5 Content Trends To Leverage In 2023 To Grow Your Business

Hey. Hey. Welcome LinkedIn community. I am jumping on five minutes late. I apologize. It has just been that kind of day. I'm excited. We are going to cover the five content categories, the five content trends you need to be leveraging this year if you want to have success with content, especially on a platform like LinkedIn. What I'm going to be talking about today is the kind of content we're creating at Complete Game Consulting to help us have a lot of success with social media.

I'm going to talk about why you need to be creating content.

So before I dive into the trends, I am going to set up the. Set the stage for why you need to be doing this in the first place. I think a lot of people struggle with that. They're not quite sure if content is the place they need to go. But I want to help you get clarity on that because I'm here to tell you it is. In my personal opinion, content today is oxygen for your business, just like oxygen is for you. When it comes to breathing and staying alive, content is oxygen for your business. If you're not creating.

Content, your business is slowly dying. And so we're going to talk about content today and how you can become more effective with this. Now, I'll be very honest with you. Some of the content trends I am sharing today I did not come up with. It came up in our research. It came up in some of the marketing influencers we follow, YouTube channels we follow. So I just want to distribute some knowledge to you today, distribute some information that I have gathered that I am going, I think is going to be very, very helpful for you today. If I'm fumbling my words, I've done a lot of speaking today already, so I apologize. But we're going to have some fun with this because I think this is going to be extremely, extremely helpful. Now, if you are watching live or you're watching the recording of this, if you stick around till the end, I do have a really cool offering for you if you want to take us up on it. So please stick around for that. What do I have designated for time? I have this to go for a full hour. We probably will not go the full hour, but I'm going to cover a lot of things here when it comes to content. So. So let's set the stage.

Five content trends you need to be leveraging here in 2023 if you want to go grow your business. Let's start with why you need to create content in the first place.

I was working with a client a few Weeks back, and he and his team had gone through some sales training with another outside party and the, the module that they had just covered talked about cold calling. And if you follow my content, you know, I talk about cold calling quite often. And on a particular slide, it talked about the fact that Today.

It takes 18 phone calls to reach one prospect on average. So I want you to let those numbers sink in. Eighteen phone calls to reach one prospect. Now, the downside to that statistic is the way most in the insurance industry read that is, well, then we just need to make more phone calls. When the reality is you should be taking that statistic to say you need to be doing other things. Because if you do the math, if it takes 18 phone calls to reach one prospect, it takes 180 phone calls to reach 10. And if you are a speed dialer and you can make one call, leave a voice message every minute on the minute. It's going to take 180 minutes to reach 10 people, three hours to reach 10 people. Think about that.

So that statistic should tell you what else can we be doing to get in front and stay in front of our prospects? The answer for most advisors is nothing. And there's nothing more than saddens me.

When I see an advisor who's struggling.

And because he or she lacks a plan, they just continue to do more of what's not working because that's all they know. And I want to help you fix that today. If you are an advisor going okay, I will admit opening doors has been a little more of a challenge today than it was maybe two, three years ago, maybe before the pandemic. I'm here to help. That's what today is about. I'm going to share some trends you need to be thinking about if you want to create effective content that draws prospects into you. Now, I want to share another very important note about what I'm about to teach and share today. This is not an overnight win hack. This is not a silver bullet to anything you're doing today. Nothing we teach creates a win tomorrow. I know that sucks to hear, but what I want to help you create is a process that's going to create leads for the long run. Anybody can get hot for a month. Anybody can have more leads than they've ever had come in for a few weeks. But my question is, what are you doing to create a system to bring leads in month after month after month and eventually year after year after year? That's what this is all about.

If you are not a level 10 committed to put in the work to doing this. I'd tell you to step away from the live right now. This isn't worth your time if you're in search of the quick win because you've got to validate by June 1st. Go make some phone calls. Don't, don't sit on this live because I'm going to teach you a system. I'm going to teach you some trends and the system that can accompany it so you can create long term success, not short term wins. Now let me share my story for those who don't know me. My name is Andy Neary. I am the founder and owner of Complete Game Consulting. I was also a health insurance commercial advisor for 22 years. I started out as a commercial advisor, commercial insurance advisor with Federated Insurance, if you're familiar with it, with some of the best training in the industry. And I was taught how to go market myself by picking up the phone and parking my car or parking my car in industrial parks and going door to door. And I drop off marketing slicks, one business after another. And that's all I did every day, all day. Then I got into the benefit space and that's where I've really been ever since. And I saw a problem about four to five years ago. You see, when I moved to Colorado in 2014 and I went to work for an independent agency, I, I found myself in a market where nobody knew who I was. And I knew at that point the way I was taught wasn't going to be very effective, which was phone calls pounding the pavement, phone calls pounding the pavement. Because I'm now in a market, nobody knows who I am. I have no Rolodex here. So I had to build a marketing plan. I had to try something different. And what became my secret sauce was creating exponential awareness. How am I going to get one message in front of a lot of people at one time?

And content is one of the best forms of creating exponential awareness. If you think about the concept of just creating content on LinkedIn, if you create a good piece of content, one piece of content can get hundreds, if not thousands, maybe tens of thousands of eyeballs on it. You can't do that anywhere else. Now I will say what I said earlier. It's not going to create a win tomorrow. One post is not going to get a prospect to reach out to you and say we want to give you our business. The point is you need to create a ton of name recognition today, brand recognition, and that's what content does. Prospects can't buy what they can't see. And if they're not seeing you right now, if they're not seeing your content, it is going to be very hard for your prospects to do business with you.

Now, truth be told, I was just having this conversation with two guys, two advisors. This earlier today. Content isn't only for people who are extroverts. Content isn't only for people who are great on camera, great on video. Content can work for anybody if you know how to do it, if you know what you should be talking about. Truth be told, I'm an introvert. I'm an introvert. I don't like crowds, I don't like the attention, I don't like the spotlight. But I know I have to do it if my business is going to grow. Every time I take the stage, I get in my zone for one hour. The second that talk is done, I'm off stage connecting with a few people. But I will be honest, I would rather be alone in my hotel room than networking with hundreds of people. That's just who I am. I'm an introvert. So if you're an introvert out there, I want to tell you there's hope. You can create content. You need to be creating content because remember, it's oxygen for your business. So let's talk about the trends. What are some of the trends you should be looking for when it comes to creating content? What should you focus on.

When it comes to your strategy this year to get one message in front of as many people as you possibly can at one time? The first question I want to pose is how are you going to create the content?

So when you think about content, there's the how, the what and the where. The how is what you what are you going to create? Are you going to create videos? Are you going to create articles? Are you going to do a podcast? How are you going to create content? Are you going to use pictures? There's no wrong answer. You just have to remember some people like to watch videos, some people like to look at pictures, some people like to read articles, and some people love to listen to podcasts. So when you think of the how of content, you just have to pick a channel. Now, eventually you may be doing all of them and leveraging all of them. That's great. But for now, pick the one that feels the best for you. So that's the how. The what is. What are you going to say? What are you going to say in the content? Whether it's an article, a video, a picture, or a podcast. And Then the third part of that equation is, where. Where are you going to put that content? Are you going to put it on LinkedIn? Are you going to put it in an email? Are you going to put it on your website, on a YouTube channel, in a podcast, on a speaking stage, on a webinar, whatever? Where are you going to put that content? Because all of those channels I just mentioned are channels you can use to grab exponential awareness.

Not to mention creating exponential awareness is really good for time management. You got to figure out how to create maximum output in the minimum number of hours.

Spending 3 hours to reach 10 people by phone is no longer a good use of your time. Sorry, for those who are buying into cold calling, it's just not. So you've got to create maximum output in the minimum number of hours because your time, my time, your prospect's time is extremely valuable. So let's dive into trends. Now that you know how to create it, what you should be saying and know that where you should be saying it are important. Let's talk about the trends for. For this year. Number one, video is still king. I grabbed this little nugget directly from One of the YouTube channels I follow, and this was one of their big topics for 2023. Video is still king. I just told you the how right Video articles, podcast, pictures. There isn't a wrong answer. However, video is still king. Why? Because video gives your prospect the greatest opportunity to get to know you and learn from you at the same time. There is no other marketing medium that lets people accomplish both as quickly as a video. Now, if you are absolutely deathly afraid of a video, you're afraid of hitting the play button. I'm going to challenge you either to get better and put the reps in or just avoid it and do one of the other channels. But I am going to tell you, video is still king. If there's one medium of content that has grown our business the fastest, it is our video content. Because there is a concept in marketing, concept that I coined, I think, I'm not sure, and that is you need to create likability and credibility with your content. And you cannot have one without the other. Because if you just create likability without any credibility, you fall into the friend zone where I was the first 10 years of my career. All my prospects like me, they take meetings with me, but they would never take me seriously enough to hire me. If you just focus on credibility and no likability, I know you're smart, I'm learning from you, but I don't know who you are. I don't even know if I like you. Not gonna hire you.

You gotta have both likability and credibility. And a video gives you the greatest chance, the quickest opportunity to create that likability and credibility.

So that is trend number one. Video is still king. So I am going to challenge you to start thinking about how you can incorporate video into your prospecting strategy if you are not today. Another statistic I just heard at one of my own workshops I was a part of was 80% of the time we're on our phones. Check this out. 80% of the time we're on our phones, we're watching some form of short form video. Short form defined by any video. Three minutes or less. Think about that. 80% of the time people are on their phones watching videos.

So what are you doing to incorporate video into your strategy? Nick Leese, you asked the question, do you have a recommendation for a basic package needed to get started with video? When you say basic package, I'm not quite sure what you mean, but what I'm going to tell you to do, my friend, to get started, use this right here. It's one of the greatest cameras, recording cameras we have today. These iPhones or if you have a Google phone or Android, they have some of the best recording capabilities out there. Just hit record on this. If you want to go buy a wireless lavalier, you can attach as a microphone, great. But just start recording videos on this phone right here. You don't need anything else. Hit Play. Talk for 2 minutes post. Do not overthink it. People just want to hear from you. Truth be told, people don't even want the fancy editing anymore. They just want to see the raw version of you speaking to them. Now if you choose to do it in landscape, you choose to do it in portrait. I don't think it matters anymore if you're posting on LinkedIn. I used to tell you you're going to want to be landscape, but I'm now recognizing LinkedIn is promoting vertical videos. We put a lot of our own vertical clips out there. Just hit record. Just hit play. Pick a topic. Think about what your prospects are wondering about today. What are the questions they're asking? What are the objections, the hesitations they have? Just create content around that because that's what they want to see, that's what they want to hear. Answer their questions.

So trend number one for this year with content video is king. Find a way to incorporate it into your strategy. Trend number two, be authentic, be real.

This is where your Personal brand comes in.

I've seen a lot of posts lately from some of the industry veterans, I'll call them, that are really sick and tired of seeing the pictures of people walking their dogs and hanging out with other people. This is a platform for business.

I hate to tell you things of things have adapted and you just haven't adapted with them. LinkedIn is where Facebook was seven, eight years ago. It is just the truth. Whether you like it or not, some of you probably still want it to be the recruiting platform it started out as 20 years ago. Guys, you got to adapt. And if you want to develop a reputation and a relationship with your prospects, you got to be authentic and be real. And content gives you that opportunity to be authentic and be real. Share your struggles, share your vulnerabilities. Let us know what's going on in your life, but just be you.

Those pictures you don't like of people walking their dog, the pictures I put out of running sprints up a hill or biking into the mountains, those are the posts that get people to reach out to us. Why? Because now they look at us and they go, that dude's just like me.

You got to create relatability with your prospects. Your knowledge only takes you so far. If you are not relatable, they are not going to hire you.

Remember what I said. Likability, credibility, authentic. And being real creates likeability. Now here's the real truth about this. Prior to the pandemic.

If you wanted to build a relationship with your prospects, you would take them out to lunch. You'd buy them dinner, maybe buy them coffee, take them out to play golf, take them to the baseball game. We used to schmooze them, right? To build a relationship. A lot of that changed after the pandemic. We are not connecting with our prospects in person as often as we used to. So we got to figure out a different way to build a relationship. Guess what? I got good news. Your content can actually build a relationship with prospects before they ever meet you. There is not a better comment I receive when I jump on a strategy call with a prospect and they tell me they feel like they already know me and we have never met. You can do the same thing. Anybody can do that. Our clients right now who are winning big with their content, are walking into prospecting meetings with prospects who already feel like they know them. You want to talk about having a leg up on the competition? That's how you do it. So you need to be more authentic and more real with your content. And I share this from a Very vulnerable place. Because there was a time when I created mine. I tried to. I tried to act like other people, I tried to model other people. And I wasn't being myself. I remember about 12 years ago, I was an account exec working for a very, very good consulting firm. And I remember I was told by my boss.

Andy, nobody wants to see your energy. You're too energetic when you talk. You're too handsy when you talk. People don't like that. CFOs don't like that. I would literally have to sit at prospect meetings with my hands under the table. He literally made me put my hands under the table, sounding robotic. Because you took my greatest asset away from me. I wasn't being me.

This is what I'm talking about. About being authentic and being real. Just let us see the real version of you in your content. Do you have certain beliefs? Are the things you stand for? What do you believe in? This is the content that helps you find your best prospects. This is the year to take a stand.

And your content can do it if you're willing to be authentic and real.

Trend number three, create searchable content.

What do I mean by that? You need to create content your prospects are looking for.

So if you think about the typical buyer's journey, the typical buyer's journey starts here. They're trying to figure out what their problem is. Because, truth be told, most of your prospects actually don't know what their problem is.

They're watching their insurance rates go up, but they actually don't know why. They don't even know what the problem is. Once they uncover they have a problem, they start exploring other options. Now they start to go look at other things, and then eventually they'll settle on one option they really kind of like. So they'll go deep into that option. And then when they realize you're the one who's talking about that specific option, that's when they start evaluating you. Think about that. I need to figure out what my problem is first. Once I know what my problem is now I'm going to start looking at options. Then there's going to be a specific option I really start attracting to. So I'm going to go deep in that. And if you're the one educating me on that option now, I start evaluating you.

Here's the mistake most in the insurance industry make. Instead of trying to help a prospect uncover their problem, you're focused over here talking about either one specific option or trying to tell them why you're so great, why your agency is so great they don't even know what their problem is.

You're trying to tell me all these intricate details about reference based pricing and PBMs and all the in and out to PB. I don't even know why my rates are going up. They can't connect with that.

If you want to create content that attracts your prospects, you got to talk about the stuff they're asking.

Why are my health insurance rates go up going up? Are PPO networks, large PPO networks a good idea? Is my broker negotiating my renewal a good thing?

On the commercial side, let's talk about risk. What will happen if I don't manage a specific guys? These are the things they think about.

Create content around the questions they're asking. Literally imagine they're going to Google and they're typing in a question. What would they ask?

Create that content.

Because that is searchable content.

To the point that if they were to go plug that question in a YouTube channel or a Google page, you might show up. Think about that. Imagine a prospect who plugs in a question in a platform like Google and your website pops up. If you have a YouTube channel, your YouTube channel pops up. If you had a post on your LinkedIn profile that talked about it, your profile pops up. You want to talk about creating name recognition.

Stop talking about the things you want to talk about and start answering the questions they actually have. That's searchable content.

This is one so many in the insurance industry struggle with. Because the perception is I have got to create content that makes me look smart.

So I don't want to create the basics because that stuff is boring. Everybody knows about that. Here's the problem with that thought process. It's boring to you because you talk about it every day. It's boring to your peers because they talk about it every day.

But is it boring to your prospects?

Could it actually help your prospects? Could it actually empower your prospects?

That's all that matters. And I know too many advisors who are too afraid to put out basic content because you're afraid of what your peers are going to think. But all that matters is what your prospects think. A little known tip I give everybody who works with us on their LinkedIn strategy is performance over popularity. If you want to create content for a platform like LinkedIn, your job is not to talk to your buddies. It's to talk to your prospects. You're here to perform, you're not here to become popular.

That's all that matters. And it's not sexy content, but it's content that works. So I want you to think about what topics, what questions might my prospects be asking right now, and how can I answer them? And that's the content you should be creating if you want to create searchable content. Now, the other fear people have when they think about creating searchable content. Well, is. Well, Andy, I don't know if I want to be educating my. My competition.

I hear you, but here's the reality. He or she who educates the most wins the most today. Enough said. He or she who educates the most wins the most today. If I see you every day or every week on a platform like LinkedIn, I get emails from you. You're hosting webinars, whatever they might be. And you are the one who is constantly educating me.

You're the one I'm going to think of when it comes time to buying.

Now, here's another reason why content is so important.

When you meet a prospect for the first time, or your prospect first becomes aware of you.

Their mindset is probably over here somewhere. They're not quite sure what their problem is yet. They don't even know if they have a problem. They're happy with their broker. They may not even think about being. They may not even be thinking about moving. And for them to hire you, you need to be. You need their mindset to be over here. And this is the gap. They're over here right now. You need them here now. If the only time you get to shift the mindset is when you meet with them, it's gonna take a long time to shift their mindset. That is why the sales cycle in the insurance industry is extremely long these days.

However, if you have content, you're constantly pumping out there.

And your content is shifting their mindset.

Before they ever meet you. By the time they meet you, guess what? They're shifted. They're bought in. Heck, they may even have reached out to you. Now, moving them through that pipeline is a whole heck of a lot easier, isn't it? That's why content is important. You have to find a way to shift your prospect's mindset before they actually meet you.

Educational content is the best way to do it. That is what we refer to as searchable content. All right, trend number four. This is the one that I get a lot of resistance on. You need a YouTube channel. Yes, you do. Now, let me explain why. I know there are plenty of agencies, bigger consulting firms in this industry that simply will not allow people to have YouTube channels. I understand it. I respect it. However, I'm going to challenge it the reason you need a YouTube channel is not to become a YouTube sensation. It is not create viral videos. It is simply to leverage a platform that is now the second largest search engine in the world only to its parent Google. That's why you need a YouTube channel if you're going to create video content. Because trend number one is video is still king. You need a YouTube channel to put it somewhere. There's nothing better than to have a library of videos that you could reference in your prospecting. You could drive prospects to and let them come learn from you. By the way, setting up a YouTube channel takes 10 minutes. And knowing it is the second largest search engine in the world.

I hope you recognize why it might be important. Now I get it. You think YouTube is for the 13 year olds who are trying to become famous. I understand. But I will tell you there is more educational content. The reason I have complete game consulting today is simply because for three years straight as an advisor I studied educational content on YouTube. How to create better marketing, how to create social media content, how to use LinkedIn. Everything I teach today I've learned from my years of studying YouTube videos.

Imagine now instead of it me being me studying others. They're studying you, they're learning from you. This is one of the go to YouTube or excuse me, Google and they plug in con questions they may have around topics like health insurance and commercial insurance and risk management. Wouldn't it be cool to have your YouTube channel pop up? You see, here's what happens in the psychology of searches. When prospects or we as humans go to search engines and we plug certain questions in, or we look up certain things and these websites pop up. Whether it's somebody's YouTube channel, somebody's LinkedIn profile, a website, some company's website.

Those folks instantly have credibility with us because if they're the first things that popped up, my inherent reaction is, well, they must be the go to experts.

So imagine a prospect plugging something in and your LinkedIn profile pops up. A YouTube channel pops up, your agency's website pops up. You're actually creating.

Instant credibility with that prospect. You don't even need to be the smartest one in your market, but you're going to have the credibility. You're going to be the perceived go to expert.

So key. Now I know this one comes with a little. Huh? I'm not so sure about this Andy. But YouTube channels are here to stay. They're not going away. You should be leveraging them. I'm also going to put this out there while I talk. If you have any questions, put them in the chat, put them in the comments. I'm happy to answer any, any questions you have. As we go through these five trends, if you just joined us, let me review them quickly. Number one, video is still king. You should be trying to leverage video content. Number two, be authentic, be real in your content. Just show up as you. This is how you build a personal brand. Personal brand is nothing more than a reputation. Show up as you. That is the key piece here. Number three, create searchable content.

You don't need to create viral videos. Every piece of content does not need to be a home run. Just create content your prospects are looking for. Number four, you need a YouTube channel. It is the second largest search engine in the world and this is where your prospects are going to look for things. Number five.

Broaden your reach by going narrow. What do I mean by that?

The best advisors in the insurance industry are not advisors who are outselling everything. They are not out pitching to prospects. We can take everybody and we serve everybody because we solve all problems.

Those advisors and agencies are caught in the noise because that is what every agency is saying today.

What you want to think about is how do you go the opposite direction? How do you become known for very few things? Who is your target audience? It is not anybody willing to say yes to you. Who is your target prospect? We teach one of our modules we teach here at Complete Game is our identifying your ideal prospect, brand identity. And it asks three very important questions. Who are you going after, what are you saying and where are you saying it? Who are you going after, what are you saying and where are you saying it?

There are very few prospects that are actually a good fit for you, believe it or not. But I want you to think about what you want to become known for. What is it you do as well as anyone in the market, in your market.

And go find the people who are a fit for it. I know advisors, friends of mine who sell nothing more than a health insurance capital. So they have gotten so clear about who is the best fit for that health insurance captive. And that's all they go sell. They go find prospects who are fit for it. And you know what? Some of these guys are selling a million dollars a year in new revenue. They're not out pitching. We can do HSAs, we can do compliance, we can do HRAs, we can do this. We can do labor. No.

They know exactly what they're good at. They go out and pitch it to the market to see who's the best fit for its and they become known as the go to expert for it. So I challenge you this year, quit trying to become known for everything. You're not just a health insurance advisor. You're not just a commercial risk advisor. What do you guys do best? What does your team do best? Become known for very few things. Because when it comes to identifying an ideal prospect and creating content for them, here is the secret. Probably giving enough a much, giving away too much today, but you're getting the benefit of it.

You and I have been taught how to identify a prospect demographically. How big are they? Where are they located? How many employees do they have? Right? That's not the gold of content. When you build lead lists, whether a lead list is an email list or your LinkedIn connections, you can only build lists via via demographics. You can't filter a list any other way. But where the gold is, is if you understand the psychographics of your ideal prospect. How do they think? What do they believe? What do they stand for? How do they make decisions? What are their hobbies? Where do they go hang out? What are their what do they love? What is it about them that makes them unique? If your content.

Focuses on the psychographics.

You'Re going to pull out the right prospects. Who are the psychographic fits? If you go look at your favorite clients today, they are not your favorite clients because of their demographics. There has never been an advisor who has said to me, andy, my favorite client is ABC Manufacturing. The owner's a jerk. He treats me like crap. We have very different, different views about insurance. But man, I love working with this guy because he's a machine shop. Nobody's ever said that.

The reason you love them is because they stand for certain things, they believe in certain things, they make decisions a certain way, they treat you a certain way, and God dang it, pardon my language, guess what? They're aligned with you. They believe things you believe. They believe they stand for things you stand for. That's a psychographic fit.

That's who you want to go find with your content. This is why I'm telling you guys, when I say be real, be authentic, stand for something in your content. This year I create a lot of content I know people don't like, but if they don't believe in it or like it, they're probably not a good fit for me.

This is why broadening your reach by going narrow is so important. Go find those few people who love what you do, make them clients and you will have the best book of business.