Are you curious about how to validate your content ideas with a content MVP?
Before answering that, let’s clarify what a content MVP actually is, and how it can help you create content that your audience is guaranteed to love.
It’s not your "most valuable player" – although content is exactly that within your marketing strategy! In this context it stands for minimum viable product.
This is a method you can use to validate ideas and work out if your audience is going to like your product or service. As a content creator, your product is content!
In this video and podcast episode, find out everything you need to know about creating content MVPs and why they can be so beneficial to your content marketing strategy.
Watch the video…
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Or keep reading to learn more about content MVPs…
How to validate your content ideas with an MVP
We all know how time consuming creating content can be.
If you're creating videos, podcasts, blogs, or even smaller pieces of content such as social media posts, you know how much time and energy it takes to produce high-quality content.
Unfortunately, even when you sink so much time and energy into your content, there’s no guarantee that it’ll be a success – content tumbleweed happens to the best of us!
However, there is a method to create content that your audience does want to consume. And you’ll have that guarantee because they’ve practically already signed off on the idea beforehand.
This strategy is what we at Content 10x call using a content MVP.
It’s a sample of your bigger idea which tests the water with your audience and validates your content ideas before you spend time creating it.
The word ‘minimum’ here refers to spending the minimum amount of time creating something that will provide you with enough feedback to make a decision.
It’s a win-win situation. If your audience likes it, then you get the go-ahead to create the full piece of content, knowing it’ll get a good response when it goes live.
If they don’t, then there’s very little time wasted, as you won’t be slaving over something that won’t be well received. It also gives you the opportunity to go back to the drawing board to tweak the idea or come up with something new.
Think about it like giving your audience a taste of the ice cream before they buy the cone! There’s no point in forcing rum and raisin on people if they just don’t like it. Give them a taster of the flavors first, then let them tell you what they want.
What does a content MVP look like?
The process of creating a content MVP is almost like reverse engineering the content repurposing process.
With content repurposing, you take an idea, create the long-form content (e.g. epic blog post, podcast episode, video), then repurpose it into smaller content types (e.g. social media content, graphics, short videos).
Finally, you distribute it across all of your channels.
But when you include the content MVP stage, the process almost works backward.
Here, you still start with the initial idea. But instead of diving straight into creating that long-form content, you create a bite-sized piece first and publish it wherever your audience is most interactive.
This is how to validate your content ideas without investing too much time.
The content MVP should be detailed enough for your audience to know what you’re proposing, but it shouldn’t take you a lot of time to create. After all, time-wasting is what you’re trying to avoid!
The content MVP key: validating your content ideas
Next, you need to get your audience’s thoughts. Pay close attention to their responses. Do they like the idea? Do they want more? Is your audience engaging?
If yes, then you’ve got the green light to create the long-form content. If the answer’s no, then it’s probably not worth spending any more time on.
It’s all about getting your idea validated by those it’s designed for before you commit your time and energy to it.
To do this, you could…
- Pitch a broad new topic to your audience
- Or share the key points of a specific idea
- Ask direct questions, such as “would you be interested in hearing more about this?”
- Use interactive tools/features to encourage people to respond
- Or use incentives, like the chance to win an Amazon gift card
Post these snippets on your social channels, and see how your audience reacts to them.
Listen to what they say (or don’t say). Are they going wild for your idea or is it all tumbleweeds?
How content MVPs generate audience insights
Some audiences react differently from others. Your LinkedIn audience might not bite, but your Twitter audience might be really responsive.
The trick is not to limit yourself by sharing your content MVP on just one channel. You’ll learn more about your different audiences if you repurpose content across lots of different platforms.
Audience insights are powerful for so many reasons, but in the case of content MVPs, they can actually help you create your content. People may suggest things they want you to include or what they don’t want to see. Even no response is a valuable audience insight.
You can also use a content MVP as many times as necessary to get specifics. If you started with a broad topic, for example, you could then niche down within that. You could even ask people what format they want the final content in.
Remember that this exercise is all about creating successful content, so use this information to give your people what they want!
How to validate your content ideas: generate > validate > create > repurpose > distribute
The content MVP strategy is just 5 steps in total, from concept to completion.
Here’s how to validate your content ideas by putting it into practice.
1. Generate: Flesh out your idea
Develop a plan or an outline to give your audience a clear picture of what you’re talking about. They need to understand it fully before they can sign off on it.
A content MVP isn’t a rough draft. It should be a bite-sized indicator of what’s to come!
2. Validate: Get feedback
Present your idea to your audience. Ask for their thoughts and pay attention to their responses.
If they like it, proceed to the next stage. If not, tweak your idea, or go back to the drawing board.
3. Create: make your long-form content
Now you can dive into creating that long-form core content. But keep your audience’s thoughts in mind and remember that you’re creating it for them. That’s what the content MVP was for, after all!
4. Repurpose: create the short-form content
You’ve already put a lot of time and energy into creating this content, so give it the best chance of success by repurposing it into content you can share across all of your platforms.
5. Distribute: give the people what they want
Your content MVP should have proved that your audience will go wild for your content – so get it to them! Distribute it via your channels and see what they think of the final product!
Now you know how to validate your content ideas, it’s over to you. Share your content ideas with your audience, see what they like, and then go make it for them!
There is an even better way to save time with your content repurposing, and that’s by investing in specialist help. At Content 10x, we provide expert content repurposing services that can help your content reach more people and get maximum results. Visit our services to learn more.