8 Golden Rules of Selling with Content for Small Businesses, Solo Entrepreneurs, and Service Providers

If you’re an entrepreneur, business owner, or service provider who has ever attempted to promote your products or services with content, you may have struggled with getting your content to convert–that is, to lead prospective customers to the point where they want to buy from you. 

You might have been putting social media content or blog posts out diligently week after week, with limited returns. On the other hand, perhaps you’ve never really got started with this content marketing thing because you can’t imagine how it could lead to sales. 

Wherever you are on this continuum, if you’ve ever wondered how to make more sales with content, this post is for you. 

We’re all ultimately in business to make a living. This means selling is critical, but small businesses and solo enterprises rarely have either the budget for huge paid marketing campaigns, or the spare hours to manage time-intensive organic campaigns. 

The good news is that making sales or attracting clients with content–WITHOUT it eating all your time or profits–is totally possible for virtually all business types. 

Yes, including yours! 

Ready to get more sales or clients, slash that costly social media ad spend from your marketing budget, reach a more targeted and ready-to-buy audience, and never wonder “WTF should I even post!?” ever again? 

Read on, and I’ll share 8 golden rules for selling with content as a small business, service provider, solo entrepreneur, or creative professional. 

“Provide Value” is Important, But It’s Not Enough 

You’ve almost certainly been told that you need to provide value to your ideal clients or customers before you can expect them to buy from you.

This is true. It’s also not enough. 

Providing value to your prospects through high-quality free content (through your blog, email list, social media, live events, or all of the above) builds trust and establishes your expertise and credibility. 

But many business owners stop there, expecting that once they’ve offered value, sales will naturally roll in. 

Sadly, it’s not always quite that simple. 

There’s an enormous amount of information out there, and you’re likely competing with many other sources of noise for your ideal customers’ attention. Creating value is a great way to start standing out and differentiating yourself.

But if you want to sell with content, you’ll also need to align your messaging with your offers and convince your prospects that they need what you’re selling. 

This requires strategic positioning, persuasion, clear calls to action, and evidence to show that you’re the person or business to solve their problems. All of which you’ll get in spades if you work with me to create your cornerstone marketing content! 

Know Your Ideal Customer 

No, it’s not “everyone!” 

When I’m writing or consulting on content for a business, one of the first things I want to know is who is your ideal customer? 

A surprising number of people start by saying something like “well, we can potentially help anyone…” 

If this sounds like something you’d say, I’m going to (gently) stop you right there. Your ideal customer is not “anyone.” I’m a damn good copywriter but I can’t write for “anyone,” and neither can you. 

There are different schools of thought on what knowing your ideal customer looks like. Some marketers swear by buyer personas, detailed profiles of hypothetical individuals who represent your ideal customers. Others prefer to focus on demographics, pain points, or behaviours in a broader sense. You can decide which method is right for your business. 

A lot of people are scared about getting too specific about their ideal customer, fearing that it’ll scare off anyone who doesn’t fall within these parameters. In my experience, though, the opposite happens. 

Example: For a while, when people at business networking events asked me what sort of writing I do, my catchphrase was “if it’s words I can probably do it.” While this might be technically true, it was also completely useless. It didn’t indicate to the person in front of me whether I could help them, specifically. 

But since I honed in on my ideal customer, I can now say something like, “I write website copy and high-converting longform marketing content that helps small businesses and service providers to make more sales.” 

See the difference? This is what happens when you understand exactly who your customer is and what they need. 

Show Who You Are

You know that clichéd adage that “people buy from people”? 

Yup, turns out it’s true!

Knowing the people behind the business or brand helps customers to feel more connected to you and your offers. It also builds their trust in you and reinforces their confidence that you’re someone worth listening to. 

This means that one of the most valuable things you can do in your content is show some personality. 

Stop hiding behind jargon and dry, dull corporate-speak. People don’t want to hire a professional robot. They want to hire a person! Stop hedging your opinions in an attempt to appeal to everyone. All you’re doing is dulling all your colour and sparkle. 

Instead, write the way you speak. Dare to say what you really think. Sprinkle in a little humour where you can, be vulnerable to the extent that feels right for you, and the right audience will love you for it. 

Values First 

Before I ask a client about their business’s story or their ideal customer, I ask them about their values. 

Your values are the core, fundamental beliefs that underpin everything you do. They shape how you think, what you believe is right or wrong, what you prioritise, and how you behave. And, yes, they also shape how you do business. 

They are what’s behind the lines you draw in the sand and the hills you’ll die on (metaphorically.) 

Many business owners are worried about leading with their values because they fear it’ll put people off. And, yes, it probably will deter some people from working with you. This is a good thing, because you don’t want to work with people whose values are misaligned with yours. 

Deterring the wrong prospects leaves room for the right ones. And proudly infusing your values into your content signals to the people who share them that you’re the right business or provider for them. 

Human-to-Human

My significant ethical issues with generative AI notwithstanding, using AI to create your content is also a bad business decision. 

At best, your AI-generated content will be generic, soulless, and completely devoid of personality. At worst, it can do serious harm to your business’s reputation and bottom line. 

Unless you spend so much time editing it that you might as well have just written it yourself in the first place, AI-generated content is bad. Yes, people can tell. And yes, people care. In fact, the average consumer is monumentally sick of it. 

According to recent research, 63% of consumers said they would be “less likely to purchase from a brand that uses AI-generated ads,” while 73% said they would be “less likely to trust an ad” they suspected was made using AI. 

Don’t believe me? Go to Instagram, Facebook, or your social media platform of choice. Find an obviously AI-generated piece of marketing content. Now read the comments. 

I rest my case.

I understand the appeal of AI. I really do. As a business owner or entrepreneur, you’re super busy with a million demands on your time. If you’re a service provider or creative professional, you probably want to spend more time serving clients or creating things than making marketing content. 

But if you want results, AI isn’t the answer. 

I created my cornerstone content packages for people exactly like you. I’ll take the hard, time-consuming parts off your hands and, when we’re finished working together, you’ll have a library of bespoke, high-performing content that sounds like you, reflects your values, and attracts and converts your ideal customers.

Make Your Customer the Main Character

This is one of the most important core principles of marketing, and yet it’s an area where businesses fall down again and again.

If you’ve read, watched, or listened to almost any “marketing 101” content, you’ll understand the importance of telling a story in your marketing. But your business, your brand, your product, or your service is not the main character of the story you’re telling in your marketing. Your customer is. 

We’re all the main characters of our own lives, and that doesn’t stop being true when we’re shopping for products, looking for services, or seeking information. 

If a prospect has landed on your website, it’s because they are looking for something–a cure for their insomnia, the perfect dress for a first date, a guide to setting up a business website, ideas for cheap days out with their kids this summer. Whatever it is they’re seeking, they are on your site because they think you may have the product, service, or information they need.

Your role isn’t to shove them to the side and make them a bit player in their own story while your business takes centre stage. Your role is to act as the helpful guide, assisting the hero on their journey to achieve the goal or solve the problem they set out with. 

This means that your marketing messaging should centre on the customer, their needs or problems, and the outcomes they will enjoy when they buy your product or work with you. 

Articulate their frustrations, speak to their desires, empathise with their pain points, and empower them to take control of their destiny. 

An imperfect but useful starting point if you’re not sure whether your marketing centres your customer is to look at how many times you refer to yourself or your business vs. how many times you refer to the customer in your marketing copy. For example, on my homepage, I use the words “I” and “me” four times each. I use the words “you” and “your” a total of sixty times. 

Sell the Result, Not the Product 

Remember the principle of WIIFM: What’s In It For Me?

Customers don’t buy from you because of how long your company has been in business, the industry awards you’ve won, or even the technical specifications of your flagship product. They buy because they believe you can solve their problem or help them achieve their goal. 

So you’re not selling personal training for busy mums. You’re selling the energy to run around with their kids. 

You’re not selling a wedding photography package. You’re selling memories that will still be making a couple smile in 50 years. 

You’re not selling productivity software. You’re selling greater team cohesion and faster deal closing. 

See how it works?

Business-to-consumer (B2C) purchases are often emotion-driven, with logic backing up the choice at a later point. Business-to-business (B2B) purchases tend to be less emotional and more logic-driven, but the core principle remains the same: individuals and businesses alike buy outcomes. 

Align Your Messaging to Your Sales Goals

Your content can do everything we’ve discussed in this post so far, and still fail to convert if its core messaging does not align with your sales goals.

This means that every piece of content needs to have a clear purpose in the context of client acquisition, relationship building, or moving people along the customer pipeline towards a sale. 

Content that is not clearly aligned with your sales goals runs the risk of muddying the waters, leaving your prospects confused about what, exactly, you want them to do next and why. 

Run every single piece of content through this quick test before you publish it: 

• Does this content clearly align with my flagship product, offer, or core sales goals? 
• Does this content play a clear role in moving prospects to the next stage of the customer journey? 
• Does this content end with a clear, specific, and aligned call to action that tells the reader exactly what I want them to do next? 

When I work with clients on cornerstone marketing content, these three questions are my guiding lights. We’ll provide that all-important value to your readers, but we’ll also show them why the obvious next step is to buy your product or service. 

“Jess, This Sounds Like a Lot of Content! I Don’t Have Time!” 

I hear you. Running a business is a huge amount of work and I’m sure writing blog posts is the last thing you want to be doing when you could be serving your clients or making the next iteration of your product even better. 

The good news is that you don’t need to do all this yourself. 

I’ve spoken to a lot of business owners over the years about content marketing, and most of them have at least some understanding of the results it can achieve. 

But time is, unfortunately, finite. (Has anyone cracked that problem, yet? LMK so I can throw all my money at you if so, thanks!) 

That’s why I created my cornerstone content packages, in which I do all the hard work for you. I will: 

• Spend time with you, getting to know your business, your offers, and your ideal customers inside and out 
• Create 10-20 pieces (depending on the package you choose) of longform, evergreen content that can act as the foundation of your content marketing strategy for years 
• Show you how to actually use them in your ongoing marketing and as part of your sales process 
• Ensure every piece adheres to these golden rules, follows my five-pillar ethical content marketing framework, and aligns with what you want to achieve in your business 

And, because I only take on a small number of clients at a time, you’ll benefit from a huge amount of undivided focus and attention while we work together.

Marketing Content Done Right 

Sick of guessing what messaging might resonate with your ideal customers? 

Fed up of churning out content week after week without getting the results your hard work deserves? 

Had enough of marketing eating your time, money, or both? 

Why keep spinning your wheels when you could pass this part over to an expert (hello, that’s me!) and get back to doing what you do best–actually running your amazing business? 

→ Let’s talk — book a free consultation call to find out what a cornerstone content package can do for you!