Here’s the thing about using content to market your products and services: Content, in general, is not a tool for selling. It’s a tool for connecting with your audience. For growing your audience. For educating your audience so they can make informed decisions.
Most of the time (sales pages and sales funnels being the exception), your content is not for selling. Sure, your content will help you gain sales, but that’s not its primary role. It helps you to establish a relationship with your audience so you can teach them something that will help them. With the right balance of information and support, you’ll eventually persuade them to work with you further.
No one really wants to be sold to. That’s why No Soliciting signs were made. Too bad we can’t hang them on our inboxes and contact forms, right?
People don’t want their inboxes bombarded with content that spouts off your latest and greatest course, program or service. They don’t forever want to hear about why your service is better than your competition’s. That’s just not good marketing practice.
[bctt tweet=”Create a two-way street to give your audience exactly what they want: to be educated and informed.” username=””]
So instead, create a two-way street where you provide your audience exactly what they need to grow in business and in life. That includes:
Demonstrating your expertise
Provide content on a topic that you excel at, on a platform you love. Give that content away for free so you can nurture relationships and set yourself up as the expert you are.
And then, take it a step further. Once someone has read your blog post or watched your video, give them something to take away from it. A workbook, an opt-in, an ebook. Something they can hold onto and actually use so they’ll remember you later.
Find out what content to create for your audience at every stage of their journey with you. Grab my client journey ebook:
Getting to know your audience
You don’t know that you’re providing the information your audience needs and wants until you ask them. Send out a survey so they can tell you what it is that they want from you—and then give that to them.
This is a sure-fire way to deliver exactly what your audience wants. You can guess all day long what your audience is looking for, based on what they already have. But in order to really get inside their heads, you need to take the time to have those conversations and ask. You can do this via an online survey, or talk with them one-on-one.
[bctt tweet=”You need to get to know your audience so you can deliver the content they need and want.” username=””]
Avoiding the norm
There’s a common misunderstanding out there that your blog and the other content you provide should spotlight you and your business. That couldn’t be further from the truth. Your audience doesn’t want to hear about how wonderful you and your services are. You need to show them.
When you provide tons of value to the right people, at the right time in their journey with your business, you’re showing them that you care about them and their success.
Your content is about your audience and their wants and needs. Take a step back and make it about them. Give them answers to their questions and solutions to their problems. Educate them. Don’t sell to them.
You can also focus on specific language and words that help to convert your message into followers and sales. Find out more about these words:
