Ep. 040: Creating Content to Attract Clients - The Basics
Creating content can feel daunting, but it doesn't have to be. Content is anything you put out into the world that give value to build trust. Content can be anything from writing blog posts or articles, putting out a podcast, or even utilizing your social media to teach. You can also put out valuable content on other people's platforms by guest blogging, being on their podcast, or teaching to their audience on another platform.
In this episode I'll explain some of the basics so you can start creating content to attract the right kind of clients.
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Erika Tebbens: Hey, welcome back. I want to do a quick episode for you on content creation strategy. So what is content? Content is anything that is valuable, that you put out to the world, so that you can build that know like, and trust factor funnel. Bridge, whatever you want to call it, that gets people warmed up to you, so that they can decide if they want to do business with you, right?
So this content is generally free and it can be anything from blog posts, blogs, uh, doing your own podcast, being on other people's podcasts, teaching in people's um, paid communities, teaching in people's free communities, uh, giving a talk somewhere, doing a workshop, posting on social media, sending emails to your list, right?
So there's a bunch of places where you can put content out and how you do, um, YouTube. ID well, I said flogs, but, uh, YouTube is another one. Um, IGTV like, God, there's so many. So you have to decide where you want to put your content. I really suggest doing like two to three places, and now you don't have to make two to three different things all the time, 'cause you're, we're going to repurpose these things.
But what you need to do is think about where are those two to three places, that you are going to be putting out content. You don't have to put out content everywhere. In fact, I would advise against it, especially if you're in the growth phase of your business, because you're going to be super overwhelmed, and you're not going to be able to sustain it, right?
So then think about three, like two to three core messages that your brand has, right? So every brand is going to have sort of like the, the heels they will die on. Um, God, that sounds way dramatic, but I don't mean it to be that dramatic. I just mean things that you're like, this is my, this is my like flag in the soil, right?
This is what I believe, this is what I teach, preach, this, these are our values, whatever that may be. So for me, that looks like really simple and doable, uh, marketing strategies that honor your authenticity and uh, can be done with integrity, right? Um, I also believe that everyone can learn to sell, in a way that feels good and really serve their people so they can run thriving businesses that they love, like doing work that they love.
And lastly that our businesses should fit into our lives. Instead of having to form our lives around the monstrosity of our business, right? So, uh, those are my, my key things. So I really love to talk about empowering women to show up in their businesses confidently, how to put themselves out there in a strategic, uh, but simple way. A way that they can actually make sense of what they're supposed to do and why they're supposed to do it and how they're supposed to do it.
And also how do we craft your workflow so that you have time for all the other things that you love, right? So you don't burn out. So think of your things and they're sort of like main buckets, right? Or umbrellas or whatever, however you want to visualize them. And then all of your content can nest under those things, right?
So, uh, there's so much you could talk about with marketing, right? So there's like a kajillion bits of content I could talk about with marketing and I could create a free training. That is all about how to like sell more simply, which I did a few weeks ago, right? Make, um, selling made simple, was the title of my 30 minute training that I did, right? And I was thinking about doing one in this new year. That would be about, um, like a time management one, like setting your week up for success.
And who knows, maybe, maybe I'm already doing it by the time this airs. I have no idea, but, um, that will help you think of things to talk about that way. You're not staring at a blank page every time you sit down and the other thing you can do too, is just think about other things that are fun and engaging and ways that you can get feedback from people and get them to interact with you and your brand, because you don't always just want to be like throwing heavy information at people, right?
You want them to warm up as you, as a person too. So, what you could do, a very simple way to do this would be, uh, and, and I see like, you know, seven, multiple seven figure earners and stuff, doing this all the time. So this is definitely something that really works, but what you can do is pick a topic like now your content calendar, like I'm not going to go super down the rabbit hole in this episode, but you can, let's say you're planning, um, content for a month, right?
So let's say that next month you have a program that's opening, something that you're, that people can buy into, right? So this month you're going to focus on creating content that nurtures people about like, why they need that thing. You don't necessarily have to start talking about that thing yet, but it like primes the pump, right?
So you can think about, okay, I'm gonna write, you know, a blog post a week, right? And these blog posts are going to support the things around that content. So I just mapped out for the next time I opened success squad. So people need to learn, uh, the selling trifecta as I've dubbed it. And that is, that they need to learn how to create offers that work for them and their, uh, and their potential clients.
They have to curate the right marketing strategies. They can sort of call in and attract the right people for those offers. And then they have to confidently close more sales. So I could say, you know, hey, I'm going to write one blog posts, that's just the overview of the selling trifecta. And then in each of the following weeks, I'm going to write us blog posts that drills a little deeper into each of those three.
Um, and then it's going to lead into this. This free training, which is going to lead into the course, or it could lead directly into the course. So there's a lot of different ways you can do it, but for every blog post, you could then say, okay, well, I'm going to email my list with kind of an overview of the blog post with a link to continue to reading it.
So if they're, if they're interested in what it's talking about, they can click over and, read and read the rest of it. Or you can just put all the blog content in there. There's something that says you can't do that. And then you can take little nuggets of that larger blog post and talk about them during the week on social media.
So maybe on Monday and Wednesday, you mentioned something from the blog post, something that was in your email as well. And then maybe on Tuesday and Thursday, you just do like a fun engagement posts, something like that, right? And then maybe Friday you remind them like, Oh, hey, like later on, I'm going to do this free training. Be sure that you're signed up for it, right?
So all of the content supports each other. You're only doing one blog post for the week and then you're repurposing it for your email list and for your social media. So that's three places that you're putting stuff out. You're not coming up with three different things, right?
You're did, the one, and you're repurposing and it's all pushing people towards something. Or it's just nurturing them and showing them why you're different and who you are and what you stand for and why they should listen to you. Now, you can do you a content calendar for the whole year? I don't like to, I only plan quarterly, really.
Like, I have some general idea about the year. I only like to do it quarterly if you're like, I'm not even there yet. Just do it for a month, right? If you need help with this, if you're not sure, uh, definitely reach out another resource I would suggest is, um, building your brand story by Donald Miller. If you're like, I don't even know what my three things are or whatever, like that's a really great place to start and it's a quick read.
Um, it's very easy to understand, that will help you figure out what your content pillars are. And then you can create stuff that supports them. So you could just say like, you know, if you wanted to release three pieces of content a month, like you could just do one a month. That is that nests under each of those main content pillars, right?
And then if you want it to just do like, uh, you know, like maybe take a week off from like, it's still good to put stuff out there, but you, once you have a lot of content done, like in that fourth week, You can always just repurpose something that you did ages ago, or maybe you do something else, like maybe that's the week where you do your free training or you do your free challenge or whatever it is that you want to do.
So I think it helps really, uh, to have a framework in place. So that again, staring at the blank page is a total nightmare. And you will freeze up and you will be like, I have nothing to say, right? But if you can atleast box it in and give yourself some boundaries, it will be so much easier. And, um, I also think like one final thing, take a take an hour or something where you can just zone out and just brain dump, like make a page for each of those content buckets and just brain dump.
This doesn't mean you have to write about all of these things, right? It's just so that when you go to sit down to batch your work, batch your content, or even if you have one hour on a day and you're like, I'm going to quickly bust something out, you aren't starting from scratch.
You can go to that, those content sheets. You can look at what is something you want to write about? And you could find something and you could just dive right in and it's okay. Like not all of your content is necessarily going to hit it out of the park, right? Again, consistency is more important than making things perfect.
People just want to hear from you. They want to learn from you. They want to, I don't know, be nurtured by you, right? So, uh, that is in a very small, small, small nutshell, um, content creation in the future. I want to bring one of my friends on, to talk about like social media content strategy, because I know a lot of people have questions about that.
Um, but, yeah. So, uh, let me know if you have any other questions about that. Again, I just want to give an overview here. I do plan to go a little bit deeper into this in the future, but I, again, like I mentioned, uh, in the previous, like earlier in the month, the less is more, I don't want to overwhelm you, just want to make, just want to give the overview.
Um, and so, yeah, so. Let me know, find me on Insta. Uh, be sure if you haven't already, uh, to download the Knowsley sales method guide, if that is something you struggle with, that is at bit dot L Y forward slash uh, sell it sister podcast, all one word, all lowercase. Um, and Erika Tebbens consulting on Instagram, DM me, tag me, say hi, and as always happy selling.
