17: Three Key Factors in Content Marketing

Kimberly Beer 0:23
Hey there business animals, it’s Kim with Be More Business

Cara Taylor Swift 0:26
and Cara Taylor Swift with Fast Horse Photography.

Kimberly Beer 0:29
And today, we want to talk to you about three key factors in your content marketing program. So content marketing, let’s let’s start off with defining that should we Cara because I think sometimes people get confused.

Cara Taylor Swift 0:43
That’s a really good Idea

Kimberly Beer 0:44
content marketing, sort of one of those wonderful terms like the logistics, it’s like, what in the Jesus does that mean?

Cara Taylor Swift 0:52
Yeah, it’s a really fancy word. I mean, it’s a fancy, it’s a fancy two words, I guess you would say? And I’m like, how do they go together? What do they mean? So let’s define Yeah,

Kimberly Beer 1:00
yeah. So to me, I have a definition of content marketing as using what you know, which is your content, so your content is in your head. So using what you know, to persuade, which is marketing, by the way, the right people to take you up on an offer, which is why we’re all in business. And that’s to make a sale. So if we put that all together, content marketing is using what you know, to persuade the right people to take you up on what you offer. And I think that simplifies it down for folks a little bit, because I do think it is this elusive, like fairy unicorn comes out of the rainbows in the clouds sort of concept for people. They’re like, I need to be doing content marketing. That’s what everyone says I should do. And then they go back to their office. And they’re like, I don’t even know what content marketing is, how do I how do I even wrap my head around that. And the thing I really want to bring forward in this particular episode, where we’re talking about this, because we’ve we’ve talked about content marketing in a variety of ways, because it’s so integral to modern marketing, there’s like, and we’re going to continue to talk about it, folks, because it’s that important. And it’s that much of a major topic, in small business and in in all business and marketing today. I want to get you out of your comfort zone. Even if you go Oh, well, I know what content marketing is. And I use it all the time on my social media channels, I kind of want to kick you out of that comfort zone. Because to me, content marketing goes way beyond social media way beyond social media. And when you’re really using content marketing correctly, and you’re you really mining it to fulfill your business, you’re gonna think outside of that social media box, you’re gonna think about courses and classes and webinars, I contribute a lot with speaking and my content marketing is is my speaking career, I get out in front of many audiences. And I bring my content with me, I’m doing exactly what I said, I am using what I know to persuade the right people to take me up on an offer. So my speaking is a big content marketing avenue for me. But it goes even beyond that open houses, going to expos and trade shows and showing off what it is that your business does to people that would be interested in working with you. Another type of content is our podcast. This is content, it really is. So content for both Cara and I networking events, brochures, hey books, I am going to let the cat out of the bag a little bit. And hopefully when you listen to this down the road, you can go buy the book, but I am going to be featured in an anthology of female entrepreneurs that’s coming up called The Female Entrepreneur Playbook. And I’m super, super excited about that. Yeah, that’s content, though. That is content marketing. It is putting me out there as the professional using what I know and to persuade the right people to come to my business and take me up on the offers that I have.

Cara Taylor Swift 4:03
The crazy thing is is this isn’t new Kim like this isn’t a new concept. Because the reality is, is what were we all doing before social media when we were trying to work our businesses, right? We were doing all of these other things. And then social media comes into the scene. And it’s just this powerful, time consuming, all encompassing platform. And the next thing I think that we know, we have turned our content marketing strategies to be so much more social media heavy. And a lot of people in new business owners, I think that are in our industries that are coming up in starting their businesses in a time when social media is so big, they’re not maybe not doing a lot of this stuff, that people that you know that were running successful businesses before social media was so big, so we’re not talking about anything new. I think what we’re doing is we’re asking people in the equine animal and pet based industries, to think about all of the different ways that they may or may not be content marketing.

Kimberly Beer 5:00
To me social media is the weakest of all of these avenues for being able to use content marketing, if you boil it down, and I’m going to guess if you do this little exercise with your business, like if you think of the last few clients that you’ve made, and you write those down, and then you say, Where did that client come into my business? How did they meet me? or How did they learn about me nine times out of 10, it’s going to be somewhere other than social media, maybe social media supported the transaction for them to get to know who you are. But chances are, that the initial introduction was somewhere other than social media for my business. In particular, again, I’m going to go back to my speaking, it almost inevitably, my best clients, and the majority of my clients come from seeing me on a stage somewhere whether that stage is virtually on zoom, or whether it’s front of an audience at an event, or an expo or a chamber meeting, or a lunch and learn, they learn about me in that particular capacity. And I’ll tell you, the benefit to that is that they immediately see me as the expert, because I come with social proof attached, because someone hired me in order to talk to them. So that must mean that that person is obviously someone they trust, or they wouldn’t be sitting in the room. That means I come with social proof attached. And I know we harp on the social proof thing a lot. But it is it’s another critical piece to this. In reality, those clients that come to me from those speaking engagements, that’s content marketing, and it is the most effective marketing avenue that I use in my business, it’s incredibly important. And yeah, we want you to get out of your comfort zone to not consider this just social media. And I would go as far to say that when new business owners put so much emphasis on social media and content marketing, they almost do their business a disservice. Because they’re not reaching the number of people that they should be.

Cara Taylor Swift 7:10
Absolutely. So do, we want to go ahead and introduce folks to our big three,

Kimberly Beer 7:14
I think so you want to handle that? Sure.

Cara Taylor Swift 7:16
So today, we are going to talk about three things that we think are essential for content marketing, first of all, is consistency. And that one, we’re going to talk about a lot, you have to keep a schedule, you have to keep the algorithms happy. And you’ve got to continuously be in front of your potential consumers. The second of the Big Three is visibility. So we’ve talked about this a little bit before reusing that content. So you want to use and reuse all of that content that you’re putting your hard work into. And then the third is bring the value, it’s all about your customer. So we’re going to talk a lot about bringing the value again today.

Kimberly Beer 7:52
So let’s talk about that consistency factor. Because I think this is the scariest and most difficult part of content marketing for folks to kind of feel, I think you feel like you’re getting married. This is this is your forever marketing relationship, right? You’re gonna be, you’re gonna put a ring on it. And you’re once you start down the content marketing path, that you’re going to have to keep on doing it and keep it up. And that is very true in In these instances, you you’ve got to have consistency, and you’ve got to keep going and generating content. And there are some psychological reasons for that. And some very important technical reasons. If you’re going to social media route, the algorithms need the consistency, they need things posted consistently on social media, they need the timing factor, all of those things play heavily into how the algorithm looks at your business. And there’s a lot of proof out there to support the fact that posting consistently really helps the algorithm be able to find and show what it is that you post on social media. But like I said, we’re gonna kick you out of the comfort zone of social media with this conversation. And I’m going to tell you, your consumers need that consistency, too. They need the weekly podcast, they we just had a discussion earlier today. Did we want to take a break in between seasons? Or do we want to consistently produce that weekly content? And I think that what we decided was to go ahead and keep producing the weekly content because we want you guys our listeners to feel comfortable with that pattern that we have created. And that you can depend on every Tuesday, there’s a new episode of The Business Animal out and it’s an important piece of building trust with you and building a relationship with you and also continuing to bring that value in in a very tangible way to the folks that follow us.

Cara Taylor Swift 9:54
Don’t you agree? Cara? Absolutely. And there are some things that you can do to create consistency because I know when I first started creating content and putting it out into the world, I really struggled with finding my voice and being consistent with that. And some of the big things that I like to do is to just create that little idea dump and just keep it running for me and then build on that. So you know, if you’re going to be online, you’re going to use you have may have scheduling tools that you’re using, you might be creating a calendar, your back logging your ideas, or keeping a journal or some kind of written tabulation of things that you want to talk about that are brand aligned, for sure. But if you’re out in the world, you’re talking about some of these other forms outside of social media and the web, you’re gonna have your calendar, your content calendar is going to include speaking engagements, it’s going to include events that you’re planning on networking and being at. And it’s real easy, I think, for us to say, Okay, I’m going to make sure I get all these posts up this week, but in this world, where we’re hopefully going to be transitioning into a post COVID atmosphere, starting to make sure we’re getting these things back on our calendar again, and getting that part of our lives and our business consistent as well. Are we attending events, are we going back to those meetings, whether they’re virtual or in person?

Kimberly Beer 11:12
Absolutely. And that’s such a key component to all of it and showing up consistently, let me tell you a little story about how consistent content marketing shows up in networking, I joined an organization called the central exchange in Kansas City, it’s primarily women, they don’t exclude men, but it is primarily women. And it’s very much for people in the Kansas City area, although now they’ve gone virtual and can go everywhere. But central exchange is a very powerful networking group, the people that join it have value to bring in something to offer. And the people that provide have something of value. So and everybody kind of works together, it’s a true networking group. So I started showing up to the meetings, and if I would have just gone to one or two, and then just paid my dues and kind of attended some virtual things, but didn’t didn’t do much. I wouldn’t have gotten anywhere with it. But because I consistently showed up, I raised my hand I talked about myself in my business, they give you an opportunity to do that, like any good networking organization. The next thing I know, I was invited to teach a class to just was a little class, it was just a little something. And I did and I got a good response. And the next thing you know, here two years later, I lead a monthly entrepreneurial resource group for the organization, which has now fostered into me getting a paid program for those cx members. So this is how content marketing build your business. Folks, you start out with a little bit you show up at the networking things you say here are, this is what I have to offer what I know, then you use that to persuade the organization to have you back again. And the next thing you know, they’re paying you to get seated in front of your perfect audience and helping you build that audience and fill your course. That’s how you monetize content marketing, to me on social media, even though it’s a valid method, it’s harder, right? It’s, it just seems more difficult to me, you’ve got to put a lot more effort into it, then it is going to that networking event and using what you know, in order to build that relationship first with the organization then with the people that are in it, and then partnering with the organization. And we’ve talked piecemeal Cara about all of these things, right. We’ve talked about content, we’ve talked about networking, we’ve talked about joint ventures, but that’s the perfect storm of how it all works together to bring back money and revenue into your business. And it also benefits the organization. That’s the baseline, but you have to be consistent, you have to show up consistently, you have to know your stuff, you have to be prepared to bring your A game. And that’s where all of those things that Cara just mentioned are so important. Create that content calendar, what are you going to be doing when How can you utilize what you know, in order to support what you’re going to do?

Cara Taylor Swift 14:11
Yeah, absolutely. And I have a similar story with Equine photography, you know, where I’m a member of a local group photography group, we attend meetings, we’ve done virtual meetings, they asked me to speak on Horse Photography. So I spoke for free and just gave information and tips and kind of talked about the industry a little bit and then that transitioned then into a paid job where I set up a photography shoot for the photographer’s from the club to come out and participate and have the opportunity to photograph horses with someone guiding them. And so that wasn’t something that happened overnight. Like you know, you have to put the legwork in and build the connections and talk to people and establish yourself but that was a great example as well of just you put the time in and something outside of social media.

Kimberly Beer 14:56
Yeah, and you don’t know like you can think okay, I Really want to like I joined to cx for a reason I joined because I wanted to get access to their networking group. And I’m going to tell you, I’ve benefited greatly beyond that in what I’ve gotten back from what other people contribute to that group. But I didn’t go into it with the thought of, I’m going to eventually approach to them with doing a paid course with them that didn’t occur that way. It just happened organically because it worked. And I consistently showed up. Oh, and also, I made what I knew visible. So that’s the number two and this is the visibility part of the visibility is using and reusing and getting out on as many channels as you can. But I think it may even go deeper than that as a realization that telling people about what you know, let’s say you join central exchange and you go to the every single meeting and you just sit there and don’t really interact with people or offer things become visible, they don’t know that you would be interested in that they don’t know what the possibilities are. So being visible as in getting yourself out on as many channels as you can as well as standing up for yourself and talking about what it is that you have to offer or hey, I have this idea and it’s really easy for me I’m a giant extrovert everything I think comes out my mouth you guys don’t realize that a lot of this is unfiltered. Poor Cara has to put up with the unfiltered him all the time. It’s a lot

Cara Taylor Swift 16:32
of eye rolling, guys.

Kimberly Beer 16:35
My lack of a filter gets me work. Sometimes it gets me not work. But most of the time it gets me work. Be more visible. Talk more about yourself. And I know we have a lot of women that listen to this show. And being visible isn’t always as easy for us. We haven’t culturally transitioned into being comfortable with being visible. And there’s a million psychological reasons for that, that I’m sure Cara’s past jobs and domestic violence could probably talk about we could we could spend a whole hour just discussing that little topic, but be visible. When you’re in the networking event. When you’re up on stage be visible to people volunteer and talk, get your hoof into the into the game, so to speak, raise your paw up. Alright, enough puns. When we’ve talked about repurposing, so I’m going to shift over to the repurposing and reusing context, I think you guys get the idea be visible, and talk a lot. There’s other ways that you can make your content really known like we’ve been talking about here. So here I have a couple more ideas offer to do a speech at a trade show or a chamber event. So here’s a secret for you chambers, a lot of times are desperate for people to come talk to them, they tend to have a number of events that they need to fill every year and every month. And even with COVID. They’ve switched a lot of them to online. But now we’re headed into post COVID. And they’re looking for people to come talk live as well. And most of the organizations I speak for now are doing blended. So they’re having the live presentation for the people who want to come and the speaker can attend or not attend, I actually gave a presentation to a live audience via zoom, if that is crazy for you. They were all in a restaurant, they put up a screen and I talked to them for beer. That’s awesome. So there’s multiple ways to do that. And then there’s people that can attend virtually as well. But the chambers of commerce, economic development, councils, all kinds of things in your local area. They need people to come talk to them. And it can be on any topic. They’re very, very interested in things that are new and different. So if you have something to offer, offer your services to come speak to that particular chamber and get in front of a number of people.

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Cara Taylor Swift 19:34
I worry sometimes that because I’m in an industry, that’s an equine industry. And I think about animal based business owners feeling like they belong in some of these spaces. I would just throw it out there that if you’re talking on a subject matter, there are so many people in the audience that even if their work doesn’t have anything to do with animals, most likely they own a pet. They know someone who owns pets in my case they maybe they own a horse But maybe their neighbor owns a horse, or maybe they have a friend or a family member, or they have a daughter that’s wanting to start riding. I mean, I just never know where those things are going to come from. And I’ve had some of the strangest referrals come from events where I’m talking and networking with people and thinking, there’s no one here that has anything to do with horses, but they know people who do and they reach out and they send out my information. So for all those people out there that are in an animal based business, and you’re saying, I don’t know, if the chamber is right for me, or that networking group is right, for me, there is a good chance that there are connections there, it just may not be a direct connection, I definitely would encourage you guys to listen to what I’m saying and think about how can you get out there?

Kimberly Beer 20:41
Yeah, and it doesn’t have to be like Cara, doesn’t have to go talk to the chamber about how to be an equine photographer, she can go talk to the chamber about how to create a niche in a small business that serves a very specific audience, or how to set up a high customer service, low quantity, high service business. I mean, there’s a multitude of things that she could talk to the chamber about that don’t have necessarily anything specifically to do with equine photography. But because she’s an equine photographer, she is being visible to all the people in the room who own a horse, or know somebody who owns a horse, and they’re gonna pass her information along. That’s the visibility part that’s really about being visible out there in the world as a business owner and showing up for opportunities that may not look directly like something but will lead to something else that is bigger. Good point, Cara. webinars are another way virtually I personally, I know that we’ve we’ve been living this for 2020 and 2021. But I can tell you in person, I think you get a lot more traction when you’re face to face with people. I think some of that has shifted with COVID. And the fact that we’ve all gotten a little bit more used to zoom. But webinars are still a valid way to do things. And I think they are going to be more valid even as moving into the future. I think we’ve all figured out that we can communicate virtually, and that it’s comfortable. And we’re becoming more and more comfortable with it when it comes to webinars. And possibly we need to do an entire episode on webinars. But I do want to offer you one little piece of advice, the attrition rate or the number of people who won’t show up to a webinar is huge. So you’ll have a great number of people register, and then very few will actually come please do not let that deter you from doing more webinars in the future. What you want to try to do is get as many people live as you can if you can offer some type of benefit or something for them coming to the live event so that they show up and maybe even I call it stacking the deck. So I will call like certain attendees that I know and say hey, can you please be on the live? Or will you be on the live event so that I know I have a good audience to speak to if it’s something that’s in a new organization or something new to me. So try to get as many people as you can live, but don’t let it deter you. Because a lot of times webinars are evergreen, and you will reap benefits from that one piece of work for years down the road. And it’s just it’s it’s a huge benefit for you to be able to again, be visible out there. And it goes back to that social proof. You’ve done X number of webinars, people go to your YouTube channel and they see it and you’re visible, you’re consistent and you’re constantly bringing the value which we’ll get to here in a moment. Also, it’s not just speaking and showing up live at things. Another piece of this puzzle is printed materials. So that book that I was talking about, but also your brochures, your business cards, where can you leave those I was just talking with a client the other day about rack cards showing up in different motels we were discussing the fact of were those still valid and I do believe that they are for her particular business. I think really they are offering printed materials, printed workbooks, anything people can take home with them or hand off to somebody else that

Cara Taylor Swift 24:10
increases your visibility. I just got a booking from a Fast Horse Photography magnet that was on someone’s fridge for at least three years and they finally needed the service and they called me. So you just never know where some of this materials gonna end up. But it’s

Kimberly Beer 24:28
true and visibility. Heck, I didn’t even put promotional materials in here, but promotional materials increase your visibility. I have this little thing on my desk that I squeeze when I get anxious like a cloud. I can see it. Is it a cloud it is for Google iCloud. Now I’ve already bought Google iCloud, but this little thing sits on my desk and if it had the name of a dog treat bakery on it, I would probably be prone to want to call that dog treat bakery over another one because it’s the crazy little thing that sits on my desk that I squeeze when I have anxiety. So there’s there’s 100,000 ways to be visible in your clients lives and just explore the ones that work right for you whether it’s a silly little squeezy toy. Yes, I need I have squeaky toys without the squeaker. All right. Another one is to approach podcasters to be a guest on whatever the topic is that you are an expert on. And by podcasters we mean if there’s a have a YouTube show, or a Vimeo show, or they have an audio podcast, or a guest speaker on their room and clubhouse, however you want to approach that, you know, reach out to people and say, Hey, I know about this topic, I think it would be a great fit for what you’re doing. Here’s who I am. And here’s what I have to bring to the table. And can I get out there and just be more visible through your audience. And again, that goes back to joint ventures, we did an episode on that, I encourage you to go back and take a look at that. Do you have anything else you want to add to the visibility part before we move on to value?

Cara Taylor Swift 26:05
Nope, I think we’re ready to move on to value which I think is I mean, one and two are so important. But the value piece I think is what’s going to keep people coming back over and over and over again. So let’s go ahead and move on to Big Three, number three value

Kimberly Beer 26:18
and this piece of it. I think a lot of times with the visibility and the consistent people are like, Okay, I get it, I need to be visible, I need to be consistent, but what the heck do I bring to the table? How do I bring value to people? And how do I come up with the ideas that are going to bring value? Well, you know, me, I’m an idea generator, that’s one thing I have no lack of in life is an idea. You give me a topic, I got an idea about it?

Cara Taylor Swift 26:43
Well, that’s really good. Because a lot of people I think, have a tendency to feel like they need to constantly be putting something out there into the world. But a lot of times, they’re just putting a lot of noise out there. And there’s noise everywhere. I mean, we can scroll through our social media, anywhere we go. There’s noise, but what is the value that you’re bringing? So don’t be someone that’s just throwing junk out into the world? like think about the value and how you can build up your potential customers or your current customers. But how do you know what value is what is valuable to your clients? Right? Well, you can start by asking them.

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Kimberly Beer 28:01
And I’ll tell you another thing, if you’re showing up to the podcast, if you’re doing the webinars, if you’re showing up for speaking engagements and chamber events, people are going to ask you questions. They’re going to tell you it’s valuable. I mean, I every single event that I do, I walk away with blog and material for this podcast, because the students, the people that are attending that workshop, that speech, whatever that happens to be, they are full of the best information, they just give me content overload. And that’s where keeping that journal is important. What I do is I put it in my phone as soon as I get to my car, or even before because my short term memory is shot. So at this point in my life, I can’t remember I can remember what I did 25 years ago, but I’ll be damned if I can remember what I did five minutes ago, but I put it in my phone. And then I go back when I need a topic for something or when somebody asks me to speak about a certain thing. I’ll go back and look and see what my customers asked me. What is it that they wanted to know what were they concerned with? What was on their mind? What was their input into things?

Cara Taylor Swift 29:12
And most of the time, it’s something that you’ve been asked before like this would fall into your Frequently Asked Questions section like that’s a great place to mine stuff to talk about is those questions that you get asked over and over and over again, when you’re doing presentations when you’re working with a client, you know, when you’re determining if someone’s a good fit for your business.

Kimberly Beer 29:30
Absolutely. And I’m going to tell you another thing, if you will type those into Google. Just go into the search and you type them in you come up with a goldmine of things. So here’s an example of this. If I ask entrepreneurs in my workshops and classes if I asked them what is like the number one thing that bothers them, it is always the word overwhelm. overwhelm is overwhelmingly the answer to that question. So if I typed in to Google and this is exactly what I did I typed in stopping entrepreneurial overwhelm. Well, the first thing that comes up is seven tips for overwhelmed entrepreneurs da da da, I’m gonna ignore that I scroll down to people also ask, and here’s the gold that’s in that like the first five are kind of useless. They’re just restating that same question. But after that, I got the question, what is the meaning of overwhelmed? That’s a blog post? What does it mean to be overwhelmed as an entrepreneur? Here’s the next one. How can an entrepreneur be productive? So now we’ve solved the problem of the overwhelm? That’s great is feeling overwhelmed a symptom of anxiety? dive into that, what are five emotional signs of stress? How do I cope with too much work? What are the best productivity tools for entrepreneurs? How can productivity be improved in the workplace? I mean, that’s a goldmine of six or eight topics that that I could expand on on something that is top of mind for my particular audience. They all want those answers to those questions.

Cara Taylor Swift 31:06
And they could be blog posts, webinars, social media content, they could be podcast episodes. I mean, it’s like all endless opportunities from one simple question or answer that you get all the time. So you know, you’re bringing the value.

Kimberly Beer 31:22
And the more that you click in Google, like, the more that you open, those people also ask, the more of them that will appear. It’s the it’s a Russian nesting doll box of possibilities. So click on them and click on them again. And they’ll they’ll just keep multiplying I originally had in our notes, this is the bunny trail to find the gold mine. But it is kind of like that every time you touch one it explodes. It explodes like bunnies. Sodefinitely use Google. That’s the everybody wants to please Google, use that sucker as well as trying to appease it with your SEO practices, because that’s what it’s good for everybody is doing it. So it’s a great resource,

Cara Taylor Swift 32:04
absolutely now Kim, I know you have a formula that you like to use, that brings value to your customers. And when I was looking at this, I was like, This is perfect. And this is how I’m going to be setting up everything from now on. So can you share your formula with folks,

Kimberly Beer 32:19
I can, I love this formula, I would love to take complete credit for it. But it comes from a variety of other people who I listen to their content and kind of create my own off of it. So we’re going to break the content up into four sections, we’re going to do 1/4, how to 1/4 educating on mistakes, 1/4, overcoming objections and obstacles. And then 1/4 brand setting and inspiration. So let me go back and explain to you why that’s 25% of each of those. The first one is how to and to be honest, everything we’ve talked about, as far as examples to this point, I believe in this episode, have been something around how to it’s educational, it’s something that you’re sharing with people, that’s going to be a little bit life changing. And the thing here with that particular 25% is we want to go for the small victory that people can build on. So when I say how to what we’re doing is we’re not giving every single thing that we know, we’re not giving away our program in the content, what we’re doing is we’re giving away enough information so that somebody on the other end of that content understands that we know what they’re going through. And we’re going to give them one small victory. And don’t be I like to give people 1000 small victories, but one is best if you can narrow it down to one, one simple thing that they can do. So how to do whatever that one simple thing is that as it relates to your business, and it’s really important. If you are an equine photographer, we don’t want you teaching people how to crochet a doily for their dog door or something.

Cara Taylor Swift 34:05
So it has to be brand aligned is what you’re saying. It

Kimberly Beer 34:08
has to be Yeah, it has to be something that’s gonna lead them back to your business. So that how to is 25% most of us who are really into developing valuable content, we relate value a lot of times to what that small victory is and we don’t consider it if it’s outside that 25% that how to we don’t consider it as valuable. But trust me the rest of the equation, the other 75% is just as valuable and we don’t want to be constantly throwing things for people to do at our readers and students and listeners and people attending our workshops and that kind of stuff. We only want to give them that small piece one we don’t want to overwhelm them and two, we want them to come back to our business and buy stuff from us right so that how to is only 120 5% part of the UK The next 25% is educating people on missed and mistakes. And this one has a lot to do with SEO, because that’s where and by the way, search engine optimization works in people’s brains, too. So it’s not just what Google is looking for, it’s what your audience is looking for as well. And a lot of times, we’re looking to judge whether information that we have is correct or incorrect. So what you’re going to do is you’re going to bust those myths, you’re going to you’re going to tell people common mistakes, as an email subject line, are you making this mistake in your business will get opened, because people want to know, am I making that mistake in my business, so a quarter of the time we’re going to use that psychological step that is going to help both the search engines and it’s going to help the human brain sort down to what’s going on. So educating on missing mistakes, the next 25% in the overcoming objections and obstacles is sales folks, this is creating that sales conversations, people have objections, I can guarantee you, they’re generally related to one of three things, there are time, money or fear. Those are typically the reasons why people are resistant to making a purchase with your business. So you need to address those in 25% of your posts and your content that you’re putting out into the world overcoming those objections. And this is great, because a lot of people have trouble selling this makes you think about those objections that you’ve gotten and the obstacles, people have to creating a change or creating the transaction for your business. And you can think about that come up with a good response. And it trains you to be able to facilitate that when you’re actually having a sales conversation with folks. As well as hopefully they’ve gone in, read it on your website, or seen it in a brochure or heard you talk about it on stage. And they’re not even going to ask you the question, they’re not even going to have that because you’ve already addressed it. And then the last 25% is really keying in on what makes your business different from your competitors. It’s setting you apart, it’s showing your unique businessality your unique personality. And it’s getting people to build that relationship on a more personal heart centered level with who you are as a person and as a business owner and as a brand. so that they become loyal and attached to you and wouldn’t consider going to one of your competitors, because they love you and the way that you do business so much. Any questions about that Cara,

Cara Taylor Swift 37:50
I was just gonna say I think we just did a whole episode on loyalty and building customer loyalty, which kind of ties back into that folks will not want to miss it.

Kimberly Beer 37:58
Yeah, that formula works. And if you like living by a formula, it’s a great way to do if you are like me and kind of like to wing it, I like to think of it as 25 25 25 25. But in reality is whatever I wake up that morning and feel inspired. The point here is make sure that you’re hitting all of these notes in your content. And also make sure that at least for part of it, in order to really hit that value quotient head on that you are doing something that creates a small victory or helps your audience avoid a mistake pretty regularly, because that’s going to endear you to them. And the final piece of advice I have around value has to do with the why. And I think for every piece of content that you write, you should ask yourself, why this piece of content? Why am I wanting to do this specific thing? Why is it good for my customers? And why is it good for my business? And you can just run over that in your head or you can write it down. But being able to comfortably answer all three of those questions means that you know that what you’re bringing has value to your clients, and it has value to your business. And that’s the important pieces.

Cara Taylor Swift 39:14
Well, yeah, the big thing that we’re doing right here is we are trying to provide more opportunities for our audience to connect with us to get to know us to meet us with the idea that they’re going to determine if they’re a good fit for our business, if we will meet the needs that they have. And ultimately, we’re going to hopefully increase our bookings or conversions, increase sales, whatever it is we do within our animal business, because that’s the goal of it right is we need to we want to have a successful business.

Kimberly Beer 39:45
Yeah. And we need to make money. We need to have revenue and energy exchange so that we can keep on doing what we love and keep bringing that value back to our consumers. So it’s a beautiful, never ending infinity sign of how Happiness like that.

Cara Taylor Swift 40:02
Okay, so let’s bring it back around to our big three, just remind everyone what that looks like. So when we are thinking about content marketing for our animal pet and equine based businesses, we’re looking for that content to be consistent, whatever it is that we’re out there doing in the world, that we’re doing it consistently, that we’re visible, and that we’re creating content that we can use and reuse on all of the different in person, online social media platforms, print materials that Kim has mentioned throughout this episode. And finally, the biggest one, I think, is that we’re bringing that value to our potential consumers into our existing customers so that we’re constantly re engaging them and being in front of them every chance that we get.

Kimberly Beer 40:47
Absolutely. Well, happy content creating out there to you guys, and make sure you’re being visible, consistent and valuable. We’ll see in the next episode.

Jaz 40:57
Thanks for listening to this episode of The Business Animal. Be sure to subscribe so you never miss an episode. And if you learned something today, leave us a review. To learn more, find us at The Business animal.com we’d love to hear from you. Until next time, keep your business well trained with The Business Animal

Transcribed by https://otter.ai