It’s always interesting when people talk about their content strategy in the content marketing industry.
Everyone has their own variation.
I tend to see things from 30K feet. In my way of thinking, there are certain types of content you need to have to make sure you don’t have gaps in your content calendar.
Today I am going to talk about five types of content that tend to get overlooked when planning a businesses’ content.
1. Tell a story of how your client won with your help
What is the one thing that will help you close a sale more than anything else? Social proof.
More specifically, hearing how you helped a client increase revenue.
Your potential customer will think, “If they can do that for this company, he can do it for me as well.”
That’s the idea anyway.
For this reason, case studies are a premium piece of content.
Companies like Case Study Buddy exist to help more companies get case studies on their website. Not just any case study, but the ones that tell a story.
But there is another way. You can create the client’s story yourself. How do you do this?
It will take interviewing your client. When you have a client that is so happy with your work and offering to leave a testimony, ask them to get on a video call.
Once you are on the call, record how their business improved. Use the BDA framework: Before, During, and After.
Talia Wolf explains in this article,
A good way to get those is to ask in a BDA format, Before, During, and After. What was life like before the product or service? What was it like using the product? What was different? What was surprising? What did it feel like? How did it make you feel? And then after, what have the results been like? What have you been able to achieve? Have you achieved that underlying desire? How do you feel about yourself now? How do you feel about your business now?
Ask them for numbers or percentages. This adds something tangible to the story.
Now, you have a video.
Once you get the video, get a transcript of the video. Format it for a blog post.
Now you have a video and a blog post.
Are there any cool snippets in the video? Slice those out and use them for social media.
You have just created at least three types of content that show how your company helps other companies.
Examples:
Neuralab Needed Fast eCommerce Hosting in Their Client’s Target Markets – Kinsta
Consulting Firm Scales & Saves $5,000/mo with HubSpot CRM Customization – IMPACT
2. Explain your process for pre-sales information
Explaining your process is an underrated piece of content. Doing this upfront will help you set expectations for your potential client.
They may think that you are doing something rather simple, but in the article, you explain how complex your process is.
This will add value to your company. They need to understand they are not hiring someone to execute a strategy, but they are hiring someone to help them determine the strategy.
Your company doesn’t exist so that you do every little thing they think is important (make the logo bigger!). You are more valuable to their company.
Go into depth about your process. Talk about how you handle Quality Assurance before a launch. Explain the thing you are looking for and the strategy you have developed for your team.
Explaining how it all works at the beginning, in a public blog post, can help them understand ahead of time what they can expect.
You may also wish to include that in an Intro Pack.
Example:
Framework for producing content by Grow and Convert
Ross Simmonds explains his understanding of the content distribution process, complete with a free downloadable.
Additionally, many agencies create their own paid courses that are often their own internal employee training platforms. That is another approach that both Grow and Convert and Foundation Inc use.
3. Validify your status as an authority with curation posts
The world of the internet is now a vast place. It is easy to get launched in the massive amount of content that is available.
Your potential customer needs a guide, and that guide is you.
The best way to do this is to create content that curates the best content on various topics. Curated content can be in the form of a blog post or an email.
No doubt, you have clients or potential clients to send you links to articles that make you cringe. I know I have.
Here is your chance to be the expert. In this situation, you are kind of like a librarian who points readers to the best content.
Here is a bonus.
If you have created plenty of your own content around certain topics, then those pieces of content can be included.
People tend to think of content curation on social media, but also put it on your blog and in your emails.
Jodi Harris provides some great tips for content curation in this article at the Content Marketing Institute.
There are three places you can use this kind of content: blogs, emails, and social media.
Use something like Raindrop to capture great content as you are browsing. Then, when you are ready to create the content, refer back for the links.
Example:
This one is a long post with a “library” of content for certain areas the Ben Sailer includes in the article.
Example of a curated email by Robert Cairns
4. Be opinionated about your industry
To your customers and those reading your site regularly, you are an authority. Don’t laugh, it’s true.
They are reading your website and giving you money because they believe you know more about your industry than they do.
If they don’t believe you know more than them, they wouldn’t even be working with you.
One thing I think everyone in the digital space should talk about regularly is security. I continue to see sites from companies, some much larger, who are not using security certificates.
If they aren’t using an SSL on their website, what other security measures are they ignoring? And, it’s an easy thing to bring up because there is always a data breach in the news.
Do you think a “guru” in our space is selling “snake oil?” Is this someone, your customer, might listen too? Set the record straight. Give your opinion.
You can see a good example of an opinionated article from SEO marketer Tim Brown in the article below.
Example:
Taking aim at an industry guru
Pippen gives his thoughts about page builders
5. Share a little bit about the culture of your company
Go ahead and share a bit of your company culture. When I say this, I do not mean to let it be the only thing you share. In fact, sharing company culture should be about 25% of the time or less.
But I do think it is a good thing. People need to know that we are human in our companies. They need to know if we like Marvel or DC Comics. They need to know if we prefer Star Trek over Star Wars.
Telling a little about ourselves helps make us likable, and this is one of the Principles of Persuasion, according to Robert Cialdini.
If you have team members, consider creating Q&A or interview type content. People want to know what that person helping them is passionate about.
Did your company have a retreat and bond? Does your office have a pet or mascot? These little things are the types of things that can help you be more likable.
One thing, though, do not make it the only thing you put on your blog. No one likes someone who only talks about him or herself.
Example:
WP Engine Employee Spotlight Haidee McMahon
Doing More to Fuel Our Engine for Good – WP Engine
Wrapping it up
Using these different types of content that are often overlooked, you can create a content calendar more quickly in the coming year. To be sure, these are not the only types of content you should create, but they will help you fill up your calendar.
Additionally, if you can repurpose each one for various platforms, you will find your company fewer gaps moving forward.
What kind of content do you create for your business? Let us know in the MainWP Users Facebook Group or the MainWP Community.
