Nick Broekema

How I do visual
content ideation
... and create a recognizable brand that attracts leads

Bofu on the beach

Nick Broekema

How I create a tasty

Nick Broekema

Nick Broekema

Sell the Not the How you read How others read
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Nick Broekema Nick Broekema

Nick Broekema

Stop chasing opportunities.

Make a delicious MOFU The dark side of
Start attracting them. pie in 20 minutes hourly billing
5,0 (214)

O pportunity
Applicant
O pportunity
Applicant

Applicant O pportunity $250

O pportunity
Applicant
$100
$2 0
ling
$50 $10
ytel
Stokring Soda
ba
1 2 3 4 5
1 2 3 4 5

“HOW I”

Opportunity Content vinaigr CTA

& sales

Nick Broekema

Nick Broekema

Nick Broekema

riting on
1%
W
of 900 million LinkedIn
users post every week L inkedIn be like You can’t lose if you don’t give up

I want to I made it
I want to I want to give up
I want to I want to give up
give up give up give up
Nick Broekema

The number 1 question about Content Design:

“How do you create

your visuals?”
Nick Broekema

The answer might be disappointing:

By having 12 years
of experience in
branding & design

Aw man, I don’t have

that experience
Nick Broekema

Here’s what that means:

Design & branding =

my unfair advantage

Interesting.

Tell me more?
Nick Broekema

Let’s break it down.

Here’s how I do visual

ideation and create
content designs →

Nice, LFG
Nick Broekema

Let’s start with the basics.

Start with defining these

3 content components:
1
My ideal customer ....................................

My ideal peer ....................................

My unfair advantage
....................................

What’s your top 3 then?

Nick Broekema

My Top 3 content
components is:
2
My ideal customer CEOs & agency founders

My ideal peer Marketing specialists

My unfair advantage
Design + writing to get leads

Top 3 characteristics:
3
Sell branding/design & website
CEOs + agency founders services. Struggle to get leads.
What’s your top 3 then?
Active on LinkedIn. Educate or need
Marketing specialists education on converting content.

Have limited time. Ads/referrals don’t

Design + writing to get leads work. Want leads to grow their biz.

Exp
lain
ed
Nick Broekema

My top 3 characteristics explained:

Have limited time. Ads/referrals don’t
CEOs + agency founders work. Want leads to grow their biz.

Active on LinkedIn. Educate or need

Marketing specialists education on converting content.

High-end content design on LinkedIn

Design + lead generation + lead-gen = unique combo

This tells me Content Design is my super

4
power, lead generation is my content pillar,
and content creation is the glue.

Cool! So how do you go

about content ideation?
Nick Broekema

Breakdown #1

Here’s how I created the

style of this carousel ↓
Nick Broekema

Last year, I had 2 different content ideas:

Working together (coaching / coachee)

How to visualize this: showing the difference

between building things alone vs. together.

Overkill ChatGPT and LI growth posts

How to visualize this: I pictured a gatekeeper

(LinkedIn) only allowing certain content.

Nick Broekema

I look for inspiration:

I go to Pinterest,
find images I need,
and paste them in
Figma.
Keywords: Illustration, noise, castle, mountains

Result:
Nick Broekema

Then I use the Pen Tool in Figma (forget Canva):

Then I manually trace

the images and give
them my own twist.
Nick Broekema

Results:

Nick Broekema

What you can

build together

But wait, there’s more →

What you can
build alone

Nick Broekema

Engagement lately

Sorry dude, ChatGPT and

LinkedIn growth posts go first.
You’ll have to go around.

Hey LinkedIn, I wrote a post

about my industry. Can you
let me in so I can spread
the word?

Also used this pic from Pinterest

Nick Broekema

I reused design elements

and created 2 other
posts with them:
(and now this post)
Nick Broekema

Breakdown #2

I saw this image in a post

of Sahil Bloom:

I thought: I can work with that →

Nick Broekema

My idea for the post:

Engagement vs. conversion

How to visualize this: showing the difference likes and

new clients (the way I experience it).

Result:
Nick Broekema

My brain after:
1 5 10

Likes New clients

Nick Broekema

Breakdown #3

Nick Broekema

The dark side of

hourly billing

$250

$100
$20
$50 $10
1 2 3 4 5

1 2 3 4 5
Nick Broekema

Breakdown #3

My idea for the post:

Showing what hourly billing looks like

How to visualize this: an image that shows slow people
get rewarded over fast people.

(I used to do athletics so went for a running track)

All manually traced with a

pen tool, creating custom
design elements, and
using on-brand colors.
This one took 3 hours to
create.
Nick Broekema

Breakdown #4

Nick Broekema

Create a killer
TOFU in 15 minutes
5,0 (178)

What this is all about →

Growth
Emotions Pain

Nick Broekema

Bofu on the beach

Nick Broekema

Make a delicious MOFU How I create a tasty

pie in 20 minutes
5,0 (214)

ng
€
o ry tellida $
t
S ing S o
bak
€

€ €
“HOW I”
$
vinaigr
CTA
Nick Broekema

Breakdown #4

People on LinkedIn often talk

about TOFU content (Top of
Funnel).

I thought, ok, that sounds like

food. I can work with that.

So I created recipes for TOFU

(and MOFU + BOFU).

Every recipe had ‘ingredients’

that made it easier for people
to understand how to write a
post in that framework.

And then I created visuals.

Nick Broekema

Create a killer
TOFU in 15 minutes 5,0 (178)

Growth
Pain
Emotions

Bofu on the beach

Nick Broekema

Nick Broekema
How I create a tasty
Make a delicious MOFU
pie in 20 minutes
5,0 (214)

€
$

ling

ytel
Storing Soda
€

bak € €
$

“HOW I”

vinaigr CTA
Nick Broekema

One of my clients is a CEO of a business with a

+€200k offer and he attracted 3 inbound leads
over the past 3 weeks through Content Design.

Nice. So how do I create

these visuals myself?
Nick Broekema

Disappointing answer again: You don’t have to.

Ask yourself this question ↓

“How can I create content

with MY unfair advantage?”

Oh. But how?

Nick Broekema

Uncover your unfair advantage:

Identify your strengths and interests

What are your skills? What feels like play to you and
work to others? What would you do for free?

Analyze your industry and detect gaps

What’s something you do but others don’t talk

about? Does anybody need it?

Share, analyze, improve

Validate your ideas by testing them on real people.

Share, double down on what works and repeat.

Here’s a few examples →

Nick Broekema

Couple of examples:

Ben Chestnut (Mailchimp)

Co-founded Mailchimp with a design background to provide email
marketing solutions, started sharing insights on creativity and
design.

Tobi Lütke (Shopify)

Used his technical expertise to co-found Shopify, a platform solving
e-commerce challenges, started sharing insights on LinkedIn.

Brian Chesky (Airbnb)

Co-founded Airbnb to tackle accommodation challenges, started
sharing content on design, travel, and entrepreneurship on LinkedIn.

Sara Blakely (Spanx)

Leveraged her sales background and personal discomfort with
undergarments to create Spanx, started sharing her entrepreneurial
journey on LinkedIn.

Nick Broekema

Ok, I’ll give it a go. But I

still don’t know how to
create visuals.
Nick Broekema

Hire the pros. Then you

have time to explore your
unfair advantages (or
focus on business growth)
Nick Broekema

Enjoyed this?

Follow me for more about

converting content.

+ Follow

LFG