Stories contain a hero, a purpose, a journey and a conclusion. Content strategists will look at your content like theres a story to tell.
When I first meet a client, my first question is always, “Why? What’s the purpose of your online presence? Why are you there and what do you want to get out of if?”
I will consider their answer, and then I will look at their presence. Most of the time, they are actually telling a completely different story to the one they think, or want, to be telling. Almost always they never tell their audience actually how to even get started with them.
Critical elements of the online brand story. Why you’re doing what you’re doing. How you help people. The outcomes of the help you’re providing. How people can get in touch with you.
Where to start
Start with your purpose. What’s the reason you’re showing up online at all? Do you have a book, or a course that you’re launching?
Work backwards from there.
Let’s say you have a new book coming out. You want your audience to buy your book. But you need a purpose – a reason for them to want to buy it. Most coaches, service providers and thought leaders that are putting the effort into writing a book will be focusing on a solving a single problem for their ideal client.
The problem you are solving for your ideal client is your purpose.
Now that you have your purpose, you need to keep reminding your audience about that purpose. The one thing you are solving. Every piece of content you create needs to address at least one element about that one problem you’re solving. That way your audience will always know if they also have that problem. They will decide if you have enough experience and knowledge about their problem to be able to solve it for them.
Every time someone comes across your content, you want to be convincing them that you are the one to solve their problem.
Building your platform
Now that you are practicing talking about the one problem you solve, it’s time to build out your online platform.
There are many elements to building your platform.
Often, you will need to experiment with your content, and even the platforms you chose to show up on, to see how it’s landing with your audience. That’s why it’s important to keep track of your ideas. Each time you try something, you want to be able to measure whether it landed well with your audience. If it did land well, keep doing it. If it didn’t land well, make minor tweaks to it to figure out which formula works best for your audience.
Your key focus is building authority around your purpose.
Your ideal client needs a lot of reassurance that you’re the one to solve their problem. And it’s up to you to provide that for them. Remember you are not the hero in their story. You are the guide. They are the hero in their story. So you always need to be creating your authority from the perspective of how you help others to reach their full potential with solutions like yours.
Ways to create an authority presence online
If you’re stuck for ideas, here’s a list of brand authority building content types that you can use on your next content planning exercise:
- Testimonials. Do not need to be too long. Pick out the one key element of the testimonial and speak to that.
- Case studies. If you’re lacking in case studies, do some research in your industry and pick things that you could create a case study around. It might be an example of something you’ve seen in your industry that you believe could be improved. Something you might approach differently.
- Interviews. Interview others in an online meeting and record it. This is a powerful one because you can encourage them to tell their story and then you can dive deeper into that story and weave in how your solution creates impact for them.
- Showcase your values. Your brand values are a massive part of showing your audience what you stand for and how they can identify with you. More and more brands are leading with their values because the trends are showing that audiences want to identify with a brand’s values before making a buyer choice.
- Data. Do you have data or charts that reflect real numbers of your results? Data is so important in reflecting tangible results. Data is a difficult topic to make interesting so I always use charts and visual representations to tell a brand’s data story.
- News stories. If you’re taking the time to stay on top of the latest news in your industry, share it with your audience! The ability to critically analyse news that relates to your industry is a powerful way to show your audience you truly know your topic.
- Add value. There is so much noise on the internet. Content that adds value stands out because it’s actually useful to the audience. Whenever I’m planning content for a client I am always thinking of ways to weave in real, tangible, value to their audience. I always want to be helping my client’s audience to gain something; rather than just filling their feeds with nonsense.
Take the time to consider the purpose of your content so that you’re always sure of the story that you want your online presence to reflect. A clear focus on your purpose is a great place to start. Add in authority-building content and you’re well on the way to setting yourself up for success with your online presence.
If you’re not sure, before you hit the publish button – ask yourself – “How is this piece of content telling my story?”, “Is it telling the story that I want it to tell?”, “Is it another link in the chain of my purpose?” If the content you’re creating is not adding to your story, you may need to change it or reconsider whether you need to post it at all.
Over to you… what authority-building content have you created? What worked well? What needed to be adjusted?
