I want to highlight a huge reason why your content doesn’t get people reaching out to work with you (or even watching/reading in the first place):
You’re not leading with an actual pain point.
Two examples I’ve seen in the past 24 hours:
A video, titled “5 Ways Content Marketing Can Help Your Business.”
(Ironic given the topic of this post.)
That doesn’t lead with a pain point. I mean, of course the “5 ways” are probably going to indirectly address some pain points. Like, if one way it helps is “It gets you more clients!” then presumably “not getting enough clients” is the pain point.
But few people are even going to click a video like that and take the time to watch in the first place when it gives no clue to what pain points it might address. Based on the title, they have no idea if it’s for them or not.
Heck, that video might not even be aimed at client-based businesses. Maybe the creator of that video serves a totally different type of business. The title doesn’t make it obvious. So as someone with a client-based business, I don’t even know if it’s for me (probably why I wasn’t compelled enough to click on it and watch it, hehe).
A better title would be something like, “The Content Marketing Strategy That Helped One Coach Grow from 5 Clients Per Year to 60 Clients Per Year.”
Now I’m listening. Especially if I’m someone who’s only getting 5 clients per year and is sick of that.
Another example:
A Facebook post, beginning with the following line: “WHAT IS POSITIONING AND WHY MUST YOU GET YOURS RIGHT?”
Nope. Not a pain point. Positioning is the SOLUTION to a pain point. Actually, it’s the solution to MANY pain points: getting price objections from your prospects, having lengthy and confusing sales calls, getting zero inquiries when you post an offer, and many more.
Why on earth would you lead with the solution and bury the pain point(s) further down in your post? (I assume the “why you must get yours right” part is going to explain what problem it solves. Again I was so bored by the title that I couldn’t bring myself to read the rest of the post. And I LOVE the topic of positioning and am likely much more interested in it than the average person. So if I was bored, imagine how much others’ eyes are glazing over.)
Leading with the solution makes it sound like you’re about to launch into an academic treatise that has no relevance to anyone’s life. YAWN! Even if it’s a subject they’re interested in, they’ll probably click “save for later” and then never go back to it. They won’t feel compelled to read it NOW.
In contrast, leading with the pain point is what gives the reader something to grab onto. If they identify with the pain point, they’ll eagerly read on because they want to know how to solve it. If they don’t, then they’ll stop reading and maybe even unfollow you. Good. That’s what you want – to draw in the right people and repel the wrong ones.
A better opener for that positioning post would be something like, “Let’s talk about why you’re getting so many price objections and how you can reduce those to nearly zero by fixing your positioning.”
Now that sounds awesome! Who doesn’t want to get zero price objections? That opener will actually hook in the person who’s still struggling with this.
I have a mile-long list of examples of this error.
Like leading with “how to increase your self-worth” when you should really be talking about the problems that self-worth solves (why he didn’t call you back after that date, how to stop agreeing to bail your brother out of problems when you don’t want to, etc.).
Or leading with “what is ketosis and why you should strive for it” when you should really be talking about the problems that it solves (how to burn fat without cutting carbs out of your diet).
But I’ll wrap up before this post gets to be the length of War and Peace.
You’ve probably heard the trite advice to “meet your ideal client where they are” in your marketing copy. The above are concrete examples of what’s actually meant by that. Everyone thinks they’re doing it, but few actually are.
Your ideal client does not care about “content marketing” or “positioning” or “self-worth” or “ketosis” unless you IMMEDIATELY (like, in your title or your first sentence) connect it to an actual problem they have.
When you get this right, and actually fully explain your solution in connection to the problem, and pair it up with a very clear call-to-action for your offer, you’ll start getting inquiries about working together from almost every piece of content you create.
Think that might have an effect on your business’s bottom line? 😉
The ability to summon interested prospects practically at will from my content has been a huge factor in my reaching $300K/year in my business, I’ll tell you that.
If you’re interested in having help to tweak your high-ticket offer, your calls-to-action and (of course) your content so you can start getting daily inquiries about working with you and scale to multiple five and six figure months with ease, you might be a great candidate for my 30-day private intensive. If interested, just send me a DM on Facebook to see if you qualify. If you do, we can enroll you right away!