During my eight years running a consulting firm, I discovered that content marketing was my most effective business development tool. As a business owner trying to gain awareness of our brand and services in a competitive marketplace, I faced a significant challenge: connecting with prospective clients precisely when they needed our expertise. Traditional sales approaches, such as cold calling and email campaigns, often fell short because prospects weren’t always in the market for our services at the exact time of my outreach. It was only later, when a specific problem or opportunity arose, that they would realize the value we could provide. This reality highlights the importance for sales professionals not only to market their offerings continuously but also to educate potential clients about their pain points and available solutions. In my view, the most effective way of educating is by strategically sharing relevant content online.
In Gary Vaynerchuk’s recent book, Day Trading Attention, he wrote that beyond simply educating your prospective clients, you also want your content marketing to build brand relevance. “Relevance is about creating and distributing content that people find meaningful. People will only consider buying something if it means something to them. The only way to make a brand meaningful is to make it relevant to as many different people as possible. When your business is more relevant, more people consider buying, which then leads to higher sales numbers.”
In his older book, Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook, Vaynerchuk explained that making content that gives value to your audience allows you to have permission to “ask” for their business down the road. The “jabs” (free value) would set up the “right hook” (the ask). He wrote, “Providing free value is just a good way to build trust and affinity with your audience so they’d be more receptive to things you ask for down the road.” In “Day Trading Attention,” he provides some examples:
“Maybe an accountant got you to trust his or her expertise by posting thoughtful information about taxes online. Maybe a sneaker brand collaborated with your favorite athlete, and that made you buy. Maybe a couple of law firm partners created an entertaining podcast about golf, an area you’re passionate about, and the next time you had a business contract to get done, you thought of them first. Maybe a B2B company created smart content on how their software would save you money, and that made you buy. Many of our purchasing decisions are influenced by how we consciously—or subconsciously—feel about a brand.”
When I was considering closing our consulting business and joining Coldstream as chief operating officer, I thought long and hard if I would continue to write practice management articles and publish podcast episodes on a monthly basis. While there was no business development reason to continue, I decided that it was just too rewarding to stop. Over the years, I have received the following feedback on the content I regularly share online:
“We wanted to reach out and thank you for all of the great content. We’ve gotten a lot of value from your team’s guidance and integrated many suggestions into our business.”
“The resources you share across various mediums have become my go-to for everything and anything RIA-related. So, thank you for grinding it out for the benefit of the rest of us!”
“The infographics you share on LinkedIn highlighting quotes from your guests on The COO Roundtable podcast give me a boost of energy and remind me why I do what I do as a COO—they keep me motivated, so thank you for sharing!”
With that kind of feedback, I thought, “How can I stop?” Maybe relevance was no longer my primary motivation for creating content, but I still possessed a strong desire to educate. I also knew that as I worked with my Coldstream colleagues, I’d want to turn to the library of content I had produced. Just as I had done as a consultant, it has been beneficial to end a call with a co-worker and say, “This was a good discussion—let me send you an article/video/podcast that you can review and refer to as we move forward. Let’s meet next week to talk about it.”
There is a selfish reason for continuing to create content, as well: it makes me a better COO. I learned a long time ago that forcing myself to put my thoughts into writing in a clear, concise, and engaging way, demands that I research and understand the topic and have distilled my thinking around it. Since joining Coldstream, I have written articles about issues we’ve been discussing internally: raising fees (reducing fee discounts), client segmentation, the need for documented and repeatable processes, and how to balance profit margins with our desire to grow, just to name a few. By choosing a topic and then staring at a blank sheet of paper as I begin to put my thoughts down, it requires that I build coherent arguments around these important issues. The act of writing makes my reasoning stronger and (hopefully!) makes me more persuasive as I try to drive change at our firm.
The influence of content marketing goes well beyond simple brand awareness; it is a crucial asset for educating, engaging and building trust with both prospective clients and colleagues. Throughout my journey, I have discovered that consistently sharing valuable insights not only establishes you as an authority in your industry but also fosters lasting connections with your audience, whether they are external clients or internal team members. By fully embracing content marketing, you enable yourself and your business to engage in conversations at the most opportune moments, cultivating meaningful relationships that drive both personal and professional growth.
Matt Sonnen is Chief Operating Officer at Coldstream Wealth Management, as well as the creator of the digital consulting platform The COO Society, which educates RIA owners and operations professionals how to build more impactful and profitable enterprises. He is also the host of the popular COO Roundtable podcast.