10 Content Marketing Tips & Strategies

Want more leads? Learning these powerful content marketing tips will most certainly help you in your online quest!

Guest Blogger: Adam Chandler!

If you follow me at all you know I hardly ever allow a guest blogger on here but today is different. Adam Chandler is actually my number one affiliate for our Top Earner Academy ticket contest and he is on the success panel at the event so I thought it’d be great for you all to know him!

After getting let go from 2 newspaper advertising jobs in 2008 Adam Chandler decided that maybe another job wasn’t the answer for him and he dove into the exciting world of MLM internet marketing and home based business. 6 months later he had racked up about $10,000 in credit card debt from “trying to figure out how to make the business work.”

Since then Adam has generated over 12,000 leads online and become a top producer in his MLM. In the past 2 years alone he’s won 4 fully paid for vacations from sponsoring and recruiting into his business and he went from making just $19,000 in 2009 to his first 6-figure income in 2011. He specializes in content marketing, productivity and helping others transition from overwhelmed, confused marketer to empowered successful entrepreneur.

10 Content Marketing Tips

#1 – Be Yourself

Here’s my very first of my content marketing tips..When I started marketing back in 2009 my first handful of videos didn’t convert into leads or sales. Shocking right? I actually thought that by wearing a suit in my videos people would find me more professional. And maybe they did but either way the videos didn’t convert. It wasn’t until I started wearing a t-shirt or a hoodie in my videos and being myself instead of pretending to be something that I’m not, that the leads and sales started to flow from my content marketing strategies.

#2 – Begin with the end in mind

You’ve heard this before right? Its from Steven Covey’s “7 Habits of Highly Effective People.” And it applies these content marketing tips as much as it does to many other areas of your business. What is the purpose of your blog post, video or article? Is it to make an affiliate sale? Find your next superstar leader on your team? Improve your relationship with your list or your social media audience? Get someone to opt-in on your squeeze page? Knowing the purpose of your content before you create it will help to eliminate writers block and make it much easier to create quality content.

#3 – Create a crystal clear call to action

This is one of those content marketing tips that is crucial. Of course knowing what you want your prospect to do is great, but its only half the battle. You have to tell them what to do. People are attracted to leadership and leaders and very good and telling people what action they want them to take next. Soooooo…. what action do you want them to take? “Visit my blog to learn more about me,” “click here now for free training, “subscribe to my youtube channel?” Be very clear and don’t wuss out when it comes time to tell the prospect what the next step is!

#4 – Follow a formula

My highest converting youtube videos are ones that follow a pretty simple formula. Step 1 – brief introduction. Step 2 – The purpose of this video is……. Step 3 – Identify the problem. Step 4 – Identify the solution. Step 5 – Strong call to action. Follow that basic formula in your videos and you will convert more leads and sales, guaranteed. (This is one of my favorite content marketing tips from Adam – Ray)

#5 – Keep it simple

I see a lot of people get hung up on the technical aspects of everything. If you think you need a million back-links to every piece of content you create you are WAY over-complicating the content marketing process. Start by making a list of the top 5 things you will do to distribute your content once you publish it. If you have a Facebook fan page post it there then share it to a few Facebook groups (5 minutes). If you have an email list – blast it out to your email list (5 minutes). If you use tribepro for content syndication post it to tribe pro (30 seconds). If your an ABN member of BetterNetworker.com post it there. Boom… done… on to the next thing. If your not familiar with some of the sites I mentioned don’t worry about it. Just share your content wherever you have an audience and consistently grow your audience so you will have more exposure to your future content

#6 – Follow the leader

Life is one big game of follow the leader. I believe it was Tony Robbins who said, “find someone who has what you want, do what they do and you’ll get what they got.” Back when I was starting to break into content marketing I was following a couple guys who were crushing it my company. I watched every one of their videos and I tried to model myself after them as best I could. So who do you know who’s really successful with content marketing that you could model?? Hint Hint… your on his blog right now : )

#7 – Think long-term

Understand that content marketing is a long term strategy. Consistency is key. Rather than hammering out 10 blog posts in a week and getting burnt out…. and then getting frustrated because those ten posts didn’t make you a millionaire, start with a few pieces of content per week instead. 10 blog posts in a week isn’t that impressive if you then go a month without producing anything. But do 3 pieces of content a week for the next 90 days and your efforts, along with your results will start to compound. I’ve seen many people, friends and team members who went from 5-10 leads a day to 25+ leads a day overnight simply because they stayed consistent with cranking out content. More often, however I’ve seen people jump from one shiny object marketing strategy to the next and then scratch their head and wonder why they’re not getting results. This is one of my biggest content marketing tips for you.

#8 – Let em Hate

Have you ever heard of the term trolling? Its the internet term for people who go on other peoples youtube videos, blogs or social media posts and talk crap. These people have nothing better to do than go around the internet and hate on people who are making promotional content. If you want to be successful at content marketing or internet marketing in general you are going to have to put yourself out there in a big way. One of the great things about building a home based business is that it will challenge every insecurity you’ve ever had. Not everyone is going to like you or the content you create and thats ok. Let em hate. I’ve had people make ruthless, mean spirited comments on my videos… I even had a guy tell me to shave my F’ing beard in about 10 different videos. Don’t take it personal. It says a lot more about them than it does about you. Be ok with the fact that while they’re sitting on their couch eating cheetos and trolling on your content you are working towards a life of fun, freedom and purpose. “50 said go ahead and switch the style up and if they hate them let em hate and watch the money pile up” ; )

My wife and Ethan

#9 – Do cool stuff

Want better content? Start doing cooler stuff and turn your experiences into content… Lets see… whats one really cool thing you could do that you could turn into some really cool, fun, entertaining and/or informative, value driven content? Attend more live events! Some of my best content has come from being at and upon returning home from live events. I’ve also created some of my best video content from the chairlift and the ski slopes. Its something I love doing and it allows me to promote my lifestyle. And the way I see it, if I shoot a video from the chairlift at Vail and a prospect sees it while they’re sitting in a cubicle after fighting rush-hour traffic they are probably going to be curious about what I do. If skiing’s not your thing, flip on the video camera when your on a picnic or at the park or the beach with your kids.

#10 – If you want something – ask for it!

I’ve learned that to be successful in business and in life, you have get comfortable with asking for what you want. If you don’t ask for the sale you’ll never be very good at prospecting and recruiting. If you don’t ask the answer will always be no. I have a team member, a buddy of mine named Josh. I was chatting with Josh on Facebook one day and he asked me how he could expose more people to the value contained within our marketing system, MLSP. I told him to simply start interviewing leaders. I could tell by his excited response that a lightbulb had gone off in his head. He went on to interview me, Ray and a bunch of other leaders inside the system. And since then he’s gone on to interview many other industry leaders getting a ton of exposure for himself in the process. All because he had the courage to approach them and simply ask for the interview. I’m sure there are many other people who would love to interview leaders but don’t even dare to ask because they assume the answer will be no. If you have a good idea for a piece of content or an interview series, go for it! Ask for what you want. And if they say no… well… you never had it in the first place and you can’t lose what you never had.