“Why do you publish content?” my friend asked me.
There was a three-second silence, followed by some umms and aahs. I didn’t have a great answer, but with some made-up assertiveness, I said, “To attract clients.”
Because that’s the socially acceptable answer, right? We publish on LinkedIn, our blog, and email, hoping to attract prospects.
Except that things have changed
The noise is overwhelming. The traditional funnel, which promises to attract prospects, is dying a slow death. It’s harder and harder to find strangers online and “get them into your funnel.” Not for everyone, though.
Some individuals and brands do this very well. They are masters at playing the LinkedIn algorithm. Or maybe they are good at seeding content and have strong SEO skills. But for you and me, pandering to the algorithm is not why we do the work.
Which then begs the question.
If daily writing and publishing is not going to attract prospects, “Why should experts publish their content?”
Shouldn’t they be focusing on more important areas of their business?
The benefits of writing, however, go beyond merely attracting prospects. Let’s look at them –
- Deepening expertise
If you are like me, you think about your craft a lot. Some parts about your craft make you curious, others leave you confused and some commonly followed best practices even make you angry. Writing helps you make sense of all these emotions.
When you clickety-clack on your keyboard, your confusion gets untangled. You can see the gaps in your thinking, which you can fill in later. You become more intimate with your subject, and your expertise deepens.
In other words, writing makes you smart.
Over time, you develop frameworks and IP that become an integral part of your business. Not just for content but also for your sales calls.
How writing helped me close a high-ticket client
A few months back, I got on a sales call with a prospect… and well, I kinda killed it. Even though I couldn’t crawl through the skin to his side and look inside his brain, I could see that he was thoroughly impressed.
I didn’t do well because I speak like Tony Robbins. I didn’t have fancy PowerPoint with flashy visuals or artistic fonts. What I did have was a set of solid SOPs, frameworks, and a unique point of view.
Any idea how I developed all of this? Only through the writing that I had done for months.
The prospect converted and has been a happy client ever since.
- Bottom-of-the-funnel credibility builder
Imagine this – You’ve just finished an hour-long sales call with a prospect. The call went well, and they’re interested. But they need more reassurance. They need to know that working with you wouldn’t harm them.
What will they do to ease this uncertainty?
They’ll want to gather more data. They will visit your LinkedIn and website to learn more about you. They will also read your latest posts to understand your unique point of view and ideas.
Why did you decide to work with me?
Whenever a client signs up, I ask them about the one thing that pushed them towards working with me.
9 out of 10 clients have told me things like, “I really liked that article on storytelling” or “Your LinkedIn post about sleazy Marketing really resonated with me.”
Writing on social media or a blog was always considered a way to attract clients. No wonder there’s so much talk about SEO-optimized blogs and viral LinkedIn posts. But the game has changed, my friend.
Writing is no longer about attracting a deal. It’s about closing one.
- Personal enjoyment
The hard-core capitalist in some people might get uncomfortable with this, but the last benefit of writing is enjoyment. There’s a certain level of satisfaction that comes with hitting publish on LinkedIn or sending that email. Starting your morning with that feeling is a very rewarding experience. I shall say no more.
To Summarize:
The game of writing and publishing has changed. Traditionally, we were told that writing helps attract clients and gets them in a funnel. That doesn’t work anymore. And there are better, more efficient ways to get people into your ecosystem.
In this new age, writing helps you deepen your expertise, build credibility at the bottom of the funnel, and, most importantly, gives you tremendous personal satisfaction.
Why do I publish content?
And do you know why I struggled to answer my friend’s question?
I struggled because I had no socially acceptable reason to publish content.
I don’t publish content because I want to accomplish anything. Whatever happens because of it is a nice by-product.
I publish content because I enjoy it.
I publish content because I just can’t not.