The Gist: Cardi B’s fast pivot and rise from reality TV celebrity to pop chart topper was caused by strategic operations from her and her team, specifically around workflow and consistent content creation. Here’s what marketers can learn from her.
Does this sound familiar?
You feel sooo close to being *there* point with your content marketing.
The point where things start to feel easy and sustainable, not a constant uphill battle.
You’ve written the countless blog posts. You’ve created the content upgrades. You’re trying your hardest to move people through your marketing funnel.
And it’s working!…Sometimes! 
But you know there’s still something missing…
Because you may be putting in the work, but it’s starting to take its toll on you and your team.
You all feel like you’re trapped on a content creation treadmill that’s stuck on high speed.
- You’re constantly a few days behind on your marketing calendar and to-do list.
- As soon as you publish a new piece of content, you rush through promoting it so you can get “back to work” creating.
- You know promoting and repurposing content can be helpful, but you’re so overwhelmed with creating you’ve never spent much time on them.
Don’t worry, it’s something I think all marketing teams go through. Also: Cardi B.
Yup, this marketing journey is shockingly similar to Cardi B’s rise to stardom. Does that at least make you feel better about it? 
Cardi B’s Content Marketing Journey
2015 was the year Cardi B’s career started to skyrocket, but that was far from the year it got started in general. She had been grinding out content on the creation treadmill of the music industry for years, then reality TV and social media.
So, what changed between 2015 and 2017? The strategy and operations behind her music.
She had an smooth af content creation workflow that let her pump out music content on the reg AND distribute it strategically enough to take over the airwaves.
She was putting out singles of her own constantly, PLUS appearing as a featured artist on songs from every other hit musician on the charts.
Content creation + clever collaborations makes for content marketing gold, y’all.
As she says herself in Bodak Yellow, “dropped 2 mixtapes in 6 months, what b*tch working as hard as me?”
Well, maybe you.
And here’s how you can make your own content creation workflow just as impressive. 
1. Brainstorm groups of content instead of individual pieces
Avoid random, one-off blog posts as much as possible and aim for cohesive, focused content campaigns instead.
This lets you fully address topics and really take your audience through the entire customer journey using your content.
The easiest way to get started creating content campaigns? Brainstorm your content ideas in batches.
When you come up with blog post and email ideas in chunks of 4, 5, or even more related ideas, it’s really easy to organize them into focused series and campaigns that explore bigger topics in-depth.
2. Create a game plan for each piece of content
Go beyond an overall content marketing strategy for your entire business. Create a strategy for each individual piece of content.
Your individual game plans might include:
- An overview of the goals the content (and the larger project it’s part of) needs to accomplish
- A brief outline or skeleton of the piece of content
- A strategy for content distribution, like which channels you’ll promote it on and what you’ll say
This way, you’re not just opening a Google Doc and winging it every time it’s time to draft a new piece of content.
You’ll have a plan not just for creating content, but making sure it succeeds as well.
3. Building distribution into the creation process
Another bonus of having a game plan for each piece of content? You know exactly how you’ll be promoting it before you write a word.
This is sooo important for strategic promotion.
When Cardi B was ready to take over the airwaves, she made sure to design radio-friendly, packed-with-mainstream-appeal singles.
And when she did release her first full album, the songs released as the first singles were the catchiest (the promotion of singles is a whole other content marketing conversation!).
Do you really think she & her team didn’t take that into consideration when choosing the tracklist, recruiting collaborators, and every other step along the way?
This makes promotion and distribution faster, easier, and more successful so that you can make the most of the content your company creates.
4. Leveraging strategic collaborations
Ultimately, one factor that contributed to Cardi’s rapid ascent in the charts was that she wasn’t only charting with her own music. Almost every other artist at the top of the music charts that year collaborated with her, either on a remix or as a featured artist.
Migos. Nicki Minaj. G-Eazy, A$AP Rocky. Bruno Mars. Rita Ora. Charlie XCX. Jennifer Lopez. DJ Khaled. Even Maroon 5 and Ed Sheeran, rounding out all the popular genres at the time.
She was truly able to take over the charts, both main and genre-specific. She was everywhere, getting known by lots of listeners that might not have found her music otherwise.
This strategic collaboration strategy was how her music, her style, her personality ended up getting as popular as it did, as quickly as it did. And you can do it too.
How can you collaborate with other businesses in your industry to introduce yourself and your style to their audience?
Download my free content repurposing planning worksheet to figure out the most strategic and intentional way to reuse and recycle your content.