Today’s digital world is noisy as heck! It’s not easy to be seen and heard above all the other “marketing noise” on the Internet.
With the Internet being one of the very BEST online marketing vehicles out there, it’s more crowded than ever. You’re not alone out there … all of your competitors are out there too, so how do you make sure you get the attention of those you seek?
You’ve got to stand out! And, one of the best ways I know of to stand out from your competitors, is by offering as much as you can, for free. I don’t mean your time or your product, or your services. I mean knowledge by way of free content.
As a coach or speaker, how much value would it bring to your clients and potential clients, for you to provide real, actionable tips in your email marketing? How powerful would it be to email your list with a link to an article you believe will lead to their growth? What would people think if you were to go out of your way just to share something … no strings attached?
Free content provides value and benefit to your target audience!I endeavor to do this in my own content marketing, and when I do, I see great success. With my blog posts, newsletter, and in my social media, I try to focus on providing good, solid, useful information. I very rarely sell to my audience. As a result, people come to appreciate the value I give them; and when they need help with their online marketing, I come to mind as a person who can help them.
Are you giving your audience good, quality content (this includes written, visual, or audio that is of value) they can apply in their businesses or in their lives?
Here are five ways you can be giving away good content as part of your marketing strategy:
- Offer a free download or lead magnet. A lead magnet benefits you in multiple ways:
a) It’s one of the very best ways to give away something of value
b) It establishes you as an authority in your area of expertise
c) It allows you to collect leads. 
Create a nurturing email marketing campaign. A nurturing, or “drip” email campaign is an automated series of emails that go out to members of your list at pre-determined intervals. For instance, you may have a campaign for people who sign up for your free download. They would get a welcome email that briefly introduces them to you, and ideally, you’ll give them something else of value—a useful tip or trick they can take away. A week later, they hear from you again with a new valuable resource—no sales pitch! Then another week later, they get yet another message of value. By the time you actually send them a soft sales pitch, readers will be more receptive to listening to your offer because you’ve given them so much of value in the way of free content already.- Blog posts. Your blog posts are a great opportunity for you to share knowledge. If you give away a steady stream of solid, useful content, people are going to keep coming back to your blog over and over again. Again … free content!
- Social media. Your social media accounts should not be primarily used for selling. They should be used for sharing. Selling will come as a result of freely giving useful information. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram… they all give you ample opportunities to give away quality content.
- Develop a free course. Another way to give useful content to your audience is by developing a free course. The easiest way to do this would be to have it delivered by email. However, you could also set it up as a course using an eLearning platform (like WishList Member, Teachable, or Kajabi), on YouTube, or a PDF, or however you would prefer to do it.
Do you have a content marketing plan in place? I’d love to hear about any different ways you’ve tried giving away information to your audience to create value and benefit, and what the results were. Please share by leaving a comment.
Everything I’ve shared here are services my company continues to provide for our clients to help them get out, and stay out, of marketing overwhelm. We work with them to develop a content marketing strategy to help grow their businesses, and then provide the technical services to make it all happen.
If you’d like to know more about the types of services we provide to speakers and coaches just like you, let me know. I’m happy to schedule a time to chat.
In business since 1991, Terry Green is the founder/CEO/President of BizEase Support Solutions, an American-based, online marketing support company comprised of a team of talented professionals from around North America. BizEase excels at providing speakers and business coaches worldwide with seamless online marketing solutions, from setting up ecommerce solutions, membership sites, web design and maintenance, to writing blog posts and managing Social Media and PR campaigns. BizEase clients (who span five continents) take great joy in allowing the BizEase team to take care of the details so they can get back to doing what they do best! Click here to get our bi-weekly tips ezine delivered to your inbox every other Friday, with tips on plugins, apps, and tools to make you more productive today!