It’s one thing to cough out huge advertising monies, it’s another thing to get the desired conversions on ad spend.
In Nigeria, news of the intention of the federal government to charge a 7.5% VAT (value added tax) on all facebook ads came as a rude shock to online entrepreneurs, who try to eke out a living by leveraging facebook advertising to promote their goods and services.
What this news has left the online community of entrepreneurs is to begin the hunt for smarter ways to continue to serve their audience.
In this post I’ll be sharing with you how you can up your game by pivoting to the creation of valuable contents and how that can boost your bottom line in the long run.
First let’s take a look at what a valuable content is?
I know you’ve heard the phrase “content is king”.
Well, I choose to believe the “right content is king”
Of what use is your content to your audience if they don’t find your post, video, blog, image or e-book interesting?
For a content to be seen as valuable it has to appeal to your target customers at their core. It has to be:
- relevant
- focused
- compelling
- be genuine
- of high quality
With this understanding of valuable content out of the way, let’s dive right in to show how your business can benefit by just providing valuable contents without relying overly on advertising.
Visibility
If you don’t want only your mum to know how good you’re, then you need to start working to become visible online. I’m sure you would want a prospect to find you via a google search or through the search of any of your key words. The question is, how do you facilitate this? You need to create contents around your expertise in a way that solves your prospects problems or helps them achieve their goals. The truth is that most of your prospects search the web for a particular pain point or desire first. When they’re not satisfied with their search results, they tend to ask their contacts and connections for recommendations on socials.
If you constantly put valuable contents online, both on your website and through your social media channels. You increase the likelihood of being found when prospects search for your brand’s services and products.
High Quality Contents
Like I said earlier, the right content is king. And I pointed out that one of the things that makes your content right is that it must be relevant or useful. This means your contents have to be either of the following:
- educative
- informative
- entertaining or
- inspiring
Anything short of the aforementioned would get your audience fleeing from your contents and perceive you as “boring”-I know you wouldn’t want that.
To create educative, inspiring or informative content does not require rocket science. The problem with most content creators is that they fear that providing high quality contents seem to be over delivering. So, they’re thinking “I shouldn’t provide killer contents-which ones will I now sell as a course if I get to share high quality contents for free!?”
If you’ve been thinking in this direction, here’s your wakeup call-snap out of that mental road block. Have you not heard the saying
“give and it shall be given unto you…” (Luke 6:38)
Providing top notch and high quality contents help with your positioning as an authority in your niche. The reward far outweighs its weight in gold in the long run. If you post high quality contents, your prospects are most likely going to share it to their community thereby generating referrals and driving warm traffic your way, which is what every entrepreneur wants in the long run. With high traffic comes the possibility of leads and finally converting these leads into customers that stay, pay and refer!
Buzz
We all are in the attention business. There’s no better reward for an entrepreneur’s hustle than the amount of eyeballs that come his way as a result of his marketing efforts. One thing guaranteed to get you the desired attention is the quality of contents that you churn out every now and then. This is why I’m suggesting that you post killer contents to your audience-do NOT hoard contents! I can’t over emphasis this fact. When you provide high quality contents that wow and intrigue your prospects they would definitely put word out to their tribes because they also want to feel cool and good. They would want to gain the respect of their peers as the person that discovers where cool stuffs are hidden. Your prospects would be inclined to share your post regularly, thereby helping to build your reputation in your niche.
Positions your brand for the sale
So far you’ve become visible, you’ve created killer contents that are of immense value to your audience, you’re now being talked about by your audience. You’ve hopefully established your reputation and authority in the minds of your prospects. What do you think would happen when any one of your prospects is ready to buy something in your niche?
They’ll most definitely pick up their phones to either call you or e-mail you. That’s the beauty of creating powerful contents. Even if they are not ready to buy yet, they would likely refer their friends who are in the market for such services or products that your brand provides.
Build Your Personality
When you’re genuinely serving your audience through the provision of valuable contents consistently, they’ll come to like and trust you. Why? For starters you’ve not come to sell like other “uninitiated” entrepreneurs who come to socials or online to create overly promotional contents for their audience. Your audience have seen these types of entrepreneurs and avoid them like a plague. But not you…you are their darling, you’re different. You have not pitched anything but value to them. Naturally, they would like to reciprocate your kindness by sending some goodwill your way. Goodwill that no amount of advertising can buy!
So, if you ever find yourself stuck with heavy advertising budget, yet there is the need to reach out to your audience. Use these strategies to rejig your business marketing without spending so much money on advertisement.