In this episode, host Jay Schwedelson dives into the critical importance of tailoring your content to specific platforms, backed by new research findings from Worldata Research.
Learn why beginner-level content thrives on social media while advanced content excels in email marketing and discover the stats that prove it!
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Best Moments:
(00:40) Why beginner-level content is more effective on social media
(01:35) Research insights: Platform-specific content strategies
(02:28) Performance stats for beginner content on LinkedIn and Instagram
(03:33) Why advanced content should be reserved for email campaigns
(04:10) Avoid the mistake of blanket repurposing across channels
(07:26) Jay shares a humorous anecdote about his dermatologist wife
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Transcript
Foreign welcome to do this, not that, the podcast for marketers. You'll walk away from each episode with actionable tips you can test immediately.
You'll hear from the best minds in marketing who will share tactics, quick wins and pitfalls to avoid. Also, dig into life, pop culture, and the chaos that is our everyday. I'm Jay Schwedelson. Let's do this, not that.
We are back for do this, not that, presented by Marigold. And today we're talking about. Is beginner level content garbage. What do I mean?
Do you ever go on social media and you're thinking about sharing something or you're writing a newsletter or, or your company's putting out information and you're like, we can't put that out. That is the most basic thing on the planet. Everybody already knows that thing.
You know, maybe you're, you have a health business and you're trying to give out a health tip and you're like, we can't talk about that. Everybody knows that. Or you're a B2B SaaS company. You have a piece of content like that is so beginner level. If we share that, that's ridiculous.
And I get that vibe. I feel that way all the time.
And I avoid what I would call beginner level content, whether it's an email or social, because I think that it's just a waste and it's going to make me look like a doofus. But I was wrong. I am totally wrong.
So our research group, World Data Research just completed some really cool reporting on what level of educational content works best and where. So beginner level content versus advanced level content.
And should you actually be putting out beginner level content or is an epic waste and an embarrassment or should you be leaning into it? Right. And so let's dig into what we did and what we found.
So we looked at over 50 companies and content creators and we reviewed all the email newsletters and promotions they publish and all the posts that they shared and, and we categorize them. Beginner level content. Advanced level content depending on the, the business or consumer sector that they were in. And here's what we learned.
Beginner level content crushes it on social media. On social media, beginner level content is it. But advanced level content crushes it within email marketing.
It is not that the same thing works in both places. Boom. This was like, what? So let's dig into the stats on LinkedIn.
Beginner level content generated a 42% higher average engagement rate, likes and comments and over a 35% higher share rate than advanced level content. Not just about sharing and not just about liking and commenting.
But beginner level content on LinkedIn also generated new follower rate requests over 30% higher than advanced level content. And then we looked on Instagram as well, we saw the exact same thing. Beginner level content output advanced level content by over 30%.
Here's the thing that flips the script and this is where I was like, okay, everything is changing in my mind. Now.
The super interesting thing is that the exact opposite, the exact opposite occurred within email promotions and email newsletters for business and consumer marketers. Advanced level content within email promotions and newsletters generated a 39% higher average click through rate than the beginner level content.
What, so what does this all mean? Well, what it means is that beginner level stuff on social, advanced level stuff in email.
But what, what else it means is idea of, oh, just repurpose it, repurpose it into your email, just repurpose it and put it on social. You could take the same content, chop it up and put it everywhere. And that is the recipe for success. That's not the recipe for success.
And that's what we're learning. See, social media is all about one thing. It's about being relatable.
If you can evoke an emotion that is like, when you see it, you say to yourself, oh, that happens to me all the time. Or this is exactly what I'm dealing with right now.
When they see your social post, or that's exactly the tactic that works for us, you see yourself in the post, it's relatable. Even though it's basic, it makes you feel like you're on the right track with your life or your business. And that's why you engage with it.
That's why you want to follow that person. So when you see that post and you say in your mind, I know exactly what you mean.
That ability to be relatable ties in perfectly with beginner level content. So people on social media, they want a quick, digestible content that they could easily navigate, easily, share easily act upon.
Now email is a different animal. It's a different animal. We make a much higher investment with our time with email.
We go to our inbox like, okay, I'm going to open this now and we want to dig into it.
We want to see that in depth analysis, that expertise, those insights, those things that we didn't know that we could really take a moment, take a deep breath and absorb. Email is a higher investment. So in general, what does it all mean?
It means that we need to be thinking about tailoring our content to the channel that we are marketing in. It's not just take content and repurpose it everywhere and roll with it.
It's email is for this and social media can be for that and it will significantly impact your engagement and your effectiveness. Creating a platform specific content strategy is, is where my head is at. I am going to go deep down this rabbit hole and see what happens.
All right, before we get into the chaos of this podcast, which is, since you didn't ask, I wanted to share with you about our sponsor, the Amazing Marigold. Listen, this is the time of year that we all think about our Martech stack. Do I need a new vendor? Are contracts coming up? Do I hate my vendor?
What should I do? Well, if you're not thrilled with your email sending platform, I am telling you, you got to check out Marigold. Maybe you never heard of them.
That's because it's a roll up of all these companies, Campaign Monitor and Sail through and Emma and Cheetah Digital. They're all part of Marigold. You need to check them out. If you're not thrilled with your email signing platform, this is who I use.
You can go to meet marigold.com to check them out or if you DM me on LinkedIn, I will connect you with all the people I know there and they will hook you up. So check them out@meetmaragold.com or drop me a DM. I'm telling you, there's a better way to get your email out the door. All right, let's get into.
Since you didn't ask, this is on my mind because this just happened this week. So my wife is a dermatologist. Yeah. She's a billion times smarter than I am. And she's always like, you got to come to my office.
I see something on your arm. We got to freeze that off. We got to take that off. And I'm always putting it off because I'm like, I don't want to do that.
But this week she's like, you're coming in, you have time, whatever. So I go to her office and she's the best. She's the literally the best doctor on the planet. She is the nicest all of her patients. She's incredible.
We've been married for over 20 years. She's the love of my life. It's amazing.
But we go to her office, she puts me in this room and she just starts like, oh, wait, I didn't know you also had this thing on your shoulder and this thing on your back. And she starts to freeze them and do whatever and numbing it and all this stuff. And she's like, does that hurt? Whatever. And I'm.
It didn't really hurt, but it hurt enough. But I didn't say it hurt because I don't want to be a wimp. I don't want to be like, oh, my God, I married a wimp.
So I'm like, no, it doesn't hurt at all. It feels great. You're crushing it. It's amazing. But I am the biggest wimp. I'm saying the whole time, like, dude, you got to suck it up.
If you say this hurts, then she is just going to look at you like you're a giant loser. So then the other part is.
And I know people always say to me, oh, my God, it's so cool that you have, like, access to all of this skin stuff, like Botox and lasers and all this stuff, but I don't care. I know I need to care. I don't care. But she does that stuff to me, and I guess it's good.
So that way when I'm like, 80, maybe I'll look like I'm 70, right? I guess. And then the other bad things is that she's like, did you wear sunscreen? And I'll be like, yes, I did. But I usually don't do a very good job.
It's like, I put it like a dot. Okay.
But I also don't want to not do it because if I don't do it, then that's bad because I feel like I'm not supporting the team and I don't want to get a sunburn because that would be, like, epically horrible. And the really, probably the most difficult part about being married to a dermatologist is, is that I love horrible tv. She loves horrible TV too.
But there are these shows that cross over that are horrible TV and dermatology related. So we watch stuff like Dr. Pimple Popper and Botched. And these shows are amazing, right? Dr. Pimple Popper is this.
I think she's a dermatologist and she takes care of the most wild skin problems that you've ever seen. And people have, like, these cysts that are, like, huge, like a softball or whatever. And. And it's the most disgusting show of all time.
And I'm sitting there and my wife would be like, oh, this is so wild. This is so cool. And they're, like, about to, like, pop. The most disgusting thing I've ever seen. And I'm as if it's a horror movie.
I have my hands over my eyes. I'm like, I cannot watch. I'm gonna throw up. And I'll be like, is it over? Did they take the thing out? Did they cut it out? Did it. Whatever.
And she's like, no, they're in the middle of it. This is great. I'm like, this is not great. And same thing for botched.
Botched are these two plastic surgeons and people come in with the worst plastic surgery you've ever seen, and then they try to fix it up. And I'm always like, what? What? Somebody's like, missing their nose or their ears falling off. And my wife's like, this is great.
I'm like, I don't know what's going on here, but I do love watching all those shows. So. So, yeah. And I have convinced her to come on as a guest on this podcast. So in a few weeks, get excited, she'll be here.
And this is not a commercial for her. She's probably gonna kill me that I'm doing this. But if you want to follow her on Instagram, she's on Instagram. Her. Her dermatology stuff is.
And it's Dr. Schwedelson. So Dr. Schwedelson. Just all the letters. Dr. And then my full last name, Sottleson on Instagram. She is the greatest doctor in the world.
She is awesome. And Al, if you're listening, I appreciate you taking care of me.
I appreciate the fact that I don't have a lot of wrinkles and I will try to not cover my eyes when I watch Dr. Pimple Popper. All right, thanks everyone for being here. Leave this thing a review. I appreciate you and catch you later. You did it.
You made it to the end. Nice. But the party's not over.
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