Most companies strongly differentiate between content and marketing. They perceive marketing as the distinct process by which they sell their content. (Note: content in this context may refer to any product and/or service). They believe that giving away content is a money wasting exercise.
This thinking is counterintuitive. If your prospect doesn’t get a chance to try your (best-quality) content, they have no means of assessing its value and no reason to trust your value proposition.
When you think of your content, you should think of it in the following context:
- free line content. Content to attract prospects, get subscribers, build your list of prospects.
- Relationship content. Content to connect with prospects, build relationships. (Moving parade).
- Content conversion. Content to make a product offer.
- income content. Content that is your primary revenue-generating product and/or service.
(Note that Content 1-3 is typically a subset of your Revenue Content.)
Thinking of your content as marketing, as opposed to what your marketing sells, produces a significant paradigm shift. Change your mindset from trying to ‘get’ something, to trying to ‘give’ something.
Change your way of thinking FROM:
“How can I persuade or convince my prospect to give me their money?”
A:
“How can I give my prospect the highest value? How can I get them to take my knowledge and get some real-world experience, use the content and get some results, so that when I go in and ask them if they’d like invest in some of my other stuff, they say YES, because they TRUST you and have first-hand experience that your products work for them.”
Businesses that use content marketing build more trusted and long-lasting relationships with their leads and customers, resulting in better conversion and higher marginal net customer value.
Here is a 4-step process on how to use your content as marketing:
1- Move the free line.
- Identify the most EMOTIONAL need or want your prospect is experiencing.
- Create a piece of free content that helps your prospect meet their needs as quickly as possible.
- Place content in the package with the highest perceived value.
- Put it in the hands of as many people as you can find to take it.
2- Build relationships.
- Make a list of the top 10 problems your prospects face. (Note that it focuses on people’s problems, as people are generally more motivated to move away from pain than towards pleasure.)
- Create a “Relationship Content” piece to help your prospects get results as quickly as possible.
- Structure this content into an easy-to-absorb, high-perceived-value format and deliver it to potential customers (IE emails, PDFs, reports, audios, podcasts, videos, e-courses, etc.).
3- Convert Sales.
- Focus on customers’ problems, frustrations, wants, and goals, and continue to learn by asking questions.
- Start selling individual inquiries and move up to groups of 3, 5, 10 or more.
- Create a “conversion conversation” based on asking questions and relating your materials to the specific issues your prospects mention.
- Based on your first 100 “Conversion Conversations”, create conversion literature that optimizes your sales process.
4- Value for life.
- Move your customers through your sales funnel using content as an incentive.
- Continue to deliver Relation and Conversion content throughout the life of your customer. IE Keep delivering content and value to them until they ask you to stop.
- Remember that it’s okay to ask your prospects and customers to buy from you. Delivering valuable and free content creates a reciprocal obligation; your prospects will feel compelled to buy from you in return for the high value you provide.