Lather, Rinse, Repeat: The Surprisingly Simple Key to Content Marketing Success

While simple doesn't mean as easy as washing your hair, it's easy to forget that the basic steps to using content marketing to find more customers aren't very complicated.

Lather. Rinse. Repeat.

The best advice is so basic and simple and obvious that it's often ignored.

We've all spent at least a minute or three staring at the back of a shampoo bottle in the shower/bath.

Strikes me that nearly everything I've read on productivity tips boils down to these three simple steps.

Or four if you want to add "apply" to the beginning and soften "repeat" with "as needed."

So how does the back of your shampoo bottle relate to content marketing? Read on.

Apply: What’s the problem?

It starts with identifying the problem.

What are you trying to fix? What’s your audience struggling with? This is the research phase. In content marketing, you have to dig deep. Who’s your audience, and what do they actually need from you? Don’t just scratch the surface.

If you skip this step, everything else is wasted. Knowing their pain points is the foundation. Think of it like applying the shampoo—you need the right stuff for the problem. Me: I find Head & Shoulders Dry Scalp is great for my curling locks. Different shampoo for different hair. Different content approaches for different customers.

Photo by Ottr Dan on Unsplash

Lather: Address the Problem

Now, you put in the work.

This is the content creation phase. You write the blog, record the video, or design that infographic. But like lathering, you can’t just stroke your fingers through twice and call it done.

You’ve gotta work that lather into your hair and scalp. You need to work the content into shape.

Lathering means covering all the bases. It means addressing the problem you found in a way that’s helpful, clear, and simple. Skip the jargon, get straight to the point. When it comes to content, don't make it harder than it has to be.

Sometimes, the AI image results are hilarious. AI-generated from prompt: rinsing shampoo from hair, in shower, male

Rinse: How’d You Do?

Check the results.

This is the evaluation phase. You need to know if the content did what it was supposed to do. Did your audience respond? Did they engage? Look at the metrics, read the feedback, pay attention to what worked and what didn’t.

Most importantly, are you getting signals that you’re moving folks toward buying from you? (Marketing IS sales, in a way, we don’t market for impressions; we market for money – but this is a blog for another day.)

Rinsing is about seeing the results clearly. If something didn’t hit the mark, figure out why.

The effort never ends. Photo by Yusuf Onuk on Unsplash

Repeat: Improve or move on

OK, so I rarely repeat with the soaping up.

But.

Content marketing is all about repetition.

You don’t just create something once and hope for the best. You refine. You improve. You go back to the beginning and do it all again, a little better this time.

Like in life, success comes from repetition. You apply, lather, rinse, and repeat until it becomes second nature. And every time you do, you get better. Your content gets sharper, your audience more engaged.

Last Thoughts

You can keep researching and overthinking about starting your content marketing journey (and any new habit).

Or, you can realize that the basic steps ARE SIMPLE – Apply. Lather. Rinse. Repeat. – over and over and over again until you’ve mastered it.

Now, there is a lot that goes into mastering content marketing, and it’s a never-ending effort (again, just like anything else worth doing in life) because things change.

I don’t make guarantees often, but I will guarantee that if you focus on complexity without starting with the basic steps, you’ll fail.

So get started with making content marketing a habit. Over time, your bottom line will thank you for it.