The BEST Ways to Use Your Content as Currency!
“Content as currency.” What is that? Everyone who runs a business, whether it be in the form of offering a service or a physical product, needs a marketing strategy and (of course) a marketing budget.
But what if you were just getting started and didn’t have enough funds to build your dream marketing campaign?
What if a recent economic downfall struck you and you needed to allocate your resources elsewhere?
This is where your content comes in as currency; it is possible to create share-worthy content that will have as much, if not more, value than money in your marketing campaign on an ongoing basis.
Using this practice will benefit those who are new to the marketing world, as well as seasoned marketers.
Share Your Knowledge and Expertise by Addressing Commonly Asked Questions
To ensure the content you post on social media is share-worthy, be sure to share content that your audience and any future audience will want to read.
One of the easiest ways to do this is by collecting FAQ’s that your company receives. These could be B2B inquiries, inquiries received by your customer success team, or frequently asked questions that you receive on social media.
In short, any subject that brings in a lot of inquiries. By addressing these questions, you can rest assured you will compose content that is not only share-worthy but also truly addresses a need within your community.
Think of it as an investment that gains value over time.
Initially, it may seem like this type of content is valued the same as any given article on the web. But over time, this type of article will practically create an auto-pilot effect, whereby your current customers/followers continue sharing your content, and new clients keep pouring in.
If the economy were to find itself in trouble, and you faced a situation in which you needed to make slight adjustments, utilizing your content as currency would play a fundamental role in helping your business weather the storm. That is currency.
Survey Your Audience to Determine Your Best Content As Currency
In our first point, we talked about creating content around frequently asked questions. If you regularly post on your company blog, there may come a point where the information you provide is so share-worthy that your customers won’t need to call you anymore.
The number of inquiries you receive will begin to decrease, which is another indication that your content is working as currency for you. An excellent way to discover new topics you would like to cover is to ask your audience. Ask them what they would like to learn next.
From which of your products and services would they like to learn more? How about your current articles; do they still have questions, or has the content shared brought on new questions and ideas?
Conduct these surveys once or twice per year and build yourself a bank of topics you can address based on the feedback received from your audience. You can leverage social media tools such as Instagram stories and Facebook lives to survey your audience.
Review Your Current Content Delivery Method
It’s important for every business to occasionally take a step back and evaluate how it currently shares its content.
Do you send e-mail newsletters?
Do you post everything in a monthly newsletter?
Is it written in a blog or a magazine?
It’s important to make your content easily accessible, particularly the great free value that you offer. Sometimes sharing your posts on social media simply isn’t enough. As an example, if I want to come back to your article, and I didn’t get a chance to like your Tweet or save your Facebook post, where am I going to find this content?
Easily accessible content will have a high currency value. Ensure that your blog is user-friendly and easy to navigate.
If your website has so much information that I need to search for 15 minutes to find one article, in the eyes of a consumer, this decreases its value. The 15 minutes they had to read your article during their break is now gone.
It is highly likely they won’t read it and will scroll through the article and miss very valuable information that you’ve shared. Not every business should deliver content the same way; this will vary based on your audience. Create a buyer persona to discover who is your ideal customer.
Not sure who your ideal client is or how to even get started? Visit this blog, written by Pamela Vaughan titled How to Create Detailed Buyer Personas for Your Business [Free Persona Template] on the Hubspot blog.
Take Baby Steps
Take baby steps! Begin implementing these small changes, and over time you will see results. As with any other business endeavor, it takes time; don’t throw in the towel too soon, and remember that consistency is key.
When you launch a business or even start something new such as social media marketing, it’s easy to succumb quickly and want to give up.
Take the time to analyze your current marketing strategy and remember that if something isn’t working for you, it does not mean you need to alter your approach drastically. Sometimes small, consistent adjustments are all you need to make to see results.
Until next time....
Debbie