Selling Free Value

Wait, what?

Yea that’s right my friend, you have to literally SELL ‘free’ value.

Okay so lets back up a minute here, we’re going to answer a few things about why Social media marketing needs to have value as an integral part of its framework:

0.5 – Your business must deliver value without an ask (this is 0.5 because if you don’t know this then there is an issue)

1. What is ‘value’?

2. Why do you have to sell it?

3. How to do it

0.5 WHY YOU HAVE TO DELIVER VALUE

News Flash it isn’t 1955 (Golden Era of Tv Advertising)

You don’t have a monopoly on attention, if you come at people with some BS about yourself, your company or retargeting, you are going to get ignored… Ouch.

But Why?

Well, the power has shifted, consumers have a choice – and they choose not to watch your advertisements.

Don’t believe me?

Just watch your entire family the next time a commercial comes on,

Hello, cellphones!

Your content has to be relevant and engaging.

It has to be something someone looks at and says “oh cool” under their breath about and JUST MAYBE someone likes or shares it.

It can’t look like an advertisement, it can’t look like self-promotion, because people have a choice and they choose not to view that crap.

Anyways moving on.

1. WHAT IS VALUE?

Yep, and that definition is pretty spot on.

Valuable content has to be WORTH SOMETHING.

Why do you think the number 1 thing you see on Social Media is cooking tutorials?

Immediate value.

People love that stuff, they eat it up (get it?)

It’s easy to watch, it provides them with the information they otherwise wouldn’t have acquired – which is exactly what bringing value does.

Bringing value helps to teach people something that they can apply to their lives in a meaningful way.

There are some big ways to bring value and some small ways.

Here are some examples

Small: Seeing a funny picture from a business page that just gives you a quick laugh

Small: An interesting quote

Huge: Hubspot offers literally a full academy of free video courses to help business people better understand inbound marketing, CRM, sales and other revenue generating business concepts (We aren’t sponsored by them, but we do use their products).

Click here to see more on HubSpot Academy.

*this is a very rough definition of value, we will be dropping a post later with a more thorough definition

2. WHY DO YOU HAVE TO SELL IT?

You have to sell value because nobody cares.

Nobody cares about your business, your ideas, or what you have to say.

You have to convince them!

How?

CLICKBAIT

Just kidding, but that is something I’m sure we’ve all experienced on YouTube at some time or another only to be let down.

The true answer lies close by though:

• You have to create intrigue and curiosity by using captivating titles in your content with stunning visuals.

This can be done a few ways, one of the best is to look at your competition (those that are performing well) and see what they are using as titles, blog headers, text posts etc.

Take note of what they do and craft your titles similar to theirs.

As far as graphic design I LOVE Canva it is a s**t simple way to create easy, basic, but still stunning visuals for your social media content.

Adobe Spark is also a pretty useful tool for making ultra-simplified animated videos for your social media.

After that, you get into choppy territory with Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop and other more tech-savvy graphic design platforms that will require more of an initial investment in terms of learning.

Or, alternatively, you could hire a graphic designer – or even a freelancer Fiverr is great for that.

3. HOW TO DO IT

Hint: You’re reading it.

Yea, that’s right – Blogging.

This is one of (if not the most) beneficial way to create valuable content that attracts an audience.

Also, the best way to write a blog is to go see what the top blog posts are in your industry (5 best social media hacks, Top 3 ways to get inbound leads, stuff like that) and add to them or make them better!

Make the Top 5 ways to get inbound leads, or The Top 10 Social Media Hacks!

Vlogging is another amazing way to bring value – think of something similar to David Dobrink: 

• The man is entertaining, his value-add is making you laugh, and he is relatable to the average person (Other than the Tesla Model X).

Infographics are another great method but require intensive graphic design experience.

Those are all ways to do it, but to figure out how to add value ask yourself this:

• What questions have I EVER been asked about my industry, then figure out some way to answer that question to a large audience on Social Media and you will win.

REMEMBER THOUGH, NO ONE CARES – SO MAKE IT POP, MAKE IT STAND OUT, MAKE IT UNIQUE AND MAKE IT GREAT.

“Be powerful.”

-Jack Heaton, Attention Exchange Media