Lacy Boggs, How to Create Thoughtful, Valuable, and Essential Content – InnovaBuzz 359

Lacy Boggs, The Content Direction Agency

In this episode, I’m really excited to have as my guest, Lacy Boggs of The Content Direction Agency. She is the author of the Kindle ebook “Make a Killing with Your Content”. Her vision is to replace the NOISE in the online marketing space with thoughtful, valuable, and essential content. She helps visionaries, thought leaders, and CEOs change the world through excellent content.

In our discussion, Lacy talked to me about:

• Writing content to attract your dream customer
• The key questions for each piece of content
• How to use reviews to inform your customer research

Natasha Vorompiova in episode 311 introduced us to Lacy.

Listen to the podcast to find out more.

Listen to the Podcast

Show Notes from this episode with Lacy Boggs of The Content Direction Agency

Key points and takeaways from this episode include:

• Blogging and long-form content still work very well to nurture people and move them along your customer funnel. 
• Don’t just add to the noise. Be useful in putting out content that people will want to read and will help your business grow.
• It’s quality over quantity. It doesn’t matter how often you write. You can write as much as you can but you have to make sure that you are producing quality content. Don’t keep publishing just for the sake of publishing.
• Content has to be useful to your reader and for your business.
• Understand why you are doing it for your reader and why you are doing it for your business. These are the 2 big WHY’s of blogging and content marketing. 
• The way to get attention is to borrow someone else’s stage. You can do so many things when you get on somebody else’s platform. They are lending you an element of credibility and that know, like, and trust factor with your audience. 
• Think about what type of content will attract your ideal customer and not just traffic.
• Not all traffic is created equal. You can go viral for something but if it’s not attracting customers, then it’s not useful to your business.
• Ensure that your content attracts your ideal customer and moves them closer to the sale. You can write a great piece of content but if your customers don’t take any action, it is not good for your business.
• Content is like rocks in the river. Your potential customers are on one side of the river and the sale is on the other side. Each piece of content that you produce is a rock that you are putting in to help them get from one side to the other. If you just keep throwing them at random, it’s going to be really hard for somebody to make the crossing. Make sure that your rocks are spread out and that it speaks to a lot of stages in the journey.
• Figure out what your customers are thinking about. Educate them with your content and bring them around to your way of thinking.
• Where you are in your business also dictates where your content goes. If you’re new in your business, you can speak directly to people who are aware of their problems and are already following you. These are the people you want to convert right away. As your business grows and gets more sophisticated, you can start to expand your content to attract more people who are unaware.
• Go to Amazon and look at books that are in your niche and read the bad reviews. Bad reviews show you where they missed the mark and you can come in and fill in those gaps.
• Write for humans first and then Google second.
• If you’re a leader in your industry, then, you can also be a leader in your marketing. Templates are good and you can take what works from different blueprints and formulas, but you have to innovate, put your own spin on it, and be a leader with how you are showing up.
• Every business is different. You can’t expect that every blueprint and formula will work in the same way for your business as it did for somebody else’s.
• Leadership marketing is all about looking at your clients (what they really want), your brand and voice (what you want to produce), and what the data is saying (is it doing what it’s supposed to do?).
• You don’t have to recreate the wheel to create something new. 
• Video is a great way to get attention on certain channels but it’s also worth it to have something in a written format that goes with it to get the best out of both worlds.
• Content is a hub and spoke model. Your longest and most in-depth piece is the hub and everything else are the spokes. Everything leads back to the hub. 

The Buzz – Our Innovation Round

Here are Lacy’s answers to the questions of our innovation round. Listen to the conversation to get the full scoop.

1. #1 thing to be more innovative – Give yourself space and time. If you’re always doing, it’s hard to innovate.
2. Best thing for new ideas – Be constantly learning. When you can find those gaps that the other person hasn’t addressed, that’s where you can be more innovative. 
3. Favourite tool for innovation – Pen and paper.
4. Keep project/client on track – Have your own processes really dialed in. 
5. Differentiate – Choose quality. We are bombarded by so much quantity that quality has become a hot commodity. The more you can choose quality in whatever you are doing, especially in your marketing, you can differentiate yourself just by that merit alone.

To Be a Leader

Really understand those two WHY’s when it comes to your content marketing. Make sure that your content is relevant to your audience and that it’s moving your business forward.

Reach Out

You can reach out and thank Lacy through her website. 

Suggested Guest

Lacy suggested we have a conversation with Michelle Mazur, author of the 3 Word Rebellion. So Michelle, keep an eye on your inbox for an invitation from us to the InnovaBuzz podcast, courtesy of Lacy Boggs.

Links

• Website – Lacy Boggs
• Twitter – @Blogspiration42
• Linkedin
• Facebook
• Instagram

Book

• Make a Killing With Content: Turn content into profits with a strategy for blogging and content marketing.

Cool Things About Lacy

• She’s a stylist, a business coach, a health expert, and an interior designer.
• She graduated magna cum laude with a degree in Moving Image Arts.
• She’s the newsletter editor of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators.

Listen to the Podcast