[The following article on content creation to attract ideal clients for your business contains some affiliate links. If you choose to purchase these tools to make your content creation faster and easier, I may receive payment at no extra charge to you.]
I know, I know, ugh, you don’t want to work on content creation to attract ideal clients, even though you’ve heard it’s great for bringing in new customers, it feels like such a hassle and waste of time to you – but hear me out – content marketing, and digital marketing overall, can bring your best buyers, favorite-to-work-with-clients, and take-my-money customers in ways that could blow your mind, if you keep reading and take action on it!
Here’s the real deal…
You can’t log into a social media app these days without at least 2 ads, 3 or more short form videos and a carousel or two…
All telling you that you need to use content creation as a means to attract ideal clients and customers
But that’s still not helping you actually get motivated to get it done – am I right? [fist bump my friend!]
I get it. You’re short on time, have higher priorities, and can’t see yet WHY you’d even bother with it.
You’re also tired of people who don’t get what you’re doing in your business wasting your time – and trust me when I say – this isn’t exclusively an online phenomenon…
Car dealers, jewelers, real estate agents and more all face some of the same hurdles you do when it comes to having well-informed, educated buyers coming to work with them.
The solution for both them and you, to attract your chef’s kiss clients while having the ones who aren’t the right fit not waste your time is the same:
Create content. And not just any content.
You want to create compelling pieces of content that not only bring in new customers, but help them to bring more your way as well.
You need to start looking at every piece of content and start asking yourself:
“Is this high-quality content that people actually want to read, watch, or listen to?”
“Does this speak to my potential clients or only my existing ones?“
“Would I want to read this if I were in a potential client’s shoes?“
“Am I posting this for their benefit or solely my ego?”
“Will creating this content attract my ideal clients, or turn them away?”
Content marketing is a form of marketing that focuses on creating, publishing, and distributing quality content for a targeted online audience. And content creation to attract your ideal clients is a skill worth mastering for yourself and your team!
This includes things like email campaigns, content for social media platforms, blog posts, podcasts, videos – both short form and long form – publishing on places like Medium.com and syndication for other blogs, creators, and more.
If you’re new to it, you may look at the list that follows and feel overwhelmed.
I want to encourage you to read through it, keep it bookmarked for reference later when you’re actually creating content – in whichever medium you choose to create it in – and use it as a checklist to keep on track and be successful in your content creation strategy.
Deal?
Let’s dive in shall we?
Who You Should Write For:
I’ll tell you who you shouldn’t write for (she says in her best Mae West swagger voice) – you shouldn’t try to write for everyone.
This one is the one that once you get it, will free you from overthinking what to write, and will propel you into writing exactly what your fits-like-Cinderella’s-shoe client needs. And that’s who you should be writing for.
Both to help them see that you get them, appreciate them, and know what they’re going through…
But also to help them come to a conclusion one way or another as to whether they’re ready to work with you and that you’re both a good fit for each other!
Your ideal customer will self-select you as their business go-to when you’re utilizing a good content marketing strategy.
So write valuable content that they can relate to and vibe with, branch out and try new things to surprise and delight them, and make it a fun and interesting experience to consume what you’ve created!
Why Businesses (all businesses, yes even yours love) Need to Work on Content Creation to Attract Ideal Clients
This is going to sound like a punch-in-the-face, but I mean it and I’m using fluffy-cloud gloves, okay…
The only businesses that don’t need to create content are the ones that don’t want more customers and clients – ever.
I know it sounds overly dramatic, I promise you it’s not.
Even if your client roster is packed full right now, you want to continue generating content for your business, because at some point, you’ll want to see it grow again. Marketing is an ongoing process, and your content is a part of that.
- A client may leave, creating an open spot in your calendar from someone new.
- You may create a new product, program, group coaching or service that is ready to serve those that have been waiting in the wings for you to offer just that thing they needed.
- You may be branching out the franchise or licensing to a new area or group of investors.
Whatever it is, you’ll want to remain top of mind so that you’re still able to attract your fit-together-like-orange-juice-and-champagne clients and customers when the time comes.
While that content is out there working for you while you’re otherwise occupied, you’ll want to remember to give it a purpose – not just slap it up there all willy-nilly like.
Use You Content To:
- Build trust and inspire confidence.
- Educate about your brand or services.
- Add value to your customers’ lives.
- Create interest in your product or services.
How to Easily Produce Content Your People Will Love and Crave More & More & MORE
Fashioning great content that your people will love doesn’t have to be hard. They’ve probably already told you in various forms what it is they want!
Have you been listening?
When your people ask you questions – that’s content inspiration that you can then build on to not only answer the question for them one time – but have a treasure trove of content to reference in the future when people ask that question again!
You’ll be building assets for your business over time when you use what your people have already given you to create a body of work that both they and new people coming to you can reference back to time and time again.
Don’t overthink it. Whether you’re a born creator or made, it’s easy to get in our head with over-complicated content ideas.
This isn’t the time to break your brain or try to overcomplicate things, content creation to attract ideal clients and super-aligned new customers, gets to be fun and easy(er) for you!
And I get it. I want to create the next Spielberg-worthy video series for my business too (see, we all have goals and aspirations)…
But there’s a reason the saying that ‘done is better than perfect’ exists and it’s this:
You can’t tweak and perfect what you’ve never created in the first place.
There are a few things to keep in mind when you’re crafting your content pieces though.
Make sure:
- Your content is consistent.
- That you’re speaking in you and your brand’s voice.
- To ensure that your content is speaking in the proper tone for your business and audience.
Content Consistency: Not just how often you post – which by the way, isn’t the same for every business, but your style, the types of visuals you use and more all come into play when it comes to considering how consistent you are and with what.
If you’re into a darker, moodier vibe, then bright neon orange is going to look really out of place for you.
Brand Voice: Your brand has sayings, messages, mottos and mantras all its own. Stay true to them, don’t sacrifice them at the alter of of the trend-du-jour just for the sake of possible-but-not-guaranteed virality.
Tone: If you’re typically all-work-and-no-play and then come out with playful, witty and sarcastic all -in-one post out of nowhere, people will start to second-guess if it really came from you. It confuses your audience, so stay true to you and your brand.
This isn’t to say that you can’t ever be funny or use comedic timing in your content. By all means, please do – we could all use a laugh – just keep it on point for your brand!
Types of Content That Attracts Clients and Customers
Info-tainment: Look, we may have lived in the information age last decade, but this decade we’re in the attention-span-of-a-gnat age, and not just because of the uptick in late-diagnosis ADHD.
Our ability to scroll on by has made it harder and harder to not just grab, but also maintain the attention of would-be buyers.
So yes, give them the information they need to make an informed decision. Educate them about your product even however…
Be sure that it’s at least a smidge entertaining before they warp speed on by you and your carefully crafted content.
Memes: Not the same meme that everyone else is passing around – that’s an easy way for people to be saying “what, I didn’t know that was YOU” – create your OWN memes for your business – mark them appropriately so people can find you – and share away!
Carousels: Carousels take your longer form content and breaks it down into visual and/or written snippets that are easy to digest while still giving your people what they need. Because while content helps your business and audience to grow – it’s still important to remember at the end of the day – it’s about them, not you.
Audio: Some of your audience will be auditory processing peeps. Give ’em a podcast to listen to, or even a short voice-over audio clip easily created in Canva and similar apps and programs. Other places like Amazon S3 and Soundcloud work really well for this as well.
And since it’s not 2007 when creating a podcast was MUCH more time consuming and excruciating – using something like Anchor.fm will help you get yours up and running quickly.
Video: Most of us already hold all the tools we need to create a fast, fun, informative video for our ideal clients to get a feel of what it’s like to work with us.
The vast majority of us are still under-utilizing it. (Harsh but true.)
Whether your goal is creating longer form videos for places like YouTube or Facebook…
Or shorter videos for places like TikTok, Instagram reels, or Youtube shorts and Pinterest idea pins – the power is in the palm of your hands.
Content you Curate: No one is saying you have to create every single piece of your content from scratch.
You can curate pieces for your email campaigns to expose your audience to things they would love to know more about. You can also contribute to ongoing conversations in and related to your industry with your thoughts and opinions shared as part of the pieces you share online.
The More You Utilize Content Creation to Attract your Utmost Ideal Clients, The Easier it Becomes
No one is expecting you to nail this the first time, nor every single time you sit down to write a post, film a video, record a podcast, or design a graphic.
The truth of the matter is, there will be some that you nail, and you’ll have pieces that flop.
If you’re a small business that is short on time, and you’re new to producing content…
I highly suggest you pick a few of the types of the content mentioned above, post them on the platform your business is already on, get about 30-90 days of it posted and engaged with (yes, your audience shouldn’t be the only ones engaging with your content, you need to as well), and then check the analytics and optimization from there.
Once you see what’s striking the right chords with your target audience and has people saving and sharing more and more of your content…
THEN you can brainstorm ways to create more like the ones that are doing well, repurpose what’s already getting traction into other mediums, and then optimizing it further with things like SEO, keyword research and placement, testing headlines and more.
But don’t get ahead of yourself and get overwhelmed. You’ll be able to get to all of these things over time as you get started and seeing what gets you the best results.
Good, consistent content can help you retain current clients while still attracting new ones.
Hate to break it to you in the I-totally-don’t-hate-telling-you-this kind of way…
But wooing your clients and customers is not a one-and-done deal.
If you don’t know the adage yet of “It’s easier to retain a client than find a new one” <- I probably wildly paraphrasing that and can’t remember who said it first but…
Churn rates are real. [Even Harvard Business Review has said as much.] And you should continue creating content whether you have multiple things for your people to buy or not.
And here’s why: I invite you to take a moment and step back to look at the bigger picture for a moment.
Even if you don’t have people that are repeat clients – good, consistent, clear content gives your past and current customers points of reference to show those they wish to refer to you why they think that person would be a good fit for you, your products, services, and programs.
And, I’ve got GREAT news for you – are you ready?
You don’t have to do it all from scratch either! YAY! 🙌
I’ve assembled below some of my favorite resources for you to get you and your team out of overthinking and into action quickly and efficiently. These are all options I’ve used to aide my own content creation over the years and years I’ve been doing it. [I’m basically an internet grandma!]
And if you like saving time and your precious energy, I can’t recommend you use them enough! These have saved me 1000’s of hours!
Tools and resources to save you time, energy, and $$$:
When you want graphics that are unique to you and your brand, but you don’t want to spend hours creating from a blank screen:
CLICK HERE for a library of snappy, easy to do tutorials that will have you and your business standing out in a flash!
When you don’t want to constantly re-invent the wheel and need somewhere to store your best performing content to reuse later:
CLICK HERE for the thing that has saved my sanity (and my content creation organization be-hind) THE MOST over the past two years!
Ever wish you had the map to do that re-purposing thing with your best performing content that everyone’s been whispering about in the dark corners of the internet:
CLICK HERE , implement as you can and watch your content multiply, well, basically, infinitely (a legit AP math teacher verified this)!
Want a monthly delivery of fresh templates for the next year so that you can customize it to your brand and go in as little as an hour:
CLICK HERE for templates you can customize in Canva with just a few clicks!
[You can also click here if you want a test-run of templates from the same creators of the ones just mentioned.]
Feel awkward in taking photos of yourself and don’t want the same 3 angles on repeat forever and ever amen:
CLICK HERE to get help in taking inspired brand and self-photography that goes beyond just the neck up shots!
Looking to maximize the opportunities that being optimized for SEO and video can provide, whether you’re on camera or not:
CLICK HERE for the course that you and your team can access to get your YouTube strategy on point!
And I truly have a deep love for Kayla’s membership (I’ve been a yearly subscriber to it since 2018) and was SO excited to see her adding in PLR (Private Label Rights) products into the “Mix”.
CLICK HERE to check out the person who not only creates time-saving great things, but ALSO gave scholarships one year (one of which went to a teacher client of mine who does great work in the fields of math, leadership, and student government!)
So let’s say you utilize any or even all of the above, but you don’t have time to be posting “in the moment” all or even most of the time, am I right?
CLICK HERE to check out the scheduler I currently use (and really do love) for its ease and simplicity in getting the job done quickly and efficiently!
And mentioned above but still worth mentioning again here…
Check out Anchor.fm for getting your podcast up and out into the world quickly and easily!
A few last thoughts on the matter:
Okay, look, I KNOW we covered a lot here today – but I promise you, in this day of AI, short-as-sh*t attention spans, and scrolls refreshing faster than you can say “post”, your business can no longer afford sleeping on using content marketing to attract your fit-like-a-glove (no not that glove) clients and customers.
P.s. On a scale of 1-10, with 1 being “meh” and 10 being “I’ve SO got this in the bag”, how do you feel about content creation moving forward?
P.p.s. If you’re still feeling “meh” about creating content, I’d invite you to take a look at this [much shorter] article here.