Why use a Content Marketer?

Introduction

Inspired by my interview with Roger Edwards of the Marketing and Finance Podcast, I’m sharing some tips and ideas I gave to his listeners about working with a content marketer. We talked about the importance of creating and, most importantly, repurposing content for professional services businesses and entrepreneurs. As well as top tips for repurposing podcasts, videos, vlogs and webinars.

Why is Content Important?

As an entrepreneur, thought leader, small business or industry expert, you need to clearly communicate your message to reach a wider audience and make the best use of your most valuable content.  No matter the industry, the goal is always the same: to communicate your message and explain what you do in a simple way. To do that, you need to drill down into your core message.

When you work in an industry, whether you’re a financial advisor or run a hairdressing business, there’s going to be terminology you become immune to. You assume that everybody knows what you’re talking about, but often, the vast majority of readers have absolutely no idea what you mean.

One of the benefits of getting someone else to write your copy is that they can cut through that jargon. When you’re writing for your own business, you’re too close to your subject. It’s really useful to have that third-party check, to question the language – to ask why you are using specific terms or explain why you shouldn’t be using industry-specific language.

That’s where a content marketer comes in. Content marketing is a collaborative process and the external marketer needs to understand what, as a business, you want to say and help you get that message across. You know what your business is and what you do, but do your customers?

Quick Ideas

Remember there’s no such thing as a stupid question! Take a mortgage broker as an example – when I bought my house, I didn’t know what a mortgage broker did. The mortgage broker, on the other hand, knew exactly what he did. Once I’d approached him, he assumed that I knew what was required, but why would I unless I’d bought a house before?

One of the best approaches to writing content is to think about your most frequently asked questions. Come up with a list of your top 10 or 20 FAQ’s – that’s 10 or 20 blog posts right there! For something like this, a checklist is ideal. Let’s go back to the mortgage broker example. Some checklists could be:

• 10 things you need to know before you work with a mortgage broker
• Is working with a mortgage broker right for you?
• 10 things to think about when applying for a mortgage

This applies to any business; people feel more engaged if you make an effort to speak their language and keep things simple. The next thing to think about is why are you producing this piece of content? What are you trying to achieve with it?

Then look through your existing content, could anything be repurposed? And if so, why do you want to re-use it? If there’s no existing content, start with the checklist, what is it that your customers want or need to know? Once you’ve come up with some ideas, give them to someone else to write them for you. Then lastly, do a content audit. What mediums do you already use? Where do you want to share your new content? How often? What kind of medium – written, podcast, webinar, etc?

How a Content Marketer can Help

Let’s be honest, most of us are pressed for time. If you have a live video, vlog or podcast, you have all this really useful content that your audience are interested in, but it’s stuck in a video. A good content marketer can pull that out and turn it into formats that can be shared across social media and other channels.

Repurposing content can work from any direction; you can take a podcast and turn it into a blog series, or turn a webinar into a podcast.  It’s all about seeing how you can make the most of existing content to further showcase you as the expert in your field.

If it needs beefing up, you need someone who can find statistics, data and research to add in to make the blog post more interesting. But it’s surprising how much value you can get in just a 20-minute video. It’s often just a question of pulling the best bits out, editing, adding some statistics and polishing it up.

Examples of how a Content Marketer Works

Here are a couple of great examples from my own experience: I was approached by a beauty salon owner who wanted to introduce some new therapists to clients, but she wasn’t comfortable doing the writing.

Instead, she sat down and interviewed them, and I turned the recordings into a series of blog posts to introduce the new therapists and the additional services. She could get on with running her business whilst I produced the blog posts.

Interviews like this can also be used to the extreme to write a book. I was approached to create a marketing book by recording a series of interviews with the authors. They then added additional graphs and research into that, and that’s how the book was created. It was an easier way for the authors to be natural; rather than trying to write it down, they talked to me.

Save yourself time and spread your message to a wider audience: contact me directly. Download my top content marketing tips here. You can also listen to the original interview with Roger, or download the transcript of our chat.