How often do you communicate with your prospective clients?
I ask this, because some of you may be missing out on an incredible shift, in the way we as small business owners connect with our marketplace.
It used to be about not getting in touch with them too often
Before permission-based marketing became popular, business owners needed to be careful not to bombard their prospective clients with too many communications. Back then, marketers called us because they had our number on a list they bought. They emailed us, because they had our email address on a so called opt-in list they bought. In most cases, these intrusions were unwelcome and were all about what THEY as the marketer, could get from US.
Today, things have changed. Whilst some businesses still push their marketing on us, the majority do not. These days, business owners are learning that you build a database of people who want information from you. You don’t buy lists of people who don’t know you and send them material they never asked you for!
Content marketing
Some of the most savvy small business owners today, use content marketing to educate their prospective clients and engage them. For example, they write regular, valuable blog posts, which offer useful information that will be of direct interest to their ideal profile of client. This information is then search engine optimized and shared across social networks, by people who find it useful. The people who find it useful are, of course, those ideal prospects it was written for. Then, when these people need someone with your expertise or products, you become massively more likely to get their inquiry and business, than some guy they find in a directory.
It works beautifully.
So, today’s informed small business owners are transitioning; from pestering the people on the lists they bought, to attracting inquiries by regularly showcasing their expertise.
When handled correctly, this can be an amazingly powerful form of marketing. It’s also a fraction of the cost of advertising and mailings etc, and the results can be amazing. The tiny blog post I wrote last Wednesday, which generated around £90,000 worth of inquiries in 1 day, is an example. It took minutes to write, cost nothing to publish and was read by thousands of prospective clients.
Today, it’s all about producing regular, valuable content
The primary challenge with content marketing is content. Great, regularly published content to be exact. Previously, business owners needed to be careful not to put too much information in front of prospective clients, today we have the exact opposite situation! Today, the most successful small business content marketers, publish information for their prospective clients many times each week; some do this daily.
By the way, 1 of the 3 blog posts I published yesterday is all about how to write regular, valuable content. If you’ve ever wondered how I produce my material, take a look.
If you want to join the new school of small business marketing, it requires some new skills and a mindset change. The mindset change is easy enough. It’s the shift from pushing sales messages to sharing ideas or education. It’s about remembering that whilst people LOVE to buy things, they HATE to be sold to.
The skills required are easy enough to learn, but they take time to master. The expensive, less effective pursuit marketing of yesterday required that you wrote, or paid someone to write, some sales letters or emails. These were then sent to your “list”. Most small businesses only used them irregularly, usually when they were worried about their sales figures. You may have been one of the brave few, who would pick up the phone and cold call a bunch of busy strangers. Again, it was something that small businesses tended to do irregularly.
Content marketing, which includes; blogging, newsletter marketing, article marketing, video blogging, tutorial marketing etc, requires regular content. You need to show up and you need to show up often! It’s not like using “a sales letter” and doing a mail shot when sales are down – It’s a whole new ball game.
Take Jim’s marketing blog as an example. People come here every day, because they know the site is regularly updated (around 5 times a week.) If I updated it just once a week, fewer people would visit. This means fewer people would see the content, which means fewer people would share the content, which would result in a very small readership that grew very slowly. People only check back to blogs regularly, when they believe there will be something new for them to read.
For every legitimate opportunity, there is a price to pay
Your business has the potential now, to reach as many targeted, prospective clients as you could ever need – And for pennies. As with every great, genuine opportunity, there is planning and work required if you want to see the results. For example:
- It’s a long term investment. Yes, that post of mine last week did amazing things, but there was two and a half years of blogging behind it. Similarly, if you want to build an email marketing list, you will need to work at it too. This all takes time.
- You will need to produce regular content. As I mentioned yesterday on Internet Marketing Jam, this can be as easy or difficult as you want to make it. You will need to start seeing yourself as a content creator or writer. If you have a mental blog that tells you that you are not creative, you either need to get to work on removing it or consider paying a copywriter.
- You will need to put some time aside for writing. I write early in the morning, before my family wake up. This suits me as I am an early bird and it has zero impact on my day. I spend around 25 minutes writing a post.
- You will need to invest in some business quality blog hosting or some business quality email provision (or both.) I just blog.
- You really should invest in a professional looking theme for your blog. I use, and am an affiliate of, the Headway WordPress Theme. It’s what all my blogs are designed with, including this one and I love it.
- You may also want to invest in some professional blog coaching. I have heard great things about Michael Martine. I have no association with Michael whatsoever, but people tell me he really knows his stuff. A good blog coach can save you a lot of time, effort and money. Michael’s reputation is very good.
As well as those suggestions, I have started a blog dedicated exclusively to content marketing online, which I strongly recommend you check out and subscribe too.
We live in an age of unparalleled opportunity. A small business today, with the correct content marketing strategy, can achieve the kind of reach and influence formerly only associated with huge brands with equally huge advertising budgets.
These truly are exciting times to be in business.
Let’s work together and grow your business. To find out more click here!
Photo: Anonymous
Change change change. It’s the only thing that’s constant in this universe and marketing is not in any way exempted from this.
Today, it’s all about building relationship and positioning as an expert in a niche. I think today’s environment and media is much much better for small business owners – myself included.
Great post, great resources, great person: Jim, you’re opening doors, and let inspiration enter in.
Amazing, thank you so much.
Very true, Jim.
Like you, I usually write early in the morning. I think most clearly then and find it takes little time.
I love this sentence: “Great, regularly published content to be exact.” I know people who create great content but they constantly push back at the idea of regularly publishing. The more I write, the more ideas I have. If I sway from regular writing, I find myself struggling for content.
It’s strange how many advertising companies are only NOW coming around to the realization that the “mailing list” approach doesn’t work anymore. There are STILL plenty of content marketing naysayers and I sometimes have to keep from screaming at them when they say to my face “Oh, this is a fad; mailing lists will make a comeback.” Not in this lifetime, I’m afraid…
Content marketing is definitely a great way to drive traffic to your website. It’s a relatively new strategy we use as a business and have seen an instant improvement in traffic.
Now it’s time to convert the traffic (A whole new ball game).
Andy
Spot on, Jim, and thank you for the mention.
Because most people still don’t know what RSS is, email marketing is the number one way we stay in touch after a prospect finds our content online (use an email marketing service like Aweber or MailChimp instead of Feedburner via email). Social media is the other channel for this. Altogether, they form what I call the “golden triangle” of online marketing: blog, email and social media.
Because you were kind enough to mention my blog consulting here I want to do something nice for your readers: If any of you are ready to get more traffic, leads and sales from your business blog, contact me through my contact page or email michaelmartine@gmail.com and mention Jim’s blog post here for a 10% consulting discount.
…see, I told you Michael knew how this stuff worked!
CONTENT, CONTENT, CONTENT!! It is simple, yet the most important. Many large companies struggle with effectively communicating there content! This is very helpful on how to do it right!
Thanks Robyn. BTW: I love what you guys are doing over on
Excellent article. I am currently using a WordPress Blog to promote my new business as a Virtual Assistant. The information you have provided has given me an instant boost!
HT
I’m in the process of starting my own site with a blog, and I plan to write lots of good content.
The only problem is, I’m a beginner. I haven’t had any copywriting experience, and have only been pointed out a few beginner tips.
How long would you say it takes to become a competent content writer? It’s the only thing I’m worried about with my business. I feel I may have to outsource this to begin with.
Daniel,
The issue is not how long does it take to become a competent writer, as you have already demonstrated that with the accurate use of grammar, spelling and use of paragraphs above.
Instead the question you should ask is, have you the drive and energy to write content regularly that helps fulfill the needs of your readers?
Stuart
By the way, Jim stop telling people about Headway, it should be kept secret it is that good
Jokes aside, I highly recommend not only the theme, but the community also. Due to Grant Griffiths I found Jim’s blog and the information and customer service they provide is excellent. If you are a Twitter user I highly recommend following their hashtag #headwaywp for updates of what you can do using WordPress even without using the Headway theme.
Thank you for yet another informative read Jim.
Hey Stuart – Thanks for your kind words about Headway. I must say however that it is our community that makes what we do so much fun.
Plus, it is the Headway community that has made Headway awesome too. Thanks to people like you.
You’re right, “whilst people LOVE to buy things, they HATE to be sold to.” I have to say I’m part of that bracket. I like your advice about regular, even daily content. Albeit, highly valuable content. And I like your reasons. Usually people don’t give a reason for writing daily or weekly, just that one’s better than the other. So I enjoyed your post.
It makes sense. After all quality and originality is what separates your content/articles from all the other junk content. A way to make your content further stand out is to backlink and linkwheel it.
Blogs are great after all I just came here and now Im posting a comment. But my prior customers have no reason to spend there precious time reading my blog.
I would rather stay in touch with DM.
Great post, love your blog!
[...] It matters when you use social media like an old school marketing channel, to interrupt people with unwanted sales messages. [...]
As a number of posts have commented, Content is Indeed King and whilst it can be a chore to sometimes crank out some worthwhile content, it makes all the difference to usability of a website. After all, we all gravitated towards this page as a result of the content being A) Readable and B) Engaging !!