How to write content that leads to growth, leads, and sales

by

Ascend 101

Lessons about building a one-person business, writing, and self-improvement

This is the topic everyone’s been waiting for.

How to write authentic, authoritative, and impactful content that leads to growth, leads, and sales.

All writing we do can be divided into 3 categories: growth, authority, and authenticity.

When creating content you want to keep these in mind and strike a nice balance. Your brand will fail if you don’t include all 3.

No growth content? Well, that one seems self-explanatory. You’ll forever be stuck at whatever size you are now.

No authority content? People won’t buy from you. You’re not giving them a reason to. People need to be convinced you’re the right person for the job.

No authentic content? You’re just like everyone else. People will flock to the cheapest alternative. You’ll be in competition with everyone.

How you should balance them is up to you. I’ve heard The Art Of Purpose say he follows his 70/20/10 rule (70% growth, 20% authority, 10% authenticity) whereas JK Molina keeps the biggest piece of the pie for authority, because likes ain’t cash.

But enough about that.

This is a 3-minute read.

Let’s go!

Growth

Your personal brand should be growing at all times.

That’s not to say that you need to reach 10k followers before you can get meaningful results. But stagnation is never a good sign.

That’s why we’ll always have to include content focused on growth.

Some content types focused on growth include:

  • Personal stories

  • Controversial topics

  • Current events

  • Questions

  • Personal beliefs

  • Platitudes (Be careful not to overdo them)

Authenticity

Authenticity is what sets you apart from others.

Show people who you are, what you like, and what you’re building/working on.

There are multiple ways to do this:

1) Express your honest opinions, likes, and dislikes.

The more controversial, the better. (See this great example from my buddy Shrawan)

2) Be vulnerable.

Don’t only share your wins. Share your losses as well.

People want real not perfect. Give them someone they can relate to.

3) Document your journey

Share everything you’re working on. Every new project that you’re taking on. Every plan you have for how you’ll achieve a certain result.

Put it out there.

Authority

Authority content is everything that will make people perceive you as an expert in your field.

You do this by focusing on depth and social proof.

Show people how knowledgeable you are about a topic by diving deep into certain topics. This is best done through threads and newsletter issues (such as this one).

Keep your tweets for the more basic topics.

Social proof is anything that displays your authority by means of what you’ve accomplished for yourself or others.

Note: showing the achievement of your clients is far better than showing yours (but start with yours if you don’t have others to show yet)

These include

  • testimonials

  • case studies

  • accomplishments

  • credentials.

Next week

On Monday, you’ll [insert what next week’s topic will be about]

Have a nice week and go take what’s yours!

Cheers,
Alex.