Authority Building Content

Conversions are what you need to succeed online these days. What is a conversion? It’s when an audience member does what you tell them to in a call to action... and they become something MORE. When you send an email and they click the link to buy your program, they convert from audience member to customer. Beware - not all conversion strategies work on all multi-media platforms. Learn about the different conversion strategies on today’s episode!

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Content, Charisma, and Connection (a.k.a. The 3 C’s) are what make your multi-media presence online exceptional. And you only need to do two of the three really well to succeed! Content is what your episode is about and how it’s presented. Charisma, both natural and learned, are what draw people in. Connection is the emotional bond that turns fans and guests into evangelists. Find out how to use content, charisma, and connection to supercharge your content online, from blog posts to video to podcasting, on this episode!

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What does it mean to speak the language of your audience? It means you know what phrases they use, what jokes they make, what difficulties they face, and maybe even what they binge-watch on Netflix. Why does it matter? It’s simple: like cliques, audiences have their own way of speaking, and you’ll have a harder time fitting in and building relationships if you don’t speak that language. Today, we talk about how to learn and speak the language of your audience, or your future audience!

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Video, blogging, podcasting, livestreaming, books, and courses: you have big dreams, but which one should you chase first? How do you figure out what’s going to get you closest to those dreams while staying sane? It comes down to a few key considerations: decide which superpower you need to get closest to your most critical goal, determine what resources you have available, and figure out how you can get the most mileage out of your content.

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What if I told you that an author could use a podcast to: write their book, promote their book, gather material for their book, increase the dialogue and interest around their book, turn readers into dedicated fans, test ideas for new content, network with influencers to help promote their book, and generate leads to grow the business behind the book? When you stop thinking about a podcast as just something you listen to and start thinking about it as a consistent, content generating and networking machine, good things happen.

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A livestream is when you broadcast yourself, in real time, to a platform where there is the expectation people will be watching you do it, and engaging back with you. Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and Twitter all have some kind of livestream functionality - often with a third party software. People livestream for lots of reasons, from new business generation to educational content delivery but most of them fit into three high-level categories: Audience ConnectionAudience Connection is the biggest category of livestreaming. Because it’s, well, LIVE and a two-way dialogue between you and your audience it’s the most intimate and direct way to communicate with your people outside of a phone call. If you have a lot of fans - or a handful of highly devoted ones, you and they will both value the time you get to connect directly on social media. Some ways this can be done well are to have standing livestreams where you discuss a prepared topic - maybe relating to a recent podcast episode or blog post, and invite discussions and feedback. Q and A, or Ask Me Anything livestreams are also popular. If there is more about a topic you’ve covered recently, a livestream is a great way to really dig in - it can be a lot more unstructured that other kinds of multi-media and that’s often a very liberating thing! People in your audience want to be seen by you, and a livestream gives you the chance to speak directly, and give them the attention they want, while still controlling the platform and creating content that has a broader appeal.  Customer Service and Content DeliveryA lot of creators use livestreaming to deliver training and support for their customers - particularly those who sell online courses or information products. The live, two-way conversation style of livestreaming makes giving support and getting feedback very efficient!  In addition, not every media creator has a full customer support team! If you sell products and services then you’re going to need to provide some kind of support for them, and a standing “office hours” livestream is a great way to do it. It cuts down on your support emails, and lets you provide answers to many people at once. Your livestream recordings can even become a permanent resource for your customers-  it’s a great investment of your time. When things are easier demonstrated than explained verbally, livestream is a killer resource.  PracticeThis is almost the unspoken benefit of livestreaming. So, so, so many people have nerves around creating multi-media - whether it’s podcasting or video, and there is only one tried and tested way to get over them. Practice. Consistent, ongoing practice. You’ll also be getting into the habit of creating content on a regular basis! Creativity isn’t always a sudden stroke of genius - it’s a habit too, and whatever helps you BUILD it, is worth the time. Livestreaming is a good way to practice delivering your content. Do people understand? Do they respond the way you think they will? Are you explaining it the best way?  Is the topic a good fit for your audience?  Livestreaming is a low-risk, low-cost way to experiment with new material and hone your delivery so that when you record it in a more permanent way, you’re doing it justice.  Action Step Your action step for today is to find a livestream on one of your social media feeds and attend. Engage with the host and try to figure out what their purpose is. Are they connecting, delivering or practicing? What do you like about the stream, and what don’t you?  Are you thinking of livestreaming? Let us know! 

There are a lot of reasons guests don’t share episodes. Some you can control and some you can’t. Let’s start with what you CAN control. You CAN make sure you provide lots of good quality swipe content like emails, graphics, videos and social media copy. You can tag them in posts, on social media platforms, so it’s easy to click to share. You MUST do really good post-production and mention to them specifically what you think is interesting and insightful about their interview. You can also send personal messages before and on launch day, then share positive feedback. All of this makes a great impression on your guest, which is powerful for network building, but even when you do it all PERFECTLY - you’re still not always going to get the shares you want. 

 Because you can’t control what is happening on other people’s promotional calendars, and what someone decides is interesting and valuable for their own audience. 

 But here’s the thing. An expert is an expert for a reason. They TALK about their area of expertise. A lot. Why would they share an interview that talks about the same things they’ve been publicly saying for YEARS to an audience that has heard it dozens of times? And to the point of their promotional calendar - experts and other entrepreneurs often have their calendars booked out months in advance for what they’re going to be sharing, talking about and promoting. A podcast interview they do for someone’s show isn’t always going to make the cut.  It’s not personal, it’s priorities.  Finally, let’s talk about audio-quality. If you have a guest that is regularly on highly produced podcasts, they’re not going to share something that isn’t on that level because it will detract from their brand. This IS NOT PERSONAL and it’s NOT YOUR FAULT - but it’s a reality of the situation.  It’s important to keep having guests on your podcast in perspective. 

 What’s new and interesting to *your* audience could well be old news to *theirs*, so it makes no sense for them to share it, especially if they're in the middle of a launch, or some other kind of promotion and it makes no sense to be upset about it. You got a great conversation with someone you can build a relationship with that you can deliver to the audience you are growing and nurturing.  That’s amazing. 

 Having guests isn’t a marketing strategy. It’s a content generation strategy. (Sometimes it’s also a lead generation or networking strategy.) Do your research and hone your interview technique to make the most compelling audio possible. Produce to the highest level you can. Make it as easy as possible for people to share, by tagging them, by giving them swipe, and by letting them know when they’re live. But after that, let it go. That brings me to your action step for the day. If you have guests on your podcast, are you doing everything you can to encourage sharing? Do an audit of your process and make sure you are sending swipe sharing materials, tagging your guest, and sending them personal messages about when their podcast is going live and what the response to it is!  Interested in getting a hand with your podcast? We can help!

Audience, for our purposes, is an umbrella term for everyone that reads, watches or listens to the content you produce. They might be your podcast subscribers, your blog readers, your followers on youtube, or your fans on social media - but they are REGULAR consumers of your content. Clients and customers can be a part of your audience (or not!) and audience members can BECOME clients and customers - but they are two different things and should be treated differently. In most cases, you’ll want your audience to contain as many potential clients and customers as possible - this will mean that you’re investing in lead generation, brand building and education as much as content that will help you establish thought leadership or SEO. Sometimes, however, it can make sense to build an audience who is at a different stage than most of your clients and customers, to help nurture and educate them to the point when they’ll be ready, or to have a pool of people who might be interested in a different kind of product or service offering. Let’s get into a few more characteristics of an audience. As much as possible, you should know who your audience is (or who you want them to be, if you’re just starting out) - and you identify them by creating an audience profile for EACH content platform you want to work with.  Start by looking at your existing customers - who are they? What do they have in common? What of those things they have in common makes them most likely to hire, or buy from you? The last thing you want to keep in mind is that they are probably already USING the content medium you’re working on. What does that mean? Well, if you build a following on YouTube, by creating, sharing and promoting your videos, you’re attracting audience members who are in the already-existing pool of “YouTube Users.” You can have different audiences for different platforms. Your audience on YouTube can look different than your blog audience, and you can share different things on each platform - different content, different kinds of engagement and different offers.  There should be broad similarities in your audience across all platforms so that you’re able to effectively repurpose and reuse your content - BUT, if you have a YouTube channel talking about beginner level content to grow your pool of future customers, your blog can be really geared towards people who are closer to “ready to buy” and deal with more sophisticated information, and your livestreams can be for your current clients to give them support, answer questions and deepen the relationship.  What content you put on what platform and for what reason is one of the strategic decisions you make as a content creator.  Your audience should also engage with your content, by commenting, sharing and converting to different platforms. Not everyone will - in fact, most probably won’t! Audience building is a numbers game, and the bigger an audience you HAVE, the more opportunity you have for sales and promotion. As you start to build your audience, and send content their way, you’ll get a sense of what your conversion numbers are likely to be - how many people will respond to a tweet, share a video, or listen to a podcast. Once you start collecting that kind of information about them, you’ll have tons of useful information for planning campaigns, promotions, and offers. Your action step for this week is to think about the different platforms you are on, or want to be on, and determine if you’re looking at the SAME audience for each, if they are slightly different for the different platforms, and what your goals are for each of those platforms. Want some help? Get in touch! 

There are 5 Steps to using a business podcast as a tool to land more clients, connect with more influencers, grow an audience, generate salable content and – absolutely write an authority-building book.

Step 1. Activate your Existing Audience

Always start with what you have. Right now that’s your existing audience, and the audience of those who know and like you enough to help out. (First guests, maybe?) A podcast launch is where everything begins – you let your community know what’s going on, get people excited and test the waters for your idea. After a short period of careful, strategic planning, you’ve got a small amount of work to do every week that will bring you huge returns.

Step 2. Curate a Strategic Guest List

There are lots of people who can tell you that your guests should be your clients. But will your audience appreciate listening to you have a pre-sales call with a lead week in week out for months on end? Not likely. Striking the balance between your ideal clients, experts in your field and other genuinely interesting people to create a top-quality show your listeners will love does 2 things: it means you’re actually creating something interesting, and you’re nurturing different kinds of relationships. It’s not all about sales, and it never will be. Influencers, experts and potential partners are all equally valuable. Step 3. Multiply Your Content

A podcast episode should never be just a podcast episode. It needs to do double or triple duty in your business as educational materials, sales assets, book inspiration and content, social media content, and as a tool to leverage yourself. The key is to make sure you know at the planning stage what you’re going to be doing with the content you create during an interview, or in a solo episode. Plan in advance, then let the process take care of the rest.

Step 4. Grow Your Influence

As you podcast, you will be growing a new audience. Podcast downloads don’t always skyrocket from day one – but you know what’s great about podcast listeners? As long as you’re giving them great content – they’re loyal, and they remember what you tell them. Also, being someone who recommends as well as someone who teaches or provides a service cements your authority AND helps you improve and deepen your relationship with other influencers.

Step 5. Launch Your Book

When you have spent a year strategically creating awesome content and growing your personal network, then creating a polished, useful book is a breeze. And with your greatly expanded network of colleagues, leads, clients and connections who are personally invested in your content – launching it can be a massive list building opportunity – with a well-orchestrated partner launch, there is no reason not to add thousands to your community. Over the course of your podcast’s life – you will get some subscribers who are interested enough – and have good enough memories – to click through to your site and sign up for something – but you won’t get a hell of a lot. Not so with a book launch – that’s when your hard work and months spent creating compelling content pays off in terms of your own community growth.

And… you have a book now. Congratulations! Because you planned content over the course of a year to inform and add to your book, it’s not going to be just a pile of transcripts or newsletters mashed together and called literature; it’s going to be a thorough exploration of your expertise.

Want to talk about how this will work for you? Email [email protected] and we’ll jump on a call, or visit Podcast to Book for more information.

Most course trainers will tell you that there is a virtually unlimited pool of potential students for your course. This may be technically true in the sense that there are over 7 billion people on the planet who exist and might someday buy a course. But let’s think about things a little more critically.

Who will buy from you?

How many people realistically 1) are in your target demographic, 2) are at a point in their lives or businesses where they are in the sweet spot between knowing they need a specific kind of information but where they can’t afford 1:1 help, or to hire something done for them, 3) are familiar with the concept of online courses, 4) are self-motivated enough to complete and make use of an online course, 5) know you and your brand well enough to confidently make the investment, 6) are in your sphere of influence – already in your community, or the community of people who will promote your course for you, 7) have the time to take a course on a specific topic?

Rules of thumb for course creation

Simply put, people are asking you for one. We mean several unique individuals, and different times, and UNPROMPTED by you saying some variant of “I wish you had a course that I could buy.” If that happens at least 5 times, from 5 different people – go ahead. Make a course.  

Another good time to make a course is if you have a large pool of existing clients or other stakeholders who will get value out of taking it. An example of this might be a course on engaging professionally on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn for all of your social media management clients. Basically, if there are people who NEED information from you, a course can be a great way to give it to many of them at once.

Finally, a free course (which still needs to be high quality!) can be a good way to build your email list or community. Note that this is FREE. This can be to educate the broader world about your subject matter area so that a percentage of them will ‘graduate’ to becoming clients, and to build out your list for sales of related products or services. (Think of an accounting online course offered by a bookkeeping software.)

Three criteria to meet:

1) You have to be an expert. You’ve probably got this one down, honestly.

2) You have to have either weeks of available time to create content, or be able to afford thousands of dollars to have something professionally made, or have a big enough audience that likes you well enough to tolerate poor quality audio-video materials. (Yes, some big names make absolutely bargain-basement quality learning materials. This is because they have enough social capital that they do not need to demonstrate respect for their students by producing quality materials. It is 100% a lack of respect if they do not provide good quality learning materials.)

3) You have to have an audience big enough, that has enough disposable income that you can make a profit on a 1% conversion rate, or you have to have relationships with people who have a large audience and are willing to promote your course for an affiliate commission. (If your course is for internal use, or free, you can ignore this one.)

Need some help?

If you’re in the sweet spot for online courses, or you want to talk about some possible alternatives, book a call with Megan Dougherty, to figure out how to get your message out there in the most effective way for your business.