217. The Complete Game Marketing Playbook: Step 3

So when you think about creating content, I believe there are two types of content you have to create. Number one, content that teaches your prospects. And this is the part you're going to have a challenge with because I'm going to tell you. The topics you need to be talking about are not sexy. They need to know the basics. What questions are they asking in their head? What objections do they throw out there? What hesitations do you see them having? Those are the topics you need to be talking about on social media, on LinkedIn.

Hey. Hey. Welcome back to Friday Bullpen Sessions. My name is Andy Neary and this is episode 217. We are on part three of building your 2023 marketing playbook. First two episodes, episode 213 was dedicated to clarity, understanding what your brand is, who your ideal prospect is, and how you can build the brand message for the right prospects. If you did not listen, go back and download and listen to episode 213. Episode 215 was capture how to Build a System to Capture Qualified Leads. Remember, you can't just buy lists anymore and spam people. You have to use what Marcus Sheridan, the author of they Ask youk Answer refers to permission based marketing. Build a list of prospects who have given you permission to stay in touch and reach out. It's a great way to build a list of leads of people who become hyper qualified. Today we're going to get into step three, which is my favorite and that is content. You need to create content that draws your prospects in.

And this is where most advisors get stuck. I want you to, I want to paint a scenario for you. And I bet you've been here once a time or two. You call a prospect.

And.

They'Re interested, but they give you the classic, you know, it sounds interesting, but we're a bit busy right now. Why don't you give us a call back in six months, nine months. Now here's what most advisors do. They hang up the phone, they're excited.

Because somebody's interested.

Yet for the next six to nine months, they do nothing to to keep that prospect engaged. And they call six to nine months later and the prospect says, who are you again? And that call was as cold as it was the first time you made it. And the broker wonders why the hell the prospect doesn't remember them. Because you're not that important to them. That's the reality. However, if you would have kept them engaged for the last six to nine months and called them back, they not only would have known who you were, they might be like, hell yes. Let's meet. And that's the purpose of content. You have to be able to create content that draws your prospects in. So I'm going to just start with just like I've done with the first two, there are three pillars of creating good content that draws the right prospects in. And it's the pillars are the channels by which I believe you really need to focus your content on, and that is social media. And again, if you're an Insurance advisor, probably LinkedIn, email content and website content.

And I'll even throw a little bonus in here today on a fourth channel that I've. We have been leveraging really well lately.

You have to create content on these platforms that engage your prospects. So think of social Media, think of LinkedIn. One of the most common questions I get from advisors is what kind of content should I put out on LinkedIn? And the message I want you to hear today with content, especially on social media, is performance over popularity. What do I mean by that? Well, I know plenty of advisors who go on LinkedIn. They create content and they create content with the goal and intention of getting engagement from their peers, their buddies.

And it's that dopamine hit of the likes and comments that make them feel all warm and fuzzy inside. But guess what? It does nothing for their business. When I go on LinkedIn, I have one purpose, drive business. And so you need to have that same attitude if you want to be effective on LinkedIn. Now, if you just want to use it as a platform to hang out with your peers, by all means, go ahead. But today I'm going to talk to you about how you can create content on social media and email on your website that are actually effective, that actually drive business. And it starts with the attitude of performance over popularity. Business posts you make on LinkedIn aren't going to be very popular when it comes to likes and comments, but it doesn't matter. All you care about is the fact people are watching. So when you think about creating content for social media, for LinkedIn, I believe there are two types of content you have to create. Number one, content that teaches your prospects. And this is the part you're going to have a challenge with, because I'm going to tell you the topics you need to be talking about are not sexy.

Stuff your prospects need to learn about what you do is not sexy. They need to know the basics. What questions are they asking in their head? What objections do they throw out there? What hesitations do you see them having? Those are the topics you need to be talking about on social media on LinkedIn.

Create videos, articles, picture posts, I don't care. Teach your prospects. That's important. Again, this is gonna make you feel.

Disappointed because it's not the content that's gonna get all the likes and the comments from your buddies, but it's the content that speaks to your prospects. Oh, by the way, if you listen to episode two, you have to be making connection requests to your ideal prospects too. You gotta build your community on LinkedIn. The second type of content I highly recommend is content that lets people get to know you. And this is the. These are the posts that a lot of people in the insurance industry hate. Oh, I don't want to see another picture of a guy walking his dog and talking about the lessons he learned. Yeah, you know why you hate that? Because you don't want to do it. But guess what? It works.

Think about this pre pandemic. If you wanted to build a relationship with your prospects, how would you do it? You would go play around a golf, buy him a cup of coffee, buy him lunch, buy him dinner, and you would build that relationship one event, one encounter at a time. Right? Well, how easy is it to do that post pandemic? You may still do that, but not as much. It's not as easy. But the good news is you can build that same kind of relationship using a platform like LinkedIn before prospects ever meet you. But you have to create good content. So if you teach me, if you become my go to resource of teaching and at the same time I get to know you a little bit, man, that's going to be powerful. I'm going to start to get to know you. And over time, I'm going to start to like you. And when I finally realize I need to maybe make a change with my insurance, guess who I'm reaching out to? Yeah, you. So when you think about LinkedIn content, you have to create content that teaches and lets people get to know you. It's that simple. Now, the teaching side of that content is what will bleed into your emails and your website.

Your goal with teaching is to be searchable. What do I mean by that? Well, if you sat down and you made a list of all the questions, all the objections, all the hesitations and problems your prospects have, the things they're looking for when it comes to what you sell, and you just created content around that on LinkedIn, you, you turned it into a nice email newsletter and then you took that blog or the video you created around that topic and you posted it on your website.

You now have become Very searchable. Here's what I mean by that.

When you are looking for something today, you're thinking about making a big purchase. Thinking, thinking about making a change, an investment, comparing insurance, whatever. Where's the first place most people go? Google. Google's the second largest search engine in the world behind, excuse me, YouTube is the second largest search engine behind Google, but Google's the largest.

When people are looking for things today, they go for goo, they go to Google, they type in questions, they type in, how do I do this? How do I compare this versus this? When they type those questions into Google, you want to make sure you show up. You want to make sure your website shows up. How do you do that? Create top content that answers those questions. It's the same thing with emails. Write emails, nurture emails, not sales pitches. Nurture emails that answer their question, put the question in the subject line. So when that email shows up in their inbox with that question, if they're thinking about that question or they've asked themselves that question, guess what? They're going to read your email and do the same thing with your LinkedIn content. You see, if you just take content and apply it to all three channels and it's searchable content, it's content that teaches your client on LinkedIn, it's content that lets them get to know you, you're going to crush it with content. Your content is going to be a lead generator unto itself. But you got to throw away all the bullshit in your head about, well, what will my peers think and how much engagement is this going to get? It doesn'. Matter. The people who will end up doing business with you because of your content will never like your content, never comment on it, but they're watching.

So I hope I've sold you today that you got to start creating content. And it's not the sexy content, it's not the content that's going to create virality, no, it's content that teaches your prospects. That's it. Apply it to your social media, apply it to your email, and apply it to your website. Now I said I'm going to give you a bonus. I'm going to tell you too, to start looking at creating a YouTube channel. What did I just say? YouTube is the second largest search engine behind Google, its parent. So why aren't you there? You want to be searchable. So if you're a producer, have a YouTube channel. If you're an agency, industry partner, have a YouTube channel. Our clients, we almost make it a requirement they have a YouTube channel. Because you got to be searchable.

All right, that's my advice for step three. Creating content. This is how you're gonna draw your ideal prospects in. If you're clear about who you're going after, you're clear about the message, you're capturing good leads. Now you're creating good content. They're gonna start raising their hand and coming into your pipeline. Which leads us to our final step on episode 219, which is convert. So wanna make a quick announcement before we wrap up Today, we are excited that the Broker Branding Academy is open for enrollment. It starts pretty close. January 18th. We are taking enrollment. We cap it at 20. Seats are going fast. It's for industry partners, insurance advisors, commercial benefits. Doesn't matter. If you want to build an unbelievable marketing plan next year, this is it. 12 weeks, 12 calls. We literally teach you the marketing playbook from start to finish. So if you want to know more, go click the link in the show notes, get on my calendar. You and I are going to connect. We do it by phone call only. We don't take everybody. We want to make sure you're the right fit because it's about coaching and collaboration. So go check it out. Come on in. Make next year the best year you've ever had. And you know what happens when you mix clarity with confidence. You go do unbelievable things. Have a beautiful weekend, my friend.