Your Mental Model of Content Strategy is Probably Wrong

Here's how we tend to think it works:

Come up with an Ideal Client Profile.

Write Helpful Content

Audience Reads Content

Perhaps this works sometime, but what is the likelihood that your target audience already follows you? Very low, especially at the beginning.

My theory of LinkedIn content was exploded over 3 years ago when I got my first multi-step referral - here's how it worked:

A potential client contacted me, didn't know who I was, had never read any of my content, yet they knew I was recommended.

How did this happen?

1 - Someone I did not know followed me for over a year because they liked my content. Call this "Trusted Person".

2 - Over a year later, an acquaintance of this trusted person has a friend who is facing a serious business challenge or opportunity.

3 - One of the people who they reach out to is "Trusted Person". Trusted person tells them to speak with Rick about some problem or opportunity related to eCommerce.

4 - Trusted person makes an introduction and Rick now has a new client.

What happened?

I got a referral FROM someone I had never met, TO someone I have never met, and that person became a customer.

That is what I call scalable marketing.

Here are some keys to make this strategy work:

* Understand your role is not just to "influence your target market" but it is also to "influence the influencers". I mean, not actual influencers on a social media sense, but recognize that great content has wide reach. Just because someone reading your content is not in your target market, doesn't mean they are not super important.

* Smart people are always looking for an edge that can be provided by great content. This kind of person is also often connected to a lot of important people you might want to reach, even if these people never post on social media.

* Don't think about the ROI of a single piece of content, think instead about the trust built through a channel over a period of years.

From the beginning, I had the idea that great content was important. This continues. What I didn't fully realize is how great content travels, and how real word of mouth is still truly alive and well in 2024.

Notice I didn't use attribution, analytics, or any of those things in this because none of this could be captured digitally. However, it can be captured in a cash register. That seems like a more important metric.

Word of mouth is your most scalable marketing by a large factor, and second place is not even close. Content that gets people talking.

But there is something even more important than talking. And that is trust.

Content that gets people trusting.