What do I mean by a content marketing strategy?

First, you have to know the goal. What is the OBJETIVE? The goal is to attract specific prospects to you. Popular internet slang for this is boosting traffic. But driving traffic reminds me of the old western movies I used to watch as a kid. There were 1,000 head of cattle on the plains, and cowboys were riding all over the place and forcing them through a small opening into a corral somewhere. And I don’t think that image is too out of place, right? If your idea is to find techniques that will attract masses of people to your landing page, then, in effect, you are nothing more than virtual cattle.

Obviously, your prospects are much more than that. They are real people with real problems. They want your help.

That means you want to attract them rather than push them. In other words, it would be something they want to do, rather than something they feel they have to do.

What do you think makes you attractive to your prospect? The short answer is that it is your experience. They want to know that you can solve their problems more effectively than anyone else in the universe. In fact, that is what they are looking for. They are looking for an expert. That means that if you want to be chosen, you not only have to be the expert, but you have to be seen as that expert.

I want to make sure you understand this distinction, because it’s critical.

No doubt you are already an expert. You may even be the best in the world. But if no one knows that you are, then you are no more effective than the person who is not. You have to be the expert, but you also have to make sure they know it too.

In fact, they need to feel like you’re the expert they’ve been looking for.

Let me give you an example:

There is a standard rule for writing fiction. It says: show, don’t tell. Saying means what it says. Just give me a fact.

One of the most famous examples of how not to do this is contained in this sentence. It was a dark and stormy night. This is a cliché among people who write fiction. I’ve seen it in books before. Apparently this was a sentence or something inexperienced fiction writers used to put in there. And it has become so commonplace that we refer to it all the time. It’s a bit like saying that when we’re teaching people online, we say look, if you want to train your dog, it’s that kind of thing. It is a very common example that occurs when teaching Internet marketing. And of course hardly anyone wants to train their dog. And fiction writers know that starting their book by saying that it was a dark and stormy night is probably not a good idea.

Think about it. You read a statement, “it was a dark and stormy night.” That award begs the question. How do I know it was a dark and stormy night?

The answer is that you just told me. Show, on the other hand, describes what happens in such a way that you feel it. You draw that conclusion. I don’t have to tell you because it has compromised your emotions. So, for example, instead of saying the night was dark and stormy, you could say it was a moonless night, you’re in ankle-deep water, your hat flew off, and the rain stung your face like icicles. That is showing. When you read that, it makes you want to sit a little closer to the fireplace or pull the blanket a little tighter.

I’m sure you’ve seen websites where they tell you how great and wonderful the owner of the site was. They all say they care about customers, are passionate about what they do, are there to serve you, adhere to the highest standards, strive for quality, and all the rest of it. But all they’re doing is telling you. And none of us likes to be told anything.

It is well known that the best way to get someone to do what you want is to make them believe that it was their idea. And one way to do that is by showing them the facts and then allowing them to come to their own conclusions. That’s exactly what you do, that’s exactly how you show your expertise to your prospects.

You prove it by doing what the experts do. Then, when your prospects see what you’ve done, they’ll conclude that you’re the expert you claim to be.

But they will never believe it if you just tell them.

Your content marketing strategy helps show your prospects that you’re an expert so they can draw the conclusion themselves.