I studied the linky gooroos so you don’t have to

There isn’t a single day that goes by without clients asking for post templates.

They want to be able to predictably and automatically create content that just slaps.

So, they beg for a fill-in-the-blank style of writing posts that takes the thinking out of it.

Unfortunately, dear reader, one cannot simply post without thinking

So, I did something fun this week.

I studied THREE Linky Gooroos to find out their strategies behind the posts themselves. What they are trying to do, how they are doing it, and how the messaging delivers the strategy.

Between the three of them, they have over 250k followers, millions and millions of impressions, and by their claims, millions of dollars in their banks.

(I triple checked for proof of pods or nefarious activities… there were none that I could see)

Surely they must be writing content that slaps, eh?

I took a deep dive into their last 20 posts.

Because after all, success leaves clues. 

Style, Tone and Common Themes

All three of them did the following things:

👉Use of emojis and simple formatting (bullet points, arrows, etc)

None of them wrote blocks of text and none of them wrote particularly long. They depended heavily on aggregated content (what I call breaking down BIG points to digestible chunks)

👉Personal anecdotes or experiences to deliver their points

Everything had context. Everything went back into an experience they had or a client had. They literally master short form storytelling.

👉 Lists or step-by-step breakdowns

Man, almost every piece of content was either a list or a step-by-step breakdown. All three of them seem allergic to paragraphs. So, everything was written to set up a list.

👉Direct, conversational tone

All three are conversational, but direct. Which means, they speak as if they are really confident in what they are talking about and say whatever they want in a casual manner.

👉Focus on professional growth, business strategies, or personal development

Their most popular posts (as indicated by number of likes/comments/reposts) hit these three content buckets. Professional growth stories got them the most hits. Their niche content got them the least amount of hits compared to top performing content.

There’s a reason for this.

It’s Broad vs Narrow content. They do both like a seesaw.

👉 Top, Mid, and Bottom. 

All three had a solid blend of top funnel, middle funnel and bottom funnel content. 

Top - Problem unaware (this was their MOST common post style) 

Doesn’t realize they have a problem. When they read the post and see ‘oh, that’s what I’m doing wrong’. Become the natural next step for solving it.

Middle- Problem aware/solution confused. 

Knows they have a problem. But they don’t know how to solve it. The point of this content is to call out a known problem, and then provide an actionable solution (with proof). 

Bottom - Aware (Least common post style). 

Knows their problem and solutions available. They have either been burned in the past, have picked the wrong solution, or never found someone they trust enough to work with. Need to show proof of concept. 

Now, let’s move on to a few templates you could steal from them. 

Keep in mind, templates are fine. 

But you have to know:

🟨What is the problem you’re solving

🟨Who you’re solving it for

🟨What is unique about your solution

🟨What proof do you have to support your solution(s)

🟨How high of a priority this problem is for the buyer

🟨What are the SYMPTOMS they are experiencing? 

If you don’t have answers to these, templates ain’t going to do a dang thing. 

Templates

Post 1

"[Quote or misconception about your success]"

Ummm 🤔

[Truth about your status or achievement]

[Brief description of your journey or effort]

When I used to [description of past struggle], I never [negative reaction].

I just [positive action] until [X happened - desired outcome]

Note: Like I said, they are confident in what they do, which provides polarity. This only works if you’re okay with polarity, plus they’ve had significant success, and plenty of examples.

Post 2

[Number] things helped me transition from a $[amount]/𝐲𝐞𝐚𝐫 business.

To a $[amount]/𝐪𝐮𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐞𝐫 business.

They were:

1. 𝐒𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐠𝐲 𝟏

[Explanation of common practice]

→ [Why it's problematic]

[Insight about better approach]

[How it changed things]

2. 𝐒𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐠𝐲 𝟐

[Context]

[List of components]

→ [Component 1]

→ [Component 2]

→ [Component 3]

[Key insight or secret]

3. 𝐒𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐠𝐲 𝟑

[Brief background]

[What it helps with]

→ [Benefit 1]

→ [Benefit 2]

→ [Benefit 3]

⎯

[Summary of benefits]

[Encouraging closing statement]

Post 3

Month 0:

- [Baseline Metric 1]

~ [Baseline Metric 2]

~ [Baseline Metric 3]

Month [X]:

- [Updated Metric 1]

~ [Updated Metric 2]

~ [Updated Metric 3]

That's a clear and measurable increase in [desired outcome].

This is how we did it:

1. [Strategy 1]

- [Detail]

- [Detail]

- [Detail]

- [Result]

2. [Strategy 2]

- [Detail]

- [Detail]

- [Detail]

- [Result]

3. [Strategy 3]

- [Detail]

- [Detail]

- [Detail]

- [Detail]

4. [Strategy 4]

- [Detail]

- [Detail]

- [Detail]

5. [Strategy 5]

- [Insight]

- [Insight]

- [Insight]

- [Result]

Combine those together and you get:

1. [Key outcome 1]

2. [Key outcome 2]

3. [Key outcome 3]

4. [Key outcome 4]

5. [Key outcome 5]

[Closing insight]

Post 4

Since [specific time frame]

[List 2-3 fears or doubts you had]

I was all in my feelings and making things up

Today, [share a significant achievement or milestone]

[Brief description of your current offering or service]

[Social proof or testimonial]

I can't promise this for you, but [positive encouragement]

[Call to action or invitation]

And yes, [honest admission about current feelings]

Let’s goooo

====================================

All of this is good and fine. It should help you get started. But I will tell you this: content is a 52 week thing.

• If you post 2x a week, that’s 104 pieces of content.
• If you post 5x a week, that’s 260 pieces of content.
• If you post 10x a week, that’s 520 pieces of content.

There aren’t 104 templates to rip off or 520.

You need to learn HOW to do it without templates and/or hire someone to do it for you.

A lot of this is experimentation, finding your voice and/or consistent action.

Without that, there’s no point to this.

But it’s doable.

And lastly, there is a common bias to popular accounts.

A commentor on one my posts left this (and I agree):

"If you are deemed to have authority through follower count, then you naturally will have more engagement because of the strategies laid out for small folks.

This to me is why the "see what's popular and working" method is oftentimes broken"

(And it's pointless anyway. But it is always fascinating to study and see what you can pull from it.)