These are the most common mistakes I see businesses make when it comes to blogging (and how to fix...
Is content creation worth your time as a busy business owner? I wholeheartedly say YES, and here are 10 reasons why.
If you had to divide your day up in a little pie chart to see where you spend your time, what would get the biggest chunk? I’m guessing it’s either the doing of your business (like baking, accounting, welding) or managing other people who do it.
So when you hear about content creation and how it can help you grow your business, your first thought is probably: yeah, but I don’t have the time.
But consider this: What if content creation could bring such a big return to your business that it’d be worth a couple of hours of your time? What if it could add a greater monetary value to your business than spending those few hours on your core tasks?
That’s my hypothesis, and I’m going to show you WHY I think content creation is so valuable for you in 10 different areas of your business.
In other words, read this post to find out if content creation is worth it for your business this year.
Here are 10 ways you can grow your business with content creation:
1. Drop little crumb trails that lead back to your website
A whopping seventy percent of small businesses have a website. You probably have one, too. But only a tiny fraction of websites (like 3%) actually see new customers come through Google search.
My question is, why pay for hosting and web design if your website isn’t going to bring in more customers?
Make your website pull its weight by adding blog content and resource pages that can show up in Google. Now every time someone looks for the services you provide or has a burning question you can answer, your content can lead them back to you.
It’s the digital version of Hansel and Gretel dropping little crumb trails that will lead them home. (Okay, so the bird eats up the crumbs in the story, and this is where the metaphor breaks down.)
Drop those crumb trails and watch as new customers find their way to you.
2. Create an online community around your business
Communities come together because of a common interest or cause, like saving the whales, dressing like Sailor Moon characters, or obsessing over Taylor Swift.
And when you have a community centered around YOUR business, you have a group of fans and evangelists who love what you do. Instead of a few customers here and there who love telling their friends about you, they get a chance to connect and get stronger together.
These people will be the first adopters of any new product you develop. They’ll defend you if you make a mistake. And they’ll sing your praises to their family and friends, bringing you more customers at no cost to you.
And yeah, maybe if you have really good products, this community will spring up by itself, but you won’t be in it. But by creating good content that pulls back the curtain on the people in your business, your values, and things you’re doing, you can create a place for that community to gather.
3. Build a lasting body of work to pass on
I don’t know if you ever think about your legacy, but I sometimes do. Like, what will people think of me when I’m gone? What will be left of what I’ve done? Questions like these that sometimes keep you up at night.
It’s not a fun thought, but I think it’s important to consider. And if you’re like me, you started a business to help people, so it’s kind of sad to think that all the stuff I built might not last very long.
Creating good content can offset this, though. Your written words are a record of your thoughts, your knowledge, and your accomplishments. They can show people who you were, what you did, and how you made a difference.
Not to mention the content itself can continue to teach and inspire people long after we are gone. And that makes me feel a little bit better about it all.
4. Earn a side income from educational products
It feels like everyone has a course or book to sell these days. That whole industry of people selling educational materials online is now supposedly worth $185 billion.
I asked ChatGPT to put that into understandable terms (because I personally cannot process that much money), and he said you’d have to spend 6 million dollars per day to use up all that money in your lifetime.
So yeah, that’s a lot. What that tells me is:
- There’s a lot of money to go around for educational materials
- People are hungry to learn from experts, and willing to pay for it
If you’ve already been writing content, dropping those crumb trails to bring people into your business, then you’ll have a captivated audience who’s ready to learn from you.
Next, by spending a little bit of time to create something of more value and a little more heft than your average blog post, you can create a workbook, ebook, course, or other downloadable resource that you can actually charge for.
With a little bit of promotion, you can turn that content into another income stream for your business, and your audience gets even more support from you. It’s a total win-win.
5. Win the attention of your local media outlet
TV news stations and newspapers are always on the lookout for interesting stories. And they keep an ear to different happenings in the local area or talk to sources who can give them new stories to follow.
So here’s how you capitalize on that: you use your blog and social media to share new things you’re developing, cool stories about your business and customers, or anything else that people might find interesting.
You can even do a bit of PR and send these story ideas to media outlets to see if they pick up your story.
6. Establish yourself as a leading expert
You can call yourself an expert all day, but until you show people what you know, they won’t believe you.
Sure, there are many ways to prove to people that you know what you’re doing. As soon as they talk to you in person or work with you, they can figure it out right away.
But the average person browsing the internet will not have a clue. Unless you start putting out content educating them about your topic, that is. As they read your content and learn new things, your expertise will become crystal clear.
Content also gives new customers a way to explore your business and what it can do before deciding if they want to buy or not.
Your website says you can fix any printer problem in 2 business days, but why should a stranger believe you?
Hit ‘em with content about printer fixes and troubleshooting tips, and they won’t need to question you any more. (Plus say hello to media features and interview requests who will contact you for your expertise!)
7. Create better training materials
Your content doubles as training materials. If you’ve already written a post on when to use baking powder vs baking soda while making muffins, you can pass that to your new baker trainees instead of teaching them from scratch.
Or if you know the common issues customers run into with your products, write that into a blog post and then use it to train your support team to fix issues.
Right now, I’m playing with NotebookLM, an AI-powered notebook app from Google. I’ve never seen anything like it. Basically, you put web pages, notes, or PDFs into notebooks, and then you can use the notebook’s chatbot to ask questions about the information or work with the information in new ways.
I use this with one client to keep all their blog posts in notebooks based on post category, so I can find information from old posts anytime I need. I just ask the bot, “What are 5 reasons to buy a sublimation printer?” and it will come up with the answer solely from those blog posts. Game changer!
8. Stick little salespeople all over the internet
How many people actively help you sell your products or services on a regular week? It might be you, a handful of happy customers that tell their friends about you, or a few members of a dedicated sales team.
But you could have much, much more. You could have a whole army of little tiny salespeople that never sleep. That’s because they live in each piece of content that you write.
Every single piece of content can work to build awareness of your brand, show off your latest offers, and even hard sell an offer to your readers.
For example, I started writing blog posts for my crafting client showing off how to use their products to make cool DIY products and gifts, and around month 6, they earned $10K in extra revenue just through those posts we made. Pretty cool, right?
9. Keep customers thinking about your business
It’s really nice when someone buys from you. Like pop-a-bottle-of-champagne nice, especially when it’s a big order. Some people would just stop there. But smart business owners know that it costs way less to keep a customer than to try to get new customers all the time.
So you probably think of ways to keep customers coming back to you. Maybe you send mailers or call back customers after some time has passed.
But all of that takes real people picking up the phone, writing a letter, sending an email.
Instead, your content can do all that work for you, and in a much more personalized way.
Instead of sending an email that basically says, “Hey, are you ready to buy from us again?”, you could be sending really interesting email newsletters with information your customer can use right now. So they’re STILL getting value from you even though the transaction ended a long time ago.
Imagine that customer opening your emails every week or two for the entire year. Not only have they been getting helpful information from you that helps them reach more of their goals, they also know about your new product offerings and things they can add on to their current product or service package.
Guess which method is better at getting more sales and customer loyalty over time, this or the random email after 6 months? Of course, you know the answer 😉
10. Save time on customer service
Finally, one last benefit of writing good and helpful content for your customer base is that you have space to answer all of their questions in public.
So when they run into problems or you get that question for the hundredth time, you can direct them toward a blog post that can answer their question in 5 seconds instead of waiting for a phone call or chat support.
Not everyone will like that approach, so you can still hop on the phone whenever you need. But you can reduce a huge percentage of phone calls and support conversations, without using one of those wonky AI chat bots (I’m not a fan).
I wrote a post for the same crafting client with all the things that could go wrong with your sublimation printer. They forwarded it to their support team, sent it through their email list, and it remains a helpful resource for their customers today.
Bottom line? Content builds your business
And it does it in less time, with less effort, and with a greater impact than the traditional way of selling and marketing in person.
If you’re curious to see how content marketing might look like for YOUR business, don’t hesitate to reach out to me so we can set up a time to discuss it more.
Let me know in the comments below: Have you ever created content for your business? How did it go? Have you seen any of these benefits yet? Or any more you can add to this list?
