Over the next few days, we thought we’d highlight some key things you should know about publishing online content…and the mistakes you should avoid.
Mistake #1: Only Using Content as a Traffic Generator
Most people know that content is a great traffic generator. You make a blog post, publish a report and bam…people to come visit your website.
A lot of people also know that you can grow your mailing list through content. You create some content and you offer them a downloadable report, template, spreadsheet or something that helps them solve a problem. Your visitor opt-ins to get the content and you get a new subscriber. Easy peasy.
But here’s what a lot of people don’t realize…
Content is an amazing selling tool. So if you ever think free content creation isn’t worthwhile and you’re saving all your best stuff for your products or books, think again.
Content is conversation. By creating free content, you engage your audience in a conversation. Sometimes it’s a real two-way conversation through comments, but sometimes more of a figurative conversation where you’re delivering the help your audience is telling you they need. This builds trust and if you want to sell stuff, you have to have trust.
Content is education. Making the right product decision requires good information. Let us explain…
A consumer needs to understand what their problem is before they even know they need a product. As a content creator, it’s your job to help your reader figure that out. So for example, if you publish weight loss content, you can help people figure out their issues around weight.
Are they emotional eaters? Do they have issues with portion-sizes? Or do they choose the wrong foods?
Next, it’s your job to connect them to a solution to that problem.
Let’s say you have a product about emotional overeating, you can provide them with tips to start battling the issue, but then recommend your coaching program to give them individualized help. All the while, you’re giving them the courage to fight this problem and showing them they can’t allow it to linger any longer.
This is powerful stuff. When you can educate and sell at the same time, you’ve got yourself a license to make money all day, every day.
You might notice that we use a lot of content when we sell products and we get emails thanking us for doing so. Yep, they actually thank us for our information AND for introducing them to the right products.
That’s because we want our customers to be as educated as possible before they buy, so they know they’re making the right choice and can’t wait to get started. We also do it for those who won’t buy this time around, so they feel they’re getting a lot of value from the content and might even refer their friend to buy our products.
It’s a win-win all around.
So keep that in mind as you create content. Don’t worry about coming up with a ton of topics and trying to pump out blog post after blog post. Instead, consider the products you want to sell and how can you educate your audience into making the right buying decision?
That’s all for now…we’ll be back tomorrow with another mistake you’ll want to steer clear of.
What to Do Next: Take Your Content Marketing to the Next Level with 40% Off Our “Content Management for Traffic and Monetization” Templates.
Make it easier to make your content work for you with our Content Management for Traffic and Monetization Templates Package that includes
- Insider’s Strategy Guide with our best content marketing strategies.
- Daily, Weekly and Monthly Content Planner to keep you fully organized and on track.
- Master Content List to ensure you are maximizing all the content you publish.
- Master Affiliate Promotions List to help monetize your content.
- Master Products/Services Promotions List to help monetize your content,
- 50 Things to Blog or Post About so you never run out of ideas.
Click here to content management template package.
And, of course, use our special coupon code to get 40% off. Coupon code: EWLBLOG
You can use these templates for your own webinars are select developer or resell rights to use the templates for your clients or to sell them. The choice is yours!
Stay Up to Date with Elite Writer’s Lab
[jazzyoptin form_id=”1″]