When you think about it, all marketing is content marketing – your sales page, your blog, your website, your message, your emails, your videos, your podcasts – it’s all content.
So why do so many trainers (and other solopreneurs) cringe at the thought of having to market their business?
• They don’t like or feel confident creating content.
• They don’t feel like they have enough time to create content.
• And/or they don’t know how to distribute content for maximum effectiveness in key areas of their business.
So, successful marketing is about how well you create and distribute content. And many solopreneurs either don’t produce enough content to effectively market their business or often don’t know where to put that content.
So here is a quick summary of the 3 main stages of content marketing:
1. Content basics or what you need to know before you create content
2. Content channels or distribution channels a
3. A content marketing strategy, or actual marketing using content once you have it in place
The First stage
In the first area, Content Basics, you need to know how to write content for your specific target audience – content they will understand and relate to the most. Many trainers unknowingly target the wrong market and as a result, fail to achieve a large volume of sales. This is usually because they haven’t done market research. Once you have the right target, you need to know enough about it to create an accurate client profile. Only then will you be able to create relevant content directly for them.
Then you need to create a compelling message for your target audience and use it in a strategic way to build your brand. You do this by planning how you will brand yourself with your content. There are six types of content that every business must create as part of an effective content marketing strategy for their brand. This will allow you to start spreading awareness of your brand and build strong relationships with your audience
The second phase
The second area is content distribution channels. There are various formatting strategies you can use to get more traffic to your website. For example, long and short content and creating content series that are designed to keep people coming back to your site.
Another content channel is your blog. Not every marketer has a blog, but it is a valuable tool that can be used to drive traffic and sales. And the quality of your content is extremely important to achieve this.
Your email is a valuable third channel. Every email you send should have a compelling subject line, relevant and informative content, and strategic calls-to-action. They contain enough value to make your subscribers want to read every email you send. And every email marketing campaign should lead to sales.
The third phase
The last area related to content is marketing itself. You need to know how to use content in a product launch that requires a lot of content (and may overlap some of the other areas above). Another important use of content is just to retain clients and customers and get their repeat business. To do this, it is important to understand the customer life cycle. And then there are many free marketing strategies that you can use your content to get continued organic traffic to your site.
As you can see, there is a lot you need to know in order to use your content to make your business profitable. You can start by understanding these three stages.
To Sum Up
There are 3 phases of content marketing that you need to know. They are:
1. Basics like your target market, your message, and your brand.
2. Distribution channels such as your website, blog, and emails.
3. Marketing itself, such as product launches, various client entry points, ongoing client care, and the strategies and tools you will use in your marketing efforts.
Once you focus on these three stages of content development, you will be able to use your content in all areas of your business.
