3 steps to get started with content marketing

This is an excerpt from my book: Attention Avalanche: 3 Steps to endlessly create meaningful content to attract, engage and convert more customers3 letters: LSD.L - stands for loveYou have got to love what you are doing enough so as to talk about it for a long time, otherwise you will lose interest and be distracted. Because the strategies in this book are all long term and unless you care about the thing you are advocating then you will not perform as well.There are a billion ways to make a million dollars, yet only a million ways to make a billion dollars - you just need the ways that you are happy and competent at to work on and advocate. By having a purpose you are ensuring that you spend your time on things that moves your mission forward and not wasting your time on just anything.Have a strong mission and a well defined purpose before you take any action. Have a big mission that you want to work on. When you compel people with a big mission and purpose, then they are more inclined to follow and help you fulfil it, because people cheer for the underdog and we want to be part of something big.Have a mantra for your business that helps to define what it is your business does and then find new ways to exhibit and fulfil that mantra in the world. Those that lived by the yellow pages died by the yellow pages.S - Take aimWhen you know what you are doing and why, you then need to understand exactly who you are going to attract.Research and understand your audience until you feel guilty for spending so much time and research, or that you now feel confident enough to start. By knowing who it is you are going to target inside out, you increase the chances of success.Be clear, rather than clever, when it comes to attracting your customers. Create the perfect products - different information and products that other people value more than just the normal versions. Create a product that somebody loves, rather than they may forget soon after.The general public are early adopters, innovators, early majority, later majority or laggards, when it comes to adopting new technology or products. When you understand the different segments of the market you can craft different messages and content that appeals to them perfectly.The innovators are people that want to have an advantage in their business and/or life, they want the latest things now.Early adopters want something that revolves around their life and they have waited for this their entire life. Start off aiming for the innovators and early adopters, as they require the least amount of energy, persuading to come aboard and are the most forgiving.Early majority want something simple and compelling as they are pragmatists, so they want enough evidence and proof before they take any action. They are rather unforgiving and may be impatient.Late majority wants even more evidence and reassurance before they change or adopt anything new.Laggards are the last ones to come onboard, as they may only buy a car when horses are no longer a choice.Things fail to become the 'next big thing', unless 2/3 of the people you know are talking about it or unless it solve a problem for target audience that is desperate for a solution as they have searched and searched, but it has been in vain. So they are now desperate to try anything - including something that they may have never seen before.Define your audience through answering a series of questions. At the end of the book is a link to download a customer persona template that I have created and use for my businesses. You can create as many customer personas as you want. Your first customer persona could be yourself, therefore you could target people just like yourself, and because you know you extremely well. When you do not know what to do, just do something to get momentum going! The more you do for your audience, the better.Define a target audience and understand 100+ of their problems and solve them. That way you are bringing immense value to their life and they respect you more so. When you know what kind of person you want to target, you then need to understand them inside out.Be 3 inches wide and 3 miles deep. Leverage your specialised knowledge about your products and services and talk about it with the world.There are 3 kinds of customers:Those that are definitely a customer. These people may have waited their entire life for your business to come up, others may have recognise the need for your business a long time ago and have been very patient.Those that are on the fence. These people need a bit of persuading that they need your services, or they need reassuring that you are to be trusted.Those that are definitely not your customer. Perhaps these are men that do not need any beauty or pregnancy products, likewise, women that do not need any testicular supplements. Or, these are people that will never buy from your or your company because of a past experience, do they not like what you are selling or like you. These people either do not want or need what you are selling.D is for discovery"You miss 100% of the shots you don't take" - Wayne Gretzky, Canadian retired professional ice hockey player. If you are not creating content online then you are missing out on being discovered. You have lost even before you started.Dialogue. Your audience and customers are searching for things online and unless you can meet them half way then you are missing on out on capturing their attention.300 Billion searches a year are taking place that have never been searched for before, and it is down to you to share what you know so people can discover you online. Therefore, go big on creating long tail content, because so many searches are being made every year, so people are bound to discover you. Go all out on creating content for your audience, as the more you create, the more people can discover you.Create content that only your target audience(s) will be searching for and find appealing enough to be curious about it when they happen to come across it. Create so much content in a certain niche, subject or industry so you are discovered everywhere so people will perceive you as an authority, as they consistently see you everywhere.By being seen everywhere your audience perceive you as an expert; and their perception is reality.  The more content people consume, the more likely they are to consume even more of it.There are different kinds of keywords to consider as you are deciding what kind of content to create.Branded keywords: the kind of keywords that you always want to be associated with and discovered by online.Commercial investigation keywords: they want to know more about something; how trust worthy, valuable or worthwhile it is before they go ahead with the purchase. They may not be ready to buy just yet but they want to be well-informed about how they will be spending their money.Information based keywords: inquisitive and curious in nature, where someone is wanting to learn more about the product or service as a whole.Transaction based keywords: they are ready to buy, but not sure who from, as they like the product but not sure who sells it, or they may want to find somewhere else to buy it from.Think monopoly, not niche. Monopoly means that you own certain online spaces, keywords and searches, as opposed to confining yourself to a certain niche and sticking to it doggedly.Give yourself a title and act so as to develop those habits, as success begets success so you start to naturally inhibit those traits you claim to have and/or be.Create more content than you consume and just how the tree gets more water the deeper its roots are, the more content you create the more traffic, awareness and sales you can earn.Follow the VRINE formula to create compelling content by default. Ensure your content is:Valuable. Your content has actually got to solve their problems and actually teach them something - you have got to actually help them! Otherwise, they will stop consuming your content.Rare. Something that is rare or not commonly known, seen, talked about or understood.Inimitable. Something that other people cannot just do as well as you can.Non-substitutable. Something that no one else can do, offer or talk about as well as you can so as to compete with you. Ensure that you are the only one that can create that piece of content.Evergreen. Content that people will be searching for consistently throughout the year. This is probably the most important aspect of the VRINE formula.The more your content is on each of these metrics, the better it may perform.3 kinds of content that you could create:Very unique and high value hero pieces. Content that has high VRINE and is ubiquitous with you, your brand and your business.Hub content that is the day to day content that gets your audience coming back to you again and again.Hygiene content that is regularly created content that helps you to be discovered, establishes your SEO and reputation. This could be simple "how to" videos.SEO is not as important as it once was, but it is still a nice tool to have in your business, where as creating evergreen content is useful for being discovered consistently.Use clickbait strategies to get your audience engaged, creating a knowledge gap spurring them to consume your content.Knowledge gaps are titles or pieces of content where the audience realises they do not know something and only you can give it to them. It is a curiosity itch that only you can scratch for them once you have made them aware of said itch. They may also appeal to peoples' sense of certainty (and uncertainty), variety, significance, love & connection, growth, contribution and contribution (as talked about at the end of this chpater).Understand the baker baker paradox, because we remember vivid imagery more so than information and data. Remember the picture superiority effect, where we remember images more so than words.Tell stories, because we naturally like to listen to them as they help us to retain information and advice. Share with audience the overall mission of your organisation, the major projects and the day to day events.Aim for 2200-2500 words, yet have a bias to include as much as you can without blabbering or wasting time. Balance long and short form content.Apply the principle of trend stacking when it comes to creating content for your audience, this way it helps to get qualified traffic and people that actually care what you are doing and writing about, as opposed to just anybody. Do not mix too many trends together as your content may be too unique and thus attract too few people.There are six main ways to influence people, what is called LARCSS:Liking. We like those that are like ourselves, ignoring their flaws and we listen to them almost blindly.Authority. We listen and respect those that we perceive to be in a position of authority - whether real or not.Reciprocity. The more you give to your audience, the more likely they will feel the need to return the favour.Commitment. When you play on peoples' reputations and who they claim to be, then you can persuade them to do more.Social proof. As you can persuade the people that other people have followed this route, then they are more likely to do so too. We are a herd mentality creature, so we feel safe when we know other people are doing what we are doing.Scarcity. The more rare something is, the more valuable it is. When something is common, then we take it for granted, but as something is rare: we appreciate it a lot more.Question of the day: how are you getting started with content marketing?