A few weeks ago I shared an idea with you: that focusing your social media and blog posts on encouraging and inspiring your customers isn’t as helpful as you think. In today’s post, we’ll look at how it’s also not as profitable as you think, and look at five steps to get you focused on helping your customers accomplish their goals while growing your business.

In the previous post we talked about how business owners – and I’ve done it too – often rely on feel-good, generally motivating or inspirational messages on social media and blog posts rather than messages that explicitly tie back to our products and services, or solve customer problems in a concrete way.

Here’s the disconnect: I bet your best customers don’t have a motivation problem.

They’re ready to learn; they’re ready for change – but most of all they’re ready for better results. Now think for a minute about what encouragement does. It assures, it gives confidence, it supports.

Encouragement and inspiration solve a problem that your best customers don’t have. It engages the wrong people.

This means the more we rely on cheerleading and encouragement, the more we attract engagement from people who are fundamentally different than our best customers. If we take social media or blogging seriously and general encouragement or inspiration is a primary part of that, the more we try to improve results, the worse the problem gets.

When your social media and blog doesn’t solve customer problems, every like or comment is a breadcrumb leading you away from your best customers.

Well, no wonder social media isn’t profitable for most small businesses! Where huge brands with high awareness can benefit from using broad messaging in a calculated way, small businesses looking to raise awareness suffer from copying the big players.

[bctt tweet=”If your best customers don’t have a motivation problem, who are your inspirational posts actually for? @kylaroma” via=”no”]

The opposite of this is blog and social media posts that are closely related to the problems your products and services solve.

That kind of messaging is a powerful statement about who your business helps and who you are as a leader. It reliably attracts potential customers and people interested in the questions you ask. And it reinforces your brand, because what you sell is the only thing your customers consider when they ask themselves “What kind of business is that?”

I know you’re saying to yourself, “But, I don’t want to be sales-y?” Perfect! Me neither! It’s both boring  and cheesy. That’s not a good look on anyone.

Using content to solve customer problems doesn’t mean selling 24/7.

Now, don’t brace yourself to be told you need to sell in every post. Solving problems can be much more subtle and community minded than that.

To use a recognizable example, Marie Forleo‘s primary offering is B-School, which answers marketing questions for new business owners. Most of the year, Marie’s team creates high-quality video content that answers business advice for beginners, on marketing and more.

To understand just how powerful what we sell is, ask yourself: If 99% of what we see Marie Forleo doing is answering business Q & A’s on Youtube, why don’t we think of her as a YouTuber and host of a web series?

The answer is what’s called positioning.

She may say a lot about navigating the business world, but she sells content marketing basics. What we sell is a powerful statement, so when we think of Marie, it’s as a teacher and marketer.

Thankfully, you don’t need an audience the size of Marie’s to focus on solving problems that attract the right audience and position you as their trusted advisor.

How to solve customer problems with content before you inspire & motivate:

To help you focus on content that solves customer problems first, and inspires them second, here are five steps you can take to grow an audience that grows your business.

1. What do you help your best customers accomplish?

Look through your products and services and list out the problems that each offer solves for your customers. The more clear you are about how you solve customer problems, the sharper you can make your messages.  Don’t be afraid if this is something small, or if it feels small. (Fun or fashionable problems are real problems too!) The more specific you are about the problems you solve and what you help them accomplish, the better.

To Do:

• List all your offers and the problems they solve for your customers.
• Aim for 5 – 10 answers for each product or service, using your customer’s words whenever possible.

2. What kind of content doesn’t help your customers accomplish their goals or serve your brand?

Knowing what you’re not going to do is just as important as knowing what you’d like to do. For example, if your work isn’t related to getting organized, office supply photos on Instagram will work for others, but you should probably skip them.

Be sure to consider how sophisticated your customers are as well. If your best customers are beginners, you’ll want to use less intimidating words and help them feel at home. But, if your best customers are well read and experienced, it’s just as important to use language and jargon that will jump out to them, and that will turn away the beginners who won’t find the help they want with you.

To Do:

• List out what kinds of content (and images, if you’re focusing on Instagram or Pinterest) you might have tried out or be comfortable shooting, but that doesn’t serve your clients or build your brand.
• Decide not to post that content.

3. Decide on 3 – 5 different kinds of content to focus on that would help your best customers.

Instead of imagining a whole new editorial calendar and running into overwhelm, brainstorm a few different ways you could help your best customers through content.

For example, if you’re a running coach you could focus on stories and images from your adventure runs, practical running tips, myth bust common misconceptions along with sharing success stories from clients and mentors. If you started brainstorming content and rotated through each type of post, you’d have a blog or social media account that makes a difference for your ideal customers and will attract more people like them.

To Do:

• Choose 3 – 5 different themes.
• Brainstorm content ideas for each that you can start to rotate between as you publish.

4. Start posting with the permission to be imperfect, and knowing your audience will need time to adjust.

Knowing what you don’t want to do online is easy, but hitting publish when you’re starting a new approach to your content is hard! I’ve changed my approach to blogging and social media many times since 2008 – including completely changing industries – while keeping my blog and social media profitable.

My advice about a new approach is not to announce it to your audience, instead just start. Your audience will need time to adjust, but not as much time as you think. The most important thing is to publish your new content reliably and to promote it more often than you have in the past, to attract new eyes who are interested in what you are creating. Remember, if people say they like your old blog or account, it means they liked your work but weren’t likely to support your business. You can thank them while knowing that your best customers will love your new direction.

To do:

• Start publishing your new content and give yourself permission for it to be a little messy at first.
• Commit to the new strategy for 3 – 4 weeks before assessing how successful you’ve been.
• Increase engagement and outreach with new potential readers over that time.

5. Stay connected by speaking with your customers.

It’s crucial to listen – really listen – to your customers, so be where they are. Ask them open-ended questions about their challenges, and make notes on what you hear. Ask them what they need help with, and make time to seek them out online and offline.

To do:

• Find online and offline spaces where your best customers spend time.
• Ask open-ended questions, like “What’s your greatest challenge with…?”. Follow up with “Can you tell me more about that?”
• Listen to their concerns and the words they use to talk about them.
• Set aside time to ask yourself how you can help them with content.

Content that solves real problems for your customers can be beautiful, inspiring and motivational. Content that’s just inspiring or motivational without serving a business purpose might be easier to serve up, but it’s not good for our businesses. Our customers deserve better.

Go the extra mile to serve up eye candy that’s profoundly helpful. Not only will you stand out, but your audience and bottom line will feel the difference.