Cracking Local Podcast – Building An Army With Jonathan Simon

Have you ever looked at an empty "content calendar" and immediately started brainstorming ways to procrastinate instead of ideas for your blog?

Turns out you are not alone.

The truth is, even for the most savvy writers, developing inbound content is a constant struggle.

Hubspot's recent 2017 "State of Inbound" report surveyed marketers from around the world. The report listed "blog content creation" as marketers’ second biggest priority for the upcoming year, while simultaneously listing "developing content" as one of their biggest challenges.

This isn't surprising when you think of it this way.

If you produce the industry standard of one or two blogs a week, you are essentially tasking yourself with writing nearly 100 pieces of inspired content every calendar year.

And creating the content is only half the battle. Developing audience might be just as hard. If a blogger writes about the forest and no one is their to read it, does that person really have a blog?

This challenge is what Jonathan Simon loves to write about, and he’s gotten pretty damn good at it. His book “Build an Army” seeks to solve two things.

1. How can we turn regular blog subscribers into full blown fans?
2. How can we make the act of creating inbound content fun for the creator?

In the podcast, Jonathan goes into details about his own origin story, how he came up with his “build an army” strategy, what he’s fighting for, and why his strategy is so effective for small businesses. Below are a few of my favorite key learnings.

Create friction free content

We've all been to a blog or two where this is an issue. It can take on many forms but it always leads to the same result. Something gets in between the message and the audience. Jonathan likes to call this "friction" and its a common hurdle that many content creators need to get over.

Fortunately when figuring out how to remove friction a little empathy goes a long way.

By thoughtfully and sincerely assuming the perspective of your audience you can audit your content and identify elements that might add friction to the user experience. Here are some key trouble spots Jonathan sees often:

• Walls of text - We like a good stream of consciousness blog as much as the next person. Being greeted by a skyscraper of unbroken text can feel daunting for new readers. Separate ideas with line breaks and images!

• General clutter - If a blog looks like a digital storage closet, it makes deciphering the message difficult for the audience. Streamline the presentation to make the core ideas the focus.

• Lack of direction - If an audience can’t figure out what they are getting themselves into, they won’t subscribe. Having a clear, concise direction means people can easily tell if they are in the right place.

Why "finding a cause" is key

As Jonathan puts it “if you want people to care, you have to give them something to care about … you have to be a hero for a cause.” The critical distinction here is that a cause shouldn’t be to just educate people about a business, it needs to be something the creator and their audience can do together.

For Jonathan this took shape originally as a mission shared between himself and his audience to dispel the perception that Phoenix Arizona lacked culture. But instead of just yelling it from the rooftop, Jonathan and his followers engaged with each other in sharing stories about the cause. In the end, because his audience was using his blog as a platform to share their own voice, that was the key to not just growing his audience, but growing their connection and activity. 

Seek out feedback and be agile

Truth is, even the best laid plans can sometimes go awry. So as important as the conception of the cause is, it is just as important to actively seek honest feedback and be willing to adapt. This is a challenging balance though. Truth is, sometimes it takes a while for a great idea to take hold and you don’t want to be to quick to leave a gem because it’s not an overnight success.

The key here is to find a core group of people that understand your perspective and whose taste you trust. Of course, the hard part is not being stubborn when it’s time to change.

Last Take

What really caught my eye about Jonathan’s philosophy was his focus on human interaction without being anathema to traditional content strategy learnings. As it turns out, you can have your content cake and eat it too.

Better still is how this particular strategy works for local businesses. As Jonathan mentions in the interview, “I can’t think of a greater advantage than being a small business when it comes to content creation … you have a story, you have a problem that you’re solving, and you have a small team of people who are as excited about it as you are. That should just be the perfect ingredients for coming up with something amazing to share with the world”.

You can find more from Jonathan at www.buildanarmy.com