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Phases of Content Marketing

all of you guys were sitting on the edge of your seat for all the tactics we're going to get them I promise if you guys have ever heard me talk before you know that you walk out of a talk of mine with pages and pages and pages of notes I promised you'd come and don't worry if we don't have this we're not going the right direction we have to set the proper road map we have to set the proper road map for you so these are the five phases of content marketing okay this will start to have some good at applicable ity I'm gonna outline for you they will go through each of them there is the pre engaged lead again this is related for the wedding photography never fear all the photographers have the exact same scenarios just a final bit differently so there's the lead of yours that's pre engaged me they haven't gotten engaged yet your wedding photographer you know that as soon as somebody gets engaged they become potential for business so there's the before they get engaged they're still lead me...

there not a customer and they're not engaged yet number two is what we call the engaged lead meaning they're engaged so it's a much different spot a much different segment if you will then prior to getting engaged but they're still leaving book to yet they haven't called yet met with you yet they've booked a venue yet they just got engaged whatever it is then there is number three the engaged customer so they are engaged and they've hired but we all know there's that gap between when they hire you and when they get married that's a whole different segment that's what we're really outlining is the five phases for this it's a different approach for each one of these phases so we have the pre engaged lied that hasn't called you hasn't booked because they don't have a need to we have the engaged lead they have a need for you but they haven't booked it yet we have the engaged customer they have a need for you and they've booked you and then we have the married customer I mean they're married but they're still customer years you're still fulfilling all the things you need to do you're still getting them their album or getting their pictures and then we have the married post customer they're married they were a customer but they're not actively apart of your customer you're not servicing them anymore you know and so these are the five phases sound complicated I couldn't find a better way to find it sorry we'll break it all down don't worry okay number one the pre engaged lead that's what I call seeding what are you trying to do to this phase with your content when you're building content what are you trying to do to help this phase of your cycle well you're trying to create reasons for a pre engaged to fall in love with you again sound like dating the way we see somebody and we're attracted to them and like boy I'm going to make myself look as attractive as possible and so we do all those things to make sure that they'll fall in love with us um you know following along that line so in order market of these prospects we have to create reasons for them to fall in love with us they don't even know who we are yet they are if they do you know who we are they're very skeptical potentially why would maybe they don't know us yet and so you need to find a way to relate to this phase on a person to person level you need to begin that relationship people by people they don't buy brands people buy people there's always a person behind a brand great brands have people behind them people buy people keep that in mind people you want people to buy you long before they spend any money on you you want people to buy you long before they spend any money on you and this is where you get that buying so you get that by in here at this segment the point is to become the person that they have to have to shoot their wedding when they finally become engaged now we all have people with you don't be a wedding photographer to have people that sit on a cycle prior to when they have a need for you baby photographers children photographers family photographers these are all people that sit there's a lifecycle event that they hire you for and there's a prat there's a portion of their life that they have happened prior to them needing that lifecycle event that's the bigger picture of all this so how do you do that you have to think in terms of what your target market does you have to think in terms of where your target market hangs out you have to think in terms of who your target market interacts with let me give an example saying that we did a bomb and photographers we started something called bomb and lunch no I didn't name it by the way uh was like that that everyone's day we would get together go to lunch with each other the team from the company are all the photographers that were there you know the studio manager and all that we go to lunch and naturally we're all much for doctors what we do we bring camera and we take a lot of pictures of each other we take a lot of pictures of the food I have to admit this started by accident I wish I could tell you that this was all part of a great marketing plan it wasn't what happened though is we would post these photos of us having fun going a lunch goofing off taking all these pictures of each other and all the food we post the pictures on friday and after a while I start to notice something on our blogger fridays were getting way more traffic than any other day of the week by far and I realized that our bombing lunch photos got way more traffic than anything we ever posted weddings engagement sessions every portrait sessions people were more excited about our bomb and lunch photos every friday and they were about anything else we're posting I could be dismayed at that or I could look at that as an opportunity and what it really meant was we change the way we did bomb in lunch we didn't changed outwardly but we started to focus on what are the things that our target market wants does hangs out interacts with what they do and how can we let bomb in lunch intersect with that and once we understood a lot more about who our target market wass and one of our target market my target market was professionals with a capital p I'll talk about that more later but doctors lawyers those kinds of things we now had a road map way knew more about them but we had a road map for where they would wanna have lunch for what areas they look for in a restaurant more importantly what were some of the tendency that they really appreciated that we brought out during bombing lunch what were some of the stories that we could tell about our interactions with each other that professionals would be able to relate to what are some of on and on and on so we change the way we did bomb in lunch internally from just broadcasting about our lunches together which were already getting attraction to focusing on the stories behind the images to focusing on the places we went to focusing on what we chose to talk about in a way that it intersected our target market and became even more appealing to them and it led to the bomb and lunch becoming even more trafficked but here's the real thing it led to this constantly getting calls that said hey my name is so and so you shot my friend's wedding eight years ago six years ago whatever and I've been following your blawg and all your lunches ever since and I couldn't wait until the day that I got engaged to call you oh that's great that's great I love your pictures I love everything you do but block but it's the in this case the bomb and lunch that showed our personalities in a way that she could lean in and say I don't just love their pictures but I love them I don't just love that they take great pictures in places I'd like to get married but I also love that they connect on the same level as me they understand that I'm short on time they seem to get that they understand and it was an ability for us to show a different side of us interacting with this stage is all about creating reasons for them to fall in love with you created reasons for them to fall in love with you um on day three we have the young grins on they do a really good job at this on their block they have a lot of different things and we're goingto blogging later on this isn't a blogging topic but they have a lot of great ideas on how to create reasons for people to fall in love with you a lot of successful bloggers do that well but you could do it outside of the block and all other areas he can do it on your facebook page you can do it there's a lot of ideas for that okay number two um the engaged lead so this is a person that now has gotten engaged they're very different people that aren't engaged right surely when you get engaged you become a very different type of type of person you've become a very different type of segment if you will this is all about you know before you were kind of seeding you're planting if you will if you follow the analogy now we're watering so now in this segment it's about give give give you want to give give give your target market remember value lease to trust so trust is the currency but value leads to trust when you provide value it leads to the trust factor skyrocketing so providing value comes at the root of give give give give things that are relevant and that are helpful of them they provide they proved them sorry that you care about them so again remember the analogy of the gift the gift that was just a gift for the gift that actually was the perfect gift at the perfect time you have to stay focused on the target market here because you can't just give everything you have to dialling your target market and dialing what they need and what you what you can give to them right here this is all about giving all sorts of great content that shapes the problem's shapes the problems they're currently having okay so this is really addressing problems they're currently having we'll talk about in the next phase about how it's more about problems they don't know they're having this is about addressing problems they know they're having they're not a customer yet and so you're still building that trust and you have to build that trust by addressing the big screaming baby that's in the room solved the problems that they're having right now and do it in a giving manner give give give don't ask long gone are the days where you ask resell were you close be bought be bought a lot of ideas here and we're gonna go through a lot of them throughout the next three or four next three days not four days I won't be here for days next two or three days but I think that if you keep that in mind member this is about the underpinnings of how to get this right if you keep that in mind about how this is about giving and it's about addressing the problems that they have right now this is about the problems that are top of mind don't solve a problem I didn't know I had like the story I told trip it solve the problem I have right now and there's a lot of them once we know are talking market we can kind of flush that out but solve my problems that I have right now okay I'm gonna combine three and four because they're actually very similar process so we've seeded we've watered and now is that season for me right now about my house my wife and I have ah have some land and we have a bunch of citrus trees and a bunch of gardens and things like that right now it's about kind of maintaining about checking on him every week making sure make sure that the right amount of water making the right amount of food all that kind of stuff you know because plant food every month into this do that this section is about maintaining they've already booked they've already hired you and now it's about continuing to give them continue to be helpful all times even when they don't know they need help to know if you give to them and solve problems area they have to some degree they already expect that sorry you've done that for them ready set expectations that you do that now you have to solve problems that they don't know they have remember the trip it's story trip it started by solving a problem for me I knew I had I would travel enough that I would miss a flight every year sarah was getting kind of frustrated at me I would wake up and we're waking up actually in portland summer family lives in portland I woke up and I was like you know I need to check on what time my flight is tomorrow she's like that's a good that's a good idea I checked I was like oh gosh it was this morning already left miss about a flighty year trip it solved that problem for me kept me organized solved a problem I had that's how they got me in the door then once I was already in the door and I was a happy customer what they do they sell the problem I didn't know I had I didn't know I had a problem with missing all of these fair reimbursements I didn't know I had a problem getting from gate to gate because they hadn't I didn't know all the things I was missing trippett then took my problem but they already saw that I knew I had and solve problems I didn't know that I had so this point help that's all you should know their problems you done this ten times over again hundred times over again you should know other problems I think about a company that answers your questions before you ever even have them you know think about a company in your life that solves your problems before or in a worst case scenario right in the moment you're actually having them think about a company that kind of adds value to your life before you even know that there was value to be added there's examples like this all across the board this is where things like guides really come into play building a guide or two or three or four will really help your customers solve problems from they don't even know they had how to pick an engagement session location that's a problem I don't even know they have until you ask him where would you like to see your engagement session oh I don't know okay well just let me know wrong answer now they have a problem solved that problem for them before they even know that they have it ok number five the group of married post customer this is after you've given their last thing that you owe them it's the goodbye hug it's the well I hope you have a great life we're gonna do anything for you down the road there now in that stage for most of us and for most of my time about leftovers they were say levy I hope that I see you again I really do because I like you but I don't know what else what else can I do for you I shut your wedding call me if you need any baby pictures and that's the wrong attitude stay engaged to continually create the loop the loop of them referring you the loop of you helping them the loop of you continued add value to their life the loop of them continued to add value to your business you have to stay in connection with them you have to stay top of mind when somebody walks up to him and says hey I'm I just got engaged uh you want to be the first thing that they say you want to be the story that they want to tell out of all the stories from their wedding they could recommend aruba they could recommend a loping or they could recommend you how are you going to the top choice they decide to recommend the top thing they decide to talk about you have to stay top of mine and you have to have created experience this point and contain to reinforce that experience but here's the thing you know all about their problems I'll never forget one of the coolest things we did and again stumbled upon it we hosted a ten year anniversary party obama photographers we've been in business for ten years which apparently is a big deal feels like a big deal to be honest with you but we hosted a ten year party to celebrate and we invited lots and lots of our past customers and you know what was the best part was to stand back at that party and watch all sorts of the interactions that were happening between our past clients people that never had met got together and they were talking made me realize that we should do this every year we should get all of our brides and grooms together at the end of every year and throw a party and bring them all together and host tonight but really that's just the beginning of it that's not solving their problems this is putting on a good party which every loves a good party but you're still not solve any problems what if you could actually get people together in the name of solving a problem you know they have what are some things that people do after they get married it's pretty well documented they have babies they buy houses they do things like this post and evening for your past couples with a real estate agent host an evening with a marriage therapist just um host an evening with a financial planner I mean these are just ideas for how to solve problems that you know they're having you know that you could have impact in you know I could go on and on about this and again this is an area that I really missed the mark on throughout the years obama photographers and I think that it's an area that I only started to begin to understand it right before right before I sold the company this is in many ways the most important segment because you've already done all the work in business they say your hardest your most expensive customer is your next customer all the customers you have were cheaper than any custom you're going to try to find now because you're doing all the work with them you've already done all the work with them and they could be your business from here on out if you just continue to invest in them and you continue to give without ever having to ask continuously in return but you have to give in a way that solves their problems but again you know those problems now