Jeff Harrison explains why your content gets no views: you're not distributing it. He recommends paid ads targeted to prospects at each stage of the customer journey, chaining content pieces together with CTAs, and collecting emails so you own your audience instead of relying on algorithms.
Have you ever spent time creating this great piece of content and then you posted it on your social media platform only to get crickets and found it super frustrating? In today's five Minute Marketing Friday, we're going to give you a proven way to get your ideal audience to see and appreciate your hard work.
Hey, welcome back. I'm Jeff Harrison and today we're we are addressing one of the most common problems business owners or entrepreneurs face. Making content and then no one seeing it. First of all, I know your pain because I've been there and I've done that. It can be very demotivating and drive you to consider not maybe even making any more content at all. But I say wait, so let's dive in. Typically when someone posts a piece of content, the mindset is whew, I'm done. What's next? In reality, this is where the real magic begins to happen. This reality is called distribution. I know what you're thinking, or maybe even screaming at the video, Jeff. I did distribute. I posted on Facebook and LinkedIn and YouTube. Well, in the not too distant past this used to be considered distribution. But because the reach of some of these platforms has shrunk to make way for other types of content like paid advertising, your organic posts are not reaching or being seen by as many people. So I would start out with the fastest way to get your content seen and consumed, assuming it is good valuable content, is to pay to get targeted traffic. Now paying for targeted traffic can truly be very inexpensive when you consider a couple of key points. One is 87% of the people want to research before they speak to a salesperson. And the second is your content. When using paid ads will help get in front of those people doing that very research. Now, before you decide one way or the other on the paid advertising for your content, ask these questions. This specific piece of content, where does it fall in the customer journey? Awareness consideration or the decision phase? What is the value of a new client and how much should I spend or or invest to get a new paying customer? When you look at your piece of content and decide where it falls in the customer journey, it will help to understand or realize the cost of acquisition. Which leads to the second part. How much are you willing to spend to get a new customer? If it falls in the awareness stage, this can seem like the most expensive because you're in front or attempting to get the attention of people who have never heard of you, your company or the products or services you provide. Know like and trust. Think of awareness and the is the Getting to know you stage As a customer, they are just beginning their research and they are typically not making a buying decision after they see or engage with one piece of content. You're warming them up, you're educating them, allowing them to realize a solution potentially exists and to their problem. So this can seem expensive because you're not getting a lot of if any sales from this content, but beginning to gain attention or awareness. The other piece of this is you as the business owner knowing what questions your buyers need answering in this phase and making certain you have pieces of content to address each one. So if they need these four things answered and they are all in the awareness phase and you only address one, guess what, they're going to head back to Google and someone else is going to fill in the blanks for them and you will be quickly forgotten. With our clients content we work to connect them. Imagine at the end of each piece of content you added a piece like if you'd like to understand how A goes with B, click here. As we continue this discussion in the article or video we made on the way to perfectly make A fit into B. Now by doing this with all of your content, you can walk them through the journey, possibly with just paying once to get them to see you in the first piece of content. The next is consideration. The customer is done or is doing research and now they may have begun narrowing options down and they're digging into their choices, the websites, reading the reviews, chatting with people who have made the plunge, trying to help them make sure their choices are good ones. Your content here looks different than it did in the awareness stage. We'll save that for another video. As we stay on distribution, you can from this stage begin to see results. Let us call this more of the middle of the journey so your investment into the paid ads can actually begin paying for themselves and create a real roi. The final piece is decision making phase. The customer is done their research, they are ready to give their credit card info and wait for the Amazon van to arrive. This phase can be the trickiest if you decide to jump in at this point. The reason is they have, as I said, done their homework and pretty much settled on a decision. So you are now attempting to sway them to change your mind. This is typically accomplished by offering crazy things like deep discounts. Again, an expensive decision. It's like getting the girl to change her mind on prom night. Maybe too late now. Exceptions do exist. By now you've begun thinking about where you would like to play with your content and which would deliver the highest value. Before you do this, let's jump back into distribution. If you make content, make content for all three levels. Yes, I said it. Make it for all three levels. This way you continue with with the know like trust model. I got to know you as you pointed out the problem. You created a solution, gave me proof that you could do what you promised, and now asked me to buy. It's pretty simplistic. If you make content for each part of the customer journey, you'll be there to greet them as they arrive and need to continue the research or buying decision. Now, I spent a lot of time discussing the customer journey because it's if we didn't, most folks would still be upset that no one is seeing their content. You can solve this rapidly by paying to get your content in front of your ideal audience. I just want to make sure when you make this content you know what group you are serving. As you pay for this content, begin gathering email addresses. My business partner Andrew hears me say this all the time. With a database, all things are possible. Your database is the lifeblood of your future. Today, I've just shared a way for you to accelerate the process with the ultimate goal of kicking the crickets out of your content is to own your own audience. In closing, what I mean by that is you have people click the subscribe button who are in all pieces of the journey we discussed. They are now liking or trusting you enough to give up their identity and because you met them where they were and helped them. You do this enough and you will have a steady stream of subscribers. And then when you share content, you just create an email and hit send. If you want to know more, make sure you are subscribed. See, there you go. And each week on Friday we will put out another episode of Marketing Ideas for local Business owners and entrepreneurs. My name is Jeff Harrison. Thanks for joining me. And if you need help with content, the Customer Journey or creating and managing paid ads, this is what we do for our clients who want results. My info is on the screen. Until next time, have a great weekend.
