Why would you not make your content helpful and valuable?

And why all these Instagram ads need to get in the bin

Summer Break Incoming!

First up, just to let you know, my last post / email before my summer break will be Weds 16th July and my first one back after my break will be Weds 10th September.

As well as having some time away over the summer, I’ll be working a little differently, so I’ve decided to take a pause from writing here so that I can concentrate on taking things a little slower and come back with even more great content for you.

If you’re also away over the summer, then you might find this post that I did before Christmas 2024 useful. It talks about how to take a break, plan for it, and come back strong.

Preamble - why I chose this week’s topic and why it’s helpful for you and your content

I’ve decided that I might start a new series of videos for my social platforms entitled ‘what fresh hell is this?’ given that some of the ads that I see online these days, marketed directly to small business owners, really make me wonder what on earth is going on.

Well, that’s not true, I know what’s going on. Everyone is out there wanting to sell you their ‘trick’, their ‘solution’, that ‘one thing’ that’s going to change your marketing forever, make it magical and easy and work just like that.

The reality is that genuinely good marketing, for your business, is a journey. You are going to need to work on it, little and often, pick up some skills along the way, and keep chipping away at it to see results over time. In the same way that I know your business is, and is going to be, a great success, we all know that an overnight success is very rarely the reality.

It’s the same with your marketing, the people you look at that you think have it all sorted didn’t buy into whatever weird ad is currently stalking you on your socials, they have put in the time, over time, to get it right for them and their business.

I saw one of these ads this week which was telling people that they’d got it all wrong because they were sharing ‘helpful’ content online to their followers and this is why people weren’t buying from them. Right. Sometimes I have to just take a deep breath when I see these, and it’s made me think about firstly how wrong it is, and what I’d tell people to do instead, so welcome to exactly that in this week’s post!

I mean, there are always ways that you can improve your content (more on that further down) but honestly, why would you not want to be helpful online?

Why wouldn’t you want to share content that shows people what you do, tells them why it can help them, shows them how it’s helped others, and generally sings your praises? We know that people buy from people, that building an audience online and getting that ‘know, like and trust’ factor going is a great way to get people who have just come to check you out to get in touch and start working with you.

So let’s talk about why I think they might be saying this, and how you can get your very helpful and awesome content working for you and your business.

What has gone wrong here?

One of the other issues with these ads is that they’re quick to tell you what is wrong, but don’t even want to hint about what they think would make it right. That’s the subject of their ‘webinar’ or ‘download’ or ‘online course’ that they’d like to sell you.

What I think that they are trying to say here is actually valid. I think what they’re pointing out is that just turning up and telling people about you, what you do, and how you can help, is only half of the story.

What you also need to do is to connect what you’re saying in each piece of content to what you want people to do next, and then weave that into what you’re creating.

Lead with your business goals and your audience

Creating your content should be a little mix of a few things. You’ll want to take a content idea from the list that you’ve been keeping, and then spend some time thinking about why you’re creating that content.

• What business goal does this content link to?

• Who is your audience?

• What part of your audience are you targeting? (It doesn’t always have to be the same, you might have different groups within your audience who want and need different things from your business)

• What do you want someone to know about your business from this content?

• What do you want them to do next?

Taking some time before you even create content to really think about how it’s going to benefit your business is always time well spent.

How can someone go from watching / reading / consuming this content to working with you / buying from you / hearing more from you?

This is a little bit like an extension from the last question - what do you want them to do next? - but not quite.

Think about it this way. If you were someone that had just discovered this one piece of content of yours and you liked it and wanted to know more / work with you, would you know what to do next?

I think we often shy away from including this in our content, because we are worried about repetition. So, let’s quickly cover that.

Let’s get over our fear of repetition

First up, I can hear that cringe. You are reading this thinking, yep, not going to do that, I don’t want to be out there on the internet constantly telling people how they can buy from me.

My first question would be - why not? If you don’t actually want to sell yourself and your business, then why are you creating content at all?

But I do also get it. We are conditioned not to do this. Especially for women. We are taught that we shouldn’t be ‘out there’ on the internet actually telling people why our business rocks and they should get involved. Like there is something ‘icky’ about selling the actual thing you set up your business to sell.

Here are a few things to remember / think about

• The rule of 7 - the idea that you have to see something 7 times online before you even notice it - has gone up to 11. So you have 11 times that you’re going to need to say the same thing!

• People tune out things that aren’t relevant to them. Plenty of people will like your content and never follow you, the majority of those that follow you may never buy from you, if someone doesn’t want to hear about how to work with you, they’ll tune it out, you aren’t bothering them.

• You aren’t going to be saying the same thing, the exact same way each time!

Saying the same thing in many many different ways

Let’s focus on that last point. And come back to creating content that’s both helpful and makes people take action.

So you’ve got your content idea.

You’ve got your notes about your business goal and audience.

Now, here comes the fun part - storytelling.

If - instead of creating a post / video / blog / etc. - you were just talking to someone about this content idea, how would you describe it? If that person, your right audience, was right there in front of you, asked you a really great question, and you wanted to answer it, and also tell them how that relates to working with you - what would you say?

This is the good bit, the way you tell your story about your business. And it gives you the best way to end by telling them exactly how to work with you going forward. You can absolutely feel that you’ve created this moment, shown them something amazing about your business, and now they’re hooked you’re just telling them how to get it for themselves.

Doesn’t that feel a lot less like repetition and a lot more like something that you can do, over and over again, with more of your content ideas?

Oh, and if that content that you want to create is a reel or other short video and you don’t know where to start - I’ve got you! Join me online next week, or IRL in Leighton Buzzard the week after to learn how to make those content ideas into a ‘reel’-ality (oh dear, that is a bad joke!) as I show you everything from scratch. All the info and ticket links are here.

Look out for my next two posts, incoming before my summer break!

As always, if you’d like to ask a question or know more about working with me, just hit reply.

Chat soon

Laura