You’re a business owner and several consultants have told you that you have to have a blog, be on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Instagram, Foursquare, and more. You also need video, free white papers, and a podcast…what, are you kidding me?
Where’s the easy button?
How do you find the time to create compelling content when you can barely find the time to take a lunch break. Your staff needs you, your clients need you, and your family needs you.
Getting your company to stand out in a cluttered digital world doesn’t have to make you crazy. Let it sink in for a minute. I work with CEOs, COOs, employees, and solo-entrepreneurs. All of them have jobs to do other than cranking out content to attract more business.
Produce Content
But the bottom line is if you’re not making your company a content producer, you’re not going to have a chance at standing out in a cluttered digital world. However, just because you create content doesn’t mean you’ll stand out.
Now, this really sucks. If my company begins to create content it has only about a 50-50 chance of ever getting seen?
Yes.
Then why do it? Because you will find that you willingly either become an active participant now or you will begrudgingly get dragged into participating later. How do I know this? I watch business trends. At one time you may not have wanted a Facebook fan page (or maybe you don’t have one now). Before that you might not have wanted a website. After all, can’t my clients just find me in that longtime print directory book? LOL!
So you want to stand out? Then start with these three tips to get your content seen.
1. Make your headlines eye-catching. If you don’t, you risk the chance of your post never being read or shared. When I first started writing, I thought being unique was the key. When it comes to Web content, however, that’s not the best strategy. Instead, you need to create titles that might be considered long-tale search strings of phrases that the audience you’re trying to reach would likely type into a search engine to find your article.
As book editors have always said, numbers in titles are an excellent way to capture attention. As readers we all like to gain knowledge in a succinct, easy-to-digest way, such as “3 tips, 5 solutions, 7 answers to”… are all great ways to get people to click your link.
The best way to learn to write titles is to study the links you click on. What do you like or dislike about them? Then go to LinkedIn and review the top posts. At the time of this writing, four of the top five posts (on a variety of topics) use a number in the title.
2. Showcase your expertise, not your sales pitch. You’re producing content to engage, inform, attract potential clients, and retain current clients. Through this content you must showcase your expertise. Think Like A Journalist and inform rather than sell.
Identify the top concerns that your current clients have and start listing them on a document. These will become the topics of your future posts or videos. Address the concerns of your audience and they’ll become lifelong customers. Your expertise is valuable to them. Finding an article or video that helps them with a solution to their problem is one of the fastest ways to stand out in a cluttered digital world.
Stand out by showcasing your expertise; that is what sells your brand. Here’s a video I did a while back when video was just starting to become popular. It’s the solution to the problem of being able to talk on camera without having to look down at the notes and without using an expensive TelePrompTer like the newscasters do.
3. Devote time to sharing your content. Creating content only goes so far. If you hire a company to help produce content and then don’t train your staff to help share it, you’re leaving money on the table. The content you create for your website, newsletters, and social media, can only work for you if you share it. So, if you feel compelled, please do share this post. I’d be grateful.
Sometimes businesses get bogged down and then think if they just post the content to their website or their YouTube channel, it will magically work wonders. It can if the company is posting and uploading frequently. But when a team works together, that’s when the magic really happens. Getting your staff to understand how sharing this content can help them with their individual jobs as well as the whole company is vital. For instance, if you have lead generation videos (you can see examples of some on LiveFitFilms.com), create an established (automated) process to send those out every time a potential customer signs up for your newsletter or contacts your office. In the signature of your emails, place a link to a video or blog post that will provide resources for your target audience. Make it a priority to have every employee share your company’s content with their business network. Ultimately, this strengthens the relationship each of your team members has with your current clients as well as increases the odds that your company will stand out in a cluttered digital world.
Now go do it—Think Like A Journalist and produce that content!
Image courtesy of Stuart Miles / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
