“Every business has a story, and it’s that story that sets you apart from your competitors.”
When you forget your story, you disappear into the faceless crowds. When you tell your story you attract the customers you want – in fact you often attract customers you never thought you could reach!
Big Companies Tell Their Stories To Generate Massive Profits
Did you know that the American Express Open Forum is responsible for more new sign ups than any other campaign American Express runs? And that effectively it is a place where they tell their story, and encourage clients to share their stories as well?
Coca-Cola Journey is the platform Coca-Cola is using to share it’s story – because they are still trying to expand its market share, and it works! This is Content Marketing by the ‘big boys’ – they’re doing it because it’s powerful and effective, and they’re spending a lot of money doing it well!
You Tell Your Businesses Story To Attract Attention
So, you say, “How can I compete? I don’t have the resources or the branding to make that kind of impact?”
You don’t need to. You just need to be yourself.
You have skills. You have experience. You have stories to tell – stories about business victories, failures, discoveries – stories of your journey. When you tell those stories people start to listen to you because they see the problems they face in your stories – and they seek you out for answers.
If you don’t tell your story then others will never know how you might have solved their problems. They might find a different solution … or they might not. But they won’t find you … and you won’t find them.
People Seek Relationships – Even In Business
When you share your knowledge through your content marketing, you are reaching out to people and creating an opportunity to engage with them. If your story touches a nerve, they will respond – so your content creates a bond between you.
As a professional service business – Coaching, Training, Recruitment, Accounting, Health Services … your clients need to trust you. They need to trust you as a person, as well as trusting you as a professional expert. Telling your story helps build that sort of trust. Any prospect who has spent any amount of time on your website will have a great idea of what you are like as a person, and how you handle problems.
You are also showing how you would solve a particular business problem. They may not contact you the first time they ‘meet’ you online, but as they continue to read your work they start to trust you and your solutions and you become the obvious choice.
If Content Marketing Is Such A Popular Strategy Won’t I Still Get Lost In The Crowd?
No.
Why not? Because only a few companies are doing it really well – and they are either small professional service companies like you, who have a compelling story – or enormous companies who have buckets of money to throw at their marketing. The actual market you are playing in is very large, and you only need to attract enough clients to fill your bucket. Most of the mid-size companies are doing their content marketing very poorly (if at all) – they’ve outsourced it to SEO companies who churn out keyword rich articles that rehash old news, but don’t bring any real value. So, just by being genuine and providing genuine value you will stand out.
If your goal is to stand out from the crowd, telling your story, providing examples of the impact of your professional service, and publishing regularly WILL make you stand out. So a clear strategy, a publishing calendar, and possibly some outside help with the content creation if you are too busy will set you in a field of your own.
If you’d like some help with your Content Marketing, contact Hilton Copywriting. I offer strategic advice, a variety of ongoing copywriting packages, as well as custom packages. With a rich background in storytelling and direct response marketing I help you tell your business story and attract more clients.