Coming up with content ideas can be frustrating.

It can be one of the hardest parts, especially if you are feeling burned out and aren’t feeling creative.

Or if you have a narrow topic you are making content about.

This is exactly what I was helping an Autolab subscriber named Joshua with recently.

He is using content to drive sales to his lighting product and design/engineering services.

Here is what he said:

“One hurdle I am looking at right now is creating content for a single product and not burning out the audience.”

“How do you create at least one piece of content every day for that one product? Let's say, for the next 6 months. Or even indefinitely?”

The short answer is to make content that is easy to create and have a lot of different angles to talk about the topic from.

So, I did some brainstorming. Let me explain what I mean.

Create Content Trees

When diving into a project, it can be easy to only think about the main big topic. The lights in this case. But if you step back, you will start to see that each project has a bunch of branches like a tree.

The main topic is the trunk and the subtopics are the branches.

So, for his product, the main topic is the rock lights. However, some subtopics could be:

1. Installation

2. Durability

3. Prototypes

4. Design process

5. When to use them

6. When not to use them

7. How to get the most out of them

8. His product vs competitors

These are just a few quick ideas. Notice that none of them are "hey, I have a cool product, and you should buy it".

By highlighting some of the features and benefits, plus the process of designing them, it creates a much less salesy feel to the content. And in the process, people start to get to know the brand more.

Often times, the subtopics can be broken down into more subtopics too. It's a great way to expand your ideas quickly.

For those of you who aren't selling anything, this works too.

You are car people. Think about all the different topics you could come up with. There are pretty much endless things to talk about.

Now that there is a good way to come up with ideas, they need to be packaged into content that people actually want to consume.

I think there are two types of videos that would work great for him.

Make Process Oriented Content

This is easy content to make. You are just putting a camera on a tripod (or leaning your phone against something) and capturing different angles as you work.

You don’t need to talk to the camera at all. The visuals do most of the work. Here’s an example of what I mean. (Click on the video and you’ll be sent to Instagram, watch it, then come back to this email.)

Mesmerizing, right?

I want to binge all of this guy's content.

I’d recommend that Joshua adds some captions prompting viewers to get more info or buy his stuff, too. (A call to action)

I want you to notice a few things about this video.

First, notice how simple it is. No crazy effects, no weird transitions, no fancy camera moves.

He goes from a wide shot of the whole car for context on what the video is about. Then, some close-up shots of disassembling the door handles and mirror.

Then, he finishes the video showing the door fully disassembled.

There is nothing complex about this. In fact, it's so simple that it's beautiful to watch.

And it makes me want to watch more.

Make “More In Caption” Content

This is a spin on the process-oriented content style. But rather than visually showing the process, you describe the process in the caption of the content.

This can be used for all sorts of different niches. It’s a great way to teach something, describe something in detail, or tell a story. Watch this one and then come back, and we can break it down.

monarc._

View more on Instagram

Visually, this is about as simple as you can get. It's just an 8-second video walking backward away from a car. That's it.

But the value in this is teaching how to get automotive photographers paid gigs.

All of the value is delivered in the caption using something called a listicle.

It’s a piece of writing that is in the form of a list or steps. It explains the hook of the video which is displayed at the beginning “Stop Shooting For Free”.

The idea behind using such a short video is to have the video playing on repeat in the background while the text is being read.

What this does is increase watch time and signals to Instagram that this content is valuable and should be shown to more people. Because the video is being watched over and over again.

This type of content can be adapted to all sorts of topics. You can get really creative with it. And if you are not wanting to be on camera this is a great way to go.

Just type out your listicle, find an interesting video that related to the topic, and prompt people to read more in the caption. Easy.

So thanks to Joshua for sending over this great question. And I hope this was helpful to others.

Until next week,

Sam “document the process” Webster

P.S. If you have a burning question feel free to reply to this email and let me know. It might just get covered in one of the newsletters.