You can’t “give everything away” in your marketing, no matter how many online service providers and online coaches worry about doing so. I mean, I can’t tell you how many times as a Business Coach I’ve heard some variation of, “I don’t want to share too much! What if people only read my free content and then think they don’t need to work with me?!”

 

One of the biggest pieces of feedback I’ve gotten from listeners of Selling Chocolate—the podcast for big-hearted entrepreneurs who want to create consistent 5-figure months in their business while doing work they love doing, in the way they love doing it—is that listeners are blown away by how much value I give.

Some of my clients who have access to everything I teach, in particular, are even more blown away by how much I “give away” for free in that podcast. And they always want to know HOW.

 

But here’s the deal: The more “high-value” content I create, the more I realize…there’s NO WAY I could ever “give everything away.”

It simply isn’t possible. And the fact that you are worrying about that tells me that you just might not be trusting your own expertise, or even aware of how deep your expertise actually runs.

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“The more ‘high-value’ content I create, the more I realize…there’s NO WAY I could ever ‘give everything away.’”

— Carly Jo Bell

Early on in my business, I created a free course called Social Media School and enrolled 100 people in it (shoutout to my original SMM friends! Thanks for still being here all this time later).

When I was first creating the course, I was worried that there wouldn’t actually be that much in it. And, naturally, I was worried that this free course might actually “give everything away,” and prevent me from getting any new clients. But what actually happened was that with every single video I created for that course, I discovered I just couldn’t fit everything in.

There was ALWAYS more that I wanted to say, and through the creation of that course, I discovered that actually, there was no possible way for me to “give everything away,” because quite simply, people would have to be a client of mine for years to fully understand everything that’s in my head—and no doubt by then I’d have even more knowledge and expertise, and so they simply wouldn’t be able to keep up (unless their brains were wired exactly like mine and their expertise overlapped with mine, of course).

 

Now that we’ve established that you quite simply can’t “give everything away,” let’s get one thing straight: you CAN give “too much” away.

Or rather, that’s not the right way to say that, because ugh I hate “too much” language.

The better way to say that might instead be: There is a way to give value that converts, and there is a way to give value that doesn’t. Most entrepreneurs who are struggling to convert from their content are doing the latter.

Today, I want to talk about how to give value away that converts, because isn’t getting new clients through your content why you’re reading this article anyway?

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“There is a way to give value that converts, and there is a way to give value that doesn’t. Most entrepreneurs…are doing the latter.”

— Carly Jo Bell

Below, I’m sharing my 4-step process for creating value-based content that converts.

And by the way, this is one really teeny tiny part of what I teach inside of Marketing, Magnified, the incubator where you’ll learn how to create authentic content that connects with and converts your audience into paying, soul-aligned clients and customers. Just saying 😉

 

4 Steps to Value-Based Content That Converts

1. Know your purchase-ready Ideal Customer.
2. Distill their obstacles down into the most specific version.
3. Create content on THAT.
4. SELL intentionally (with way more than just adding a simple CTA).

 

Step 1: Know your purchase-ready Ideal Customer.

There is a version of your Ideal Customer who is ready to buy, and most business owners aren’t speaking to THEM.

Instead, the online coaches and service-providers of the world are struggling to actually convert from their content, because they’re speaking to a version of their Ideal Customer who needs to be convinced to buy, rather than someone who has already determined for themselves that they want and need what you sell, and are ready to invest whatever time, energy, and/or money they need in order to get the transformation or result they desire.

In order to find your purchase-ready Ideal Customer, you want to either speak to a Phase 3 or Phase 6 person—because those are the only two phases of the Transformational Journey where your Ideal Customer is actually ready to invest and successfully transform.

 

I’m not going to go in-depth on how to find this person in this article, because 1) this would require an entire article in and of itself, and 2) I already have gone in-depth in my masterclass, Watch Your Language! One Simple Shift to Make More Sales. In this 35 minute masterclass I cover how to shift your messaging so you can speak exclusively to the purchase-ready people in your audience, thereby making even more sales.

I specifically cover the…

• 7 phases of the Transformational Journey (they KEY foundation for making more sales),
• Types of content you’re probably already creating that aren’t speaking to the purchase-ready version of your Ideal Customer, and
• How to start speaking directly to the purchase-ready version of your Ideal Customer

Right now, the ONLY place you can get access to this masterclass is by signing up for the R.A.W. Experience.

The R.A.W. Experience is a free 5-day virtual conference for online business owners who want to create consistent income & sustainable success in their business. My Masterclass comes out on Monday May 2nd (2022), and is only available for 48 hours—so get your free ticket now!

 

Once I know my purchase-ready Ideal Customer, then I can move onto the next step: distill their obstacles down into the most-specific version of that obstacle.

 

Step 2: Distill their obstacles down into the most specific version.

This, right here, is how entrepreneurs end up “giving value that doesn’t convert”—they don’t distill the obstacles their Ideal Customer is facing down enough, and so they try to talk to a really big obstacle their Ideal Customer is facing, and they either…

A) completely oversimplify it, which is when your audience starts to think they don’t need to actually work with you, or

B) they try to cover everything, which they simply can’t do and which therefore creates logic gaps, which is when your audiences loses trust in your expertise (ouch).

 

Take a look at this example:

Imagine I wanted to get more people into my —the 4-month group coaching program for entrepreneurs who want to create their first $10k month while pouring the foundations for their Sustainable Success.

Someone who is trying to create their first $10k month has a lot of different obstacles they’re facing. One of them is quite simply that they aren’t making enough sales, and they don’t know how to make more.

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“How entrepreneurs end up giving ‘value that doesn’t convert’ is they don’t distill the obstacles their Ideal Customer is facing down enough.”

— Carly Jo Bell

If I tried to create one piece of content to answer the question, “How can I make more sales?” I would end up having to completely oversimplify it, or trying to cover everything (& therefore creating logic gaps). Not because I want to do either of those options, but because the conversation on how to create more sales is such a BIG conversation, that I can’t simply put all of it into one little blog post or podcast episode.

Whereas, if I were to distill that obstacle down, I could go really deep within my content, which would then get my readers a win, which would then instill in them greater trust in my expertise, which would then actually make it easier to convert from said piece of content (well, that, and actually, intentionally SELLING—see step 4).

 

Distilled Obstacle = Ability to Go DEEP = Get Audience a WIN = Greater Trust in my Expertise = Increased Conversions from Value-Based Content

 

Continuing with that example, what if I did this instead:

1. Ask what obstacles my Ideal Customer (for this specific offer) is facing. In this example, that’s that they need to make more sales but they don’t know how.
2. Take ONE of those obstacles, and distill it down into its simplest form. Some ideas could be: how to get more leads, or how to convert from your value-based content (see what I did there?).
3. Create content on THAT now ultra-simplified obstacle (in which I get to go REALLY DEEP with said obstacle!).

 

Which brings us to our next step…

 

Step 3: Create content on THAT distilled-down obstacle.

This one is pretty self-explanatory, so let me just give you a few keys here that will make sure you’re actually creating a version of value-based content that converts:

Cover EVERYTHING.

Whatever it is CRUCIAL for your audience to know in order to overcome the ultra-distilled-down version of this obstacle, include it. Don’t leave any logic gaps—aka leaving something out of your value-based content that actually HAS to be included in order for your audience to be successful with whatever you are educating on—because this is how your people won’t get a “win” from this content, and also may lose trust in your expertise and therefore be less likely to convert.

By the way, “covering everything” often means you’re now creating in-depth content, which tends to be quite long. With that in mind, a little bonus tip would be to use this as blog/podcast/YouTube content (or even as a live training on Facebook or Instagram that gets repurposed into one of the above), so that this content you’re investing a good amount of time into creating can continue to work for you long after you’ve published it (via search engines!).

Mention what you AREN’T covering.

There will always be tangential things that are important, but aren’t crucial to your audiences’ success with this distilled-down obstacle.

For example, in this article I could have gone deep into discovering the nuances of who your purchase-ready Ideal Customer is, but I chose not to because that’s not the obstacle that this article is actually about. And while understanding the nuances of who your purchase-ready Ideal Customer is will absolutely help make what you’re learning in this article even MORE effective (& more consistent), you can get a couple more conversions from your content simply by implementing everything else in this article.

And again, the goal in any value-based content is to give A LOT of value by going REALLY DEEP on one ultra-distilled-down version of an obstacle your purchase-ready Ideal Customer is currently facing, and not to go broad by covering everything that could possibly be covered in relation to that obstacle.

Of course, if you DO want to go even deeper and make it SOOOOO much easier to consistently convert from your value-based content, head over to the R.A.W. Experience, grab your free ticket, and watch my Masterclass on finding your purchase-ready Ideal Customer and using your messaging to speak directly to THEM. It comes out on Monday, May 2 (2022) and is only available for 48 hours (unless you also opt to invest in the Replay Bundle!), so grab your free ticket now!

 

Step 4: SELL intentionally (with way more than just adding a simple CTA).

So many online coaches and service-based entrepreneurs think that adding a Call to Action (CTA) onto the end of a piece of content is how you sell. But friend, if you want to really convert consistently from your content, you’re gonna want to do a lot more than say, “Book a call at my link in bio” at the end of every post.

Once again, this is a topic that warrants an entirely separate article, because there are so many pieces to any conversation on “sales” and “selling.”

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“If you want to really convert consistently from your content, you’re gonna want to do a lot more than say, ‘Book a call at my link in bio’ at the end of every post.”

— Carly Jo Bell

So what I’ll quickly say is this: when you’re selling—particularly in the example of creating content with the intention of converting—then you want to…

1. Create content with the intention of selling. A post with a CTA tacked onto the end is very different than a post created to intentionally set up whatever you’re selling as the logical next step for your Ideal Customer after they’ve read said post.
2. Take time to really paint the picture of what’s going to happen when your Ideal Customer takes the next step. Too many entrepreneurs essentially say, “That’s why I created [offer]. Learn more and sign up at my link in bio!” and they never actually invest the time to SELL in the content itself, and instead they try to move their people to some other page or some other place where THEN (and only then) they can learn about the offer and how it’s going to help their Ideal Customer. But you already have your audiences attention on this piece of content, so why skip out on a great opportunity to get them invested in learning more about and signing up for your offer, by painting the picture of what that transformation or result of your offer is actually going to do for them?
3. Tie the CTA in with the Transformation of your offer. DO THIS: “If you want to create content that connects with and converts your audience into paying, soul-aligned clients, then sign up for Marketing, Magnified today.” NOT THAT: “Sign up for Marketing, Magnified at my link in bio!”

p.s. I give a script for HOW to do each of these 3 steps and actually SELL from within your content inside my free guide, 10+ Strategies to Get More Leads. You can download that here, then go to page 13 for the script.

 

To recap:

If you want to create value-based content that ACTUALLY converts, then stop being afraid of “giving everything away” and start distilling down the obstacles your Ideal Customer is facing and create content where you go DEEP on that one, ultra-distilled-down version of that obstacle.

Make sure the obstacles you’re talking about are obstacles the purchase-ready version of your Ideal Customer is facing. Get the free masterclass on this topic by catching my Masterclass, for free, at the R.A.W. Experience.

Go super duper deep with the ultra-distilled-down obstacle, and cover EVERYTHING.

Intentionally SELL in your value-based content, way beyond putting a simple CTA at the end of every post.

 

Your Next Step

Before you go, one final story.

As I was first planning the Watch Your Language! One Simple Shift to Make More Sales masterclass (available exclusively at the R.A.W. Experience on May 2 for only 48 hours), I found myself making all of the mistakes I tell my clients not to make when creating value-based content.

The original title and outline was very pain-point-proddy. The content itself was trying to help with too broad of an obstacle. And from both of those things, I was caught having to completely oversimplify everything I was trying to teach in order to get it all to fit inside a 30 minute masterclass.

But I forged ahead, made the slides, recorded the masterclass…and with about 5 slides left from the end, I ended the recording, and realized I needed to start all over.

Because I was doing exactly what I was saying was what NOT to do.

Naturally, I went back and changed everything, but the irony isn’t lost on me that I ended up doing exactly what I preach and teach NOT to do.

I share this story to show you that everyone—including me—makes a lot of the mistakes I shared about here (& that I go even deeper on inside the Watch Your Language! masterclass). Everyone at some point ends up accidentally NOT speaking to the purchase-ready version of their Ideal Customer. Everyone sometimes tries to create value-based content that covers way too broad of an obstacle, and so they either stay on the surface or try to cover everything (& leave logic gaps).

Everyone has to learn—and practice to continue learning—how to create value-based content that converts.

It’s not a skillset you’re born with. It’s an expertise you have to cultivate.

So start with the practices and additional resources, I mentioned in this article, and if you want to take this even deeper, come join me inside Marketing, Magnified, where you’ll learn exactly how to create authentic content that connects with and converts your audience into paying, soul-aligned clients (& get SO much in-depth, 1:1 feedback).

 

Inside Marketing, Magnified, you’ll…

• Get all of the tools you need to create marketing content that connects with and converts your audience, so you can KNOW that every time you create content, you get paid.
• Discover the words that will connect with your TRUE Ideal Customer who is READY to buy, so you can simultaneously grow your audience while converting the purchase-ready people who are already in your world.
• Practice creating content and get highly individualized 1:1 feedback on every single piece of content you submit so you actually know how to create content (& never get stuck asking, “what to post?” ever again!)
• Learn my exact process for creating a monthly and weekly marketing strategy so you can enter each month with your content sorted, thereby freeing up more of your time for delivering your offers and expanding your sustainable success in new ways.

 

It’s $1,500 or 2 monthly installments of $750.

 

If you’re ready to STOP spending soooo much time creating content that isn’t converting, and START knowing that every single time you create content, you’ll get paid, then join Marketing, Magnified now.