The Idea Mill
Insights + Observations About the Power of Content
What if you could do fewer things, that look less time, and actually have more success building your business and selling your services?
That’s the premise behind my new book, Do Less. Sell More.: How Entrepreneurs are Building Seven-Figure Businesses without Breaking the Bank, Working Like Dogs, or Losing their $#@%!
Joe objected, "But I'm NOT a thought leader. Why would anyone listen to what I have to offer?"
Just because you don't regard yourself as the preeminent voice in your space doesn't mean you can't offer insights. You don't need to be a certified "Thought Leader" to have observations, experiences, theories, command of basic principles, inquiries and perspectives.
Content is working its way down the sales funnel farther than ever before. While we have historically thought of content in terms of “content marketing”—which generally lives near the top of the sales funnel—we should now be thinking in terms of “content business development.”
But if you’re serving your network and people you’d like to include in your network, by providing them with either things of intellectual value or by raising their profiles somehow, that’s not selling...it’s serving.
You know it to be true in your gut, but it's hard to convince your head of it: you simply can't be everywhere at once. And you can't be all things to all people. So stop doing what’s not working, and do this instead.
Last week I promised to share with you the one marketing tactic that consistently achieves the highest ROI of anything out there, regardless of vertical or market.
Did you guess what it was?
The answer may surprise you…
The problem with the modern marketing paradigm is that it's still just too much for most small business owners, entrepreneurs and individuals building their own professional services practices. And with attention spans being what they are nowadays, where even a long tweet seems like a hefty pull, it's too much for the audiences we're looking to attract as well. Here's what's happened over the years: We kept adding and adding to the marketing stack, and we never took anything away!
But I have, as you might’ve guessed, a proposed fix to this problem…
The most common question I received when launching The Fix "news"letter is why. Why are you (me) providing free tips and best practices, and how can I (that's you) put them into practice? The answer is simple: FOMO.
No, not fear of missing out.
When I'm talking about "FOMO," I'm actually describing the most common mistake I see marketers and business owners make when it comes to marketing their products and services. And I want to help people avoid these costly errors…
The Fix is a free (forever!) monthly "news"letter published by Tom Nixon to curate the best available content and resources for anyone looking to build a business, grow a practice, or increase a network online. Peak inside to see what comes in each issue, and how it will cure your Marketing FOMO forever!
One of my most successful posts on LinkedIn was something I never even posted.
Guess I’d better explain...
We’ve been talking a lot lately about the mark of a true thought leader is a willingness to openly and freely share one’s best ideas—without the expectation of reciprocation or reward. Many are afraid of sharing their ideas publicly and at no charge for fear that they are “giving away free advice” or allowing access to “the secret sauce.”
But here’s the deal: The more you give, the more you get.
What if, like many, you suffer from an aversion to the notion of “selling,” either out of ethical concerns or a simple distaste for the perception of peddling your wares? After all, you want to practice law, or accounting, or consult...you didn’t earn an advanced degree to be a sales person.
Understandable. But as our careers mature, business development becomes crucial to advancement opportunities. So, we might not like to “sell,” but we’d better be active relationship builders, if nothing else. You might not want to cold call a prospect, or send an unsolicited invitation to lunch, or attend a networking event. But you might not have to.
And this is where content comes in.
