If you don’t have the money for paid advertising or pay-per-click, getting people to your site can seem like an uphill task.
Once they’re there, you’ve still got to sell to them. And I’ve never met anyone who enjoys cold-calling or hard-selling.
We don’t have an advertising budget at the London School of Attraction. And we don’t really have to pitch to prospective clients. Our content, via our blog, takes care of all our advertising, marketing and sales.
In this article, I’m going to give you 5 tips for creating content which sells.
1. Write review articles
The first rule of content is: establish authority. Once you establish authority, you establish the right to charge a premium for your goods or services.
Our readers are prepared to pay for our coaching courses, because I put myself in the role of authority figure, one who’s able to critique and appraise other so-called experts.
So review as often as you can. Review books and DVDs, critique (and sometimes praise) advice on your competitors’ websites, give ratings to products in your sector.
2. Make it personal
Alongside reviews and advice, write about your own experiences. Instead of just telling readers how to go about certain tasks, tell them stories of what happened when you had a go yourself.
I always try to stay present in my content as a real person; if I don’t, my content can end up sounding like rehashed advice. By showing that you have real life experience, you build trust. People want to give their money to someone who’s not only an expert, but who’s out there getting his hands dirty.
3. Tell the truth
There’s no hiding place nowadays for people who bend the truth in their message – customers are just too shrewd. So embrace it! If you’re not the cheapest supplier around, admit it. But explain that you’re the best and the most reliable. If your product lacks certain features, don’t bury that in the small print.
In all our articles we stress that our courses aren’t for everyone and certainly can’t get results overnight. Instead of putting people off, this builds trust. And it sells!
4. Don’t forget the point of content
Too many people write fantastic content but then forget to link it to their own goods or services. An article on your website shouldn’t be pure sales copy, but it needs to lead the reader down the path of – eventually – buying from you.
We make money by running coaching courses for men and women who want to do better with the opposite sex. I make sure I seed every few articles with a reference to one of our courses. This can be as simple as writing: “I was working with a guy recently on one of our coaching courses and we…”
Little references like this build intrigue without being too obvious. Eventually, your reader will feel compelled to look into these coaching courses (or whatever it is you’re selling).
5. Have a clear call to action
What do you want the reader to do at the end of your article? Sign up to a mailing list? Click on your products page? Read another post with similar content?
Decide how the sales funnel is going to work, and make it clear to the reader what to do next. Make sure the right box, form or link is at the end of every article. It’s hard enough to get eyeballs on your content; make sure each one is getting you closer to a sale.
