Posted.
6 likes, 1 "Great Insight!", 0 qualified clicks.
Sound familiar?
The cursor is blinking. You are filled with frustration, not fear. You didn't spend your time crafting that post to feed the void.
Sarah felt it too. New in her role as a content lead at a B2B software company, she'd just shipped her "5 Ways AI" post.
Well-researched. Informative. And like many before, it too was ignored. It did not get the level of interactions or engagement from her customers.
Three months in and 47 posts later, the task felt impossible. As though standing at the base of mount Everest and looking up. The path to summit is long and treacherous. The environment unpredictable.
She started to wonder if she was even the right person for the job.
Sarah isn't alone. Across the digital realm, thousands of creators fight the same battle and make the same mistakes.
Sarah's post failed because it spoke to everyone instead of the person with a pressing problem her company could solve.
As a creator, the job is to cut through corporate noise and reach the actual decision-makers who will click through and eventually become customers.
Every successful climb clears a sequence:
Base Camp -> Khumbu Icefall -> Camp 1 -> Western Cwm (pronounced "koom") -> Lhotse Face -> South Col -> Summit
Skip a stage and you don't gain altitude. Posts work the same way.
Why posts stall here: No clear job. You’re measuring everything, so you learn nothing.
What to do: Choose one outcome per post—Awareness (qualified reach), Engagement (saves, meaningful comments, profile visits), or Action (qualified clicks, replies/DMs). Write it at the top of your draft.
Job examples: “Earn DMs from ops leaders.” “Drive profile visits from PLG founders.” “Retain viewers to the first value reveal.”
Why posts stall here: No tension or payoff in line one; the opening can’t carry you across the “ladder.”
What works:
Mismatch: “The dashboard was green. Pipeline wasn’t.”
Before/after: “5 posts/week → applause. 2 deep posts → ICP replies.”
Specific stat: “65% reached the value point; 35% dropped at the CTA—here’s what we moved.”
Quick check: Would a stranger in your ICP stop on line one?
Why posts stall here: Line two asks for time without promising value.
What works: Make the payoff explicit in one sentence.
“Three changes that cut expedite fees—and the ‘best practice’ that wasted a sprint.”
Quick check: Does line two create enough curiosity to tap?
Why posts stall here: The valley looks flat; people relax and drift. Value shows up late.
What works: Punchline → proof → playbook.
Punchline: “Retention fell when the CTA arrived.”
Proof: “35% drop at 0:18 across two posts.”
Playbook: “Move the ask before the first story beat; mirror it in the first comment.”
Quick check: Would a colleague save this?
Why posts stall here: Generalities. No numbers, no constraint, no trade-off.
What works: Before/after, constraints, trade-offs—your crampons bite here.
“We cut a carousel averaging 120 likes but 0 qualified clicks.”
“We doubled teardown posts; 7 ICP DMs in two weeks.”
Quick check: Would your sharpest skeptic nod once?
Why posts stall here: “Like, comment, and follow!” (three routes at once; momentum fades).
What works: Pick one CTA aligned to the job.
Replies/DMs: “Which would you kill—A (150 likes) or B (7 DMs)? Why?”
Clicks: “Full teardown in the first comment.”
Follows: “Two teardown threads/week—follow for the next one.”
Quick check: Is your CTA singular and visible before the final paragraph?
Why posts stall here: Tracking impressions and likes when the job is action.
What works: Signals that match the job.
Awareness: qualified reach, brand search, follows
Engagement: saves, comment quality, profile visits
Action: qualified clicks, replies/DMs, meetings set
Quick check: Can you explain the win in one sentence your CFO understands?
Day 1 — Base Camp: Audit 10 recent posts. For each, write the job (awareness, engagement, action) and mark where it stalled: Icefall, Camp I, Cwm, Lhotse, South Col.
Day 2 — Route notes: Pull your top 3 by quality signals (saves, profile visits, qualified clicks, DMs). Tag topic • hook • format • CTA • timing.
Day 3–4 — Two re-shots: Sharper opener; explicit promise in line two; the right format (doc for frameworks, short text for a punch, image for proof); one CTA.
Day 5 — Oxygen check: Move the CTA earlier than you think.
Day 6 — Second window: Ship a follow-up reusing the winning combo.
Day 7 — Debrief: Decide keep / iterate / kill. Write one sentence on why. Repeat.
Not a viral spike—repeatable altitude.
Openers
“The dashboard was green. Pipeline wasn’t.”
“We posted 5×/week. Replies didn’t budge. Here’s what did.”
“65% reached the value point; 35% dropped at the CTA. We moved it. Here’s the script.”
CTAs (match the job)
Replies/DMs: “What would you try next?” / “DM ‘Loop’ and I’ll send the checklist.”
Clicks: “Full teardown in the first comment.”
Follows: “Two teardown threads/week—follow for the next one.”
You stop optimizing for applause and start optimizing for forwardability.
Planning gets faster because you repeat topic + hook + format + CTA patterns that beat your baseline.
The team ships with confidence because you’re building momentum, not chasing trends.
“We stopped creating to be seen and started creating to be sent.” — B2B marketing lead
Most “underperforming” posts aren’t bad ideas. They’re good ideas that stall at a lower camp.
Once you see your post as a climb—Icefall, Cwm, Face, South Col—you’ll know exactly where to fix first. You don’t need more content. You need more of what works.
Fewer posts. More momentum. Start by auditing your last 10 posts, pick your winner, and ship one follow-up using the same winning pattern.