It's no surprise that content creation is one of the biggest drivers behind a growing business. The phrase, "content is king" is even more true today than it was just two years ago. Content not only builds know, like and trust with your clients and leads, but it also helps your consumers develop an opinion of your brand, which in return sets you apart from your competitors. Best of all, content can be a cost-effective way to bring in new customers.
Like all things in business, it's important to understand the "job to be done" when creating content.
Unfortunately most people treat all content as equal when there are 2 distinctly different jobs to be done with content creation.
The 2 jobs are "attraction" or "nurturing". Is the piece of content you are creating intended to attract a cold audience to your brand, or is it intended to nurture a warm audience who is already familiar with you and your work?
You are going to want to approach each type of content differently even if you are speaking about the same topic.
Content falls into two major categories
1. Content for attracting new people into your business: this looks like more attraction-based content, the type of content that makes people who don't know you say 'yes' to wanting to know more.
2. Content for nurturing: this is where you have already made connections with people, and you're seeking to create deeper connections with them so that they can move further down the funnel and hopefully end up working with you.
First, let's quickly discuss what a marketing funnel looks like.
- Top-of-Funnel (TOFU): This is essentially a "cold" audience or an audience that doesn't really know you and your brand yet. This audience or your prospective customers are just starting to become aware of their problems and the solutions you offer to those problems.
- Middle-of-Funnel (MOFU): This is an audience that is already existing in your corner of the world. They've either familiarized themselves with you through watching a video, signing up for your newsletter, or downloading a freebie. They're currently evaluating their options for solutions to their problems. Content at this stage of the funnel is supposed to educate your audience to help them narrow their choices.
- Bottom-of-Funnel (BOFU): This is when your audience has been engaged in your brand and taken the initiative to join a consultation call, attend a webinar or ask further questions about the solution you're offering. Content during this stage is meant to give a final nudge of encouragement to the future customer.
So let's take it back to the two main types of content - nurturing vs. attracting.
It's really important to know which type of content you are creating because the way you speak to people at different stages of the funnel is going to be vastly different. People that don't know your brand yet will not understand your unique language and what I call your brand-isms.
I see a lot of people get this wrong and they create nurturing content for a cold audience where they use too many words and phrases that don't resonate with a cold audience because they don't yet understand them.
For example, if I am speaking to someone new to my work, I limit how much I talk about leaning out, Lean Out Method, and some of my proprietary processes and tools like my PPPV Matrix and CHuCK. While they are great resources and exactly what that person may need, someone unfamiliar with my work would have no idea of what I'm talking about and it won't resonate.
I made this costly mistake one too many times when I first starting doing Facebook ads. No wonder why I got a low conversion rate - I was using nurturing content for a completely cold audience that really needed attraction content.
So what would attraction content look like? If I am speaking to a cold audience, I would instead ask if they want to get more time back in their day, or increase their productivity, or achieve their goals.
People who are familiar with my work through my podcast, this blog, or by being a part of my community and attending my trainings, they would get it if I asked "are you ready to lean out your business?", but for a cold audience I would ask "are you ready to get time back in your day?".
If you are creating content and not seeing the results you would expect from it, take a look to ensure that you understand the job your content is trying to do - attract or nurture - and create your content accordingly.
by Crista Grasso
Crista Grasso is the go-to strategic planning expert for leading global businesses and online entrepreneurs when they want to scale. Known as the "Business Optimizer", Crista has the ability to quickly cut through noise and focus on optimizing the core things that will make the biggest impact to scale a business simply and sustainably. She specializes in helping businesses gain clarity on the most important things that will drive maximum value for their clients and maximum profits for their business. She is the creator of the Lean Out Method, 90 Day Lean Out Planner, and host of the Lean Out Your Business Podcast.
