Have you joined my incredibly non-annoying, once-in-a-while email newsletter?
Last Wednesday, I sent an email to my audience. I have about 5,500 people on my mailing list. In it, I talked about the fear of change, and why change can be considered a good thing. I also mentioned briefly my series of small business masterminds that are taking place over the next few months.
The next day, I wrote a blog post about why masterminds are key for the small business set.
Neither one of the two pieces of content I created were “salesy.” In fact, they were the opposite – Good information, quality advice, and offerings of help. The mentions of my masterminds were a small additional bonus.
End result? Eight seats were sold in 24 hours to my upcoming masterminds. $4,500 made in less than a day.
Good content will always trump good advertising. (TWEET THIS!) Create content that speaks to your audience. Create things that help your audience. Write posts that benefit your audience. Write with your audience in mind. Write with your audience’s needs and desires at the forefront of your creative process.
The return will be an audience that wants to buy from you, use what you offer, and share it with friends.
Now keep in mind, I’ve been cultivating this audience for years. How? By giving them quality content, just like the piece you’re now reading. That’s what gave me the ability to share – I’ve never given my audience bad content. I give them what they like, and they trust me. As such, my audience is more likely to read me, more likely to listen to me, and more likely to purchase if I ever offer them the chance to.
This isn’t a new rule, nor is it some creative plan from beyond the ages. It’s thousands of years old: You give your audience what they want, when they want it, and how they want it, and they’ll appreciate it, they’ll come back to you, and they’ll buy from you over and over again. Possibly even more important, they’ll tell friends. They’ll go out of their way to drag friends to buy from you, over and over.
As you create content today, I ask you this: Are you writing it for your audience, or simply to hear yourself talk? The answer is the difference between earning money, and just posting some words online.
As always, thoughts below are welcome. Happy Monday!
PS: These are the kind of things I talk about in the Masterminds I produce. If you’re a small business, an entrepreneur, or running your own gig, you don’t want to miss this season. We’ll be in New York City, Detroit, Chicago, Orange County, San Francisco, Washington, DC, and Seattle. Hope to see you there!