Three Es of Content Marketing
Earn trust by educating, encouraging, or entertaining
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Time to result
- ~weeks to results
- Steps
- 5
- Confidence
- 98%
The Three Es translate offline trust into a content strategy. People tend to trust those they learn from, those who encourage them during difficult moments, and those who entertain them. Therefore, each main-feed post should educate, encourage, or entertain, with the feed emphasizing what you do and the value you provide. Personal details still matter because familiarity deepens trust, but strangers usually need useful or compelling content before they care about everyday life. Once intrigued, they can use stories and selective personal material to understand who you really are. The result is a content mix that repeatedly gives the audience a reason to pay attention while allowing appropriate intimacy to support, rather than replace, expertise.
Origin
Rory derived the three strategies by asking whom people trust offline, then carrying those trust patterns forward into online content.
Core principles
- 01Online trust mirrors the way trust develops offline
- 02People trust those who teach, encourage, or entertain them
- 03Public content should lead with audience value
- 04Personal detail helps interested people know the person behind the expertise
How to run it
- 1
Choose an E
Assign each planned post a primary job: educate, encourage, or entertain.
Pro tip If it does none of the three, reconsider publishing it.
- 2
Create audience value
Build the post around a lesson, emotional lift, or genuine entertaining experience.
Pro tip Lean hardest into the mode that matches your natural strength.
Watch out Do not force entertainment that feels false.
- 3
Keep the feed purposeful
Make the main feed primarily about what you do and how it helps the audience.
Watch out Strangers rarely care about context-free personal updates.
- 4
Add bounded intimacy
Share suitable details, beliefs, mistakes, or experiences that let interested people know the person behind the work.
Pro tip Choose boundaries before posting, especially around family.
Watch out Trust building does not require exposing private information.
- 5
Review the mix
Check whether your recent content repeatedly delivers value while showing enough humanity to support trust.
In the wild
Rory said most of his feed is education and encouragement because entertainment is not his strength. He occasionally includes his faith or children in the feed and shares more personal context in stories, maintaining both value and familiarity.
→ His content reflects his expertise while still letting followers understand important parts of his identity.
Common mistakes
Posting personal detail without value
People who do not yet know you have little reason to care about everyday details disconnected from their interests.
Treating intimacy as oversharing
You can reveal meaningful, bounded details without exposing children or subjects you choose to keep private.
Is it for you?
Best for
It is best for experts and creators who need a repeatable way to plan useful, trust-building content.
Not ideal for
It is not ideal for private accounts whose purpose is primarily keeping existing friends and family updated.
From the transcript
“we have three three simple strategies that we we teach we call them the three East for Content marketing first of all educate encourage and…”
“your feed is should be more of what you do and it should educate encourage or entertain because strangers don't care about your cat”
From the episode
Rory Vaden: How I’ve Helped Top Business Influencers Build Their Personal Brands
Rory Vaden