As I was doing some research into the digital services tax introduced in Kenya, I stumbled upon a realization: a distressing lack of up-to-date content on the issue. See, I naturally started my search on YouTube, then Google, but the information was scanty and most of it outdated or irrelevant to Kenya. I did eventually find something that gave me an idea, but I still don’t have the full picture — the information is simply not online. Maybe it was in the newspapers, but I haven’t bought one my entire life. Which leads me to my point:
Kenyan professional services firms are conspicuously absent online. I’m referring to Lawyers, Management Consultants, Accountants, Architects, Doctors, and the like. This is a truism that generally holds across the globe, but firms in developed countries seem to have awoken in the last few years. Yes, you may have a website and social presence, but for most firms those are just channels to inform the world what they do and how to get in touch.
And therein lies the opportunity.
With more and more people looking for information online, and with such few players providing it in a timely and relevant manner, the cake is anyone’s for the taking. Most of the information available is from news sources (if applicable), but very little from authoritative practitioners.
With regular content covering specific and relevant issues, you can in a relatively short time dominate search rankings for your industry and literally get millions of eyeballs landing on your website every month.
How do you do it?
CONTENT
And before you get on my case about how content is hard to create, take the time to do these 4 activities that should enable you generate at least 50 topic ideas:
1. FAQs
What are the most common questions that clients ask? Get at least 20 questions, and develop content that addresses them exhaustively. Some questions only need short answers, but others will require multiple articles in order to fully address the topic. This serves a double purpose in that it shortens your customer acquisition process since they’ll be searching for that exact information online, and since you offered such an informed answer, you’ll be the first person they’re inclined to hire because your expertise is evident.
2. Current Affairs
Keep an eye out on developments in your industry. Google Alerts is a nice way to keep abreast of topics that interest you. With each development, create content that seeks to inform the players that will be impacted in a simple and understandable manner. Most people don’t understand legalese, and others struggle with accounting — make it easy for them to understand and they’ll thank you immensely. The content can be in the form of blogs, podcasts, or even reaction videos to matters that you consider to be of great importance or that you feel passionate about.
3. Use Google Trends
Google Trends is a website by Google that analyzes the popularity of top search queries in Google Search across various regions and languages. The website uses graphs to compare the search volume of different queries over time.
Here’s a Google Trends analysis of the topic that inspired this article:
Clearly, now is the perfect time to publish information about the Kenya Finance Act 2020 since a lot of people are searching for it.
Apart from a bird’s eye view of users’ interest in a topic, Google Trends also provides other useful features such as related topics and related queries. If you treat these as suggestions for further content, you find that the process of generating topic ideas goes waaay faster.
4. Publicly publish top research findings
Yes, it sounds crazy to simply give away valuable information that you probably acquired at great cost and effort. However, that information locked away in a room somewhere serves a lot less people (and hence attracts less interest in your services) than it potentially could. This part requires a lot of discernment as to what you can afford to give, but I reiterate here as I always do about the power of giving free content.
If executed properly, this one tip alone can change your entire marketing focus and grow your business faster than you thought possible. I have noticed that the Big 4 Accounting Firms (particularly EY) tend to do this a lot. You don’t necessarily need a press conference to tell the world about your discoveries. Disseminating this information to the right people is how you unlock its value, and it serves as a really sweet lead magnet.
Content Format
From there, the question is, what medium to use to disseminate your information. Blogs are a nice way to start, but I like a multi-pronged approach. This depends on the resources available to every organisation, but ideally what you want to do is capture the content in multiple formats:
Follow up your blog with a podcast (film it too) where you discuss topical issues, like Valuetainment. Invite guests who are experts/authorities in their fields to talk on the podcast too. Post these videos on YouTube, LinkedIn, and Facebook. Then condense the contents into an infographic that you can share on LinkedIn and other socials.
Give your most exclusive content to a select group of fans. Ideally, the best channel here is your email newsletter or paid subscribers, and this grows your list of leads for potential business. The best lead magnet is a PDF containing some very valuable information that you give them for free in exchange for them joining your email list.
Remember:
In the world of marketing, Content is still King 👑. The more useful and relevant, the better it is as a marketing tool. There is virtually no competition on the Kenyan front for any firm/consultant that wishes to grow the authority of their domain online, but this opportunity won’t last forever.
And if you need help designing your content marketing strategy, we are here to help 😊
Happy creating.