Choose the best platform to grow your education business
Everyone says we need to publish high-value content online to attract clients for our coaching, consulting, or course business, but how do we know which content platform is right for us? With our busy schedules, it's important to choose one platform to ensure we aren't spread too thin, so let’s cover three questions to help pick the right platform for your business.
In this video, we'll dive into:
How we can use content marketing to attract our ideal clients 00:35
The pros and cons of using Search-Based content platforms 01:35
The pros and cons of using Social Media platforms 03:49
Three essential questions to answer before choosing your platform 06:28
Don't forget to drop your handle – we might just become your first followers! Now, go out there and create some awesome stuff!
More of a reader than a watcher? We’ve got you covered 👇
"We coaches know we should be posting content online if we want to find more coaching clients. But the big question is, should we be posting content to YouTube, Instagram, or TikTok? Or like some of those online gurus will tell us, to all the platforms at once? The reality is we have a business to run and clients to serve. We're also parents, spouses, and friends - all of the things that we have to do. So, in the real world, we need to focus on picking one platform that works for us.
Now, before we dive into picking the right platform for ourselves, it's important to step back a little bit and really understand what content marketing is. Because that's what we're doing whenever we're sending out content to people with the hopes that they end up giving us money in the future.
I like to break content marketing into two different camps. On one hand, we have the search-based marketing platforms. This is when people are intentionally typing something into a search bar. This might be Google or YouTube - in fact, those are the two most popular search platforms in the world. They're asking us a specific question, and then it's Google's or YouTube's job to surface the answer for them in the form of a video or a blog article. So, we have that type of search-based marketing. That includes videos, blogs, and podcasts typically fall into that category as well.
On the other end of the content marketing spectrum, we have social media marketing. We know that this is when we create content for social media platforms and post it to things like Instagram or TikTok or Facebook. So, let's dive into a few of those key differences between search-based marketing and social media marketing so that we can choose the right platform for you.
Now, with search-based marketing on platforms like YouTube and blogs and podcasts, we typically are focusing on longer-form stretches of content. This tends to come across much more instructional, and a big focus here is on transferring knowledge from ourselves over to our viewer. This means we're sharing really high amounts of value with them, and we're really showcasing our knowledge. We're building up our credibility and establishing authority. A huge win for us is that it establishes a high level of trust in the people who are watching our videos. They know that we know what we're talking about because we can talk about it for 5 minutes or 10 minutes or for an entire hour.
So, because this content is so long-form, really, the strong focus here is on quality rather than quantity. So, instead of posting every single day to these types of platforms, we really want to ensure that we're giving out strong information, that it's organized well, that things are feeling a little bit more polished and more cohesive and intentional, and plan out in advance if we're able to carry a conversation about these topics for long enough.
As a tradeoff, these platforms definitely come across as less casual and less relational by nature, right? Because that focuses on transferring knowledge. One big con here is that because these systems aren't necessarily built to build relationships with people, we really do need to move them off of the platforms where they're consuming our content. So, this is when things like lead magnets come in because our goal is to get those people off of the platform and onto our email list so we can communicate with them directly. For example, on YouTube, you have no idea who your subscribers are if they don't comment on your videos. And so, it's impossible to communicate with a new subscriber.
Now, we'll dive into social media marketing in a second, and you'll see that that's the exact opposite. In fact, now, because these videos tend to be more polished and they're less casual, and they have to be longer and more thought out, there is more friction to get started. That is probably the biggest trade-off, the biggest thing I hear people complaining about when they're considering starting a YouTube channel or a podcast or a blog. They're just not sure how they're going to fill up 5, 10, an hour worth of content and just speak. It can be really tough and create a lot of friction for them. And so, that's likely the largest impediment to people starting on those platforms.
Now, on the other end of the spectrum, we have social media marketing. Social media marketing is shorter form content, typically not always, but most often. And the focus here is really on building relationships and establishing community - community with people, rather than direct knowledge transfer like we see with our search-based marketing. This is a huge win for us as coaches because it allows us to build that community and actually communicate directly with our audience. So, we know who our followers are in most cases on these platforms.
We can message them directly in most cases on these platforms. The focus here isn't so much on pulling people off of the platform because the platforms have created this ecosystem for you to share value, showcase who you are as a person, and get to know these people one-to-one and communicate with them directly so you could sell them something right there.
So, with social media marketing, we're highlighting your knowledge but in short bursts. It is less intimidating to start social media because these content pieces are much shorter. Therefore, there's less friction to get started. So, even though that all sounds amazing, there are a couple of trade-offs you make when you choose social media marketing over content marketing. Some of those things include that there is this focus on quantity over quality for the most part with social media. We're throwing a bunch of stuff out there, and I mean a bunch of stuff out there to see what sticks. Most people, as a rule of thumb, will say you should be posting 5 to 25 times a week on social media and sometimes more because really, it's a matter of quantity - how often can you get in front of these people?
Along with that whole quantity over quality thing can come burnout. Many social media creators feel exhausted because there's just this never-ending hamster wheel of posting and posting and posting because social media marketing, once you stop posting, you stop reaching new people. That is in many cases the opposite of what you find with search-based marketing where those content pieces can live on forever on the internet.
One of the final things to consider with social media marketing is that you are at the mercy of an algorithm and what is going to be shown and to whom. And so, though it's great to have this nice little ecosystem where you can share content and communicate directly with your audience and even sell things to them in the direct messages, you do have to ensure that you're actively reaching them. What happens when that algorithm no longer favors your content or there's a tweak, or that platform just disappears, and you have no way to communicate with your audience anymore?
So, if you are going to choose social media marketing, it is important to consider how are you going to move people off of the platform and not get so caught up in posting, posting, posting, and building your entire business on one platform that could be gone tomorrow.
So, with all of that said, which platform should you actually choose? To find it, ask yourself three simple questions. First, where is your ideal client already hanging out? Meet them where they are. If you know your ideal audience tends to favor short-form, really high-impact platforms like TikTok, then post there because they're there. And if you know your audience isn't wasting time with social apps like TikTok or Instagram, then you might find it more advantageous to post to something like LinkedIn or to create a high-quality blog.
What's most important here is to know exactly who you're trying to reach and that you're creating content that they care about and putting it on a platform that they'll actually see. Question number two is which platform do you enjoy using? If you already naturally gravitate to Instagram or to YouTube, that's how you enjoy spending your free time. That's where you turn to learn new things or to find people, then stick with creating on that platform. You will naturally have an advantage because you understand how that platform works. Now is not the time to convince yourself to try a new trendy platform even though you don't enjoy being on it just because you think it's the quick path to success.
Ultimately, if you enjoy being somewhere, you're much more likely to post there consistently and to engage with people in the way that you need to in order to be successful on any of these platforms. And the final question to consider is, do you thrive on this longer-form instructional content? Do you enjoy teaching in a format similar to what you're watching right now? Or are you more excited to create short-form punchy content and build a community with people through engagement on a social media platform?
Now you know everything you need to pick the best content marketing platform for your business. Once you do that, let me know down in the comments and drop your handle, and I'm happy to become one of your first followers. Now get out there and create some awesome stuff!"
