Game changing content

You’re amazing, whether you're a freelancer, employee, a small business or someone who is looking for a change, perhaps a side hustle. A great service or product with an amazing website will not necessarily get you more clients or work. And here is the reason why..

The marketing landscape had changed for the benefit of all, in the digital world we have now entered the connection economy.

Connect with your audience

Content is king; drive awareness to engage and inspire. Whether you sell products or services, create content to make life simpler, share your creativity, talk about trends and key challenges, you are the key to providing value. Increase awareness within your niche/industry, it is simple yet powerful. In the long-run increase organic search traffic reach, gain trust from the value created. It is a two-way conversation, feedback and response are essential, whether you create blogs, articles, social media posts, videos, tutorials or case studies.

Make content shareable

Make content shareable, ensure at least 2 or more attributes of the 5 core content components known as the 'content honeycomb' are included to create engaging content. Be kind, be generous, join discussions, spread the word, share resources and inspire.

The 5 core content components -

Helpful

Educational

Entertaining

Meaningful

Unique

Participatory

The knowledge sharer is a storyteller. 

Powerful content comes in the form of stories. Storytellers build bridges to connect, engage and take you on a journey. Throughout history the storyteller has carried a valuable message. So effective are the stories that people pass on, share and spread the word, for the survival of civilisation. Storytelling is something we cannot live without, whether in songs, books, brands, movies, education, science, marketing, in faith, brands, government or more importantly your own story to unite people. 

One famous storytelling example is Apple's ‘Think different’ and ‘to the crazy ones’. Apple chose not to tell the story of 'what' computer product features they sell, instead they told the story of the rebel, the outsiders, and the innovators. This story touched people's emotions, creating a beautiful immersive inspirational story of how people throughout history 'think different' to invent, create, innovate or imagine as a result society and culture change for the good. 

This led to Apple’s remarkable rise and an increase in loyal customers. Simon Sinek has pinpointed the 'secret sauce' in Apple's campaign; they chose to tell the story 'why' they are inspired to make great products through their core values. Their campaign states, 'We believe in thinking differently. The way we challenge the status quo is by making our products beautifully designed, simple to use and user friendly. We just happen to make great computers. Want to buy one?' This is Simon Sinek's famous Ted talk that has gone viral.

Apple's example connects to the heart of what matters to people, the message aligned with their core customers' values, their message was carried further and created a new loyal set of customers. It is important to know your audience or your personas. In this case Apple knew their customers' motivations, values, needs and pain points, not just to create the products but how to connect.

Start making game changing content

• Solve problems and freely share that knowledge.
• Check your content has some of the following attributes; helpful, educational, entertaining, meaningful, unique, participatory.
• Be a great storyteller in your niche area, immerse your audience, connect through your passion! 
• Be authentic; no hard selling or convincing, audience switch off and don’t chase after the number of likes.
• Build trust; provide value, be kind, be generous and engage with your audience.
• If you are a business work towards having a content marketing strategy, this will get better SEO reach in the long run, create organic traffic and get more customers, and result in increased Return on investment (ROI).
• Creating a fab blog or presentation takes time, so reuse it, cut it up and repost snippets.

No one nails this on the first go…and that’s fine. Picasso wasn’t always Picasso. He was just Pablo in the beginning. It took practice, patience mistakes to become Picasso the artist. So keep going :)

I have struggled writing content, simply because it was not part of my job. It is no easy feat writing and practicing to find my voice. However as I carried on and on, I found it is rewarding, also magical discovering what resonates with people.

The call to action here is to set aside time, just do it and start creating game-changing content.