08 January 2025 | Marketing
9 timeless content marketing lessons from Benjamin Franklin
By Tracey Wallace
Poor Richard’s Almanack is one of the earliest recorded content marketing efforts I can find, though I am certain not the very first.
It was published by Benjamin Franklin continuously from 1732 to 1758. He wrote it in an effort to promote his printing business, but like all great content marketing, it focused first on providing value to readers. And it did just that, becoming a colonial bestseller year after year.
Almanacks were common then, but good ol’ Ben was a man of the people, and decided to add even more to his almanack than others were offering. Calendars, astronomical data, weather predictions, and agricultural guidance were par for the course. Ben expanded his to also include practical household tips, poems, mathematical exercises, proverbs and maxims, serialized stories and character narratives, demographic and social commentary, and even hoaxes and satire.
Sounds a lot like an annual New York Times Sunday Edition to me. Or, a cross between Lady Whistledown, Tim Ferriss, Wordle, and Chani (I may be revealing a bit too much of myself with that last one).
Let’s look at what Poor Richard’s Alamanck did, and what you can take away from it for your content marketing strategy today.
1. Value First, Promotion Second
Franklin focused primarily on providing valuable, useful content that his audience needed, while keeping direct promotion minimal. The almanack promoted his printing business indirectly through quality and reputation rather than hard selling.
As I’ve said before, thought leadership is an outcome of fantastic, consistent content marketing––not a strategy or type of content in and of itself. Franklin knew this to be true, publishing a high-quality asset consistently that earned him more clients as a result.
2. Know Your Audience Deeply
Franklin understood his audience’s needs, interests, and limitations (like cost sensitivity). He created accessible content for “common people who bought scarce any other books.” He also added more entertainment to his almanack, adding even more value to the reader and keeping his printed asset in people’s hands longer than any other.
This demonstrated deep audience understanding of common pain points, lack of extra spending money and few good ways to distract oneself, creating an asset that solved both.
3. Mix Entertainment with Education
Franklin mastered the art of making educational content entertaining through games, humor, stories, and engaging writing. He noted that “squeamish Stomachs cannot eat without pickles” – meaning serious content needs entertaining elements to be digestible.
You don’t have to gamify every piece of content you produce, but you should think through small ways to continue to entertain while you educate. This can be small interactive elements or gifs, embedded quizzes, or easter eggs, to name a small few.
4. Build Serialized Content
Franklin used serialized stories and character narratives to keep readers coming back year after year. His famous “death of Titan Leeds” story arc demonstrates how serialized content can build anticipation and loyalty.
You don’t need to create a morally questionable story to keep readers coming back. Instead, use the tools of our time that are quite literally built for serialization. Podcasts. Newsletters. Even webinars. Map out a multi-month content arc with connected themes (Ideally you are using a strategic narrative to do this). Develop cliffhangers at the end of each piece and build anticipation with “next time” previews.
5. Curate and Add Value
Franklin didn’t create all content from scratch. He curated existing proverbs and wisdom but added his unique voice and perspective. This shows how curation with added value can be—and always could be––an effective content strategy.
Curation is arguably more important today with so much information at everyone’s fingertips, it’s hard to know what to pay attention to. Break through that noise for your audience. Sift through the noise, and find the signals for them.
6. Develop a Distinct Voice
The “Poor Richard” persona gave the almanack a distinctive voice and personality that readers connected with. This consistent character helped build brand recognition and loyalty.
Today, creators and influencers are some of the most popular personas. People flock to individuals and love to follow a specific perspective. For content marketers, this persona can be your founder or several of your executives. It can also be your partner network, your customers, or even you.
The point is that you should find personas and voices that resonate with your audience, and consistently publish content from those people.
7. Use Multiple Content Types
Franklin mixed different content types––practical information, entertainment, moral lessons, and humor––to appeal to different interests and keep readers engaged through variety.
For modern content marketers, this means you want a mix of content formats––blogs, ebooks, webinars, videos, podcasts, etc.–– and types––listicles, case studies, news, education, etc. Create a content taxonomy to identify what you already have, what is working best, and where you want to test into next.
8. Focus on Evergreen Value
Much of Franklin’s content remained relevant year after year because it focused on timeless principles and wisdom rather than fleeting trends. Many of his maxims are still quoted today.
You don’t need industry news to make your evergreen content relevant. Help connect the dots for readers between an evergreen topic and why it is worth their time right now.
9. Test and Iterate
Franklin continuously refined his approach over 25 years, experimenting with different content types and formats. In 1748, he even rebranded to “Poor Richard Improved” and expanded the content based on what worked.
Don’t be afraid to change your strategy based on what is working and what isn’t, and to better meet audience needs.
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