Yura Bryant

Creating Content that Sells ii ©2017 by Yura Bryant Creating Content that Sells by Yura Bryant is licensed under a Creative Commons AttributionNonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Based on a work at http://contentengagementconversions.com/. Feel free to post this on your blog, share within your newsletter, or email it to whomever you believe will benefit from reading it. http://contentengagementconversions.com/ Creating Content that Sells iii Table of Contents The Power of Content ........................................................................................................ .........................1 Know Your Audience...................................................................................................................................5 What are Their Pain Points?.............................................................................................................5 How are Their Problems Currently being Solved?...........................................................................6 What do You Provide?.....................................................................................................................7 Communicating Your Value.......................................................................................................................8 Attention Grabbing Headlines..........................................................................................................9 Relevant, Engaging Content...........................................................................................................10 Speak from Experience...................................................................................................................11 Become Social.............................................................................................................................................12 Create the Conversation on Social Media......................................................................................12 People Love Visual Content...........................................................................................................13 Share the Process............................................................................................................................14 The Conversion Process.............................................................................................................................15 Make a Sales Funnel + Call-to-Action + Urgency..........................................................................15 Closing Remarks........................................................................................................................................17 http://contentengagementconversions.com/ Creating Content that Sells 1 The Power of Content Content is king, right? It has to be when so many individuals and businesses are generating thousands and even MILLIONS of dollars through their blog, Instagram account, and Facebook page. Sounds great, right? Of course it does but unfortunately you don't know how to create the type of content that can be leveraged to earn money. You've done all the things the ‛content experts’ said to do. You created a blog and invested in Facebook advertising but neither activity has produced any results beyond wasting both your time and money. Your blog hasn't been updated in two years and Facebook advertising has been too complicated to figure out. So you decided to abandon your content marketing ambitions to focus on the simple marketing approaches that have been working for you so far. http://contentengagementconversions.com/ Creating Content that Sells 2 But just maybe you're not entirely in this boat. The content that you create has people engaging with it but it doesn't lead to any sales occurring. You're struggling trying to find a way to convert engaged individuals into customers. You're beyond tired hearing about the success stories of others using their content to grow their businesses and it not being your own story of success that's being shared. What gives?! Welcome to the world of content marketing my friend! The concept of content seems so simple when you think about it. You write about how great you and your business are and people are supposed to hand you over their money, right? WRONG! Unfortunately, a great deal of individuals and businesses that are trying to implement content marketing within their marketing strategy don't have a clue about how the process works. Thus, not having an adequate understanding leads to frequent mistakes being made that make you swear off trying to force content marketing to work for your business. You definitely don't want to be so quick in regards to making such a rash decision. When used effectively, content marketing can transform your small business into a small empire. While the word small is being used as the describing adjective, there's nothing wrong with having a small empire when it generates huge money. So theoretically, you choosing to abandon content marketing means you're forgoing the potential to build a lucrative sales engine that trumps your current marketing and sales process. You think I'm exaggerating? Ok, I guess I have to show you some real examples of businesses that used content marketing to generate big money. Marketing technology provider, DemandBase used white papers, infographics, SlideShare (PowerPoint presentations), and webinars to source new leads for one of their content marketing campaigns. According to Top Rank Blog, the company generated 1,700 new leads and connected with 125 webinar viewers, leading to them generating over $1 million in new revenue through their content marketing strategy. http://contentengagementconversions.com/ Creating Content that Sells 3 Marcus Sheridan, the owner of River Pool and Spas, is a staunch advocate for content marketing. And why wouldn't he be? Marcus started using content marketing strategies (blogging) to turn his business into a real empire, becoming the go-to resource for his industry --500,000 new visitors to his blog every month. He now teaches other small business owners how to use the same techniques and is a highly sought-out consultant and public speaker on the topic of content marketing. These two compelling examples of content success show you how content marketing can position your business to produce phenomenal growth when applied correctly. The key to being effective, though is understanding how to create a content marketing strategy that produces results. You can't just do the ‛throw it on the wall and see what sticks’ approach. Without a well defined plan, you'll always question what you're doing wrong because your blog has no traffic, your target audience doesn't engage with your content on social media, and you've never made an online sale. Therefore, it isn't content marketing that's not working for you. You have a quality control and communications issue. Individuals, businesses, and organizations are all creating content on a daily basis, every minute of the day. This means your audience is being bombarded with a constant flow of content which puts your content at a high risk of being ignored. So you're facing a battle on two fronts: determining how to create high quality content and getting it noticed among the crowded field of competition. Fortunately, if you solve the first issue the answer to the second problem is solved in the process. Having quality content sets you apart from the majority of content that quite honestly sucks. Why does the majority of content suck? It's because the creators of low-quality content don't understand the process of content creation. There's a formula that has to be applied in order for you to produce big results from your content. If this formula is not implemented then you'll continue to create content that has no positive effect on your business's bottom line. You're creating content with the intent to make money, right? Of course you are, which is why you need to understand the fundamentals of the content creation process. This will allow you to provide your audience with the content they love to consume, which positions you as an authority in your industry. And with authority status comes the benefit of customers chasing you instead of you having to hunt them down on a continuous basis. How great would it be to have a pipeline full of thousands of new prospects because of that book you wrote that's getting great reviews? http://contentengagementconversions.com/ Creating Content that Sells 4 The whitepaper you wrote about an issue within your industry has businesses coming to you ready to invest in your services because you covered a real problem they're currently trying to address. Imagine your new product selling out immediately because you created a great landing page that effectively sold your offer -- using persuasive language to convert leads into customers. I know you want these type of results and you can absolutely experience them if you create content that is attractive to your audience. This is the type of content that educates the reader, while selling them the depth of your knowledge and the value that your business's products or services provides. This is what separates the content that sucks from the content that engages and converts. If you're ready to improve your content marketing results then follow the steps in this book exactly how they're stated. Don't think that you can skip a step or give a mediocre effort and still create content that elevates your business to the top of your industry. It won't happen! Therefore, read and implement the information within these pages exactly how they're instructed if you really want to produce outstanding content marketing results. http://contentengagementconversions.com/ Creating Content that Sells 5 Know Your Audience Who are you creating your content for? Yes, it does sound like a dumb question but it has to be asked. If your blog post and social media content aren't producing comments, likes, and shares, it means that you aren't connecting with your audience. This occurs because you're not addressing what they're searching for online. Your mistake is creating content that is written for you or it's poorly constructed -- providing generic information that gives no new insight or just terribly written. A lot of businesses tend to make these mistakes because they're told content is a must have for online success but they overlook the fact of what it's supposed to do. Content is supposed to inform, educate, nurture, and convert. Inform: Let your audience know you understand the problems they're experiencing. Educate: Demonstrate how the problem is solved, while pointing to the fact that your business provides that solution. Nurture: Provide incentives for your audience to further engage with your content beyond your blog or social media post. Convert: Turn interest into new customers. In order for this process to occur, you have to know exactly who is the audience that would benefit most from your content. Knowing this allows you to research what type of content they enjoy, who's currently providing it to them, and how to create the content they will find beneficial. What are Their Pain Points? Both consumers and businesses search online for solutions to their problems. The providers that grab their attention are those who understand how to address the issues they are dealing with while teaching them how to implement a solution. This doesn't mean saying how your business is the best provider, only making your content nothing but a big sales pitch. When you do this, you take the audience out of the equation and make yourself the target focus. But isn't the purpose of content to sell my expertise so that I can convert my audience into customers? Yes and no. http://contentengagementconversions.com/ Creating Content that Sells 6 You're supposed to educate and nurture, which is what makes the sales conversation more natural when you introduce it. We will discuss this more near the end of this e-book. You need to get inside the mind of your audience and see through their eyes. Investigate what they're talking about on social media, search through Quora to see what questions they're asking, and create questionnaires to see what major issues they want solved. You must know their internal thoughts and daily habits so that you can understand how to communicate in an effective manner that resonates well with them. Speak with a complete understanding of the challenges they face while demonstrating you have the expertise to provide them with real solutions. How are Their Problems Currently being Solved? When you create content, you need to focus on highlighting solutions for the problems your audience is experiencing. If they're online looking for solutions is means one of two things: they don't know how to correct the issue on their own or they aren't satisfied with their current provider. Therefore, the content that you publish online is a representation of your capabilities. If you don't come across as experienced, you'll be bypassed for what is perceived as a better option due to your competition having more convincing content. Knowing this fact, you need to determine who your competitors are and grade their content compared to yours. What solution do they claim to provide? How is their content written? What forms of communication are they using? (blog, videos, podcast, guest blogging, etc) Is their content being shared frequently? Are they seen as an authority? The answers to these questions will provide you with guidance about how you should craft your message and position your content to work for you. You want to be effective with what you do so that you're not wasting your time nor your audience's time. They have to see that you cannot only be a reliable source of information in regards to communicating real solutions but also be a potential provider for the solutions they seek. http://contentengagementconversions.com/ Creating Content that Sells 7 What do You Provide? Effective content is great at driving home the point that you want to address. If you're talking all over the place or skimming over the subject matter then people will categorize your content as junk. To avoid such a deadly status, your content needs to be rewarding and lead your audience to a desirable end-point. This means they need to come away with feeling like they gained a new perspective they never considered on their own. The individuals and brands that have large followings online earned their authority status by providing their audience with in-depth, insightful content that addresses all points of a problem. This eliminates them having to guess about the cause of the particular difficulties they're having, allowing them to remove the root of their trouble, instead of continuously applying band-aids that never work. A peace of mind is what you're providing at the end of the day. You're helping ease the worries that keep your customers up at night. When you do this you position yourself as the best within your industry and you're rewarded with loyal followers who become loyal customers. http://contentengagementconversions.com/ Creating Content that Sells 8 Communicating Your Value Content marketing is supposed to draw your target audience to your business by communicating the value you provide. This is when you employ the art of subtle selling while making education the primary focus of your content. You accomplish this by reminding people that you actually provide the solutions to the problems that you're discussing. Don't think that your audience will just pick up on this themselves. All they see is free information that is educational if you neglect to nudge them towards initiating deeper engagement. Here are some examples of how you do this: It has been stated that over 90% of new businesses fail within five years. Our strategies have helped small businesses build a solid customer base within a year. Download our free e-book that's a blueprint for building a successful business. Over 77% of businesses doing content marketing are not engaging with their target audience. Our content academy has improved our client's engagement and conversions by an average of 100%. Sign-up for our webinar on Dec. 16 that will cover how to create content that increases your online sells. http://contentengagementconversions.com/ Creating Content that Sells 9 You state a proven fact that is troubling and then follow it up with the results you have provided for your customers who were experiencing the exact same challenges. By showing that you provide a solution that can drastically improve your audience's existing problems, you arouse their interest enough to initiate an inquiry about the offer you mentioned. You go from the hunter to the hunted, which is always a great position to be in when it comes to your customers. But this only occurs when you bring the attention to you. Attention Grabbing Headlines Your headline is the first thing that your audience sees before reading the meat of your content. If your headline is boring and unappealing, nobody will click on for further information because they have a strong belief that your content is not worth their time. So even if you have created a quality blog post, it'll be ignored because you didn't handle your first job... creating interest for your content. I'm going to show you some examples of bad headlines and how they're improved to encourage your audience to further explore your content. Bad headline: 20 Ways to Earn Money Online Great headline: 7 Proven Ways to Earn 6 Figures Online The first headline communicates that you're going to regurgitate some generic information that has been seen on every article related to this subject. The second headline only has a low, odd number of strategies and guarantees a financial figure amount. This registers in the reader's mind that the content eliminates the usual fluff and is focused on real strategies, with detailed information to support the claims. Bad headline: How to Attract New Customers Great headline: The 8 Step Process to Attracting New Customers The first headline tries to communicate an appealing offer but if brought up in a Google search with the second headline, it would lose every time. People are searching for real answers and an eight step process sounds more convincing than what the first headline is offering. http://contentengagementconversions.com/ Creating Content that Sells 10 Relevant, Engaging Content First and foremost, the content you are creating needs to be something that your audience really wants. Nothing is worst than reading a blog post or watching a video that was nowhere near as great as the headline sold it to be. Doing this is clickbait -- getting people to click on content that is really worthless. You don't want clickbait associated with your brand because it will cause people to ignore your content, which means your online marketing activities will become futile. This is why you need to ensure that your content is exactly what your audience wants. You wouldn't cover administration topics when your audience only wants to know about sales. You also can't talk about one subject for a month and then completely switch up the subject matter the next month without telling your audience why the change is occurring beforehand. You'll lose your audience as a result because your content doesn't follow a consistent pattern. Relevant content builds a consistent audience that can be nurtured into customers. Therefore, you want to make your content is both educational and engaging. Engaging content invokes a reaction from your audience. They're either going to share it, make a comment, email you, or follow your call-to-action (we'll discuss this later). You need engagement to happen because it validates that your content is resonating well with your audience. If you're not getting any sort of engagement after consistently releasing different forms of content on a regular basis, you need to take a hard look at its quality. http://contentengagementconversions.com/ Creating Content that Sells 11 Speak from Experience There are a lot of individuals and businesses that are copying and pasting well written content created by their competition and passing it off as their own. They'll change a few words but it doesn't take away from the fact that they're not a real authority. You can't do this because content is about establishing trust and building your authenticity. If you can't show and prove when called upon to do so, your content becomes invalid. This is why you must always create content based on your own level of experience with the subject you're covering. Don't talk about how to create a million dollar business if you haven't done it yourself -- unless you're interviewing real experts who have done it themselves. Instead you can talk about operating a small but strong business with the potential to grow into a million dollar company, if that's your real trajectory. Your audience would rather read about your real process of getting there, instead of some made up bullshit that you can't validate. It's like being a personal trainer who is overweight or who doesn't look or perform like an athlete. What qualifications do you have to get paid for telling other people how to improve their own physical health? You have none, which is why your personal training business wouldn't have a chance of being successful. Only represent yourself and your business as it really is Anything other than the real deal will have a negative impact on your reputation when eventually discovered as being a lie. http://contentengagementconversions.com/ Creating Content that Sells 12 Become Social It doesn't matter how great your content is if people aren't aware of its existence. Nobody knows how many hours you spent writing that blog post and editing it to get it just right. Your target audience isn't aware that you spent money on recording and editing that professional video for YouTube. If you equate the sacrifice of time and money with the reason for why your content needs to be getting a ton of traffic and engagement, you're only setting yourself up for major disappointment. Yes, the most successful content is of very high-quality. But it's popularity is gained due to the great marketing of that content. Content success is 20% dependent on the content itself and 80% dependent on the marketing that content. You have to actively push your content in the face of your audience so that they can be aware it , engage with it, and spread it to others. If you fail to do this, your content will only exist among the abyss of dead content sitting within the internet wasteland. Create the Conversation on Social Media If you're not sharing your content on social media then you're missing out on the opportunity to build large followings on various social media platforms. Just think about the number of users the major social media platforms have. Let me go over the most recent numbers for you as of the 3rd quarter of 2017. Facebook: 2 billion monthly active users YouTube: 1.5 billion monthly active users Instagram: 800 million monthly active users LinkedIn: 500 million monthly active users Twitter: 330 million monthly active users There are huge numbers of people using social media everyday and your audience is represented as a percentage within these numbers. So you can't avoid social media and expect for your content marketing efforts to be successful because this is where people are actively looking for content to consume. http://contentengagementconversions.com/ Creating Content that Sells 13 Therefore, you need to find out where your audience is on these social media platforms and actively engage with them. What groups are they a part of? What hash tags are they using to engage in conversation with other individuals who have the same interest? When you learn this information, start a conversation with them around your content and encourage them to bring others within the conversation. The more people that you can get to comment on and share your social media updates, the better your ability to spread your content and build your authority on these social platforms becomes. This means when you make an update, your audience will naturally gravitate to it to express their opinions and bring others into the conversation. People Love Visual Content While written content of high quality is great, you need to spice things up a bit and play to people's sense of sight. Let's be honest, the average person today has a very short attention span, which means you have to find a way to keep them focused on your content beyond a few seconds. The best way to do this is by creating visual content. You might not be a video person so you'll choose to bypass this type of online marketing activity in favor of something you're more comfortable with. Let me tell you why that's a huge mistake. Video content now dominates online searches, appearing in 70% of the top 100 search results listings. Add to that fact that viewers are 64-85% more likely to make a purchase after watching a product video. This is because the top 5% of videos keep the attention of 77% of its viewers till the very last second. The statistics speak for themselves and show why you need to make videos a big part of your content marketing strategy if you want phenomenal results. Include them within your blog post, insert them on your landing pages, and make them a big part of your Facebook advertisement. Providing your audience with product demonstrations, live Q& A's, and interviews that are both educational and entertaining via videos will help significantly boost the performance of your content marketing. http://contentengagementconversions.com/ Creating Content that Sells 14 Share the Process Sharing the process can also be called storytelling. This form of content marketing is extremely effective and has helped many brands and individuals develop a huge number of followers. In all honesty, both consumers and businesses prefer a good story over the boring pitch about what your business does. Yeah, it's great that you're a multi-million dollar business but what impact has your business had on other people's lives? What was the process of being a new business with no customers and growing into a company that now generates millions of dollars in revenue? People like hearing the real and gritty, the happy and sad, and the stories of triumph. The brands that are killing it online are sharing the journey of their company's development, the personal stories of members on their team, and their customer's success produced from using their products or services. It's all about creating the emotional connection that personalizes the business relationship. You want your audience to see your company as a living and breathing organization, rather than another stale and boring business. http://contentengagementconversions.com/ Creating Content that Sells 15 The Conversion Process We finally get to the part about making money! This is what you've been waiting for after reading more than 3,800 words so far. But you needed to understand the content creation system before you could be successful at doing the conversion process. If you skipped over the material before this section, you're not going to produce successful conversion results. Conversions is the intended end result of the content that you have created. That's if you created your content to nurture your audience into being customers. A lot of content doesn't do this because it's creators don't understand the science of motivating their audience to take the final step towards becoming a customer. Well, since I've given you the formula to creating engaging content, I might as well show you how you convert an engaged audience into customers. Make a Sales Funnel + Call-to-action+ Urgency Let me explain this subheading. It was originally supposed to be broken down into 3 separate sections but when I began writing the sales funnel section, I noticed that I couldn't properly explain it if I didn't insert the other two sections within it. So this is why they're all included together so that you can see how they align together to create the conversion process. The sales funnel begins with the content you create on your blog, Facebook page, Instagram account, or YouTube channel. The mistake many content creators make is not extending the relationship beyond these platforms. You need another form of communication that allows you to engage with your audience on a more personal level, with the focus of nurturing the relationship. What's the best way to do this online? Emails. People are always checking their smart phones for updates and messages and this includes their Gmail (this seems to be the preferred email service for most people nowadays). Therefore, your emails need to be landing in their Gmail account. But how do you get their email address? You do this by creating a call-to-action within your content. A CTA is an offer you make to your audience in exchange for their email address. For example, if you wanted to download this very e-book off my website, you would need to enter your email address on whatever opt-in form I created in order to do so. I'm offering you an in-depth how-to-guide in exchange for your email address, which is a win-win deal. http://contentengagementconversions.com/ Creating Content that Sells 16 Once I have your email address, I'm going to start nurturing relationship. This would include giving you the option to enroll in my bi-weekly newsletter, while also sending you periodic emails about content marketing strategies, my latest book, product offers, and company news. My goal is to keep this form of communication active by consistently providing you with information that's supposed to be valuable to you, without going overboard and moving into spam territory. When it comes to offering you my latest product or spot within a training session I'm holding, I want to add a sense urgency to your decision making process. This isn't intended to force you to make a purchase you shouldn't be making. I just want to let you know that I'll be closing this offer off on a certain date and time. So if my original price for my offer is $377 and I'm presenting a limited deal of $197, I'm providing you with an incentive to purchase the deal before it's no longer available. This helps me sell my product quicker or ensure that I meet my class enrollment numbers and you get a deal on something that helps your business produce better content marketing results. So if that investment of $197 helps you generate $20,000 in sales, how did you lose? You didn't because it was a win-win deal. The sales funnel should always begin following the initial point of contact. Every piece of content you create on your blog and other platforms need to have a CTA included within them. If a CTA is missing then you're not going to be able to convert your audience into customers. Yeah, you'll get the few people who will reach out to you on their own because your content was so great that it compelled them to search for your email address or enter their information on your contact page ( I pray you have one). But the majority of people will need to be nurtured into becoming a customer and a sales funnel is the most effective way to do this. No sales funnel, no sales! http://contentengagementconversions.com/ Creating Content that Sells 17 Closing Remarks And we're finally done! This e-book is shorter than I expected since I was aiming for around 6,000 words. But concise and to the point is always better than dragging on and on just to fill up pages. The information I have given you is pretty straightforward and easy to implement on your own. If you do want a more detailed explanation of content marketing, such as a webinar, online training, or live training send me your request to- I'm also available to speak at any conferences, seminars, and events focused on content marketing and selling online. I'm here to help improve your content marketing results by ensuring that you're using the most effective strategy that works for your business. Tell me what you think about the e-book and I would also love to hear your story about how content marketing has helped your business grow. I'm thinking about sharing your stories of content marketing success on my company blog so definitely send those over. http://contentengagementconversions.com/