Creating content for your business that your audience actually wants to read (Ep#11)

You've put all that work into building an audience for your business, but it's all for nothing if people aren't actually reading/watching/listening to the content you put out.

In this video I'm sharing a shift in thinking to help you create content that serves both your goals as a business, and your audience's goals - keeping them in your audience, boosting engagement and ultimately leading to more sales.

Plus an AI-free exercise to make sure you never run out of unique relevant content again! 

You can download your complimentary guide to "Three Techniques to Validate Your Offer Before You Launch" here: https://www.orangesheepresearch.co.uk/validate

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Transcript

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You've worked hard to build your audience. Maybe even spent money if you've been using ads. But it's all for nothing. If they are not reading your emails, not seeing your posts, not engaging and not buying. In today's episode of the upside up marketing podcast, I'm going to be talking about creating content. Your audience actually want to read, want to listen to once a watch. Content and actually wants in their life. And at the end, I'm going to share an exercise that you can use to make sure you never run out of ideas for absolute unique content. And it does not involve using AI. Because content for content's sake does not pay the bills. This is the upside up marketing podcast, Ravi and true. Using marketing to persuade people to buy your thing is hard, icky and not an effective use of your time. It's an upside down way of doing things. Introducing Upside Up Marketing. Helping you create offers people want to buy and share them in a way that feels good. All over a nice cup of tea. Hello, and welcome to this. Week's edition of the upside at marketing podcast is half term here. So, uh, I'm having a crazy day of fitting a whole week's worth of work in so one single day. Um, It's involved a lot of T let me tell you that. But it's all good. And I'm excited to be bringing this episode to you today. Uh, for those of you that haven't met me before, I'm Katie spread Bree. Um, I'm an expert in ideal client focused marketing. Um, and I'm basically bringing my background in market research and psychology and, uh, my eight years of running a business all together to help you create offers and content that connect most deeply with your perfect fit ideal clients, so that you can make a successful business, um, doing marketing in a way that feels good to you. And that works for both you and the people that you're serving. Um, now. Thinking first today about we're talking content. Serving your audience essentially, but why do you want an audience now? A lot of the advice online about building an audience, it all talks about the benefits to you as a business. Oh, and there are a lot of those I highly, highly recommend you building an audience. If you are a business. Um, it helps you build relationships. It helps you build community. Um, it helps you build trust. You know, the more people know you. You've heard of the no, like trust factor. No doubt. Building an audience is pretty much the only way to achieve this. It's the best way to achieve it, but sure. Um, it helps your visibility, that there's a, there's a group of people there ready, waiting for your content when it goes out, you're not having to find newbie, but every time. Um, and ultimately it really benefits your sales because people have time to get to know you. They have time to get, to absorb your message, your point of view, your rationale, you got the way you do things and what your offers are. And when they are ready, you are there, you know, they know how to find you, they can purchase. So there are so many, good reasons for building an audience. And when I say building an audience, this could be a social following. It could be your LinkedIn connections. It could be the members of your Facebook group. It could be your email list. You know, it could be your podcast listeners. It could be your YouTube subscribers, wherever people are accessing your content in a way that when you put it out, um, they are likely to see it essentially, you know, they've, they've clicked. Follow they've clicked subscribe. They've somehow said, yes, I want to see more of this. That's what we're talking about today. So that's why you want to build an audience for yourself. But. To make it work. You also need to be thinking about what are the benefits to them. Why should they be sticking around? Having signed up to say yes, I would see more of this stuff. Um, you know, what, what is it? They want to see more of, why should they stick around what is in it for them? Why should they be reading these posts? Why should they be reading these emails, watching these videos, listening to these podcasts, wherever it is. So. You need to be strategic in the content you put out and hands up. I'm not a social media content strategist specifically. I'm not here to say this percentage of your posts need to be sales, posts, value posts, relatable posts, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. But I'm going to give you some overall tips on how you decide what you're going to be talking about and how you form those posts. That's your really, really help you stand out against the other people out there, um, in your niche doing the same things. And make you stand out as somebody that they want to engage with, essentially. Because if you're going to make sales for your content, you need to make sure that the right people are seeing your content and the right people are sticking around. So. I'm going to talk about a few things that I recommend you do do. And then I'm going to talk about a few things. I recommend you. Don't do or only doing moderation. Um, so in terms of what to do. Um, creating content that people want to read, what listened to et cetera, is much like creating offers. They want to buy, which is something I talk about a lot on this podcast. Um, so the key key things that are making it relevant to them. So using detail, reflecting their lived experience. Reflecting their own thought and language patterns, talking about it from their point of view, not from your point of view. Um, so thinking about like what they already know and meeting them where they're at. Um, you know, that is relevant here as well. Um, and also make sure you're telling them something new. There's nothing worse than the generalist top level vape it. Platitudes that are churned out on social media. Partly by people just copying their latest mentor, um, and what content they've put out. That's already inspired them and just putting out the same thing. Partly through the sort of overuse of AI in the content space. Now, generative. AI is essentially a text predictor. So at its worst, it's just churning out what word thinks is most likely to come next. And if you want your content to stand out, you don't want to be saying the most likely thing. You want to be saying something different and new. So make sure you're telling them something new, because if you're just. Doing this sort of churned out content. You're just going to blend in with everyone else. So instead of surprise them with an angle they'd never considered, um, surprised them with your take on a hot topic. Uh, give them a new idea, something that you have done, um, conversations that you've had, you know, questions that you've had, anything that comes from your own experience or from their experience that will help them. And isn't just the same as everything else that's out there. Um, another way to make sure you're standing out is to make it personal now. Um, I'm not talking about sharing your whole life on social media. This is something that I feel strongly about and I just caveating that. Now I'm going to save that discussion for the things not to do, but do make it personal because the more people see you and get a feel for who you are and your values, and you know what you're doing, they'll feel the relationship developing. And they will start to grow that low, no like trust factor and stick around. Now. Like I say, I don't mean that you have to be personal or share stuff about your life and family that you're not comfortable with. Um, no. One's asking you to flaunt your kids to make sales. but share stories of your life. Situations you've been in, make it real, make it fun, make it enjoyable, make it something that you know is fun for them to read, to watch, to listen to. Whilst all the time, keeping in mind, how is this actually helping them? What is it actually bringing to them? Um, it's a good idea to make a list of all the ideas in your business that are important for people to understand in order to move forward with the problems they have. So, um, for me, that might be, um, the sort of general themes of my business are. Um, good communication are understanding things from like looking at things from another person's point of view. Um, are the ethics of marketing and the way you share things. Um, you know, all this sort of thing. Thinking about it from a I'm thinking about it from their point of view, but then using your own personal stories and experiences to bring flavor and life to that. So thinking about mixing those things up. Um, and finally encouraged engagement all the time. Encouraged engagement. Ask questions, invite comments, start discussions. Um, you know, you couldn't put out. Controversial statements and get their take on it. Like old style English class essay questions, um, such as, uh, you are your ideal client discuss, you know, that that always used to be the, uh, statement, didn't it. And then discuss, um, and you know, like, Invite contributions like that. I asked them their opinions after questions, would you prefer to. X or Y. Um, what's going on for you right now? You know, anything that they can get involved with and have discussions about. That is related to the area. If your work I'm not talking about putting up a post saying, do you prefer to your coffee? I call that content for content's sake. And I think it's just really dull and yeah, it gets people engaging, but not in a way that really develops their relationship or develops their understanding of what you do. So think hard about whether that's where you want to be. And I'm going to talk more about that in a minute, but. Anything that encourages engagement and the right sort of engagement should be encouraged. There's not only helped build the relationship between you, which increases trust. But also it helps the algorithms know who to put your content in front of. Um, and it helps the email service providers know that your emails belong in the primary inbox, not the promotions tab and so on. So engagement is a really, really important thing to think about when you're creating your content. Now that was what to do. Now I'm going to come on what to avoid. So my personal views on this. Avoid leaning too hard on the friend zone. So try to keep your posts relevant to business, at least in some way, even the engagement ones in the personal ones, try and link it back somehow. Yes, entrepreneurship can be lonely. And yes, it's really nice to build up a bunch of people on social media, who you vibe with, and you can con comment on each other's posts and, you know, you get that buzz don't you, when you get comments and reactions and things like that. But if they're not from people that are ultimately ever going to buy from you or who are going to be able to recommend you, or, you know, are going to be a benefit to your business in some way, you could be creating an echo chamber around the wrong sort of person, which means that all the effort. You're putting into your content. Marketing is not going to be paying off. This is often like, um, Like a sign of this might be where if you put out posts like, you know, tea or coffee, or, you know, very sort of a generic friendly. Post that you sort of maybe do, if you were interacting with your mates or something. Um, and you get really good reactions to that, but whenever you post about business, you get silence. That is a clue that you might have slipped your audience into the friend zone. Um, so be really, really aware of that when you're thinking about what you're sharing, because engagement is good. But it's got to be engagement from the right people to be useful for your business. So just have a think about that. I'm not saying you could never do this, but in moderation. Um, Also. A lot of coaches will tell you about being vulnerable. Showing vulnerability. Vulnerability is relatable. It helps people connect with you, et cetera, et cetera. Now, this is all true. But I see people taking it too far and I would advise strongly against using your audiences, your therapist, or using your social media as your personal journal. Um, people have a lot to bear already. Everyone is at capacity. And if they, you know, if you've done a good job of building up relationships with people in your content, and then they're seeing you struggling. That weighs heavy on them. You know, that's something for them to bear as well. And that is what your friends are for. That is not what your potential clients are for. So if you're using your content to get potential clients, which I suspect you are, if you're listening to this podcast, Um, don't. Don't be expecting them to bear things that should be for your friends. Yeah. It's not their job to be your therapist, to be your counsel, to be your shoulder, to cry on. Um, so just be really, really mindful of that. It can be, again, really tempting if something is like filling up your whole mind to just go on social media and talk about it, but just have a real think about what's the strategy there. What are you actually doing? What you're actually achieving with that? Because chances are the, answer's not much. Um, You know, and it could be detrimental for your business. It could also, um, you know, if someone's been thinking about signing up to work with you, and then you're on there saying you're having such a tough time, they might think. Or I don't want to put myself on her as well at the moment. I'm just going to hold back for a while, and that is obviously a direct detriment to your business. So just be really, really mindful of that. When thinking about vulnerabilities to share. Finds talk about stuff that's happened in the past that you're over now. You know, the learnings that come from it and they say speak from the scar, not the wounds don't lay that is, you know, I still think that is good advice, but just when you're in the thick of it, just be really, really careful about what you're sharing and, um, think about what you're trying to achieve for that. I'm funny. I make sure that your posting in line with your values, you know, if you've built a business around, for example, meditation and calmness and helping people be mindful, uh, don't post in a rant when your train is 10 minutes late cause that undermines your co core value of calmness and a. And tranquility and it's completely off-brands. So just be thinking about that as well. Don't undermine yourself with the things you say in the heat of the moment. Dwell on things. And, you know, if it still feels relevant later, you can post it. And so I got really wound up about this, but then I use my techniques to bring center myself again, and I still had a lovely day. Whereas in the past I might have that, that throw me in with a friend the whole day out of the window. You know, so just think about how you're using it and how you're doing it. Ultimately you want people to feel comfortable and supported. In your company. And you want them to be crystal clear on how you're going to be able to help them. So, if someone's confused, they're not going to be buying for you. So every time you're putting out content, think how am I supporting them? How am I. Uh, making sure that they are getting something from this content and it is going to grow our relationship. The most grounding thing is to keep asking yourself the question. Why are they here? And what do they need to hear from me today? As you design your content strategy, or even if you wing it day to day. Mentioning no names me. Uh, keep that in mind always. And you can't go far wrong. Now. In a moment I'm going to share with you that, that exercise, I promise that makes sure you never run out of relevant content ideas. Again, no AI needed. Um, but something else to keep in mind is, um, Making sure you're always sharing content that keeps in mind why they, why they might buy it, buy your offers, why they might need it, why they might want it. And, um, if you want more ideas for that sort of content, then my free guide about the three techniques to validate your offer before you launch it. It's perfect for that. It's three questions that you can go out and ask your audience to make sure there's a need for your offer, desire from your offer for your offer and what might get in the way of them buying your offer and the responses you get from that they can all be repurposed into content. So if you want that free guide really, really quick. Um, really, really easy things to implement. You can have the first one out there within five minutes of downloading the guide. Um, if you want that, check out the link in the show notes. It's www dot. Orange sheep research.co.uk forward slash validate that's orange sheep research.co.uk forward slash validate. Uh, but like I say, Lincoln's in the show notes, so it's just one click away. If you go to that. Um, But yes, I started give you an exercise and this used to be part of a course that I ran about content. Um, I retired the course after AI came out because I couldn't be bothered to rewrite the whole thing. It wasn't direct to my business was going, but I still stand by every single thing that was in that program. And so I will share this exercise with you now because it was a really good one. Um, so the first thing is I mentioned earlier, it's useful to have a list of the general themes of things you talk about in your business. So, uh, like I said, mine is like good communication, understanding things from other people's point of view, doing things ethically, respecting others, et cetera, et cetera. Write down what those key themes are for your business. Um, if you don't already have them. Because that will make the second part of this even more powerful because it'll make sure everything you do is relevant. But the exercise itself is to get up, walk away from your desk and go for a walk. Whether that's the school run a trip to the shops, the local park. Uh, whatever it is, uh, ideally somewhere where lots of activity and people, because that will make your life easier, but not necessarily, that's not essential. Um, yeah, go for a walk. And as you do, write down five things that you see that you could turn into a content story. Um, so for example, that mom in the supermarket with three kids hanging off her screaming and trying to grab things off the shelves, whilst another one's trying to escape, et cetera, et cetera. Um, I post about multitasking or empathy or the importance of self care for this poor mom when she gets home and gets a moment. That squibble burying enough. Well, that's supposed about putting things away from this. For the future about being prepared the kids in the playground could inspire a post about, uh, the care fee free naivety of youth. Um, about the way we build relationships, the way our personalities form differences in communication and the way kids interact with each other. Um, things you didn't know them, which you do know now what you wants to be when you grow up, you know, anything. It's a whole wealth of ideas. It can be turned into anything. The world is rich with possibilities. And, um, it's like a muscle, like the more you practice this, the more you will see content everywhere you go. And all that content is unique to you and could not have been written with AI because it comes from your real life. So, um, you can have that one for free today. Um, I have a go. And if you do tag me wherever you are, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, or put all the links to my socials in the show notes, you can find me wherever you hang out. Um, and why not send me a message. So let me know how you got on. Uh, that's all for this week. Don't forget to subscribe. So you don't miss the next episode when it comes out. And, um, If you enjoyed this episode, please, please. Do consider leaving me a review? Um, it again helps get the word out and it helps get the upside up way of doing your marketing spread into the world. This is a real. Thing that I want to get out there. I want to get everywhere. I want to make this the default basically for how people run their businesses and do their marketing. Um, so do spread the word. And, um, I will see you next time.