Content marketing has become such an effective and profitable marketing method that 73% of major organisations hire someone to manage their content marketing strategy (source: CMI).
That’s huge! But it is not surprising. Research shows that content marketing is 62% cheaper than outbound marketing, and generates 3 times as many leads! (Source: DemandMetric)
Now, as a health coach, you may not be in the position yet to hire someone to run your content marketing for you. But especially in the beginning of your online journey, it is actually better to do it yourself. It gives you the opportunity to learn what really works for you and your audience, and to really understand the type of content that gets – and keeps – their attention.
In today’s post, we will be discussing what content marketing actually is, how it will benefit your business, and we will also get started on developing ideas for your content. So, let’s dive in!
Let’s take a step back here. First, what is content?
Content is anything that you use to communicate with your prospects and customers. Content is what you put out into the world to market, advertise, and share your business.
Examples of content
- Blog posts
- Email newsletters
- YouTube or Facebook videos
- Pinterest pins
- Tweets
- Infographics
- How-to
- Memes (those funny memes you share on Facebook – yes that counts!)
And so much more!
Put simply, content is ultimately the foundation of your business.
It’s how your prospects will find you. It’s how you will convert those prospects into subscribers and customers. It’s how you will build a strong and loyal customer base. And how you will provide value.
So What Is Content Marketing?
Simply put, content marketing uses content to market to your audience. It’s the process of creating and distributing or publishing your content to attract, engage, and convert your target audience.
The ultimate goal of content marketing is to build your audience, and ultimately build sales and profits through content. Every business, whether it’s a one person operation or a global conglomerate, uses content marketing (and possibly without even realising it).
It is very important for a health and wellness coaches to embrace content marketing, in order to carve out a unique niche and to be profitable and competitive.
How does Content Marketing Build your Business?
I’m going to talk about here ways content marketing can build your business.
Content Helps Your Prospects Find You
You’ve probably heard the term “search engine optimization”. When someone enters keywords into a search engine, they get results that match their chosen words or phrase. If someone is looking for help improving their gut health, for example, for example, then they might search for “how improve gut health”. The results that they get should ideally be packed with information on the topic. If you’re a health coach who focuses on helping women heal their gut, then your content – if done correctly – will likely show up on the results.
Search engines look at the quality of the information, the relevance, and the credibility of the source. The more content you publish on your topic, and the more useful that content is, the more you’ll boost your credibility. Which means more prospects will find your website.
Great Content Is Shared and Builds a Community
Another way that content builds a business is by being shared. People love to share great content. The more valuable and helpful your content is to your audience, the more likely it will be shared. Again, this builds awareness for your business and drives traffic to your website. Once prospects are on your site, your content will motivate them to subscribe, or to comment, and to become part of your community.
Also, this links to our previous point. The more your content is shared, the better your results on search engine ranking positions.
Content Marketing is an Opportunity to Profit
While not all content should be promotional content, you can use your content marketing strategy to indirectly promote your products and services.
If you have a launch coming up, you can tailor your content to talk about the same topics. For example – if you’re launching a program on developing healthy habits, you can create content around morning routines, or meal prepping, to lead your readers towards your upcoming program.
Good content helps your prospects make buying decisions. It converts prospects into customers. In fact, according to surveys, 60% of people are inspired to seek out a product after they’ve read about it. And if that information comes from a peer or is viewed on social media, the percentage is higher.
Getting Started with Content Marketing
Start compiling a list of ideas. Make a list of the problems that your audience faces and the various questions they may have about the product or service you offer. You can use actual questions asked by your customers – this is a perfect place to start. The key to good content is to provide value.
Start brainstorming how you might provide value through content. What topics can you address? If you don’t have yet a solid understanding of who your audience is, it’s time to take that step too.
Keep in mind that you’re just thinking about topics right now. Consider exploring your competition’s websites and reading industry magazines to get some ideas of what content is being put out there.
There are more advanced techniques to get content ideas, but for now, we just want to get started.
To help get you started, I have a free brainstorming worksheet for you – head to vardomedia.com/brainstorm to get your copy.
You don’t have to decide how you’re going to deliver the information; we’ll cover that later. For now, simply start gathering ideas and write them down.
