Are you ready to grow your business? It's a serious question and before you answer, think about it a little bit more.
Who isn't ready to make more money, drive more traffic to their sites, grow their marketing database numbers? I mean, you'd be a little crazy to say "no, thanks" to that, wouldn't you?
And yet, people do it all the time. People make excuses all the time for why they're not using content marketing and writing on the web. Here's how:
- "I'll start a business blog when my new website gets up."
- "I've got a blog; I'll write on it soon."
- "I just want to get a new photo done, then I'll be ready."
- "I'm getting some triple fold brochures printed first." (OMG, do people still do that?)
- "Just as soon as I finish my Famous Guru Internet Millionaire Course, then I'll start."
I'm exaggerating, and I'm serious. I've heard some really solid reasons people put off content marketing. Some of the smartest professionals I know have really great looking websites that have been done at considerable expense.
And they know that it's not really enough, because it's not working to bring in potential clients. I can write until my fingers fall off and tell readers what they need to be doing for their content marketing:
- A blog
- A white paper or special report to highlight your expertise
- A newsletter to stay in touch
- A presence on Twitter, Facebook & LinkedIn: Social Media participation
- A survey or quiz to get people engaged (take the Content Marketing Quiz here)
- Teleseminars and interviews to attract an audience of like-minded people
- A journal or membership site, or self-coaching program to build a community
And yet only a small percentage of readers will take action. There are good reasons:
- Too busy with current clients
- Not enough time
- Not enough tech skills to put all the pieces in place
- Don't like writing, put it off
- Got enough work as it is, can't handle an increase in business
- Satisfied with current web marketing, think it's enough
- Get a lot of referral business
It takes a lot for people to decide to ask for help even though that's the 2nd step to making profitable change. (The 1st step is becoming aware that it needs to change.)
You'd think that no matter what the economic situation is, for whatever niche or industry, people would want to do better.
What's "do better?" I define it as:
- making more profits/ benefits
- doing less 'busy' work
- doing more creative stuff
- working less time
- freeing up time to do more of what really matters
- being better able to support and give to others
That's how I see it. And I ask my clients to define it for themselves. They come up with some amazing stuff, and the important key is the exercise itself.
How do you define success? Progress? "Doing better?"
Yesterday I wrote about how people don't change without measurement and follow-up. So many, myself included, get stuck with other people's definitions of success. Then they try to measure it, but they could be measuring the wrong things.
Like traffic. It's so easy to measure. But it doesn't mean squat unless you're an SEO guy (or gal), because who cares?
Traffic to your blog is like getting friends on Facebook or huge numbers of followers on Twitter. So what? Well, that's really nice. If it's not contributing to your overall goals, then those are the wrong things to pay attention to.
Okay, I'm going to follow-up with this post tomorrow because it's getting a little long and I think I've covered a key point sufficiently: define "better" for yourself. You need to think about this. I need to do the same.
I know what's next: I'd like to write up 3-5 key questions that will help you monitor and measure your key success factors. Come back tomorrow. Feel free to comment and share your thoughts.
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