Pop quiz time!

When’s the last time you ran a content marketing test?

Today? Yesterday? Last week? Last month? Never? 

Are you asking “what the heck IS a content marketing test”? 

Well, you’re in the right place. 

To get started with content marketing experiments, you simply have to start where you are with the skills you currently have and focus on the problem you want to help others solve. 

And the best part for you? Content marketing experiments are fast and easy to test with your current skills and technology. 

Content marketing tests are the BEST way to find your audience, clarify your message and learn how to attract people with your own voice. 

In the corporate setting, we’d run these types of tests all the time on ad copy and various messaging campaigns. We had full spreadsheets and tracking processes in place. 

But you don’t need to be that formal. In fact, this can be pretty simple. 

I first got the idea after seeing Denise Duffield-Thomas, author of Get Rich Lucky Bitch and creator of a few really excellent programs on money, the law of attraction and other less-tangible things. 

What I noticed in a couple of Facebook Groups I was in is that Denise would pop in once or twice a week to answer questions people asked. 

Sometimes she’d give an answer right there, and often get great feedback on her answer. 

Other times, she’d link off to a blog post, video or other resource that she’d created. Almost as if she’d read people’s minds and had a toolkit of content she could provide. 

Well, Denise didn’t read anyone’s mind — but what she does brilliantly to this day is she LISTENS. She knows exactly the types of questions her eventual buyers will ask because she’s done this work for years. 

And now she DOES have a full arsenal of social media, blogs, videos, lead magnets and more that seem to magically attract her audience. 

But it isn’t magic. She’s just super-consistent in doing content marketing experiments. 

In fact, this is what I started doing when I began offering my Mini Offers to people to see what they were interested in buying from me. And for my audience, Facebook Groups worked well. 

Where Are Your People? 

So you’re probably wondering “Do I have to do this on Facebook?” and the answer is no. Nope. Not at all. 

The first question I have for you is where do you *believe* your audience is hanging out? Are those people on Facebook or somewhere else like Reddit, Quora, LinkedIn, Twitter, TikTok or YouTube? 

Figure out where you believe your audience is hanging out and see if you can find questions they’re asking related to what you do. If you can’t find any posts or questions about what you do, you’re probably hanging out in the wrong place or looking at the wrong audience. 

Score one for content marketing tests! When you can rule out places that your audience does not hang out, that’s EXACTLY what you want to do. 

When you can rule out audiences who aren’t interested in what you do, that’s a big bonus too. Every test gets you one step closer to figuring out your own unique path to success. 

And if you DO find your audience, you’re still a winner because now you know where they’re at and what they’re asking. Score! 

There are a few catches to doing content marketing experiments correctly: 

1. You’ve got to be willing to listen and respond.
2. You’ve got to be willing to be a little messy. 
3. You’ve got to be willing to take test feedback. 

 Let’s break these down a little further. 

#1: Listening

This is probably the hardest thing for most of us to do. It’s so much easier to show up in Facebook Groups on promo days and do drive-through link dropping for something on our own sites. I know I’ve been guilty of doing that myself. 

To do this well, though, you’ve got to be willing to LISTEN. Go onto whatever platform your people are on and really listen to what they’re asking. To the frustrations they’re sharing. To the complaints they’re sharing. To the wins they’re sharing. 

Listen and be willing to respond. Respond with insights. Respond with congratulations. Respond with your own story about how you got through whatever they’re sharing. 

This is about responding as you, the human, not you, the business owner or sales person. It’s about not overthinking  your response but responding from a deeper place of trying to connect and help someone else.

The best part about this? You’ll hit on a response or two that REALLY resonates with people and it’ll feel so natural and easy that you can easily share it again and again. 

Or you’ll share something that is super confusing to people. They’ll ask questions or won’t respond because they don’t understand what you’re talking about. 

Either way, it’s a win. You’re testing content marketing ideas and learning more about what your audience responds to – positively or negatively. 

#2: Be Messy

Not gonna lie… this one is TOUGH for me. I like to be buttoned up and prepared when I ‘go public’ with anything and I know it’s the recovering perfectionist in me. 

But what I found is that when I try to think my way into the perfect message or freebie or webinar or whatever, it will be REALLY hard and won’t resonate. 

When I try to wordsmith a message to death or overthink snappy, cool titles, they don’t work. 

What works is being willing to be messy and speaking directly to what my audience is looking for. 

So if you’re not a copywriter, that’s ok. Listen to what your audience is asking for and respond in your own unique way. They’ll help you refine it over time in a way that is so much more powerful than you could have ever created on your own. 

But you’ll never get there without your first sloppy copy. 

Roll up your sleeves. Do your best. And don’t worry about being perfect. Perfection kills your business momentum. 

#3: Feedback is Just Feedback

This is a mindset that is absolutely critical to doing content marketing experiments. 

If you put a content marketing experiment out and it completely bombs, that’s simply feedback. It means nothing about who you are or how worthy you are or if you’ll find success. 

Please hear me on this, because this is probably the biggest hold up for people. They put out one or two things that flop and suddenly they’re hiding in the shadows trying to get everything perfect before going public again. 

Don’t do that. 

Feedback, positive or negative, is just feedback. Take it in. Learn from it. Grow from it. But keep moving forward! 

You can do a content experiment in the next hour. Definitely in the next 24 hours. And get that much closer to finding your own message, your own style, your own audience, your own voice and your own next offer. 

It simply takes being willing to put yourself out there. 

Create Profit Without Worry – one system at a time. I’ll show you how to attract a steady flow of buyers without all the hustle with this free download →  5 Steps To Profit Without Worry.

Links mentioned in this episode:

• Book: Get Rich Lucky Bitch
• Article: The Real Reason Proven Marketing Formulas Have Stopped Working
• Connect on Facebook
• Connect on LinkedIn
• Connect on Instagram
• Create Profit Without Worry – one system at a time with this free download →  5 Steps To Profit Without Worry.