One of the questions I get asked most often (aside from “What is a copywriter?”) is “What is content marketing and why should I use it?” I have lots to say on the subject, but we’ll get to that soon enough. To kick everything off, I thought I’d do a roundup of what a few of my expert friends have to say on the subject (huge thank you for taking part, ladies). I asked them all one question:
Skip To The Best Bits...
What is Content Marketing, how has it built your business, and why is it so effective for female entrepreneurs?
Here’s what they had to say…
Dina Behrman, The Business Fame Coach
Journalist-turned PR coach Dina Behrman is a PR and publicity expert who works with female entrepreneurs who are struggling to take their business to the next level. She helps them get their business seen and heard in the media so they can share their story and help more people, whilst gaining more followers, raising their prices and making more sales. Find Dina on social media: Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn
Dina’s Answer:
Content marketing to me means creating really valuable content that will help people to get to know, like and trust you. I like to create regular blog posts, newsletters, webinars, etc to help business owners learn more about doing their own PR. This allows me to show people that I know what I’m talking about, and gives them a chance to get to know me and my work better. It’s helped me to build my business because it’s really allowed me to establish myself as an expert in PR and publicity and it’s helped me to reach new audiences. I think it’s really effective for female entrepreneurs because it’s a way for you to really show that you’re an authority in your field – it’s great if you want to be seen as an influencer, and it gives people an insight into your knowledge and expertise and helps them to get to know you better, which ultimately makes them more likely to want to work with you.
Sarah Arrow, Sark eMedia
Sarah is the chief Bird on the Blog, founder of Sark eMedia and creator of the long running 30 Day Blogging Challenge.
Find Sarah on social media: Facebook Twitter
Sarah’s Answer:
Hana Jariabková, Online Marketing Coach
Hana is a blogging specialist, social media enthusiast and writer. She has nine years of experience with blogging, managing and marketing online platforms, some of which she founded and sold. She now runs workshops and seminars on building profitable online platforms through ZeroToBlog.net and teaches blogging and social media at the University of the Arts London.
For useful tips follow Hana on Facebook or Twitter, and for coffee reads, visit her blog HanaJayWrites.com.
Hana’s Answer:
Simply explained, content marketing means making business by creating any kind of content that gets you customers. It’s an amazing type of business, because it connects so many things. Creating content means being creative, diving into your passion, utilising your self-expression, personality, and marketing skills. I’ve started a few businesses based on content marketing – one of them was a fashion magazine, which I sold few years ago. At the moment I’m focused on my new business Zero To Blog. and teaching people to create online platforms. I recommend starting a content marketing business to all the ladies because you can do what you love and be fulfilled – your personal life and work blend into one in the best way: you can enjoy working from the beach, or a skyscraper rooftop, or from your kitchen while taking care of your little one. You can be adventurous or comfortable. Anything’s possible – it’s up to you what you create.
Sarah Clark, The Word Boutique
Sarah is a creative copywriter, blogger and author with a passion for beauty and health writing and a love of lifestyle writing. Sarah is also an author, and her first novel, Viva Voluptuous was published in 2014.
Find Sarah on Facebook, Twitter and her Blog.
Sarah’s Answer:
Content marketing is the solid core of my business – without it, I would probably have to go back and work in an office again! Content marketing is all about adding value for your clients and potential clients. My own website, blog and social media feeds (hopefully) give people helpful advice on creating and managing THEIR writing and social media. I create blog posts for my clients using the same approach – by following their lead I try to get to know their business, their character and their ideal clients. I almost try to become them while I’m writing, so that I can create content that appeals to their ideal clients, and makes them take a few minutes out of a busy day to read a blog post, or download a newsletter.
I think female entrepreneurs benefit from content marketing because, dare I say it, we often tend to be quite empathic to our clients’ needs. Many women find it is very easy to get inside the head of our ideal client, to be able to produce the kind of information they find interesting and helpful. We can see beyond number crunching and sales targets and get right to the nitty gritty of why people want to use our services and buy our products. The old ways of attracting customers and boosting sales don’t work as well for many women, especially women entrepreneurs who work from home and use the Internet to build their business. Content marketing and the tools we have at our disposal to market ourselves (list-building software, free website tools, free social media, newsletter software, image and video creation apps) all put us firmly in control of our own marketing message and give us the ability to do that in a very effective way.
Case Study
Still not sure what content marketing is?
[Tweet theme=”tweet-box-shadow”]@DeniseDT is a great example of a fabulous business lady using content marketing as the core of her business![/Tweet]
Denise Duffield Thomas, LuckyBitch.com
Denise Duffield Thomas over at LuckyBitch.com is a great example of the way we, as business women, can use content marketing to build a fabulously successful business. Denise’s award winning blog has helped thousands of women overcome their money blocks, manage and grow their income, and the core of her marketing is in the form of awesome free content. Denise uses blogs, vlogs, social media posts, free online courses and free eBooks, as well as two successful full length books available in print and on Kindle, to promote her growing business. She has massive amounts of content freely available to anyone looking to learn, and it is this generosity and the consistency with which she delivers fabulous content week after week that has allowed her to grow a six figure business. A short step up from her free content are her books, Lucky Bitch and Get Rich, Lucky Bitch, which provide a much more detailed look at what Denise does for a low price. This gives her followers a way of easing into buying paid content from her in a safe and inexpensive way, before investing in one of her higher priced courses. This is a very effective business model! But enough from me about it, here’s what Denise has to say about content marketing…
Be very, very generous in the information that you give. Don’t feel like if you give too much, they won’t want to work with you. That’s not the case at all.
In fact, the more generous you can be in your information, this is videos, blogs, free courses, and just free expertise that you give away, the more that people will want to work with you one-on-one and pay a higher premium for your time.
Because they think, “Gosh, she’s giving that away for free. Imagine what it would be like to actually work with her and do her package program or service.”
Are you using content marketing in your business? Pop a comment below and let me know what kinds of content you’re using!
