As an entrepreneur, you’ll want to be able to provide fresh, interesting content for your blogs, social media accounts and website.
You’ve probably heard it said a thousand times before, so let me say it for the 1,001th time -- Content is King!
People want to be informed about something they don’t know, assisted with a problem and given insight on how they can use a product to achieve desired results, etc.
When you start writing anything, you should begin by choosing a topic that creates the most VALUE for your audience. Think about informing, assisting and giving insight as you write. Providing “H E L P” should always be in the forefront of your mind.
Remember to always focus on what it is you are looking to achieve by writing an article or blog post. Again, this goes hand and hand with setting your goals and priorities for your business.
I’m going to go out on a limb here and state that the No. 1 concern all business owners share is: how to bring in new business and retain existing business.
Whether you own a bakery, cut lawns, clean homes or sell the hottest new energy drink on the market, you need customers. You want to grow your business. You want to be successful. You want people to yell from the rooftops about how great your service is and how it’s made their life better.
With good content you can draw in exactly what you’re looking for. There’s a bunch of consumers out there looking for you. Your challenge is how to bring those consumers into your business.
Let’s say that my business is cleaning homes and I’ve decided to start a blog about all things that have to do with maintaining a home (and even the people in it!).
My first inclination is to extol the virtues of my business – how great my service is, how fast I clean and how reasonable my prices are.
In my head, I know that as soon as someone reads that, the phone is going to start ringing off the hook! Good service, fast and reasonable – what more could someone want?
Well, guess what? A hundred other businesses are saying the exact same thing about their business.
Now, I decide to take a different approach and check out my competition to see what their website is like, if they have a blog and what type of content are they putting on it.
When I look at the competition through my consumer eyes, do I take away any real VALUE from what I’ve read? Is anything personal for me? Did I learn anything? Did I have an “aha!” moment?
Do their writings contain any helpful hints for keeping the house neat and orderly in between cleanings? Does it give any suggestions for moving away from traditional cleaning products and using more “green” products? Does it offer any "how to's" for keeping germs at bay during flu season or other helpful tips such as getting out carpet stains and keeping pets’ feeding and sleeping areas more clean and organized?
Hmm…..not finding too much of this on other sites, are you? Here’s your chance to set yourself apart from the competition by providing something of VALUE to your clients – both existing and potential.
You can now write about many of the topics mentioned above on your site/blog. You’ve now found a way to create VALUE for others that use your service or hopefully will try it. You’ve given your customers a reason to recommend your service to others, (well, provided you have good customer service and do a really great job -- it really doesn’t matter how awesome your content is, if you fail to deliver in other areas!)
So now, through good content, you can inform, assist with a problem and provide insight on how customers can most effectively use a product to achieve desired results.
You're "H E L P I N G" them!
Most importantly, you’re now on your way to building relationships that potentially will result in more business.
