Develop Content Your Clients Want

This is a critical step that’s overlooked many times by businesses used to traditional advertising. Social media is not like running an ad in a newspaper or a radio or TV spot. It’s more like writing an article for the paper or having a TV or radio show.

This type of advertising is powerful. Consumers have never wanted to be sold, and that’s especially true today. They love buying, as can be seen in our society, but they don’t want to feel like they were sold.

That’s why ads that look like articles, TV infomercials, sponsored radio shows, magalogs (a sales letter that looks like a magazine), and many other types of ads that strive to look like something other than an ad have been around for many years.

Today, Facebook gives us the chance to use a similar tactic with the option of promoted posts and sponsored stories in the newsfeed. They look like a post from a friend, but they are ads.

The key to getting people to move to the next step with you when you are using these tactics is to develop content your prospects want and give it to them.

I don’t mean just a short sample, I mean a key takeaway they can use and profit from. This will start your relationship with them.

This concept is nothing new. We have been doing it for a long time. When you meet with someone one-to-one, the person you are meeting with needs to get something of value from you. If they don’t, they won’t buy, nor will they want to continue their relationship with you. We are giving more people the content, and we don’t have the one-to-one contact right away. We can get one-to-one contact, if that is your goal. The people you contact when you do this will know and like you and will be closer to buying than the cold calls of yesterday.

What do I mean by content? Content can be many things including:

  •  PDF reports
  • Images/pictures
  • Quotes
  • Industry tips
  • Books
  • Videos
  • Podcasts
  • CDs
  • DVDs

You get the idea.

With all these options, which do you chose?

I recommend starting with one that you can easily create, and then once you are comfortable with it, you can branch out into other types.

The other thing to consider is what your prospects like and what your product lends itself to. Many times your product or service lends itself to one type of content over another. In this case, start with this one. If you don’t get the response you want, then try another one. Also, you may use many of the options in different places to move your prospects closer to buying from you.

Developing content can look overwhelming at first. As you are planning your posting schedule and posting daily, you may wonder how you can get it all done.

Much of what you use on social media is short and quick. You are using it to move people to take the next step. The content for the next step can be more involved, but you don’t need as many of these. Many different posts can lead to the same report or video.

Developing content that your prospects and clients find valuable is one of the key steps to being successful in using social media to grow your business. One of the things I learned from Frank Kern is that everything you are using to sell something needs to be valuable in and of itself, even if the person doesn’t buy from you right away. At the very least, good content is drawing them closer to you, and with enough touches, they will buy from you when the time is right for them.

 

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