Why it's Better to Be a Tour Guide Than a Salesman

Is your content connecting with your consumers? Are you struggling to gain digital market share despite blogging consistently and writing ebooks? The key to your marketing and your content may lay within your positioning—are you trying to sell, or are you adding value? Here's why it's better to be a tour guide than a salesman.

The continuing evolution of digital is changing the way we behave as humans. We’re more in-touch with events happening around us, more connected to our friends and acquaintances, more outraged when a differing opinion gains traction in the headlines.

86% of consumers stated that using a search engine allowed them to learn something new or important that helped him/her increase his/her knowledge.  

– Pew Research Center, Search Engine Use 2012

This is, of course, changing the way we interact with brands. And tech companies like Google, Facebook and Twitter are working aggressively to surface the most relevant content to their users. It’s what the users who rely on the platforms want.

Consider the following marketing statistics:

  • 58% of purchase decisions begin on websites
  • 50% of all mobile searches are conducted in the hopes of finding local results
  • 42% of marketers say Facebook is critical or important to their business
  • 36% of all marketers have found a customer via Twitter

(source: HubSpot)

In this world, the new strategy is to provide value-add before you sell. Value is the new metric—is your brand seen as a valuable source of inspiration, motivation, or information? Do people trust you for insight, perspective, or data? Does your brand empower the type of people who you want to be your customers?

Do you invest in them before they ever invest in you?

In our ebook, Say Interesting Stuff, we dive deep into this issue to show why brands should care less about shouting marketing and advertisement messages with bullhorns, and more about saying interesting things to the people they want to attract.

Inside, you’ll learn why creating valuable, relevant, interesting content is a crucial component of a strong SEO strategy, why finding your brand story is absolutely essential, how to identify the type of interesting you’ll be, and the secret sauce to making yourself a valuable resource online.

Head over and download the ebook now!