Inspiration is a powerful force. Every great achievement known to mankind is a result of someone being inspired to act.
People who achieve great things often talk about their sources of inspiration with love and gratitude. They are indebted to them even if the source of inspiration did little more than act as an initial trigger.
People love to feel inspired
There are several benefits to inspiring your audience. People love to feel inspired. Inspiration installs a sense of power and confidence. If the content you create inspires your audience to do, or become, something better, those powerful feelings will be associated with your business. If you’re able to make this association strong enough, people will feel good just for having purchased your products or services.
Gratitude
As mentioned before, another benefit is that those who go onto achieve something are eternally thankful to their sources of inspiration. They are so grateful that they spread the word to their friends and family. These customers are like an army of super loyal fans telling anyone who will listen how great your business is. You can probably think of an example yourself. Maybe you know someone who lost a significant amount of weight due to a new diet program or piece of technology. Chances are they were singing from the rooftops about how great the solution they found was.
So what are you waiting for? Just Do It
One of the most successful brands of all time understands the power of inspiring their audience. Everyone knows Nike and their famous slogan “Just Do It”.
Nike tries to be more than a sports clothing and equipment company. They inspire people to get fit and achieve great things in sport (it’s just a happy coincidence that they also sell products that can help them do just that).
You need to think the same way that Nike does. They don’t focus on what they’re selling, they focus on what their audience wants to achieve. Their audience wants to stay fit or to achieve some form of greatness through sport. Therefore, they create content that inspires them to achieve this.
The great thing is that you can do this yourself without needing to produce expensive adverts featuring highly paid sports stars.
What does your audience want to achieve?
Step one is to figure out what your audience wants to achieve. If you’re not sure how to do this, try building out an audience persona. Map out your ideal customer and think about their dreams, goals, and desires.
Once you have figured out what your audience wants, you can then get to work creating content that inspires them to achieve it. There are a few simple steps to follow to achieve this with your content.
The first step is to share the vision. Paint a crystal-clear picture in the minds of your audience members showing where they could be. The more vividly you can paint this picture the more effective it will be.
Although images and videos might be more effective, you can also use written content. Tell the stories of people who have already achieved what your audience wants to achieve. You can also share images and videos of people doing the things the audience will do once they have achieved their goal. For example, Nike may show an athletic person running down the road or a famous sports star in the heat of competition.
Everyone is different. For some, painting the vision is more than enough to inspire them. Others may need a little more. Show them the way by telling them how they can achieve their dream. For example, a gym or fitness coach might share diet and exercise tips or a cooking school might share a 10-week study plan for better baking skills. This links nicely into what we discussed earlier about content marketers playing the role of an educator. Inspire them by showing where they could be, then educate them by showing exactly how they can get there.
Associating Your Product or Services
You ideally want to show, or at least reference, your products or services while you’re inspiring your audience with a beautiful vision for their future. The goal behind this is to build a strong association between your business and where your customer wants to be.
For example, the beautiful athletic people that Nike show in their content are either wearing Nike clothing or using Nike equipment. This builds the following association, “the people I want to be like are using Nike products, so if I use Nike products, I am one step closer to my goal”.
But beware, there is a fine line between associating your products with your audiences’ goal and making a blatant declaration like “our products will make all your dreams come true”. If you directly say it, you’re not inspiring them, you’re just trying to sell to them something. It has to be subtle.
For example, imagine you own a business selling house paint. You might try to inspire your audience by showing them beautifully painted interiors along with videos teaching them how to select the right colour of paint depending on the natural light in each room. You would use your own products in the videos, but the focus of the content should not be about how great your paint is. The focus should be on inspiring them to also have a beautiful home and showing them how to achieve it by selecting the right colours. You could subtly mention the products you use in the video in the comments or mentioning it in an offhand non-promotional way during the video.
Inspiration Can Take Many Forms
As seen in the paint shop example, inspiration doesn’t always have to be related to exercise and self-improvement. You could inspire them by to think of unique gift ideas or experiences.
The website Etsy is an online marketplace for original handmade goods. At the time of writing this article, they offer 19 different newsletter subscriptions. Although this is a more direct marketing approach, each subscription is designed to inspire by showcasing what products the talented artists sell on the platform. One subscription is called “Etsy Gifts”, another “Etsy Weddings”, these newsletters inspire the reader to think outside the box for special occasions.
Another great example of this is Airbnb experiences. Rather than hosting guests in your home, it is also possible to host an experience unique to what you do and where you live. The experience can be related to anything nature, music, art, sport, cooking and more. This inspires the Airbnb community to do more than just visit a place but live an authentic experience.
Airbnb uses content marketing to inspire its audience about the limitless possibilities in this world. They use channels such as Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, their own magazine, blog, and short films. They even produced a four-minute video made up entirely of vines about “travel, adventure and finding your place in the world”.
You can apply the same principles and inspire people through your own monthly or weekly newsletter. It’s alright to reference your own products (although the majority of the content should be about something else). It must be written in such a way that you’re showing your audience about what is possible rather than convincing them to buy something. The trick is to approach it from an angle of “I am trying to help people”.
Conclusion
Inspiring people doesn’t need to be complicated. It’s as simple as working out what your audience desires, showing it to them and then demonstrating how it is obtainable. Think about what your audience dreams about and encourage them to reach for the skies.
We hope you have enjoyed this article and that it has inspired you to think about how you can be a muse to your own audience (see what we did there).