If you are looking to grow your business, you should be focusing on building a relationship of trust with your prospects. Everything about you should assure them that you know what you’re doing and that you want to help them. To do that, an important goal for your company should be to build your image as the authority in your industry.

The best and most cost effective way to do this is through content marketing which should involve blogging and social media networking. You should be striving to build a blog that is considered a premier source of information in your industry. The content you publish and share with your social networks should be considered as valuable and trustworthy as a textbook.

So how do you do it? Here are the three simple steps you should take today:

Step 1: Blog Strategically

I can’t stress enough the importance of business blogging. Your blog is the perfect place to share the wealth of knowledge you possess with your potential prospects. On your blog, they’ll see that you love what you do, that you’re great at what you do, and that you are the best one for the job they happen to have.

One of the things I commonly do to help bring my clients new business is create a DIY content marketing strategy that they can easily manage themselves. Their job is to write simple but powerful blog posts while their website takes care of the marketing for them. But the question I always get when we first start out is: “What do I write about on my business blog?” It’s a great question. And it has a simple answer:

Write directly to your ideal customer.

What does that mean? Think of the person you love working with the most. The person who benefits most from your products and services and who makes you excited to wake up and go to work every morning. Speak directly to them in your blog posts and blog around the following topics:[unordered_list style=’circle’ animate=’no’]

  • FAQs: Answer the questions you favorite customer had when they were first checking you out
  • Sales Objections: Think back to the doubts and hesitations your favorite customer had before they ended up buying from you and address those for the benefit of your new prospects
  • Testimonials: Show off the praise you’ve gotten for your excellent work because everybody loves to see that other people think you’re great
  • Helpful Tips: Give away some of your knowledge and expertise to prove that you’re a valuable resource whose primary goal is to help provide solutions
  • Useful Resources: Share articles and links that show you are actively bettering yourself in your industry
  • Company News: Keep everyone up to date on what is going on in your company including exciting developments and enticing specials or offers

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Step 2: Leverage Your Effort

Writing a blog strategically and consistently doesn’t have to take all of your time but to really justify the investment, why don’t we double, triple, or quadruple our efforts by sharing our content with all of our networks. Push your blog posts out to your social media networks and email list each and every time. Include social media and email sharing options on each of your blog posts and your website.

This is not an exercise in spamming. You’re casting a wide net and adding value to the lives of as many people as you can reach. Remember that today’s networking technologies make it possible for your thoughts and words to go viral with just the push of a button. This is an exciting time. Take advantage.

Step 3: Run with the Big Guns

If you are networking in the biggest social media circles, you should already be following the most influential leaders in your industry. Now it’s time to jump right in and engage with them. Put yourself on their level and show your prospective customers that you’re one of the big names in the game.

How do you do this? Share their best posts with your network. Respond when they pose questions or noteworthy comments. Join in on discussions they host on their websites or social media profiles. In short, become one of the powerful voices in the conversation. Your prospects are listening.