How to Become the Obvious Choice in Your Market
What Should I Actually Be Posting About?
What Should I Actually Be Posting About?
The blank page problem in content marketing is not a creativity problem. It is a strategy problem. Here is the complete answer to what you should be posting, why, how often, and where your ideas should come from so you never run dry.
The blank page problem in content marketing is not a creativity problem. It is a strategy problem. Here is the complete answer to what you should be posting, why, how often, and where your ideas should come from so you never run dry.
TLDR
Most service businesses post randomly, hope something resonates, and then wonder why their content isn't building pipeline. The answer to "what should I post?" is not a list of trending topics. It is a documented system with seven content types, four idea sources, and a ratio that determines how much of each kind goes out. This article gives you that system completely.
INTRODUCTION
Every service business owner who has ever tried to build a content habit has had some version of the same Tuesday afternoon experience.
You open Instagram or LinkedIn with the genuine intention of posting something. You sit there for twenty minutes. You scroll through what other people in your industry are doing. You draft something, decide it's not good enough, delete it, draft something else. Eventually you either post something you're not proud of or you close the app and tell yourself you'll do it tomorrow.
Tomorrow comes. Same thing happens.
The blank page problem feels like a creativity problem. Like some people just have the gift for content and others don't. Like you need to be a certain type of person to have something worth saying every day.
That's not what it is.
The blank page problem is a strategy problem. You don't know what to post because nobody has ever given you a clear framework for what you should be posting, in what proportion, sourced from where, with what purpose. You've been improvising every time you open the app. And improvisation at scale, five times a week, fifty-two weeks a year, is exhausting and unsustainable for anyone.
Here's the framework. Once you have it, the blank page problem goes away. Not because you become more creative. Because you stop relying on creativity and start relying on a system.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
There are exactly seven types of content a service business needs to produce. Every piece you publish fits into one of them. Once you know the seven, you never look at a blank page the same way.
Your ideas should come from four sources: the questions your prospects ask, the problems your clients live with, the objections you hear before people buy, and the lies your industry tells. Those four sources are inexhaustible.
The ratio matters as much as the content type. 60% of what you post should build awareness. 30% should build authority. Only 10% should ever be a direct ask. Most businesses get this completely backwards.
More content does not mean more clients. One specific, opinionated, well-placed piece outperforms fifty generic ones. The goal is resonance, not volume.
The best content you will ever create is sitting in your last twenty sales conversations, client sessions, and discovery calls. You already have more material than you could publish in a year. It just hasn't been organized yet.
Why Most Service Business Content Doesn't Work
Before we get to what you should be posting, let's name why most of what service businesses post right now does nothing.
It's not that the content is bad. It's that it's indistinguishable.
Open LinkedIn right now and scroll through the service businesses in your market. Notice how much of it sounds exactly the same. "We help businesses grow." "Our clients see amazing results." "Five tips for better marketing." "Excited to announce that we just..."
None of that stops anyone's scroll. None of it makes a prospect think "that person understands my situation specifically." None of it builds the kind of trust that turns a stranger into a client.
The content isn't wrong. It's just not positioned. It doesn't take a side. It doesn't say anything that a competitor couldn't say. It doesn't make anyone feel anything in particular.
79% of businesses now use AI for marketing content. The result is a flood of competent, passable, completely interchangeable content that nobody reads and nobody remembers. Your competitors are producing it. Probably at high volume. And it's doing exactly nothing for them.
The businesses that are cutting through right now are doing one thing differently. They are saying something specific. Taking a real position. Speaking to a real situation with enough specificity that the right person reads it and thinks "how did they know that's exactly what I'm dealing with?"
That's what this framework produces. Not more content. Better content.
The Seven Types of Content You Actually Need
Here's the first shift in thinking that changes everything.
You don't need an infinite variety of content ideas. You need seven types of content, produced in the right ratio, sourced from the right places. Every piece you will ever publish fits into one of these seven categories. Once you know them, the question stops being "what do I post?" and starts being "which type does this idea fit, and am I producing the right mix?"
Type 1: The Bold Take A specific, opinionated position on something others in your industry are afraid to say. Not controversial for the sake of it. Genuinely what you believe, stated without hedging. "Most agencies are selling you tactics when what you need is a system" is a Bold Take. "Marketing is important for businesses" is not.
This is the content that gets shared. That gets people tagging colleagues saying "read this." That makes some people unfollow you and other people feel like they finally found someone who tells the truth. Both of those reactions are correct. You want the wrong people to leave and the right people to feel like they found their people.
Frequency: once or twice a week.
Type 2: The Origin Story Why you do what you do. The real story. Not the professional bio version. The version with the actual turning point, the specific moment, the thing that happened that made you decide this was what you were going to spend your professional life building.
People don't just buy services. They buy the person behind the service. And the story of who you are and why you care is the content that builds the most durable trust. You only have to tell it once in full, but it gets referenced, pulled from, and returned to constantly.
Frequency: once or twice a month. You'll come back to pieces of it in other content regularly.
Type 3: The Hill You'll Die On A conviction so specific that it kinda divides the room. Not your whole philosophy. One specific belief you hold about your industry, your clients, or your work that you would defend against pushback without flinching.
"Service businesses should never compete on price" is a hill. "You need to be on every platform" is not a hill, it's a vague suggestion. The hill has to be specific enough that someone could genuinely disagree with it. That's how you know it's working.
Frequency: once a week.
Type 4: The Teaching Video One concept explained so clearly and specifically that the viewer is genuinely smarter after watching it. Not a surface-level overview. A real explanation of something your ideal client is trying to figure out, delivered with your specific framework and your specific language.
This is where your expertise lives. The thing you know about your industry that most people don't. Explained in a way that makes someone think "I've been thinking about this completely wrong."
Frequency: once or twice a week.
Type 5: The Client Win Story A client result told completely. Not a testimonial quote dropped into a graphic. A full story with a hero, a villain, a turning point, a transformation, and specific numbers at the end. Before and after. What they were dealing with. What changed. What their situation looks like now.
This is the content that converts. A prospect who reads a client story that mirrors their own situation doesn't just feel inspired. They feel like the decision is already made.
Frequency: once a month minimum.
Type 6: The Myth Buster A commonly held belief in your industry that isn't actually true, dismantled with evidence and your specific position on what the truth actually is.
"You need a big budget to compete in marketing." False. Here's why. "More content equals more clients." Not how it works. Here's what actually matters. Myth Busters build authority because they prove you're paying closer attention to your industry than everyone else. And they're shareable because people love forwarding something that makes them say "I always suspected this was wrong."
Frequency: twice a month.
Type 7: The Objection Crusher and Direct Invitation This is your acquisition content. Either pre-handling a specific objection your prospects raise before they buy, or making a clear, specific, unapologetic ask. Take the Diagnostic. Book a call. DM me the word [X].
The key word here is specific. "Let's connect" is not a direct invitation. "If you're a service business doing over $500K and your pipeline is inconsistent, take the UNMISSABLE Diagnostic. It takes twelve minutes and shows you exactly where your marketing is leaking. Link in bio." That's a direct invitation.
Frequency: once a week maximum. You earn the right to ask by giving first.
The Ratio That Most Businesses Get Completely Backwards
Here's the part that surprises almost everyone when they hear it.
Only 10% of what you post should be a direct ask. Promotional content. "Here's my service, book a call, here's the offer."
60% should be awareness content. Content that reaches people who don't yet know you well. Bold takes, origin stories, hills you'll die on. Content designed to stop a stranger's scroll and make them feel something.
30% should be authority content. Teaching videos, client win stories, myth busters. Content that proves you know what you're talking about and have the results to back it up.
Most service businesses are posting 70% promotional content and 30% everything else. They're asking before they've earned the right to ask. They're selling to people who don't trust them yet. And then they're confused why the content isn't converting.
Think about it like a dinner party. Imagine you're seated next to someone at dinner and within the first five minutes they're telling you about their services and asking for a referral. You'd be uncomfortable. You'd disengage. You'd spend the rest of the dinner hoping to be rescued.
Now imagine someone who spends the whole dinner being genuinely interesting, sharing real perspectives, asking good questions, making you think about things differently. And then at the end of the evening, naturally, says "hey, if you ever know anyone who could use what I do, I'd love an introduction." You'd be glad to help. Because they earned it.
That's the 60/30/10 ratio. 60% showing up and being interesting. 30% proving you're the real thing. 10% asking.
The Four Places Your Ideas Come From (That Never Run Dry)
Now here's the part that solves the blank page problem permanently.
You don't need to invent content ideas. You need to collect them from the places they're already happening every day in your business.
Tank 1: The Question Bank Every question a prospect or client asks you is a content idea. Word for word, exactly as they said it.
"How long before we see results?" Content idea. "Do we really need to be on video?" Content idea. "What's the difference between you and an agency?" Content idea. "How much should we actually be spending on marketing?" Content idea. (You may notice we've already written that one.)
The questions people ask right before they hire you are your best content because they're what your next client is Googling right now. Keep a running note. Pull from discovery call recordings, client emails, DMs, networking conversations. After 30 days you have 50 ideas. After 90 days you will never run dry.
Tank 2: The Villain List Every specific problem your ideal client is living with is a content idea. Not vague pain points. Named, visceral villains described in your clients' own language.
Go through your last twenty sales conversations. What did people say was keeping them up at night? Write it down verbatim. Their exact words become the hook. "Waking up on the first of the month not knowing where the next client is coming from" is a villain. "Inconsistent pipeline" is a category. The villain is specific. The category is generic.
One villain generates four content pieces minimum: a You're Not Alone post, a Myth Buster, a How-To, and a Client Win Story that shows the villain being defeated.
Tank 3: The Objection Engine Every reason someone gives for not buying is a content idea. If one person said it out loud, a hundred others thought it and didn't say anything.
"I've tried agencies before and it didn't work." That's a piece. "I need faster results." That's a piece. "I can't afford it right now." That's a piece. "I'm not a video person." That's a piece. (Again, you may recognize some of these.)
The goal is that by the time a prospect gets on a call with you, they've already seen content that pre-handled the objection they were about to raise. The call moves faster. The trust is higher. The outcome is better. Your content is doing the heavy lifting before your sales team even picks up the phone.
Tank 4: The Industry Lie Detector Every thing that "everyone knows" in your industry that isn't actually true is a Myth Buster or Bold Take waiting to be written.
"You need to be on every platform." Not true. "More content equals more clients." Not how it works. "AI is going to replace content creators." Not the complete story. "You need a big budget to compete." Completely false.
Every industry has a set of accepted beliefs that haven't been examined honestly. The founder who names those beliefs and takes a specific position on why they're wrong becomes the most credible voice in the market. Because they're the one paying close enough attention to notice what nobody else is willing to say.
The Test Every Piece Has to Pass
Before anything you create gets posted, run it through two questions.
Could a competitor post this exact piece?
If yes, rewrite it until only you could have said it. Generic content doesn't just fail to build your brand. It actively makes your brand indistinguishable. The whole point of showing up consistently is to make your voice, your perspective, and your specific take on your industry recognizable. Content that any business in your category could publish does the opposite of that.
Does this make someone feel something specific?
Not a vague positive feeling. Something specific. Uncomfortable recognition. Relief. Urgency. Excitement. Called out in a way that lands. If the honest answer is "probably not," the piece doesn't ship. It gets rewritten until it does.
These two tests are not extra work. They are the work. And running every piece through them is what separates content that builds pipeline from content that fills a calendar.
The Mistake That Kills More Content Strategies Than Any Other
I want to name this directly because it kills more content strategies than anything else.
Adding more.
You start with a solid plan. You're posting five times a week on Instagram and LinkedIn. Then someone tells you TikTok is where it's at. So you add TikTok. Then you read that YouTube is the most powerful long-term platform. So you add YouTube. Then someone says email is king and you should be sending twice a week. So you add that too.
Within sixty days you are producing an unsustainable amount of content across platforms you don't fully understand, the quality on all of them has dropped because your attention is divided, nothing is compounding because nothing is getting enough consistent input, and you're exhausted.
This is the momentum killer. Every time. Without exception.
The flywheel doesn't build through expansion and variety. It builds through consistency and depth. Pick the platforms where your ideal clients actually spend their attention. Show up there with genuine quality and genuine consistency. Do that for long enough that the compounding becomes visible. Then, and only then, consider whether adding another platform makes sense.
One platform done exceptionally well beats five platforms done poorly every single time.
CONCLUSION
The blank page problem is solved. Here's the recap in the plainest possible terms.
You have seven content types. You know the ratio: 60% awareness, 30% authority, 10% acquisition. You have four tanks of ideas that will never run dry as long as you're in business, talking to clients, and having discovery calls. And you have two tests that every piece has to pass before it goes out.
That's the system. It's not complicated. But it requires something most content advice doesn't ask for: commitment to the framework over the impulse to improvise.
Improvisation at scale is exhausting. A system that runs is not.
If you want to see what this looks like fully built inside a service business, including the content production model, the shot lists, the calendar architecture, and the platforms that make sense for your specific market, the UNMISSABLE Diagnostic is a useful place to start. It shows you where your current content stands across all three dimensions — Awareness, Authority, and Acquisition — and gives you a clear picture of what needs attention first.
Take it. Know your score. Then build from there.
Take the UNMISSABLE Diagnostic and find out where your content actually stands.
[Take the UNMISSABLE Diagnostic →]
Stay Inspired
Get fresh design insights, articles, and resources delivered straight to your inbox.
Latest Blogs
How to Become the Obvious Choice in Your Market
What Should I Actually Be Posting About?
What Should I Actually Be Posting About?
The blank page problem in content marketing is not a creativity problem. It is a strategy problem. Here is the complete answer to what you should be posting, why, how often, and where your ideas should come from so you never run dry.
The blank page problem in content marketing is not a creativity problem. It is a strategy problem. Here is the complete answer to what you should be posting, why, how often, and where your ideas should come from so you never run dry.
TLDR
Most service businesses post randomly, hope something resonates, and then wonder why their content isn't building pipeline. The answer to "what should I post?" is not a list of trending topics. It is a documented system with seven content types, four idea sources, and a ratio that determines how much of each kind goes out. This article gives you that system completely.
INTRODUCTION
Every service business owner who has ever tried to build a content habit has had some version of the same Tuesday afternoon experience.
You open Instagram or LinkedIn with the genuine intention of posting something. You sit there for twenty minutes. You scroll through what other people in your industry are doing. You draft something, decide it's not good enough, delete it, draft something else. Eventually you either post something you're not proud of or you close the app and tell yourself you'll do it tomorrow.
Tomorrow comes. Same thing happens.
The blank page problem feels like a creativity problem. Like some people just have the gift for content and others don't. Like you need to be a certain type of person to have something worth saying every day.
That's not what it is.
The blank page problem is a strategy problem. You don't know what to post because nobody has ever given you a clear framework for what you should be posting, in what proportion, sourced from where, with what purpose. You've been improvising every time you open the app. And improvisation at scale, five times a week, fifty-two weeks a year, is exhausting and unsustainable for anyone.
Here's the framework. Once you have it, the blank page problem goes away. Not because you become more creative. Because you stop relying on creativity and start relying on a system.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
There are exactly seven types of content a service business needs to produce. Every piece you publish fits into one of them. Once you know the seven, you never look at a blank page the same way.
Your ideas should come from four sources: the questions your prospects ask, the problems your clients live with, the objections you hear before people buy, and the lies your industry tells. Those four sources are inexhaustible.
The ratio matters as much as the content type. 60% of what you post should build awareness. 30% should build authority. Only 10% should ever be a direct ask. Most businesses get this completely backwards.
More content does not mean more clients. One specific, opinionated, well-placed piece outperforms fifty generic ones. The goal is resonance, not volume.
The best content you will ever create is sitting in your last twenty sales conversations, client sessions, and discovery calls. You already have more material than you could publish in a year. It just hasn't been organized yet.
Why Most Service Business Content Doesn't Work
Before we get to what you should be posting, let's name why most of what service businesses post right now does nothing.
It's not that the content is bad. It's that it's indistinguishable.
Open LinkedIn right now and scroll through the service businesses in your market. Notice how much of it sounds exactly the same. "We help businesses grow." "Our clients see amazing results." "Five tips for better marketing." "Excited to announce that we just..."
None of that stops anyone's scroll. None of it makes a prospect think "that person understands my situation specifically." None of it builds the kind of trust that turns a stranger into a client.
The content isn't wrong. It's just not positioned. It doesn't take a side. It doesn't say anything that a competitor couldn't say. It doesn't make anyone feel anything in particular.
79% of businesses now use AI for marketing content. The result is a flood of competent, passable, completely interchangeable content that nobody reads and nobody remembers. Your competitors are producing it. Probably at high volume. And it's doing exactly nothing for them.
The businesses that are cutting through right now are doing one thing differently. They are saying something specific. Taking a real position. Speaking to a real situation with enough specificity that the right person reads it and thinks "how did they know that's exactly what I'm dealing with?"
That's what this framework produces. Not more content. Better content.
The Seven Types of Content You Actually Need
Here's the first shift in thinking that changes everything.
You don't need an infinite variety of content ideas. You need seven types of content, produced in the right ratio, sourced from the right places. Every piece you will ever publish fits into one of these seven categories. Once you know them, the question stops being "what do I post?" and starts being "which type does this idea fit, and am I producing the right mix?"
Type 1: The Bold Take A specific, opinionated position on something others in your industry are afraid to say. Not controversial for the sake of it. Genuinely what you believe, stated without hedging. "Most agencies are selling you tactics when what you need is a system" is a Bold Take. "Marketing is important for businesses" is not.
This is the content that gets shared. That gets people tagging colleagues saying "read this." That makes some people unfollow you and other people feel like they finally found someone who tells the truth. Both of those reactions are correct. You want the wrong people to leave and the right people to feel like they found their people.
Frequency: once or twice a week.
Type 2: The Origin Story Why you do what you do. The real story. Not the professional bio version. The version with the actual turning point, the specific moment, the thing that happened that made you decide this was what you were going to spend your professional life building.
People don't just buy services. They buy the person behind the service. And the story of who you are and why you care is the content that builds the most durable trust. You only have to tell it once in full, but it gets referenced, pulled from, and returned to constantly.
Frequency: once or twice a month. You'll come back to pieces of it in other content regularly.
Type 3: The Hill You'll Die On A conviction so specific that it kinda divides the room. Not your whole philosophy. One specific belief you hold about your industry, your clients, or your work that you would defend against pushback without flinching.
"Service businesses should never compete on price" is a hill. "You need to be on every platform" is not a hill, it's a vague suggestion. The hill has to be specific enough that someone could genuinely disagree with it. That's how you know it's working.
Frequency: once a week.
Type 4: The Teaching Video One concept explained so clearly and specifically that the viewer is genuinely smarter after watching it. Not a surface-level overview. A real explanation of something your ideal client is trying to figure out, delivered with your specific framework and your specific language.
This is where your expertise lives. The thing you know about your industry that most people don't. Explained in a way that makes someone think "I've been thinking about this completely wrong."
Frequency: once or twice a week.
Type 5: The Client Win Story A client result told completely. Not a testimonial quote dropped into a graphic. A full story with a hero, a villain, a turning point, a transformation, and specific numbers at the end. Before and after. What they were dealing with. What changed. What their situation looks like now.
This is the content that converts. A prospect who reads a client story that mirrors their own situation doesn't just feel inspired. They feel like the decision is already made.
Frequency: once a month minimum.
Type 6: The Myth Buster A commonly held belief in your industry that isn't actually true, dismantled with evidence and your specific position on what the truth actually is.
"You need a big budget to compete in marketing." False. Here's why. "More content equals more clients." Not how it works. Here's what actually matters. Myth Busters build authority because they prove you're paying closer attention to your industry than everyone else. And they're shareable because people love forwarding something that makes them say "I always suspected this was wrong."
Frequency: twice a month.
Type 7: The Objection Crusher and Direct Invitation This is your acquisition content. Either pre-handling a specific objection your prospects raise before they buy, or making a clear, specific, unapologetic ask. Take the Diagnostic. Book a call. DM me the word [X].
The key word here is specific. "Let's connect" is not a direct invitation. "If you're a service business doing over $500K and your pipeline is inconsistent, take the UNMISSABLE Diagnostic. It takes twelve minutes and shows you exactly where your marketing is leaking. Link in bio." That's a direct invitation.
Frequency: once a week maximum. You earn the right to ask by giving first.
The Ratio That Most Businesses Get Completely Backwards
Here's the part that surprises almost everyone when they hear it.
Only 10% of what you post should be a direct ask. Promotional content. "Here's my service, book a call, here's the offer."
60% should be awareness content. Content that reaches people who don't yet know you well. Bold takes, origin stories, hills you'll die on. Content designed to stop a stranger's scroll and make them feel something.
30% should be authority content. Teaching videos, client win stories, myth busters. Content that proves you know what you're talking about and have the results to back it up.
Most service businesses are posting 70% promotional content and 30% everything else. They're asking before they've earned the right to ask. They're selling to people who don't trust them yet. And then they're confused why the content isn't converting.
Think about it like a dinner party. Imagine you're seated next to someone at dinner and within the first five minutes they're telling you about their services and asking for a referral. You'd be uncomfortable. You'd disengage. You'd spend the rest of the dinner hoping to be rescued.
Now imagine someone who spends the whole dinner being genuinely interesting, sharing real perspectives, asking good questions, making you think about things differently. And then at the end of the evening, naturally, says "hey, if you ever know anyone who could use what I do, I'd love an introduction." You'd be glad to help. Because they earned it.
That's the 60/30/10 ratio. 60% showing up and being interesting. 30% proving you're the real thing. 10% asking.
The Four Places Your Ideas Come From (That Never Run Dry)
Now here's the part that solves the blank page problem permanently.
You don't need to invent content ideas. You need to collect them from the places they're already happening every day in your business.
Tank 1: The Question Bank Every question a prospect or client asks you is a content idea. Word for word, exactly as they said it.
"How long before we see results?" Content idea. "Do we really need to be on video?" Content idea. "What's the difference between you and an agency?" Content idea. "How much should we actually be spending on marketing?" Content idea. (You may notice we've already written that one.)
The questions people ask right before they hire you are your best content because they're what your next client is Googling right now. Keep a running note. Pull from discovery call recordings, client emails, DMs, networking conversations. After 30 days you have 50 ideas. After 90 days you will never run dry.
Tank 2: The Villain List Every specific problem your ideal client is living with is a content idea. Not vague pain points. Named, visceral villains described in your clients' own language.
Go through your last twenty sales conversations. What did people say was keeping them up at night? Write it down verbatim. Their exact words become the hook. "Waking up on the first of the month not knowing where the next client is coming from" is a villain. "Inconsistent pipeline" is a category. The villain is specific. The category is generic.
One villain generates four content pieces minimum: a You're Not Alone post, a Myth Buster, a How-To, and a Client Win Story that shows the villain being defeated.
Tank 3: The Objection Engine Every reason someone gives for not buying is a content idea. If one person said it out loud, a hundred others thought it and didn't say anything.
"I've tried agencies before and it didn't work." That's a piece. "I need faster results." That's a piece. "I can't afford it right now." That's a piece. "I'm not a video person." That's a piece. (Again, you may recognize some of these.)
The goal is that by the time a prospect gets on a call with you, they've already seen content that pre-handled the objection they were about to raise. The call moves faster. The trust is higher. The outcome is better. Your content is doing the heavy lifting before your sales team even picks up the phone.
Tank 4: The Industry Lie Detector Every thing that "everyone knows" in your industry that isn't actually true is a Myth Buster or Bold Take waiting to be written.
"You need to be on every platform." Not true. "More content equals more clients." Not how it works. "AI is going to replace content creators." Not the complete story. "You need a big budget to compete." Completely false.
Every industry has a set of accepted beliefs that haven't been examined honestly. The founder who names those beliefs and takes a specific position on why they're wrong becomes the most credible voice in the market. Because they're the one paying close enough attention to notice what nobody else is willing to say.
The Test Every Piece Has to Pass
Before anything you create gets posted, run it through two questions.
Could a competitor post this exact piece?
If yes, rewrite it until only you could have said it. Generic content doesn't just fail to build your brand. It actively makes your brand indistinguishable. The whole point of showing up consistently is to make your voice, your perspective, and your specific take on your industry recognizable. Content that any business in your category could publish does the opposite of that.
Does this make someone feel something specific?
Not a vague positive feeling. Something specific. Uncomfortable recognition. Relief. Urgency. Excitement. Called out in a way that lands. If the honest answer is "probably not," the piece doesn't ship. It gets rewritten until it does.
These two tests are not extra work. They are the work. And running every piece through them is what separates content that builds pipeline from content that fills a calendar.
The Mistake That Kills More Content Strategies Than Any Other
I want to name this directly because it kills more content strategies than anything else.
Adding more.
You start with a solid plan. You're posting five times a week on Instagram and LinkedIn. Then someone tells you TikTok is where it's at. So you add TikTok. Then you read that YouTube is the most powerful long-term platform. So you add YouTube. Then someone says email is king and you should be sending twice a week. So you add that too.
Within sixty days you are producing an unsustainable amount of content across platforms you don't fully understand, the quality on all of them has dropped because your attention is divided, nothing is compounding because nothing is getting enough consistent input, and you're exhausted.
This is the momentum killer. Every time. Without exception.
The flywheel doesn't build through expansion and variety. It builds through consistency and depth. Pick the platforms where your ideal clients actually spend their attention. Show up there with genuine quality and genuine consistency. Do that for long enough that the compounding becomes visible. Then, and only then, consider whether adding another platform makes sense.
One platform done exceptionally well beats five platforms done poorly every single time.
CONCLUSION
The blank page problem is solved. Here's the recap in the plainest possible terms.
You have seven content types. You know the ratio: 60% awareness, 30% authority, 10% acquisition. You have four tanks of ideas that will never run dry as long as you're in business, talking to clients, and having discovery calls. And you have two tests that every piece has to pass before it goes out.
That's the system. It's not complicated. But it requires something most content advice doesn't ask for: commitment to the framework over the impulse to improvise.
Improvisation at scale is exhausting. A system that runs is not.
If you want to see what this looks like fully built inside a service business, including the content production model, the shot lists, the calendar architecture, and the platforms that make sense for your specific market, the UNMISSABLE Diagnostic is a useful place to start. It shows you where your current content stands across all three dimensions — Awareness, Authority, and Acquisition — and gives you a clear picture of what needs attention first.
Take it. Know your score. Then build from there.
Take the UNMISSABLE Diagnostic and find out where your content actually stands.
[Take the UNMISSABLE Diagnostic →]
Stay Inspired
Get fresh design insights, articles, and resources delivered straight to your inbox.
Latest Blogs
How to Become the Obvious Choice in Your Market
What Should I Actually Be Posting About?
What Should I Actually Be Posting About?
The blank page problem in content marketing is not a creativity problem. It is a strategy problem. Here is the complete answer to what you should be posting, why, how often, and where your ideas should come from so you never run dry.
The blank page problem in content marketing is not a creativity problem. It is a strategy problem. Here is the complete answer to what you should be posting, why, how often, and where your ideas should come from so you never run dry.
TLDR
Most service businesses post randomly, hope something resonates, and then wonder why their content isn't building pipeline. The answer to "what should I post?" is not a list of trending topics. It is a documented system with seven content types, four idea sources, and a ratio that determines how much of each kind goes out. This article gives you that system completely.
INTRODUCTION
Every service business owner who has ever tried to build a content habit has had some version of the same Tuesday afternoon experience.
You open Instagram or LinkedIn with the genuine intention of posting something. You sit there for twenty minutes. You scroll through what other people in your industry are doing. You draft something, decide it's not good enough, delete it, draft something else. Eventually you either post something you're not proud of or you close the app and tell yourself you'll do it tomorrow.
Tomorrow comes. Same thing happens.
The blank page problem feels like a creativity problem. Like some people just have the gift for content and others don't. Like you need to be a certain type of person to have something worth saying every day.
That's not what it is.
The blank page problem is a strategy problem. You don't know what to post because nobody has ever given you a clear framework for what you should be posting, in what proportion, sourced from where, with what purpose. You've been improvising every time you open the app. And improvisation at scale, five times a week, fifty-two weeks a year, is exhausting and unsustainable for anyone.
Here's the framework. Once you have it, the blank page problem goes away. Not because you become more creative. Because you stop relying on creativity and start relying on a system.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
There are exactly seven types of content a service business needs to produce. Every piece you publish fits into one of them. Once you know the seven, you never look at a blank page the same way.
Your ideas should come from four sources: the questions your prospects ask, the problems your clients live with, the objections you hear before people buy, and the lies your industry tells. Those four sources are inexhaustible.
The ratio matters as much as the content type. 60% of what you post should build awareness. 30% should build authority. Only 10% should ever be a direct ask. Most businesses get this completely backwards.
More content does not mean more clients. One specific, opinionated, well-placed piece outperforms fifty generic ones. The goal is resonance, not volume.
The best content you will ever create is sitting in your last twenty sales conversations, client sessions, and discovery calls. You already have more material than you could publish in a year. It just hasn't been organized yet.
Why Most Service Business Content Doesn't Work
Before we get to what you should be posting, let's name why most of what service businesses post right now does nothing.
It's not that the content is bad. It's that it's indistinguishable.
Open LinkedIn right now and scroll through the service businesses in your market. Notice how much of it sounds exactly the same. "We help businesses grow." "Our clients see amazing results." "Five tips for better marketing." "Excited to announce that we just..."
None of that stops anyone's scroll. None of it makes a prospect think "that person understands my situation specifically." None of it builds the kind of trust that turns a stranger into a client.
The content isn't wrong. It's just not positioned. It doesn't take a side. It doesn't say anything that a competitor couldn't say. It doesn't make anyone feel anything in particular.
79% of businesses now use AI for marketing content. The result is a flood of competent, passable, completely interchangeable content that nobody reads and nobody remembers. Your competitors are producing it. Probably at high volume. And it's doing exactly nothing for them.
The businesses that are cutting through right now are doing one thing differently. They are saying something specific. Taking a real position. Speaking to a real situation with enough specificity that the right person reads it and thinks "how did they know that's exactly what I'm dealing with?"
That's what this framework produces. Not more content. Better content.
The Seven Types of Content You Actually Need
Here's the first shift in thinking that changes everything.
You don't need an infinite variety of content ideas. You need seven types of content, produced in the right ratio, sourced from the right places. Every piece you will ever publish fits into one of these seven categories. Once you know them, the question stops being "what do I post?" and starts being "which type does this idea fit, and am I producing the right mix?"
Type 1: The Bold Take A specific, opinionated position on something others in your industry are afraid to say. Not controversial for the sake of it. Genuinely what you believe, stated without hedging. "Most agencies are selling you tactics when what you need is a system" is a Bold Take. "Marketing is important for businesses" is not.
This is the content that gets shared. That gets people tagging colleagues saying "read this." That makes some people unfollow you and other people feel like they finally found someone who tells the truth. Both of those reactions are correct. You want the wrong people to leave and the right people to feel like they found their people.
Frequency: once or twice a week.
Type 2: The Origin Story Why you do what you do. The real story. Not the professional bio version. The version with the actual turning point, the specific moment, the thing that happened that made you decide this was what you were going to spend your professional life building.
People don't just buy services. They buy the person behind the service. And the story of who you are and why you care is the content that builds the most durable trust. You only have to tell it once in full, but it gets referenced, pulled from, and returned to constantly.
Frequency: once or twice a month. You'll come back to pieces of it in other content regularly.
Type 3: The Hill You'll Die On A conviction so specific that it kinda divides the room. Not your whole philosophy. One specific belief you hold about your industry, your clients, or your work that you would defend against pushback without flinching.
"Service businesses should never compete on price" is a hill. "You need to be on every platform" is not a hill, it's a vague suggestion. The hill has to be specific enough that someone could genuinely disagree with it. That's how you know it's working.
Frequency: once a week.
Type 4: The Teaching Video One concept explained so clearly and specifically that the viewer is genuinely smarter after watching it. Not a surface-level overview. A real explanation of something your ideal client is trying to figure out, delivered with your specific framework and your specific language.
This is where your expertise lives. The thing you know about your industry that most people don't. Explained in a way that makes someone think "I've been thinking about this completely wrong."
Frequency: once or twice a week.
Type 5: The Client Win Story A client result told completely. Not a testimonial quote dropped into a graphic. A full story with a hero, a villain, a turning point, a transformation, and specific numbers at the end. Before and after. What they were dealing with. What changed. What their situation looks like now.
This is the content that converts. A prospect who reads a client story that mirrors their own situation doesn't just feel inspired. They feel like the decision is already made.
Frequency: once a month minimum.
Type 6: The Myth Buster A commonly held belief in your industry that isn't actually true, dismantled with evidence and your specific position on what the truth actually is.
"You need a big budget to compete in marketing." False. Here's why. "More content equals more clients." Not how it works. Here's what actually matters. Myth Busters build authority because they prove you're paying closer attention to your industry than everyone else. And they're shareable because people love forwarding something that makes them say "I always suspected this was wrong."
Frequency: twice a month.
Type 7: The Objection Crusher and Direct Invitation This is your acquisition content. Either pre-handling a specific objection your prospects raise before they buy, or making a clear, specific, unapologetic ask. Take the Diagnostic. Book a call. DM me the word [X].
The key word here is specific. "Let's connect" is not a direct invitation. "If you're a service business doing over $500K and your pipeline is inconsistent, take the UNMISSABLE Diagnostic. It takes twelve minutes and shows you exactly where your marketing is leaking. Link in bio." That's a direct invitation.
Frequency: once a week maximum. You earn the right to ask by giving first.
The Ratio That Most Businesses Get Completely Backwards
Here's the part that surprises almost everyone when they hear it.
Only 10% of what you post should be a direct ask. Promotional content. "Here's my service, book a call, here's the offer."
60% should be awareness content. Content that reaches people who don't yet know you well. Bold takes, origin stories, hills you'll die on. Content designed to stop a stranger's scroll and make them feel something.
30% should be authority content. Teaching videos, client win stories, myth busters. Content that proves you know what you're talking about and have the results to back it up.
Most service businesses are posting 70% promotional content and 30% everything else. They're asking before they've earned the right to ask. They're selling to people who don't trust them yet. And then they're confused why the content isn't converting.
Think about it like a dinner party. Imagine you're seated next to someone at dinner and within the first five minutes they're telling you about their services and asking for a referral. You'd be uncomfortable. You'd disengage. You'd spend the rest of the dinner hoping to be rescued.
Now imagine someone who spends the whole dinner being genuinely interesting, sharing real perspectives, asking good questions, making you think about things differently. And then at the end of the evening, naturally, says "hey, if you ever know anyone who could use what I do, I'd love an introduction." You'd be glad to help. Because they earned it.
That's the 60/30/10 ratio. 60% showing up and being interesting. 30% proving you're the real thing. 10% asking.
The Four Places Your Ideas Come From (That Never Run Dry)
Now here's the part that solves the blank page problem permanently.
You don't need to invent content ideas. You need to collect them from the places they're already happening every day in your business.
Tank 1: The Question Bank Every question a prospect or client asks you is a content idea. Word for word, exactly as they said it.
"How long before we see results?" Content idea. "Do we really need to be on video?" Content idea. "What's the difference between you and an agency?" Content idea. "How much should we actually be spending on marketing?" Content idea. (You may notice we've already written that one.)
The questions people ask right before they hire you are your best content because they're what your next client is Googling right now. Keep a running note. Pull from discovery call recordings, client emails, DMs, networking conversations. After 30 days you have 50 ideas. After 90 days you will never run dry.
Tank 2: The Villain List Every specific problem your ideal client is living with is a content idea. Not vague pain points. Named, visceral villains described in your clients' own language.
Go through your last twenty sales conversations. What did people say was keeping them up at night? Write it down verbatim. Their exact words become the hook. "Waking up on the first of the month not knowing where the next client is coming from" is a villain. "Inconsistent pipeline" is a category. The villain is specific. The category is generic.
One villain generates four content pieces minimum: a You're Not Alone post, a Myth Buster, a How-To, and a Client Win Story that shows the villain being defeated.
Tank 3: The Objection Engine Every reason someone gives for not buying is a content idea. If one person said it out loud, a hundred others thought it and didn't say anything.
"I've tried agencies before and it didn't work." That's a piece. "I need faster results." That's a piece. "I can't afford it right now." That's a piece. "I'm not a video person." That's a piece. (Again, you may recognize some of these.)
The goal is that by the time a prospect gets on a call with you, they've already seen content that pre-handled the objection they were about to raise. The call moves faster. The trust is higher. The outcome is better. Your content is doing the heavy lifting before your sales team even picks up the phone.
Tank 4: The Industry Lie Detector Every thing that "everyone knows" in your industry that isn't actually true is a Myth Buster or Bold Take waiting to be written.
"You need to be on every platform." Not true. "More content equals more clients." Not how it works. "AI is going to replace content creators." Not the complete story. "You need a big budget to compete." Completely false.
Every industry has a set of accepted beliefs that haven't been examined honestly. The founder who names those beliefs and takes a specific position on why they're wrong becomes the most credible voice in the market. Because they're the one paying close enough attention to notice what nobody else is willing to say.
The Test Every Piece Has to Pass
Before anything you create gets posted, run it through two questions.
Could a competitor post this exact piece?
If yes, rewrite it until only you could have said it. Generic content doesn't just fail to build your brand. It actively makes your brand indistinguishable. The whole point of showing up consistently is to make your voice, your perspective, and your specific take on your industry recognizable. Content that any business in your category could publish does the opposite of that.
Does this make someone feel something specific?
Not a vague positive feeling. Something specific. Uncomfortable recognition. Relief. Urgency. Excitement. Called out in a way that lands. If the honest answer is "probably not," the piece doesn't ship. It gets rewritten until it does.
These two tests are not extra work. They are the work. And running every piece through them is what separates content that builds pipeline from content that fills a calendar.
The Mistake That Kills More Content Strategies Than Any Other
I want to name this directly because it kills more content strategies than anything else.
Adding more.
You start with a solid plan. You're posting five times a week on Instagram and LinkedIn. Then someone tells you TikTok is where it's at. So you add TikTok. Then you read that YouTube is the most powerful long-term platform. So you add YouTube. Then someone says email is king and you should be sending twice a week. So you add that too.
Within sixty days you are producing an unsustainable amount of content across platforms you don't fully understand, the quality on all of them has dropped because your attention is divided, nothing is compounding because nothing is getting enough consistent input, and you're exhausted.
This is the momentum killer. Every time. Without exception.
The flywheel doesn't build through expansion and variety. It builds through consistency and depth. Pick the platforms where your ideal clients actually spend their attention. Show up there with genuine quality and genuine consistency. Do that for long enough that the compounding becomes visible. Then, and only then, consider whether adding another platform makes sense.
One platform done exceptionally well beats five platforms done poorly every single time.
CONCLUSION
The blank page problem is solved. Here's the recap in the plainest possible terms.
You have seven content types. You know the ratio: 60% awareness, 30% authority, 10% acquisition. You have four tanks of ideas that will never run dry as long as you're in business, talking to clients, and having discovery calls. And you have two tests that every piece has to pass before it goes out.
That's the system. It's not complicated. But it requires something most content advice doesn't ask for: commitment to the framework over the impulse to improvise.
Improvisation at scale is exhausting. A system that runs is not.
If you want to see what this looks like fully built inside a service business, including the content production model, the shot lists, the calendar architecture, and the platforms that make sense for your specific market, the UNMISSABLE Diagnostic is a useful place to start. It shows you where your current content stands across all three dimensions — Awareness, Authority, and Acquisition — and gives you a clear picture of what needs attention first.
Take it. Know your score. Then build from there.
Take the UNMISSABLE Diagnostic and find out where your content actually stands.
[Take the UNMISSABLE Diagnostic →]
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