Content marketing – this is going to be the fundamental foundation for your success in online network marketing or any other business. Understanding how to make your content stand out is crucial to your success.
Content is what attracts your ideal prospects. Content is what can help you get found in Google, social media sites, blogs, and many other places.
Your content can be in the form of articles, blog posts, videos, whatever you like – but to market effectively online you must learn to create good content that offers value to your visitors.
Now let’s say that you are blogging on network marketing and home business success, as an example. This is my topic, and many others also write and create content on this subject. There isn’t much new under the sun, really.
There is a question though – hasn’t it all been said before? How many articles can one write about various aspects of “mlm success” before it all gets fuzzy and starts to sound like what everyone else is writing about in this niche?
What can set you apart from other bloggers in your niche, even if your basic content is similar? How can you provide value by writing about the same basic fundamentals and topics that others are?
Let’s look at three things that make your content stand out over and above the crowd.
First, let’s say you’ve been using Twitter to generate some leads for your network marketing business, and you want to write about that today. With millions of blog posts and articles already out there about marketing on Twitter, how unique can what YOU write really be?
When writing about success in marketing or things like how to use marketing tools, or blogging tips, etc. your content will seldom be unique. There are just so many spins you can make on popular topics like this. So how CAN your content like this provide value?
Your content may not be unique, but your individual voice is. Your style and the way YOU present your content is what makes it special. You should always strive to be authentic and who you are. I’ve seen too many bloggers, for example, study the top leaders/bloggers in their industry or niche and try to emulate or sound like them.
Big mistake – you will come across poorly doing this and readers can tell. Be YOU because how you do a training can resonate with people in a way that someone else doing the same thing can’t.
For example, one of the most written up topics in the world is “how to start a WordPress blog“. I did some articles and Camtasia presentations about this a couple years ago, with a slant toward people wanting to start blogging for a home business. It was a lot of how to setup a blog type stuff, step by step, nothing that hasn’t been written about a million times. But I had people tell me how much they enjoyed it because I made it so clear and simple.
Frankly I was stunned at that response, but it drove home this point to me – create content in your own voice and style, be authentic, and you will reach an audience that others writing about the same stuff won’t. You have a special way of presenting your topic that nobody else does.
A second point, your content may not be unique, but your skilled application of that content is. Let’s say you create a blog post about making friends and marketing on LinkedIn for example. You are an insurance professional and your home business product and opportunity is a great fit for others like you. You could create a post or training called “How to Build Relationships and Market to Insurance Professionals Using LinkedIn”.
Your methods may be similar to what many others have taught, so far as joining groups and creating relationships, but since your training was very specific it stands out and makes it a unique slant from your own perspective. It’s all about how YOU applied it, and this will grab more attention than a generic article called “How to Market on LinkedIn” might. Even people not particularly interested in targeting insurance professionals might be drawn to read your content, because it’s focused and gives the perception of being especially valuable.
Finally, your content may not be unique, but the experience you build around it for your visitor is. The way you use graphics, how you blend your own story and experience into each post, how you use humor, and just in general the tone you set will be different from any other blogger out there. You will draw people as loyal readers and followers who appreciate your unique personality and style.
It is important to be authentic, write from your own experience and applications, and create a meaningful experience for your visitor. You can add more power to all this by being very careful to create content about questions, concerns, and problems that you target audience has. Your blog posts should answer these questions, address the concerns, and solve the problems all from your own unique perspective and experience.
Even if you are fairly new to your business, you can do this, just be active every day and be a student of your niche and industry. Your experiences will add up fast and make you a surefire content factory and draw a nice audience for you!
Did you get some value from this post? If you did, I would really appreciate you sharing it with others! And, your comments are welcome below!
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About Eldon Beard
Hi Eldon
Nice post. It took me a while online to have the confidence to write from my own perspective but its so true what you say. With so much information availableonline these days the usp that we as bloggers have is our own ‘voice’ Don’t be afraid to say what you want to say even if its controversial. You’re get more listeners that way.
Thanks Anne, when you really get down to it, most bloggers in the network marketing niche (for example) write about the same basic success principles. It’s the voice, the perspective that YOU bring to the table, that makes the difference.
So true Eldon! In a niche like ours it is hard to be unique with the topic but each of us have an individual voice and can be unique. The people who I see having success are sharing similar things to others but doing it with their own style and flair. Great post!
Hard to add much to that Angela, great to see you!
This is very informative! It would also add that even though we need to stand out and compete to others we also need to make our visitor enjoy it and feel comfortable in everything we offer or in everything we can give.