Jade Boyd: So I want you to think about the content that you’ve created in the last 90 days. Has that content been pointy? Has it been strategic in building your reputation as the expert in the field that you want to be known for? Or have you just been posting when you felt like it creating the content that felt fun to you in the moment? Which side of that skill do you lean towards? Because this might be one of those reasons why our content isn’t converting,

Jade Boyd: Have you ever had a season in your business where you feel like you’re doing all of the quote unquote right things for your marketing, but somehow it’s just not working. You’re not getting the leads and clients that you’re hoping for. Creating content is probably one of the most overwhelming and frustrating parts about running a small business, especially as a solopreneur, who’s wearing all the hats and most business owners, especially if you’re a creative or if you’re a service provider, are much more passionate about their craft and the actual thing that they’re doing for their clients rather than the business side of things, and so creating content can often already feel like this extra thing that gets in the way of you doing what you love. And if you’re balancing everything yourself, trying to balance serving your clients well and marketing your services to get new clients, if all of that weight is on your shoulders, it can be especially frustrating when you are taking time and effort away from your clients to put into creating content and then the content just isn’t working.

It’s not converting. It’s not helping you grow your business. It feels like a waste of time. That can be extremely, extremely frustrating. And maybe you’re feeling stuck in that cycle right now. So in this episode, I’m sharing nine different reasons why your content might not be converting. And if you’re like me, you’re motivated by having clarity on the things that you can tangibly do to fix problems in your business. And once you do have the clarity, it’s a lot easier to execute, right? So in this episode, I’m hoping to help you get that clarity and identify the underlying problems with your marketing content so that you can take productive steps to tweak your strategy, tweak what you’re doing. And start creating content, maybe even creating less content, but better content that is actually converting and is helping your listeners or your followers take the next steps into actually becoming paying clients or students in your business.

So without further ado, let’s just dive into these nine different reasons why your content might not be converting.

The first reason, and this is the one that I see most often. Is that you are posting content for a cold audience. The number one difference between clients and even other business owners I see who are having successful lunches versus those who are showing up and creating great content for their launch, where it’s not converting the way that they want it to is how warm their audience is. And it’s so important. I think we forget in between launches when we don’t feel like we have anything specific to tell people to do that it’s still important to show up consistently and serve and build those relationships with your audience so that when you do come to your next line or you do come to your next promo or a new spot in your client, roster opens up that you need to fill that there are already warm people in your audience who are ready to buy from you. That is half The battle. And we forget about the importance of that in between content that really is just showing up and serving and building those relationships because it might not seem like it’s important in the day-to-day, right? Like you’re posting something, you’re getting engagement. You’re having conversations on Instagram, but nobody’s booking off of that specific post or because of that specific podcast episode. But it does matter because the warmer your audience is, the more your content is going to convert when you do come to those points in your business, where you are selling.

So stop and ask yourself right now. On a scale of freezing to extremely hot. How warm or cold is your audience right now. And it might be different on different platforms, especially if you’re just starting on a specific platform and you do have a newer audience that you’re still warming up, so take a look at your different channels, where you’re showing up, who’s following you and get really honest with yourself and ask, am I promoting and creating content for a cold audience? And if so, what could I do to start warming up my audience more strategically so that my content will start converting.

The second reason why your content may not be converting is that you’re trying to do everything for everyone. You’re creating content for everyone, and you’re not building what I call a pointy brand. That’s very specific that stands out that is memorable because you’re staking that claim on this is the topic that my brand is best about. This is the topic that I’m the expert in. And when you’re talking about everything, you’re not really top of mind for any particular problem. And it’s a lot less likely that people in your audience even are going to think of you when other people in their lives are having the same problems that your content or your business could solve for them.

If you’re only talking about that problem every once in a while, and you’re solving 30 different problems for 30 different people, you become a lot less pointy and memorable. So the content that you are creating, even though your current audience might be a little bit engaged with it. They’re not thinking about you and sharing your content with other people or bingeing your content, because you’re going really, really deep on a specific subject or a specific content pillar and helping people get results, and again, serving them, warming them up, building that relationship so that you are priming them to think about you first, when they are ready to hire somebody to solve one of those problems for them.

A lot of business owners when they start working with me, tell me that their strategy really is to just post what they feel like posting when they feel like it, even if they’re in the habit of showing up consistently in their marketing channels, they don’t have a clear strategy or a content pillars or a focus when it comes to their content and how they’re moving people through their funnel.

They’re just kind of posting what they feel like posting and creating what they feel like creating. And they’re talking about a million different things. And that’s great for consistency and building relationships, but it’s not great for converting because again, you want to be seen as the expert, especially as a service provider.

That’s how you build a high-end business where you can charge higher prices for your services and you can build out a team and become the go-to expert in that specific field. And it’s harder to convince people that you are the expert. On any one topic. If you’re talking about a million different things and marketing to a million different people.

So building that trust through your content can come from narrowing down the scope of the things that you’re talking about. And repeating them more often.

So I want you to think about the content that you’ve created in the last 90 days. Has that content been pointy? has it been strategic in building your reputation as the expert in the field that you want to be known for? Or have you just been posting when you felt like it creating the content that felt fun to you in the moment? Which side of that skill do you lean towards? Because this might be one of those reasons why our content isn’t converting, even if people are really enjoying what they’re listening to or what they’re reading from you. It’s not leading declines and this might be one of those reasons.

Reason number three, why your content might not be converting is that you’re creating really salesy content all of the time. Especially when it comes to social media, I think it’s easy to forget that it is social, that it is meant for building relationships, and it is a longterm strategy for growing your business. You can’t always be shortsighted and getting sales. Now at some point you do have to invest in building those longer term relationships that are going to be a lot more fruitful and productive when it comes to growing your business again, sustainably, but over the long term, not short term. And so if you are posting content consistently in every piece of content that you’re creating does come off as extremely salesy, you might be rubbing your audience the wrong way, and even pushing them away from your content.

And I don’t think that this is one that most business owners lean towards. If anything, I see business owners leaning the other direction where they’re not creating enough content that is asking people to buy from them or become a client or apply now, or book now, whatever that might be. But I do think that some people are creating content for social media. That feels much more like a billboard or like an infomercial then it does relational, engaging conversations, starting thought provoking content. Which in the long run is going to be much more helpful. And again, building those relationships and getting people gradually closer and closer down the funnel building that know like trust with them so that when the time comes, where you do create that push that launch, that sales post, whatever that might be. They’re already bought in and ready to click purchase.

So again, looking at the content you’ve created in the last 90 days, does it feel extremely salesy to you and authentic? Does it feel robotic or like you’re showing up as a billboard and not a person. Check yourself there and make sure that the content that you’re creating is a good mix of yes. Asking people to buy and promoting the things that you do best and being clear on how people can take the next steps to work with you. But also nurturing and building relationships and starting conversations and educating, inspiring, adding value. That is the type of content that people want to come back and binge and binge and binge.

Jade Boyd: So the next one. The reason number four, why people might not be buying based on your content is that you have no call to action. And this is true if you’re not creating enough sales content, where you’re not talking about the next steps to work with you, or just generally not creating content where you’re asking people directly to comment, to start a conversation, or to DMU a certain word, to get a link or to join your email list, to get. certain, announcement or to get on your wait list in time for your next launch to happen, every single piece of content you create should have a clear call to action. Whether that’s asking your audience to engage with you and a conversation again, to reach out to you in IDM. Or to post a specific comment to join your email list, to follow your podcast. Whatever that next step might be, every piece of content you create should have a clear place in your sales funnel for the action that it’s leading people towards so that they are gradually taking baby steps in the right direction. And you’re getting them incrementally closer to hiring you.

Small commitments, lead to bigger commitments down the line and so when you are creating content, I want you to ask yourself the question, what action do I want this piece of content to inspire my audience, to take, and then specifically ask them and tell them what to do next. After they read that piece of content. And if it’s educational, it could be a specific guide or freebie that you have, or it could just be a specific challenge for something for them to try that’s in the post itself. But whatever your piece of content is, make sure they have a clear next step to take. So again, looking at your content over the last 90 days. How often are you including a clear call to action? In your content and are those calls to action strategic when it comes to leading people incrementally closer to becoming a paying client.

Reason number five, why your content might not be converting is that you have too many calls to action. So this again is on the opposite side of that spectrum, where you’re telling people to do a million different things after one piece of content. And that is overwhelming. And when people are overwhelmed, as we all know. Their default is to do nothing. Right. I have so much to do. I’m going to take a nap. And that’s true of your content too, if you’re educating them. And there’s this 10 step process, and they’re, they’re reading this in an Instagram post. Obviously people are not going to be like, you know what? This is the exact perfect time for me to execute on these 10 complicated steps after reading this Instagram post. No, they might find it interesting. They might follow you. They might comment or engage with it or save it for later, but are they actually going to show up and do those 10 things that you’re asking them to do? Probably not. And I would say that that’s a dramatic example. More likely what you’re doing is asking them to do two or three things after one Instagram posts and giving them options. And again, when you make somebody else choose between options, even if it’s two or three options, you’re forcing them to think. And that takes energy. That takes literal calories being burned by their brains in order to think through the process of what to do next. So instead of giving them three options, Just give them one thing to do. And again, going back to the calls to action, you could ask them to comment, ask them to share the post, ask them to DM you, whatever that might look like, but don’t say you can either DM me or comment or share this with a friend. Here are 10 different ways that you can take action based on the specific post that I created. Do not do that because the default for most people will be to do nothing.

I also think that on a wider timeline. So not just thinking about individual posts or individual podcast episodes or individual blog posts. Thinking about your broader timeline and how you’re structuring your marketing plan. It can be really strategic to have one call to action for a longer period of time, so that you’re creating content for an entire week that has one call to action, or even an entire month. That has one called action. Obviously seasons of launching are going to be seasons where you have one very specific call to action for the entire month or six weeks or however long your pre-launch and launch strategy is going to take you. But people need to hear things more than once. Even if they have good intentions of taking that call to action and doing the thing. It depends on what platform you’re on. But in every single platform, there’s a different barrier for people to take action in that given moment. And so reminders are really, really helpful. And sometimes that can come from having one call to action across all of your platforms for a set period of time. So if your content isn’t converting, it might be because you have too many calls to action for individual pieces of content, but maybe every time they see your brand, you’re asking them to do something different and they’re not getting enough reminders to actually take that specific call to action.

So, to recap, reason number five is you have too many calls to action happening at the same time.

Reason number six, why your audience might not be converting into clients based on your content? Is that there is no urgency for them to take action. And when I’m talking about urgency in this case, I’m talking about urgency to buy from you. If you’re continually being clear about the next step and that’s submitting your application or filling out your contact form or booking a discovery call, where is the urgency for them to actually do the action to take the next step in becoming a paying client. And your offer promise for whatever your service is, what you’re helping them accomplish should create urgency.

And your content should be creating that felt need that. Wow, this problem is actually really affecting my life and playing up the problem and all the ways that it’s impacting them. In their life or in their business, whoever your ideal client is. But making that urgent because getting that problem solved, that should feel important to them. That should feel like they want to get that solved as soon as possible. They should feel tired of dealing with the consequences of staying where they’re at.

There’s always a cost to not taking action, right? The easiest default solution that we have is to not do anything, but that costs us. And so in your content, are you talking about the cost that they’re experiencing the bad consequences that they’re experiencing in their life or their business, because they’re not taking action playing into urgency and creating urgency to book that discovery call today. Or to submit the application this week will help them take action more quickly, even if they have good intentions and have it on their vision board that you know what this year I really want to work with so, and so to do a brand redesign, or I know that I need to outsource my blog writing, and I know this person is the person that I want to do it, but what is the urgency? Making sure that your content is talking about why it’s important for them to act now.

Another way to add urgency, especially for evergreen offers that are available anytime where there’s really not any deadline is to add an additional incentive or reason for them to buy now.

So for example, One of my clients is a photographer and she was having trouble having enough people book on the off season. So something we played around with for her is building a referral program where her clients could refer other, families to her to book their photography session during a specific month in order to get a referral program discounts.

So the referral program, wasn’t something that’s available anytime of year, but for that specific. Month it’s something that she used to help her book sessions on the off season, even if they were months later. Getting those people on the calendar and having them pay their deposits now was really helpful to balance out her revenue throughout the year.

And it worked, because people might have really great intentions to refer you or to book your services themselves, but what reason do they have to do it now especially if they’re waiting to work with you months later, it can be great to have people on payment plans and on your calendar. Months prior to actually working with them so that you have that predictability in your business.

But oftentimes, I mean, we all do it, right. We wait until the last minute to book when we absolutely have to. So what incentives or tangible reasons can you give them to book now rather than later, that’s another way to look at it.

One other example of creating urgency and not a booking situation, but an email list situation. So I had a free masterclass called, well, it’s still live. You can get the recording. It’s called Double Your Profit While Working Less than it’s my signature masterclass that helps service providers take the first steps in figuring out how to get time and financial freedom in their business so that they can double their profit and the amount that they’re paying themselves while cutting back on the hours that they’re spending in their business.

So at first I launched this freebie as a prerecorded masterclass and the conversion rates on the content that I was creating to lead people into this masterclass were a little bit lower than I hoped that they would be. So instead I offered it live. So I took off the pre-recording and changed the opt-in to a live masterclass that was happening at a certain time and date. And created that natural urgency that you have to sign up before that time and date to get this masterclass otherwise you’re going to miss it. Right? And I four X my opt-ins for that masterclass in just two weeks of promoting it in that fashion, because it did create that urgency. It created that deadline. And although about half of the people who registered for it, it showed up. Well, maybe a little bit less than half who registered, showed up live. Many others watched the replay afterwards. And more people watch the replay after doing the live masterclass and then had watched it prior to doing it live when it was just pre-recorded.

We all know that we have that experience of downloading the free thing and then not actually watching it or downloading the resource once it’s in our inbox. Right? But creating that urgency and that deadline and the communication around that specific timeline really helped make that call the action more urgent. And whatever the assumption was that they thought the replay was going away or that they know that they missed the live master class because they were getting the reminders and now they have this replay available, it created a little bit more incentive and engagement for them to do it now, instead of later.

So beyond asking people to book your service. And hire you today. Maybe there’s other calls to action in your business, such as building your email list or opting into your freebies, that you can also create urgency around.

So to sum up reason, number six on why your audience might not be converting into paying clients. Are you creating urgency in your content to take action? Not just telling them what to do, but creating urgency and a reason for them to take action now.

Reason number seven on why your content might not be converting is that you’re not being consistent. And I feel like this is the underlying thing that has come up in many of the points that we’ve already talked about, but it’s worth mentioning again and being really honest with yourself. Are you being consistent in the way that you’re creating content? Both in the quality, like is the quality of content you’re creating consistent is the frequency that you’re showing up on specific platforms overall consistent. Can people depend on you to be there in the podcast? I started out every other week because that’s what I could do realistically, when I launched this podcast. And now that I have more support in my business, I can publish an episode every single week. But I know that my audience depends on me and looks for that episode every single week. And this podcast would not have as many followers or subscribers, or it would not convert as well either if I wasn’t consistently publishing fresh content, and the content has to be good too right? It can’t just be posting or publishing just to create content, but being consistent does snowball your results over time. And it also helps you become a better content creator, which is the underlying thing. Like you’re not just showing up consistently so that you can get in front of people as much as possible, and they don’t forget about you. I think people forget that another benefit of being consistent is that you are putting in the reps and you are becoming better at creating content.

You are gathering more data about what your audience responds to and doesn’t respond to. You are having more touch points with your audience that are helping you learn about what’s needed and not needed in whatever platform you’re showing up consistently on. And it’s a lot harder to see those trends over time. If you’re showing up sporadically, like if one month you’re posting five times on Instagram and the next month you’re going all out and posting 20 times on Instagram. It’s hard to look at your analytics and see what’s actually working because it’s so drastically different. Right? Sometimes it does take repeating the same thing over and over again.

And I like experimenting with quarters and updating my content strategy and my consistency each quarter, or when something new in my life or business changes, because it is going to change over time and you’re going to have to experiment. You’re going to learn as you go. And what is realistic for you to be consistent with right now might not be realistic or strategic for you to be consistent with in three months or two months. So, being honest with yourself. Are you showing up as consistently as you need to be showing up in order to get good data from your content, and in order to be memorable, to be noticeable, are you doing the boring content creation, which you’re kind of, it shouldn’t feel boring, but it might feel boring to you to repeat the same thing over and over again, the same calls to action. Talking about the same content pillars. Week-in and week-out, that’s what it takes to build a really powerful pointy brand.

And it’s really easy to get distracted and get shiny object syndrome and start going all over the place and just posting when you feel like it, because the motivation is not always there. When you feel like it is more strategy than creativity for your content creation, there should be a balance of both, but be honest with yourself.

Are you being consistent to the level that you know, you need to be consistent in order to warm up your audience in order to become a better content creator in order to learn from your analytics. And have data that’s actually going to inform decisions moving forward. Are you being consistent enough or is that an area that you need to work on in order to help your content convert?

Okay, moving on to reason number eight, why your content might not be converting is that you’re on the wrong platforms or you’re focused on the wrong platforms. So it doesn’t matter how great your content for Instagram is if your audience isn’t an Instagram or isn’t engaged on Instagram, or isn’t able to take the actions that you’re asking them to take on Instagram. Right? And that’s true of any platform that you’re using. So looking at the platforms that you’re using, where is your audience most engaged, which platforms are leading to the most leads in your business, where people are actually filling out applications? When people do apply for your program or apply to work with you, and you’re asking them where they found you are, they mentioning a certain platform over and over again, then it might be strategic for you to focus on that platform and repurpose things on other platforms. Or maybe you just double down on one and not need the other platforms, but overall making sure that your platforms are actually aligned to the actions that you’re wanting your audience to take.

Also, marketing on a platform that you hate creating for makes it infinitely more difficult for you to show up consistently and to create good content and to be motivated to show up day in and day out, even when it feels repetitive and boring to you. And so yes, looking at the platforms that are right for your audience, where your audience is present, where they’re engaged, where they’re active where they’re able to take action. But also looking at the platforms that are aligned to your skillsets. If you’re really good at speaking and you hate writing. Then don’t force yourself to write a blog post every week, start a podcast. If it’s easier for you to just turn the mic on record and talk for 20 minutes, easy content and you’re probably better at creating that type of content. It’s going to be more influential. It’s going to help people get to know you more and again, build that know like, and trust faster than if you’re to force yourself into blog writing or writing in general, if that’s not your skillset, because if you’re focused on something that you’re bad at, it’s not fun, it’s easier to procrastinate, it’s easier to slack off when it comes to not showing up consistently. And also your audience can kind of feel it, right. If you’re doing something that you don’t like doing, and that you’re not good at it, it’s not doing you any favors, even if you are doing it consistently, because your audience can tell when your energy is off or when you don’t like doing something, no matter how much we might pretend. Our audience is smart and they can see it.

So to sum up number eight. Are you on the right platforms? Do your platforms feel good to you? Are your platforms aligned with your strategy and your audience and the actions that you want them to take?

Okay, reason number nine. And the final reason in this episode, at least why your content might not be converting is that your messaging is bland and not potent. So you’re showing up and saying the same things that everybody else in your industry is saying, and then you’re not standing out. And one of the ways to solve this issue is to get really clear on what I call your core five.

And I’ll link to another episode where I dive deeper into understanding your core five, but your audience needs to see the value and what you’re doing, and they need to see how you’re different than every other person on the internet who’s creating content for the same topic. So if you’re a graphic designer, for example, defining the difference between branding and a brand or talking about your process and deliverables. If you’re talking about that in a way that’s bland in the same way that any other graphic designer on the internet is talking about it, then that content is not going to convert because people aren’t seeing the value in what you’re doing.

They’re not understanding why it’s going to be different or special or transformative for them to hire you versus anyone else on the internet. So part of that potent messaging comes from deeply understanding your ideal client. The problem that you’re solving and not just the problem in terms of going back to this example of a graphic designer, not the problem in I’m going to deliver a new brand design and it’s going to include fonts and colors and primary logo and secondary logo.

Like that is not the real problem that you’re solving. People usually want something much deeper than that. The transformation has to be more powerful and emotional. So you really have to understand the core problem that your client is facing and what they want their life or their business to look like on the other side of working with you and that’s way more than just your process or the things that you’re going to give them, it’s the results that they’re going to experience on the other side of things.

So being really, really clear about your messaging, really understanding your audience and really understanding yourself and the unique value that you deliver to your audience that is different. Than what anybody else in your industry is delivering. And if you’re thinking what I’m doing is not different than anybody else in my industry. I promise you every single business owner has a way to communicate their messaging that is unique to them because every single business owner is uniquely gifted has a unique personality, has unique philosophies and beliefs about their industry has unique experience to share, has unique stories to tell. And so every single business owner is capable of creating potent messaging. That is not bland. That is pointy. That will stand out. But. If you don’t take the time to actually think through those things. And get clear on them. It can be really easy to just show up with the standard content that is vanilla and that blends into the background. When it comes to people scrolling through their podcast, feed or scrolling through the SEO results when they’re Googling a certain question that they want answered and finding one of your blog posts.

Your messaging has to be potent and it has to stand out. It has to be clear. And so again, I’ll link to the episode that goes deeper into my core five strategy, but this is something that I look at continually in my business. I’m like, how am I standing out from every other business coach or every other productivity coach who is giving cookie cutter advice?

That is not the person that I want to be on the internet. Right? And if you’re thinking about your industry and all the other people who are showing up in your industry, educating, serving, asking people to work with them. You don’t want to blend into the crowd either, right? You do want to stand out. So this is something that I look at really, really often, because this can make one of the biggest differences when it comes to creating content that actually converts that builds that relationship that builds that trust, that helps people see that you are different and the results that you’re going to help them get are transformative and are really desirable.

It does take a little work on the messaging side of things, the strategy side of things, before you show up to create the actual content. So to sum up reason number nine why our content may not be converting. Maybe your messaging is a little bit bland and not potent enough.

So I hope that going through these nine different reasons why your content might not be converting has been helpful for you. It has not been discouraging because I would hate for you to walk away from this episode thinking I’m doing everything wrong. I’m a failure. No, no, no. Marketing is about experimenting, testing learning and gradually iterating and improving. So. I want you to think about one, maybe two things that you learned in this episode, two thoughts that you have of like, oh, maybe I could improve that in my content and that would lead to better conversions. What are those one to two specific things that you want to gradually improve on gradually implement and test and experiment in your business to help increase your conversion rates, pick one to two and commit to doing them moving forward.

And again, like I said, I revisit my marketing strategy and my content plan consistently making sure that I’m learning from my metrics, learning from what’s working in not working to making those gradual improvements over time. And my number one secret to doing this well is a quarterly reset. And you can grab access to my quarterly reset if you want step-by-step directions on how to reach your business goals through your marketing, how to create a complete strategy. Around creating content. That’s actually going to convert that leads into strategic calls to action focus, calls to action that is pointy and memorable and stands out for your audience. It might be time for a reset in your business, and you can grab more information about The Quarterly Reset using the link in the show notes. This is a course that I’ve created helping business owners break down their quarterly goals and then create an actual strategic plan with step-by-step actions that they can take that quarter over the next 90 days to make small steps in the right direction to make sure that everything you’re doing in your business is focused on that specific result that you are moving the needle on your goals every single quarter, no matter what your capacity is in life or business, this course takes both into consideration when planning your goals and your marketing strategy around how much time you actually give to your business in this season.

So if that sounds like something that would be refreshing to have a full business reset this quarter, head on over to the show notes and grab more information about The Quarterly Reset, but until next time, come talk to me on Instagram @jadeboyd.co. If there’s something in this episode that resonated with you, or if you have questions, I would love to chat with you. I check all of my DMS on Instagram, so message me@jadeboy.co. And until next time business minimalists. Take what you learned today and get 1% better this week.