Hey, it's Samantha Hartley of the Profitable Joyful Consulting podcast. This season I'm talking about marketing and today and in the next three episodes, I'm going to be talking about content marketing. Today, I'll cover strategy in part two I'll talk about content planning and in part three, I'll talk about content creation, so get ready to hear about your content marketing strategy.

Years ago, when there were just websites, everyone realized that there was no reason to come back to a website once they had visited the first time. And so the blogs were kind of invented to create dynamic content. Dynamic content meant there was something going on at your website that the search engines would send people back to to go see something else. Back in those days, everyone realized if you build it, they will come, it's a lie and so they had these websites with blogs on them where they were constantly writing these articles and they realized we got to do something different.

Along later came social media and instead of us waiting around for the audience to come to us, we took our content to the audience and that's really when content marketing strategy as a thing took off. It's not that we weren't using content to market businesses, even offline back with publishing, but it's really when content marketing on the Internet became a really major marketing strategy for people. And for consultants I think content marketing is supercritical. So why is content marketing something that you as a consultant should be doing?

Well, there are three really good things that content marketing can do for you. And the first one is to build your brand. It teaches your perfect clients who you are, and it does it in kind of a mosaic way. So if you think about a mosaic, it's made up of little individual tiles, so you have all of these multicolored different tiles that you use and you put them together and they form a larger picture from these little teeny pieces. And that's really what's happening in content marketing relative to your brand, is people are consuming all over social media and your website, all of these pieces of content, whether it's articles, posts, videos, images, graphics, they're consuming all of this content and then what happens is they begin to build in their minds an idea, an identity for who you are as someone that they need or maybe they don't need. And when they learn about your value, those perfect clients and this is my favorite thing about it, they kind of self identify because they enjoy your content, they receive value from it and anyone who doesn't, they kind of peel off.

So content marketing is an incredible way to cultivate an audience for yourself, because those people who are a fit for you continue to consume it. You'll almost always be able to tell who has consumed a lot of your content because they arrive in conversation with you, knowing about your brand, knowing more about you than the average potential client would. So you have probably been communicating to them and they've probably learned things like who you help, how you help them and things like that. So they have a feel for your brand identity and that's something that content marketing uniquely can do instead of just sending out messages of like here's who we are and here's what we can do, as most ads would do, content marketing is really doing in-depth teaching of that and building your brand.

So that's one of my favorite things about what content marketing can do for you. The important thing and the reason is a business that we do it is because it generates leads and as I mentioned, it's generating qualified leads. People who are consuming your content are self identifying, self-selecting, they are choosing to participate in the marketing process with you by consuming that content. And content is really just the value you bring, packaged for easy consumption. So people who want to read to learn more about you can do that, people who want to watch videos, download long reports and consume that. All of these are ways that you can market with your content.

And the process is about getting people to raise their hands, ideally to reach back out to you in response to things that you've shared or simply to consume it and then when you reach out to them, you'll find they're more primed for conversation, they're more interested in you than they would be otherwise. You know, basic ads cannot do for you what in-depth content marketing can. It's just teaching doesn't even have to be over a long time. It can be a single piece that communicates, just right, hits all of the hot buttons that can be super powerful for you. So content marketing can build your brand, it generates leads.

And then the third thing it does is really important is it keeps you top of mind. We have to consistently be visible, right? The strategic visibility that we've talked about and you want to be visible with your audience, you want to be with the perfect clients, of course, but also with referral partners and influencers and other people who have a stake in your brand, who are interested in your brand and stay on top of mind means you are visible on a consistent basis, yes a constant basis as well. You're visible to them because you want them to be aware of you and thinking about you in case they have a referral for you, in case they have a need that you can fulfill. And the message that mere presence can give them is I'm still in business, I'm thriving, things like that. And I think when you choose to communicate certain kinds of content like case studies or wins your clients have achieved and things like that, then you are communicating we are successful.

You can communicate also, you know, your brand will evolve over time and so you can demonstrate innovation through your content and keeping that in someone's presence, keeping it visible to them for your audience and all of those who are constituents of your brand, people who care about what your brand is doing is super valuable. And so a lot of the purpose to me of content marketing is that visibility piece to let people know you're there and that you're valuable.

One of the considerations that people have when they think about content marketing and this can come up in the strategy and this is why I bring it up, it's a small detail but it actually speaks to a big question, is Tools. What are the tools I can use to autopost? What tools can I use to plan my content? What tools can I use to make this whole thing easier for me? So tools to me is a strategic question, is the intention behind your content marketing visibility or interaction and engagement? Sometimes it's both but keep in mind that tools can suppress visibility and suppress engagement.

So, for example, I have some clients who are super busy consultants and they just will never have the time to be able to tend to social channels. So we could outsource that, but it probably wouldn't be as effective as if they did it themselves. And so really what they're saying is my content marketing strategy is about visibility only it's getting those posts out there. There's a limited amount of interaction from the consultant themselves, it's just saying, here's who we are. And that content tends to not necessarily be so much lead generating as brand building and staying top of mind.

If your intention is for your content marketing to be lead generating then I would caution you to be very discerning about the tools you use, because, as I mentioned, they can suppress reach, they can suppress engagement. Because if you're blasting that content and I use that word intentionally, then it isn't necessarily going to lead to an interactive phase. So big picture, what do you want to use your content marketing for? Is this a channel for you building your brand exclusively, being visible exclusively, or do you want to generate leads and do so through engagement with an audience?

So think about that as you are evolving your content marketing strategy. What role do you want this to play in your business? There's no right or wrong way to do it, there are more effective and less effective ways to do it. So as you're looking at what is realistic for you and your business, start with the next best thing that you can do. And in part two, part three, I will take deeper dives into planning that content and creating that content so that it's hopefully simpler and more effective for you. I hope that you will consider content marketing as a major strategy for you as you build your profitable and joyful consulting business.