For many business owners, creating shareable content is like pulling teeth. It’s tough, it’s painful, and you’re never happy in the end. It’s something that most business owners avoid doing or don’t do well because they don’t like it. That’s a mistake. Nick Usborne sat down with Jason Wright recently to share some pro tips for creating content.
Why do you need shareable content?
Shareable content was once a thing that only savvy business owners did. A few businesses had a blog or a weekly newsletter, but most relied on word of mouth and referrals to get new business. Now, shareable content is something that virtually all businesses do to try and reach new customers. If you’re not doing it, you’re putting your business at a disadvantage to your competitors.
How do you create shareable content?
Shareable content is not something that you can create overnight, especially if you’re not an experienced writer. It will take time and work.
Do not take shortcuts.
Nick Usborne is the founder of Conversational Copywriting, a company that specializes in helping people write better sales copy. Usborne himself is a veteran sales copywriter. Recently, he sat down with Intentionally Inspirational founder Jason Wright to talk about what many business owners do wrong and how they can improve.
Cookie-cutter content
One of the biggest mistakes that Usborne sees businesses making is using proven or cookie-cutter content. Cookie-cutter content is content that was proven to work on one website, so it is duplicated and used on other sites with hopefully the same results.
Usborne says that’s dangerous.
“Too many people make cookie-cutter copy,” said Usborne. “The trouble with proven copy is that it’s not your voice. It’s not your company’s voice. It’s not your business’ voice…Your prospects know that this doesn’t sound like you or even worse, they think maybe this is you. Maybe I was wrong when I perceived you as something a little different; now I realize that actually, you’re the same as everyone else.”
The last thing you want to be is the same as everyone else.
You mean I have to write?
Without cookie-cutter content or a writing team at your disposal, you’re left with just one option. Writing it yourself. But, don’t despair. Writing isn’t as tough as you think once you get the hang of it.
“Write from the ground up. Sure, learn from what other people do,” said Usborne. “Learn from best practices, but then start over in your voice, your story, your culture, your promise, your emotions, [what you] care about so that people connect with you or your business as something different, something special, something they want to pay attention to, something they trust.”
The biggest key to content creation
Nick Usborne says your voice is the secret to content creation, especially in today’s day and age where everything seems to happen on that device in the palm of your hand.
“No more business gobbledygook and no more kind of fancy pants marketing stuff because that’s not how people communicate on this device,” said Usborne holding up a smartphone. “If you want to be in the same place as them, write in the same way.”
He says when you don’t write in your voice, you hurt your business.
“If you’re a small business, so much of your success is going to be tied up with trust,” said Usborne. “I can push hard and make one sale through old school direct response, but if I want a customer for life, not so much. I need to build trust. I’m either building trust or burning trust. Fancy business talk and fancy marketing talk burns trust. Conversation and engagement build trust.”
If you enjoyed what you read, be sure to check out our other blog posts and check out the episode here.
Written by Erika Towne