Creating content
Have you ever faced the terror of an empty screen? You’ve opened up a “New document,” and there’s a blinking cursor. You may have a pressing deadline for a blog post, article, speech or other content, and no topic in mind. But there’s that cursor, and it hasn’t moved. Blink blink blink.
• “Doesn’t everyone know the information in this white paper?”
• “This blog post is just beginner level. How about something more advanced?”
Those are questions I frequently get from business professional clients when we’re discussing topics for blogs, articles and other forms of thought-leadership content they can produce. And they’re valid concerns.
Their most common answer? “I want to be sure you’ve done this kind of work before.” They want experience, and they want to be sure it’s experience for their kind of situation.
Clients are more likely to do business with you if they know, like and trust you. And while it’s easy to become “known” to a potential client, and be sure they “know” what you can do for them, getting them to trust you is a huge issue.
I find that once I’ve delivered successfully for a client, that trust level is high – but at the start of the relationship, we’re both feeling our way.
One way to build trust, even before you meet a prospect, is by showing yourself to be like them. This is because if you build commonality with them, they’re more likely to believe that you can help them solve their problem.
Does your content focus on what you want to say – or on what your prospective client wants to hear? The best topics for blogs are those that show your ability to meet the most pressing issues that your clients want to solve.
That is your objective, right? You DO want to make sure that what you’re selling, in terms of services, is what the market wants to buy? Anything else, and you’ll get lonely, with an empty bank account.
Here’s how one particular kind of content can help keep you on the straight and narrow – aligning your services with the market’s needs. It’s called “newsjacking,” which is a term from the world of content marketing.
