Bringing Value To Your Followers — “Education”
Bringing value is all about making a difference in the lives of those that follow and support your brand. This week is the second installment of hashing out some of our core beliefs in how to grow your online presence through Education.
(Click here to see the previous article about Entertainment. )
Education
The end goal of education, in any sphere, is to make life better. When someone is teaching or helping someone else it is generally out of love for those they are teaching. Educating is an act of raising the needs of others above yourself for their personal gain, even if it doesn’t benefit you (although often it does!).
Transferring this mindset into your marketing strategy will be a vital stepping stone to growing your brand.
The Mindset
Getting in the right mindset for marketing in the modern era could an article of its own. But to keep it simple just remember this: It’s not about you. It’s about your customer.
I’m going to be a little extreme here and say that successful marketing in 2016 is actually about being selfless. Now, of course the end goal is to make sales. For business, money is oxygen. But shifting the culture of your marketing (and sales) team to being focused on solely what is best for the consumer/follower will turn that one-time sale into a life-long customer.
“So now that I’m in the right mindset, how do I educating thing?”
Keep reading, brethren.
The Industry
One of the biggest truths I’ve learned as a marketer is that there are SO MANY industries that I have to learn about. Once I master marketing in one industry I quickly find out that it has more niche industries within it that I have to adapt to. It is not reasonable for most people to keep up with reading articles, looking at studies, and conducting surveys within their industry while balancing a work and home life. This is where businesses have a chance to make a difference.
Focus part of your marketing strategy on breaking developments in your industry and what they mean. Give tips, advice, and statistics that will help others. Give quick explanations to complex issues. Essentially, the more you can make someone’s life easier, the more they are going to be drawn to your brand.
Talking about what is happening in your industry also shows that you are an authority in your field. In the modern world, a company without helpful content can easily be disregarded as a company that doesn’t know what they are doing. If you know what you are doing, show it.
“But wait. Aren’t I giving away all my secrets that give my business leverage?!”
Well, sort of.
For starters, very few people will read ALL of your content. For them to put together every piece of advice and information would take far too much time and effort. One or two pieces of advice may help them, but if they want to go further they will usually reach out to you. Often by going in-depth with industry issues you will actually show how time consuming and expensive certain efforts can be when handled internally. This will give your followers reason to use your service/product because they don’t have the time and they’ve seen how you are a master of your industry.
Also worth noting: most of the info in an industry is already out there somewhere. If someone really wanted to piggyback off of businesses giving out info and help they could do it without you. If they are going to do that, why not have them looking at your content?
We offer “Free Advice” here at Urban Buffalo. Any Joe Schmo can call us up and ask us anything they’d like. We do this because it’s a long term game. We’d rather build followers for life than make a quick sale.
It’s time to bring some education value to your followers!
So now you know, go forward!
If you would like any Free Advice, feel free to reach out to us! Contact info will be below.
Get ready for next week! We will breakdown how to bring value to your followers through Emotion!
By: Wes Lehman @WesLehman
Founder/Account Director
UrbanBuffaloMarketing.com
wes@urbanbuffalomarketing.com
(813) 727–5941
