Content marketing, without a doubt, has become a powerful tool and potentially a path to profit (hey I love alliteration). It is often the currency that buys service providers, thought leaders, and marketers their prospects’ time.
It comes in various forms, including video which continues to grow like crazy. That’s reflected in the following stats:
-Where both text and video is available, 72% of people would rather see a video.
-81% of people have been convinced to buy a product or service after watching a brand’s video
-76% of marketers say video has helped increase traffic to their websites
(The State of Video Marketing in 2018 -HubSpot)
Perhaps you enjoy blogging and consequently produce a new blog post weekly, or even daily. Even after just several months, that will be a lot of content.
Or maybe creating beautiful, content-rich presentations and infographics is your thing, so you utilize Slide Share, which happens to be owned by LinkedIn. These content strategies are in line with:
-Over half of marketers in 2017 reported that content marketing is their top inbound strategy
-82% of customers have a more positive outlook on a company after reading custom content
-Also, 74% of brands found that both lead quantity and quality increased with a solid content marketing strategy.
-Most of us know that content marketing tends to cost considerably less than paid advertising. That makes sense considering ads are typically paid. It’s also due to content marketing leading to more engaged, informed prospects. A study shows that average customer acquisition costs, even for a large company dropped from $108 to $64 per lead after switching from a paid search to a content marketing strategy.
Ok, Rachel, you’ve made the case for content marketing, you say. So what is missing?
For a number of small businesses, entrepreneurs (particularly solopreneurs), including service providers, what’s missing from content marketing is marketing!
What I mean is you’re not marketing your content enough. Writing a blog post on LinkedIn, for example, can be a form of content marketing. I see so many write a post, often inconsistently (hey I’m guilty too) and do nothing else. Have we not established that the “build it and they will come” concept doesn’t really work? 
Your blog posts, videos, presentations, infographics, and podcasts need to be promoted – a LOT!
If you’re only blogging on your own website, stop! That is, stop until you have an effective strategy to market your content (which should support your products, services, brand, and value you offer) like a real BOSS.
This may come as a surprise, but unless you’re Neil Patel, Ryan Deiss, Amy Porterfield, any Kardashian, or someone with even a third of any of these folks’ following, not many people are organically rushing to your website. You have to drive them there, as well as show up in a plethora of other places (I love saying ‘plethora’).
The reason some of you are not getting results from content marketing is that your marketing of the content is lacking.
Some of my clients think they need more and/or better content. Sometimes that is true. Often it’s not. It’s not always about creating more content. More than you realize, it’s about not sharing (and repurposing) the content you already have enough. I’ve been known to do the following:
-Share my blog posts, updates, promos on LinkedIn twice in the same day, post to Instagram sometimes 3-4x a day.
-For my best posts, I share them throughout the year.
-Share the same content on Twitter 3-5 times a day (bestselling author, sales guru, and major online influencer Grant Cardone has said he has no problem promoting on Twitter 10+ times a day). If you know anything about Twitter, you know it moves fast. Share something once or twice a week there, and it gets lost.
-Share my best content across multiple platforms such as LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, as well as via live stream on a couple of those, along with Periscope.
-Share content with my email list, Facebook Messenger (say hello, ask a question, sign up for the Get Out of Your Own Way Already Project by typing “get out the way”) and text community…frequently.
-This one may really be earth shattering. Are you sitting down? I ask others to share my content! I know. Imagine that.
Are you partnering with others, whether clients, referral partners, influential brands, to market your content? You may not have a large or loyal following (as it’s not always about the size), but I bet you know others who do. What’s stopping you from reaching out to them? Pitching your ideas, products, and services to them? If what you have to offer adds value to their audience, you have a good shot at getting their attention.
After completing another interview next week, I will have made almost 10 podcast, radio, and virtual summit appearances this year. While that’s decent, I’d like to do considerably more (here is one I did on the Career Tipper Podcast talking about LinkedIn and brand strategy).
Appearing on podcasts, especially of those hosted by credible people with an engaged audience who trusts them, can be a
great way of getting your brand out there. And remember that content can be consumed (and acted upon) over and over again.
Content marketing is meant to be marketed. More than once. More than twice. Are you a marketer or a mouse? Do you believe in what you do or just playing around? Are you serious about making an impact or not? And before you think it or say it (maybe you already have), being shy, an introvert, or afraid is no excuse.
If you’re going to be in business, sales, an influencer, raise money, or all the above, you have to be a better marketer despite all that. As someone who used to be pretty shy, am still introverted (sometimes I actually fool people that I’m not the least bit), and deal with fear, I know it can be done.
Worried about bugging people? Unless you’re actually getting that feedback specifically, don’t be. And then sometimes, even if that happens, you should not necessarily worry. Those people may not be your target audience. Too many entrepreneurs and marketers ASSUME they’re bugging people by being too visible. Folks we know what assuming can do.
I cannot say it enough: people are busy (often busy at being busy). The online world is especially noisy. You have to be very intentional and consistent about rising above the noise. Don’t just be a creator of content. Share the content…like your life depends on it. In some ways, it kind of does.
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©2018 by Rachel Wilson Thibodeaux. All Rights Reserved. Rachel Wilson Thibodeaux, also known online as the SWAG Strategist, is an award-winning speaker, brand and business development strategist, Amazon bestselling author and founder of SWAG Strategy Solutions (SWAG -Strategic Women Achieve Growth). She is also the creator of the Brand. Sell. Profit.™ system, which her latest book, Brand Sell Profit: Slay Your Brand, Sell Like a Champ, and Profit Like a Boss is based upon. Rachel’s clients turn to her when they want to tell their BEST brand story, the one that resonates, disrupts and takes them from boring to bankable. To find out more about how she can help you, your business, etc schedule a COMPLIMENTARY Brand Sell Profit or LinkedIn Transformation Session, while they’re still available, at www.swagstrategy.com/contact
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