When it comes to catching the eye of your audience, you can never go wrong with value.
Over and over again, so many people lead with what they think will get the leads and sales, but at the end of the day, those leads and customers, are people.
Giving value, working hard FOR them, and caring about how they are using your content is what will keep them coming back.
And with so much noise in the online space, it’s important to stand out from the crowd.
So how do you do that?
Well, let’s take a look.
By producing quality content, treating people like humans, and ‘being authentic’.
There’s a solid reason why ‘being authentic’ is in quotes, and I will get to that later.
But first, let’s dive in!
QUALITY CONTENT
Solid, high-quality, engaging content is bringing people in.
People want to know that you not only know what you are talking about, but that you are willing to share with the class when applicable.
And I’m not talking just blog posts, though those are amazing and probably my favorite way to share.
I’m talking high quality videos, mini courses, PDFs, quizzes.
All of it.
“No one has ever become poor by giving”-Anne Frank.
This is one quote I choose to live by, day in and day out.
So part of the giving and the quality content is making sure that you’re not just slapping up a blog post or two once a week and calling it a day.
The content has to be something that is not just going to add to the blogosphere and add to the noise online.
It has to be something that is going to give value and create thoughts and feelings and emotions around what it is that you are discussing.
You want to create content that is going to give your reader or subscriber something to think about and then go out and do.
For example, this piece right here I am creating it in such a way that you’re going to be able to walk away from this blog post, and start working on these tips and tactics in your own digital marketing efforts today.
One of my favorite ways to employ this tactic also is to create a subscriber hub which I have created a post about earlier this week and I will link you to here.
I have created this Hub that is full of not only videos and PDF that add to the content that you can find on the blog but it’s also a way for me to interact with my readers.
It’s a way to give them some quizzes to check how they are doing on their digital marketing efforts.
It’s also a way to give just even more value over and above what I can put on my website at any given time.
This subscriber hub tactic took some effort from me on the front-end however it did not take a whole lot of effort in order to maintain this hub.
It has given me a better way to connect with my readers and subscribers that puts me well and above the majority of the people who are direct competitive to me in my niche/industry.
Because I have this ability to connect with my readers and subscribers on a deeper level, when it comes to making a final purchase for a product that is in the digital marketing industry they’re going to think of me before they think of some of these other competitors simply because we have had that connection.
I have given so much high-quality content and value to them already for free they know they’re going to get over and above that when it comes to making a paid subscription with me.
I also can rest easy at night knowing that I am doing everything in my power to give and give to these people who look to me for advice and inspiration and ideas without “holding back the good stuff” in order to just get some money from them.
So by focusing on creating high-quality content not just blogs, even though that is a focus, but also videos and PDFs and quizzes.
I feel like I am really giving the best that I can give to create the best high-quality connection that I can create with people on a deeper level so they know like and trust me.
TREATING PEOPLE LIKE HUMANS
So keeping with the theme of high-quality content that leads me to discussing treating people like humans.
One of the things that I have seen that has become very prevalent in digital marketing that I absolutely can’t stand is talking about content, lead generation efforts, and sales as if everybody is just a number.
Treating everybody who comes to your website as just another number, as just another nameless face, is going to show through your conversions through all of that because people are tired of being treated like numbers.
By putting the focus on caring for every single person who comes to your website as a person you’re going to see higher conversions better click-through rates and all of that because people are going to notice that you are putting forth your best effort for them.
You’re not going to email them just because “oh it’s Monday, it’s time to email my list” you’re going to email them because you have something of value to add to their lives and nurture and enrich them.
You’re going to put out a blunt post because you know that the information that you have is going to enrich their lives and add value to what it is that they’re doing.
When you start thinking of readers and subscribers and leads in that way, you start noticing a difference in the way that you care about your content.
A difference in the way that you create a video, or a post.
You’re not doing it anymore just to be seen.
You’re doing it because it is valued packed and you know that the people on the other end are going to get something from it.
This creates a whole new sphere of marketing and it creates a whole new feeling around you and what you’re doing.
It’s astonishing to me the amount of marketers out there who are in this just to chase the dollar.
I’m not pretending to be some self-righteous person who doesn’t care about her bottom line at the end of the day.
I absolutely do.
I know for a fact that good feelings aren’t going to pay my bills.
And I know I can’t continue to do what I’m doing without making money on the front-end or back-end.
However I also know I’m not going to continue to make money to pay my bills by treating people like the only reason why they exist is to hand me their money in exchange for the information that I have.
I know that if I treat people like humans if I treat this whole entire endeavor that I am doing as a way to help other people achieve the goals that they want to achieve, then I know for a fact that is going to show when it comes to putting forth all of my marketing efforts.
I know that’s going to show in my content, it’s going to show in my course and it’s going to show throughout the duration of my journey with one reader from person who fell on my website all the way through purchasing my Mastermind highest level you can get.
And I’m noticing that the people who got big really quick overnight because they were doing everything by the book to get the most amount of money that they can get are slowly starting to fall off.
They’re no longer making the big sales that they were making.
And I don’t think that they’re going to be around as long as those people who pay attention to everybody on the other end of the screen.
People are becoming wise to marketing in and of itself.
They’re becoming wise to what’s a gimmick and what’s actually something that means something.
Because of that, they’re no longer buying from the gimmicky, flashy, here’s the solution to earning $1000000 overnight type of people.
Or at least they’re not buying from them as much as they were.
Five years ago all you really had to do was slap an ad up on Facebook, hone in your targeting a little bit, and you were almost guaranteed some sales.
However because advertising and marketing are so prevalent these days, it now takes time, care and attention.
I’m really glad that digital marketing is moving this way because I feel like those of us who market online via website, have a much better opportunity to treat the people we are marketing to like human beings, versus who advertise via radio and TV and other means like that.
So focus on marketing to your people to your readers and leads in such a way that feels like your marketing to a friend, to a human being and not just someone who could probably give you another hundred dollars at the end of the day .
By putting them first you’re going to see that when it comes time to buy they are going to put you first.
BEING AUTHENTIC
This leads me to the authenticity discussion.
Authentic has absolutely become the word of the year and I really really wish it would not.
So many people are now so concerned with portraying themselves as authentic and real and vulnerable that they are using these words so much that they don’t even feel like real words anymore.
I cannot handle reading the word authentic one more time on a Facebook post from some person who is going to go live, in their pajamas, with messy hair crying because something ridiculous and they think that somehow that’s going to get to connect them with their audience.
It’s time to be authentic in a way that give actual real concrete value.
When I say authentic I mean don’t fake it till you make it.
I mean sit down and realize ‘what do I actually know? What can I actually help people with?’ and help them with that.
Knowing what you are and are not capable of and don’t try to stretch yourself beyond what is actually reasonable.
Be authentic in the way that you show up not because you know that writing this next blog post is going to increase your views on Google, but you show up and write that next blog post because you know that the information that you have is going to help someone.
Be authentic in the way that you know what you are saying is true, and real, and going to actually give down you and not just pad your bottom line.
And for the love of everything if you are one of those people who sees the word authentic and then hops on a Facebook live crying in your pajamas please stop.
That is also why I put authentic in quotation marks up above.
Because I know that that is the direction that unfortunately this has gone within the past couple of months to a year, and it’s really sad and kind of gross and beyond annoying.
Honestly at the end of the day if you show up with the intention of providing good value and actually giving a crap about the person on the other end of the screen you’re going to see your marketing efforts pay off.
Just take the time to care take the time to put your best effort forward and take the time to be you and everything will work out in the end.
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