69: Added-Value: The foundation of my marketing strategy — Making Good: Small Business Podcast

69: Added-Value: The foundation of my marketing strategy

Welcome back to Making Good, the podcast for small businesses who want to make a big impact.

I’m your host, Lauren Tilden, and this is episode 69.

Today we are talking about what I believe is the philosophy behind a GREAT marketing strategy for your business, and that is VALUE ADDED.

But. Before we get into the episode, I have a few of things I wanted to chat about:

First, let’s talk about content. One thing that I hear over and over again is: I can’t figure out what to SAY in my marketing. If that sounds like you, I have an awesome workbook that will walk you through a process for generating A LOT of content ideas that your audience is guaranteed to love. To download that, head to: makinggoodpodcast.com/content.

Second, I invite you to join other values-driven small business owners for inspiration, accountability and lots of business and marketing inspiration. That all takes place in the free Facebook community for this podcast, the Good Business Community. The link will be in the show notes, or you can go to makinggoodpodcast.com/community to be redirected.

FINALLY, if you love this podcast, there are a few ways you can help spread the love! First, I’d love for you to leave a review on Apple Podcasts or Stitcher to help others find the podcast. And second, take a screenshot while you’re listening and tag me on Instagram @laurentilden -- I would so love to connect with you and cheer you on!

Alrighty, let’s get into the episode.

As I mentioned, today’s episode is all the philosophy that underlines ALL of my marketing strategy, and all of the marketing guidance that I share with you here on the podcast.

And that is this: Value-Added Marketing.

In this episode, we’re going to talk about what I mean by value added, and what value added looks like. I’ll get into some practical tips about how to make sure your content adds value, and also talk about boundaries and making sure not to cross the line into giving too much away for free.

What does Value-Added mean?

If you don’t already have a deliberate philosophy that underlines your marketing strategy, this is a great time to think it through.

Let’s peel back the layers of marketing tactics, platforms, posts, emails, sales, promotions, campaigns, etc.

What’s left is marketing, in its simplest terms. And that is simply finding a way to sell your goods or services.

Figuring out how to design a marketing plan gets a whole lot easier when you have a strategy that underpins all of your marketing activities.

This strategy should be the foundation of every marketing decision you make: what to post, how often to post, where to post, and on what platforms, and how to spend your limited time, etc.

For example, you might have a marketing strategy of VOLUME, as in -- create AS MUCH marketing content as you possibly can, produce it as quickly as you can, even if the quality suffers… in hopes that some of it will stick.

You might have a marketing strategy of AGGRESSION, believing that the pushier you are in your marketing and sales tactics, the heavier hand you take in your persuasion, the better your business results will be.

Or, you might have a marketing strategy of ADDING VALUE.

So, what do I mean by Value-Added Marketing?

In short, Value Added marketing is marketing that believes in treating our ideal customer well is the best approach to business success.

In Value Added marketing, we view our ideal customers as humans, not just dollar signs.

Also sometimes called empathetic marketing or customer-centric marketing, Value Added marketing puts the customer and their needs, hopes and dreams FIRST.

How do you add value?

There are two steps to Added Value marketing.

STEP 1: Get to know your customers

The first key to Value Added marketing probably won’t come as a surprise to you if you listen to this podcast. The key to Value Added marketing is knowing your ideal customer as well as you possibly can.

Who are they? What do they care about? What are their problems and challenges? What do they struggle with? What are they proud of? What are their dreams? What are their ambitions? If they could SNAP their fingers and something would be different about their life, what would that be? What’s their favorite social media platform? What do they want to LEARN?

ASIDE: It is important to note that we are not looking to understand their pain points and problems in order to prey on their emotions -- I know that is a strategy for many marketers, but we don’t do things like that here.

And how do you get to know them?

Well, the EASIEST way to get to know your ideal customer is to ask them directly. If you already have customers, pick a few of them who you resonate with, who love your products, and who you just wish you could CLONE and work with over and over again.

Ask them for 20 minutes of their time and interview them to get to know them better. Ask them some of the questions I just listed, or go and google Ideal Customer Avatar Interview questions and you will come up with some great ideas. The point is to get to know this person as well as you know your best friend.

STEP 2: Content marketing

The SECOND step to Value Added Marketing is to use what you know about your ideal customer to create content that will genuinely serve them in some way. Give them something they want.

In other words: step 2 of an Added Value marketing strategy is content marketing.

For the most part, this helpful, useful content we create for our ideal customer should be related in some way to the product or service that we sell.

So, what does content marketing LOOK like?

Well, a lot of content marketing is educational: it’s teaching your ideal customer something they want or need to learn. Some content marketing is inspirational: it’s a quote or a mantra that will help your ideal customer get in a better frame of mind. Or, it could be entertaining -- a meme or a photo of a tropical escape that makes them laugh or dream.

I thought I’d provide some content marketing ideas for a couple of different fictional businesses.

Fictional Small Business #1: A person who sells knitted hats and scarves

Some content ideas:

Talk about the materials you use and why
If you have products in specific colors, you could talk about the color psychology of each color
Show the process of you making the goods
Style guide -- 5 ways to wear a knit scarf
Instructions on how to clean and take care of a hand knit hat
Holiday gift guide featuring a product or two of yours plus some of your other favorite makers

Fictional Small Business #2: A person who sells loose leaf tea

Some content ideas:

Share about the history of tea
Share the health benefits of different teas
Teach us how to make the perfect cup of tea
Round up your favorite tea and tea making accessories
Provide recipes of drinks that can be made with your tea
Share what the best way to dispose of tea leaves is
Talk about the importance of a morning or evening routine and how tea plays a part

Fictional Small Business #3: A social media manager

Some content ideas:

At what stage do you need a social media manager
Share tech tips and tricks that your ideal customer may not know
Share content prompts your ideal customer can use to come up with content ideas
Highlight your favorite apps that help you with Instagram
Break down the anatomy of a great
Tell people what Instagram insights to pay attention to

You may be thinking… this feels like a lot of work. How am I going to constantly create such thoughtful high quality content.

And my response is that yes, it is a lot of work. But with content marketing, we focus much more on quality than on quantity. It’s much more important to create 1 truly great, useful piece of content than 5 posts that you put no real effort or heart into and are posting just to check it off your list.

And while MOST of your content in a Value Added approach should be focused on providing your ideal customer with something they want, this doesn’t mean there’s not a time and place to ask them to purchase. The point of content marketing is to demonstrate that you care about your customers. You know what they need, and you speak their language, so that when you present them with an offer to purchase, they trust you and expect that what you have to offer will be valuable (because look at how much value they got for free!) In my book, 80% to 90% of your messages should be something your ideal customer will find entertaining, educational or inspiring, and 10% to 20% of the time you can ask them to buy something.

So, we’ve talked about what a Value Added Marketing strategy means, and the two important steps to implementing one: get to know your ideal customer, and provide them content that’s helpful to them.

Before I wrap up, I wanted to just chat a little bit first about platforms. You might be thinking, OK, so now I know what the topic of content to create… now where do I post that content?

The answer is that this foundation of adding value should apply to every single marketing platform you have.

You should focus on adding value in your Instagram posts.

You should focus on adding value in your email messages.

You should focus on adding value in your blog posts.

You should focus on adding value on Pinterest.

You should focus on adding value on Twitter.

You should focus on adding value on Facebook.

You should focus on adding value on any other platform you use for your business.

This approach of Added Value translates to every single piece of marketing that you do in your business.

One final reminder before I start to wrap up….

This might feel like A LOT, so I want to remind you that you can re-use content across platforms. If you create something for Instagram, let’s say an Instagram carousel post… that could be used as content for an email and blog post. You could pull out tidbits to share on IG stories or Twitter. When you’re putting a lot of effort into your content, I would definitely recommend that you try to give it as much mileage as you possibly can!

WOO! Okay, that’s what I have for you today!

What do you think about a Value Added approach to marketing? I’m so curious. DM me on Instagram @laurentilden.

If you enjoyed this podcast, here are a couple of ways to keep the ball rolling:

First, I have an awesome guide to creating great marketing content and coming up with new ideas. Download it (FREE) at: makinggoodpodcast.com/content.

Second, there’s a Facebook community of amazing other small business owners and great content just for the group that I would love for you to join. makinggoodpodcast.com/community.

If you found this podcast episode helpful or valuable, I would love to hear from you! Take a screenshot of this episode in your podcast player and tag me on Instagram @laurentilden.

You can find the full details from this episode over at the show notes page at makinggoodpodcast.com/69.

If this is your first time tuning in and you’re interested in hearing more about my businesses, check out: