So you’ve heard about blogging and vlogging and podcasting, and you know you’re supposed to be putting content out regularly on social media and email.
Maybe you’ve read about a bunch of ‘hacks’ for boosting your social media following or getting 1000 email subscribers and you just feel overwhelmed.
Perhaps you aren’t sure what kind of marketing you should be doing and whether blogs, videos or podcasts could or should be in your plan.
Today, I’m going to tell you why I like content marketing and how to get started without the overwhelm.
The Content Marketing Institute defines Content marketing as: a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly defined audience — and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action.
Translation?
It’s when you create and share helpful content, probably in some online format like a blog, a video or a podcast, and over time you build up an audience who then may become your customers.
Why do I like content marketing?
First and foremost I’m an educator, so I like content marketing because it’s more like teaching students than it is selling to customers.
Does it do both?
Absolutely, but It’s about sharing your knowledge and expertise in ways that help people. It’s about being of service and giving first, without expecting anything in return.
On that note, content marketing adds value to your audience whether or not they are going to become customers down the track.
The majority of them won’t and that’s ok.
It’s not tit for tat, it’s leading with generosity.
That’s a strong value for me and possibly for you too, so if being a generous and giving person is important to you, content marketing is probably a style of marketing that is really in alignment for you.
Content marketing also helps you build a body of work gradually over time.
If you are like many people, you may have a secret or not so secret desire to write a book one day.
If you do, you may find that the idea of sitting down and writing a book from start to finish has been paralysing you.
Well what if you just started with writing 750 words a week in a blog post, or doing a 3 – 5 minute video and getting it transcribed?
After a year you will have more than enough raw content to get your book started!
When it’s done well, content marketing also really respects the customer by giving them the information that they need and leaving the purchasing decision up to them.
Good content marketing is not about using the hard sell or manipulation tactics.
Of course you still need sales processes in place, but it’s about trusting your audience to know what’s best for them and when, and then letting them make the decisions wholeheartedly.
It’s also virtual, which is great always but especially right now in this time of social distancing.
That means you don’t have to leave the house to create the content and your audience doesn’t have to leave the house to consume it.
They can also get it on demand which means if they’re searching for information on how you can help them, they might ‘binge’ your content!
Now, if you read my previous post about 3 reasons not to start a podcast in a pandemic, hopefully you’ve realised that you don’t have to do anything right now to be enough.
Just looking after yourself and your loved ones, and making sure you’re keeping your basic needs met is a big task right now, and you absolutely do NOT have to use this time in isolation to start your blog or launch your podcast or finally write that book.
It’s ok to just be where you are.
But if you do happen to want to get started with content marketing, here are my tips for overcoming overwhelm:
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- Start slow and be gentle on yourself. Don’t make any grand public promises about your plans to blog every single week for the next 7 years. Just start.
- Batch it or take it post by post: Do what works for you (and experiment if you don’t know what that is yet!)
- Create some routine and have a plan, but don’t be too hard on yourself if things don’t quite go to plan (see point 1).
- Don’t compare yourself to people further along the journey or people with big media teams
By the way if you want to find out how you use content marketing to can build your authority and take your online presence to the next level, I’ve got a free webinar that can help you do just that. Sign up here!
Wishing you, your team and your loved ones courage and comfort at this unique time in history.
Take care and I’ll talk to you soon x