Have you ever found yourself in a situation where you needed to bring in a quick cash-injection to your business? Or wondering how you could make more money from your content? ⬇️
Maybe there was a big new investment you had your eye on? Maybe there was an unexpected expense that popped up? Maybe that time is now? In any case, I’ve put together an episode that’ll help you implement long, medium and short term solutions to bring more cashola with your content.
Here’s your 3-part plan to make more money from your content covered in the episode:
- Optimize (Long-Term): Tweak what you've got already in your content to make sure it's hitting the mark with your audience and bringing in the sales you want (think checking how it lines up with what you’re trying to achieve and if it speaks to your peeps).
- Leverage (Short-Term): Use the connections with your current customers to whip up some buzz. Get them to help you out with referrals or by creating user-generated content (it’s like having your own squad cheering for you, and showing others the cool stuff you can do).
- Expand (Medium-Term): Venture out with new offers or tricks like building a list of interested folks to reach more people and rake in more sales (this is where you step out of your usual circle, throwing in some fresh offers or tactics to reel in new faces).
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FULL TRANSCRIPT OF 6 WAYS TO MAKE MORE MONEY FROM YOUR CONTENT
Welcome to Episode Seven of the Content Coffee Break Podcast. We are chatting ways to make more money from your content, increase the ROI, AKA the sales from your content. So, content is one of those things where it can be a little tough to measure the ROI. And so, not only do we want to have good systems in place, but we want to find ways to maximize the opportunities, to tie your content directly to sales in a way that doesn't feel super spammy or salesy, um, in your content, your empire, where you're just hitting engagement systems.
And so, what can we do? To increase the engagement of your content so that we can turn an audience into a community and thus by doing so we make that honey and make that community. Really amp up that know, like, and trust factor that they have with you so that when you do promote and invite people to your paid offers, it's kind of a no-brainer offer because trust is a non-issue right? They already trust you. They already know you. They already like you because you have done the work, you've put in the time to get to know them, to show them how much you actually care about the problems and their goals, um, and helping them reach those things.
And so, as we hit engagement systems, I kind of question around, what if I need to make sales right now, right? Engagement is more of a long-term strategy. It's not something that's going to happen overnight. And it certainly takes time. Maybe you have, you know, maybe you've hit a bit of a sales lull. Maybe you have a big tax bill or bill coming up, or maybe there's a big investment you want to make, or maybe you want to be more empowered to say no to projects that you don't want to work with or let go of clients who might not be an ideal fit. And it got me thinking around long-term versus short-term solutions for sales problems and specifically, what is the role of content in that solution? And so, which is really where the inspiration for this week's episode came from, how can you make more moolah from your content?
And I've broken it down into three categories of strategies to make more money from your content. So: optimize, leverage, and expand. So when it comes to optimizing, these are more of your longer-term solutions. So, a couple of opportunities here for optimizing your content for making more sales, it's longer term, and it's all around, like I said, setting up those opportunities and like just slightly tweaking what you're already doing so that we can tie it better to more sales—tie your content better to more sales. Now, we have the category of leverage. So, these are probably your most short-term solutions in terms of, got to bring in cash now. And it really relies on your existing customers and clients and audience. It's much, much easier to convert a sale from a past client than it is to convert somebody who's brand new for you. And so when it comes to bringing in sales immediately, your fastest path for doing that is to go back to your existing clients, the people who already love what you do, putting together maybe a little solution just for them, right? That's a great fit for what you know about them because you've worked with them in the past, and sell them on that or upsell or invite them to that. Then we have expand, right? You might have—this is more of our medium-term solution—and this is around, you need to expand that list of past customers or clients, maybe people, you don't really have an offer that people can come back to, right? I'm thinking about wedding planners; you're not going to, you can plan an engagement, you can plan an anniversary party, but you're not re-planning their wedding in an ideal situation, right? You might have things where people use you once and then they move on and it's not as obvious to find those kinds of, here's a new thing that my past customers can work with me on. So, expanding more of that medium term. Also, if you maybe don't have a whole lot of like past customers or clients, or you've recently pivoted into offering something else, right? So, let's go into our different types here. So, under the umbrella of optimize, the number one way to make more money from your content is to plan your content around profit.
So this is more of an ongoing solution for you to . And what can we take? What are you already doing? Likely you have some form of planning content and how, how can we tie that to more sales? So, one of the ways, one of the things that I teach, and one of the things I believe in is like your editorial calendar. Fantastic. Amazing. I have a planner and it's coming out in a few weeks. And so obviously I very strongly believe in a content calendar, an editorial calendar, but where I think you amp up the effectiveness and the strategy of that content calendar is by using something called a content campaign. So if you're going to be creating content anyways, wouldn’t it be better if your content was leading to a specific offer? Wouldn't it be better if your content was engaging and priming your existing audience for that offer that you're going to make at the end of that campaign or at the end of a series of blog posts? Wouldn't it be better if the people that you were bringing in by promoting those blog posts were like, perfect fit potential and prospective clients or customers for the paid offer that you're going to be leading to? I say yes, right? Because it's a great way of making sure that we are putting your offers at the center of your content. And so what I recommend, you can do this a couple of different ways with the content campaign method, but basically, it's broken down into two phases. So, phase one, we are releasing your regular content, right? So, your regular blog posts, your regular podcast episodes, but we're making sure that it's along a theme and it's the topics or reverse engineered from your paid offer. And so you have four to five weeks where you are releasing those weekly blog posts or weekly podcast episodes, and you might have a PDF freebie, or you might have a sales event that you're leading to, like you're going to, in week five or six, host a webinar or host a workshop or host a challenge related to that topic. So with all of those blog posts that you're releasing the call to action for those is sign up for the webinar, sign up for the challenge, right? And by doing so you're able to add people into an interest list, right? And then we're able to add people to your email list. They're already interested in the topic. They've kind of raised their hands and said, yes, I want to learn more about this. And then you have a next, a number of weeks to nurture that interest list so that when you do make that offer, people are super excited about it and it's not necessarily coming out of left field. So, that's number one. Planning your content around profit using content campaigns.
So, way number two for making more money from your content is to optimize the call to actions in your content. So, this one's going to be pretty quick. So let's just look at your website analytics and take a look at where are people currently spending the most time on your website, right? Where are they hanging out? Which pages are they clicking on the most? Which blog posts are they clicking on the most? And then making sure that those pages and those blog posts have an opt-in form, or have a lead magnet associated with it that people can sign up for and that's related to the content that they're already interested in. That's already related to the thing that they're looking for more information about. So, this is a simple way of improving what you're already doing and kind of going where your audience is already, you know, they're already raising their hand and saying this is what we're interested in. So we're going to go back and make sure that the CTAs or call to actions on those pages and on those blog posts are optimized to get them onto your email list. And then you can use your email list to sell to them later, right? So it's simple and easy and like, it's kind of like low hanging fruit, right? It's the easiest way to make sure that you are leveraging what's already working and so that your content is going to work harder for you. And by making sure that those pages and those blog posts have opt-in forms, and by making sure that those pages and those blog posts have a CTA related to the offer that you're going to be promoting, it's going to be like, it's going to be super simple for you to make sure that we are, you know, we're optimizing your existing stuff. So, that's number two. Optimize the call to actions in your content.
Number three: building relationships with your audience. So, let's go back to this idea of turning an audience into a community, right? And I believe it all comes down to relationships. So, I don't know if you're one of those people who kind of puts together your content in a one-to-many way, right? Like you create your content and it's more like you're broadcasting to your people, right? You create your blog post, you put it out on the internet and then you're like, okay, cool, I'm done, right? And you don't necessarily have a whole lot of engagement, you don't have a whole lot of like relationships with people, with your community. So let's start building relationships with your audience and with your community. So, first up, let's get social with your social media, right? You're likely using social media to promote your content. That's fantastic. It's a great tool. It's a great resource, but what if we could use that as a way to engage and build relationships with your audience, with your community, and with your readers, right? So, what you're going to want to do is not just use social media as a way to broadcast your message, but as a way to build relationships with people. And I'm a big fan of like, meeting people where they're at, right? So, if they are on Instagram, if they're on Facebook, let's go there. Let's hang out there. Let's be social on social media. So, I want to challenge you to look at your existing social media strategy and see, are you using it as a broadcast medium or are you using it as a way to build relationships? Are you commenting back on other people's stuff? Are you replying to your own comments, right? If you're just using it as a broadcast medium, it's not going to be as effective for you, but if you can use social media to build relationships with people, it's going to be much, much more effective for you. And then one of the other things that I want to encourage you to do is create content that encourages interaction. So, what I'm going to recommend is ask questions, right? Ask questions at the end of your blog posts, at the end of your podcast episodes, at the end of your videos. And so, if you're on YouTube, maybe at the end of your YouTube video, ask a question and say, hey, I want to hear from you. What's your opinion on this? Or what are you struggling with? Or what's your biggest takeaway? Or what's your biggest challenge related to this topic? And then encouraging people to comment, encouraging people to answer that question, and then taking the time to reply to people's comments, to reply to people's answers, to reply to people's emails, right? And then by doing so, you're building a two-way conversation, you're building relationships with people, and you are being social on social media. And so that is, that's number three. Build relationships with your audience.
So let's move on to our second category of ways to make more money from your content which is leverage, right? So these are more of your short-term solutions, your short-term ways of making more money from your content. And again, it's about leveraging your existing audience, leveraging your existing customers and clients. And so one of the things that I believe in is that selling should be a service. So, the first way to make more money from your content here is to host a paid challenge or host a paid event, right? So, this is not a super easy thing to put together, but it can be very effective in terms of bringing in sales immediately, right? So, like I said, you have a big tax bill, or you have an investment you want to make, or you want to be empowered to say no to other projects that you don't want to work with, hosting a paid challenge or a paid event is a fantastic way of leveraging your existing community, your existing audience, right? You're going to be inviting your audience, inviting your list to this paid challenge or paid event. And because they are already interested in the topic that you're going to be hosting the challenge or event on, they're much more likely to sign up for that. And the reason why I say it's a paid challenge or paid event, is because by making it a paid event, you're able to ensure that you're going to be, you know, making money from it. And I like the idea of having a paid event versus a free event because it's much easier to sell a $47 or $97 challenge than it is to sell a $497 or $997 course, right? So if you're struggling with the, you know, the price point of your offers and you're not sure if your people are going to be able to afford that or you're kind of like concerned about that, hosting a paid challenge or a paid event can be a really effective way of getting people to pay you to get your support, to get your expertise.
And where can you turn that into a piece of content, right? Either user-generated content, if it's a product-based business or a digital product-based business. Business or perhaps could it be? For every service-based client that you launch, could you turn around and create a post around that as a way of tagging them? Thus, like deepening your relationship with them, showcasing them, talking about what makes them great. But also, for other people, it shows off your work. It's like the whole “show, don't tell” factor of showcasing. So that whole little leverage piece to ways to handle it. These are the two ways to tackle it or approach it from the fourth. The fourth way underneath, still underneath the umbrella of leverage, is to start some kind of referral program. So again, this is for your existing customer base in most cases, because the best people to promote your offers or be ambassadors for your brand are the people who've actually opened their wallet and done that with you. They're going to have the most stories that relate to that thing. But there are probably more people than you realize who love to send you business. It's just a matter of creating the opportunity for them to do so. So, reaching out to your past clients or business besties, telling them how much you'd love their help spreading the word on your services, offering a little thank you incentive or forming, maybe, a two-way referral site circle. So we've just recently launched our Biz Bestie Club, and that is only for past customers of your content empire, because I know that the people I want repping my brand are the people who actually already use and love the products that we sell. I don't want somebody, even if they have a massive audience, promoting our offers, having zero connection to them, that just doesn't feel super aligned with me. And so that is like one example of an affiliate program, right? And if you are more of a digital product-based business, or a product-based business, or a template-based business or a course-based business, an affiliate program might be the way to go. Now, on the other hand, if you happen to be a service-based business, perhaps you want to consider more of a referral program.
And so, some little thank you or something, or even like a two-way relationship. You send me your copywriting clients, I'll send you my web design clients. And like, it's a perfect little referral circle match made in heaven there. So, more of a referral program might be better for service-based business. So, these are both like short term solutions that you could put together fairly quickly. And by leveraging your existing and past customers and clients. Now, under the umbrella of expansion. So, you might find yourself in a situation where you don't have a whole ton of suitable clients and customers to go back to with other offers, or maybe you don't even have that many to begin with because you pivoted to something else. Well, these options are for expanding, are for these are medium-term solutions for getting new business in fast that rely on new people. So, method number five of increasing the sales from your content is to build your interest list fast. So, this is under the category of expansion. And basically, if I had to sum up the strategy or distill it down to one line or one purpose here, our purpose is to identify leads using hand-raising content or emails. Right. And so it might be, there's a couple of ways to come about this one. So, the first thing is, you can create a really valuable PDF freebie or resource. So maybe you sell copywriting packages. And so, you can come up with something like an “about page swipe copy template” fill in the blank here or “how to find your stories for your about page.” Do you want my free guide about all this?
Are you writing your website currently and you're struggling with this piece? That is the key here. We want to make sure we're using hand-raising content. So we want to make sure our hook is something that identifies the people that we're looking for. So, are you working on your website and are you struggling with your about page stories or something of the sort? That can be a really great way. Like, DM me or comment below, and then you can send them a direct link to that. Thus, opening up that conversation for you to follow up with them. Now, in terms of your email list, you could use what they call, from Dean Jackson, the nine-word email. So basically, in the subject line, you would have their name. So, Hailey, and below, “Are you still interested in dah, dah, dah? Are you still interested in creating a sales funnel? Are you still interested in learning how to create meal plans every week for picky eaters?” It could be any number of things, but just like a one-word email that gets people to respond, “Yes, I am interested in this.” Thus again, opening up that opportunity for a two-way conversation. The second part of that, like once you've identified them using the hand-raising content or emails, is the follow-up process.
So, and you might take a bit of experimentation with this, but working with like, “Here's the link. And then tell me more about what are you struggling with this and this in particular,” and then you can slowly introduce your solutions if that's something that they're interested in. The more conversations that you have, right, especially if you're in more of a service-based business or anything that relies on that personal touch, or maybe there's an application or maybe there's a sales call that has to happen, but the more calls or the more conversations you have, directly ties back to the number of sales that you're making. So, where can we use your content to create those opportunities for more conversations? And more conversations lead to more sales. Our final thing here is a pop-up offer. And this can be like a quick, easy offer to put together in an ideal world. You're not going to create a whole new brand-new course from scratch, but we want to think about it in easy ways. We want to think about quick. People love something new, especially if you've had the same offers for a while, you've had the same people on your list for a while.
Where can you spice things up by rolling out a brand-new offer, right? So again, this is around that expansion piece of ways to make more money from your content, right? Where do we expand, not just relying on past customers and clients, but where can we create more customers and clients? So, people love new offers, right? So, some simple ones here are like maybe some kind of pop-up service. A great one is like some kind of audit or some kind of one-off strategy or sales call. Could be a VIP day. And then if you want to do less of that one-on-one piece, you could do more of a workshop, right? A PR, a pop-up workshop. Now, the thing that we want to think about here is if my goal is to sell this signature product or the signature offer, the topic that I'm choosing for my workshop, I want to make sure I'm picking something that is a direct lead-in to that signature offer so that I can upsell people from that pop-up offer to the main thing that I actually want to sell. Right. So, again, a lot of this is also going to depend on what phase of business you're in. But if you're brand new, then doing a couple of these short-term things will make sense. Like, getting a bunch of pop-up offers, putting them out there, getting your name out there and getting some customers and clients in the door, getting some cash in the door. And then you can focus more on the medium-term and long-term stuff.
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