Welcome to She’s Got Content!

You’re a busy Solopreneur.

Most likely, you’re a team of one. Unless you think of ‘me, myself, and I’ as a team of three!

You’ve got a message to get out to the world. Share that message with your audience through the content you create.

Creating content should not be the hardest thing you do for your business.

This website and upcoming podcast, She’s Got Content, is where you’ll find the answers to the question, “What would this look like if content creation was easy?”

Spend more time with your clients and work smarter with the strategies, ideas, tips, and tools you’ll find right here at She’s Got Content.

Copy or Content?

Let’s start off with a question that initially stumps a lot of folks. “What’s the difference between content and copy?” You might be curious or even confused about this question yourself.

Let’s take a look at the difference between these two terms. This way, we’ll all be working with the same definition and on the same page when using each term.

Content Tells and Copy Sells

There’s an old saying that goes like this, ‘Content tells and copy sells.’

What exactly does that mean?

Content Tells

Google’s definition of the word,  ‘tell,’  is to communicate information, facts, or news to someone by spoken or written words. Synonyms for ‘tell’ include notify, inform, advise, communicate, or report. When you’re creating content, you’re sharing your expertise, authority, and knowledge with others through this content.

Written Content

Information used to educate or entertain is called ‘content’. It offers some kind of value by virtue of the educational focus or its entertainment value. Think of content-writing as the written word, for example, the writing that goes into a blog, online courses, or an opt-in report.

Other Forms of Content

Content also includes other modalities, such as video (think of YouTube channel or live streams), audio (think of podcasts and public speaking), social media graphic images, and infographics.

There is much more to content than just the blog on your website. You can use content in written words, spoken words, videos, and images. All of these ways are effective to showcase your expertise, spread your message, and reach your audience to attract your ideal clients. You’ll likely use all of these modalities at different times.

Copy Sells

Copy, as in copywriting, is writing designed to increase awareness of a brand and persuade a person or a group of people to take a specific action. The ultimate goal of copywriting is usually to sell something.

Sales Pages

Think of copy as the words written on a sales page. The written words found on a sales page are designed to lead the reader to see the product being sold as the solution to their problem. Ultimately the goal is for the reader to purchase the product described. The reader continues reading down the sales page and comes to believe they will receive a stated promise or transformation–a solution to their problem–with the product described on the sales page.

Copy Persuades

Copy is also known as persuasive writing. There are psychological reasons behind the choice and placement of the words on the page when writing copy. The purpose is to persuade the reader to want the item. They’ll want it because they are convinced this item is the answer they’ve been seeking.

Of course, it’s important to be ethical and truthful in writing copy. You’ve likely encountered sleazy hype for copy that overpromises and underdelivers results for the product being sold.  It goes without saying that this type of copy is to be avoided completely.

Are Copy and Content Interchangeable?

Copy and content are used by some people as interchange terms. There is some overlap although the big difference to remember is this: Content is designed to educate or entertain. Copy is designed to sell or persuade.

Here at She’s Got Content, we primarily focus on information content–creating content in all different ways to showcase yourself as the expert in your niche. There are so many ways to do this, both free content and premium paid content.

You’ll also likely use copy to highlight your products and show the reader this information and how you are the answer they’ve been looking for.

What Is Free Content?

Free content can be thought of as two-tiered. Totally free content is content available to everyone. Anyone can view it. There is no cost to consume this content, other than the time spent reading, watching or listening to it.

The second type of free content is restricted content. It’s available only to those who are willing to receive marketing messages via email.

Web Content

You have totally free content on your website pages and on social media. This content is accessible to anyone who lands on your website. Blog posts, podcast episodes, videos embedded on your website are all freely accessible to everyone.

Social Media

Updates on social media platforms are totally free to those who have accounts on these platforms. In some cases, you must be connected in some way with the viewers for them to be able to see your content.

Lead Magnets and Content Upgrades

The other tier of ‘free’ content involves content that is ‘bought’ through the currency of an email address. Examples of this type of free content would be free lead magnets, content upgrades, or any content given away that the reader needs to at least enter an email address and sometimes their first name in order to get access to the item.

This type of free content is used to build your email list. You can create multiple lead magnets with different topics to see what resonates with your audience. When people opt-in for a specific free offer on [ABC] topic, it’s good practice to use automations to tag those people in your email list with [ABC] topic because they’re obviously interested in that subject.

Tagging helps you identify who is interested in the different segments or categories of content in your business. It makes it so much easier to market your products and offers when you know which people want what content.

What Is Premium Content?

Premium content is content that has a monetary price tag to access it. This would be digital courses and programs, print books, eBooks, card decks and physical products. This is a valid business model–selling information products.

You might be wondering why people would pay for information content when there is so much free content out there on the internet. That’s a very good question–let’s take a look at why someone would do that.

Why pay for content

There are several reasons people pay for access to information content. People pay for speed of implementation. When information products shave time off the learning curve for how to do something, that’s valuable to the user. When someone has achieved a desirable result and shares how they achieved it, it’s valuable to someone else wanting to learn how to do the same thing.

Time, Convenience, Cost-Effective, Trust

People pay for content because it saves them time, it’s convenient, and seen as cost-effective. Additionally, people will pay for content from people they know, like, and trust. Once totally free or restricted content has been sampled and results achieved with this free information, people will more likely buy additional content for more or quicker results.

Expectations

People have come to expect to pay for certain forms of content with the perception that paid content is better than free content.  Once a person achieves positive results with your free content, they may have thoughts like, ‘Wow, if this is what they’re giving away for free, their paid content must be mind-blowing amazing!’ They’re willing to pay since they expect it will be even better than the free content they got positive results with.

Authority

People will also pay for content when they perceive they’re receiving that content from an expert. Highlighting your expertise and experience with your free content can be an excellent way to build trust. People feel more confidant and trust your advice and suggestions once you’ve proven you know what you’re talking about. They’re willing to pay for information that saves them the time, effort, and aggravation of trying to learn information by trial and error or by piecemeal.

User Experience

And finally, people pay for unique user experiences. People pay more for an experience they find pleasant, smooth, and unique. Provide a fun and easy-to-navigate user experience for someone who uses your material to solve their problem. That type of user experience is worth top dollar.

Pay attention to the platform where the content is delivered. You’ll want to make sure it’s easy to access and easy to find what the user came there for–whether it’s free and certainly when it’s premium content.

Visual Content

Visuals also play an important role in the user experience. Be sure to include graphics, images, infographics, and colors with your premium content.

Need Help?

I hope you find what you’re looking for here at She’s Got Content. If you need help, email me at shesgotcontent@gmail.com. Join in the fun over on my Facebook Group, She’s Got Content.

Remember to keep asking yourself this fundamental question, “What would this look like if it was easy?”