Nov 30, 2020
What if I told you that there was a highly effective, simple, and cheap way to grow your business? You’d want to try it, right? I would. But a huge number of side hustlers are ignoring this essential piece of expanding their reach and customer base. It’s called “Content Marketing”
What is content marketing?
Well, simply put, content marketing is when you share useful information on your blog, your youtube channel, your social media, what-have-you that does not explicitly promote what you sell.
Some examples include if you’re running a food blog you could share recipes, tips on kitchen organization, or something like how to choose an Instapot. Again, something that your audience would find useful that has no push to sell anything. If your niche is health and fitness, maybe share your workout routine, or a routine you’d like to try as well, a daily menu, or even mindset journal prompts to help your readers with their fitness journaling. In the makeup niche, try giving a 5 minute face, tips for picking out the perfect shade of lipstick, or common mistakes beginners make. Notice that none of these examples mention selling anything.
The content needs to be interesting and relevant.
Keep it interesting and relevant, even if they don’t buy anything. Here’s the other thing, it needs to be sharable. This helps because it makes you known as an expert (for more on that you can listen to episode 40), or someone they can go to for their specific situation. It also expands your reach past your immediate circle.
A problem many people run into is that when they share content is that it only reaches your mom and aunt, then some people you work with, and then maybe a person or two in their social circles but then it just plateaus or stops. You can’t find a way to break that circle. Just sharing content helps you expand your reach.
Think of how many times you’ve seen recipes shared on facebook. When this is shared it can move to your friends full list of friends, and then their whole list of friends, and so on. Ideally everything we write will become a viral sensation, but even if your content only reaches a few new people each time, isn’t that worth it? The answer is a solid YES.
Content marketing allows you to have a “Know, Like, and Trust” factor with your audience.
This allows your audience to feel connected to your or like they know you. If you’ve ever followed a celebrity on twitter and you feel like you could be friends with them in real life, you get it, because you feel like you know who they are. Content, like interviews for the press, or even roles they play make you feel that connection and get you on “their team,” or liking them.
Then there’s the trust side. Do I feel like this person has my best interest at heart or do I feel like they’re just pushers of a product? We all know that person who is always selling their thing. We might know them and like them, but we do trust that they are looking out for us? No, because they are skipping the first two steps to be invited into our world.
A question I’m often asked is: Can’t I just post on social media?
Well, no. While social media provides a vehicle you and others can use to share your content, and you can certainly use it to repurpose your content, it should not be the primary home for your content. Why? It is rented land. If you’re only creating content on Facebook, you’re leaving your business in the hands of a strange, fickle digital landlord who can choose to censor your posts, ban you from the platform, change the entire format of the site, or just wake up and decide he’s done with this and burn the whole thing down. Mix and vary your means of content delivery. When you create content on your own website, you can’t get shadow banned.
How do I get started with content marketing?
Choose an output format. Are you going to blog, podcast, or produce your content with a video channel? This is all up to you and what you like to do. Next, you need to start thinking of what your audience wants to know about? Think about who you want to talk to. Then, start writing or recording. Get out there and make that content. Just remember, provide value first. Providing great content makes selling easier.
I know your time is limited and you want to spend it on things that are going to get you results. That is why I am so passionate about content marketing. I believe with all of my being that this works. It takes time, and there is a bit of a learning curve, but it is worth it. Content marketing gets you in front of more people. It builds you up as an authority that people can go to because you are the person to go to on that topic. Your content is there as long as your website is up. They will live on after you post them. People will continue to find them and you will continue to build your audience years later.
Recommended Programs
To learn more about blogging, check out Built To Blog
To learn more about podcasting, check out Power-Up Podcasting
To learn more about YouTube, check out The Search & Rescue Method
Take our new quiz to find out which business idea fits best with your interests, talents, and lifestyle at sidehustleteachers.com/quiz