e182 The Content Marketing Trap (And How To Free Yourself From It)
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[00:00:00] Welcome, welcome to Rewild Your Business. I'm your host, Gill Moakes. Thank you so much for joining me again this week. I love having you here with me. Otherwise, it really does feel like I'm just talking into a green dot, which I've got quite good at doing, I have to say, even if I say so myself. But it's still nice to picture you out there listening to me.
So what are we talking about this week? I feel like this one is, sometimes it's a little bit uncomfortable because it does go against what you are told a lot. What I wanna talk about today also kind of goes against what you wanna be true. But you know that for me, you're only ever gonna get the raw kind of unapologetic truth because I just don't see the point in sharing with you stuff that I know no longer [00:01:00] works or I know isn't gonna bring you the results that you want in your business.
So I'm only ever gonna share with you what I know to be true, even if it's a little bit unpopular. And like I say, not necessarily what you wanna hear. So what I'm talking about this week is the fact that what worked in marketing a couple of years ago really isn't working anymore. And so if you are someone who is kind of still trying to crack that algorithm and who believes that your success is entirely governed by the quality of your content, for example.
What putting out there, this isn't gonna be what you wanna hear, but it's true and I
open-minded perspective and realize yourself on [00:02:00] content ster wheel and the returns are definitely diminishing. So I wanna give you an alternative to that. Honestly works. It's not a complete burn the house down thing. That's not what I'm talking about here. It's really a mindset shift. It's a mindset shift towards where you need to be putting your energy to grow your business.
Okay, let's dive into the episode. Welcome to Rewild Your Business, the podcast for women doing the work, their soul intended. I'm Gill Moakes. I'm an international business coach and I'm a guide for women doing the work that matters. Rewilding your business means cutting away what doesn't belong to allow, what does to thrive.
Finding simplicity in your work, and it's about bringing the whole of who you are to the table. Whether you are building something new or finding your way back to what really matters to [00:03:00] you. I'm so glad you're here. So here's what I'm seeing all the time at the moment. Really awesome coaches, like people who are genuinely good at what they do, but they're burning themselves out trying to grow their business from a place of just creating more and more content.
They're like posting umpteen times a day. Some people, they're creating reels to go out every day of the week. They've got these really sophisticated carousel posts and graphics and you know. All the things. They're jumping on, the trends, they're doing everything, and the problem is that they're just not seeing a return on that amount of effort.
They're either really not seeing an awful lot of engagement at all on their content because we know this. We're all experiencing this drop in reach. The problem is, what I'm also seeing is that the coaching industry is almost creating this [00:04:00] closed shop of engagement. In other words, if you're a coach who is, like I said, genuinely creating all of this great content, but actually the only engagement you are seeing is from your peers.
It's from other coaches who are also creating this amazing amount of content and are also stuck on the hamster wheel. I wanna make this really clear. I'm not for one minute saying that content doesn't matter. Content marketing absolutely does still matter, but it's one piece of a marketing ecosystem. So in other words, your overall marketing strategy needs to be bigger than just a content strategy, right?
If you wanna build a business that is sustainable for the long haul. That actually feels good to run, that's actually enrolling clients consistently. Then you need a marketing [00:05:00] ecosystem that is bigger than just content marketing. So I wanna talk about what is actually working at the moment. And honestly, it's the thing I've been bloody banging on about, for God knows how long.
It's the thing that. Doesn't ever, will never not work. And it's also the one thing that cannot be hacked or gamified or outsourced or anything like that. And that is relationship building, relationship marketing. So yes, we need content marketing. We need that kind of lighthouse. Piece where you are producing content that shines out, hoping to attract your ideal clients to you.
Yes, that's part of the picture, but I've always talked about the two sides of the same coin. Content marketing on one [00:06:00] side and relationship marketing on the other. Relationship marketing, the the searchlight piece where you are going out and building relationships. That will lead to clients, collaborators and introducers.
Those are the three kinds of relationships you should be consistently building in your network. Potential clients, potential collaborators, potential introducers of clients. Okay, so just go back a minute because I said it just now that you know what used to work isn't working anymore, and I think this is something that we just really need to understand that things have massively changed back in like 20 21, 20 22 even, you could post consistently.
Use the right hashtags, maybe like jump on one of these trending kind of things, audios or reels, things like that. And you would get visibility because you were jumping [00:07:00] on that bandwagon. The algorithm would look favorably on you and you would get good reach, and therefore you would get good engagement from that because.
More people were seeing your content, right? You would then get new followers and those could potentially lead to discovery calls and then sales, right? I'm not saying it was easy back then, but it was a lot more straightforward. Content marketing was more predictable, the algorithms were more predictable.
There was a lot less noise, and honestly, there was a hell of a lot less AI generated crap clogging up everyone's feeds. But if you look at now where that is the complete opposite, our feeds are completely clogged up. With the most generic AI generated crap that literally you cannot tell one creator from another.[00:08:00]
The algorithms are changing every other week. I mean, no one knows what's getting prioritized Now, LinkedIn, Instagram, you know, the two platforms that I tend to use. I have no idea what their algorithms want from me, what they're going to prioritize, who they're gonna show my content to. I do not have control over that, and I think we just have to kind of accept that.
It doesn't mean that content marketing doesn't work at all, but it means that it's a lot less effective than it has been in the past. All of the platforms, to be honest, are oversaturated. And I think with the rise of stuff like TikTok, and to be fair, like Instagram reels, et cetera, you know, our attention spans are really small.
And honestly, the people who are posting constantly and trying to stay on top of that. [00:09:00] Algorithm, right? They're bloody knackered. They're exhausted from posting so much, but they're also not seeing the results that match that level of effort. So this is the uncomfortable truth, and I know that we don't want this to be true because we want content marketing to win because win, it's something that we can almost control how consistent we're with it.
So we want it to work. But the uncomfortable truth is that if your entire marketing strategy is just built on content creation, I don't care if you've got like a amazing podcast like this one, or maybe you've got a YouTube channel, we've God knows how many followers. You know, if your entire marketing strategy is content creation and visibility that is determined by an algorithm, then you are honestly building a business on.
What could turn into quicksand? Honestly, because [00:10:00] the algorithms are always gonna change. Platforms are always gonna keep shifting the goalposts because their priorities aren't the same as yours. The priority of LinkedIn is to keep people on LinkedIn, to keep people using LinkedIn. That is LinkedIn's only priority.
LinkedIn's priority is not to get you business. Same with Instagram. They want to keep us on the platform using the platform. So here's what doesn't change. How many times have you heard this, right? It sounds like such a bloody cliche. Human beings want to work with people they know, like, and trust. And for us as coaches, this is like doubly triply, quadruple true.
We're only ever going to enroll clients to work with us. If they feel like they know us, they feel like they like [00:11:00] us, and they feel like they can trust us. Full stop. That is never not gonna be true for us as coaches, right? To get to that point, we need to make them feel. Seen by, they need to feel a true connection with us.
They actually have to believe that you give a shit about them as a person, not just as a sale, not just as a tick in a box, not just as a like on Instagram, and you cannot fake a deep connection with someone. You can't. Gloss over it with a really clever hook or a like a trending audio that doesn't cut it.
There has to be a connection. So am I saying that you need to stop creating content? Absolutely not. That is not the point I'm trying to make here. Content marketing is still really important. It's still gonna [00:12:00] be how a lot of people are gonna find you in the first place. So for me, this podcast, lots of you listening.
Maybe you've stumbled across this episode and you're listening to this episode. It's the first time you've heard my voice. It's the first time you've come into my world. You don't yet feel like you like me, know me, trust me. I get it, but this gives me a chance. This content I'm creating right now gives me a chance to say, Hey, this is me.
These are a few of the things I believe in, things that I consider to be true. If you like this, come a bit further into my world. Maybe download a feed magnet from me. Maybe come to one of my workshops, maybe. Book a call with me and find out a bit more about how it might feel to work with me. The content I'm creating here is a [00:13:00] kind of first little step into that world, but it isn't what is gonna drive you to become a client of mine.
I'm gonna do that by building relationship with you. Now I can partially do that through. Through this podcast. Podcast. I can do it through Instagram content. Yeah, I can do it through LinkedIn content. Yeah. When it gets real is when you decide that you have felt supported enough by me through these mediums to wanna take it further.
And there's a few things I can do to maybe help that. So for example, if you are listening to this and you think, oh, I've actually really learned something from this podcast episode. I'm gonna go back and see what some of the other episodes she's done, this Jill person has done on maybe this topic or whatever topic it is [00:14:00] that you're interested in, and then maybe you are gonna come across a lead magnet.
That I am absolutely noticing when someone is taking an interest in me as a business coach, as a business consultant, as a teacher for coaches who teaches coaches how to build businesses, I'm gonna notice individuals who are raising their hand and taking an interest, and I'm sure as hell gonna try and build a relationship, a connection with those people.
That goes beyond me just throwing content out there. I'm gonna start looking at other people's content. I'm gonna engage in that. I'm gonna look at the things that interest me on social media, and I'm gonna make sure that I'm sharing what I think is really good content, because relationships are two way things.[00:15:00]
The coaches that I see who are thriving right now. The ones who are fully booked, who maybe have a wait list who are not stressing all the time about where their next client is coming from. They're not the ones necessarily with the most followers, and they're not the ones necessarily creating the most content, right?
They're the ones who have the deepest relationships with the people in their networks. They're the ones who actually talk to people. They're the ones who are having conversations in dms. They're the ones who are taking the time to acknowledge when someone perhaps has commented on a piece of their content.
They're really meaningfully engaging back with that person. They're the ones who are taking the time to do that. The ones who treat social media like. The kind of networking environment it actually can be, not just as a broadcast channel. And you know what, this has [00:16:00] always been a message that I have tried to reinforce over and over that, that hustle of post every day post three times a day, a few can post more, post more.
You know that at the Alex Homo kind of messaging of just more, more, more. I've never bought into that idea. More content is gonna be more success. I just don't see that as being true, and I've always trusted that. Building genuine relationships with people and showing up as the real me, the authentic me, the whole of me.
Having real conversations with real people is enough. And now I can see that it isn't just the thing that I'm banging on about. I'm seeing this in the zeitgeist. I'm seeing it as truth right now. 'cause the algorithm game is completely and utterly unstable and unsustainable and it [00:17:00] always has been. I feel like it's just taken a lot of people, a lot of burning out to realize that right.
I've done my fair share of feeling like I have to be doing more posting, more, showing up more, being more visible, and I used to see other coaches who were incredibly visible, who were incredibly prolific in their content. I would often mul it over and think. Oh, should I be doing that? Am I not doing enough?
And every now and then I would try and really up my game and start batching content. Something that honestly, for me, it's something I teach because I know that for some people it works so well for me. I've never been good at it for myself. I wish I was better at batching content because I feel like I do make life a little bit more difficult for myself, but honestly, in terms of batching content to then schedule a ton of content in advance, you know, I would try doing that for a while, and I try and [00:18:00] keep up with it, but I hated it.
It felt really exhausting for me and didn't really feel like me. So I stopped doing that. I really listened to my gut and scale back how much I post. I would say I probably scale back too much if I'm completely honest. I feel like there is a happy medium for content marketing, and there have been times in my business where I've scaled back too far and then I'll see that play out in my results too.
Suddenly, I'm not getting on as many discovery calls as perhaps I once was, and suddenly I'm not seeing as much traction with the content that I do put out there. So there's definitely a sweet spot. What I found was that when I scaled back from that more prolific posting all the time, like the sky doesn't fall in that, my business definitely didn't suffer from that.
In fact, my business grew when I reached my own [00:19:00] sweet spot, and honestly, my audience became more engaged. And here's the big one, and I think this is definitely true for most people, is that when you find that sweet spot in terms of the amount of content and the balance of content creation with relationship marketing, when you find that sweet spot, you find that you attract more of the right people.
I found that I was building more relationships that felt genuine. That actually felt like, yeah, okay, even if this person isn't ready to work with me right now, this is a relationship I really wanna pursue and I really wanna explore further. It's funny, just the other day actually, someone reached out to me, amazing woman called Roz, who I just absolutely love and I probably had my first conversation with her maybe a few years ago actually.
And we have stayed in touch. We have both nurtured the relationship with each [00:20:00] other and she came to me with a really interesting opportunity just last week. I'll share more with you about it actually. In another episode, but it's a perfect example of marketing is a long game and relationship marketing trumps algorithms.
Any day, any day. Also, we have to accept that you can't shortcut relationship building. The other thing that I've always taught is that we really need these two sides of the coin that you know, the content marketing and the relationship marketing, because content marketing has always been and will always be a long tail marketing strategy.
In other words, you won't reap the benefits of your content marketing today or tomorrow or next week. You're gonna reap the benefits of that. Kind of marketing in six months time. [00:21:00] I think I've told you lots of times, you know, when I started this podcast, I didn't really see any traction, and I certainly didn't see any benefit really, from podcasting until I was a good six to eight months into the podcast.
People don't wanna hear that. They don't wanna hear that. It's a long game like that, but it's the truth. Whereas relationship marketing, you know what? You can have the right conversation with the right person, and that can turn into a client there and then. Because as coaches, we know that when we give someone a powerful experience of how it feels to be coached by us, that is our equivalent of selling.
We don't actually have to do any selling to potential coaching clients. We just have to coach them powerfully in a discovery call, in a connection call, whatever you want to call it. In any kind of call, if someone feels like they've had a powerful experience of our coaching, they will want more of it. So I guess the long and the short of it is that, do we need content marketing?
[00:22:00] Yes, absolutely. I think those people who don't wanna do content marketing in any way, shape or form, so they don't wanna create a podcast or a YouTube channel, or they don't wanna write a blog, they don't wanna substack and they don't wanna be on social media, those people are gonna find it quite intense in terms of the amount of networking they'll need to do.
Now for some people they'll say, okay, I hear that Jill, and I'm happy. I'm good with that. And then for you, that is the right strategy. I would honestly say if you had to pick just one kind of marketing, then pick relationship marketing all day long. Ditch content marketing entirely. If that's the way you want to go.
I just don't want you to do it the other way round. I don't want you to say, you know what do, I'm happy sitting behind my laptop and I'll create content until the cows come home. I don't wanna be building relationships. I don't have time for that. I don't wanna focus on conversations. I don't wanna be doing that.
[00:23:00] Then coaching isn't the right business for you. Because your content marketing will not be enough to get someone to know I can trust you enough to hire you as their coach. Right? So what does all of this mean practically? What do I actually want you to do with all this information? First of all, abandon trying to crack the algorithm.
Just stop. It's a waste of your energy completely. So don't obsess about that, right? Instead, just start focusing whether you are creating content or whether you in a networking group, whether you podcast like this. Focus on building connections. Okay? Why not try DMing someone whose content you genuinely enjoyed not to pitch to them not to ask for anything.
Just to say like, if it's genuine, this has to be super genuine, right? You have to absolutely loved something that they've said and remember three kinds of relationships, not just potential clients. Maybe [00:24:00] it's a collaborator, maybe it's someone who could introduce business to you, right? Keep thinking about those three different kinds of relationships you should be building.
Maybe DM them and say, Hey, I really love what you said about whatever topic. Maybe you're gonna leave a thoughtful comment on someone's post. So not just a like or a thumbs up emoji or like a, you know, love heart or whatever. What about leaving a really thoughtful comment that actually you take your time over overthinking about something that actually shows that you were genuinely interested in what they wrote or what they shared.
You actually have an interest in that topic, right? So it's about having actual conversations. Ask people questions, be curious about them, and then remember what they tell you. Because when we build a relationship with someone, we remember what each other says. The conversation I was just telling you about with.
We [00:25:00] remembered things about each other. So we both have sons with additional needs. So of course that's gonna be a topic that we talk about when we catch up with each other, right? We're not just talking about our businesses, we're not just talking about coaching. And here's the really awesome thing, when you make the effort to do that, people remember you and they do start to trust you.
And they do start to feel like they know you and they like you. And then when they're ready, when the time is right for them to invest in themselves, you're gonna be the person that they think of. And it's never gonna be because you have the cleverest hook or because you went viral, right? It's 'cause you made them feel like you've got them.
So it's so important to think about how are you spending your marketing energy? We get a certain of energy to put into our marketing, and if you are spending 80% of your time at the moment, your energy creating content [00:26:00] and 20% of your time building relationships, I want you to flip it. Completely flip it.
Spend 20% of your time creating really good content that genuinely reflects who you are and what you believe, and then spend 80% of your time having conversations, whether that's actually over zoom on the phone in direct messaging. Have a two-way conversation with a person. To every single comment on your post, not with a quick like thanks, but with some substance.
Treat the comments like conversations, and when someone dms, you don't dismiss it out of hand. I know how world weary we are, and I get it. And don't get me wrong, I am the first one to immediately block someone who just jumps into my dms and cold pitches me. What someone said, pitch slap. If someone comes into your DMS and does a pitch slap, [00:27:00] absolutely not.
I'm very block trigger happy with that because I'm like, no, I just, I can't bear it. I can't bear to even entertain having a conversation with you. But if someone does come into your dms and they send a really nice connection message, right? Don't. Automatically say, oh God, I haven't got time to reply to all of these dms that I'm getting.
Right? That's where flipping that 80%, 20% is gonna come in handy, right? Because yeah, of course if you are spending 80% of your time creating content, then you don't have time to reply to messages. But what if you flip it? What if you flip it and see what it happens? When you do start having conversations in the dm, how could that change?
Really, really, really, really importantly, follow up with people. So if someone told you, like a month ago that they were working on something, check back [00:28:00] in with them. Ask how it's going. Show them that you remember it. Show them that you actually give a crap that is relationship building, and it is genuinely the most powerful marketing strategy you'll ever have.
I feel like I've been a bit ranty. I feel slightly exhausted. The point I'm trying to make with all of this is that trust is never gonna be built through clever content. It's always built through genuine connection with people. And if you are listening to this and thinking well. Jill, this all sounds bloody lovely, but honestly, I can't scale that.
I can't have individual conversations with everyone, right? I need something that works at scale. I get that. I really do. But what I would say to you as a coach is that, no, you can't scale this, but if you are selling high ticket coaching programs, then you do need to be having individual conversations with the right [00:29:00] people.
And then if you are scaling your business and you have more leveraged offers, absolutely you know, use paid advertising. If you are in scaling mode, you should be probably be using paid advertising to draw enough traffic to fight that algorithm to override the algorithm and drive enough traffic to a sales page.
For a more leveraged offer. You'll probably need to use paid advertising for all of the reasons I've mentioned in this episode already. So you definitely need, as a coach who wants to sell mid to high ticket coaching packages programs, you need to be having conversations. So it might not be what you wanna hear, it might not be the magic bullet that everyone wants, but honestly, I'm just telling you the truth.
I dunno about you, but I would rather have like a smaller, deeply engaged [00:30:00] audience than like a humongous following of people who couldn't give a crap about anything I do, who aren't really seeing my content anyway and don't care about it even if they did. So if we can start coming back to that quality over quantity, right.
Relationships over algorithms. That is what has always been true. It's just that now it's becoming bloody undeniable. We can't get away from it. Now, I promise you that if you do prioritize relationships over algorithms, your business will grow. Maybe not overnight and not in a viral explosion, right? But it'll grow steadily.
It'll grow sustainably. It'll grow in a way that feels good to you. And that's what we are all after, isn't it? Aren't we all after a business that actually works for us, that feels really aligned with us? That doesn't need us to be someone we're not or do the things that drain [00:31:00] the life outta us? And the part of that just isn't more content, is more connection.
If this has hit a nerve with you, I am running a workshop tomorrow. Relationships over Algorithms. You've probably already heard me talk about it, but this is where I'm gonna be going into depth on this topic. I'm gonna be really going into the foundations of how to do this, how to build relationships that matter, how to really bring the whole of who you're to those relationships so they deepen.
So if you would like to sign up, it's not too late, you can do that. I'll pop the link in the show notes to sign up for the workshop. If you are a coach who's really ready to build a business that is genuinely, fully booked, this is what you need. So head over to [00:32:00] the show notes. Like I say, you'll find the link to sign up for the workshop.
And yeah, come and join me tomorrow. These are small group workshops and we go deep. We then have seven days together in a WhatsApp group afterwards where we continue the conversation, we practice things. You can absolutely keep asking me questions. Alright. Okay, so I hope you enjoyed this episode and I will see you back here again.
Same time, same place next week. Bye for now.
