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REO Framework - for better content
Jun 28, 2022
My explanation of the REO Framework for better content.
View Video Transcript
0:01
hey uh this is totten from copy flight
0:03
um
0:04
doing a quick little video
0:07
about something i call the reo framework
0:09
i've thrown it around a few times on
0:10
social media and everybody's always like
0:12
what are you talking about and one of
0:14
the things is like two years ago i
0:16
started this blog post called real
0:18
framework for better content for good
0:20
content whatever
0:21
and um i never finished it it got hung
0:24
up a lot of things were going on in two
0:26
years so
0:27
um
0:28
it kind of came back to me and i thought
0:30
well i'll do a little video
0:32
uh to go through this and it kind of has
0:34
helped me maybe possibly jump start the
0:36
blog post which i hope to have done uh
0:39
shortly
0:40
maybe in the next few weeks um across
0:43
the figures
0:44
and um so i thought i would sit down and
0:47
do a little slideshow
0:49
a little video talking about what the
0:52
arial framework is
0:54
and as you can see here on this slide it
0:56
is for better content so the reo
0:57
framework for better content
0:59
um
1:00
so
1:03
there is a problem
1:05
uh with content in 2022 it actually
1:07
existed for a while
1:09
um we're basically overrun with content
1:12
right there's so much content
1:15
um out there
1:17
there is um
1:19
it's a crowd it's at least a crowded
1:21
field loads of loads of content um and
1:23
i'm not just talking about articles blog
1:25
written
1:26
content it's everything from podcasts to
1:28
video to
1:30
um
1:31
you know
1:32
to actual written content to ebooks to
1:35
there's just a ton of it and because of
1:37
that there's too much competition
1:39
and people tend to pay attention to the
1:42
best content
1:43
another issue that exists
1:46
here and now is that seo is changing
1:49
dramatically actually has
1:51
changed dramatically
1:54
so some of the things you'll hear seo
1:56
experts talk about is the expertise
1:58
authority and trust
2:00
that google webmaster tools talks about
2:04
having the whole eat
2:07
user intent there's a whole lot of other
2:10
um
2:11
things that are really matter but one
2:13
thing that does matter also in fact it
2:15
might be the most important thing is
2:17
what
2:18
might be said is quality content
2:21
now you do have the eat it's really kind
2:23
of a factor of ranking if you will that
2:26
these are not really external they're
2:28
kind of internal things but it depends
2:31
on three things that you might or might
2:33
not have going for you
2:35
um
2:36
so the question asks you know what is
2:38
quality content well
2:41
um
2:41
[Music]
2:43
that is something we could do a whole
2:45
book about
2:47
i have asked and i have read and i've
2:48
looked and i've seen
2:50
there are lots of opinions about quality
2:53
content what what that is
2:56
so quality content will be something
2:58
that meets a certain standard of
2:59
excellence and
3:01
those standards are different from
3:03
person to person honestly
3:05
um
3:06
and
3:08
this content that stands out while
3:10
maintaining those same standards
3:12
um so
3:14
a lot of things you'll see be done well
3:18
uh unfortunately people pay attention to
3:20
things that maybe aren't quite as
3:22
important anymore like word count does
3:24
your is your content 2500 words or more
3:28
maybe it matters maybe it doesn't but
3:30
there are
3:31
certainly cases many cases of articles
3:34
that are
3:35
way less
3:36
words than that that rank really well
3:38
and then that doesn't account for actual
3:40
web pages which often
3:42
uh don't have that many pages on it
3:45
so uh what i have done with the reo
3:48
framework is used to kind of fill in the
3:50
gaps of some areas where
3:52
um people maybe miss on quality content
3:56
and not only that
3:58
these are things that you can execute
4:00
every time
4:02
so i want to take a look at this art
4:04
this twitter this tweet by ross simmons
4:07
who runs a foundation inc
4:10
and um
4:12
so we talk about what is quality content
4:15
uh what is content that stands out and
4:17
he gives example of some things and i
4:20
think they're worth noting one do what
4:22
most people would avoid
4:24
um
4:25
create something that is hard to
4:27
replicate
4:28
three execute an idea that makes you a
4:30
bit nervous
4:32
for study the marketing strategies of
4:34
some of the greats
4:36
and actually if you follow ross and
4:38
foundationing they're always doing a
4:40
deep dive into some content strategy
4:42
some marketing strategy actually not
4:45
content marketing really of a company
4:48
who's done a great job and then the last
4:50
one which seems kind of counterintuitive
4:52
in this stage of age is stop relying on
4:55
keyboard tools for all your content
4:57
ideas and i agree with that i've
4:59
actually
5:00
not been using keyword tools
5:03
for that for a long time i think in
5:05
terms of topics and topic clusters
5:07
mostly
5:08
but also thinking types of articles um
5:12
and i have this whole thing
5:15
that call where that i have a word for
5:17
it and i'm actually drawing blank right
5:19
now but it's just
5:21
you know this at the meta level these
5:23
are the types of
5:24
uh
5:26
articles that you can do and there's
5:28
lots of ways to
5:30
bring to your front
5:32
um types of things to write about
5:35
and another thing that ross would say
5:37
that i would agree with and i think
5:38
makes things easier instead of writing
5:40
five articles a week write one really
5:42
good one
5:43
and then repurpose it into various
5:46
pieces of micro content
5:48
things that would go into a podcast or
5:51
uh on a video
5:53
a slideshow that you might put on
5:55
linkedin
5:56
all kinds of things and they do a great
5:58
job of talking about that uh it's it's
6:01
an area that i struggle with because
6:02
well you know i kind of handle my own
6:05
thing and
6:07
so i'm doing good to do a video like
6:09
this
6:10
but i want to get into what the ario con
6:12
aureo framework is
6:14
and um
6:16
i think these will be three hallmarks
6:18
three things you can use as a guideline
6:21
for creating quality content
6:23
are there other things sure there's
6:25
other things you're gonna probably some
6:27
somebody's gonna listen to and argue
6:28
with me and say you need to include this
6:30
or include this i'm not saying this is
6:32
exhaustive list this is something that
6:35
helps me remember to do these three
6:37
things
6:40
that
6:41
if if i'm missing these things there's a
6:43
huge gap in the content that i'm
6:45
creating and i originally was writing
6:47
this about blog posts and articles but
6:50
let me tell you you can uh
6:53
it translates to any kind of content
6:55
you're creating
6:56
um sometimes i think it's easier
6:58
especially for me to
6:59
put this into an article because that is
7:03
the thing that i do the most
7:05
kind of old hat if you will but when you
7:06
start talking about blog posts and
7:08
videos and
7:10
i do i do video show on youtube um
7:14
you know those kinds of things these are
7:16
the things you want to try to do um
7:19
regardless so let's dive into what the
7:22
real framework is one r
7:24
stands for relevant you want relevant
7:26
content e stands for engaging
7:29
and o stands for original let's talk
7:32
about each one of these
7:36
r is for relevant um i was actually
7:38
looking through the blog post that i
7:40
started writing i actually wrote some
7:42
pretty good stuff about this but um
7:45
there are three things you you need to
7:46
be relevant one is you need to know your
7:48
audience right you need to know
7:50
your content must be something that is
7:52
relatable to your targeted audience so
7:54
you need to know your target audience
7:55
not just know them
7:57
but
7:58
know what their needs are what their
8:00
desires are what what motivates them if
8:03
you will i'm not talking about
8:04
demographics
8:06
more of psychographics
8:08
i believe in using when you're doing
8:11
persona research using the jobs to be
8:14
done framework this is not my area of
8:16
expertise but if you want to know more
8:19
about that i urge you to find
8:21
adrian barnes on twitter she is the
8:25
the person who does the best well
8:27
the person i know who does the best
8:29
content another thing you can dive into
8:32
is get a copy of finding the right
8:34
message by jennifer havis
8:36
you can get a paperback or ebook for
8:38
that and
8:39
so she talks about doing the things
8:41
that's the last on this list which is
8:43
interviews and research
8:44
um there has got to be this interview
8:47
you may need the best way you need to do
8:49
enter is interview your customer to
8:50
learn what these things are
8:53
now let me back up here if you're a
8:56
maybe a software provider or something
8:58
like that you may not know this
9:00
instinctively
9:01
you may actually have to interview them
9:04
you may have to do surveys to ask the
9:06
questions to get the answer
9:08
but when you're in a service business
9:10
this is something that i find
9:12
interesting and i'm going to use my
9:13
friend scott who runs a coffee shop in
9:16
town that i go to
9:17
i always like scott
9:19
i like to use him as an example of
9:21
someone who knows their audience
9:23
as soon as people walk in he grew some
9:25
by name why he knows them
9:27
and he knows what they order now this is
9:29
something that's not near as
9:32
important as
9:33
maybe your product management tool or
9:35
whatever it is you're using uh it's just
9:37
a cup of coffee in the morning but
9:39
there's more to it than that
9:42
i go in i like to tell them i go in to
9:43
see a friendly face which is the truth i
9:46
go and see friendly face
9:48
i do love their coffee their coffee is
9:50
my favorite coffee in town but in
9:51
addition to that
9:53
um
9:54
there is the the sense of a belonging
9:56
when i walk in believe it or not um the
9:59
they call me by name um half the people
10:02
in the in the in the coffee shop when i
10:04
go in or someone i know or know of
10:07
um
10:08
so there's a real sense of belonging
10:10
there which is not exactly
10:12
the highest form of sexual uh
10:14
self-actualization
10:16
uh that a person can have
10:18
but
10:19
he knows what people want what they're
10:22
looking for i come in and i say scott
10:24
i'm having problems with sinuses today i
10:26
need one of your t's he takes care of it
10:29
um
10:30
service industries are a lot like that
10:33
for instance last year we had water
10:36
damage and i got a person i know
10:39
uh locally to come and clean that up he
10:42
does this all the time we had a need we
10:45
had
10:46
water damage
10:47
and the need was pressing you got to get
10:50
it cleaned out
10:51
you got to get rid of the mold and you
10:53
got to throw out everything that's
10:54
infected
10:56
to get it back to where you can rebuild
10:58
it
11:00
there's not anything fancy about that
11:02
that needs the same now there are things
11:04
that go along with this right they need
11:05
to trust the person who's coming in
11:07
their house do the work
11:09
you know there's all these other
11:11
peripheral things that matter
11:13
service industries often know
11:15
uh their clients very well because they
11:18
work with them one-on-one they meet them
11:21
face-to-face it's a different dynamic
11:24
than maybe a software company
11:26
regardless uh that you need to know your
11:29
audience you need to know what the
11:31
motivators are uh for them to buy uh
11:34
what problems they're trying to solve
11:36
and and one of the things i like to say
11:38
is you need to know their story
11:40
i think service industry people know
11:42
the story because they have
11:44
done
11:46
the kinds of things
11:48
uh to close a cell which is face-to-face
11:51
meeting and those kinds of things
11:53
if you
11:54
are
11:56
a
11:57
an agency or your software provider you
12:01
often have to do a little bit extra work
12:03
to do that
12:04
that's where your interviews and
12:06
research comes in i'm not going to go
12:07
into that
12:08
but it is about being relevant so you
12:11
can create content
12:13
that meets those needs those desires
12:17
those things that they are really just
12:20
being stressed about
12:22
um and it it may be directly tied to
12:24
your business and maybe uh something
12:26
that is uh
12:28
on the the outside of your circle uh of
12:31
your business that that uh they need
12:33
help with so uh number one in the real
12:36
framework is be relevant
12:39
number two
12:41
e stands for engaging
12:43
content needs to be engaging
12:46
and if you go back to the first one
12:48
which is relevant
12:49
the first rule of engagement is being
12:52
relevant because
12:54
if it's not relevant then it's not
12:56
engaging so that well i don't have that
12:59
on this list here you've got to be
13:01
relevant because there's nothing more
13:02
boring than sitting through a
13:04
presentation or reading something that's
13:06
not relevant to you
13:08
and so that's where you start you're
13:10
hoping
13:11
that it's relevant there are three
13:13
things i'd like to talk about
13:14
to help your content be more crea
13:17
engaging first is create a hook
13:20
you're creating interest basically
13:23
and when you look at a blog post i like
13:24
to talk about the introduction
13:26
introductions can be really short they
13:28
can be very unengaging
13:31
but don't do that create a hook create
13:33
an interest there's a lot of different
13:35
ways to do that you see it in the movie
13:36
industry
13:37
um one of my favorite examples is the
13:40
first deadpool movie
13:42
um
13:42
and this is example of what a lot of
13:44
people do in movies the deadpool movie
13:47
starts in the middle of the climactic
13:49
battle
13:51
and you see all this stuff going on and
13:53
you know it's crazy what's going on and
13:56
then the story goes backwards
13:58
to fill you in up to that point
14:01
um that is something a lot of people do
14:04
another thing that you'll see in movies
14:06
a lot of times is some kind of
14:08
um catastrophic event some kind of
14:11
something that sets the story in motion
14:14
but whatever you do you want to create
14:15
that interest
14:16
that could has come in your headline and
14:18
it also comes in
14:19
your introduction
14:21
so
14:22
you want to try your best to be engaging
14:25
by creating a hook
14:26
creating that interest
14:28
another thing you can do is
14:30
give examples and by doing that you know
14:33
we talk about them as analogies but also
14:36
telling a story and i love to use
14:38
storytelling
14:39
for my examples because frankly
14:43
there is a little bit of gap between our
14:45
right and left brain right and um one
14:48
side
14:49
does pretty well with abstract the other
14:51
side not
14:52
and
14:54
a point is often very abstract and
14:56
sometimes we need to fill that gap
14:58
by putting a story
15:00
or analogy that helps
15:03
bridge that gap
15:05
and that's what story does and this is
15:07
not you know something i mean it's
15:08
actually a
15:09
uh it's a scientific thing uh that you
15:12
create that gap with the story so uh
15:16
abstract thoughts are you know some
15:18
people are very good at that most people
15:20
are not
15:21
even those that are good sometimes
15:24
can benefit from having something that
15:27
helps um
15:29
give an example of the abstract point
15:31
you're making
15:33
and the last thing for engaging is
15:36
specificity
15:37
i had a hard time spelling that word i
15:40
have a hard time saying that word
15:42
but the ideal is to be specific the more
15:45
vague
15:46
and the more broad you are
15:49
the the less likely people are to feel
15:52
engaged
15:54
it just you're kind of wondering you
15:56
know is this about me is this
15:59
is this something i relate to
16:00
whatever so let me
16:02
give you an example when i was in
16:03
college
16:04
i had this
16:06
english composition teacher when i wrote
16:09
um
16:10
essays for her
16:12
she would say dr mick if she said no
16:14
todd
16:15
i think you need to be a little more
16:16
specific
16:18
and it was something i always struggle
16:19
with i still struggle with trying to be
16:21
specific
16:22
but
16:23
um bespecificity
16:25
kind of brings
16:27
the picture
16:29
into clarity if you will uh if you if
16:32
you're br if you're broad vague
16:34
then it loses his engagement
16:39
the o
16:40
for
16:41
the ariel framework is original
16:44
now
16:46
when i use this i'm not talking about
16:48
play plagiarism
16:50
however never never never ever ever do
16:54
that
16:54
don't plagiarize period
16:57
that's a given
16:58
um
17:00
but people
17:01
will plagiarize and that's not what i'm
17:04
talking about here but
17:05
don't do that
17:06
um so i put out four points
17:09
to to kind of help us understand the
17:12
idea of being original in your content
17:15
[Music]
17:17
when it comes to a topic
17:19
that's been written about
17:23
you know you take a topic like let's say
17:26
digital marketing which is a very broad
17:28
topic really uh 15 years ago it wouldn't
17:30
have been broad but it is now
17:32
um
17:34
probably been written about
17:37
in as many ways as you can possibly come
17:39
up with
17:41
but when i mean being original i mean
17:43
don't write the article the way your
17:45
favorite writer wrote it
17:47
i'm talking about finding a different
17:49
angle
17:50
that is not easy to do but it is doable
17:53
and frankly people who come from the
17:55
journalism industry are very good at
17:57
finding a different angle for an
17:59
existing topic
18:01
so you can learn something from some of
18:02
your friends in journalism some have
18:04
actually crossed over into content
18:06
marketing
18:07
and they are very good for this finding
18:09
a different angle for an existing topic
18:12
this is something that people write
18:13
really well do
18:15
when you do content
18:17
um
18:18
finding a different
18:21
angle can
18:22
give your content
18:24
originality
18:26
another thing you can do original study
18:30
um usually what people do is they
18:33
will find a study
18:35
and sometimes they're not really the
18:37
best studies but they'll find a study
18:39
actually what what you'll find a lot is
18:41
people will link to
18:42
an article to talks about a study which
18:45
is linked to another article that talks
18:46
about the study and linked to another
18:48
article that talked about the study
18:51
and then linked to another article that
18:53
actually links to study so sometimes
18:55
it's really hard to actually link to the
18:56
study when i'm using a study
18:59
or information from a study an article i
19:01
tried to go get the original source
19:05
so
19:06
first of all if you're writing about a
19:08
study go to the original source and cite
19:11
that
19:12
uh but
19:13
i find original study
19:15
creating your own resource your own
19:17
study
19:19
can is a very original thing to do and
19:21
so
19:22
i actually did that for a client last
19:24
year i said well nobody's doing this
19:26
right now so let's do it i did it
19:29
um
19:30
we created a study for a particular
19:32
industry and
19:34
got some data out of it and
19:37
it prompted somebody else to do the same
19:39
thing
19:40
and so
19:41
create original study then you say
19:43
that's hard to do absolutely it's hard
19:45
to do remember what ross said do
19:47
something that's hard to replicate
19:49
um absolutely you do something i i have
19:52
seen companies actually write books i
19:54
have at least two books on my shelf that
19:57
were more or less lead gins lead
20:00
generation
20:01
magnets
20:03
people don't
20:05
generally write a book
20:07
as a
20:08
uh
20:09
original piece of work as a lead magnet
20:12
and
20:13
i'm not saying it should be lead magnet
20:15
but if you write a book it gives you
20:16
certain kind of credibility
20:19
especially if it's about a topic that
20:20
you're in in the industry in which
20:22
you're in so
20:24
um
20:25
have original study write a book
20:28
something no one else does in your
20:29
industry um and so
20:32
i can see a lot of things that can be
20:35
done
20:36
in your industry that no one else does
20:37
especially if they do boring content
20:40
there's a lot of ways to go with that
20:42
but
20:43
it just takes some outside the box
20:45
thinking
20:46
if you're thinking if you're watching
20:48
what other people are doing and you're
20:50
doing that and that's all you're doing
20:52
then you're going to keep doing that
20:53
you're going to be copying continue to
20:55
copy what someone else is doing but you
20:57
could do something totally different
20:58
what happens when you do something
20:59
totally different
21:01
it gets attention
21:03
and you're a little nervous right you
21:04
put that out in the opens like it's a
21:06
little bit nervous that's something else
21:07
that ross talked about if you're putting
21:09
it out and you're just a little bit
21:11
nervous about it
21:12
uh i have done that um
21:15
so
21:17
it's it makes it it's nervous but it
21:19
always garners
21:20
uh interest and
21:22
people like it um
21:24
can like it it can be a
21:26
welcome piece of content for your
21:28
audience and then the last thing and it
21:31
actually goes into what i just said
21:33
create something entertaining be
21:35
creative
21:36
um
21:37
we feel like sometimes we always have to
21:39
do this boring content we gotta write
21:42
blog posts we gotta pump out the blog
21:44
posts and
21:45
um
21:46
what about doing something different
21:48
what about
21:49
doing a piece of creative work it's
21:51
original it's different
21:53
i can guarantee you probably no one in
21:56
your industry is doing that so
21:59
create something that's entertaining
22:01
because frankly you're fighting for
22:03
people's attention and if you can have
22:05
something entertainment entertaining and
22:07
then kind of sneak in some
22:10
some some point or topic um then
22:13
that's fine too so
22:15
um the the oh from the reo framework is
22:19
be original find a way to use
22:21
originality
22:24
so
22:25
just to recap the reo framework
22:28
relevant be relevant know your audience
22:30
know what their needs and motivations
22:32
are and their all that kind of thing
22:34
their problems pain points be engaging
22:38
don't be afraid to use storytelling
22:40
and uh
22:42
just just be sure that you are
22:45
basically bridging that gap between
22:47
the abstract and the non-abstract
22:50
um and then original be original and
22:52
there's lots of ways to be original do
22:54
something different
22:55
uh think outside the box it's gonna make
22:58
you nervous
22:59
but do it anyway
23:01
so that is
23:04
my little video
23:06
for you today and
23:08
if you want to know more i am todd uh
23:11
jones and i am the founder of copyfly
23:14
and
23:15
we you know there's a lot of things we
23:17
like to do but basically help companies
23:20
simplify their message make it easier to
23:22
understand
23:24
know what to write on our website i'm a
23:26
content creator a storyteller and a
23:27
digital marketer a few years ago i
23:29
discovered the power of storyteller and
23:31
storytelling and i never looked back
23:34
ever since i used uh strategic
23:37
storytelling to help companies with
23:38
their messaging
23:40
so
23:41
i have a show called messaging matters
23:43
on youtube which you're welcome to find
23:45
on the copy flight channel and
23:49
i talk about
23:51
how
23:52
your message matters
23:54
uh for your company so thanks for
23:56
watching today i appreciate it and uh if
23:59
you've watched this video be sure to
24:01
tweet at me at t jones and say hey
24:04
thanks for the video or i got some
24:07
feedback for you or whatever appreciate
24:09
it