Can You Outshine The Big Guys? 🪩

Hello Reader,

Every year, Edelman releases a study under the umbrella of "Thought Leadership." It's always a great read, but the trends don't really change: People making decisions want to see good quality thought leadership from the folks they're thinking of working with—and typically they aren't getting that.

Which is why I push the concept of building your body of work so heavily—it's truly a competitive advantage. If nine out of ten decision makers are saying that a person or organization's content makes them more likely to not only be receptive to marketing from that person, but makes them more open to paying them, that's a big deal.

And yet, even with this data in hand, only 15 percent of the thought leadership decision makers encounters is very good or excellent, according to the same study.

See what's happening here? People who have the power to say "Yes" want to see good content—but most are not.

I believe this is especially meaningful for small and micro businesses because it's one of the few accessible opportunities to elbow your way into the pool with The Big Guys.

Back when my business was primarily web design, I repeatedly beat out a large local agency because I had thoughtful content on my website that helped create clarity for decision makers—and The Big Guy didn't bother. (Yes, I was told this by the clients!) It completely transformed the trajectory of my business having some impressive, larger clients in my portfolio that came in thanks to my filling this gap left by The Big Guys.

Now, I feel like this is even more of a superpower for The Small Guys (that's me and you) because we're seeing bigger companies getting wise to the fact they need to have helpful content on their websites (Monday.com led the way with this, and did an incredible job of showing us how discovery-fueled content can transform a company).

However, these big companies are still (unwisely, in my expert opinion) largely duking it out at the bottom of the content marketplace, sharing very basic information. (For example, a large online therapy app writing an article titled, "What is anxiety?" versus a solo therapist writing an article titled, "Can EMDR help my PTSD?")

This is where subject matter experts (you and me!) can step in and bridge that gap. Sure, you may never have the notoriety of The Big Guy with the known name—but if you can exceed their very basic content strategy, well, that doesn't really matter anymore.

As you may have surmised, this is the goal of my summer strategy program, Summer of SEO. Sure, we talk keywords, and rankings, and search frameworks—but in the end, the goal is to help independent, subject matter experts make their mark and connect with the people they can help. Because they are looking for you—they just can't find you.

Warmly,

Sarah

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