How would you like to build a huge, targeted readership of genuinely interested prospective clients or customers? Well, the following quick tip will help you do just that and it works on newsletter lists and email marketing lists just as well as it does with blog subscribers. It’s based on 2 simple steps:
- Write in a focused way about your core area of expertise.
- Write only for your ideal profile of client.
Focused content
The cornerstone of successful content marketing, is to write about a certain subject and then offer products or services closely aligned with that subject. For example, on my marketing blog I write about marketing and business development, and offer a marketing service. I use my content to build a relationship with thousands of great people and then, if they want a marketing mentor to help them develop their business, I get an email or call.
So, the first step is to write about a core subject, so that you attract the attention of a targeted group of people.
Clients and customers only
As well as focusing your content on your particular area of expertise, you should always write exclusively for your ideal profile of client too. As Sonia Simone recently said:
“Your ideal profile of client is someone who can afford to pay you. Bloggers need to remember that!”
One of the first lessons I learned as a blogger, was that when I wrote about the need for small business owners to take professional advice, all the freebie hunters would run away screaming. They would unsubscribe from my blog and newsletter. It was wonderful! It allowed me to clean up my readership and remove the time-wasters at the same time. The net result is that my readership today, is a wonderful community of genuinely interested people; rather than a crowd of free loaders.
In short: Always focus your message on the needs of your ideal profile of client or customer and never be afraid of alienating those who have zero intention of using your services. They may make the numbers look good, but they are of no value to your business. In fact, if you pay for your blog’s bandwidth by the gigabyte or you pay a per reader fee for your newsletter emailing service, the freebie hunters are wasting both your money and your time.
Photo: Rob Young
I saw someone calling themselves a ‘costlancer’ today, stating there was nothing free about the service they provide. Made me chuckle.
It goes back to my belief that you need to set potential customers expectations from the beginning, and you can achieve that within the content you write.
Hi Stuart. When people visit a site, they have an expectation, which is based on what they experience. That’s always driven by the content they find.
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