Want to Create Content that Engages Your Clients? Avoid these 4 mistakes
Shouldn’t you create content that engages your clients?
You’re not the only one! As solopreneurs, we’ve all asked ourselves this question.
Maybe you can relate to the content creation struggle experienced by a new-ish life coach we’ll call “Hannah”.
Hannah told me she’d been stuck about what content to post on Instagram—for five months. Yikes! (Gotta say, I’ve been there.) She wanted to create and post engaging content on social media that her audience was interested in.
Hannah was frustrated because she was also stuck about what sort of program to focus on for her services. She told me,
But it feels like I’m going back and forth on what program to talk about on social media. Or what to even offer.
Let’s unpack how you can get unstuck from behind the giant indecision-roadblock about how to create content that engages your clients on your website, your email list, and on social media.
Understanding dream clients: so you can market by creating engaging content that starts relationships
1) On your website
2) To join your email list
3) On one social media site
If you want to share your content on multiple social media sites, that’s great. Still, if you’re starting out (or restarting), go easy on yourself and focus on these three areas so you can build relationships with future clients.
It will make it so much easier to create content that engages your clients when you focus on creating the right content before you’re distracted by keeping up with several social media platforms.
Now, *marketing your new business by creating content that engages your clients* may not sound super-exciting. Yet, when you shift your mindset about marketing it’s actually noble.
Marketing purposefully, by sharing your original content, is how you begin to *serve* future clients who don’t know you yet.
When potential clients find your content on social media, or google you and visit your website after a colleague’s referred you—well it’s alleluia! Right?
The sky and the stars light up. Why? Because you rolled up your sleeves and…
- Put your heart into creating content tailor-made for your dream client audience
- Became intentional about using content to nurture relationships with clients you want to serve
- Mapped out time to create, show up, and share your content
Here’s why you want to discover the exact content topics your clients are looking for: so you can be visible on your website, and social media, with content that’s in your voice. This way, you show up confidently on LinkedIn or Facebook and build trust. It also means you’ll get better engagement on social media with your audience. (Hint: that’s authentic marketing.)
You can create content that engages your clients
You hear over and over: to implement a good content marketing plan that engages your dream clients, you must…
- Create *great content*
- Post *great content* on your website
- Share *great content* on social media to connect with potential clients
Question: What do we mean by *great content*?
Answer: *Great content* is different for every coach, consultant, business owner. Great content helps you increase engagement with your audience of dream clients because it’s personalized and it…
- Talks about your unique dream clients’ specific problems and desires
- Shares inspiration, insights, tips, for problems your clients obsess over
- Provides small steps to help your clients make progress toward the better self they want to be
Keep reading, and I’ll explain how focusing on creating the content your dream clients care about worked for me and my clients—and how it can work for you too.
How to create content that engages your clients
Marketing your services by creating and sharing (amazing) content on your website, with your email list, on Facebook, and more, isn’t a mystery once you’re aware of and avoid these four common missteps.
Not to worry if you are doing one or two of them; I sure did when I started out. All of us—solopreneurs, coaches, consultants, educators, and trainers—have.
Once you set up your content creation and audience engagement process to avoid these four puppies, you’ll be on your way to engaging dream clients with confidence and certainty.
Shall we dive into the first marketing mistake you want to avoid?
Mistake #01) Failing to focus on your ideal audience of dream clients
I don’t know which clients to start with. I can help many different clients with many different things.
~ *Susan*, New Health Coach
Do you struggle like Susan? Wondering which group of coaching clients to start marketing to first?
Once again, you’re so not alone.
“Know exactly who is your one, perfect dream client”
Okay, maybe you’ve also heard, read, and rolled your eyes at this recommendation before:
(Confession: I say this ALL the time to my clients.)
Tell me, have you wondered what all the ideal-client fuss is about?
If so, I’m over-the-moon happy you’re here so we can clear this up.
Choosing your dream clients
The dream client you want to focus on for now is…
- The type of client you started your business to coach
- Or the kind of client you wish to coach at this time
- The one you’re excited to see their coaching session pop-up on your calendar
- A composite *story* of all the attributes of the clients you love
- Based on a real person (clients), with her own unique fears, wants, goals, desires, problems
Next, clarify what her biggest pain points are. This is a must-do so you can be confident about the topics your coaching clients are interested in. This clarity is step #1 so you can create content that engages your clients. Why?
Because once you figure out what’s causing your ideal client the most pain, you’ll know what she’s willing to pay to be coached on.
Not only that, you’ll stand out among other coaches who offer similar services, because you took the time to walk in your clients’ shoes.
Remember this secret: dig diligently into identifying the problems dream clients will pay anything to solve.
The pitfalls…
If you don’t invest your brainpower into deeply knowing which problems your dream clients are focused on day and night, you risk creating content that isn’t meaningful to them.
It’s tempting to talk in your content about topics you think are important. Instead, focus 90% of your content on the issues your clients care about. The problems that they stress over. If you don’t, it will be harder to create engaging content that entices your clients to find out more about you. The ones who need your services.
What if you could finally create content consistently?
If creating your marketing content has felt like a chore, a time-suck, or a massive mystery, you may have given up on content entirely.
But the truth is:
Content is key to attracting ideal clients and filling your programs. So don’t give up!
If your content ideas are buried in your beautiful brain, you want a process to help your words flow.
You want specific actions to implement so that the content you create stands out to your dream clients.
When you schedule a free Clarity Call, together, we’ll uncover your personalized marketing content actions. That way you can impact more clients. Click below to set up your FREE Clarity Call.
Mistake #02) Not prioritizing content creation when marketing your coaching business
“I feel stuck in the *getting started* phase with my content…after a year.”
~ Jill, New Life Coach
The reality is, content creation and marketing your services using content are permanent projects in your business.
You’ll start out creating and sharing content to increase dream client audience engagement one way.
Then you’ll discover more wonderful, specific things about your ideal client audience,
- It may be during coaching sessions when they ask you a question in a certain way.
- Or when they text you with a question you hadn’t gotten before.
Happily, you’ll then have an aha! moment. And you’ll shift your content creation, so that you meet your audience of dream clients precisely where they are.
Until you have more aha client insight moments, ask yourself:
- What type of content do you enjoy making?
- What will you create and share on social media regularly?
- How can you create with tools you already have?
Blogging is an excellent 1st step. I love it because with today’s website software, if you can create a Google doc or a Word doc, you can create a blog post.
The marketing miracle of blogging? Not only do you have fresh engaging content to publish on your website, you can do so much more with it…
Share with your email list subscribers to deepen relationships
Pull snippets to share on Facebook or other social media
Related: Want ideas to get started blogging? Click here for a post on how to begin blogging.
Take these 4 actions to energize your content creation
1) Dump everything you’re doing that doesn’t engage your dream client audience
2) Decide what dire problems your audience of dream clients is looking for help on
3) Map out content creation time on your calendar
4) Create content, publish it on your website, share it online, and interact with your ideal audience
Keep in mind, the #1 job of your marketing content is to help people get to know, like, and trust you. Once again, it’s your shortest route if you want to create content that engages your clients.
Pro Insight: Your marketing content includes: emails to your list, blog posts, podcasts, videos, website pages, and/or snippets from all of these that you share on social media as part of your overall engagement strategy.
Honestly, the best way to beef up the know-like-trust factor is to talk in your content about the problems that are eating at your dream clients. All. The. Time.
What pain points do your dream clients obsess about constantly, not just when they wake up at 2AM?
Later, after your content has inspired know-like-trust, these wonderful folks who are interested in what you offer will join your email list. Then, after you’ve deepened engagement and relationships with the folks on your list, you can make offers for your coaching services.
What’s the best way to deepen engagement with the dream clients on your email list?
For starters, send them emails each week, sharing your blog post, new podcast episode, video, or ideas to help them take baby steps toward solving urgent problems.
Mistake #03) Not showing up online to engage your future coaching clients (Consistently)
“The business doesn’t just happen…”
~ Mika, New Health Coach
As a new (or new-ish) life coach, a huge part of your marketing strategy is for you to *show up*.
What do we mean by “showing up”?
Glad you asked! Showing up means that you’re purposeful about finding, connecting with, and engaging your dream clients. Wherever they hang out and are active online and on social media.
Why is it so important for us to ‘show-up’ anyway?
The truth is, there are people who can learn best from you: make life easier for struggling future coaching clients by helping them discover your content.
To do that, you’re posting regularly on one or two social media sites like email, Facebook, or Instagram (or even the less obvious, LinkedIn).
Note: You’re not posting on ALL of the social sites. And your email list is definitely the most important place where you share content. Right? Yes, good.
You’ll have valuable content to share, because…
—-> You’re not ‘selling’ in your weekly content
—-> Instead, you’re building trust, credibility, authority
—-> Your content helps dream clients to see their possibilities
Once you get a handle on these principles, it’ll be easy-peasy to create content your coaching clients are interested in.
Mistake #04) Not being intentional about your online presence
Question…
What do you think potential clients do as soon as colleagues refer you as a life coach and share your name? If you guessed search for your company or yourself on google, then congratulations! That is exactly what they’re doing.
But that’s not all, they also will trust you more if your information on your social media profiles and your website is up-to-date.
So be sure to keep a sparkling online presence with polished posts that showcase who you serve, what programs you offer, with authentic content that’s coming from your heart.
What do we mean by *authentic* content?
Authentic content consists of blog posts, podcasts, videos, social posts where you’re talking about the exact problems your dream clients struggle with.
In fact, you share insights into your clients’ specific, urgent pain points in ALL of your content.
Conclusion: Create content coaching clients want
As a life coach, it can be tough to find the time and energy to create content that engages your clients and helps fill your programs with clients who love you.
The good news is, now you know the four common mistakes you can avoid when you want to create content that engages your clients. That way, they will click to your website, subscribe to your list, and then you can build long-term relationships with them.
That’s what Hannah did.
After she became intentional about focusing on one dream client’s issues, creating content was much more manageable.
Hannah focused on engagement marketing to the right clients, got them on her email list, and regularly shared links to her content with subscribers. As a result, Hanna’s content creation efforts paid off with more client discovery calls coming from her email list.
And you can do the same!
In summary, you can become intentional about building trust with your content and avoid these marketing mistakes by:
- Focusing on your one dream client and creating content just for them
- Mapping out times in your calendar weekly to create content like a blog, publish it on your website, and send it to your email list
- Setting times each week to show up + share snippets from your blog on Facebook, Instagram, or one social media site
This now becomes part of your client engagement strategy.
What if you could finally create content consistently?
If creating your marketing content has felt like a chore, a time-suck, or a massive mystery, you may have given up on content entirely.
But the truth is:
Content is key to attracting ideal clients and filling your programs. So don’t give up!
If your content ideas are buried in your beautiful brain, you want a process to help your words flow.
You want specific actions to implement so that the content you create stands out to your dream clients.
When you schedule a free Clarity Call, together, we’ll uncover your personalized marketing content actions. That way you can impact more clients. Click below to set up your FREE Clarity Call.
