When I look back at the hundreds of articles published on my first blog, a pattern emerges that’s impossible to ignore. Despite pouring equal effort into each piece, the results were dramatically uneven.
I discovered that certain blog posts consistently drove organic traffic month after month, while others barely registered in Google Analytics. Some social media posts sparked conversations and shares, while similar content fell flat. Certain topics reliably converted visitors into email subscribers, while others—despite their quality—failed to inspire action.
This wasn’t a random chance. It was the 80/20 rule in action.
Roughly 20% of our content generated 80% of our results. This single insight transformed our content strategy and freed us from the exhausting hamster wheel of constant creation.
But what exactly is “the” 80-20 rule? How is it related to the Pareto Principle? Who came up with it? and how can we apply it to the content creation world?
All of the above questions and some more will be answered in this post.
What is the 80/20 rule?
The 80/20 rule originates in the observation that 80% of results often come from 20% of efforts.
The 80/20 rule is named the Pareto Principle after the Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto who discovered in the late 18th century that 80% of Italian land was owned by just 20% of the population. He later found similar patterns in other areas, such as wealth distribution, where a small percentage of people controlled the majority of resources.
This observation led to the Pareto Principle (80/20 Rule), which suggests that in many systems, a small number of inputs (20%) are responsible for the majority of outputs (80%). Over time, this idea has been applied beyond economics to business, productivity, and even content creation.
The Pareto Principle is not an exact rule. There is no mathematical law or exact science behind it. It is more of an observation that many natural phenomena follow approximately an 80-20 relation. So why does this matter for content creators like us?
Why the 80/20 Rule Matters for Content Creation
Content creators often struggle with burnout, inefficiency, and low engagement.
I, too, have been stuck in the hamster wheel of creating more and more content. And still, I lacked the results that would have justified this effort.
Once, you realize that much of your content does not contribute to the success of your business, you can focus on the smaller part of the content to figure out how to achieve more with less investment.
Following the 80-20 rule, approximately 20% of your content brings 80% of the results.
Identifying the 20% of efforts that yield the biggest results can help you work smarter, not harder.
If you figure out what makes 20% of your content successful over the 80% that does not bring the results you are looking for, you can focus on creating more of the content that brings results.
Cutting on the 80% of content that does not work so well and putting more of your eggs into the high-impact content basket, will help you achieve more with less work.
Now that we understand why the 80/20 rule is so powerful for content creators, let’s explore how you can apply this principle to transform your own content strategy and achieve better results with less effort.
How to Apply the 80/20 Rule to Your Content Strategy
Audit your content:
Analyze your content. Figure out which pieces bring results in the form of signups, likes, comments, shares, and traffic. Don’t focus too much on vanity metrics like traffic. That is only part of the success. What you want is signups and customers.
Identify what’s working best.
Try to find the why. Why is this content better than other content:
- Is it the topics?
- The style?
- The format?
- Did you promote it more?
- Does it get search traffic?
The better you understand WHY this content drives results, the better can you act on it.
These strategies aren’t just theoretical. They are backed by real-world success stories from content creators who have mastered the art of doing less while achieving more.
Example:
Pat Flynn noticed that his About page attracted a lot of attention. Simply adding a signup form to this one page, increased his opt-ins by 446%.
Source: ProBlogger
Focus on high-impact activities:
Cut out what’s not driving results or eliminate what is blocking it from getting results.
- If you have a social media channel that is not bringing results: Do you want to keep creating content for it?
- If a type of content is not resonating with your audience: Can you use another type?
- If a certain content type works exceptionally well, use it more often.
- If a topic does not resonate, ask yourself if you are attracting the right audience or if you are creating the wrong content.
You can also use the 80-20 rule to structure your work. Focus 80% of your time on responsibilities and commitments. Allow 20% for new ideas, roaming, playing around.
Source: Instagram TravelCon
Repurpose top-performing content:
If you know what works, use this again. If your audience is interested in a topic and your take on it, chances are good that your audience will also like this topic on another channel.
Repurposing your best-performing content is a simple way to multiply results from your high-performing 20% content.
Turn your best blog posts into videos, social media posts, and newsletter emails.
A great example of this concept is Gary Vaynerchuk. You may have noticed that he manages to be active in not one channel but excels at omnipresence. And he does this by identifying the top content and repurposing it into hundreds of new piece of content for various platforms.
Repost engaging content on social media.
Many people believe they constantly have to come up with new content for their social media channels. But the most successful social media people have discovered the best source for high-performing content: Their past posts with the highest engagement, reach and conversions.
Seasoned social media experts have a place where they store their best-performing social media posts and reuse them regularly. You can use a social media scheduling tool to store your old posts. This makes posting them very easy.
Measure and adjust:
Regularly check numbers and analytics to refine your approach. You can only double down on your high-impact 20% content if you know which content is performing well.
But beware of vanity metrics.
On my old blog, I had a piece that drove a lot of search traffic but the topic was not specific enough and this content rarely converted subscribers or customers.
The same goes for social media content. Unrelated “viral” content may earn reach and likes but it will have scant power to build your brand, and community and convert in any way.
Look for more meaningful metrics like conversions, clicks or comments.
With these powerful examples in mind, let’s break down how you can get started applying the 80/20 rule to your own content creation process right away.
Get started using the 80/20 rule of content creation
- Analyze your existing content: Use analytics to identify the tp 20% of your content considering traffic, engagement, signups
- Double down on your top-performing content: Create more of your best content formats. Consider related topics for your most engaging content.
- Repurpose your best content: Turn your best blog content into videos, podcasts, webinars, social media posts or freebies.
- Identify what does not work so well. Cut down on your efforts of creating low-performing content.
- Measure and adjust: monitor results and identify opportunities.
While focusing on the core 80/20 principle will dramatically improve your content strategy, there are actually several variations of this rule that you can apply to different aspects of your content creation. I recently had fun with a client exploring multiple 80/20 rules for various use cases. My rule of thumb? If in doubt, make it 80/20.
Examples of 80/20 rules for your content success
Here are some other examples where you can apply the Pareto Principle to content creation:
80% Evergreen, 20% Trending:
Evergreen content has a clear advantage over news or trending content. Evergreen content is perfect for repurposing, it is the best content to earn search traffic.
Focus 80% of your content on evergreen topics that remain valuable over time, while dedicating 20% to trending topics that capitalize on current events and viral moments.
80% Value, 20% Call-to-Action:
If you have been active in the content marketing world, you know by now that content is not so much about selling and promoting but a lot more about providing information your audience wants or needs. The best content creators excel at packaging their sales messages in content that feels like a story or a guide to solve a problem.
Ensure that 80% of your content provides value (education, entertainment, insights), and only 20% is dedicated to direct calls-to-action (selling, sign-ups, subscriptions).
80% Repurposed, 20% New:
I already talked about the significance of content repurposing for efficient content creation. But you cannot rely fully on your existing content or your audience will eventually be bored. How much new content you need also depends on how much great content you already have. If you are new to content creation, you need to create more. If you already have a ton of content, you can repurpose more.
As a rule of thumb, reuse and adapt 80% of your content (e.g., turning blog posts into social media snippets or videos), while creating 20% fresh, original material.
80% Storytelling, 20% Facts:
Storytelling is very powerful. But your audience does not want to hear or read endless rambling you also need to provide clear advice and facts.
Make 80% of your content engaging through storytelling and narratives, while 20% focuses on raw data, statistics, or direct information.
80% Quality, 20% Quantity:
It is fact that creating quality content takes time and effort. If you focus too much on the number of content pieces you create, the quality will suffer. But many pieces of low-quality content will not bring you the success of a few high-quality pieces. And since you still need a couple of pieces to succeed, here is your rule of thumb for the quality vs. quantity question.
Prioritize high-quality, impactful content 80% of the time, and 20% of the time focus on producing consistent, quick-turnaround pieces.
80% Educational, 20% Entertaining:
Focus 80% of your content on educating your audience while keeping 20% dedicated to light, fun, or engaging material to maintain interest.
80% Listening, 20% Talking:
If you want to create content for your audience, listening is the best tool you have. People tell you what they need, they love talking about their questions and problems. If you listen, you can find the topics with the most impact and address your audience with the right words.
There’s gold in what people say.
Invest 80% of your time in listening and your talking will become a lot more targeted.
80% Distribution, 20% Creation
The times when good content would automatically rise to the top are long over. If you don’t focus on distributing your content, it is likely to go unnoticed. Most content dies because no one sees it. Don’t wait for people to find your content. Find an audience for your content!
80% Clarity, 20% Creativity:
Your audience does not want to guess what your content is about. If you want people to consume your content make it clear what it is about and what you are saying. Invest in editing – not just correcting spelling and grammar. Clever doesn’t convert. Clear messaging does.
As you can see, the Pareto Principle offers a versatile framework that can be applied to nearly every aspect of content creation. By embracing these various 80/20 rules, you can transform your approach to content marketing and achieve remarkable results with far less effort.
Understanding the Pareto Principle for Content Creation
Understanding the Pareto Principle helps content creators focus on the 20% of efforts that drive 80% of results, maximizing impact while reducing wasted time. The 80/20 rule applies to many different situations and is a great way to identify the most important or effective content, though it’s not a hard rule. Instead, it serves as a guideline to find opportunities for improvement, helping creators work smarter, repurpose effectively, and boost growth with less effort.
Ready to discover which 20% of your content strategy is driving 80% of your results?
