Want to make your attraction strategy a reality so that you can grow your business now and well into the future? If so, it comes down to long-form content. Today we’re diving into what long-form content actually is, why it’s critical to attracting those ideal clients, and how you can implement this strategy within your own business. So, if that sounds like something you need, then you’re in the right place. Let’s get started.
Links for This Episode
- Check out these DIY Resources and Templates
- Schedule your Mama Business Strategy Session
- Book Your Website Design + Systems Services
Podcast Episode Recommendations
- #97: From Mom Life to Boss Life: How to Design Your Attraction Strategy
- #50: Don’t Feel Like an Expert? 3 Mindset Shifts to Eliminate Imposter Syndrome
- #44: 3 Things I Wish I’d Known Before Starting an Online Business
- #15: Does Your Business Need a Blog? 3 Reasons You Should Start ASAP!
Book Your Website and Systems Services
Before we jump into the nitty gritty of this episode, I wanted to let you know that if you are struggling to launch or grow your business online, you don’t have to go it alone. Whether you need additional support laying out your workflows or getting your systems up and running, that’s exactly what I’m here for. Let me help you design a website that attracts your ideal clients, set up your email marketing platform so that you can nurture them, and get your customer relationship management platform up and running in a way that simplifies your life and gets you those raving client reviews – all without breaking the budget. My entire goal is to help you get recognized online, increase engagement with your dream clients and customers, and, ultimately – make a bigger impact – on your community and your wallet. So, if that is something you are looking for – I’m here for you. Head to sarahbrumley.com/services to book your FREE 15-minute consultation today and let’s get you the clarity you need to build and grow the business of your dreams. Once again, head to sarahbrumley.com/services to get started.
Intro: How to Make Your Attraction Strategy a Reality
Well hey there and welcome back to another episode of the Mama Business Podcast. It’s been stomach bug season here in the Brumley home so I apologize for the delay in getting this episode out. I think we are finally on the mend and I hope that I’m finally caught up on the laundry. If you’re a mama of littles, you know what I’m talking about. Stomach bugs are no fun. No fun at all. SO. MUCH. LAUNDRY.
But thankfully today we aren’t talking about that, we are focused on bridging that gap, knowing exactly how to get your ideal client from their place of struggle to the solution you offer.
If you listened to episode 97 and took action, then you should clearly understand who your ideal client is, what they struggle with the most, and how you solve that problem. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: those are the foundational blocks you need if you want to be successful. So start there if you haven’t already.
Today we’re going to begin bridging the gap between just knowing those things and actually implementing that attraction strategy so that you can engage your potential clients. To do so, we have to answer the question – how do your move your ideal potential client from no knowledge of you at all to wanting to know more and engage with you and your business?
The answer is by creating long-form content, so let’s dive into what long-form content actually is, why it’s critical to attracting those ideal clients, and how you can implement this strategy for your own business.
Step #1: What is Long-Form Content?
First and foremost, what is long-form content?
Put simply, it’s high-quality written, video, or audio content that offers the reader, listener, or viewer with detailed information that they can use to further their personal or professional goals or objectives. Sometimes this content is created for pure entertainment, but more often than not we see this type of content as something that helps a potential client get a small win. It’s educational, information, and geared toward providing a solution or answering a question. AND, most importantly – it’s SEARCHABLE which means that your potential clients can type their query into a search engine like Google, YouTube, or a Podcast platform and find the answer to their question.
FOR FREE. No paid ads necessary.
For online businesses, there are really three different ways that this type of content can be produced and that’s in blog or written form, podcast or audio form, or YouTube video form. There are merits to each method but, ultimately, it comes down to choosing the platform and method that YOU as the business owner can consistently produce content for and that your potential client shows up for.
In my case, I know that my ideal client is a mama who doesn’t have a lot of time to sit down and watch video content. Instead, she’s on the go and can easily pop her headphones in and listen while she does the laundry or listen while she sits in the carpool line at school. Plus, I love to record these episodes and, while I’m not perfect, I’m able to keep a pretty consistent content production schedule. So, it’s that happy mix of both. I’m showing up where my potential client is AND I’m able and excited to do so.
Step #2: Why Long-Form Content for Online Business?
So, why do businesses need long-form content? Well there are many reasons for that.
Search Engine Friendly
First, as I mentioned, long-form content is searchable content. So, it’s something that you produce and publish and then your ideal potential client can go to Google or another search engine platform and have your information delivered directly to them.
Not only do they get the answer to their question – a mini win! – but they are able to learn more about you, your business, and whatever it is that you have to offer that will solve their bigger problem. Because more often than not, there’s always a bigger problem.
Let’s use my business as an example. Let’s say Jane is looking to grow her online business. She jumps into the podcast app and searches for how to grow your online business. She sees the Mama Business Podcast pop up and she’s immediately interested because she’s also a mama. She clicks on a podcast episode, listens to it, takes action and gets a small win. She’s hooked, right? She wants to know more. So she continues to listen, learns more about me and my business, and then, after weeks of trying to get her systems connected, decides that rather than piecing it together, she’d like to hire me to do it for her. Because she’s been listening in, she knows to head to sarahbrumley.com/schedule so that she can book her services.
She didn’t know anything about me when she initially completed that search, right? But because she searched, she was welcomed into the Mama Business community and became a paying client. She got the solution she needed and I was able to serve her.
See how that works? Now, obviously that’s podcast content that I was talking about, but the same is true when it comes to YouTube video content or blogs.
So, that’s benefit #1: Long-form content is search engine friendly which means that you get your ideal clients delivered straight to your online front door.
Establishes Expertise and Authority
Benefit #2 of long-form content for online business is that it helps establish your expertise and authority with your potential clients. As you are creating content, you are giving them results, many results. Little things they can think about, answers to their questions, and so on.
By doing so you are establishing yourself as the go-to person or business because obviously, if you’re sharing valuable information and they see results from it, then you are definitely the one that they want to seek out to help them with their bigger problems. You are the expert that they need.
And don’t get bogged down in the term expert. You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to be considered an expert. You just have to be further down the road than someone else and have the solution to their problem. That’s expertise at it’s finest.
Builds Trust and Connection
The third benefit of long-form content is that it instills trust and connection with your brand. It allows you opportunities to share stories and we know that stories connect so much with our potential clients and once they’ve heard a story or we’ve made it, you know, made that connection with them, they are so much more likely to decide to work with us. So long-form content is very effective at helping you do that.
Grows Over Time
The final benefit I want to mention today is the organic nature of long-form content. Because of the fact that it’s available for search means that your strategy is working to attract your ideal clients even when you aren’t working. And it grows over time, without any additional effort needed.
That means that the piece of content that you create this week can still be bringing in clients five months from now through search. So it’s a very effective way of marketing your business, your services, and yourself.
There are quite a lot more benefits to having a long-form content strategy for your online business, but for the sake of time, I’m going to leave it at that. If you are still on the fence about whether a long-form strategy is right for you, then I’d like to encourage you to jump on a Mama Business Strategy call with me. We can chat about your specific business situation and what the best thing is for you. I’d hate for you to wait on this because we all know that the sooner you get started with this type of strategy, the sooner you can see big results. So, definitely head to sarahbrumley.com/strategy if you need some clarity on this.
Step #3: Choose Your Long-Form Content Platform
Alrighty, now comes the time to actually choose your long-form content platform. If you already have a content strategy in place, that’s great. But stick with us here and really make sure that you are on the right track and that your strategy is solid. I ask you to do this because I want to see you have the best opportunity for success now and well into the future.
So, first things first, which long-form content platform will you choose?
Blog
We talked a little bit about this before, but blogs are probably the most popular platform for new business owners for several reasons, but most importantly, because there’s fewer moving elements when it comes to producing a blog. You don’t have to have any fancy equipment – all you need is a website and the ability to type your text.
Ideally, long-form blog posts are over a thousand words. The sweet spot is typically between 800 to 1500 words, but depending on the topic and your ideal client’s preferences, you can create much longer posts.
These posts show up in search engine results and typically answer questions and provide education, inspiration, etc. We’ll get into the nitty gritty of choosing topics for this purpose in the next episode.
Podcast
Podcasts are very similar except that they are audio content. They are still trainings, how to’s, educational, encouragement, and or entertaining and they tend to be between 10 to 45 minutes in length. They could be more than that or shorter, just depending on who your ideal client is.
Honestly, I think that the sweet spot is kind of 30 minutes or under, but as with any aspect of your business, you have to take into account what your potential client needs or wants AND what you are able to consistently commit to producing.
The nice thing about podcast content is that it can be repurposed on your website as written content, too. You can do that by actually creating a blog post, based on the points that you talked about in your podcast episode, or you can just grab a transcript. That’s the actual text transcribed from your podcast and added to the blog page on your website. So not only could somebody search for your content and potentially be offered your podcast episode, but they could also search for your content and potentially be offered your blog on your website.
So that’s definitely something to think about as you’re contemplating which one of these you are going to choose.
Video
And then there’s video. And, like I said, it’s most commonly hosted on YouTube at the time of this recording – mostly because YouTube is a fantastic search engine and it works very well with Google. So, it’s the best option for most content creators that are working with video
Videos can be a mixture of you talking to the screen, training using a slide deck, or you can actually show how-to tutorials for whatever your industry is.
Depending on the type of video that you create, you do have the option to repurpose this content onto your blog in a similar way as we discussed with the podcast, but you may also be able to split the audio from the video and repurpose it into a podcast episode as well. So, there are some ways to do double duty here with video as well.
Take Action: Choose Your Long-Form Content Strategy
And that brings us to the action part of this episode. And we all know that action is where the dreams turn into the reality. And today’s action step is this:
ACTION: It’s time to choose a long-form content strategy. If you are serious about attracting your ideal clients, about growing your business long-term, without sacrificing your family or doing all the things, you have to start here. So…which one will you choose?
Start by considering who your ideal client is and what their preference might be.
Then, think about your own preference. If you hate being on video – video is not for you. You won’t show up for that. You especially won’t show up consistently for that. So, choose an option that resonates more closely with you.
And I want you to know that that if this feels scary, if this feels overwhelming, just keep in mind that the reason you create content is to take your person from not knowing you at all to wanting to engage your services. It’s all about creating value and building trust so you can deliver those results. So that you can solve their problem. That’s the reason that you are choosing one of these options.
(And don’t worry about actually creating the content just yet – we’ll get into that next week, I promise.)
But don’t let that stop you from taking action today: which long-form content method will you choose to grow your online business? It’s time to make that decision. And if you still need help, grab a strategy session with me today by heading to sarahbrumley.com/strategy.
No matter what you choose, mama, just know that I’m cheering you on. You’ve got this! Have an amazing day and I’ll chat with you again next time.
