Content Marketing can be super effective, so long as you do the right things, correctly. This post is all about one of the absolute basics: Getting the balance right.
Content Marketing & balance
It’s extremely important to focus on the needs of your marketplace, rather than your own needs. People can tell instantly when a service provider has this balance wrong. A very common example we see daily, is when we arrive on sites and get hit by sales messages, banners and pop-ups – All demanding we do something for them. That’s the completely wrong balance for successful Content Marketing.
The foundation of great Content Marketing, is to deliver useful information, which a targeted group of people will find valuable enough to subscribe to and share. By continuing to earn their attention, you position yourself as an authority on your subject and make it easy for them to contact you, when they have a requirement for someone with your expertise.
Tilting the balance
If you are a service provider seeking to attract client inquiries online, your balance should be heavily tilted toward contribution. Remember, if your content is useful enough, people will subscribe to it, share it and return. Just make it easy for them to subscribe and share.
You don’t need to push sales messages at people about how awesome you are, just make it easy for them to contact you. A dedicated contact page with an address, phone number and email address is all you need. If you must use a contact form, remember that for every additional required field, you will lose X% of inquiries. If you’re OK about that, a form is fine.
That’s the balance I used in 2011, to generate almost £150,000 in client fees from my Marketing Blog.
Great points here. I hate it when you come across those websites that are just selling to you from the moment you hit the landing page. It just reminds me of those pushy sales assistants in stores, or those people that try and stop you in the middle of the street. It doesn’t work in the outside world and it definitely doesn’t work on-line.