It’s not surprising that so many service providers are reluctant to share knowledge. At what point have you given people so much information that they no longer need you? But, instead of holding things back, you should share information freely. Here’s why.
Sharing Useful Information Boosts Your Brand
The people who freely give information have more credibility. The knowledge they share shows off their expertise but also show that they are generous. At the moment, your business Instagram is probably full of tips and tricks. But what would happen if you shared a little more?
You might worry that if you give out too much information, people will do everything themselves. At the end of the day, there are always people who are going to DIY things; they were never going to buy from you. But the people who are going to buy from you, they are watching you to decide if the service you offer is actually good value. If you share the same entry level information your competitors do, then your customers see you as on their level. But if you share more information, then your customers start to think you know a lot more than your competitors. After all, if you’re giving away that information for free, it must mean you have so much more to give if they hire you.
People Don’t Like to DIY
There is a service for everything. Doing laundry isn’t difficult, but there is a market for laundry services. Cleaning isn’t difficult, but there is a market for cleaning services. Sure, if you post YouTube videos of professional cleaning tutorials, some people will take that knowledge to clean their flat. But some of them might find that cleaning their home to professional standards is EXHAUSTING and besides, the bleach gives them a headache and dries out their hands!
By letting people peak behind the curtain they can see how much work goes into creating an excellent finished product. A lot of people will not want to do all that work. There will always be people who want to DIY everything in the name of saving a few pennies, but most people just want the final product in the easiest way possible.
Just think of home organising. There are countless books and shows about how to organise your home; so why are there so many home organising businesses? Sure, you could take the lessons from the show and apply it yourself, but that would take a whole weekend to do. Why not hire professionals who will do it much better and in half the time?
What Information Should I Share?
So we’ve established why you should share information. But what kind of information should you share with your following?
Well, first you need to think about your ideal customers and what kind of information they want to read. For example, we are copywriters who work with small businesses and startups. If we only wrote about copywriting tips and how to improve your copywriting, we’d end up with mostly copywriters following us. So, we write mainly about starting a business and branding with a little bit of copywriting sprinkled in. The business-related content we produce helps attract our ideal clients and gives search engine bots context clues. The copywriting-related content helps to establish our expertise and show off our skills.
Think of what is the other major element of your ideal customer to find your secondary topic. Let’s say you’re a social media manager who works with e-commerce business owners. You will obviously write about social media, but your secondary content topic could be running an e-commerce business. This helps establish your niche and increases the likelihood that your following is largely made up of your ideal customers.
Put It Into Practice
If you’re ready to get started sharing more knowledge to boost your business, start by doing these things:
- Identify a small problem that your clients have – This is an issue so small that you wouldn’t take a client on if they just messaged you about this problem. Create content on how to solve it.
- Write a list of common things you have to explain to clients – Let’s say you’re a financial advisor, you may have a lot of clients asking you about NFTs and how they work. Create some content to explain, you can always point future clients there when they ask the question.
- Look out for industry news – Explain industry news in layman’s terms and give your opinion on what it means for your clients. Writing about industry news is great content and establishes you as someone who keeps up to date.
- Share intermediate tips – Give your following tips on how to make small improvements. Think of these as a taster of how you can help their business.