Do you struggle when it comes to creating content? I’m sure you’ve heard people say that marketing professional services today is very much like being a publisher – that it’s all about creating and sharing meaningful content. Creating that content often proves to be a major challenge.
Some of my customers have experienced significant breakthroughs that really helped them start consistently creating content that connects with their customers and prospects. These breakthroughs happened when they changed their mindset – they stopped thinking in terms of “creating content” and started thinking about “having conversations”.
This may seem like a subtle difference, but it is amazing, how, sometimes, making a change in how we look at things will change our behaviors and habits.
For a lot of us, “creating content” sounds like a daunting project. It may be outside of the normal day-to-day activities that we are used to performing. Most professionals would rather focus on what they are good at, rather than something unfamiliar. This can lead to a sort of chicken and egg conundrum - I’m not good at it because I don’t do it often enough, so I never do it enough to get good at it.
However, most of us don’t struggle with coming up with something to talk about if ran into our best customers (or potential customers) at the store or at a networking event. We have conversations, pass along information, and make recommendations every day.
This small change in mindset can really change how firms think about social media and marketing in general. One small example – I’m sure you can argue about the relative importance of taking time to create content. Would you argue about the importance of talking to your customers?
Some of the things that we get bogged down in when it comes to creating content seem trivial, even silly, when we think about them in terms of having a conversation. How many times have you heard the advice that social media needs to be a two-way conversation? Is there such a thing as a one-way conversation? Even when the conversation is just in my own head, there are (at least) two voices participating <g>.
Did you ever leave the grocery store after bumping into your neighbor and think “I really should have used more keywords in that conversation.”?
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not suggesting that these things are unimportant. I just don’t believe they should be your primary focus. If you have done the work of narrowly defining your ideal customer and you focus on having conversations that are meaningful from their point of view, the other issues almost take care of themselves.
The next time you are struggling to create content, try imaging that your favorite customer is sitting across the desk from you and just have a conversation.
photo credit: Ame Otoko
