How to Get Strangers on the Internet to Hire You
/Content Marketing When Self-Employed
Image shows the title of the article overlaid on a photograph looking down the length of a subway car.
"Strangers on the internet" is the white whale of marketing for many self-employed people. I notice a tendency to discredit when a friend or a friend-of-a-friend hires you. It's as if a true "stranger" is the holy grail and legitimizes your business. I promise you this is a fiction. You can have a legitimate business without any clients who are "real" strangers. And, since you're curious, let's explore the gold-standard method for getting strangers on the internet to trust and hire you. In the marketing field, this tactic is called "content marketing."
Content marketing is very appropriate for my typical client. Like them, your business involves you helping people. To help people you either know or have a perspective that they don't. This difference between you and your client is what makes content marketing work.
Let's rewind a second: marketing is all the ways you get the word out about your business. This could include walking up to strangers on the street, but we all know how well that will go over. If your plan is to make entertaining, informational, or inspirational materials (aka "content"), then you're doing content marketing. This tactic is especially effective online where interpersonal chemistry is so limited.
Why Embark on Content Marketing?
You work with your clients, you've got a website, but how are you making sure NEW people find you? You could cross your fingers and hope that your clients tell their friends, or that facebook's algorithm puts you up in a new person's feed. But wishing and hoping isn't a marketing strategy, it's a cop-out. A marketing strategy requires action on your part. One action would be to develop content your followers find exceedingly valuable. So valuable that they share it with their friends, or that it will get clicked on when the content shows up in algorithmic results.
Demonstrating knowledge is a great trust-builder with prospective clients. This is especially true for businesses that rely on the knowledge in the business owner's head. Giving clients access to that knowledge endears you to them. While some might fear giving this knowledge away for free, it doesn't actually work you out of a job. Instead, clients satisfied with the content are those who don't see your value. Your ideal client either can't or doesn't want to do your job, and so they will loyally turn to you for support. Clients armed with knowledge are more confident that you are not swindling them.
Content marketing is a fantastic tool, and it isn't right for everyone. It can feel labor-intensive, the results are often delayed and difficult to identify. It's not a way to *quickly* get clients. It's also a problem for businesses with a significant amount of privacy or trade secrets. In this case, there might not be much you can put into content without significant risk. But if you want to make strangers on the internet become your clients, content marketing has a great ROI. I hope you sincerely consider it to become a key part of your long-term marketing strategy.
WTF is Content Marketing
I know my previous definition leaves much to be clarified. "Entertaining, informational, or inspirational materials"? Yeah sure, I'll get right on that! What?! "Content" is such an obtuse term. Let's list what we're talking about:
written text or articles (doesn't matter where it's hosted: blog, LinedIn, Medium, NYT, etc.)
videos (YouTube, Vimeo, Instagram Stories, Facebook Live, etc.)
podcasts or other audio recordings
images, info-graphics, cartoons, and inspirational quotes/sayings
free downloads or resources (white pages, worksheets, etc.)
These materials are usually offered free. The key distinguishing feature is that it's readily consumed by your ideal client. This means you need to get into the head of your ideal client. What about your work do they want to know? What aspect do they find interesting or engaging vs. what parts do they want to ignore? To cite a cliche example: they want to see a sizzling sausage getting eaten. They don't want to see the pig going into the meat grinder. Make sure you're focusing on the right part of your work; the part that's most interesting to them.
Good content will also provide entertainment, information, or connection. And it really can only do one of those three. So, be clear about which one you're trying to achieve and make sure it's what your ideal client wants. Definitely don't worry about doing all three at once.
How to Get Started with Content Marketing
When you're self-employed you are the only subject-matter expert in your company. This means you're not going to be outsourcing the content production to someone else. In fact, for it to be trust-building, it should come from your own hand.
But you've got a finite amount of time. So, pick a type of content that you create nearly effortlessly or that brings you great joy to create. Don't worry about missing out on a certain content type. Streamlining the creation process is the higher priority. Towards the end of this article, we'll get into how content can get repurposed across content types. The important thing is to get clear on what type of creation is most natural for you.
Once you're clear on what type of content you'll be creating, it needs to get turned into a habit. Decide the frequency at which you'll produce content. We're aiming for a slow and steady pace. I know bloggers, vloggers and the like love to say it's gotta be weekly or daily, but your business isn't your content. Your content supports the service you provide. You'll spend most of your time providing that service. Content production needs to be a secondary priority, and your pace will reflect that. A reasonable pace would be twice a month, monthly or quarterly.
Permission to Fail at Content Creation
The next step is to create your first piece of content. Assume that the first piece is going to be terrible. Nobody becomes a fantastic content producer overnight. One of my weird habits is when I find a content creator I love, I look up their very first article/video/podcast. No matter how great they are now, that first version was pretty bad. In fact, their first many versions were pretty bad. Give yourself permission to be terrible and experiment. You won't get better until you start doing it!
When you release a piece of content, make sure you tell people about it. Post on social media, include it in your newsletter, put it in your email footer. Whatever is easy and gets the word out! This sounds simple, but it really is key. You need to TELL people that you made a thing. Otherwise, you've made a beautiful work of art and hid it in the closet!
Repurpose Your Content
Once you're feeling competent about the content you're creating, it's time to launch into world domination mode ...err, I mean... start repurposing your content. Depending on where you started here's how you can repurpose your work:
turn articles into videos or podcasts
augment articles, videos and podcasts with images, info-graphics, shareable quotes, or a free download
transcribe videos & podcasts into articles
explain and elaborate on images, info-graphics, inspirational quotes/sayings, or free-downloads in articles, videos or podcasts
Lost yet? Here's a real-life example. I write blog articles. I repurpose the article in a few ways. I create a graphic image so I can share it on Instagram. I do a facebook live video about that article where I use the article I wrote as if it were a "script" for the video. The woman I learned this from creates videos, and then has them transcribed into articles. No matter what content you start with you can turn it into another form of content.
The key with repurposing is that it needs to be simple. The initial content is where the creative juices flow. The repurposed content should not require a muse. Repurposing should be simple enough that you could hand it off to any basic admin. (In fact, if you have a virtual assistant, task them with all your repurposing!)
What Next with Content?
The key to content marketing is longevity with a sprinkling of consistency. Focus on building the habit first. Repurposing is an added benefit you can get to when you have enough bandwidth. Like spinning plates, get one going, then two, then three, etc. If they all fall down, then pick one up and start again. You've not lost anything by dropping the plates. (They're shatterproof plates, obviously.)
Keep in mind that perfect is the enemy of done. Produce good-enough content rather than perfect content. A steady pace of "good enough" content is infinitely better than no content.
Over time your repertoire of content will grow. This leads to greater notoriety, a greater following, and better search engine rankings. Each piece of content shares value to your network. This leads to your network valuing you as well as a greater understanding of what you do. Start now and harvest the benefits for years to come.
Ready to take it one step further? I developed a PDF to help you stay organized. Download it for free now!
