Does your content woo your would-be clients? Are you hanging out where they’ll find you? Do you say the right things to stay top of mind and tip of tongue? Here are six ways to ensure the content you’re creating converts to engaged clients.
1. Be clear about what you stand for
Think of a brand or a celebrity you admire. Now think about what they stand for, believe in and communicate out to the world. Successful businesses and brands with influence and magnetism clearly communicate their view of the world. From Guy Tang to GHD, it’s easy to articulate what those names stand for.
By backing yourself to clearly communicate what you believe, you’ll attract people who genuinely know, like and trust you.
Action: Write a list of at least 50 things your business stands for and believes in. If you find this tricky, that’s good! It’s designed to challenge you. This list is your messaging gold. It helps you find the words to communicate what you believe and attract clients who also share your beliefs.
2. Be where your clients are
Is your content showing up in the right places where people are looking for what you have to offer? I’m not just talking about social media either.
Website content
Google loves websites that regularly feed it interesting and updated content. To Google, this shows that you care about clients finding you on the web. Blogging is a great way to keep Google happy and show potential clients that you’re a go-getter with something valuable to offer.
Local referrals
New clients are likely to frequent other businesses surrounding you. Do you have camaraderie with like-minded, complementary businesses around you that will positively talk about you?
Email marketing
Your clients hang out in their email inbox everyday – are you there? Do you give them a reason to keep coming back to your email campaigns?
Action: Stand in the shoes of your clients and consider all the places they are likely to come across you or be reminded of you.
3. Be timely
Research all the calendar events impacting your clients that also align with your beliefs. Pin-point all of the trade fairs, expos and training events in your industry and then think if there are messages that make sense for your business to talk about.
Customer loyalty programs also get a look in here: it’s great to send emails and offers for your customer’s birthday, or anniversary of their first visit to make them feel valued and keep them coming back for more.
Action: Pull out a monthly calendar and plan your messaging. Think ahead about what’s coming up in the life of your clients, your industry, your business and staff. Put all significant events into the calendar and work back from there. You’ll find you have timely marketing messages for your email newsletter, social media and direct marketing.
4. Don’t just sell all the time
No one wants to be sold to all the time. It’s only after clients know and trust a business that they feel compelled to invest money with them so don’t make every communication you have with a client all about selling. There are so many other types of content they crave!
Action: Help clients remember important occasions, solve their problems, keep them in the loop, give them inspiration, or teach them something they didn’t know. Let them see you as a real business, powered by real people dealing with real lives.
Pro tip: Check out 21typesofcontentwecrave.com
5. Ask them to act
The opposite of selling all the time is never selling at all! Balance your conversation posts with sales posts and messages that ask people for some kind of engagement. There are many types of engagements your posts could ask for, but also be sure to give clients a reason to act immediately. The psychology of influence shows that we are persuaded to act when offers are scarce or limited – FOMO is real!
Action: Think of your communication messaging mix and make sure you have at least one sales post per week. Ensure that your email marketing content is balanced with education, inspiration and calls to action.
6. Have conversations
I’ve often seen businesses post content, have followers leave a comment or ask a question, and then no-one from the business responds. Would you open a salon, invite people in and then not talk to them but somehow expect them to know, like and trust you?
Make sure wherever you have the opportunity, you engage with your clients and foster conversations. Think about the social in social media.
Action: Make it a routine to have someone in your business checking social media twice a day to respond to comments and have conversations with others in your community such as leaving thoughtful comments on other accounts – it’s a great way to attract new followers.
Pro tip: Monitor website mentions of your brand online by setting up a free Google Alert at alert.google.com
