The 60 30 10 Rule
What is the 60 30 10 Rule?
If you’ve spent any time creating content, or have researched the various methods you can use, you may have come across the 60 30 10 Rule.
In a nutshell, the 60 30 10 Rule is a framework that can be used when putting together your content strategy, or when planning out your content for the coming week/month.
This rule dictates what various percentages of your overall content strategy should be dedicated to – 60% 30% 10% – hence the name.
The percentage breakdown of this rule looks like this…
Post engaging content 60% of the time
The biggest chunk of the 60 30 10 Rule is the first portion, the 60%.
This rule suggests that 60% of your posts should be comprised of engaging content, things that your audience will find helpful, and will get them liking, commenting and sharing.
As an example, say you run an online jewellery store and you’re creating content to be posted onto your social media channels. By sticking to this rule, 60% of the content you post should be related to your business, but not aiming to directly sell anything. Our jewellery store would do well to post about jewellery cleaning tips, safe storage and anything else relating to jewellery.
Posts like these would provide value to the jewellery store’s audience, with the goal of getting them to comment, like and share the content. By regularly posting helpful and interesting content, you’ll start to build-up and cultivate an engaged audience.
Check out some engaging post types that will get people sharing here!
Post shared/external content 30% of the time
Arguably, this is the easiest part of the 60 30 10 Rule. 30% of your content strategy should be comprised of posts that come from external sources.
This 30% can be made up of content such as helpful news articles relating to your business or niche, retweets from thought leaders within your industry, or posts shared from non-competing businesses within your local community.
Going back to the example of our jewellery shop, they could be posting news articles that highlight new watch releases, charity auctions of a celebrity’s collection, or shouting-out local, non-competing businesses in their local community.
Quick Tip: Mutal shout-out-for-shout-out posts with non-competing businesses can be extremely beneficial for both parties!
Post promotional or sales-based content 10% of the time
Have you ever looked at the Twitter feed of a brand and saw nothing but endless promotional tweets, speaking about their newest product or event? I think you’ll agree with me when I say it gets real boring, real quick.
This is why promotional and sales-based content makes up the smallest percentage of the 60 30 10 Rule.
When you are infrequently posting promotional content, there’s a much higher chance of converting an audience member into a customer, purely because promotional posts are likely to be more impactful when not continually posted.
Think back to our jewellery shop. Having continuous posts promoting new ranges and new offers is going to get super repetitive. Those posts will be much more effective when they’re interspersed within high-quality content and externally-sourced posts.
By taking the time to post informative content and industry news, you’ll start to build an engaged following. Those who are highly-engaged to your content will be more likely to make a purchase.
To sum up the 60 30 10 Rule
This content marketing rule is a framework that can be used when working on your content strategy. It dictates what percentage of content should be dedicated to what, be it informative posts, external posts, or sales-oriented posts.
60% of posts should be made up of content that will get people sharing
30% of posts should be content reshared from external sources
10% of posts should be sales-based, with the goal of converting an audience member into a paying customer
Want to know how to get more out of your existing content? Find out here!
Are there any other topics that you’d like to see covered here? If so, then please let me know via the contact page, and I’ll see what I can do!
As you can see from being on this site, I’m also a freelance graphic designer, so if you need help with any projects you’re working on, I’d be more than happy to get involved! I’m currently available for both short and long term hire.
Thanks for reading!