The hate on "How-To" content (and what to post on social media instead) - Shiny New Clients!

Summary

Podcast Summary: Shiny New Clients!
Episode: The Hate on "How-To" Content (and What to Post on Social Media Instead)
Host: Jenna Harding (Warriner)
Release Date: January 27, 2025

Introduction to the Episode

In this insightful episode of Shiny New Clients!, Jenna Harding tackles a long-standing debate in the marketing world: the efficacy of "How-To" content. Aimed at service-based business owners, Jenna explores why "How-To" content has garnered both supporters and detractors and offers guidance on crafting a balanced and effective content strategy.

Jenna's Take on "How-To" Content

Jenna begins by addressing the ongoing conflict among marketers regarding the use of "How-To" content. She highlights the core argument against it: "How to content doesn't sell in and of itself" (02:15). By providing step-by-step guides, businesses may inadvertently offer away the very solutions they hope clients will pay for.

However, Jenna emphasizes that while "How-To" content alone may not drive sales, it remains a "powerful piece of your content strategy" (03:40). She contends that the real contention lies in misunderstanding its role within a broader marketing framework.

Understanding Value in Content Marketing

A significant portion of the episode delves into the concept of value in content marketing. Jenna points out the confusion surrounding the term, noting that "value can also just be to entertain people" (05:20). She expands on this by illustrating that value encompasses various forms, such as:

Entertainment: Not limited to humor; documentaries and news can entertain without being funny.
Inspiration: Empowering audiences and boosting their confidence.
Engagement: Fostering conversations and allowing audiences to express their opinions.

This broader definition helps demystify what constitutes value beyond just instructional content.

Clarifying Misconceptions from Business Coaches

Jenna shares a scenario involving a client conflicted by their business coach's advice to avoid "How-To" content. She reassures listeners by explaining that most business coaches are knowledgeable and that the issue likely stems from misunderstanding what constitutes value (10:05).

To illustrate her point, Jenna recounts a detailed explanation she provided to her client, using a relatable metaphor:

The Hot Dog Stand Metaphor

Using the analogy of a hot dog stand, Jenna clarifies how to offer value without undermining your product:

Giving Away the Entire Product: Analogous to a hot dog stand offering free hot dogs, which devalues the product.
Providing Supplemental Value: Like giving away the relish or hosting a workshop on making relish, which adds value without replacing the main product.

"If you have a hot dog stand and all you do is give away free hot dogs, logically, no one is going to pay you for a hot dog" (12:30). This metaphor underscores the importance of offering valuable content that complements rather than replaces what you're selling.

Building a Unique Content Strategy

Jenna emphasizes the importance of developing a personalized and unique content strategy. She encourages business owners to move beyond generic themes like "How-To" or inspirational posts and instead brainstorm unique content ideas that resonate deeply with their audience.

"Post stuff that nobody else even thought of. That again, leads your client down a path towards working with you." (16:45)

By understanding their audience's desires and needs, businesses can create standout content that not only engages but also guides potential clients toward conversion.

Insights on Jenna’s Program: Magic Marketing Machine

Towards the end of the episode, Jenna introduces her program, Magic Marketing Machine, designed to help service-based business owners excel on Instagram. Key benefits of the program include:

Efficient Content Creation: Learn to generate unique content faster.
Time Management: Manage your social media accounts in just 15 minutes a day.
Enhanced Engagement: Create content that attracts more views and interactions.

Jenna also offers a free training linked in the show notes, providing a sneak peek into the strategies used in her program.

Conclusion

Jenna concludes the episode by reiterating that the debate over "How-To" content often stems from a misunderstanding of what constitutes value. She encourages listeners to craft a balanced content strategy that offers diverse forms of value, thereby attracting and retaining the right clients without undermining their offerings.

"That's how you become the standout online. That's how you start posting stuff that nobody else even thought of." (19:55)

For those interested in further enhancing their marketing strategies, Jenna invites them to explore her Magic Marketing Machine program, promising transformative results for their businesses.

Notable Quotes:

"How to content doesn't sell in and of itself." — Jenna Harding (02:15)
"Value can also just be to entertain people." — Jenna Harding (05:20)
"If you have a hot dog stand and all you do is give away free hot dogs, logically, no one is going to pay you for a hot dog." — Jenna Harding (12:30)
"Post stuff that nobody else even thought of. That again, leads your client down a path towards working with you." — Jenna Harding (16:45)
"That's how you become the standout online. That's how you start posting stuff that nobody else even thought of." — Jenna Harding (19:55)

Whether you're grappling with the right balance of content types or seeking innovative strategies to elevate your social media presence, this episode offers valuable insights to help you attract shiny new clients to your business.

Transcript

Jenna Warner (0:00)

Welcome to Shiny New Clients, the marketing podcast that helps you attract shiny new clients to your business. We'll talk about social media, what makes people buy, how to go viral, and marketing psychology all in 20 minutes or less. Whether you're a coach, a stylist, or a wedding planner, if you've got a service based business to sell, this is the show you need to fill your calendar. I'm Jenna Warner, your new marketing coach and this is Shiny New New clients. Man, the marketers keep fighting. Guys, can we all just get along? If you haven't heard for decades, there's been this constant fight, push, pull over whether folks should post how to content or not. So why can't we make up our minds? What's going on here? My take is we're all saying the same thing for the folks who say don't post it. Yeah, okay, you're right. How. How to content doesn't sell. It doesn't sell in and of itself. If you give someone a step by step manual on exactly how to do something, it makes perfect sense that they're not going to then turn around and pay you for that same manual that they just got for free. Right? So how to content doesn't sell, but it's really powerful as part of your content strategy. It is a really powerful piece of your marketing initiatives, in my humble opinion. I think the only reason that marketers argue about this is to confuse people who aren't marketers. Could be, maybe not, who knows? But if you're a regular person, you're trying to do your marketing, okay, you have a business, I assume you have a business and that's why you're here. That's usually who listens to this podcast. Because my whole thing is teaching service based business owners how to get clients from Instagram. Pretty much every episode of this show revolves around that in some way, some element of having a business, growing your business, mindset for business, yada, yada yada. So I'm assuming that's why you're here. So where folks like you often get confused is with this word, value. Because all the marketers and social media managers on the Internet are telling you to give value, but not too much, but not too little, but not too much. And so yeah, of course it's confusing. Value firstly, doesn't just need to be how to. That is, you know, a version of value. But value can also just be to entertain people. And if I can dig into that one for a second, you don't need to be goofy or silly like me to entertain People. Documentaries entertain people. The nightly news entertains people. Sudoku puzzles entertain people. And those are not funny, goofy, silly. Value can mean a whole lot of things. Inspiring people, making people feel confident, getting a discourse going where people can feel heard and sound off and let their opinions be known and have a conversation about it. All of these things are super valuable. It's not just how to, which is, you know, we all get really tripped up about stuff like this. So why am I ranting about this particular topic this afternoon? Well, one of my clients came to me and they were confused about this. They had a business coach telling them not to give value, and they themselves felt like they were holding out on their audience by not giving value, and it didn't feel aligned for them to not give value. So I have a rule. When any of my clients come to me and they tell me something that their business coach or another expert that they're working with has told them, I assume by default that their business coach is excellent. I don't think it serves anyone for me to assume that that business coach is full of it. Right? So if I'm assuming that their business coach is excellent and we know that content marketing has to give some sort of value, I'm betting that there's just confusion here over what constitutes value. Or they're trying to say don't just give value. Because a proper content strategy and messaging has, like all these other video very important ingredients in order to take a follower by the hand and move them toward a sale in a nice streamlined way, which is ideally what we're doing with all of your content, your blog, your podcast, your YouTube videos, your Instagram, whatever. So I'm assuming their business coach knows what's up, I know what's up. And there's just something that needs to be clarified in the middle here. And it is, at the end of the day, a content marketing fundamental value. And I don't know about you, but if I need to understand something, nothing does it quite like a ridiculous example. So here is exactly what I told them. And because when I coach my magic marketing machine students, they get to choose if they want to come to a live call or get video feedback. This person wanted video feedback, so it's recorded. So I'm literally going to play for you exactly what I told them, which is a very ridiculous example of how to give value to your followers without just giving away what you sell. All right, at the end of the day, we're trying to figure out ways to give value without just giving away what you sell. So here you go. I edited it a little bit, but this is me recording an answer to my client explaining an answer to their question. So you're in this limbo of, like, how much information to give away for free and what constitutes all of that. I'm here for it. Experts, marketing experts for a long time have been, like, arguing over how much to give away for free. Some people are all about give away the farm, like, give away as much as possible. And the argument for that is like, nobody's going to go through your entire social feed and get everything they need from there and then not work with you, because that's way too much work and it's piecemealed and it's not the same as actually working with you. So your ideal client isn't going to do that. They just want to work with you. That's the argument for it. So then you win. People you like trigger the rule of reciprocity you've given to them, so then they owe you. So that's the argument for giving a lot away for free. The argument against giving a lot away for free is that how to content doesn't sell. Right. That's not nurturing. That's not reversing objections. That's not sending people to the next step. That's not identifying their problems and diagnosing them. Like all of these things that marketing psychology does to make someone convert, it is not those things. Right? How to content isn't those things. So if you have a hot dog stand and all you do is give away free hot dogs, logically, no one is going to pay you for a hot dog, right? If they're going to get one for free. So instead of giving away the whole hot dog, we give the relish. We host a relish making workshop. We teach people about hot dogs. We take them to the hot dog factory and show them behind the scenes, which is proudly terrifying. We give them all sorts of value, stuff that could even be worth paying for, but we don't give away the hot dog itself. Okay, I hope that helps. And I also hope you're not a vegetarian. You can give away a ton of value without cannibalizing your paid material. All right, so this. I'm not disagreeing with your business coach. I think that we're all kind of probably saying the same thing, and it's up to you to decide what value you do want to give away, what that looks like for you, and finding a zone that you're comfortable in. All right, that's it. That. That there's the clip, the old hot dog stand, the metaphor that teaches our students all they really need to know. No, but seriously, so much of the work that I do with small business owners is helping you figure out content that you can create that is super unique to you and not kind of the recurring themes that we see in content. How to content is great. An inspirational post on a backdrop is great, but how cool would it be to tour the hot dog factory? You know, what a neat idea that comes from brainstorming and comes from deeply understanding what value is and what your ideal clients want to see. So much goes into content strategy. I am a total nerd for it. When I work with service providers in my program, Magic Marketing Machine, you go through this like really deep, intense brainstorm that I have been perfecting over many years to help you break your brain free from everything that you think your social media has to be and everything that you think that you're supposed to be posting or your industry is posting. You know, break free from all of that. And that is how you become the standout online. That's how you start posting stuff that nobody else even thought of. That again, leads your client down a path towards working with you. By the way, if you want to work with me, the doors to Magic Marketing Machine are wide open. That's my program where I help service based business owners get clients from Instagram and all the things in between. Create content faster, spend less time on your phone, manage your account in 15 minutes a day, make amazing content, get more views, all of the numbers we want to see going up. If that piqued your interest, if that sounds like something that you want for your business this year, there's even a free training in the Show Notes that'll show you the exact strategy that my clients use when they work with me and give you all the information about Magic Marketing Machine, how you can jump in and start growing your business with us. With that, I will see you probably next Monday. Bye.