Jeff Harrison (Jeff For Local Marketing / Swingpoint Media) explains the concept of "breadcrumbing": intentionally linking pieces of content so prospective customers move step-by-step from unaware to aware to considering solutions and finally to an offer. He uses metaphors (hike/creek, ladder, dance) to show why one standalone piece rarely converts and advises creators to place a single clear "next step" in each piece (e.g., link to an article, solution pages, or offers) rather than pushing for an immediate sale. The talk includes practical homework: after publishing content, decide and link to the next logical piece to build a customer journey.
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It's important to build a path for your customers to find you. But how do you do that? And why is it important to include this in your content, whether it's video or audio? Hi, my name is Jeff Harrison with swingpoint Media. And today I want to talk about that. I just want to pop on because we had a conversation with my number one in my company yesterday and we were talking about this, of how important it is that one piece of content, based on where your customers are joining you in the conversation, that you want to make sure to have the right next step. Imagine you're on a hike and you're going across a little creek. You're looking for places to put your feet because you can't jump one step across there. Well, sometimes our businesses, when we do this, we actually create one piece of content and then we expect our customers to make this massive leap and jump in and give us their credit card. We. Well, it just doesn't work that way.
So what I want to point out is just it's not going to take long, but I think it's something that's very, very important. For years. We've been doing this for about 12 years now. I call it breadcrumbing. And if you think about this, let's go back to that. You're out on a walk and you've lost your way. Well, often when you see somebody who goes out on a hike, whether they're by themselves or they're with someone, they'll tie a little ribbon or tape on a tree or bush. Why do they do that? Well, that's so they can get their way back if they happen to get lost. They really are never lost because they've always marked their trail. Well, the way we use that with content marketing or digital marketing, and it's true with any kind of market. I don't care if you're doing tv, newspaper, it doesn't matter, is in your content. Place that next stone, if you will, in the creek for them to take advantage of. Now, I want to warn you, don't put all the pieces in there at one time because you're going to overwhelm people. As an example, if someone enters my conversation and they're brand new at they didn't even know the problem existed. Right. And I'm talking about this just like this. You didn't even know this problem existed. So I want to expose you to that. Well, the next stage would be just that next little step. It's almost imagine if you're going up a ladder, you don't want to do two or three rungs at one time. You want to do what? That's right. You want to take the very next step on the ladder. Well, we often forget that as business owners and often when what happens is we are tasked from our clients to say, hey, we want to go from they didn't know who we were, we have no digital presence to I want them to start ringing the cash register. Yes, we can do that. It's just very expensive. And a lot of times, not only is expensive, because if you think about this whole process of a funnel right down near the bottom where the decision is being made, what's happening? Well, there's fewer and fewer ideal customers. And guess what else is down there. There's more marketers, there's more businesses vying for that ideal customer. So now it's almost like going to a dance and you're the only girl and there's 40 guys in there. Well, guess what? If you're the girl, you're going to dance with a lot of people. But if you're the guys, you may get one or you may get no dances. But the cost to go to the dance was exactly the same. I would say move higher up that awareness stage and then take them to that next level. What would be the next level? Well, let's. As an example, let's talk about this. Let's say you didn't know this, this situation occurred. Well, what you want to go next to is first of all, the awareness. You didn't even know what you didn't know and now you want to know, well, are there solutions for that? And I would say, you know, for solutions for this, you can visit our website@swingingpointmedia.com and particularly look for this particular article or I put a link in this description that will show you, hey, how do you create the stepping stones to move your customers from I didn't know I had a problem to I have a problem to their solutions to. There are specific companies that offer a solution and here is an offer for you to take advantage of it from me. See, that's a natural progression. When you do it this way, you're not like Uncle Harry who shows up every time and he's trying to get you to join MLM Marketing. And you know you have to leave the party early because Uncle Harry just won't go away. So today the idea was, I want you to understand one piece of content standing on its own usually doesn't do the trick. Very, very rarely will it create new customers. You Want to tie these together with what is that next stage? And I guarantee you, if you think about your business, there are steps that you have to perform to get from, hey, there was a problem with my customer. I went through this process to transform them into an answer. Well, what are those steps? Those are your steps you want to take your customers through. Again, don't make them leap over all the steps and expect them to jump in and throw their credit card at your face. You want to give them the next logical step and then the next logical step and then the next logical step. And maybe at that point they are saying, hey, you know, I realize I have a problem. I'm not connecting my content. In fact, I'm not even making any content. No wonder people can't find me. No wonder people aren't knocking on my door, calling or sending me emails, because I have nothing out there. Well, you need to start creating that content and then connecting it from one piece to the next. So here's your homework. If you're creating a piece of content, whether it's video, audio, you may love podcast or written content, I want to challenge you with this. When you're done with that piece of content, where would you want to send them to next?
Where would you logically want to send them to next? What is the next stage for this? I'm not talking about, you know, again, well, it should be a sale. What is the next thing? Because now they've gone from awareness to problem awareness. They know they have a problem, so the next step would be a solution. Now, if they're brand new, they don't know it's existing, but then it would be awareness. You need to let people know that they're not the only ones out there that this problem has occurred with. There are many, many businesses that we talk to. And the first thing I do is I look at their website and say, well, let me see what kind of content they have. They have no content except the content that says, this is how long I've been in business. This is what we do. This is how much it is. Right? These are the services. But beyond that, there's nothing there. There's nothing that would make me come to their website. I don't even know the name of their company. So what I want you to do is write that piece of content, figure out what is the next logical step, and ask yourself, do I already have that step on my website? If I do, grab that link and write it into your article. Give you an example you down to the end. If you Would like to know more about the types of solutions available.
I've written an article and you can click here for that. So what will happen is people will click and they'll say, I'm ready to find out what those, what that information is. I'll click on it. I'll go to that article. When they go to that article, do you have another link to the next stage? If you don't go, make it, go, make it. And what'll happen is all of a sudden now you've created a journey. And let's go back to the very beginning. This is closing that loop. You're out on a trail, you're hiking. Have you ever gone on a hike and all of a sudden the trail just ends?
Yeah, the trail just ends. And all of a sudden you look out into the distance and that place that you want to go, there are no trails leading to that. And you should have brought a machete because you got to work your way through it. So what happens is you tend to go back until somebody else gives you another trail to follow. So your job is, when you're creating content, is to create a trail that takes your customers from where you're meeting them, where they are in their journey to closure to a potential new customer. Now, if you're having trouble with this, I'm going to invite you to follow us@swingingpointmedia.com you can follow us on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn or YouTube and let us know, is this something that is of value to you? We are going to be starting a program that we'll call the implementation program. This will allow you in a very small group to be part of an education, but also a coaching program. And allow us, when I say us, me and my staff members who are experts in what we do to help guide you and start implementing this into your business. Hey, thanks for joining me. If you like this, please do me a favor. Give me a thumbs up and also put a comment in the comment section that, hey, you like this? You wish I'd do it more. Maybe not, but I just want to tie this together. Remember, contact me, Jeff Harrison at Swingpoint Media. Thanks for joining today. Have a beautiful day.
