Author: Daljeet Singh

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Ethical Marketing Philosophy

What is a Marketing Strategy Led By Content?

I thought before I go on recording videos within each of the 5 steps of the content-led marketing strategy – I thought it might make sense to do one that quickly summarises those 5 steps and why it’s the approach I take.

Don’t like videos? Here’s the text version:

When you’re planning your marketing strategy, you could probably take the quick and dirty route. Get things done, push things out and get ‘results at all costs’. Cutting corners will almost certainly get you those results more quickly, but it won’t get you a marketing strategy that lasts.

And it almost certainly will have to involve some moral compromise.
A marketing strategy is so much more than knowing what channels to market on. In this video, I explain the 5 steps that I think absolutely anyone needs to take to create a marketing strategy that lasts and a marketing strategy that’s ethical.

In this video I’m going to be explaining what I think a content-led marketing strategy is and the five steps that you need to take to do one for yourself.

Please make sure you subscribe to my YouTube channel if you haven’t already. It’ll keep you updated on when I release new videos.

Why Cheap and Fast Marketing Is Not A Strategy

Now, when I’m talking about content-led marketing strategy, well when you’re talking about any marketing strategy, you could cut corners – you can do it as quickly as possible to get fast results. You can be selling things and making ‘loads of money’.

And that might work for you at the start.

But what you will end up doing is selling a whole lot of things and not actually building a strategy.

I remember there was someone that I was working with earlier in my career who said you can have:

  • high quality work
  • you can have it done cheaply
  • or you can have it done quickly

But you only get to choose two.

So when you do this this cheap and quick marketing, trying to sell all the things quickly, what will happen is that you’ll end up with a strategy that that doesn’t last very long.

It’s not a strategy that you can build on as you grow.

But if you slow it all right down you really increase the quality of your marketing strategy. I think the approach that I take towards marketing is a great way to slow it down.

So you’re not going to get fast results doing this, but it will be something that you will be building on. And once you’ve built some of it, you will see how it just keeps growing.

The 5 Steps to Building a Content-Led Marketing Strategy

So I’m going to run through five steps with you and these are five steps that you need to take whether you do it with a marketing person, or you do it yourself.

These are the five steps that I think anyone, really, should be taking if they’re going to be trying to sell anything.

Step 1: Understand Your Target Person

Step One is that you need to really understand your target person. And that means understanding them emotionally. It doesn’t mean just how they relate to your product.

It’s understanding their Wants, Needs, Fears and Frustrations as a person.

Step 2: Define Your Unique Selling Proposition

Step Two is that you then need to fully define your unique selling point. What trips up people here is that it needs to be unique and it needs to actually be a selling point.

I explain this a little more in the What is a USP video.

Step 3: Choosing Your Marketing Channels

Step Three is that you then need to choose your channels. And this is where a lot of people start.

They’re kind of like, “Oh where do I need to start marketing?”

But you must do step one and two first because there’s hundreds of channels. There’s so many ways that you can market. You need a way to choose.

And the best way to choose is make sure you understand your target person and make sure that you know what you’re communicating to them.

Step 4 & 5: Create Your Content Ideas & Manage Your Marketing Resources

Step Four and Five then just flow straight on from there.

Step Four is all about understanding the content that you need to create. This is kind of blue sky thinking, coming up with all the things you need to do.

And then Step Five is all about then tempering all the things you need to do with the resources that you’ve got and timelining out your production.

This is the way to start with a marketing strategy.

My Content is Built Around These Steps

So my YouTube channel (and this blog) is all organised according to these five steps and there’s also another playlist that’s all about the ethics of marketing where I’m going to be talking a bit about things I think what marketers don’t talk enough about, which is practicing marketing in an ethical way.

Please feel free to dip and dive into different bits according to what you need and if you’re really stuck and you’re really confused and you don’t know what’s happening but you have an ethical, sustainable business, or you’re working towards changing the world, please get in touch with me email me at dj@rainbowdragon.digital or fill out the form below and I’m happy to give an hour of my time to anyone who is doing something amazing.

And if you’re doing something really amazing, I might even just keep helping you because that is what I want to do with my time.

Let me know if you have any comments or anything that you want to hear about, any kind of information that you would like me to talk about, I’ll be happy to add it to my schedule.

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Step 2: Defining Your USP

What is a USP?

The term “USP” has become quite standard in the world of digital marketing. And many entrepreneurs often believe they already know what their “unique selling proposition” is.
But is is truly a proposition that sells?And is it truly unique?
Here’s a litmus test for checking your USP is truly what makes your product or service stand out in the crowd.

Don’t like videos? Here’s the text version:

USP stands for Unique Selling Proposition but how do you make sure that it is unique and that it actually sells?

In this video today I’m going to explain a really simple concept of how you work out what your unique selling proposition is.

Please remember to subscribe to my YouTube channel so that you can get updates on when I release new videos.

What is a USP and Why Does It Matter?

The USP is your Unique Selling Proposition and what that means is that it’s the reason why people should buy your product. It’s the reason why you stand out in the market.

Most entrepreneurs when they think of their USP, they usually think of the features to do with their product and the way that it works. Maybe the way it’s got some like proprietary technology or whatever. And that’s good, it’s a start, but it’s not the complete idea of a Unique Selling Proposition – it’s kind of just the proposition.

But there’s a simple Venn diagram that you can use to make sure that when you’re getting your Unique Selling Proposition that it’s unique and that it’s a selling proposition.

The 3 Circles of the USP Venn Diagram

The very first circle at the top is what you do well. Most entrepreneurs know this. You know what your service or product is, you know what quality it is, you know you know how you are really good at doing this thing.

But then you’ve got your second circle. Your second circle is what the customer actually wants. And this is why the Unique Selling Proposition is step two in the content-led strategy – because step one is identifying your target person and getting inside their head. When you’re inside the head of your target person, you know what they actually want. You know the things that make them tick. You know their wants, you know their needs, you know their fears, you know their frustrations.

So, when you look at the things that you do, you need to put them in the words of the customer’s desires of the customers fears, of the customer’s frustrations, of the customer’s needs. You need to make sure that you’re talking about it on an emotional level in the way that they talk about it.

But at that point, you’ve still only got selling propositions. And these are important – it’s important to have a good long list of all of the things that you do well that are worded in the way that your customer wants to hear about it, or why it matters to the customer at all. But you haven’t yet made it unique.

In order to make it unique, you need that last circle on the Venn diagram. That last circle is what your competitors do not do well. And that little middle triangular bit of that Venn diagram that’s where your unique selling proposition lies.

Because if your competitors aren’t doing it, then it’s unique. Then you stand out in the crowd.

But even if your customer really freaking wants something and your competitor is saying the exact same thing as you there’s no way that they’re going to differentiate between you and them. And if your competitor is saying something else that you’re not saying they’ll choose them. But if you are talking about something that the customer really wants, and it’s something that you do really well, and your competitors are not talking about it – it’s a unique selling proposition.

Bring Your Unique Selling Proposition Front and Centre

Now a lot of people have difficulty with this because the uniqueness is the bit that’s difficult. Sometimes you find that your competitors are doing it but they’re not talking about it. And that’s an opportunity – it’s an opportunity to bring that message front and centre.

And this is the whole point. It’s bringing your unique selling proposition front and centre.

Your other selling propositions should be there but further down the page. Further down your brochure, further down whatever you’re doing.

Your unique selling proposition is your starting point for every piece of content you create. If you can push that unique selling proposition first, then you can go on to the other selling propositions.

I hope that was helpful. Subscribe to my YouTube channel and you’ll get updates on when I release new videos on the different steps in the content-led marketing strategy.

And if you are an ethical and sustainable business and you want help with your marketing you want some advice on your marketing please get in touch using the form below – I want to help you even if you can’t afford it.

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Step 1: Understanding Your Target Person

How Do You Choose A Target Person?

A lot of people know about defining their ‘target audience’. And usually it’s all about demographics and looking at the market’s behaviour, buying patterns and so on.
All of that is useful, but it’s not really what I’m talking about when I tell my clients that they need to learn to truly understand their target person…

Choosing your target person is a creative exercise and not so much about doing market research.

In this video, I’m going to talk to you about why the target person is the first step that you need to take in creating your content-led marketing strategy and why it’s less of a research task and more of a creative task.

Please remember to subscribe to my YouTube channel so that you can get updates on when I have new videos.

Why Do You Need To Choose Your Target Person?

Most entrepreneurs, when thinking that they need new leads, they start their marketing by thinking about “Should I be on Facebook?” or “Should I be on Instagram?”. But where they should really start is understanding this target person first.

Once you understand this person and the way that they interact with the world, then you can then choose where your marketing needs to go.

So, in later videos, I’ll explain more about choosing the channels and all of that, but in this video I want to explain to you why choosing the target person matters.

You Already Know Who Your Target Person Is

Now when you’re choosing your target person there are some really interesting developments that I’ve realised after talking to a few people and seeing the light bulbs go off in in people’s heads. I’s usually that you do know who the person is, you just haven’t really thought about it in the right way.

The 4 Things You Need to Understand About Your Target Person

The structure that I give to people is look at four things to do with the person.

You want to look at their wants – so their desires, the things that they want in life. They don’t necessarily need them but it would make them happy if they had them.

Then you want their needs – so these are things that they really have to have in order to survive. If they don’t do it their life starts falling apart.

Then you need to understand their fears. These are the imagined problems that they have and these are quite easy for you to then solve because they’re imagined problems and your product can mitigate against those imagined problems.

And then you’ve got frustrations, and these are the things that are actively causing a problem in their lives right now and maybe your product can fix.

It’s Not Just About Your Product/Service

When you’re doing this do not look at those four things as things directly associated with your product. What you need to do is understand the wider fears and frustrations and their wants and desires – more as they relate to their entire lifetime, not just their interaction with you.

Because when you can understand them better as a whole person, you’ll be able to communicate better with them in a way that they relate to. If you can talk about their fears and frustrations that are not directly related to your product, then they feel that you understand them better. And, the truth is, you do understand them better if you’ve really thought about these things.

Why Understanding Your Target Person is a Creative Exercise

I also say that this is a more creative exercise than a research exercise. The research part of it helps, it helps you understand the wider market and the bits that you don’t understand.

But the truth is most entrepreneurs, when they’ve gone into a business, it’s usually because they’re either super involved in that business or in that industry, and so they really understand it well. They’ve got extreme expertise in the thing that they’re offering.

So, usually, they do understand the person emotionally – the wants and needs and fears and frustrations – these are things that they get. The entrepreneur has that inside their heads but they haven’t really articulated it properly, so they probably haven’t explored their understanding. It’s more of an instinctual understanding.

A big part of creating a more concerted content-led marketing strategy is pulling out that instinctive knowledge from inside your head and putting it down on paper. Not only for yourself so that you can explore it but also so that your team or anyone you’re working with – if you hire a copywriter, you hire a graphic designer – you can chuck this one page sheet at them so they can immediately get a better understanding of who it is that you’re targeting.

Once you’ve got this sheet where you’ve got these needs fears and frustrations of your target person on a sheet then you’ll be able to head forward into creating your USP, creating your channels, creating your content – each of these will massively benefit by you being really clear on how this all relates to the target person.

I will be covering more techniques and advice on the other steps to creating a content-led marketing strategy in other videos. They’ll be organized in playlists on my channel.

If you sign up to my mailing list (in the footer) then you’ll get an email whenever I’ve released a new video which will be hopefully helpful to you if you are trying to grow your business in an ethical and sustainable way.

Please do get in touch using the form below if you want any kind of marketing advice if you are doing something sustainable and ethical, I want to talk to you even if you cannot afford any kind of marketing coaching or anything at the moment, I want to help.