Good Content Equals Good Financial Sense: Interview with Kevin Eikenberry

Kevin Eikenberry says more content equals more income:

"I truly believe that more time spent in content creation (both writing and video) will have a direct positive impact on our bottom line – which is why I am trying to write more, and make what I write have more impact."

Kevin is a dynamic speaker, author, consultant we met up with at Blog World Expo 08. He's active on Facebook and Twitter. His Eikenberry Group consults with organizations about Remarkable Leadership, which is also the name of his recent book.

Read his interview for insights on how savvy professionals are using content to market their services by writing on the web...

1. Tell us what your profession is, and who your typical clients are.

I consider myself a learning consultant – we help organizations teams and individuals reach their goals through learning.  Others would call our services by other names like management consulting, training, keynote speaking, etc. 

Our perfect Client is slightly different, depending on the services we are providing, but the best Clients are people (or organizations) that are interested in improving their results and are willing to invest time and money to make that improvement occur and last.

2. What marketing tools do you use on the Web?

Since your blog is about writing, it Is fair to say that about all of our marketing tools are also places where we use writing to provide additional knowledge and value to our readers, subscribers and Clients. 

I write a weekly ezine called Unleashing Your Remarkable Potential (you can subscribe from our home page). I write another shorter newsletter that used to be daily and is now, semi-reoccurring called Powerquotes Plus.

As well as occasionally writing guest posts on other blogs, I maintain two blogs – one for my latest book Remarkable Leadership, and my “main” blog – Remarkable Learning with Kevin Eikenberry.

We have a variety of other sites related to specific products and services, but this gives a good picture of what we are about and what I am writing.

3. What kinds of content do you write or use to market your business?

I use or have used every example you suggested! My goal in writing, beyond making it readable is to make it relevant. I want everything I write to give people specific things that they can go try, or specific questions to reflect on, so they determine the best actions they should take.

A recent post I wrote said that “knowledge isn’t enough” what I meant by that is that knowledge doesn’t matter without action. Since I believe that, I try to make bring that idea to life in everything I write, every training or speaking session and in every product we create.

4. What sources, besides your own, do you use to find content?

I bring in just about anything from my life – things I am reading on and offline, conversations with Clients or my team, television and more. You name it and I’ve probably considered it as a source for something I’ve written.

5. How much of yourself, your personality, your own experiences do you include?

I include quite a bit. I will tell stories of things going on in my life to help make the writing more real and relevant. I’ve written about Lessons from Jimmy Buffett concerts, from making homemade ice cream, about my kids, family reunions, airplane flights and much more. 

One of the biggest compliments I have ever received about my writing is that when people read my writing it feels like I am talking to them. I’ve received that feedback often, and I consider it high praise, given my goals for writing.

6. What kinds of results do you see from your online content? And which media bring best results?

We’ve been very blessed to have things I’ve written directly lead to new Clients. People do a web search, find an article or blog post and then call or email and say, “Can Kevin do a talk for us on  . . .?” 

Those are great examples of my writing having a direct and immediate impact on our revenue.  Currently we are working on some new strategies to help us do even better on organic searches, without changing my writing style or approach. 

I am very hopeful that these ideas could make a big difference in terms of how many of those types of calls we get! 

In terms of which media brings us the best results, it is hard to say. My strategy is to leverage as much of what I write in as many different ways as possible. This means, in part, that articles become blog posts, and vice versa.

My newsletter has evolved to the point where it is very connected to my blog, so it is hard to necessarily say that one media type is giving us the best results.

7. How much time do you spend daily writing or posting content on your blogs or sites?

Not as much as I would like. It is over an hour a day if you consider writing I am doing for our Remarkable Leadership Learning System members.

I truly believe that more time spent in content creation (both writing and video) will have a direct positive impact on our bottom line – which is why I am trying to write more, and make what I write have more impact.

8. What advice would you give to others in your profession about using content for marketing?

I think I would have three basic pieces of advice.

1. Do it! (Job one for someone starting a business – or even thinking about it - is to start a blog)
2. Do it consistently.
3. Do it strategically. Figure out what you want to write about that is most connected to serving your Clients, and write about it often.

Comments

[low cost insurance]

I write for several of my own blogs, have written all the content for six website and have done writing for other friends blogs and website. If I could get paid for it - that would be icing on the cake.

[Kevin Eikenberry]

Low Cost - the key determinant for me (in terms of getting paid) is that I don't get paid for the writing, but our services are purchsed because they became aware of us through the writing. It is that indirect linkage that is critical for us.

I hope that helps and I wish you great success!

Kevin :)

[Patsi aka The Blog Squad]

Thanks, Kevin for responding to "Low Cost" - don't you love it when people don't use their real names?

Maybe if 'low cost' was able to brand themself other than 'low cost', they might be able to get the writing gigs they want to get paid for? Do you think there is some advantage to using your own name? I think so...

[Cole]

I do believe that good content is what will separate the performers from the non-performers. With every article or tool I add to my website I feel like I'm building equity in my website. It's nice to watch something grow. A majority of my traffic comes from visitors landing on various articles I've written.