It doesn’t matter how good you are at creating content for B2B, some days the ideas run dry, and it can be difficult to think of anything exciting or valuable to share with your audience. However, did you know that documenting your content creation process can actually be a viable solution to this dry spell? Read on and indulge us and all will become clear.
Why more and more content creators are giving away their “secrets”?
Understandably, the thought of sharing your processes and giving away your hard-earned trade secrets can feel counter-intuitive. For example, if you teach a man to fish then he will no longer need to pay you to catch fish for him…right? In B2B this isn’t always the case. Here’s why.
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1. It builds trust
First things first, giving away your trade secrets is a good way to build trust. It demonstrates that you value your audience and that you are committed to sharing high-value information with them.
When your competitors are sharing generic content that doesn’t really add much in the way of value to people’s lives, they might get some engagement and a few shares, but aside from that they aren’t going to set the world alight.
By showing off your knowledge, people will be more inclined to put their faith in you as a service provider.
But it’s not just about knowledge; it’s about transparency as well…
“Cards on the table: this is how we work our magic.”
It takes your audience on a journey and helps them to clearly see what is involved with the work that you do. In fact, it can actually be quite exciting for some people as it feels as though they’re being allowed ‘behind the scenes’ and into your inner circle.
2. Demonstrate your authority
Again, if you are only sharing the “same old” content that your audience is frequently engaging with, it doesn’t do much to prove your authority.
Anyone can repurpose existing content or curate “how to” blogs from other businesses.
However, if you are sharing in-depth information about your content creation processes, you will likely be sharing high-value information that many of your audience haven’t even thought of before.
Especially if you are sharing real-life case studies and examples along the way, it reinforces your authority because it has clearly been tried and tested – with practical experience.
3. It shows how difficult it is!
Let’s think about any experienced SEO agency as an example:
- They could create a content series based on how to write SEO-friendly website copy that converts, create engaging blog content on a weekly basis, formulate awesome social media posts, and so on.
- With each piece of content, they can go into tremendous depth and write long-form content that covers every single aspect of the content creation process.
- In doing so, yes, they are giving away all of the key information and essentially “teaching their audience to fish”. However, at the same time, they are also demonstrating how immensely complicated the process is.
Take short-form copywriting for social media ads as the perfect example of this:
- To the uninitiated, paying someone hundreds of dollars for a few words of content seems like madness! “It’s just one sentence; surely it doesn’t take that long to write?” Wrong.
- When you deep-dive into consumer psychology and how you labored over every syllable and sound in order to craft the perfect sales copy that is bound for maximum conversions, your audience will not only know how (in theory) to do it themselves; but also, how immensely difficult and complicated it actually is to put into practice.
So, while certain prospects will read that content and go off and try to do it themselves, there’s also a very good chance that you will have a number of prospects come to you, to do it for them instead.
“You’ve built up trust, you’ve established your authority, and you’ve demonstrated how complicated the process is…now your audience is really warming up to the idea of working with you!” – as nicely quoted by Andrew Raso, the co-founder, CEO, and executive chairman of Online Marketing Gurus.
4. It keeps your brand alive in your audiences’ minds
Another great benefit to creating content series’ that are built around your content creation processes is the fact you will keep your brand alive in your audiences’ minds.
For example, say you start a content series called: “Learn how to create awesome content for your business over the next 30 days!”. People will likely be more inclined to check in and follow your progress.
Assuming that you commit to creating high-value content, they’ll keep coming back for more – thus keeping your brand alive in their minds (which can be very handy if they are currently in the process of choosing a digital marketing agency to invest in).
The stronger your presence, the more likely they will be to remember you when the time comes.
See also: Link Building vs Content Creation: Which is More Important for SEO?
5. It’s an opportunity to show vulnerability
People like buying from people. As such, if you document your content creation process and give your audience a look sees into your world, it gives you an opportunity to humanize yourself.
For example, you could talk about the difficulties that you have endured throughout your career and all of the silly content creation mistakes that you used to make.
- “Learn from my content creation mistakes.”
- “I wish I knew these 5 content creation secrets 10 years ago!”
This type of content really pops with B2B audiences. It’s a highly effective way of reminding them that behind the brand are real people, just like them.
6. The content can be repurposed in so many different ways
Another awesome benefit to this content creation approach is the fact that the information can be broken up and repurposed in so many different ways, thus contributing to multiple digital marketing strategies at once.
For example:
- Each stage in the content creation process can be extracted from a blog and put into Tweets.
- Each Tweet can be screenshotted and uploaded to Instagram.
- Every blog can be transcribed into audio and shared on a podcast, or radio, or uploaded to Spotify.
- All of the information can be talked about over video and uploaded to YouTube.
- You can extract the information and put them into handy and beautifully designed infographics that are on-brand.
- You can create carousels on LinkedIn to share with other professionals.
As you can see, the opportunities are seemingly endless and this means that each piece of content that you produce can be shared across a multitude of platforms, thus increasing your reach tenfold.
Invariably (again, assuming the quality is on point), this can lead to a significant amount of engagement, likes, and shares.
7. Many people are afraid to do it!
And of course, what could be more advantageous than the fact that many businesses and professionals are petrified of sharing their content creation processes?
The fact is, when executed well, this content creation strategy can be a highly effective means of generating leads and getting conversions through your website.
However, most people are still falling prey to the notion that “giving away lots of information for free is too risky”. It’s NOT. Remember:
- The only prospects who will run off with your secrets and try to do everything by themselves are the cheap clients you don’t want to work with anyway.
- The clever ‘high ticket’ clients who value their precious time and have money to spend will come to you, the expert, to help them.
Use the fear and indecision of others to your advantage. Prove yourself to be a fearless authority and a thought leader in your industry.
8. You already know everything you need!
Finally, another compelling benefit to taking this content creation approach is the fact that you already have the information you need.
Nobody knows your job better than you do. You don’t have to dig around and do further research in order to better understand your content creation process. It’s already up there *taps fingers on head*.
In other words, you can essentially hit the ground running and start documenting your process with very little in the way of preparation at all.
Related: 14 Best Tech Tools Every Content Creator Should Invest In.
Final thoughts: Be fearless!
Again, we completely understand that the thought of giving away so much information can be rather daunting. On the one hand, you might feel like you are giving away too much. And on the other, you might be worried that you aren’t good enough to share your processes. In either case, be fearless.
And don’t forget Google’s ‘People-First’ algorithm update: They reward websites that share genuinely helpful content with even more visibility. Can’t argue with that!
“By people, for people.”
