Think of the last time you heard a keynote speech at an event. What did you remember from it? Did you remember what they were selling? Did you remember what they were wearing? Or did you remember the stories they told?
Unless I take notes, I find I remember one or two key things from a speaker’s presentation: Brene Brown’s story about swimming with her husband and what was going through her head at the time; Priya Parker’s story about “doorway conversations” and how the real connection happens in between meetings; or perhaps more well known, Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream” speech where King called for civil and economic rights to end racism in the United States.
In the fast-paced digital world where you have a nano-second to gain your potential client’s attention, the power of clarity in content marketing cannot be underestimated. The clarity of your message can often be the deciding factor between a potential customer engaging with your content or scrolling past it.
Amidst the constant noise, how can you make your brand’s voice heard? The answer lies in clarity of messaging, strategic storytelling, and a well-crafted content map. Let’s delve into why these elements are crucial for standing out and driving sales.
What is Content Marketing?
Basically, content marketing is about using content to share your story. It’s about sharing information to inform your potential client about how you can help them with whatever “problem” they want to solve. It’s a focus on information sharing, often with entertainment (no need for dancing – unless you’re a dance instructor!) or education. The ultimate goal is to build trust and loyalty over time, as your potential clients come to KNOW, LIKE and TRUST you which are essential first steps before a potential client will purchase from you.
Why is Clarity Important in Content Marketing?
Cue the dance moves referenced above – if you’re just looking for clicks, your content won’t drive sales unless you’re establishing trust in the content you deliver – your audience will purchase from you when they trust that you can deliver on the expertise that you have. And unless you’re a dance instructor, it’s not dancing. Your clarity of message is essential to attracting the right ideal client to your door. What do you sell? What transformation do you want for them? Why should they believe you? Clarity of message is paramount, because otherwise people won’t know what you’re selling or why (or what) they should buy from you.
The Art of Storytelling: More Than Just Tales
When I was a little girl, I loved stories. I was fortunate to have been raised in a story-telling family in a story-telling culture. Before we had iPhones and digital cameras, we had stories. And they captured me. Now, we have so many more tools in front of us to tell and craft stories, and they still capture people. You remember more if it’s told in a story. You remember people’s experiences, emotions and connection with you. You connect with stories, you don’t necessarily connect with information. And there’s a tremendous amount of science to back that up. When information comes from a story rather than simple facts, more of our brain activates and the brains’ neural pathways light up. Not only that, stories generate empathy at the chemical level, deepening your connection with the information as you have an emotional response to it – you interact with it and make it your own.
Finding Joy in Email Marketing with Stories that Convert
As you find ways to connect with your audience, bringing these stories into your email marketing will transform your success in this area. Bring in stories from your own lived experience. This makes you more relatable and helps you connect with the audience in a way that simple facts will not. What is important about what you’re writing about? What excites you about helping your audience? How will what you offer make a real difference for your community? Go there. Share that. Be real. Don’t be afraid to share the failures as well as your successes. Showing people how far you’ve come and the motivation behind what you do will not only give them information, it will also inspire them and help them believe in themselves that they can get there too.
Crafting Your Strategic Content Map: A Time-Saving Blueprint
And….. you probably don’t know where to start. Most people don’t. And if you’re anything like me, creating a structure in your content creation really helps you stay committed to the process and deliver that content regularly. Start as you mean to go on, as it’s been said, and if you can commit to one piece of content a week, do that, go there.
In addition to creating my Sunday morning writing practice — which helped me create content regularly – mapping out the content you’re creating in a way that helps you connect with what you’re writing about, when you’re writing about it and who it’s for is a valuable strategy. What do you want people to do with the information? That’s a Strategic Content Map. It’s your blueprint that will help you save time and get that content created regularly, reliably, and strategically so you can reach your audience with information that they can use and will hopefully lead them to you.
Include a Call to Action
Including a call to action is essential. What do you want people to do with the information now that they have it? Here’s mine for this article: Now that you understand why clarity in content marketing is super important, that including stories will connect you to your audience and help them remember you and the content more, and that creating a thoughtfully created structure to keep that content coming in a reliable way is essential… how are you going to use this information?
You’re invited to my next CEO Day! Align Your Content Marketing is a five hour masterclass with three keynote speakers that will train you on each of those three areas:
- The stories that you are meant to share
- How to incorporate them into email marketing so people read your content
- Crafting your strategic content map so that the overwhelm is removed and you have a method to plan your ideas
And we’ll wrap it all up with understanding why this is important to you and create decisive action to drive results in your business – tomorrow.
Your call to action is to take action on the content you learned today, develop stories that will connect with your audience and make a plan to get them out into the world. And if you’d like some training on that, my next CEO Day coming up on April 19 is just the ticket. You can find out more and register here.
To your success,
Susan Elford is a Leadership Coach and Business Mentor who especially loves to work with women who want it all: a fulfilling career or business while living a full and satisfying life. Through powerful career coaching and business mentorship to get their career or business to the next level, Susan helps her clients get real about their strengths and celebrate and promote them so they get more of what they want: success at work; success in business & success in life.
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