I am almost always thinking about content. So here are three free ideas for different types of businesses:

🛍 B2C/ecommerce

Characteristics or challenges: Relatively inexpensive; likelihood for repeat purchases

Goal: Emotionally-triggering content that makes repeat purchases or bulk orders easy

Content to create: Roundup of your products that are solutions to life's painful problems

Example headlines:

• 24 indoor plants that are impossible to kill
• 12 kitchen tools that serve double-duty and free up counter space
• 8 bathing suits to hide your tummy (and they're not just tankinis)

🛠 B2B service

Characteristics or challenges: Expensive; long sales cycles; long time commitment when customer agrees to contract

Goal: Build trust with a prospect so they feel comfortable hiring you

Content to create: Your strong or controversial POV of your industry

Example headlines:

• 4 sketchy link building tactics you should never do — and a better method
• Why buyer personas shouldn't have genders
• How <your client's name> used 3 psychology tactics to boost retention

💻 Software:

Characteristics or challenges: Need for product education; long sales cycle if software is expensive; high churn if software is inexpensive

Goal: Get prospect to realize your product's value more quickly

Content to create: Free resources that demonstrate value

Example headlines:

• 5 ways <customer's title> can save time on <task> (5 ways marketers can save time doing customer interviews)
• Build a <deliverable> from scratch in 1 hour (Build a buyer persona from scratch in 1 hour)
• Your guide to effective <task> (Your guide to effective cold outreach)

🍎 If you want to learn how to create these types of content, consider joining my next cohort of Content Marketing 201. Class starts May 23.

(And I'm accepting scholarship applications until April 24.)

🧁 Petits Fours

Four bite-sized blurbs linking to content worth consuming...

​My work routine — including how I work full-time, teach a marketing course, and care for my toddler without extra childcare: My friend Marissa Goldberg did this profile on my workweek. She writes and runs a business to help people work remotely. Highly recommend subscribing to her newsletter too!

​Marketing attribution isn't worth the headache: My boss Rand Fishkin says you're better off trusting your gut. My two cents? Attribution is worth learning about and experimenting with. But developing the instinct for what's working and what isn't is far more valuable.

​16 kitchen storage ideas you'll wish you knew sooner: My interior design obsession continues and I am in love with the toe-kick drawer idea for pot lids and platters.

​You don't need to 'niche down' to grow on social: My friend Ben Putano and I were talking about audience building — ways to do it and what most people get wrong — and he wrote a short thread about it.

🥦 Sheet-Pan Halibut and Veggies

Sorry I forgot to take a plated photo.

Serves: 2

Ingredients:

• 1-2 potatoes
• 2 fistfuls of broccoli
• 2 4-ounce halibut filets
• 1 fistful of cherry tomatoes
• Juice of 1 lemon
• Olive oil
• Salt and pepper
• Optional: Frank's RedHot Original Seasoning Blend OR garlic powder

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Line your sheet pan with foil if you want. Add a small sheet of parchment paper for the potatoes.

2. Slice potatoes into thin wedges. Toss in olive oil, salt, and Frank's RedHot seasoning or garlic powder, if using. Spread out in a single layer on top of the parchment paper. Roast for 8 minutes.

3. Squeeze lemon all over halibut filets. Season with salt and pepper; be more generous with the pepper. Halve cherry tomatoes. Set the fish and tomatoes aside.

4. Toss broccoli in olive oil and a generous pinch of salt and pepper. Remove sheet pan from oven and add broccoli in a single layer. Roast for 8 minutes.

5. Pour yourself a glass of wine and sit on your kitchen floor to take a break for several minutes.

6. Remove sheet pan from oven. Flip vegetables. Add halibut filets. Top with halved tomatoes. Drizzle with olive oil. Roast until done, about 12 minutes.

🍳 What's cooking in your kitchen?

I mean that literally and figuratively.

What are you preparing in your kitchen lately?

And what marketing or creative-related problems are you currently solving?

Reply to tell me what you're cooking up! 🙃