Advice to Virtual Entrepreneurs Who Can't Seem To Make Money

Have you ever wondered how you could use content marketing for your small business to increase brand presence, effectively?

Hello, and join me on this episode of the virtual entrepreneur if you're new to this podcast, a very warm welcome. I am your host Herbert innocent, and this is the go to podcast for entrepreneurs who see their business as a vehicle for change, I bring you the tips, the tricks, and the big secrets, the how tos and the success stories, the success, knowledge from entrepreneurs around the globe with one mission, and that is to leave the world a better place, and in today's episode we're going to be talking about how to use content marketing for your small business to increase brand presence in effective way.

But before we jump into that, if you're new to this podcast you probably missed our last episode, which was on knowing when does your small business need, marketing, content marketing, or just marketing in general, and if you didn't get a chance to listen to that episode I want you to go and listen to that episode. And then when you're done come back and listen to this episode will still be here also the notes from the last episode can be found at Herbert marketing help.com that is h e r b e RT marketing help.com So if you go there you can find all the notes and all the other good stuff aside from that, let's jump into today's episode which is on how to use content marketing for your small business effectively. So you can increase your brand awareness.

Now, when the first thing when it comes to, essentially, you know, using content marketing, for a small business to increase your brand awareness, the first step is essentially to consider your audience, right, because your content marketing your marketing in general, while you build it for your business, it is actually designed to assist and help your ideal clients to our system help your audience. It is designed with the aim of turning unknown visitors and leuchars on your website into your audience and into your buyers people who buy not just into your product but also your vision, your message and your mission. Right. And so the first thing is to consider your audience, who are they, right.

And where can you find them because, depending on who your audience is, where you can find them is also very very different. So who are they, and find who they are essentially going to go dive, dive deep into this but what we mean is, right, male or female is it both and, you know, how do they define themselves. So we're going to dive deep into understanding who your audience are.

And then we're going to look at, where can you find them, and then the third piece to this puzzle is, what do you have in common with them. And the reason why I say that is because a lot of us in business go in business with the aim of serving other people but we forget that in order for that happen. A relationship has to develop. And in order for a relationship to develop, we must have something in common with the other person. I heard Tony Robbins, say once that really rapport is power, we will develop that rapport with the people that we want help because it is the only way that our information that our knowledge that our message can have an impact on them and influence them into taking the positive action that we want them to take.

So with that said, the first thing is knowing who are they, knowing where can you find them and then knowing what do you have in common with them. Now this is not the typical layout but we'll dive deep into MVC, the reason why these are the things to consider before even sitting down and start creating that plan. So let's look at who are your ideal audience. Now, one of the key things here I want to emphasise is audience there's a difference between audience and traffic. Right.

And a lot of us in business. We use these terminologies as if they mean the same thing but they don't. So traffic are essentially visitors, these are strangers they don't know you yet they're just looking around, getting a feel for what they're walking into but they haven't bought anything so far in terms of your ideas, your message, or your product they haven't bought into any of that, they're just looking around window shopping per se.

Right. So, and then your audience.

These are people who are actually looking forward to your message they are looking forward to what you have to say next they're looking forward to what your product can do for them and what it has done for them if they've already bought these people where they will show up, and they expect you to be there. When you say there's an event, they will come there. Right, so these are essentially your raving fans so within your audience or your raving fan, right, and then they could be your prospect, so they haven't bought yet, there could be your lead because they haven't bought yet, but they've already bought, or maybe a single concept or idea or your message or your mission, or your values. Right, so they've bought something from you, it may just not be your product yet but they've bought something in that why they will show up for themselves, not necessarily for you.

Right. So that's the first thing they to understand and then the next thing to understand about who are your ideal audience for your small business. The next thing to understand is, what are their fears, their hopes and dreams. Now, when you first come into this idea of fears, hopes and dreams. I used to wonder, why should we know what their fears are, I thought that was a very negative things until someone.

I heard someone say, you know, your fears, actually have much more power over us than anything. Right. Sometimes we set about to go and do tasks, so imagine yourself, There's probably a chance where you set out to go and do something, but your fears, held you back, and the reason is simple.

Our fears are stronger than our hopes and dreams, right, we will do something much more likely to prevent something else from happening to prevent something that we afraid of from happening. Right, so our fears hold us back. And so by being able to know those, we can use these to help them navigate this human conditioning that we have that prevents us from getting the best results we can get from ourselves.

Right. And so that's the goal there so these fears, hopes and dreams, while our dreams pull us forward. Our fears can push us forward to.

Then the next thing is, what are their habits, and these are the demographics and psychographics and by habits here. I mean, are they most likely to be listening to a podcast, or are they most likely to be watching a video, are they most likely to be scrolling through endless photos on some, you know social media app or something like that, or are they most likely to be in a little forum just texting back and forward, you know, talking about something with a small group of people so depending on who your audience, are they may be able to fit here very well, and sometimes the best thing is to look where you are, because most likely the most likely person we are to serve and enjoy serving people who are similar to us in some respect, but not like, not like us in everything, right.

So for example, someone who has an interest in our product. Someone who communicate similar to us so we can find them on the platforms that we are already using that makes it easier for us to reach out to them, but also they have maybe similar fears, hopes and dreams and that makes it easier for us to communicate to them, and then we'll communicate to them in this regard. Our message is authentic, powerful, and also enabling its original, it's no longer fighting for price and competing on that. But, so those are the three things that so knowing, you know your audience, their fears, hopes and dreams and their habits, and by habits here just mean things that they naturally tend to gravitate towards things or they just tend to do without even thinking too much about it. Right.

And then from there, the next thing becomes, where do you find your audience, right. So, this links back to the previous point, which is, do they are they most likely to be listening to an audio or watching a video, or reading a blog. And even if it's reading a blog, or the most likely to be in a small community, or just reading, Google for random blogs because you target those individually different right there are people who enjoy reading, maybe short little mini stories in places like Facebook groups. Right.

Or there are people who just enjoy going to Google and finding a big long blog. And there are people who go to places like Korra, and then find those key content there to consume to find solution to the question or a problem that they wanted. So, and then on audio.

There are people who hang out on platforms, such as clubhouse where you can instantly share a voice message, right. And so, and then on video there are places like YouTube or the ease masterclasses or this these, all these other communities where you can interact with people using videos, so it really is worth knowing where, and by master classes may be saying, well, aren't those private, they're not all private, some of them are not private at all. And if you look enough in some communities, you'll find that the host.

You know, this connection platforms using videos, and you can go there and interact with all these other people. So that is the goal there, right. And then from there you can find who you're looking for. Then the next thing becomes asking, Who do they follow and this is actually quite important, not just who do they follow but why do they follow them, because the chances are they're following them for very similar reason, they will be following you and your content, right, it may be that they get a different end result. But the key reason the core desire or the core values of why they follow those people they follow right is very is going to be very similar to you. Right, and so in order for you to get in front of them, you might want to represent similar values, should I say that right.

And this comes back to the vision comes back to your core values why business exists in the first place.

And then the next point is, what are they getting and why. And this becomes a very important because understanding what are they getting means you can also see what they're not getting that they probably want right and understanding why they're going for that there can also help you understand how it addresses back to their fears, hopes and dreams, and that becomes a way of using similar phrases and similar language patterns to communicate and build that strong relationship and report with your new ideal clients, and new ideal audience, should I say, right, then the next question becomes what do you have in common with them.

Right. And this is where you look at your strengths, right, in using specific platforms, video, audio, or writing platforms and by looking at your strength. You look at first of all, what do you have in common with them, and you pick on your strength to start working with those, and then communicating and connecting with your ideal audience in those platforms with your ideal prospects in those platforms, because it's going to be the easiest way to start getting those ideal clients, right. I heard someone wants, one of which was a real mentor but it was someone, and they were teaching on, you should be publishing on this platform and this platform and this platform and this platform and this platform. This is a beginner, entrepreneur and you want them to publish on every single platform. And what another mentor said you know if you're gonna go and start publishing on every single platform before mastering one, I guarantee you you're gonna fail, and there isn't a very simple.

It's not that you can't do it, it's that it's a long game, it's a long process. And as you do it you learn, you learn what works and what doesn't work, you learn on resonates with and what doesn't resonate, you pick up a strategy and you create a strategy for creating content consistently. But also, you also learn how to overcome those barriers in your mind because the biggest barriers are going to be in you, sitting down to create content, right.

Someone once said, you know, if you're going to create an if you're going to, if there's a lot of things in front of you that are going to stop you slow you down from getting to the task that you want to do, for example, so you want to record a video, then you have to set up a room set up the lighting set up the microphone set up the computer, and then, you know, position, everything, and then get everyone quiet and then start recording then you have to edit. If you have to do all those things, and video is not your strongest method of communicating or digesting content, Then you want to enjoy. If you don't enjoy the process you want do it, it's going to become a lot of work, and each day, you're going to start realising, oh I have to create the outline for the content. I have to memorise some words that it becomes so heavy that it's difficult to produce the content, but if you start with something that you really enjoy, then it becomes so much easier. An example for me is this for me to create a single podcast episode. All it takes is building an outline, and I'm done. I'm ready to start recording right whereas to do a video, then it's probably going to require a lot more to write, it's also going to require a lot more from my part, than to produce a single episode, but because it's playing to your strengths, that's what I'm trying to get at here. The other thing is building Reaper, right, you want to build Reaper by sharing content in a way that you enjoyed best because you're going to share it better, but also as you improve. It's also going to make it easier for your audience to engage with your content much more.

Right. And then the last point on this is creating a strategy for how you're creating this content so you can share it. Right. So how do you use content marketing for your small business to increase brand presence, it's by creating a strategy, but you need to know all the above. To get to the point where you're creating a strategy for your content. Now, let me explain what do I mean by creating astrology there's a difference between astrology and the plan on the E is very simple and very often simplified example astrology is a recipe for recreating the entire experience.

Whereas a plan is a map made out of words. That is a difference, right, a map it's easier to lost to get lost with a map with a map, astrology gives you every single thing when you need it, how much you need it at the right time, it will tell you when to put something so let's say for example you are baking, or whatever. When you're cooking, but if you're, if you're seeing a recipe. Right, it will tell you how much you need to put, when you need to put it.

For how long it will tell you all those details, whereas the plan, it doesn't. It's a guide. It's a map made out of words, you will get lost with a plan, but you'll never get lost with a strategy. Right, so it's to create a strategy for creating your content so that your content is not just consistent, but it is also communicating key points. It's also delivering the same consistent experience, as well as he is also communicating your brand message. And that is key, right. So it's creating a strategy that makes sure that even if you give your strategy to someone else, you hire a virtual assistant, they can recreate that experience, and that's the goal for that, right. So when you're building a team they can always recreate that experience for your audience, even if you're not there, they know exactly how to filter.

They know exactly what to do, when to do and how to do it, to deliver that experience. So with that said, I hope you get a tonne of value, that is how you go about creating content marketing for your small business to increase your brand awareness in an efficient way. Have we got a tonne of value of this from this episode. You can find the notes for this episode at urbit Marketing help calm, that is h e r v e r t marketing help calm.

Thanks so much for tuning in on this episode, I will talk to you on our next episode, And as always, have a wonderful evening.