Content strategy for a 6-figure business – becoming the leader in your industry

There’s clearly a market for what you’re offering, and your target audience is buying, so this is the perfect time to go all in on content marketing while your business is successful and growing.

The advantage of content marketing for 6-figure businesses 

So your first thought might be, ‘Do I really NEED content marketing, or is it just a nice-to-have?’ 

The answer is, without a doubt, yes! Here’s why…

• If you do it right, content marketing can generate instant sales (no, it’s not just a long-term strategy). 
• You need to protect yourself. If you’re relying on referrals or ads for business, what happens if they dry up or stop working? Growing your email list through content marketing means you always have a database of people who will buy from you
• You might not want to do exactly what you’re doing forever. If you’re working 1-2-1 with clients right now, imagine launching a more passive (nothing is ever truly passive) product you could sell. For that, you’re going to need an audience! 
• You position yourself as the leader in your industry. If you’re still having to work hard for sales, spend time on sales calls or writing proposals, compete on price or have plenty of competition, then you need a way to stand out. 

So how, then, do 6-figure business owners build the right content marketing strategy?

What is thought leadership, and why should you focus on it?

When I first heard the phrase ‘thought leadership’, I cringed a little (okay, a lot). The term is what this emoji was made for

And yet, I have warmed to it. It is a helpful term to convey what is missing from A LOT of content…and that is original, forward-thinking ideas based on your experience and expertise. 

Let’s take this blog post as an example. Yes, on the face of it, it’s nothing crazy-controversial. But what I’m teaching you here is based on us working with thousands of business owners. 

As far as I am aware (and I have researched), no one else is saying how your content marketing strategy should differ depending on how much revenue your business makes. 

Some might even find this advice a bit brash. 

But, it comes from a place of genuinely wanting to help people create better content without burning out. 

Thought leadership is the process of promoting unique ideas based on your experiences. These ideas are often rooted in new data or trends and showcased through engaging, entertaining, and informative content. 

The advantage of thought leadership is in the name: leadership – the more you create, the more likely you’re going to become the leader in your industry. 

How should you create a content strategy based on ‘thought leadership’? 

1. Collate your unique ideas

The likelihood is you’ve built up a bank of thought leadership that you’ve already developed through your years as an entrepreneur. This could be things like: 

• Frameworks, such as our STAND OUT Content Marketing framework (the backbone of our content marketing course) 
• Methodologies 
• Stories – based on your experiences of successes and failures 
• Anecdotes 
• Case Studies 
• Examples 
• Opinions (that often go against what’s accepted as the norm for your industry) 

This is the stuff that is GOLD – it’s what makes you, you. It’s what AI can’t possibly come up with because it’s unique to you and your business. And it’s the stuff that will help you become a leader in your industry. 

This stuff should either be the main focus of your content or you can weave into your content to make it stand out. 

2. Conduct keyword and competitor research 

Conducting keyword and competitor research helps you understand what your audience is actively searching for and what your competitors are doing right (or wrong). 

With this data, you can create content that gets directly in front of your target audience and what they are searching for. Use tools like SEMrush to conduct your keyword research. Then, analyse your competitors’ content to identify gaps you can fill or topics you can approach from a fresh angle.

3. Audit your existing content assets

You likely already have a wealth of content—blog posts, videos, podcasts, books, webinars, etc. Review these materials to see what can be repurposed or updated to fit your current content strategy. 

4. Choose one platform for search and one for social 

Unless you can outsource, we recommend you nail one search platform and one social platform before you move on to scaling your content. 

First, pick a platform that is found via ‘search’, e.g.

• A blog – where people can find you by searching on Google
• Video – where people can find you by searching on YouTube
• Or a podcast – where people can find you by searching podcasts

This means you’ll increase your chances of gaining organic, free traffic to your content. 

Then, you should repurpose that content to ONE social platform, e.g. LinkedIn, Instagram, and Twitter. 

You should also create original content for your social platform. 

If you think this is ‘too strict’ and you want to be on more platforms, that’s fine. But it’ll take a lot of work. For example, we are a content marketing agency, and each blog post we create involves six people and takes hours of work. 

Doing content marketing right takes time, and that’s why we recommend you nail one search platform and one social platform first before you move on to anything else. 

5. Come up with your content plan 

Crafting a content plan is the next crucial step in your strategy. 

This involves mapping out your content calendar, deciding on the types of content you will produce, and determining the frequency of your content. For example, you may decide to publish one blog post a week and post on LinkedIn five times a week. 

By this point, you’ll also have chosen your content topics based on the work you’ve done in points 1-3. So make sure you add this to the calendar so you know exactly what will be posted and when. 

Can You Outsource Thought Leadership?

A lot of entrepreneurs we speak to LOVE to create content because it gets the stuff in their brains out into the world. It also improves how they communicate their ideas – they to come up with the best possible argument. 

It’s why so many of our clients are published authors (usually of multiple books). 

That’s why we advise entrepreneurs never to outsource the ‘thinking’ behind what they do. Your brain is a treasure trove of brilliant information that your customers and industry can benefit from. So, when you take your unique experiences and put them into content, it can make your business go from good to unstoppable. 

So no, we don’t think you should outsource your thought leadership (no one is going to do the thinking for you, right? Particularly not at your level!) BUT you can outsource content if you’re handing over your thought leadership to someone else. If you’re giving them what they need to formulate the right words for you. 

This is why we read all of our client’s books, listen to their videos and podcasts, and go through their courses and webinars—because that’s where the gold is, and we turn that into helpful content. 

If you can stick to it, especially if you’re at the lower end of 6 figures, then content creation will make your business 10x better. If you want to learn how to do this, check out our coaching programme and course – we give you the exact content strategy and framework we use with our clients who spend thousands with us every month.