Struggling to find what to write about?
Not sure where to start, how to direct your team, feeling blank?
There are two categories which will never fail you (unless of course you’re not talking to your clients, in which case, sort that out!).
Victories
and
Questions.
I’m talking particularly about your clients’ victories, and your clients’ questions. (Or even those of your prospects!)
The important thing is to pay attention to these, and write them down.
Because when you get stuck, and you need to write a blog post or record a video or create content, your fallback is in the areas of the victories your clients have achieved, and the questions they ask you.
This week, I got an email from a graduate of our Accelerator programme. He actually replied to last week’s Note about our ‘inner marketing voices’, and said:
“I do also have ‘up & downs’ as I’m always comparing myself to what other marketeers may be doing (which is probably not a good idea), and think “Why didn’t I think of that”, or I miss an opportunity that someone else picks up on in the firm here. So I do doubt myself sometimes. But a friend came to me the other day, and asked for marketing help because they were struggling to come up with ideas for a new client, and I just reeled off a whole series of ideas, and mentioned the “they ask, you answer” concept, and they loved what I was suggesting – and a lot of this is down to you guys! My marketing knowledge (and self-confidence) has increased tenfold since working with you & your team. You probably don’t realise the amazing impact TPF has had helping people like myself with enhancing our marketing know-how! You’ve also given me more structure & planning to projects I hadn’t even considered before.”
There’s marketing gold dust in there.
He’s encouraged. His client is helped and encouraged. When I shared it with the PF team, they too were encouraged.
It’s victories all round.
We could (and probably will, with his permission) turn some of these comments into quotes and quote images in our own marketing. (You can see some of them on our PF Instagram account here.)
But we wouldn’t have this to fall back on if I’d simply replied and said thanks, and deleted it or filed it away somewhere.
You have to save them, keep them, make sure you have them word for word if at all possible – because when you need content, there it is.
The other category is questions. By now most of you are familiar with “They Ask You Answer”, the book of all books for accountants who want to be inspired in marketing, and you have to keep a record of those questions, too.
Because if you don’t record them straight away, you’ll forget them – or worse, you’ll forget exactly HOW the question was asked. And the words they use to ask the questions are just as important, if not more so, than the question itself.
Here are a few questions I and the team got in the last week alone.
- I’m sure that social does work, but can you give me proof that posting daily actually works for accountants? Answer.
- Are we excluding potential clients if we narrow down our audience to a niche? Answer.
- is it okay to have more than one niche?
- Is there an ideal length (word count) for a blog post? Answer.
- Do you specifically mention client names in a case study? Not sure my client would like to be named in solving his tax issues. Answer (webinar).
- Can we write about non-accounting/tax problems in our content? Answer.
You’ll notice that next to each one, I’ve indicated where we’ve already answered the question in the past.
There’s only one that we haven’t specifically answered in one post or article – it’s probably hidden in another one somewhere – but that makes it easy. That helps me know what to write about!
The more you answer questions and share victories, the easier it is to engage with those who are asking them again – and the more you build trust, and expertise. The inference being, if you’ve dealt with this so often you’ve created content around it, you must know what you’re doing.
Victories, and questions.
I send these tips and sketchnotes out every Saturday! Sign up to get them here.