You’re constantly looking for ways to engage your audience with your content; to make them feel more connected to you; help them understand what working with you actually looks and feels like; to show them how you can make their lives better; and help them understand why they should choose you over someone else. And that can feel like a lot of pressure when you’re working on your content marketing. But the truth is, you don’t have to reinvent the wheel to do all that, or even be coming up with anything particularly groundbreaking. Because some of the most simple and powerful content you can share, can be inspired by what you’re doing day in, day out on autopilot inside your business. In fact, everything you do in your working day has the potential to be turned into a story or piece of valuable content that will help your followers see you as the go-to expert for whatever you do. And today I’m sharing with you some of my favourite ways to create great content that feels fresh, original, establishes you as a leader, and most importantly feels easy.
Welcome to Episode 31 of The Content Download: 3 Simple ways to generate authority building content every single day.
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Transcript
Not knowing what to talk about in your content is one of the biggest headaches for an entrepreneur trying to market themselves online. But the truth is you don’t have to be getting all fancy or even look very far at all for great content that’s going to get you seen and heard as the expert they want to work with; in fact everything you need to do that, you’re already doing, every single day – you’ve just got to learn to recognise it, and put it into words. That’s it.
So in this speedy little episode, I’m going to share with you 3 places you can look for content and story inspiration inside your work today, which you can then immediately turn into a piece of content that establishes you as an authority; grows your know like and trust, serves your audience and gets you known for what you do.
Pen and paper to hand? Let’s go.
- Client stories. This is great for content that grows authority and social proof particularly, but which also serves.
Now I’m not just talking about testimonials here – although if you aren’t collecting these, put that at the top of your to do list quick. Because sharing the stories of the everyday journey of working with your clients and customers is also a great way to demonstrate your value and make what working with you might feel like more tangible.
This is where you look for the lessons you’re sharing with your clients, the aha moments they’re having, the insights and the reframes – because this all makes fabulous content to be sharing with your audience.
So how do you notice them?
Here are some questions you can ask to unearth the stories that are coming up from working with your clients right now?
- What questions are your clients asking you right now and what valuable advice are you giving? I often come off a call with a client and I’ve been teaching on something, or I’ve told them a story that’s given them some kind of insight and I know that I can use what we’ve talked about as a piece of content. Because if it was useful for my client it will definitely be useful for my audience. So I might immediately go and do a live and talk about what came up and what I told them.
For example, a client of mine wanted help with an acceptance speech she’d written, and that prompted me to tell a story about that and how we turned that speech from something a bit bland and forgettable, into something that would help use that 5 minutes in the spotlight to get her remembered for all the right reasons.
- What worries are your clients facing and how are you helping them to fix them? We could be talking about common sabotages or roadblocks here, or perhaps things that are coming up because of events or the world situation. Show your audience that your clients have the same worries and fears and obstacles as they do, and give them a taste of how you could solve this for them, by sharing the story of how you’ve already helped your clients with it recently.
- What are you teaching and advising on a lot right now? Are there any themes that keep coming up over and over. Maybe you’re photographer and you’re noticing that more people are wanting reportage shoots over formal portraits. Tell the story – “I had another call with a client who wants a more relaxed photo shoot.” Share with your audience what you told them, how you were going to achieve that, why you thought it was a good idea or not.
The second area inside your business where you’re creating lots of potential content is by paying attention to what you’re seeing, hearing and reading that’s sparking your professional radar – again a great authority builder, but also a potential to let people in behind the scenes to your other interests etc.
- So what in your daily life is sparking your expert radar – books, current affairs conversations, films. We all see the world through the unique prism of our interests and passions and experiences and so use those stories to serve and give value to your audience.
Maybe you read a book recently and it made you see something your audience struggles with in a totally new light. Or you went to an event and heard a speaker who had a really great message that you know they’ll be inspired by. Tell the story of how you came across it, what it made you realise or think and the lesson you want to share about it.
The final area is what are you commenting? This is a great way to help you generate ideas for commentary type content and thought leadership. So pay attention to the conversations you’re having. This could be while networking in real life, or from conversations you’re having online. I don’t get to many real life networking or events but I have spent a lot of time on social in the past, and I often find while I’m being social, commenting on things and joining conversations, it sparks an idea, or a piece of content that I can then turn into a piece of authority building content, where you get a chance to expand on your original ideas and step into the role of thought leader or commentator. Conversations online have sparked a lot of ideas for podcast episodes and social media posts that I’d probably never have created otherwise. So if you find you’re talking about something with passion, or have shared an insight you want to dig deeper into because you know it will help serve your audience, take a note of it, and schedule in some time to expand on it and turn that into a blog, podcast, email or social media post.
So there you are. 3 really simple ways to look for powerful content inspiration by doing nothing other than getting on with your work and serving your clients.
- What are you talking about with your clients?
- What’s sparking your professional radar?
- What conversations are you having with your network or community?
And if you want more ideas for coming up with content ideas, make sure you check out episode 7 where I talk in more detail about how to mine for content ideas so you’ll never run out of things to say. Plus if you want to learn how to frame it all with a story, make sure you download my A Quick Guide to Storytelling for Soulful Entrepreneurs. It’s totally free and shows you exactly how you can use a story to get your message heard. You can grab the link for that as well as for TCD’s free facebook group over in the shownotes.
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