Are you thinking about content all wrong?
Marketing consultant and best selling author, John Jantsch, reminds many content markters, via his Duct Tape Marketing blog this morning, ‘Maybe You’re Just Thinking About Content All Wrong.’
Jantsch had published an eBook called The Crazy Busy Marketer’s Guide to Content Creation in the Real World. A home remodeler named Bob wrote Jantsch expressing concerns that sounded similar to those I hear from lawyers when it comes to producing content.
We don’t have an online product and we aren’t writers. Most offers are for an ebook or white paper. We don’t have anything like that and wouldn’t know how to create one, so how do we have an offer to use as a call to action?
Jantsch responds with a golden nugget that all lawyers and law firms must understand.
Great content isn’t about your stuff, it’s about trust, education and value.
Jantsch knows that a service business, whether a home remodeler or lawyer, has more reason to create content than product based businesses.
Let me ask you this – do remodeling customers ever want to know about design trends, color trends, appliance use, finishes, how to get more for their money? All of the kinds of things that your prospects ask you about prior to becoming a customer make great topics for content.
Bob’s response was that he never thought of providing content on designs, trends and collars. All his prospective customers were asking was if he had any references and how much the job was going to cost. Sound familiar, lawyers?
Jantsch, as he advised Bob, would tell you as lawyer to differentiate yourself.
If the first question you receive in your prospect interaction is “how much,” there’s a very good chance you’ve not communicated how your approach is unique.
How do you differentiate yourself?
Sharing useful content allows you to demonstrate your knowledge, expertise and unique way of serving your customers. Customer success stories offer proof. Process maps, checklists and customer orientation content allows you to demonstrate a level of professionalism that your competitors lack.
Your time is limited as a lawyer. You have a small team. So, per Jantsch, creative to lighten the load. Maybe create content partnerships.
In this case I would tell Bob to consider ways of getting content from some of his subs – there’s a really good chance that he works with people like faux painters, appliance distributors, paint suppliers, HVAC companies, interior decorators and home theater installers. There’s also a pretty good chance that one of more of these folks would be set to support his content efforts by providing guest blog posts, eBooks and presentations on the latest styles coming from the remodeling shows and manufacturers new product roll outs. There’s also a great chance that with very little effort Bob could find a marketing virtual assistant that would be happy to set-up a list of industry related blogs that his organization could draw content from or one of the many content curation tools, like Storify that would effectively create industry or topic related news magazines.
Hey, I know you’re not remodeling houses. But you’re billing by the hour or by the project. You’re also working long hours with a small team like a home remodeler.
And, like a home remodeler, you’re the world’s expert on something. In your case it’s on down to earth practical legal, business , and personal challenges faced by your clients and folks just like them. Be a little creative with what you can do to produce and share content.
Rather than produce content about you and ‘your stuff,’ produce content that creates trust, that educates, and that provides value. It’s how the Internet works and it’s not as difficult as you and others might have you believe.
It’s also what we do as lawyers. Help people.