9 Unexpected Content Creation Lessons for Any Business From a Year of Taco Tuesdays
What happens when you have your kids over for a year of tacos? Delicious food, unexpected combinations, Daddy-daughter time, and, why you're here, thoughts on content marketing. Dig in.
So I did a year of Taco Tuesdays with my two daughters in 2022.
Which was great because I learned a lot of different recipes, spent more time with my daughters, and it got me thinking about a different way to explain some aspects of content marketing.
As those with adult children know, there's a parenting journey of understanding why animals sometimes eat their young to wondering if you'll ever see them.
Even though they generally will voluntarily spend time with me, they're in their early 20s and beginning to shape their own lives. That leads to the first thing I learned.
1. If You Don't Schedule It, It Won't Happen.
While life happens, I’ve seen both girls regularly for the past two years.
Kinda priceless.
When life happens and you don’t have a schedule for your content; no schedule, no content.
I guarantee you that if you do not schedule your content, you won't regularly publish. I've got 3 decades of proof, both personally and professionally, to support this. When I have a schedule, boom, articles and posts are up and on time (usually, life does still happen!). No schedule and I start channeling Annie "tomorrow, tomorrow, I love ya tomorrow" and nothing moves.
Use a scheduling tool that works for you - calendar, paper planner, handwritten list pinned to a wall, spreadsheet, whatever.
2. Panic Is a Good, But Not Enjoyable, Inspiration.
Sometimes a Tuesday would roll around and I wouldn't have a recipe chosen. Quick flips through my cookbooks/online and a rush to the store ensued - or, later on, I'd return to my basic (perfected) taco recipe.
Research your content beforehand. Know what you're going to write about. Write about it. Do your thinking about "what" to write in advance. That way you can focus on the writing the day (or days or, worse, day of) before publication.
3. You Get Better Over Time.
I now have a standard taco mix and a cheesy jalapeno cornbread that are awesome.
You'll never become a better cook just reading a cookbook. You only get better at producing content by producing content. You'll never write a better newsletter or produce a better video with going through the "ah, damn, burned it" stage first.
4. You'll Learn New Stuff Along the Way.
Over the year, learned a bit about the different cooking styles in Mexico as well as Latin America more broadly.
When you research to create content, you'll quickly find interesting tangents and angles to investigate. Some will be worth pursing, others won't.
5. Even Tacos Get Boring After Awhile.
A year of tacos is . . . a lot. So I made enchiladas, a chorizo/potato mix (just above), and a variety of other things to liven it up.
While I believe long-form content should be the backbone of all content marketing, mix it up. Listicles, stories, short videos, carousels, etc. should be added to your content mix over time.
6. Anything Can Be a Taco.
Cook some protein. Stick it inside a tortilla. It's a taco.
Ideas come from everywhere. Anything can be content - from a customer case study to a list of tacos.
And don’t get hung up on the word “content.” Or blog or newsletter or whatever; think instead “how is this content useful.” The container doesn’t matter if what’s inside isn’t good.
7. Mix and Match and Experiment.
The best thing I made was a korean/taco fusion: bulgolgi-marinated grilled chicken thigh tacos with a lime crema and pickled veggies.
Turn a listicle into a carousel. Take the different elements of your life and business and share your story and insights in multiple ways.
It all starts with words, but think beyond them to infographics, video, and photos. You never know if something will work (or not) until you try.
8. Have Fun With It - and Expect Hits AND Misses.
Most everything I made was good, but there were things not to be made again. Which, of course, I didn't write down and have now expunged from memory.
Content and content marketing is serious business. Doesn't mean you still can't enjoy yourself. I once created an image of a copier in lingerie to illustrate that copiers can be sexy because you can save a LOT of money when you understand what you need as a business.
And saving money IS sexy.
Business doesn't have to be boring.
9. Keep Trying New Things
After the year of tacos, we have moved on to state dishes - cook something from each state. Want to learn about the power of immigrants in this country, learn about different state foods; cornish pasties (everywhere in the UK, are big in parts of Minnesota because of the Cornish miners who settled there.)
While not every medium will work for you and your particular audience, experiment. If blogs are working for you, think about turning those into short videos or extracting snippets for a list. Try a different social platform (juts remember that's rented ground and not to build your business there).
Cooking Up Tasty Content
While I’ve had some fun with this post, I hope you’ve gotten some good ideas from it.
Creating content does require skill and knowledge.
Like cooking - tacos or anything else - you start by following the recipe. As you figure out what spices you like and what the meat should sound like as it sizzles and how soft the potatos should be before you add them to the chorizo, you can start freelancing.
So start cooking up a some great content for you business. You — and your customers — won’t regret it.
And, hey, ping me if you want any of the recipes — or help cooking up a newsletter and/or tasty content marketing for your customers.