What is the 70-20-10 Rule In Content Marketing
After applying the rule of 70-20-10 in content marketing, I went from getting 3 Likes to actually making money. Okay so this is embarrassing but whatever. I used to get three likes on my Instagram posts. Three. One from my mom, one from my sister who felt sorry for me, and one from this random account that liked literally everything (probably a bot but I’ll take it).
My restaurant? Barely staying afloat. I’d spend hours crafting these “perfect” posts about farm-to-table ingredients and artisan bread and inspirational quotes I found on Pinterest. Then I’d hit publish. It was depressing as hell.
I remember one night I posted this gorgeous photo of my signature pasta dish with some caption about “handcrafted perfection” and it got two likes. TWO. I actually considered deleting my entire account and becoming a hermit.
Then I overheard something at my local coffee place that completely changed everything.
The Eavesdropping That Saved My Ass
So I was at the coffee shop called The Bean.I was done (I know, terrible pun) trying to look busy on my laptop. Really I was just checking out my Instagram every ten minutes to see if anyone gave a damn interest about my latest protein shake recipe.
Spoiler alert: But they didn’t.
There’s these two women at the table behind me talking about work stuff. One’s complaining about how their company’s social media was a hot mess. Her friend goes “Oh yeah we had the same problem until my manager forced us to do this 70-20-10 thing. Now our posts actually get seen.”
My ears perked up like a damn golden retriever hearing a treat bag.
I tried to keep listening without being obvious but I’m not subtle. Finally I just turned around and was like “Sorry but what’s this 70-20-10 thing you mentioned?”
They probably thought I was weird but they were nice about it. What they told me literally saved my business. No exaggeration.
What This Magic Number Thing Actually Is
Turns out it’s not complicated at all. Almost stupidly simple actually.
You split up your content like this:
70% is stuff you know works. Posts that people actually engage with. Not the stuff you think is clever or artistic. The stuff that gets comments and shares and saves. Your bread and butter content.
20% is trying new things that are kinda related. Like if your workout videos do okay, maybe try equipment reviews or talking about nutrition. Still in your wheelhouse but different enough to maybe attract some new people.
10% is just throwing shit at the wall to see what sticks. Random experiments. Weird ideas. Trends you wanna try. Most of it will probably flop and that’s totally fine. Sometimes you’ll accidentally hit the jackpot.
The lady at the coffee shop said something that stuck with me: “Stop trying to be the next Cooking influencer. Just be helpful to the people who are already here.”
Damn. That hit was different.
Looking Back at My Disaster Posts
I went home and scrolled through like three months of my content. Jesus Christ what a mess.
Random food quotes over stock photos of sunrises. Pictures of my breakfast (why did I think people cared about my overnight oats?). Recipe tips mixed with personal life updates nobody asked for. Those stupid “Monday Motivation” posts that motivated absolutely no one.
No wonder people weren’t following me. I had zero consistency. Zero focus. Just random crap I thought looked good.
But buried in all that garbage were maybe five or six posts that actually got decent engagement. Simple recipe tutorials showing technique. Quick “try this at home” cooking hacks. Answering questions people asked me about ingredients or cooking methods.
That was my 70%. Finally found it.
Week One - Back to Boring Basics
I started posting more of what I knew worked. Basic cooking tutorials. “Here’s how to make perfect risotto without stirring for an hour” type stuff. Questions and answers from my classes.
Not Instagram-worthy. Not pretty. Just useful.
And holy shit it worked. My engagement started climbing. People were commenting with their own cooking questions. Actually sharing my stuff.
Turns out my audience didn’t want me to be Gordon Ramsay with a philosophy degree. They just wanted practical help with cooking stuff.
Mind blown.
Week Two - Testing the Waters
For my 20% I branched out a little. Posted about the story behind certain dishes on my menu. I talked about sourcing ingredients from local farms.(which I definitely have). kitchen equipment I actually use instead of just featuring it in artsy photos.
One post about my disaster attempting to make croissants from scratch got shared like 30 times. The most shares I’d ever gotten was maybe 2.
People wanted the real messy honest stuff. Not the highlight reel BS.
Week Three - The Scary Wild Card Stuff
This was terrifying. What do you post when you have no clue if it’ll work?
I decided to shoot my videos hoping that one of those videos will get viral through viral cooking challenges. You know, the ones where some 22-year-old girl does everything perfectly and effortlessly.
I failed miserably. Like face-plant-on-the-ground failed. Laughed my ass off and posted it anyway.
That video got more engagement than anything I’d posted in six months. Comments from people saying they loved seeing someone keep it real about cooking being hard.
Apparently being bad at stuff was my superpower. Who knew?
Three Months Later (Great Results)
I’m not going to lie and say I’ve been impressive overnight. But things definitely changed.
My followers went from barely 300 to over 2500. My website actually gets traffic now instead of just my mom checking if I updated anything. I’m booking more classes than I know what to do with.
But the biggest change? I don’t hate making content anymore. I actually look forward to it because I know what works.
The 70-20-10 thing gave me a roadmap instead of just wandering around hoping for the best.
Why Everyone Gets This Wrong
I think most small business owners do what I did. Try to make every post some masterpiece. Something groundbreaking and original and creative.
That’s exhausting as hell. And usually doesn’t work anyway.
Your people don’t need you to reinvent the wheel every day. They need you to show up consistently and actually help them with something.
Save the creativity for your 10%. Use the other 90% to be genuinely useful.
If You're Struggling Like I Was
Go look at your last 20 posts right now. Which ones got the most comments? Shares? Saves? That’s your 70%. Do more of that.
Don’t stress about the exact percentages. Some weeks I post more experimental stuff. Other weeks I stick to what works. The point is having some kind of plan instead of posting random crap and crossing your fingers.
Figure out what works. Do more of it. Try new things occasionally. Repeat.
