Seth Godin in his book “This is Marketing” writes “Marketing is the generous act of helping someone solve a problem. Their problem. It is a chance to change the culture for the better. Marketing involves very little in the way of shouting, hustling or coercion. It’s a chance to serve, instead”. These are powerful lines if you understand it. I have always thought of Marketing the way Seth writes. Sadly, the biggest problem in our profession and industry worldwide is Marketing.

The best way to create impact in Marketing is through Content. Before you do that like Seth has written above “helping someone solve a problem”, figure out who that someone is for you. Create meaningful content that is relevant to that audience. The book that I wrote for Doctors was very specific for Doctors and has sold more than 82000+ copies. Imagine the power of 82000 doctors reading your book. A lot of financial professionals have benefited from this too by gifting this book to Doctors.

The process of education should be at the heart of your content marketing efforts. Not just any education, but education that inspires people to do something. After all the word education derives its meaning from the Latin word EDUCO, which means to grow from within. That should be the purpose of your content marketing “Help your prospects and yourself to grow from within.”

While there are too many things that you can do on the content front, you can start with curating columns that others have written. I have shared this in the Email Marketing Section, but nothing can be compared to your tone and voice. However, this is about starting and making writing a habit, so start writing 1 line on why you liked a particular column and send it to your prospects and clients. This is a Tiny Habit that anyone can implement. You can then graduate to your own content.

The next several points should guide you to take the next step and become successful in this craft.

1. Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube, and other platforms are channels for distributing your content. They are not producing your content. You are the Producer of your content. Do not waste your time first on these channels.
2. Figure out who you are writing for. What are the problems this audience faces? Depending on the research you would have done (as outlined in the Section Niche Marketing), produce or curate content for this audience. The more specific your content is to this audience, the better for you.
3. Always start with writing. You cannot create a podcast or a video without first having written content. Everything starts with good writing. So, start here, get better and master this medium before you even waste time on Podcasts and Videos. Podcasts and Videos will cost more than writing. Once you have a library of content, you can then jump to do multiple things.
   Focus on one thing first. There are too many self-proclaimed experts who claim to have found the next shiny object or silver bullet. Do not waste your time and energy on them.
4. Do not also waste your time and energy on Television appearances unless this is the only main job you have. You have some key things to do and this is a distraction that you should avoid. Your role is to be in front of your audience. What is the best way to do that? A television program has a very broad, spread out audience and even 5% of your prospective ideal clients might not be watching such programs. So, you will do 25 appearances and see the needle has not even moved for you. Some people think this adds credibility. I am sure it does, but you have too many things to be done. Even if you do decide to do it, it must be done super smartly and might be relevant for a few people. However, for 99% folks, this will clearly be a waste of time.
5. Share the content that you have written with your audience if they belong to a certain association or if they read a certain journal (belonging to their profession).
6. Do this regularly, form a habit, get better and you will see results flowing in. Do not jump in from one platform to another till you have mastered a platform. If you do not see results; see the data, learn what is happening, whether people are opening emails, reading your content, and learning from the data. Tools such as Mailchimp, Constant Contact, InfusionSoft can help you see what is happening. However, interpreting the data, making sense of it and culling out insights is your job.

Finally remember this Maya Angelou quote when it comes to Content Creation “The desire to reach for the stars is ambitious. The desire to reach hearts is wise.”

Focus on the “Share of Heart” of your Audience and the rest will follow.

P.S. Marketing Strategy, Tactics and “6 Marketing Assets that you must have” are covered in “The HappyRich Advisor Book”. To Pre-Order your Copy, Click here…