content and not just social media like email, paid ads, everything. Your website, when there’s no social. Yeah, people noticed that. And nowadays with like AI and everything coming out like authentic content is king. So I saying that I would say to get started with the pillars, start with the basics.
00:14:49:20 – 00:15:09:07
Alisan
How have ChatGPT help you? You know, that’s fine, but understand why like understand the why of your brand. Because that is what like ChatGPT can’t give you. That’s what. Well, ChatGPT can sort of research what people think your brand is for, which is also really interesting, and you should know that. But you know, well, why did you start the brand?
00:15:09:07 – 00:15:38:02
Alisan
What makes you different? Like what is your biggest differentiator and sort of start there and you can really start that by the four categories that almost every like if you look at Hootsuite, Sprout, Social, all of them will have the sort of help article on how to get started with pillars. So if you’re a new brand and you’re just starting or you’re just starting to get organized because a lot of us are posting content with no organization behind it, no shame.
00:15:38:04 – 00:15:53:06
Alisan
I would always recommend starting with product and promotion as one pillar. Education or value, community, lifestyle and engagement or entertainment. I feel like those are pretty standard and a good a good place to start.
00:15:53:08 – 00:16:12:15
Ralph
So if you’re listening to this, and you’re not over on a YouTube channel, which I highly recommend is subscribe to our YouTube channel. And so we’re a perpetual traveler come forward slash YouTube. You can actually see this. This is the version 2.0 of the tier 11 content matrix here. And thank you. Because my eyes are like squinting there.
00:16:12:15 – 00:16:39:08
Ralph
I’m like, what does that one say. But this is kind of how you start. This is like this helps you with, you know, blank slate, blank page syndrome to at least get going. And, I’ve, I couldn’t agree more on the, the why you exist part of it. Because I’ve told this story a number of times on the show when we, we used to do for every new client, we always used to go to an on, we do an on site.
00:16:39:10 – 00:16:57:15
Ralph
And I would go through like the why you started this business, like what is your why? What’s your vision, what’s your mission? And nine times out of ten, I would have to ask the why question 12 times in order to sort of get down to like why you actually do what you do or why you started it. It’s like either one of those things.
00:16:57:15 – 00:17:20:13
Ralph
So the vision part is sort of part of the founders story part, but that makes it less bland, like everything’s bland. And I like I like everything out there, like nothing’s really interesting. People want to see interesting, unique stuff that’s real. Humans are behind it. And trust me, this isn’t like some soft, you know, approach to advertising into marketing.
00:17:20:13 – 00:17:40:12
Ralph
Like, that’s the real thing. Like all humans want to do that. Why do we have, like, Instagram and Facebook so we can see, like behind the scenes on people’s lives because it’s real and it’s content that is unique and stands out. And it’s this is the same sort of concept here. So it mirrors human behavior in so many different ways.
00:17:40:12 – 00:18:05:04
Ralph
And it’s the funny thing about advertising marketing, nothing’s really changed all that much. We’re since, you know, Claude Hopkins first started, you know, it’s all the same now. So anyway, so back to the content matrix here over professional traffic.com/youtube. Make sure you check it out. You can also get this at tier 11.com/content-matrix. So take it away. You’re the expert I’ll get off my soapbox.
00:18:05:06 – 00:18:26:22
Alisan
No it’s I agree I think also a good point to add. There is like maybe 5 to 10 years ago, you should just be able to set out to a bunch of influencers, have them post and tag your brand and, you know, call it a day. But unfortunately, we’re living in an era now where, like, every brand is doing something pretty unique and cool on social, especially if they have a following.
00:18:27:00 – 00:18:45:04
Alisan
And so to stand out, not only does your business need to stand out, but like your social strategy and the way you present all your content is to stand out. You can’t just post a cute picture anymore. You know, you got to build that community and part of it starts from, in my opinion, here on the content matrix.
00:18:45:04 – 00:19:09:08
Alisan
Just understanding. Like what? Okay, so now you know why your brand is out there. What makes you different? Your mission, all that fun stuff. And honestly, sometimes that is the hardest thing to get to. In order to get to the the content matrix. But figure that out, feel good and confident about that, because I can I can promise you that if you don’t have those answers, this is going to be really hard to do.
00:19:09:10 – 00:19:32:00
Alisan
But if you do have the answers, coming up with the content matrix is super easy and you’ll just be spitting out content like it’s nothing, which is everyone’s dream, really. So you can start with the generalized four pillars. Most people use these pillars when they’re first getting started, because when you first get start, you don’t really, you don’t like, really know what your audience specifically likes, right?
00:19:32:00 – 00:19:52:11
Alisan
Like everyone has a different audience on social. I can’t do the same thing from account to account. I wish it was that easy, but unfortunately it’s not. So the first part is really testing and refinement to understand what gets your content a lot of reach, what at your content, a lot of views and what gets your content a lot of engagement.
00:19:52:13 – 00:20:32:16
Alisan
So to start with the content matrix, we’ll just start for example with the first pillar. So you plug all your pillars into the top here. And then from that second row you’re putting in topics that help, promote the pillar. So for the first one we’re doing product and promotion. So any new drops that you’re coming out with, bestsellers want to lean into new drops, but you also want to lean in to your hero products, your bestsellers and the stuff that you sell that you know, people love and and bring people back for more like one really interesting question I love asking brands is, what is your best selling product that brings in the
00:20:32:16 – 00:20:34:17
Alisan
highest repeat purchasers?
00:20:34:19 – 00:20:36:03
Ralph
Yeah. Great question.
00:20:36:05 – 00:20:40:07
Alisan
Focus on that. You know, like make it simple. Like these are simple things.
00:20:40:13 – 00:20:50:00
Ralph
And a third would be your highest profit margin. Yeah. If they can get that all together that’s, that’s that’s it. That’s the that’s the Triple Crown right there.
00:20:50:05 – 00:21:15:12
Alisan
So so just answering simple things like that. And then just plug in here. So bestsellers that’s that’s my bestsellers. Yeah. And then also the repeat purchase because I’m an email marketer at heart. So retention is huge for me for sure. And then seasonal. So seasonality is huge. We know this across every industry. If you lean in to what is trending and what is seasonal and the moment it’s fall is Christmas, it’s 4th of July.
00:21:15:12 – 00:21:37:10
Alisan
People like to see that kind of content and it resonates with audience best versus when you post something in a seasonal moment that’s not seasonal. You don’t see as great as results from it. So always leaning into seasonality as it fits for your brand benefits and features. Obviously, we want to show people, what why they should buy the product and why it’s good.
00:21:37:12 – 00:21:56:15
Alisan
And then any like discounts, offers or bundles that come up as well. So again this can look different for every brand. It’s not always going to look like this, but it’s just topics that support this overarching pillar of what you want people to know about your product and how you want to promote it on your channel. So for this is for social media.
00:21:56:17 – 00:22:19:05
Ralph
So this totally makes sense. And you’re doing this one first, which is cool because this is probably the one people are most focused on. Probably not in this way, but at least they’re just showing pictures of the products going back to our original point. So this isn’t that much of a pivot, but it’s it’s hierarchical here. It’s like product and promotion isn’t necessarily the first thing you want to do.
00:22:19:07 – 00:22:34:02
Ralph
Or maybe it is if you’re starting from scratch, maybe it’s more of the founder story. But for this, this is probably if you’re listening and you’re like, yeah, well, that’s most of my socials is me just showing off our products. This at least gives you a structure and a format that makes it more interesting and engaging.
00:22:34:04 – 00:22:51:08
Alisan
Definitely. And it allows you to hit this is really like the first tier of this and the second tier. It’s really great to have your whole marketing team, even CEO, depending on how involved. I feel like CEOs are always overly involved in marketing, I just my startup experience, but awesome.
00:22:51:08 – 00:22:52:00
Ralph
Yeah.
00:22:52:01 – 00:22:56:22
Alisan
Yeah. So, yeah, I didn’t mean that as like a dig for you.
00:22:57:00 – 00:23:04:00
Ralph
No, not at all. Believe me, I’d love to get myself out, but, like, I keep telling myself. So anyway.
00:23:04:01 – 00:23:24:22
Alisan
I think these are good for almost the whole team to be Elise aligned on, because this is really where when you’re a social media manager and if any are listening, I’m sure you can relate. Your boss is like like, what is this video like, why did you post this? Like, I don’t get this on social media. This is where you come back and be like, oh, this supports our topic of, you know, for product and promotion.
00:23:24:22 – 00:23:45:23
Alisan
You wanted to focus on the benefits and features. So these first two columns here are for me like the most important for me to align with the clients on. I’m not as concerned about them loving every single content idea that comes next. And so there’s three sub topics here. And essentially what this is, is like these are your video ideas.
00:23:46:01 – 00:24:17:16
Alisan
So it doesn’t have to be three. It really can be as many as you can think of. Right. But again it’s just keeping you organized to support the overarching message which is product and promotion. And then further down I want to, you know, focus on bestsellers. So how am I going to do that? I’m going to look for customer reviews, showing videos on how it helps your every day leading into like the emotional support that this product gives people and how it eases their day to day.
00:24:17:18 – 00:24:41:11
Alisan
We know content like that always works really well, and I’m sure there’s a million ideas you can come up with for each of your bestsellers if it’s, you know, lipstick or water bottles, whatever it is. And then, other ideas like why we love it, it’s, sometimes it’s fun to get, like, your, your crew involved, like people that work for the company involved and show their face on socials, or influencers.
00:24:41:11 – 00:24:53:01
Alisan
So this next column is really your social media team brainstorming different content angles that they want to essentially turn into video scripts and then go out and implement.
00:24:53:03 – 00:25:08:22
Ralph
This is pretty cool. Is this industry agnostic here, or does, I mean, this is a little bit more geared towards e-commerce. So it, is my guess, but is this applicable to anybody who’s just trying to do this for any industry or what’s your sense on this?
00:25:09:00 – 00:25:28:01
Alisan
Yeah, I really think this could be for me. I’ve seen content wheels before and usually they’re they’re just all built a little bit differently. This is just how my mind like really works. And I found this to be the best way to like organize and regurgitate what I’m trying to say over and over and over again so that it stays consistent.
00:25:28:01 – 00:25:50:06
Alisan
But I really sometimes I use this for email marketing. I think you could use this for paid ads too. Like if you have this overarching, pillar that you’re trying to support in your strategy, but you’re like, cool, I need to show beats. Okay, well, what am I going to show? Like, what are some video ideas and how can the whole team sort of get together and brainstorm different ideas?
00:25:50:06 – 00:26:19:07
Alisan
So I think this could help across different channels and e-com but also different industries as well. Like if you are, a business trying to sell your services, like for tier 11, for example, my pillars might end up being people. So it could be you, Lauren, John Moran, and then I’m breaking down. What are some, you know, five topics I really want John Moran to focus on based on what is doing well on socials, and then how do I want him to record those five topics?
00:26:19:07 – 00:26:53:14
Alisan
Is it, you know, a YouTube longform where he’s talking about X, Y, and Z is alive? Is it short form on TikTok? Is it a series so you can get like, I think the more you do this, the more you kind of see all the, the opportunities that it opens up for you. And it’s really just a brainstorming exercise to help keep you organized and on, like, it’s sort of like looking at your thesis sentence like over and over and over again and like always going back to that to make sure that, like, all the content you’re putting out there supports this overarching goal so that it just the consumer absorbs it better.
00:26:53:18 – 00:27:10:05
Ralph
Yeah. And if you are talking about like what John is talking about the most, it’s actually it’s this. Which perfectly weaves into all of this, you know, or focused on this sort of content diversification strategy, but all stems from this. It’s all in there. Yeah. You know what I mean?
00:27:10:07 – 00:27:29:03
Alisan
Same thing. You take those categories from content diversification. You know, you get it. Your paid media buyer comes to you and says, hey, I need to see content like this, this and this, pop that into the pillars. And then build topics based off of that. So founders story, you know, build five things you want the founder to talk about and focus on.
00:27:29:08 – 00:27:37:22
Alisan
And then from there you can come up with millions of video ideas to really get the ball rolling on testing. And and again, just organizing really all your thoughts.
00:27:38:02 – 00:27:57:14
Ralph
All right. So next. So that’s product promotion. So this four segments on this we’re we’re not going to get to all four here today. That’s why you can get it over a tier 11.com/content matrix. If you don’t know how to spell matrix you’re listening to the wrong show. Sorry. All right so the next part is education is my guess.
00:27:57:16 – 00:28:19:19
Alisan
So education and value is a big one that most, like high level, CEO, CMO are going to want you to focus on for social media especially, is just how I want the customer to be educated on how to use the product. This one. And this is why the content matrix is amazing because it’s diversifying what you’re putting out there.
00:28:19:19 – 00:28:42:18
Alisan
Because if I constantly am just making videos about how to use this water bottle, or showing them to sleep through flipping it upside down, or showing the shade of lipstick, it’s morning. Like people don’t come to social media. I mean, they sort of want education, but you really need to be clever in the way that you’re educating them versus like a video of you just putting the water upside down and shaking it.
00:28:42:20 – 00:28:47:10
Ralph
So people are used to that. That’s like, yeah, that’s just noise. It’s just another thing.
00:28:47:12 – 00:28:48:03
Alisan
Right? And the.
00:28:48:04 – 00:28:49:01
Ralph
Inner blinders kind of.
00:28:49:01 – 00:29:12:01
Alisan
Like this constant seed of just selling, selling, selling, selling where really what you’re trying to do is well, for me, my biggest number one tip for everyone is focus on your engagement rate on social media. What do they like? What what what from this content wheel is working. And then reiterate off of that. So for education value.
00:29:12:02 – 00:29:25:20
Ralph
The caveat to that, however, is not like the funny GIFs. That has nothing to do with your product that you just post randomly on. So so people like, yeah, people really like that. Let’s use that as an ad. I’m like, that doesn’t sell any. It’s like literally had those conversations.
00:29:25:22 – 00:29:49:17
Alisan
Alisan I think social media, I will argue a little bit with that. I do think for ads, yes. You can’t just, you know, like ads are more intentional. And that’s where I’m sure Lauren could break this content matrix down into like an ad strategy. Far better than I could. But I will say for social media, you know, there’s a there’s a saying that like 80% of your content is going to flop.
00:29:49:19 – 00:30:04:10
Alisan
Yeah. So it’s like, just try it. So I do think like don’t chase every trend, chase trends that are relevant to your industry. And that makes sense if you’re like, don’t try to make a joke out of something that’s like not relatable.
00:30:04:12 – 00:30:04:22
Ralph
Yes.
00:30:05:01 – 00:30:23:11
Alisan
You know, like that. It’s not going to go on social. But if you can hit if you can hit on a trend that’s relatable to your industry and funny and shareable and comfortable, then that’s really where you’re like, striking gold. So I will say, like, what you’re going to do is you’re going to create this whole content matrix.
00:30:23:13 – 00:30:46:22
Alisan
And like 80% of it isn’t going to strike gold. Whether it’s it doesn’t mean it’s the yeah, it’s just social media like it’s and it doesn’t mean it’s the pillar. It’s usually the first place you start is the video angle, right. Like an unboxing. You have to be nowadays really, really clever with how you present unboxing videos because everybody does this.
00:30:47:00 – 00:31:06:21
Alisan
So it’s like, how can you take all of these ideas and almost come up with the sort of the next step is like a rating system of the idea. So like unboxing video, but like, why is it different? I’d want to see someone write a brief out for that before I’d approve for them to post one, because I know it’s kind of like content you see everywhere now.
00:31:06:21 – 00:31:10:15
Alisan
People don’t really care. I don’t watch someone open a product, I don’t care.
00:31:10:17 – 00:31:19:18
Ralph
But unless you’re like, right about to buy it. Yeah. Like you’re just you’re going to watch it because you’re bottom of the funnel. So yeah, I get what you’re saying because it’s kind of cliche at this point.
00:31:19:19 – 00:31:49:01
Alisan
Right. Exactly. And it’s kind of like, I mean, if the girl is or the person is literally just opening up the product and showing it to you, cool. I can see what the product looks like on the PDP, but like if they’re educating you or taking it a step further, you know, bringing it into the education and value pillar, then how can you kind of make it unboxing but also make it product focus or education focus or value focus like I bought this bottle and it was only 1499 and my Stanley cost 4999.
00:31:49:06 – 00:32:07:22
Alisan
Yeah. And it literally does the same thing side by side, leak proof, you know, keeps it cold. All right. So it’s kind of like how do you take these ideas and then sort of come up with really clever angles to show the content. Because yes, an unboxing typical normal video, it’s not going to do well. Yeah.
00:32:08:00 – 00:32:21:15
Ralph
And don’t get too clever either because of that. The test that I always write, like if you have to explain it to somebody then you’re you’re going too far. You’re burning too many brain cells. You know, people are thinking too hard on it. So that’s why.
00:32:21:15 – 00:32:38:10
Alisan
It’s really nice to actually have a team versus not just one person. Because. Absolutely. Like, right, when you’re like startup and you have to do it all by yourself, you’re kind of like, am I going crazy? Like, is this a good idea? Is this not a good idea? And then it doesn’t do well and you’re like, I’m not funny.
00:32:38:12 – 00:32:44:15
Ralph
Maybe. In fact, you’re just not funny. But like that, you know, if you had a team, they could tell you that you’re not funny.
00:32:44:17 – 00:33:05:05
Alisan
Yeah. This is where I would recommend getting started. It might take some time to fill it out, especially in the beginning. But hopefully this is super helpful for people. And the more you do it, the easier it gets. And then once you go and test out all this content on the content wheel, you just come back in and, reiterate from what performed well and what didn’t.
00:33:05:05 – 00:33:16:11
Alisan
And again, and sometimes what performs well for engagement rate isn’t going to be what performs well for reach and impression. So understanding how to look at the metrics is probably a whole nother episode.
00:33:16:15 – 00:33:41:16
Ralph
Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. This is just the starting point. Yeah. Because that’s where people really I don’t even know if they realize that they’re not doing it right. They’re just not doing it right in most cases, because I can think of one client that we talked to, I was like, oh my God, their social media is so good. They have such a clear brand voice because usually by the time they come to us, that’s part of the problem because they haven’t done this.
00:33:41:16 – 00:34:01:03
Ralph
And so part of our strategy is to do that with you and your team and obviously our creative team. But to find that voice and starting in that direction, because most of it’s pretty bland stuff like, here’s the thing, go buy it. That’s not a strategy, but this at least gives you a jumpstart. So once again, we didn’t get into all of it here today.
00:34:01:03 – 00:34:24:20
Ralph
There’s two other quadrants that you can also get over at tier 11.com. Forward slash contrast content dash matrix content dash matrix. Easy for me to say you’re going to be I don’t know if it’s co-hosting. I think you’re producing for our next guest on Perpetual Traffic coming this week for Lauren Schwartz, our head of creative a little special webinar.
00:34:24:20 – 00:34:29:06
Ralph
You want a t pre ts that. And you know before we get Lauren on here.
00:34:29:07 – 00:34:59:07
Alisan
Yeah definitely I’m really excited about it. We’re going to be putting on a webinar for the first time ever with our chief creative officer Lauren. And she’s basically going to is really cool because she’s going to be teaching on sort of like what trends we’re going to see for Black Friday, Cyber Monday this year. And she’s going to be giving us like hooks and ad templates to use for Black Friday, Cyber Monday to try out, which I think is really cool, especially from someone who’s always trying to come up with content.
00:34:59:13 – 00:35:22:22
Alisan
Yeah. Having hooks already given to you that’s really valuable. So that in and of itself is worth watching. And then we’re going to be going through good ads and bad ads and just calling out, like, really? How you should position your ads during the promotional season. As we know, Black Friday, Cyber Monday competitiveness is like insane. And if you haven’t started yet, you’re basically already behind.
00:35:22:22 – 00:35:24:06
Alisan
But it’s not too late.
00:35:24:08 – 00:35:24:19
Ralph
To like.
00:35:24:23 – 00:35:39:08
Alisan
Watch you up, and at the end of it you’ll get a, I think, a seven day guide on how to implement the strategy in seven days so that you put up for all your Black Friday Cyber Monday strategy.
00:35:39:10 – 00:36:03:14
Ralph
And that’s going on Tuesday, September 9th, ten 10 a.m. Pacific, if I’m not mistaken. Yes. And September 12th, 9 a.m. Pacific. We will we will not leave links in the show notes to that quite yet, because Lauren’s going to be the show on that later on this week. But you’re just you’re just hinting at your pre pre pre quilling it.
00:36:03:14 – 00:36:28:00
Ralph
So anyway, this has been amazing today. And this is one of the reasons I wanted to have you on because it all comes back down to content. I hate to say that it sounds cliche. Yes, it probably is at this point, but we want to repeat the things that actually do work. What we’re seeing right now is a diverse content strategy, working on all platforms and how you actually do that.
00:36:28:00 – 00:36:46:18
Ralph
Whether you ask for our help, you can certainly do that over a tier 11.com/apply, of course, but if you’re doing it on your own, this download will help get you in that right direction. Or get it. Or tell your team to get it. And if you’re Director of Marketing, VP of marketing, this is an insanely great tool for you and your team.
00:36:46:18 – 00:37:08:20
Ralph
So that’s over at tier 11.com/content matrix. It’s the fifth time I’ve said it. So it’s a lot of calls to action on one show here Alex Matthews yep that’s me Mr. CTA. Thank you so much for coming on. You were really nervous to come on professional traffic, and you did a fabulous job. And I think the audience will think the exact same thing.
00:37:08:20 – 00:37:16:16
Ralph
Probably one of the most popular episodes ever is my guess. Of course, I’ll say the same thing. I’ll say the same thing, Lauren, when she comes on. But anyway.
00:37:16:18 – 00:37:21:22
Alisan
Yeah, I was just say I’m sure you tell all your algorithms what?
00:37:22:00 – 00:37:35:22
Ralph
I do, and they believe it. No. Well, absolutely. That we’ve never done a show like this before where we talk about it, we’ve referred to it, but never like this. So anyway, thank you so much for coming on. Where can people connect with you personally?
00:37:35:23 – 00:37:37:12
Alisan
Yeah, I’m on LinkedIn.
00:37:37:14 – 00:38:09:02
Ralph
Yeah. Like everybody. Yeah. So I can connect with Alisan. Alisan with a s a n, by the way. And you’ll see that in the title of today’s show. I always get spell corrected on that and we correct our rules. Tier 11. So anyway, Alice Matthews, thank you so much for coming on perpetual traffic. Of course, wherever you are listening to shows like this one or any of the other ones in our back catalog, make sure that you leave a rating and review helps us get out to a larger, wider audience and teach people how to do this shit the right way.
00:38:09:05 – 00:38:28:09
Ralph
That’s really what we’re doing here. Perpetual traffic and of course, all the links are going to be in the show notes over perpetual traffic.com. So on behalf of my absent co-host, who really wanted to be here, but she had better things to do, apparently. I don’t know what the hell they were. Lani Petrillo, until next show.
00:38:28:11 – 00:38:36:20
Ralph
See you.
