And the three golden rules you must follow to convert readers into clients.
“Daniel, the time has come to worry less about your friends and more about your clients.”
It was a statement that infuriated me at the time – how could he even say that I thought…? What right does…? and then it hit me between the eyes like a flying house brick. My business coach was right.
I had been investing all of my time researching, writing, and sharing blog articles to promote my business, the net result of which had been ‘likes’ from high school friends and a couple of encouraging comments from my Mum.
Those close to me ‘liked’ what I was writing, but no one out there cared enough to buy from me. Sh*t! I was stuck in the friend zone.
Despite the sage advice my coach had delivered that day, I’ll admit it wasn’t until I learnt the true purpose of content marketing that I stopped investing my time writing content that I assumed people cared about.
As Philipp Wolf outlines in a recent article published on Buzzsumo:
“By itself, content is just that – content. It may be educational, it may be entertaining, but no matter how great it is, it won’t transform your business overnight if it doesn’t have a goal.”
And of course, that goal – the reason you invest nights, mornings and weekends writing and re-writing content – is to drive profitable client action. Simple right? Not exactly.
Unless of course you follow the three golden rules for getting out of the friend zone and into the ‘I want to give you my money’ zone. Put differently these are the three things your content must do for your clients to get them to take action.
- Pique their interest
Ever heard the saying ‘so what, who cares?’ – remember this and use this as the yardstick against which you can judge all your content.
Like it or not, your marketing content is advertising and as Howard Gossage puts it “nobody reads advertising. People read what interests them.”
If your content is not relevant and interesting to your client, they will swiftly swipe you off their screen. Worse still you have just ruined your chances of getting them to know you.
- Be valuable
At all times you must aim to produce informative content which can help your clients learn something, achieve something good, or avoid something bad. Google, the largest digital catalogue of information in the world is built around this very thing. Google rewards businesses whose websites provide answers to questions.
- Build trust
As a financial adviser this can be far easier said than done. But I can assure you that if your content is consistently relevant and valuable to your audience, they will begin to see you as a subject matter expert – better still, someone they can trust.
Internationally renowned marketing guru Neil Patel unashamedly beats on about the importance of not just building an audience, but about building “an audience that trusts, believes, and buys from you.”
The best news is this: great marketing content will see your clients sail through the first two phases of the buying cycle – awareness and research. This ultimately ensures that by the time they reach the final two phases: consideration and purchase – they are convinced they need to work with you, and only you.
If you follow these golden rules, I can assure you that not only will your friends from high school like your blog posts, your new clients will too.
If you’re interested to learn how you can use content marketing to generate new leads on demand – register for our 6 week Lead Generating Masterclass for Financial Advisers. Sign up today and take control over the growth of your business.
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