Your content is how individuals decide if they will work with you. It’s the new credit check.
When you apply for financing, like a business loan or a credit card or a mortgage, the information you provide on the front-end may pre-qualify you—but you don’t actually have the mortgage yet. So close, yet so far.
A conversation with a prospect, be it on the phone, in person, or through a messaging app, may provide a potential client for your business—but that doesn’t mean you actually have the client yet. So close, yet so far.
In both cases, the information must be reviewed before the deal can be finalized. In the mortgage business, this review is done by a mortgage underwriter, who looks not only at the data the applicant provides, but also at the publicly available information, including, and maybe most importantly, the applicant’s credit.
When potential clients figure out whether to sign on with you, they go through a similar process, evaluating not just the information you provide directly—your skills, your demeanor, your connection, and your connections—but also the information they can gather on their own, including, and maybe most importantly, your reputation, your brand, your story.
Your credit, in other words. And the way to build this kind of credit starts with content — articles, podcasts, social media posts, Google reviews, images, references, and more.
The prospect may go out of their way to run this check on you, or they might be looking for something completely unrelated on LinkedIn or Twitter—and suddenly they stumble upon an article you posted.
Content is your new credit check. And I see this play out constantly. In fact, a prospective client of ours was considering waiting to engage with us due to Covid-19, but then came across a post of ours on social media. She wasn’t looking for it, but it found her, and it spoke to her. She said that’s exactly what I needed.
Our post didn’t just speak to her interests and needs, it was also consistent with every conversation we’d ever had with her. Consistent messaging is as important as good messaging. Just like when a mortgage underwriter attempts to confirm all of the information you shared when you were pre-qualified—consistency with the content you create, the things you say in person, and the actions you take are what makes you reliable.
It’s how you maximize your chance of passing that final check, of getting to where you’re not just so close, you’re actually there.
Want podcast content? Check out the SportsEpreneur podcast on Spotify or Apple.