[Jenna Kutcher] 120x Your Content's Life Span With This ONE Strategy

If you're an entrepreneur, there's a really great chance that you are also creating content. And while you might not be quick to call yourself a content creator, the work that you're doing surrounding your offer, whether it's a digital offer, a service, or a physical product, is considered content. If you're showing up on the Internet if you're posting anything, if you're shooting off emails, recording podcasts, writing blogs, or making videos, you, my friend, are a content creator. And as a business owner, the content that you spend your precious time creating is so valuable. You pour your insights into a social media post, a blog, a podcast episode, and oftentimes, it only lives on for a few minutes or a few hours. That's such a bummer. Right? Today, I'm gonna share with you my secret weapon in multiplying the shelf life of your content that you're already creating with one of my favorite free platforms. It's not Instagram or Facebook.

It's not even TikTok. I'm talking about this is the Gold Digger podcast. So get this. This was kind of mind blowing to me. The average entrepreneur is spending 20 hours, 20 hours a week on marketing. 20 hours per week. Now most of the business owners that were surveyed in a study by Constant Contact, 82% of them say that they spend at least 20 hours a week marketing their business across multiple platforms. Platforms.

This includes web, email, social media, all of those big platforms. But 20 hours is a lot of time that we are trying to get eyeballs on our offers. Now the reality is is that most of our content that we're working so hard on creating is landing on platforms where there are algorithms, and algorithms are dictating how our content is seen, how it's experienced, how it's consumed, how it's engaged with. This means that so much of our efforts are out of our hands. They're at the mercy of the platforms that we are sharing this content on. We don't own these platforms. We can't control them. And there's also a very good chance that when we are busy creating work, the people that we're creating that work for are probably not even getting a chance to see it.

So I wanted to do a little research going into this episode because I just think it is so interesting, and I wanna paint a little bit of the picture of why this is so important. For me, when I look at the work that I do and I look at the life that I want, I am often pulled in 2 directions. I've shared this before. This is no surprise. Part of me wants to, like, shut everything down, live in the woods, have a chicken coop, and make sourdough bread with my kids every day, and the other part of me wants to make this business as powerful and impactful as it can possibly be. Now this means that every single hour of my day, I wanna make sure that wherever I'm spending it, if I'm with my kids or if I'm working on the business, there is a return on the investment. And when it comes to business, I wanna be able to tie my efforts to a true ROI. I wanna make sure that not just the money I'm spending on my business, but the time I'm spending is actually worth it.

So I had my team look up the average lifespan per post on different social media platforms just to paint this picture because this is a huge thing I don't want you to miss. So the average longevity of an Instagram post in the general feed is about 48 hours, and that's slightly generous in my opinion. This is when it's gonna get the majority of its likes, comments, saves, shares, all those things. After that 48 hour period, the post is far less likely to receive much attention at all. Now on LinkedIn, posts last even shorter. They are usually shared and distributed within a time span of about 24 hours. Facebook, although it varies, a post typically receives about 75% of its total activity within the first 5 hours. X, which is formerly Twitter, is even shorter since users can send up to 5,000 tweets per second.

It's no wonder tweets lose their relevance very quickly. So this is undoubtedly the most competitive venue with the fastest disappearance of your post. The number of people that follow you on Twitter determines how long your tweet lasts. So if you're one of 3,000 people, your tweet is most likely gonna be limited to, like, a few seconds. TikTok videos have a much shorter lifespan than videos on other platforms. Within the first few minutes after it's released, your video gets most of its views. So unless it goes viral after that, it's pretty much dead. So when we're thinking about all these different platforms that we're likely thinking about or creating content on, 48 hours is, like, the most generous time span of that content, which is kind of heartbreaking.

Right? We're spending our precious time today hoping that someone is something is going to last for a day, maybe 2 days. Like, if you went into the grocery store today and you were gonna buy produce and they were like, hey. Those apples you're getting are literally gonna last 2 days. Like, you'd be kinda disappointed. Right? Like, I'm buying these, and I don't know if I'm gonna eat them in 2 days, but I, like, really hope they're still good. And so we wanna be thinking about shelf life in that way. Now let's talk about Pinterest. So as you can see, most social media platforms have lifespans that are hours, minutes, maybe days if we're lucky.

Pinterest Pins has an average lifespan of 6 months to a year. Some of my pins are still driving traffic to my website, and they are years old, years old. This means that people can see your pin for months after you've shared it. This is creating a much different experience when we're talking about ROI. So one pin on Pinterest has an average lifespan of 6 months. Compare that to 6 minutes, 6 hours, or a day. That's huge. Now when we are thinking about content creation, this totally shifts things for us.

Because as we're thinking about creating content, a lot of times, we're working on these things, and then we're just putting them out at the mercy of algorithms. They're living, they're dying, and they're not creating any sort of return for our time, our investment, or for our business. And so when we start to think about where our time is going as CEOs, I think we have to be able to connect the dots on, like, this time is worth it. And I think, ultimately, that's what we all wanna do. We wanna finish our days and be like, that time that I just spent, that was so worth it. So let's talk about ROI because return on investment is just huge for me. It's it's basically the one thing that I look at in making any business decision, whether it's hiring a contractor, getting a new software, time spent creating. I wanna make sure that everything created is linked to the result that we desire.

So from an ROI standpoint, most of the content that we're creating, the goal of it, the return on it is likes and comments. Right? Like, that's what most of our content is. Like, we're creating it because we feel obligated to create it. We know it's something we should be doing as a business owner. But if we were to be asked, what is the return on this? It's really hard to connect the dots of saying, hey. This Instagram reel that I just created of, like, me dancing around and pointing at the screen, that's gonna be tied to a real subscriber or purchaser or customer or client. It's really hard to do that. Right? And so what we're doing right now when I'm thinking of most people are spending 20 hours a week, we're focusing on things like vanity metrics.

And to me, that is not the great way I'm sorry. For me, that is not the best way that we should be spending our time. So when I think of ROI, I wanna look at return on time. Time is my currency, especially in this season of life. Anything I'm spending time on, I wanna link it back to a result. So for most of us, when we create content, it's like we start with this idea, then we create it. We write all the things and do all the extra parts, the hashtags, the location, the geotag, whatever it is, then we publish, then we're back at the very beginning again. It is literally like this rinse and repeat cycle of being on this hamster wheel of constantly creating.

We have adopted this churn and burn philosophy whether or not we like it. And so for so many of us, it's just we're constantly creating, but we're not actually thinking about, like, how can I get the most results with this one post? Like, how can I figure out how to get the greatest lifespan, the greatest results, create something once, and think about it long after it's published? Most of our content gets this, like, one chance to land, and then we're on to the next piece. We're never really stopping to figure out how we can change the system until now. For me, ROI shifted dramatically when I was in my season of trying to start our family. And most of you know our story, so I'm not gonna go deep on it right now. But I was a wedding photographer. I was solely a wedding photographer shooting weddings all summer in Wisconsin, booked like crazy for 6 months out of the year. And Drew and I had finally decided that we wanted to start our family after thinking we were never gonna have kids.

And I remember having this really, really, like, deep moment. Like, I think a lot of us have these specific burnout moments or these, like, breakthrough moments. And for me, it was during our trial of becoming a family. And I had experienced one loss, one pregnancy loss, and I was going through my second one. And I still had to show up to a wedding. So I basically had my doctor's appointment on a Thursday, and on a Friday, I was in my car going to show up to shoot a wedding knowing that my pregnancy was no longer viable, but my body was still holding on to it. And it was really traumatic for me. I just remember being really sad that I had built such a beautiful business, but, but, like, there was no humanness in it.

Like, I I had to show up to my job that next day. And in that moment, I really vowed to myself, like, I want to build a business that can run while I rest. Like, I wanted to be in the fetal position in that moment. I didn't wanna be charging batteries and getting memory cards ready. And that was really a huge turning moment for me when it came to looking at ROI and thinking long term, not thinking of as quick dopamine hits of social media, but thinking about, like, how can the work that I'm doing today last longer than tomorrow. And I feel like when I look back at the timeline of my business around that time was when I really started getting serious about digital marketing and podcasting and creating other ways to make money that didn't require me as human to show up. Because during that dark time for me, it was so hard to really recognize, like, Jenny, you've built something really awesome, but it's not supporting the type of life you want. And so it really just changed marketing for me.

It changed business for me. It changed the way that I looked at success. Social media is something that's hard for so many entrepreneurs. The more that I talk to entrepreneurs this year, especially the more people are like, I'm sick of it. I don't wanna create. I wanna get off. I'm tired of it. I've been creating for years, or I'm too afraid to post anything because I'm scared of the judgment.

And, like, the interesting thing was is at that time of my life, if I were to have stopped everything and my social presence, my business probably would have suffered. That is what's so interesting when we stay on that churn and burn cycle is we recognize that in order to keep the fire burning, we have to keep churning. And that's kind of a trapping feeling as an entrepreneur. It's not usually why we became entrepreneurs in the first place. The algorithm is quick to forget about us, and so we get afraid of taking a break, logging off, slowing down. So how do we transform the way that we not only think about content, but how we strategically create it? It's not us working for it, it's working for us. So here are some questions to ask yourself when you are creating content. So first, am I creating content that is more evergreen? So evergreen means it is still relevant, it is still valuable, and it still will be weeks, months, and maybe even years later.

So am I creating content that will stand the test of times? And I think that's a really good mentality to adopt right now is to think of not how is this gonna make sense today or tomorrow. Yes. You can have short term promotions and things like that. That's a part of doing business. But the majority of your content should be evergreen. It should be content that is going to live on much longer than the timeframe of when you hit publish to the algorithm robbing it and its ability to reach the people you created it for. The next thing is, is are we focusing more on promotion of the content or creating new content? I see this so often. Most creators spend 90% of their time creating and 10% of their time promoting their creations when in reality, they should spend 10% of their time creating the content and 90% of their time figuring out how to promote that one content piece.

And so thinking through, are we focusing too much on the creation and not enough on the promotion? And the answer is probably yes. Number 3, are we leveraging platforms that favor longevity, that favor the long game versus the platforms that are focused on these quick dopamine hits and keeping users engaged and entertained, but not necessarily connected. And so thinking through what platforms are we prioritizing and what is the goal of that platform? Is the goal of that platform really to show people my business, my offer, what I'm working on? Probably not. And then next, are we working smarter or harder when it comes to the amount of time going into our business? So when we really look at a breakdown of your day to day, whether you are a side hustler and you are just crunching those final hours in your day, or you are a full blown entrepreneur looking hour by hour of your day, and can you connect each hour that you're spending on your work to a real tangible result? And so are you working harder? Are you working smarter? Which one is it? And then the last one is, is there a way to repurpose this work, to toss just a little bit of strategy into it, to elevate my results without a lot of added effort? I often joke that like I am often a lazy marketer. I am constantly looking for more ways to get greater lifespan out of the content I'm creating because to be honest, I'd rather create less content that is higher quality and figure out how to get that content in front of the right people instead of just constantly tossing spaghetti at the wall and hoping the algorithm favors me in that special day. And so can you repurpose things? Is there just a little tweak in the system that will allow you to get more life out of the content that you're creating? These are great questions to ask yourself. So here's what I want for you to think about. And this is something that I'm gonna teach in my training.

So if you want to learn how to do this, go to teach me to pin dot com. This is amazing, but think about this. Is it easier to create one piece of content? So let's just say, for example, I'm talking about this podcast episode. I'll break down, like, how much time goes into it. So is it easier to create 1 podcast episode or to create just 10 little promotional pieces about the 1 podcast episode? Let me break this down. So this episode specifically, I have probably spent about 3 hours ideating, outlining, researching, working with my team to get this ready, setting up my camera, setting up the microphone, putting on makeup, looking presentable, thinking through all these different things. So 3 hours, I'm gonna give it 3 hours. That's about how long it's gonna take to do this whole episode.

So let's break down some of the marketing things. So let's say you are going to write an email out to your email list. That can take anywhere from 20 to 30 minutes, little less, little more, depending on how you are writing one single marketing email. 20, 30 minutes, we could say. Right? Obviously, it depends on your level of comfort and experience of writing to your subscribers. Writing a blog post. Blog post, probably, I usually plan for, like, an hour. Sometimes more if it if it requires a lot of research, but I have been blogging literally for 12 years.

And so when you think about it from ideating, researching, writing, getting the graphics in, SEO ready, that's a few hours of time for a blog post. Thinking of YouTube, right, the average video on YouTube takes 7 hours 7 hours to create. So think of all these different things. Right? It's no wonder we're spending 20 hours a week on marketing. What if I told you that I could teach you how to create 10 promotional pieces for just one piece of content that you've already created, and it'll take you about 5 minutes? That's how we need to look at time. Right? Which one would you choose? Would you choose writing the blog post, sending the email, doing the podcast episode, or creating 10 different ways to promote that thing in 5 minutes? It's amazing. So, again, if you wanna learn how to do this, I literally show you how to do this in my training, teach me to pin.com. Now here's why this matters.

When we think about how we are spending our time creating content, I want for you to absolutely transform it. When we think about this evergreen mentality, meaning we are creating content that we know is going to live on with certainty because we're putting it onto platforms that favor longevity, it shifts the way that we create. So suddenly, you're asking yourself different questions. You're not asking yourself, what is the trending audio of the week or what is something funny that is only gonna make sense this week, but you're thinking, how can I serve people long term? How can I show up for them in the way that they need? How can I answer their questions before they can even ask them? How can I guide them on a path to understanding what it is I do and help them qualify themselves as a potential customer? It totally changes your content. So one of the reasons why I am obsessed with Pinterest is that when we're looking at our ROI in terms of the amount of time we're spending, we can elevate content that we've already created. So if you're listening to this and you're like, I am sitting on top of a vault of blog posts or old podcast episodes or I already have a ton of YouTube posts or even if you are sitting on a ton of Instagram posts, you already have content that you can put onto Pinterest that is going to give that content that you have already created a whole brand new life. That content is not dead, my friend. We can bring it back from the dead on Pinterest.

Pinterest is not social media. It's a search engine. And so when you start to understand that, you start to recognize that people are searching for things you've already created. And the thing that stinks is that they're finding people that are doing it that aren't you. People are already there looking for you. And so learning how to take your content and shift your strategy, and not just focus on the creation of it, but how you can actually promote it over and over and over again for weeks months and even years, and how that content that you work so hard on can be driving results for you while you rest, while you sign off, while you sleep, that is next level entrepreneurship. I love Pinterest for a million reasons. I mean, I love Pinterest because I love browsing it.

Right? Most of us are users of Pinterest, but so many of us have never thought of ourselves as people who could contribute to the platform, who could be creators. And I am here to tell you that you are sitting on a gold mine of content that you've already created that is going to do amazing on Pinterest, and I'm going to teach you a different way to create content and promote that content that is going to shift the amount of time you are spending on your marketing every single week. We spend 1 hour a week on Pinterest, and here's a fun little note. I don't even personally do it anymore in my business. We have an incredible VA who does it, and so it doesn't even have to be you. 1 hour a week on Pinterest, we get millions of views, and it is the number one way that we organically drive traffic to our website. If you understand the fact that in order for people to buy your product or hire you as a service provider or check out your offer, you need eyeballs on it, traffic is what you need. You don't need more content.

You need that content to lead to traffic, which means people have a new awareness and they have invitations to make purchasing decisions. So, again, I love Pinterest. It's a flex. 70% of the world's population over the age of 13 is on Pinterest. That's 450,000,000 pairs of eyeballs all in one place. Yes. It is the Internet's favorite inspiration board. No.

It is not social media. It is a search engine. It is this enduring part of this online social media marketing ecosystem, but it also has this ability to carry a significant weight in your business strategy without overwhelming your calendar or taking over your time. As business owners and content creators, everything we do needs to work together in a complementary way, but more importantly, anytime you can use a single piece of content and use it in multiple ways, you can create this traffic avalanche to get more people to your business. It is an amazing, amazing thing. Think about creating less, promoting more, creating more strategically, and getting a longer shelf life. That is, like, the secret sauce. If your time is limited or you're thinking my marketing efforts aren't actually linked to real results, you can do all of those things with just 1 hour a week, truly.

I want for your work to be seen. I want for you to be working every single day with confidence that what you're doing matters and makes a difference and moves the needle. And I don't know about you, but if I'm going to spend time creating something and bravely hit publish on it, I want to make sure that people are actually seeing it and enjoying it and that it's actually doing what I intended to do. We all know what 0 views feels like. What if you could get a 100 views or a 1000 views? What if your work could get in front of the people who are already searching for it and searching for what you've got? On Pinterest, it is this amazing continuous loop of new traffic, new eyeballs, new people, more reach. When you're releasing your content on a platform to 450,000,000 humans, the possibilities are literally endless, and the people searching for you are countless. Basically, if you're a business owner of any kind, you need to get on Pinterest. And no, I'm not talking about using it to plan your dream wardrobe or your perfect meal plan while it is amazing for those thing.

It doesn't have to take a lot of time, 1 hour of your week. I will teach you how to do all of this inside of my free live workshop. So if this is interesting to you, sign up. It's 20 extra traffic in 1 hour a week. You can sign up at teachmetopin.com. That's teachmetopin.com. I will walk you through exactly how I use Pinterest to make sure my content has this long shelf life and that it is serving long after it is published. And let me just tell you, Pinterest is the most underutilized platform.

So get that edge on your competitors and start showing up there. I'm gonna show you how it can work for you. Regardless of if you join your my training, and I really hope you do, I want you to think about your ROI. I want for you to do an investigative research experiment on your time and this preciousness of it, and where you're spending it every single day. And I want for you to constantly be asking yourself, is this leading to a result? Is this leading to a result? Is this leading to a result? Because as CEOs, and that's what you are, that's what you are, I want to tie every effort to a real result so that every night when your head hits a pillow, you are confident that what you did today made an impact and moved the needle. So think about your ROI. Think about the platforms you're creating on and what they're intended to do, and think about how you can focus more on the promotion of your creations and less on the creation itself. Thank you so much for tuning in to another episode of the gold digger podcast.

I hope to see you at my Pinterest training. Again, that's teach me to pin.com. And of course, until next time, Goal Diggers. Keep on digging your biggest goals. Hey. Thank you so much for watching. If you have a quick second, take a second. Make sure you're subscribed to my show.

And if you love today's marketing tips, tricks, strategies, and life talk, then check out this episode. You are going to

love it.

So I was recently at a mastermind, and we were on the closing day sharing our closing thoughts. And my friend, Jim Gueck, was sitting right next to me, and he said something so poignant. The topic was comfort zones. And essentially, what he said is that there are 2 types of hard that nearly

everyone is experiencing. The hardness that comes when you're stuck. Is that a comfort zone? Also, the hard that comes when you're stuck.