Subscribe and leave a comment over on the YouTube channel to join the cool kids club :)
This is the year you crush your content marketing game!
With the right strategies in place and a strong understanding of how content works, you'll be able to take your business to new heights.
This episode of Honest Marketing features a conversation with Krystal Proffitt, a content marketing expert specializing in helping entrepreneurs start, launch, and market their content. We'll explore how you can make 2023 your best year yet when it comes to content marketing and how you can tailor your expertise to create content that's more effective and impactful to your audience.
If you're looking to grow your business through content marketing—or just want some well-rounded advice from a pro—this episode is for you!
Specifically, this episode highlights the following themes:
Links from this episode:
Want to give your podcast the boost it needs to stay ahead of the competition? Check out honestpodcasts.com and take the first step toward achieving your podcasting goals!
And if you have a guest in mind who you think would be a great fit for this show, drop me a line at hello@honestpodcasts.com.
Subscribe and leave a comment over on the YouTube channel to join the cool kids club :)
This is the year you crush your content marketing game!
With the right strategies in place and a strong understanding of how content works, you'll be able to take your business to new heights.
This episode of Honest Marketing features a conversation with Krystal Proffitt, a content marketing expert specializing in helping entrepreneurs start, launch, and market their content. We'll explore how you can make 2023 your best year yet when it comes to content marketing and how you can tailor your expertise to create content that's more effective and impactful to your audience.
If you're looking to grow your business through content marketing—or just want some well-rounded advice from a pro—this episode is for you!
Specifically, this episode highlights the following themes:
Links from this episode:
Want to give your podcast the boost it needs to stay ahead of the competition? Check out honestpodcasts.com and take the first step toward achieving your podcasting goals!
And if you have a guest in mind who you think would be a great fit for this show, drop me a line at hello@honestpodcasts.com.
Krystal Proffitt 0:00
How can you stand out? What can I do to stand out in the sea of the internet and all the other people that are doing things that are similar to your business, you have to be you and you have to infuse your personality. If you're a marathon runner talk about that. If you are someone that enjoys cooking and grilling on the weekends, talk about that infuse your personality into your business and into your content in a way that does help you stand out from all the other people that are doing the same thing.
Travis Albritton 0:33
Welcome back to the Honest Marketing Podcast where you learn proven strategies to grow your business without selling your soul. I'm your host, Travis Albritton. And in this episode, I got to have my good friend Krystal Proffitt on the show, to talk all things content, marketing content is a big piece of the internet. Nowadays, you search for something on Google, you want to find some information, you want to find some answers, you want to see a video on YouTube. And so we're gonna talk about how to position your business as the guide that's going to help your customers, your prospects, your clients, as they're going through this journey of discovering more about you what you do, but more specifically, the problems that you solve and the way that you can help them make their lives better. So make sure you stick around to the very end, where I give you my number one takeaway from my conversation with Krystal. But here it is, let's dive in Krystal, you and I have known each other for several years, which feels like an eternity in the world of the internet. And it's been really cool for the two of us to kind of intermingle our own entrepreneurial journeys, and interact at different points in time. But I'd love for you to just kind of share how you got started in online entrepreneurship, and kind of what you do and what your focus is.
Krystal Proffitt 1:42
Yes, well, first of all, thank you so much for having me on your show. This is really fun and talk about a full circle moment, you know of how our journeys have intertwined. And we'll get to that in a second. But you know, to answer your question I was and always wonder like, how far back do people really want me to go? Do you want to go back to the genesis of everything, or my aha moment, all the things, but I know the one that makes like, the most sense to a lot of probably your listeners is I went to school for marketing, I got a corporate job. And then I was like, You know what, I think I want to stay at home with my kids for a few years. And so I went that route. And I gotten to this point where you're not supposed to admit, especially as a mom, that you feel a little restless and you want to do something for yourself, and you're like, do I go back to work? Do I stay at home with my kids? And I ended up kind of toying with a few different ideas. And I started blogging, unsuccessfully, like, let's can we throw that out there, it was very unsuccessful blog for a few years, probably about a year and a half. And then I was like, Okay, this isn't working. But my blogging mentor started a podcast, enter Travis, because he was the one that helped me like kind of navigate those worlds of podcasting in my early days. And then from there, I had started a podcast about women entrepreneurs and female entrepreneurship and what that meant, and the whole time I was podcasting. People were asking me questions, they were like, Well, how did you start your podcast? And how does this work on the back end, and I was like, guys, that's like, that's separate. That's not what I'm trying to do. I'm trying to build my empire, you know, as a woman entrepreneur, but that's not what people wanted for me, they wanted me to explain something to them. That sounded really complicated, and make it very simple. And so that's the route that I went. And it's kind of morphed from podcasting into content strategy and content marketing. And that's really what I love to talk about today. And especially helping online business owners with how they can make better funnels, using content marketing, and how it can actually be easier on them. If they invest in that from the get go. Instead of saying, oh, you know, that's just that's secondary. That's not the most important thing in my business. But if you actually put it at the foundation of your business, it can actually really pay off in the long game. So I hope that answers your question.
Travis Albritton 4:17
It does. Well, and I think everyone listening can totally relate to the feeling of, okay, I have in my mind, like, this is my this is my thing. This is my lane. And it's like, why are you guys trying to distract me from from the thing that I know I'm supposed to be doing? Yes. But eventually you're like, wait, maybe I should just do the thing everyone's asking me about, like, maybe that's maybe that's actually the pivot that I need to make. So that's good. That's good that you listen to that inner voice. Because who knows where you would have been otherwise?
Krystal Proffitt 4:45
Well, I think it's like one of those things where you meet somebody in there, like, I have a five year life plan, and I'm going to get married. I'm going to have kids, I'm going to get a promotion. I'm going to do all these things and life just kind of comes in and it's like, well No, no, that's actually not how it's gonna go down, it's gonna go and you're gonna move seven times before you finally settle down, and you're gonna have this happen, and this happen. So I think that kind of going along with that ebb and flow of the journey is it's just part of the process.
Travis Albritton 5:15
Yes, business plans are not what they used to be, that's for sure. Like, here's how I'm currently making money, here's how I want to make more money. Yeah. And, and if it doesn't work, then I'm gonna try this. Instead, it's like, alright, that's someone with the feet on the ground. So in addition to teaching content strategy, and working with business owners on that, you really built your own online business on top of content. So when you were first kind of getting started and doing podcasting, and you know, the blog experiments and other things, why was it so important for content to be a foundational pillar of the business you were building? Like, what was the value in it for you is because especially early on, it's, you're building momentum. And so you can put a lot of stuff out there, not get a ton of feedback, get discouraged and be like, well, I guess this doesn't work, but you stuck with it to see the results. So talk to me about that. Like, why did you stick with content marketing? And? And how has it helped you grow the business to where it is now?
Krystal Proffitt 6:09
Yeah, okay. So we're gonna go back, we're gonna go back to 2006. Krystal was this little bitty marketing baby in college that's in a Consumer Behavior class. And I'm sitting there, and I could see the writing on the wall for what the teacher was talking about, you know, the professor is up on stage, and you know, at the front of the room, and they're just lecturing to us about everything is about where you play something in the store, this is what they were talking about, they were given an example of Target, it's like Target has product placement, and you have to pay more money to have your product. You know at eye level for your customers, and you don't want it down at the bottom with the generic Cheerios, you want to be right, like front and center with like, the stuff that's the name brand, like high quality, because you can charge the higher prices, you can do this and that. And I remember thinking about that, as I was starting my content business and thinking, what are consumers doing today? They're not going to the store and doing all this even I knew this back in 2017. what were people doing? They were googling everything. They I mean, Google is a verb. Now, it's not just something that is like, Oh, we don't really know what that is like Google has been around long enough to where we've created a verb for it, it is an action that we do. And so one of the foundational things that I knew I wanted for my business was if somebody had a question about what I was teaching what I was talking about, I wanted them to Google and I wanted my thing to pop up, I wanted it to be the very first thing if it's not the very first thing, I want it to be on the very first page of Google as an option. And to be honest, I didn't want to pay thousands and thousands of dollars for Instagram, or Facebook or YouTube ads that I don't really know if they would work. I don't know, if I'm competing with other companies that have, you know, $100,000 campaign spin, where I'm like, Oh, I can't invest that much. Right now, I can't even invest a few $1,000. I'm like looking at the hundreds when I'm first getting started. And so I knew that I wanted content strategy and content marketing to be a foundation that I could build upon with my business with those paid ads with other types of, you know, marketing and advertising opportunities. But at the end of the day, I'm going after that consumer that is just trying to solve their problems. They just want an answer. And I wanted to be the solution. I wanted my podcast, I wanted my YouTube channel, my blog, all of these things to be something that they could say, oh, this person might be able to help me. And then once they get into the funnel, they just keep asking that question like, Well, what else does she have? What else can she offer? So that's really the foundation principles there.
Travis Albritton 9:08
Yeah, and I love that you touched on the Google aspects of human behavior, because it wasn't that long ago that like if you had a question, you're like, Oh, I wonder who's playing football tonight? Yeah, you would just like not know the answer. It's like, well, I guess I'll find out at 7:30 on ABC. Like that's the only way you knew the answer. Because there was no repository of information you either had to go and hope it was in your Encyclopedia Britannica. CD ROM set, like fine, like the little short couple paragraphs on it, or go to the library or ask a friend or her asking friends for recommendations for restaurants.
Krystal Proffitt 9:42
I was just thinking of Ask Jeeves. Yeah. Ask Jeeves. I remember when Ask Jeeves was around.
Travis Albritton 9:49
It's like that was not that long ago, where you just didn't have information at your fingertips. But now because the internet is just completely commoditized information and anyone can learn anything for free essentially, as retrained the behavior of how people think about pursuing answers to questions, and whenever you start learning about something new, we do the same thing, I start looking for YouTube videos, I look for guides, I look for blogs look for free content, to learn more about whatever it is I'm trying to learn more about. And in that state of mind, I'm not even thinking like, I need to devote dollars to this problem yet, I'm just learning and consuming information. So I have a better sense of the lay of the land of what I'm dealing with. And that's where content steps in because you want to put your company at the forefront of that search. So when they do pivot to wanting to make a purchase decision to get rid of a problem, they're like, Well, I'm just gonna go with the company that's been helping me the whole time. Like, that just makes sense. Like, why would I put my trust in someone else when they hadn't been with me this whole time? So, I mean, I know we're, like, totally in sync big believers in content. But I think that that's really the core of it is you want to position your company, as a guide for people as they're going through a process of discovery. So that way, when they're looking for someone trustworthy, to help them get over the hump, and get over the hurdle, you're the answer. And in their mind, you're really the only answer.
Krystal Proffitt 11:12
Well, and you bring up a really good point, Travis, and I'm thinking, you know, specifically about your audience, like I as a personal consumer behavior of mine, I think that I will listen to a podcast for several episodes, and then maybe two or three episodes in, I've already made a decision about this person, one, I am going to live die repeat by every single thing that they say I have several mentors that I have in my life that are like that, then I also make a split decision of like, you know, I'm gonna take what they say with a grain of salt. And I'll probably never buy anything from them, but they have good stuff from time to time. So I'll probably keep listening to their podcast, or it's kind of a mix of, I've listened to them, their industry leader, but I can't stand their voice or I don't really like what they say like, it's all like, I'm just I'm coming clean, y'all it's happened. So if you've had these feelings too like, it's it's totally viable. But at the end of the day, I think a lot of people come into content marketing content strategy, and they think, if I just publish one podcast episode, and one person listens to it, they're gonna go and buy my $25,000 product, and they're just going to be sold forever and ever, they're going to sing my praises. And this is not how it works. This is not how it works. Like, I can tell you, I have waited probably a year and a half into listening to this one specific podcast and buy anything from this person. I took in everything that they had, I listen, I listen, I listened. But about that probably 14, 15 month mark of listening to everything that this entrepreneur was selling, I invested thousands of dollars and I to this day, am still investing thousands of dollars, because I'm a ride or die fan of this individual. And I will buy nearly anything that she puts out, and I will listen to her because I'm that entrenched into her brand into her messaging. And the things that she has taught me has helped me like it has legitimately helped me. And I'm like, What else does she have? So it goes back to what we were talking about. If you can get somebody into your funnel, and start building that relationship of trust, like the sky's the limit, like you may only have a product that you have in mind right now today for that consumer. But if you can hook them in into your world into your brand into your message from day one, and they turn into a lifetime customer, I've seen it I've been a personal example of it. And I'm sure people listening, if you go back and you look at, you're probably the same as well as content creators, just have this deep connection with their audience. And it's beautiful. It's one of the reasons why I love it so much.
Travis Albritton 14:06
Well, something else that you touched on that, I think is a big fear that people have when they're getting into content or businesses that get into content. They're like, listen, there's like 15 other businesses talking about how to start a blog, or how to do affiliate marketing, or how to, you know, whatever it is that you do, and there gonna be this this fear of, well, what do I have to bring to the table? Like, I'm not gonna say anything new, I'm not gonna say anything they haven't heard before. But people relate and connect with businesses and people for personal reasons all the time. Like, it's not, it's not necessarily that you are saying something has never been said before. But the way you say it, and your personality, and just the way that you communicate is going to connect with some people that those other shows and those other content platforms just can't. So you're gonna have people that choose to follow you just because they like you. Yeah, even if the information you're giving them is exactly the same as they can get elsewhere.
Krystal Proffitt 14:56
Yeah, 100% I mean, even just going back to the story that I just told earlier about being a stay at home mom, like somebody's probably heard that. And they either have a wife that is in that place right now. And they're like, oh look like I know a stay at home mom, or they've been a stay at home mom, and they're like, oh, look, she took this opportunity to go from here to there, that's what I want to do, or they see themselves in your journey. And like you said, it could be little small connections, you could be a marathon runner, I'm not, let me throw that out there. I am not a marathon runner. But kudos to the people that do that. But you know, if you have these little personal aspects of your life, and you talk about it, and you share about it in your content, then all of a sudden your network goes from who you thought your ideal customer was based on their demographics, maybe their income, or you know, the issues, the problems that you're trying to solve, all of a sudden, it gets a little bit wider, because you are able to kind of scoop up the outliers that you didn't even consider as part of your target network, that you can really bring them into your sphere, just by sharing your personality, your experience. And one of the things that I usually get the like, people get freaked out, they're like, Well, I don't want to share my personal life online, I don't want to share this. And I don't want to put my kids online like I get it, I totally understand. You don't have to share your social security number and your driver like all your identity online. For people to really make a connection with you. But you know, I just shared a story about you know, I was in college I was in this marketing class, like those little tiny stories that you can put into your content, help people know you so much faster. Like if we were just having a conversation over coffee, coffee, I probably would have never brought up that story. But now that you're listening to us on this podcast, like you hear that and you're like, Oh, I already know these intimate details about someone's life that you probably would have never gotten otherwise. So this is the cool connections that you can make with content.
Travis Albritton 17:01
And one person that I want to ask you about and this may be an overlap of something you've already shared is I know that Amy Porterfield has been a very big inspiration and mentor for you in your business life. What has been, like maybe some of the main things that you've taken from her because she really does a great job with content marketing. You know, her podcast was really one of the first successful I'll just say, at all levels podcast about digital marketing. And he's really been just a great pioneer for digital marketing for so many entrepreneurs. And as someone who has been able to work with her and learn from her, what have been some of your biggest takeaways from that mentorship and that relationship?
Krystal Proffitt 17:41
Well, I mean, Travis, you call it out? I was trying not to say it was Amy Porterfield. That's what I was talking about earlier. Y'all Travis, already knew it.
Travis Albritton 17:47
She's fantastic. Yeah. Go listen to her. She's amazing.
Krystal Proffitt 17:51
She's, she is incredible. But yeah, so the connection that I have with her is one, she is a female in this space, like, you know, from, I am very much on board with lifting other women's voices up and really supporting other people in the industry that are trying to also uplift, like, she has a very strong belief in diversity and making sure that her not only her team, but her audience is very well representative of the world, like not just a very narrow minded, I guess, section of who we can serve as entrepreneurs. But how we can globally like just kind of scan out just a little bit and see where are those holes of where people either aren't representative or they aren't having their voice shared online. And I think that that's such a beautiful thing that she's done in her content, specifically. But I think what makes her so successful is she's not afraid to be herself in the ways that like, she will totally admit, she's like, I'm a planner, like what I do, like, I love to plan, she's like, I'm type A, I will do all these things. Like, I know that it's extra, I know that it's above and beyond what someone else wants to do. But, uh, she'll say, I don't know any other way. Like, this is just my personality. And so she doesn't force that on other people in her teachings. And what she does, she's like, this is my roadmap, like, this is my blueprint of how I've done and how I've been successful. But I want you to take pieces of it that work for you that work for your content work for your audience. And I think that it was one of the biggest gifts that I got because I'm a rule follower, Travis like I am my husband makes fun of me. I will buy something new and I'm I'm beyond the typical like stereotype like, oh, a woman's reading the directions now I'm reading them like seven times and I'm going through them and I'm like, Okay, no, you can't do that yet because you didn't do this thing yet and it drives him bananas. But I'm just, I'm a rule follower to my core. So if, you know I had found Amy at the beginning of my journey, and she had said, Do this, this and this explicitly don't veer off the path, don't try to do this, like, do this or it's not going to work, I probably would have listened to her and maybe even resented her when things didn't work out. Because we don't have the same audience. We don't have the same skill level expertise because I'm about a decade behind what she's been doing. You know, she's been in the business of doing online marketing for I want to say she's 13, 14 years into this and I just got started roughly five years ago, when my unsuccessful blog Yeah, all we know that story now. But you just have to keep going so resilience of her journey has been something that's really inspired me to keep doing things, even when they don't work out and you gotta pivot, and you gotta move. But yeah, she's definitely somebody shout out, Amy, you gotta go listen to Online Marketing Made Easy, everybody, everybody listening? It's a really awesome show.
Travis Albritton 21:05
Yeah, we'll definitely link it in the show notes. So you can go and check that out. But now I want to get into the nitty gritty, the tactics, something I know, it's a love language for both of us of content marketing. And what would be, I think, a really great exercises for us to just kind of map out. If you were working with a business that was doing content for the very first time, what would be some of the first questions that you would ask? How would you discover the best strategy for that content? And we'll just kind of like play out as a case study, like a fictitious company, and how we would actually create a content strategy for that company. Are there any fun fictitious companies that you can imagine that would be a fun, fun way to do this exercise?
Krystal Proffitt 21:43
Well, it's weird, because I always use a real estate agent. And I don't know why anytime I do this, like if I'm thinking about if I were to go help a local business, I think a real estate probably just because I live in Texas, and that real estate is always like something that's a top of mine, my mom used to sell real estate back in the day, too. So I guess that's where the relatable factor comes in. But I think about if you are, let's say you're a real estate broker, and you're thinking, Okay, I've seen people doing YouTube stuff, I've seen them doing podcast stuff, you would probably have the conversation, you know, of what's going to work for me, because this is what people will come to me. And they're very adamant. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do that. I hate this. I hate that we all kind of know what our own, at least I hope that we're all self aware enough to know either what we're good at, or what we don't like to do. Because that I think, is the foundation because if Travis said, I hate video, I don't like my picture taken. I don't like don't put a camera in my face. And I would say, okay, but you got to do tick tock like you have to do this. Because it's what's working right now. He'd probably turn around and walk out the door and be like, this is this relationship will never work. And so I think that you have to start at the very beginning. What are your strengths? What are your weaknesses? And what are you willing to try, right? Because I think that there's this like, gray area of people saying, I've never done a podcast, but I like to talk I could interview people maybe and if all it is, is figuring out the logistics or the technical pieces, then we can work with that. Like that's, that's a starting ground for what we could do together. But pretend that you're the business owner now and ask me some questions. We're just gonna roleplay
Travis Albritton 23:31
So I'm a real estate broker. Okay, and I have a team of 20 agents, okay, I'm looking to expand to other markets. And I might even have some, like some digital products as well, some like courses or things that I can sell on the internet to anyone, not just in my geographic area. Okay. And so, you know, and I'm, I want to make content that's, you know, gonna help us sell more houses, because that's how my agents make commission. But ultimately, I think it's also about attracting talent, right? If I'm a broker, I'm looking to grow my team of agents that aren't just like dabbling. They're not just like doing it every third Saturday, because they want something to do. I want agents that are like full time committed, this is their thing. This is their main focus. How can I create content to attract real estate agents that are looking for a broker that's going to really partner with them and help them be successful?
Krystal Proffitt 24:24
The thing that I can think of first and foremost is, who do you want to appeal to as far as your audience? Do you want it to be geographically within a certain distance? Because what I always think of when it comes to real estate is, you're probably not going to sell a piece of property. If you live in Florida to someone that lives in Washington State, right? It doesn't really make sense. So if you don't want to attract people on a global scale, then you would need to think of your keywords. Think of your topics like if you want Let's talk about, hey, this is a great place to live, because our school district is awesome, or the taxes are lower in this specific place, or they're building a highway, that's going to take 10 years. And this, we're going to talk about it and give you updates, because it's going to affect the commercial properties as they lay them down. Like, there's so many different ways that you can go about it. But you have to first lay that foundational question of are you going to talk about the local economy, the local real estate? Or are you trying to be the real estate experts of all experts with your content, while also selling products appealing to talent? And there's just a lot of different ways that you could go about it. So Travis, the real estate broker, tell me which direction are you trying to take your content?
Travis Albritton 25:48
Well, so I think the lowest hanging fruit and the most challenging version of this, which will be good for us, is, let's lock it down to a geographic area. Right? So we're just appealing to maybe real estate agents within a 100 mile radius of where I live, and where I do business. So we'll we'll call it like the Dallas-Fort Worth Metropolitan Area. Like that's, that's the focus. All right, okay. And I specifically, because if, if I'm just getting started with content marketing, to be honest, I want to see an ROI relatively quickly as quickly as I can reasonably assume. So I'm not trying to create a strategy that will pay off in five years, I would like to see results in like six to nine months, if possible. So let's map out a strategy for me to market to and acquire and recruit really, other real estate agents in Dallas-Fort Worth from my brokerage, even if it means pillaging them from other brokerages go about how would I go about doing that? In an honest and ethical integrity filled way, as is the the premise of this show?
Krystal Proffitt 26:59
I love it. I love that you threw that like vindictive, but not but like I'm just but I may steal people if I have to.
Travis Albritton 27:07
Listen, if I'm providing a great opportunity, and they see the value in working with me, like I'm not gonna stop them from doing what's best for them there.
Krystal Proffitt 27:14
Yeah, exactly, exactly. And were honest, and were marketing in an ethical way, we're totally good about this. Okay. So this is the through line of how you want to put your content out there, you know, this is this specific area you want to concentrate in. Now, I would recommend sitting down and I'm a pen and paper kind of girl like this is literally like, I think that a lot of people get lost in the weeds of oh, there's this software that I could use. And I could do this. And I could do that and I buy. Or you could just get a pen and paper out and keep it super simple. Because that takes all the ambiguity about what I have to do and what I have to sign up for just get a pen and paper and start writing down either some of the questions or some of the topics that you get asked most often about your real estate brokerage, or working with your agency or what it takes to be a top Realtor in this area. Or what's the coolest house you've ever sold? Or what's the coolest commercial property like you have to throw things in there? There's make things fun. And I would recommend writing down 20 ideas. Again, we don't have to it doesn't have to be super complicated. And then from there, I would recommend looking at is this going to be video? Is this going to be audio? Do you want to post this on social media? Do you want to talk about this on your email list? And if you're listening right now and your brain just like oh my gosh, that sounds really overwhelming. It doesn't have to be, okay. It absolutely doesn't have to be. I think that content strategy and content marketing, again, is best when it's kept super, super simple. So I want you to go back to the initial reaction you had earlier when I said you could do a podcast, you could do YouTube, like does it make you cringe? And like totally? Oh, I don't want to do that? Or does it make you feel more open and free to think I think I could do podcasts pretty easily. Because those are the things that I would recommend you pursuing first. And then from there, we can look at how can we make those ideas, uber specific to your geographical area and really get keyword heavy on the things that are going to drive either that Google search or people to look at your YouTube videos, people to listen to your podcast or open your emails on a more regular basis. So you're getting in front of that ideal audience. So does that answer your question, Travis, a real estate broker?
Travis Albritton 29:42
Yes, it does. 100% And on those ideas, that fictitious list that we wrote down on a piece of paper. I'm even envisioning like going because we're walking into a geographic area going one step beyond just like a top level keyword like how to buy a home in Texas. This, it would be ranking HOAs by neighborhood in East Dallas. Like those kinds of ideas. Yeah. Where if someone is, you know, looking for a home, but also if you're a real estate agent like, oh, that's valuable information? Yeah. Because I'm gonna have people asking me all the time, like, what's the HOA fee? Will I get for it? Are they overbearing? Are they reasonable? And you can say actually, well, these are my top three neighborhoods, those are things are concerned about? And here are the reasons why. And I just pulled that from this other person who came up with their top 15 list of East Dallas so that's a really valuable piece of content that has no relevance to someone living in Rhode Island. Yeah. But if you're an agent, operating and working in that area, it's like, that's really valuable. And how many people are gonna make that piece of content? Yeah, very few.
Krystal Proffitt 30:47
Yeah, exactly. And I think it's also, you know, if you look at it, you know, we can talk about funnels real fast, like, if you are a real estate broker, and you think you want to have digital products in the future, but you're like, I don't even know what I would talk about. I don't know what that could look like. But I know that I kind of want to put that on the back burner as an option in the future. Well, as you start to build out your content ideas, you could say, Okay, what do I have to do to get my real estate license, and maybe it's a checklist that's like, Hey, we're going to talk about real estate agents in this area. And, you know, maybe you're even interview a few. And if someone were interested in joining a brokerage like yours, they probably can't come straight from real estate school with their certificate, maybe you want experience maybe you want this and maybe there's very specific criteria that you want people to have, before they join your firm, write it down, like create a PDF that just says, These are the top 10 qualities that we look for in our brokers or our real estate agents, because A, B, and C, slap it up like a PDF, put it on your website, and then have that as something that you can grow your email list while you're creating your content. And I mean, Travis, stop me at any point, if you're just like Krystal, this is too much. But I could literally just keep going down the rabbit hole of how powerful and how intentional that everything really can build on top of each other, if you have that foundation of content strategy of the content, marketing, and how it all plays a role in your business without being the entirety of your business, because I think that's what people get scared of is like, oh, my gosh, I'm gonna have to be on YouTube, seven days a week, if I start content creation, and that sounds so overwhelming, and I'm like, No, you don't, you don't, you don't have to be all in on everything.
Travis Albritton 32:47
Well, and you just hit on something else, which is the other side of the coin of content marketing is you want to qualify your traffic, you want to qualify your leads, right? Not not all leads, not all prospects are created equal. And so if you, as if I, as a real estate broker, and looking for experienced agents that kinda know what they're doing, I don't have to teach them like, here's how you show a house. Here's how you look up listings, who say you get clients, then I want the content to appeal to those kinds of people, but also create pathways for people to kind of grow into those things, right. And so that's where having a how to get started in real estate, pieces of content can make sense, even if that's not the initial strategy, because you're creating another input for people to discover you to develop that long term relationship with you. And you can do that in tandem with content that can be more specifically relevant at the time you're doing it. But now you're creating the opportunity for people to grow into relationship with you. And then your company becomes like an aspirational end goal. And their journey is it's like I'm starting as an agent. And this company is helping me do that. And while I don't yet qualify to be an agent for them, that's something I want to do. That's, that's actually a goal I have in my career is to work for X company, when you think about like SpaceX, Apple, you know, Tesla, like the companies that have that aspirational identity, if you can create that simply by creating demand, and, you know, obstacles and things that need to people need to do in order to have an application that's worthy of consideration that makes you automatically a more valuable place or more valuable business than someone who's just going to do business with anyone who are writing a check.
Krystal Proffitt 34:28
Right. And I think it's also a way for you to kind of infiltrate your company culture within your content in a way that if somebody's listening, let's let's pretend you know, Travis, the real estate broker is hiring now. He's like, Oh my gosh, like, which it's probably not a great time for real estate. So maybe this is a bad example, but we're gonna pretend we're living in a fictitious space anyway.
Travis Albritton 34:51
So that has changed course. Interest rates are 3% Again, all right. Yeah. Continue. Yes.
Krystal Proffitt 34:55
Yes. So like real estate is hot and he needs lots of of help, and he's like, Oh my gosh, I really want to find talent. And at this point, he's been doing his podcast, let's say, Travis decided he's gonna do a podcast. He's been doing it for six to 12 months. And then all of a sudden, he gets a resume on his desk or someone reaches out on LinkedIn. I was like, hey, Travis, I actually live in the area, and I found your podcast, because you were talking about X y & z topic. And I just found it to be so fascinating, I actually totally agree that you should only invest in properties. When you have this amount of money in the bank, I don't know, I'm totally making this up. But you have this identifying common ground that you can say, we agree on this, this is a starting point to our conversation, and it actually opens up the door for you to have a much easier first conversation than if this was a person off the street that didn't know who you are, then didn't know anything about your company. And you had no idea what kind of intention they had on the back end. But if you know, they're listening to podcast, they probably want to have some form of continuing education. They're trying to better themselves as a talent that you would want to come work for your company. But they've also been learning about your culture, just by way of listening to a podcast. So I think that that's another awesome thing that you can do as a business owner, with your content marketing, it's not just about necessarily, you getting leads, and you like, there's so many really cool things that happen that you don't even intentionally plan to happen. When you start putting content out there. You could even be known like in your local areas, like oh, yeah, you know, Travis, he's the real estate broker guy, like, he's a great podcast, like, he was at chamber, the Chamber of Commerce, and he was passing out business cards, and he got a bunch of lists, like, how's that guy doing it? This is another cool thing that happens, you'll have other people coming into your sphere, saying, How are you doing this? What are you doing to make this happen? And those conversations can just expand your network that much more than you ever thought possible. So that's another really cool thing about it.
Travis Albritton 37:13
Content really is the gift that keeps on giving.
Krystal Proffitt 37:16
It is so many ways, so many ways.
Travis Albritton 37:19
Alright, so we've identified the kind of content we want to create. Now let's talk platforms, you know, and certainly a filter that is important is what you actually enjoy it. Because if you don't enjoy it, you won't stick with it long enough to get the results you're looking for. It's just a matter of facts, like the podcast, most podcasts, don't reach it past seven to 10 episodes. Because we're like, wow, there's a lot of work, I have to listen to myself talk. Maybe Maybe this isn't what I want to do, and you just kind of stop and fall off. So that is an important filter. But let's kind of walk through the big ones. So it'd be video content, audio content, and written content. And they all have their various platforms that you post on. But what are kind of the benefits, and then some costs account for each of them. So with video, it could be you know, there's a lot of platforms that love video, social media, YouTube come to mind. But it might have a higher startup cost than audio written content. So let's just kind of like walk through those starting with video, and lay out some like benefits to doing video content and some things to be aware of before you get started.
Krystal Proffitt 38:18
Yeah, I want to throw this out there because your audience is slightly different than my typical audience. So my typical audience is usually like a DIY entrepreneur and somebody that is like, I'm literally just going to use my smartphone for all the things until I can get going, which maybe your listeners could take that approach as well, but they're looking at No, actually I want to invest in this. I'm gonna do this. I'm gonna go all in. So I think it all goes back to again, what Travis was saying, What do you want to do? What do you feel comfortable doing? And where do you kind of see like, I think I could I think I could try this. I think that I might like it if I do it. Because we know there's some Tiktokers out in this crowd right now. Like they're, they're not going to admit it to their friends and family, but they want to start doing some of that stuff. So for podcasting, if that's the route that you want to go, I think that it's one of those things that you don't have to make a big investment up front. If here's the big asterisk, right, if you're doing audio only, and if you're scared of video, I highly recommend doing podcasts because it actually lets you be free in your sweatpants and a messy bun. Okay, this is what I do most often is real talk people. People don't see me and they think that I am in this beautiful studio, y'all. I'm in sweatpants, messy bun 90% of the time when I'm recording podcast, and it's what I love about the medium, so it's so incredible. I got started with a very basic microphone that I think today you can actually get really good high quality stuff for less than $100 investments still. So I think that that's a beautiful thing about podcasting. Another thing is I want your audience to consider is, are you going to do this on the go, because maybe you have a business where it requires you to travel or you're networking a lot you're going to conferences. Podcasting, again is another great one to consider if you're thinking about doing interviews on the go or not having to take a bunch of equipment with you or have a very simple setup. That's another awesome plus for podcasting. For video, I do think that you need a good camera, you can get started with your phone, I think that's awesome. But if you know that content marketing and content strategy, all the things is something that you really want to do with video, you need to invest in a really good camera, I'm not going to give like my suggestions just simply because like it could change a thousand times. But I do think that looking at what's out there and finding some people go find some content marketing people that talk about this kind of stuff, because they're out there, go find some YouTubers, look at some video equipment that you can do for very cheap. Because one of the things that I love about video is you can actually do a lot with video content, having a long form piece, trimming it down into smaller clips for social and then sharing it in other various ways. And it's actually easy to take something that was once a YouTube video and turn it into a podcast, I No, we're not talking about repurposing, I don't want to get off in a lot of different ways. But I have to mention it because it's something I get asked about a lot. And then blogs, blogs are the cheapest way to go. Let's just be really honest, if you have a website, you can easily add a blog to it. And I think that that's where a lot of people think that well blogging is dead, blogging isn't going to work for me. Well, actually, if you find yourself answering the same questions over and over and over again, about your business, about your market, about your clientele about your products, then creating a simple blog post, that you could turn into a podcast episode that you could eventually turn into a YouTube video like it can all work in tandem together. But you just have to decide what's going to be that first platform that I tackle because one thing I don't recommend is you turn this podcast off, you know, you're done listening to Travis and I and you're like, Okay, I'm gonna start a podcast, and a blog and a YouTube channel. And I'm going to post on Instagram seven times a day, and I'm gonna like it's way too much, I highly recommend deciding on the one platform that you want to get started with, do it for three to four months and then decide, is this still going the direction I thought it would? Or do I want to pivot my, do I want to shift something because I think the hardest part is just getting started just making that decision to turn on the microphone to press record on the video or just to sit down and start writing something. And you just have to get into action, or find someone like Travis that can help you really sort out those different pieces of it, that can just make a really big impact on your business. So that was a long winded answer. I hope that that helps. But
Travis Albritton 43:23
Oh, lots of great nuggets. And I'll even add on top of that. For each of these. Just some like really, some things that I've noticed that make a big difference for businesses that want to do content. For blog writing, the easiest way to get started is just find somebody in your company that loves to write, they don't have to be a technical writer, they don't have to have a ton of industry knowledge. They just love writing. And then there are websites and services like phrase and clear scope, where you can actually type in, here's the keyword that we want our blog posts show up for. And it will look at all the other blogs that have been written all the other articles and say, here are the subheadings. And here are the main topics. And here are the things that show up most often in those articles. And you can actually start with a prompt of when you're writing this article, here are all the things you want to hit in order for it to be optimized for search engines. So those tools exist. And that can be a great place to start. If you like we want to do content we want to do with our existing team. And with like a very minimal investment. Like it's a very easy way to get started. And actually over time start to get some traction. SEO in general takes some time to gain traction because everyone does SEO now it's like the game in town. But that is a very easy way to do it. With podcasting with YouTube. It really helps to have outside expertise. Come in when you're starting. The temptation is, oh, well, we're gonna throw it over to the college grad the intern. He's going to do our podcast, he's gonna run our YouTube channel. But each of those platforms really benefit from expertise because it's very easy to get lost in the sea of others and to invest in something that doesn't strategically aligned with what you're wanting it to do. And because especially for podcasting quality is such a big filter for people, like if your artwork doesn't look professionally designed, if it's pretty obvious that someone's editing it that doesn't, hasn't edited before, and there's a lot of mistakes, and it's long winded, and it's not like really helping, you're not creating it for a specific person, it's very clear. And it's gonna be very difficult to gain traction on those platforms, unless you have somebody coming in, who can give you that expertise and say, here's what we're writing this for, or here's what we're recording this for. Here are episode topics, okay, here's how you need to interview, here's your branding, and really have somebody come in to partner with you, especially as you're getting started. Now, you may bring that on as a full time person later on, as it starts to gain traction and momentum. But early on, I highly recommend working with an outside agency that has that specific expertise, in the same way that if you, you know, have an E commerce business, and you're wanting to scale and you're wanting to grow, it's like, well, you should probably find a digital marketing agency that specializes in E commerce businesses, because it can get you over the hump and get to the place where you can justify that as a salary expenses, like fixed cost overhead. And then same thing with YouTube. There are a lot of YouTube channels, like a lot a lot. There's more to recording a video and making it great than just like popping up a camera. And so if you really want it to be great. I would work with somebody who specializes in YouTube content. If it's video podcasting, that's great. If it's YouTube specifically, that's great, too. But someone who's like, Yeah, I know how to make a great thumbnail, I know how to do research for YouTube. And I know how long this video should be, and the things we should talk about. And here's how we're gonna use chapter markers. And we're gonna tag it and like these are all expertises that you can learn over time. But if you just want to get started and get traction really quickly, I highly recommend especially for podcasting, and YouTube to look for experts outside of your company to come and help you get started.
Krystal Proffitt 46:59
100%. And I think it's really interesting, too, because I think of it almost like, you have a consultant, right? Because we people hire consultants all the time for all kinds of array of reasons, you know, even if it's just operationally we need to get tighter, we need to get leaner and meaner, you know, do all these things. I think of you know, what you were just saying about with content, like a content consultancy, which is exactly what Travis does really well, is like having that foundation of doing it right? Because at the end of the day, what you don't want to do is look up 12 months from now. And you're like, oh, did you know that you've been linking to this one thing and every single podcast or an every single YouTube video, but it's not right? Or it was the wrong domain, or you had the wrong, like, there's all these little things that can be overlooked very easily, when you don't have that knowledge and expertise or know-how that someone who has been doing a lot longer can just speed up that process so much faster, and having to not go through some of those growing pains that can set you back. I mean, there's a lot of things you know, in the content creation space, things change, things change really fast. That's like Travis has talked about the beginning is like we've known each other for close to five years now. But it feels like 25 years in the content space, like let's be real. So much has happened. So many things have changed. And just the last two years that you don't want to fall behind in watching a YouTube video that someone created 10 years ago and saying, Oh, they told me how to how to start a podcast I'm gonna follow. It doesn't hold up like it just unfortunately it doesn't. There are marketing and principles that won't change over time. But when it comes to content, you have to know what the most recent thing is because otherwise, you could be doing something that's just not even relevant anymore.
Travis Albritton 49:00
100% So, hopefully, fictitious real estate broker now you have some some things to be mindful of and some some next steps, right, creating that list of topics, identifying the mediums and the platforms that you would enjoy creating for, or finding someone on your team that enjoys those things. And then now kind of knowing Okay, depending on which medium I want to push into first, here's what my next steps should be in order to get that ball rolling. Now Krystal, where can where can we find out more about you? Where can we hear more from you learn more from you. Tell us all the links all the places where people should go to learn from you and all the content strategy awesomeness that you have.
Krystal Proffitt 49:40
Yeah, so thank you so much for having me today. Travis. This is Travis the real estate broker and Travis, the podcast. you can go to krystalproffitt.com. It's Krystal with a K. Proffitt has two F's two T's Yes. That is actually my last name. It's the question I get asked all the time.
Travis Albritton 49:58
It's not just a stage name.
Krystal Proffitt 50:00
Yes it's not my stage name Yes. Even though I put on his big presence now that is actually my last name. But yeah, go to krystalproffitt.com. And if you go all the way down on my website, you'll see a place to join my email list. That's actually the best place to get updates on my podcast, my YouTube channel, the different things that are going on. Because like I said, things are changing in this space. I mean, just to you know, Travis's point, you're talking about these different tools and resources that can help you. AI is coming on to the scene and content. And I think that it's so fascinating. Canva just released this super cool release, that was about a product upgrade, that they're incorporating AI into what they're doing to help you write better content and come up with better posts. So it's coming like we are in the era, which sounds so weird sounds like where there's flying cars right now. But you know, it's like, we're in the era of relying on tools that are smarter than us to do really fun things and make it easier that way you can focus on and this is back to your point earlier, how can you stand out? What can I do to stand out in this sea of the internet and all the other people that are doing things that are similar to your business, you have to be you, and you have to infuse your personality. If you're a marathon runner, talk about that. If you are someone that enjoys cooking and grilling on the weekends, talk about that, like infuse your personality into your business and into your content in a way that does help you stand out from all the other people that are doing the same thing.
Travis Albritton 51:40
Awesome. Thank you so much Krystal for your time and your expertise. It's been a blast. As always.
Krystal Proffitt 51:45
Thank you, Travis. This was so much fun.
Travis Albritton 51:47
So my number one takeaway from just that incredible conversation and case study that I did with Krystal regarding content marketing strategy, is to use yourself as a filter for deciding what kind of content strategy to pursue. Because if you are the person that's on your team is gonna be doing it ultimately doesn't like being on camera. They don't like listening to themselves speak, they don't feel like they're strong at holding conversations or writing. You really want to tailor your strategy to the medium that best complements what you already do exceptionally well, because at the end of the day, all of these different strategies work, alright, social media works, YouTube works, podcasting works, blog work, they all work. And so it's not about necessarily choosing the one that has the biggest upside. That's the most important factor. It's which one are you actually going to enjoy for a long time so that you can stick with it long enough to see the results that you're looking for now, definitely go and check out Krystal’s website krystalproffitt.com, two F's two T's starts with a K. We'll leave that link in the description below. And she has a fantastic podcast fantastic YouTube channel, and we'll link to those as well so you can learn more from her and what she does and how she coaches her students in the world of content strategy. Well, I hope you found this illuminating and helpful. And as always, be honest.