Producing content for your business is one thing. Producing content that is strategic, intentional, valuable and full of your brand personality is entirely another.

Anyone can produce content for their business. They can share inspirational quotes, fun posts about national holidays, re-share other people’s content – but is it enough?

• Is it enough to connect with your soul mate clients and spark the beginning of a meaningful connection or relationship?
• Is it enough to build the trust that’s needed to invest their money into your business?
• Is it enough to give people the real picture of you, what you stand for, what your values are and what makes you tick?

I’ll tell you the answer but I think you already know what it is. The answer is no, it’s not enough.

This type of content is what I call ‘fluffy content’, And yes, there’s nothing wrong with a bit of fluff sometimes but if you want to really make an impact, if you really want to use content to grow and scale your business then it needs to be more.

• It needs to be more strategic.
• It needs to be valuable
• It needs to be more you.

Your Content Is Your Shop Window

Have you ever walked down the street and stopped dead in your tracks by something you’ve seen in a shop window?

Perhaps it was exactly the thing you’d been looking for? Perhaps the window was dressed so nicely or filled with things that were exactly up your street that you just HAD to go in and see what else was inside?

The content in your business is like your shop window. It’s what draws your customer’s eye, it’s what makes them want to come in a little further to see what goodies you have in store!

Exploring this analogy further I want you to consider the following:

If you were a shop keeper would you keep all your best items for inside the store and fill your shop window with your least attractive items? No! As a shop keeper, you’d dress your window with your very best items to entice your customers in to browse!

The same goes for your content:

• The right piece of content can draw a potential customer into your shop (or onto your social media page, website or platform) to explore what you have to offer.
• That piece of content might be EXACTLY what that customer was looking for as they scroll through IG (the equivalent of the high street).
• That piece of content might be presented in just the right way to connect with a passer-by (whether that’s through the image, the tone and language you use, the value of the information or the format in which it’s shared) so they buy from you and not the competitor down the street.

The second thing I want to ask you is – have you ever walked down the street stopped dead in your tracks by something you’ve seen in the shop window, gone INTO the stop and then been utterly disappointed that all the best thing were in the window? That in fact, the shop wasn’t how you’d expected it to be at all?

This is where the balance comes in. Your content needs to be enough to attract people into your business further, but you don’t want to give ALL your best bits away so that your buyer is disappointed at the next stage.

So we’ve established that content is important. It’s the information you share within your business across all of the customer touchpoints that help prospective new followers and clients to form a judgement of you and your business.

Your content helps people to decide things like:

Whether they think your content can help them with the challenges they face within their business:

• Is your content specific enough for them to figure this out?
• Are you clear enough on your niche and the does your content accurately reflect your areas of expertise?
• Do you know your ideal clients well enough to know exactly what these challenges are?

If they connect and resonate with your content on a personal level:

• Is your content reflective of you and your personality?
• Do potential clients have an idea of your teaching style and whether that aligns with the way they like to learn?
• Do you share enough about yourself? and what’s important to you?
• If someone were to meet you in real life would they say ‘Oh she’s just like I thought she would be’?

Whether they trust you as an expert in your field:

• Are you knowledgeable enough about the areas they need support with?
• How are you demonstrating this through your content?
• What social proof do you have to evidence this and give them confidence?

Next time you produce some content for your business, whether for social media, writing a blog or an email, I want you to consider some of the points above.

How can you go deeper? How can you produce a piece of content that is going to leave your reader feeling inspired, motivated or like they’ve learnt something valuable to support them in their business? How can you create that piece of content in a way that’s going to share a little bit of you?

Has this given you some food for thought? 

If you’d like to explore these themes and topics further and learn how to create valuable and strategic content that’s going to help you achieve your business goals and ambitions then get in touch to discuss my 90-minute intensive strategy sessions. They are the perfect starting point to creating a content marketing strategy that will help you see results AND feels right for you.

This is what my client Leanne had to say about hers:

“Thankyou so much for our call yesterday, it was so helpful! I feel so much clearer now on my content pillars. You were so fantastic, it was like you were in my head and could really put together my jumbled messages and turn them into clear and precise themes when focusing on my content. I cannot wait to get stuck into building it all out and feel so much clearer now thanks to our call! Thankyou so much and I look forward to working with you again in the future.”