Hi guys, and welcome to Episode 4 of The Hayley Osborne Show. Today I’ll be discussing exactly how to create magnetic content that sells.
This is such a huge part of your overall strategy and brand voice, as this is the part where you sell your story, as well as your products or services through elements like your copywriting, imagery and the mediums you choose to execute and activate them through.
When I say mediums, I mean things like your images, creating videos, blog posts, infographics, case studies, sending out emails as well as masterclasses or workshops for your ideal client to learn.
This is where you win over your ideal customer and really create those perfect ingredients of know, like and trust so most importantly, people buy from you. At the end of the day, I always like to say this (and if you’ve attended any of my masterclasses or are connected to me on my social media, you would have heard me say this before), we’re not here for a haircut, we’re here in busines to educate and inspire and we’re here to make money to ultimately create a lifestyle we love. As hard hitting as this is, it’s super true in every sense of the words.
So, whether you’re just starting out in business or you’ve been in business for a few years, this episode is for you so, let’s get started.
I really wanted to talk about creating content because over the last year I’ve found this to be the biggest pain point for most people I’ve worked with. So many business owners and entrepreneurs feel stuck when it comes to the creation part as they get caught on this treadmill/hamster wheel of content without taking a breather to be strategic. Then we basically end up creating it for the sake of it with no real rhyme or reason.
One of the things I suggest is taking small steps into creating big content is to keep a running journal of your day-to-day life, including frequently asked questions from your audience, little sparks of inspiration you might get through the day, a note of something someone said that really got your attention, interesting things that happened that could be transformed into your stories.
Then when you’re writing your social media posts, your emails or the next masterclass you teach, you’re most definitely bound to find something in these stories to tell your audience.
A few key easy hacks and ways I do this is to keep a rolling set of notes in the note’s app on my phone and this is the place I enter in my daily pieces of inspiration, thought starters and ideas about what I could be doing next. OR, if I’m in the car, going for a walk or on the fly I have a voice recording app on my phone where I record everything, and this is also super easy to follow. This way when I sit down to write content these are the things I refer to, to be able to tell my story with gusto and substance.
Story telling really is your key, ideal way and individual leverage point to not getting lost in the noise of social media and marketing. Undeniably it’s YOUR story people love and resonate with which you can totally tell in multiple ways, depending on your audience.
There are two ways for you to do this, but first you must have a running document that houses all these stories with headings on each one so you can reference them when you’re building your content.
So, depending on the audience you’re talking to, as well as what product or service within your business that you’re selling, depends in which story you pull out of your bank to tell and to add to a particular piece of content.
The first way, is to create stories around things you have expertise in. These are your power stories, stories that give you authority. Stories that make your business what it is today.
For example, I have experience in Social Media Strategy and Marketing Strategy so I could really go into detail about how I created a strategy for a business which turned that business around and created X amount of profit due to them being more strategically aligned with what I detailed in their strategy.
Or if you’re a product-based business you could tell stories around what it takes to make one of your products, the parts and pieces that come together to create such a masterpiece and how you spend time doing a particular thing (which is your expertise) that sets you apart from the rest. I’d really dive into why you do this and what the result is in the end.
The second way is to create stories around things you have experience in. These are your life experiences, like where you grew up, key factors and moments in time that have helped you become the fearless business owner you are today. These are the stories that make you more approachable to your ideal client. They’re the ones that they can resonate with or have that “oh yeah, I can relate to that” moment.
A good example here is I really like to talk about the sports I love playing and keeping fit. This helps me with being able to work in a team, learning how to negotiate as well as the BIG one of exercise being a bio-product of keeping the positive and abundant mindset that I strongly attribute to my successes, big or small.
Keeping up with the latest trends is another way to help you create super engaging content that sells. So, to start this have a think about content prompts in the shape of date specific posts, that are relevant to your business, that you can incorporate and build on year after year. I say year after year, because you don’t want to be reinventing the wheel every year. You want to start with the foundations and much like a house build on them every year and as you do, you’ll get better and better.
For example, if you’re a baker you might want to plug in annual days like World Cookie Day, World Nutella Day and Giving Tuesday.
Or if you’re a fashion designer you really should be mentioning Melbourne Fashion week every year as well as the big ones like New York Fashion Week and Paris Fashion week. By setting alerts to plug into these early on, you can see what the leaders in the field are doing and planning and really capitalise on this for your own business and make it relative to your business in the process.
The second part of this keeping up with the latest trends piece is making sure you incorporate your business milestones into your content. This really is something to celebrate with your audience. People love success stories and love to follow your journey. So, it’s our job as entrepreneurs to take our audience along for the ride. Remember, the more they know you the more they can build on the amazing “know, like, trust” formula.
A key tip I’ve learnt from the beginning of this journey is to really nail the “hook” in your copywriting. This is a term I’ve made up, but it works a treat in terms of remembering that this is a critical tool to get your ideal client to “read more”. The hook is the first sentence or headline your audience read before they continue on to read what you’ve written or open your email.
This gives your audience a reason to read more. Hooks with less than 10 (or so) words are more likely to perform better. Another thing is I always like to use emoji’s in small quantities in the very early on stages of my story or content. Guys, let’s not forget that space is limited on your social media before the “see more” button, so you need to make it worth your ideal client’s while. Lastly not too many punctuation marks in the beginning. You hook should ultimately pack a punch.
Guys, some great examples of hooks I like to use and for you to get started on and provoke your thoughts are things like:
- In case you need to hear this (tap ‘save’ for a reminder later)…
- You’ll want to save this post to come back to it!
- Hello to my crazy new project,
- You’ll never guess what happened today…
- How does this sound…
- The power of one word, E.G: $50,000, Seriously, OMG, Dangerously
So guys, after you get the hook right we really go into the body of your caption, which I also like to call the “sinker”.
Take note of each caption category or story you want to discuss here. This goes back to what I was talking about earlier in terms of your expertise and experience which covers off the products or services you offer in your business.
This part is the fun middle piece of information that either educates, inspires or entertains your audience. And don’t forget guys I’m talking about all your content. So not just social media but creating videos, blog posts, infographics, case studies, sending out emails as well as any masterclasses or workshops you’ll run.
These can either be in long form or short form writing. I tend to work towards long form captions majority of the time because I’m a service-based business, it really is about telling the story for me, but I want to highlight, it doesn’t have to be that way.
Using emojis is another great idea to lighten the load of copywriting and take your reader on a more theatrical journey, obviously depending on the medium you’re creating content for.
This also depends on the business you run obviously. So, for example if you’re in the financial service sector or a lawyer, you may want to go light on the emoji’s as your content is a little more serious. However, if you have a product, this is a really good way to help express your brand personality as well as the emotion in your words.
So now you’ve nailed your hook and line (which is your caption), I want you to think about your sinker, which is your call to action. What you want your audience to do with the piece of information you’ve just given them. This is the next step.
Directing your followers to take some kind of action to either your website to make a purchase. Encourage them to leave a comment below, which encourages engagement. Hit the link in your bio, which will obviously take them to your website to make a purchase. Or lastly if you want your audience to send you a direct message in answer to a super important question you’re asking them.
Guys, some great examples encouraging engagement that is by far a standout to me so far along this journey are saying things like:
- That’s been the secret to our growth this year, what’s been yours? Tell me in the comments below
- Tag a friend who needs to hear this
- Click the ‘bookmark’ icon to the right under the image to SAVE this post for later & tell me
- What have you taken from last year, that you’ll be carrying into this year?
- That’s a little about me, but honestly? I’m more interested in you. Tell me about you in the comments below.
- Swipe to see some of my behind the scenes.
- What would you say the hardest part of your week would be?
- Drop a heart emoji below if you can relate – and tag your business friend to encourage them too
Communicating your brand and selling through storytelling will play such an important part in your success as a business and an important part in your strategy moving forward.
I hope this episode has helped to motivate and inspire you to get organised and aligned across your business strategies and social media strategies to win this year.
