Does your content prove that you’re the ideal person to work with? In today’s episode, I’m sharing 5 types of contacts to create content for, in order to make your business the ONLY option in your industry. I’m breaking down who these contacts are and why it’s so important to include them in your content calendar. 

On Quianna Marie Weekly, we’re chatting about business growing pains, finding genuine connections, and celebrating wins of all sizes through the lens of a photographer at heart. Sprinkled throughout stories and interviews with past clients, photographers and other business owners this podcast is designed to help you step into your purpose and to truly create a life you’re proud of, a life worth photographing and sharing.

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Review The Show Notes:

Get Crystal Clear About Your Content (5:01)

Googlers (8:20)

Current Clients (11:29)

Dream Clients (13:46)

Past Clients (15:58)

Family And Friends (19:43)

Keep-It-Real Moments (25:28)

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The Green House Resource Garden: quiannamarie.com/shop

Connect with Quianna:

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Instagram: instagram.com/quiannamarie

Review the Transcript:

Have you ever had a coach, online guru or mentor help you drill down your ICA, your ideal client avatar, dream client, or ideal customer? Flushing out all the details about who you want to work with, exactly what you offer based on their needs, wants, desires, and pain points. I remember Jasmine Starr sharing about how important it’s to have one very specific, ideal client that you speak to with your messaging, marketing captions, copy, and basically everything that you’re producing and sharing online should speak directly to one person.

I vividly remember her dream client named Elle, the girl that made handcrafted goat milk soap. Yes, call me crazy, but I literally remember Jasmine Star’s ideal client. I don’t even know if she would say that is her ideal client anymore. I feel like she’s grown so much and has been speaking to all different types, but I will say that Elle has probably grown up and grown up with her.

So maybe she’s still speaking to her. I digress. I am talking about the most descriptive ways, like nailing down their demographics, right? Like explaining exactly who this ideal client is with the demographics of their age, location, job title, income, their family status. Are they single? Are they married?

How many kids do they have? Their psychographics, which I don’t even know what this was until I Googled that. But really it just means their goals, their values, their interests and their lifestyle. So they may have very similar demographics. Their goals and their big dreams may be different, right? Finding out your ideal client’s behaviors, how they make decisions, what types of sales or copy drives them to make decisions, right?

What information or sources do they trust and what are their buying habits? And then of course, their pain points. What are their frustrations and challenges that your product or your services can help solve? Having all of this lined up and baked into your messaging and marketing is important. I really do believe that it’s vital for your business to know exactly who you’re speaking to, how you can help them, and literally getting in their head to answer their prayers, solve the problems that keep them up at night and just make their life easier, hitting those relationship financial, personal, or big business goals.

Once you list out your dream client checklist and have a clear understanding of who they are, where they love to shop, the type of car they drive, what social media platform they spend the most time on, what’s in their fridge, the type of dogs they love, and how many kids they have. Trust me, these dream client lists can be as nitty gritty, detailed beyond belief after you spend some time really understanding their lifestyle purchasing style and what they really need and want, but maybe don’t realize it yet.

I have to ask you this. Are you the dream business owner? Are you the best photographer? Are you the highest ranking realtor we can be so quick to list out our desires for the clients we wanna work with, who we’re qualified to serve, and even more clear on who we don’t wanna work with. But I really wanna let this sink in for a second.

What type of content marketing, messaging, and captions are you sharing that proves you are the ideal brand or business to work with? For this conversation, I’m stoked to share five types of contacts to create content for, to help your business quickly become the only option in your industry, the go-to business in your hometown, the sought after speaker that gets more requests to speak than you can send out pitches, the brick and mortar shop or online boutique that whispers to your ideal clients and shares your value daily.

If you’re the photographer that spends so much time creating content for only your dream clients, you are missing out on a buttload of contacts and content ideas to create longevity and trust for your business. I’m gonna break down these five types of contacts, who they are, why it’s important to speak directly to them throughout your weekly or monthly content calendar.

I promise none of these tips and content ideas are earth shattering. We’re brand new. I’m not reinventing the wheel here, but I do wanna help you stop spinning your wheels and gaining no traction if you’re only posting for your dream clients. Go grab your notebook or head to the greenhouse, the resource garden for photographers and entrepreneurs.

To grab the guide for this episode, check out kiana marie.com/shop. That’s Q-U-I-A-N-N-A marie.com/shop to enter the digital garden of templates, guides, mini courses, and tons of education to help your business bloom through every season. Ready, let’s get this party started. Welcome to Keana Marie Weekly, a podcast for creatives who love to celebrate wins big or small, by dancing in the kitchen photographers who are excited to serve their clients and friends who are ready to chase really, really big dreams.

You can find all of the resources mentioned in this episode@kianamarie.com slash podcast. Join me as I share weekly motivation, chat about growing pains, finding genuine connections. Celebrating your wins through the lens of a photographer at heart. Come join me for a dance party. Ready? Let’s go.

Before I dive into these five different types of contacts to create content for, I do wanna help you get crystal clear on exactly what I mean when I say content. I love generating ideas for you and helping my students come up with creative ideas to market and post about their business. But if you’re just feeling inspired without actually capturing, creating and sharing, then what’s the point?

When I’m talking about content, content that works well for me and my business, I’m talking about anything that helps capture the energy products or client experiences that I’m providing and getting it online. Social media posts like Instagram stories, reels, posts, highlights, and even going live.

Facebook posts, stories and reels. Yes, I’m still posting to Facebook because I have a ton of clients and potential clients still scrolling on Facebook, LinkedIn posts, and tiktoks for all of the social media platforms. Then I also prioritize SEO for my website and blogs, driving Pinterest pins to recent social media posts, blogs, and my website.

I also can’t help but mention flow desks and email marketing as well. All of my videos behind the scenes clips, education podcast episodes and photos feed these content pieces. In past episodes on KR Weekly, I’ve shared a ton about B roll and what to capture. Let’s dive deeper into the messaging and finding clarity in the copy and captions everything that you’re saying about the content.

If you’re only relying on generating new leads, you’re missing a ton of people that already love you, that are eager to share about your business. They just don’t know what to say or what to post for you. So I get a lot of these questions a lot, right? I hear all the time. They’re in my dms, they’re in person at events.

And people are even emailing me these questions, right? So I hear all the time, I’m tired of coming up with ideas to post. Please send help. How do I get more referrals? How can I get my dream clients to just trust me, help me come up with some content ideas, please. What can I do to become more visible and valuable?

Or, this is a juicy one. I never know what to post. What can I share without being too personal? Okay, so I get these questions all the time, and the answer to that, like I will always say in forever is B roll content. You’re going to want to share the type of content that really just captures the work you’re already doing.

Okay. If you’ve been following me for a while and you’re very aware of why I believe B-roll content and generating real life business content, the stuff that you’re already doing, if you’ve been capturing those, which I’m so proud of you for doing, you may have this bank of content and you’re like, whoa, what the heck do I do with this next?

Right? And if you’re only speaking directly to that ideal client, we’re gonna shake that up. Okay? So let’s break down these five different types of contacts to create content for. First, because I love a good list. I’m gonna quickly go through these five and then we’re gonna break them down. Okay?

ONE – GOOGLERS

So number one, Googlers.

These are people who have no idea who you are. Number two, your current clients. Number three, dream clients. So we will be speaking to those icas, those ideal dream avatars. But of course number four, your past clients. If we’re only relying on our past clients to say our praises, that is not a marketing plan.

That is a hope plan. Okay? We’re not hoping over here we are taking action. And then number five, your family and friends. And I’m saving that for last for a reason, and we’ll get into that in a second. Let’s dive into Googlers. Okay, so number one, what the heck is a Googler? It’s exactly what it sounds like.

It is someone that is Googling you and in fact, this may even be a chat GPT or right, like in today’s society chat, GPT is now generating opportunities and service providers and they’re literally answering and sourcing any type of question that we may have typed into Google in years past. It’s generating content.

And here’s the thing about chat, GPT is, it’s a computer. It only knows what has been inputted into the online space, right? Like the worldwide web, right? So if your content is not showing up organically just through Google, it absolutely will not be showing up on chat, GPT as well, or any of the other AI sources.

Okay? Here’s what I mean by creating content for a Googler. We need to know who you are. When someone is Googling for your services, and I wanna make this crystal clear, I wanna have the conversation about someone that is looking for the services that you provide, but they don’t know your name. Okay? They don’t even know who you are.

They’re not Googling Quianna Marie or branding photography with Quianna, right? Like they’re, people aren’t Googling that if they don’t know who I am and they don’t even know I exist yet. But you know what they are Googling Phoenix, Arizona, brand photographer, wedding photographer in the Bay Area, right? If that’s something that they were Googling in the past, right?

Anything like that, something that is your service plus your location, that is what’s going to pop up. Are you posting content like that? Right? So we need to know who you are. Literally break this down like a third grader and about me page. Okay? What is your business name? What is your name? What it is that you do?

I wanna know the type of target audience that you have, right? So this is where we do mention a little bit of the dream clients and icas, but who are you speaking to? And then most importantly, where are you located? There are a lot of online coaches, healers, and we can easily say we are global. We have clients around the world, but there is something to say about some brick and mortar stores or even local service providers that they’re perfectly happy just.

Driving 20 minutes or less away from their home. Right? So where are you located? I, for example, love posting images of myself in the desert. If you’re a local realtor and you are servicing Scottsdale and Phoenix, it is very normal for people to instantly create that connection or just that identifiable ness.

That’s not even a word, but they can find the cactus and just instantly connect you to the desert. So here’s the thing. We need to know who you are. What you do, because when you combine those together, those Googlers are going to find you. Okay? So we’re gonna break down. Once again, I need to know your business name, what it is that you offer, what it is that you’re selling, and how people can work with you.

Okay? So combining your services, your name, your location is going to be searchable gold, whether it’s through Google or chat, GBT, or any type of those AI searches. Okay? So we gotta start with Googlers first.

TWO – CURRENT CLIENTS

Number two, your current clients. This is so fun because we’re gonna break down the type of content for the stuff that you’re already doing.

Okay? This is when I challenge you to share about your client experience from the very beginning. That first email inquiry, that first referral, that first dm, all the way through, every single step it takes to work with you, and the results and the transformations that you provide to that final. Ascension or basically just like a wrap up, like you’re tying your services or your products with a bow and you’re done.

Okay, so what does that look like? I want to see the different clips, different video clips, different captions, all the type of information that you can share about what it’s like to work with you and why you are the only option. I love sharing your expertise. I want to see why you are it, why you are the only option for your clients.

Okay? I love to include frequently asked questions for this one as well, because it’s a great way for you to kind of handhold your current clients. This is stuff that I think is so important and I think often gets forgotten when it comes to lead generation or even just content generation, like coming up with ideas because if you don’t have anything to post, I highly encourage you to go back through your frequently asked questions and lead your clients through this process.

Yes, you’d also wanna surprise and delight. We’ll get into that later. But I also think it’s so important to actually see what it’s like to work with you to create FOMO for your future clients that are watching. And then of course, like I have mentioned before, sharing all the behind the scenes. Okay.

Checkpoints. Things that, and I al, I say this all the time to my students, your every day is someone’s once in a lifetime. So helping your clients feel prepared, answering questions before they even come up, right? All of this is adding value to you, and really building that trust and those genuine connections so they know that they are absolutely being taken care of.

Okay? We don’t wanna just be running out and marketing to people that we don’t even know yet. When we have current clients that love and adore us, and we are just showcasing that content behind the scenes as well.

THREE – DREAM CLIENTS

Number three, your dream clients. So this is where we get to dream a little bit. Okay?

Literally dream clients, all the dreaming we get to call in what we’re looking for. This is when you can create and generate content that showcases your best work. Think about the commercials or the ads in ps. It was so funny, I literally just had Brody and my nephew ask me what a commercial was, and I’m laughing because I told him, oh, skip the commercial.

We were watching this little, um, this little video on YouTube and he’s like, what’s a commercial auntie? And I’m like, oh my God. It’s an ad. Like, just skip the ad, right? Like these kids usually, they don’t even know what a commercial is. It’s so funny. And they just call it ads. But anyway, side story, commercial break.

This is when you can showcase your professional photos, your legit video, if you have brand videos to share professional photography, all of that, right? I wanna see it. This is how you can share that you are becoming the local favorite. Okay? So are you popping up in local coffee shops? Are you working in luxury hotels in the market that you wanna be selling these homes in?

Right? There are people that are traveling all the time, and if you can bump into them, have conversations, right? I know. I know. I’m talking about content. You can be posting online, but also creating content and genuine connections for people that are sitting right there next to you at the coffee shop or next to you at the lobby, can also be just as powerful for these connections.

This is where I challenge you to share all the education that you’re investing in. So even just listening to this podcast and sharing how you’re excited to start branching out and expanding your content generation, share it, post about it, re-share it, right? If you have conferences and events that you’re excited to attend, take us behind the scenes to share it.

Right? Document the process. Document your outfits, and how excited you are. Share selfies with new friends, right? This is when you get to. Really highlight why you are the best. Like I mentioned before, and I have to mention again, we are so busy and so clouded, or I should say like maybe more of like a tunnel vision speaking to these dream clients, but we need to create the type of content that proves to our dream clients that we’re it, that we are the dream business to work with, right?

All of that can be kind of bundled into showcasing your best work.

FOUR – PAST CLIENTS

Number four, past clients. This one is one of my favorites because these are people that have already gone through your process. They have gone through your client experience. They know what it’s like to work with you, and hopefully they’ve received the results that they paid for.

Right? And even beyond that, right? Like maybe you over delivered. The type of content we should be sharing for them are reviews and testimonial. When is the last time that you asked you or your clients to share a review and testimonial, whether it’s a written email, like a text screenshot, or maybe even asking for a video from them?

Right. Oh my gosh. These are all so important, and this is a beautiful way to share your gratitude. So whether you’re working like B2B, like business to business. Any type of content that we can generate for other businesses, you can bet your booty that they’re gonna be so fricking excited to just hit add to story or reshare because you’re literally just generating content for them to build brand awareness, build trust, build authority in their, in their industry.

And so that is just easy, right? And then of course, if you’re working directly with families or you have some type of personal service that you’re providing, they’re still gonna be excited to share. Okay, with permission, of course. But once again, you are creating these testimonials. If you notice a trend here, you’re creating these testimonials for your past clients to be able to actually showcase and share.

But guess who’s watching Dream clients, your current clients and potential Googlers that may not have met you yet, but they’re searching, they’re watching you. And then of course, more information and content for your past clients is feedback and critique. I know taking corrective, um, criticism, I think that’s what it’s called, something, some type of criticism.

It can be very difficult, right? Like, oh, sorry, constructive criticism, that’s the word. It can be difficult and awkward, but I am telling you right now that when you ask for constructive criticism back from your past clients. Which could just be sending a quick little jot form Google Doc, or really just a quick little questionnaire to ask them specific questions about your experience.

This is when you’re going to learn. This is when you’re going to grow. It’s going to be painful. Some of your past clients may say, Hey, you dropped the ball on this situation, or. I thought I was getting this and this isn’t quite how it was explained, or maybe they’re super positive. Those are just maybe some negative feedback pieces, but maybe they have incredible positive things to share about you.

Once again, hello. That can easily generate posts, reels even more content and blogs that we can share. And then of course your client referrals, okay? This is when you are going to create super genuine, long lasting referrals because your past clients hopefully have loved you, they appreciate you, and they’re so grateful for you, and they are literally going to be become the best marketing partners for your business to last for generations.

We have to give them content. We have to be top of mind for them to continue working with us, right? Perfect example is with real estate, right? If you had a incredible experience, the transaction was fantastic, and you blew them out of the water with your real estate experience, right? Getting them into their new home.

Typically with homes, sometimes that’s like a once in a lifetime purchase. Sometimes families are purchasing homes every three years, right? Obviously it’s always different for different clients, but how are you staying top of mind? How are you staying connected? Are you sending them email newsletters? Are you sharing testimonials?

Right? Are you staying top of mind so that way when it is time for them to reach out to you for a future sale or a future transaction, you are it like you are the one.

FIVE – FRIENDS AND FAMILY

Okay. And then I’m saving the best for last friends and family for a reason. Okay. Because I think sometimes our friends and family, I wanna put them in a like two different camps.

They either have no idea what the heck you do. I wanna be like totally transparent about that. They have no idea what you do. Maybe you just like make money online, or you clicky clack on your laptop and you need fast wifi. Like that’s all they know. And then on the other camp. Number two, your friends and family adore you.

They know what you do, but they don’t know how to promote you. They don’t know how to talk about your business when other opportunities come up, right? So we’re gonna talk about friends and family and how we can post for them. So I wanna know how you wear your heart on your feed, okay? This is where we can get really personal and I, I like to make this crystal clear that.

You as a business owner on social media, you are in charge. You get to decide what you post, what you don’t post, what you’re comfortable with. Okay. And I’ve gone into tons of safety tips in the past, um, with B-roll and showing up online. So if you have any questions about that, literally just DM me and I can send you exactly what episode to listen to.

But this is where you get to share your why, your personality, your adventures, your hobbies, the things that bring you joy, some of your holiday traditions, right? This is what’s going to differentiate you from someone that is posting content and everything that we’ve mentioned so far. From someone that is the only option, someone that is relatable, someone that understands their needs because you feel trustworthy and you feel like someone that can be their friend.

So not only someone as a business owner or a brand that can answer their questions, provide a service, or just help them. You are the one they want to work with because they feel like if you guys were friends in real life, they would be your bestie. This is where I love to share little arts and craft projects with my niece Eliana.

I love to share how I’m obsessed with plants and I am so in love with my fiance and how we’re planning our wedding, and I keep sharing little snippets of a wedding planning, right? Our dogs. We have two German Shepherds Faith and Skye, and we’re obsessed with them. We are renovating our little fixer upper, and when I say renovating, let’s be honest, we got rid of our popcorn ceilings, we painted and we got a new couch.

Like that’s pretty much the extent we kind of ran outta money as we are planning our wedding, right? These are all things that make me me, right, sharing my heart on the podcast, sharing my passions, and really just pouring into you and your business. That is something that makes me. Me, this is where you can be creative.

You can put a like, and I say put a filter on it, but I don’t mean put a filter on actually putting a filter on things like we’re not face tuning things, but you really can kind of filter what is happening in your real life and what you want to share. And this is where I love to create, I call it small world content.

So for example, let’s say I am going to an event and I’m speaking at an event, okay? I’m taking selfies with the attendees, with the other speakers. This is where people can comment and share, oh my gosh, I can’t believe you got to meet Jen Gottlieb. Or, wow, look at how fun to see all those powerhouse women in this same space.

Right? Oh my gosh. How do you know Ashley? I went to high school with Ashley, right? Like this is when all of the fun connections start to spark off and hello. That is incredible engagement. Like I mentioned before, this is a type of content that I suggest you share to create the humanness behind your brand.

Create the living brand for your business. So no matter what you decide to sell tomorrow, your family and friends are still going to support you. No matter what you do, you’re still top of mind. So remember, you are not just providing the services that you provide. You’re not just a photographer. You’re not just a realtor.

You are literally creating these experiences for your family, your friends, all of the Googlers, all of the people that want to work with you, current clients, dream clients, past clients, and your family, and. We are creating the type of content that speaks to them. If you’re only speaking to your dream clients, you are missing out on all of these types of contacts to generate leads, generate referrals, and generate more business.

CONTENT CHALLENGE – SPEAKING TO ALL OF THESE CONTACTS

I challenge you to go through each of these topics, right? The Googlers current clients, dream clients, past clients, family and friends. And if you notice, ’cause I love a good like full circle moment. If you notice I use these five contacts. As five different pillars in my business. So when I come home from a photo shoot or I come home from an event, I just recently attended the Connect Belong Retreat, this beautiful lodge, it’s called Arrow Creek Lodge In Show Low, absolutely stunning.

It was goals beyond goals. Okay. Tara and I can go into way more detail about that. I think I’m gonna have her back on the podcast to talk about it. ’cause it was so life changing and it was so beautiful. I’m really just sharing that after you come home from an event, now that you have this big role of videos, all the fun content to share, I challenge you to go back to all five of those different types of contacts to share, okay?

They’re your pillars. So if you ever feel like, okay, I either don’t know what to share, or I have too much to share and I don’t know where to begin, break down these pillars, and I challenge you to look through your week, whether it’s a weekly content calendar or even a monthly content calendar. And start just kind of labeling a couple posts.

Either you’re posting three times a week, five times a week, five times a day, whatever that looks like. And just make sure you’re hitting these contacts. Okay? So I wanna end with some, keep it real moments, okay? If you’re busy and feeling overwhelmed, especially during this holiday season, this is a great opportunity for you to connect with your community, sharing, re-sharing, showing up for events.

Just document the process, share the experience. One of my favorite mindset shifts, and I think I’ve talked about this in the podcast in the past, is sharing content as if your best friend was unable to attend, right? Like have that mindset so you know what it’s like to share those little details and share the excitement of the event as if your best friend couldn’t attend and she wanted to see all the behind the scenes details, right?

You can also keep it real by planning events, so take this type of content generation in your own hands. Bringing together all your besties. It could just be a girls’ night. It could be an industry night, right? Collaborating with other vendors, whatever that looks like for you. Plan something fun. It could even be a hike or a simple walk in your neighborhood.

Okay? These are tons of content opportunities, and then of course, cross promote. All right? You can celebrate your business best eats by sharing their business as well. Here’s the thing, my love. We need more people to know about you. We need people to trust you. You’re not gonna build that trust unless you are generating content and tweaking your copy and your messaging to speak directly to them.

You have an incredible circle and an incredible tribe of family, friends, current clients, past clients, and dream clients that just don’t even know you exist yet. Okay?

Let’s create content that speaks directly to all of them so they can easily share about your business. I am so, so honored for you to be here with us today.

Thank you for listening. I hope that this feels good. I hope it feels easy, right? It’s not up to your past clients to say nice things about you and to market your business. We need to feed them content to easily share, stay top of mind, and build lasting connections for referrals to last generations. So as we wrap up, I love a good challenge for you, or like I mentioned before, I dare you.

I dare you to create two very specific lists, okay? I want you to write out your list of your dream clients and who they are, what their needs are, how you can help them write the products and services that they need, their pain points, their desires, all of it. Make a big list of like a hundred things.

Okay? Who they are and what they need. And then I also want you to write out that list of why you’re qualified, why you are the best, why you’re so fun and easy to work with, the services that you provide, that truly build results and transformations for your clients. You are incredible. You are amazing and have so much to offer.

We really, truly need more people to know about you and not just to be screaming on social media, but to whisper to those dream clients.

I hope you found this episode helpful, and I cannot wait to chat soon. Hope you have a great day, babe. Love you. Bye!

That’s a wrap on another episode of Quianna Marie Weekly.

Thank you so much for your listenership and support. You can find the resources and show notes for this episode and more at QuiannaMarie.com/podcast. I’d be honored if you’d show your support by leaving a REVIEW and rating on your favorite podcast app. Until next time, keep on dancing.

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