Cat Johnson

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  • How to Use Content to Get Potential Members into Your Coworking Space

Marketing and Branding

08 Feb

How to Use Content to Get Potential Members into Your Coworking Space

  • In Marketing and Branding, Workspace Industry
  • 2 comments

Content-Coworking-Space

Last week my friend and fellow coworking enthusiast Bernie J. Mitchell called me out. After recording an episode of the Ouishare Radio Write Club, the new podcast we co-host with Trevor Twining, Bernie and I were chatting and he said, “I’ve been reading and sharing your blog posts for years, but I still want to know: How do we get people in the doors of our coworking space using content?”

It’s a legit question, and one that a lot of space operators have: Why bother with this whole content thing if it doesn’t help solve the big challenge of attracting new members?

There’s a practical framework for content marketing. Here’s the quick and painless version:

1. Find Your Audience

Know who you want to attract to your space. This is your target audience.

2. Understand Your Audience

What do people in your target audience need help with? What do they desire? What they struggle with?

3. Help Them

Now that you know what your target audience wants, needs and struggles with, pinpoint exactly how you can help them.

4. Find Your Keywords

Once you clarify your target audience, what they need and how your unique offerings help them, you have some keywords to focus on. Use these keywords in your content to help your target market find you in search engines. This is the foundation of SEO.

5. Brainstorm Content Ideas

Brainstorm blog posts, videos, podcasts, etc. that speak to the needs, desires and struggles of your target audience. If you offer child care in your coworking space, brainstorm resources, tips, insights and how-tos for parents. If you have a podcast booth, green screen and community of digital creatives, share protips and resources for creating videos, podcasts and digital media. If your space is focused on social good projects, brainstorm ideas around social missions, B corporations, social impact and triple bottom line businesses.

6. Create Strong Headlines

Create strong headlines around these topics that will be irresistible to your target market. Make them SEO-friendly with your target keywords. For example, if you’re trying to attract photographers in Boise, use headlines such as, “A Photographer’s Guide to Boise: 7 Resources to Grow Your Skillset and Attract Clients.”

7. Leverage Local Influencers and Aligned Organizations

Make a list of all the organizations, businesses, government agencies, meetups and influencers who are aligned with your space, business, community and mission. Mention them in blog posts, do roundups that include them, feature them in Q&As.

This is a powerful technique to expand your reach and attract your target audience because when these organizations and people are featured in your content, they’ll likely share the post/video/podcast with their community. And their community, by design, overlaps with your target audience.

Imagine having the local business development agency or a big tech meetup share your content. With one Tweet or Facebook post they’ve just put you in front of your target audience and given you an opportunity to demonstrate value to them.

Note: Writing guest posts for these aligned organizations and businesses is another great way to attract their audience to your space. Just be sure to include a link to your space and a call to action.

8. Call to Action

The call to action is perhaps the most important part of content marketing. Say someone is intrigued by your headline, clicks through and reads the post, and is curious about what you offer. What do you want them to do? Schedule a tour of your coworking space? Come by for a happy hour? Swing by the space for a visit? Book a meeting room? Give them an easy way to do that.

You can have other calls to action, such as an opt-in to your newsletter or a free download in exchange for their email. Or you can ask people to attend an upcoming event, or call for more information about your space. Someone has self-selected as being your target audience by clicking on your targeted post. What do you want them to do?

Get clear on that, then ask them!

Apologies for the “!” I’m generally opposed to using exclamation points and ALL CAPS in writing, as it’s the equivalent of yelling at readers. But this is important: give people a next step to take after getting value out of your content.

Not everyone will do what you ask. But if you don’t ask people to take an action, then no one will.

For best results, repeat, repeat, repeat

Get this process down then…repeat, repeat, repeat.

Content marketing is a long game. It’s a marathon, not a sprint. It’s an exercise in consistency, course correcting and patience. Enough with the metaphors, you get what I’m saying, right?

Stay with your content strategy and be consistent. Establish your coworking space as a valuable community resource, then do that over and over and over again. You’ll increase awareness of your space, you’ll position your space and community as a vital part of the local ecosystem, and more people will come through the doors to see what you’re all about.


Coworking space operators: Subscribe to the Coworking Out Loud Newsletter to get industry insights, resources and content tips sent to you every Thursday.


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Coworking the Future: 5 Million People will Cowork by 2022
Creative Ways to Market Your Coworking Space: Tips from the Pros
9 Proven Ways to Strengthen Your Coworking Blog

Tags:contentcoworkingmarketingworkspace
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Cat Johnson
I help coworking space operators streamline and level-up their marketing. I'm a writer, content strategist and brand community builder based in Santa Cruz, California. Current projects include: Coworking Convos and the Coworking Content Lab workspace marketing club.

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    Comments

  1. Coworking Space
    March 25, 2019

    It is not very easy work to attract people towards our Coworking space. Coworking company owners have to do much efforts to collect their audience. Some efforts work some not. But if owners get right guidance that how to promote their coworking space business then they can get much profit. Your blog post is one of the best guidance source to grow coworking space online. Really very useful tips. Thanks for sharing this.

    Reply
  2. Umair Nadeem
    April 22, 2019

    thanks for sharing such a detailed article about coworking space & their benefits keep up the good work!
    Regards,
    Mangospace coworking Lahore

    Reply

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Each week I send content tips, info and curated articles to 2,342 coworking space operators. Want in?
"Cat Johnson is the marketing maven of the coworking world. She delivers content that is real, actionable and on-point. If you want to learn how to ignite your marketing and storytelling, you found the person. Enjoy the journey."
Liz Elam
Executive Producer, GCUC
"Working with Cat is like a breath of fresh air. She knows the coworking industry inside and out, and her understanding of what makes great content is second to none. And if that weren’t enough, she’s organized, thorough, and simply a delight to work with."
Susan Dorsch
Cofounder, Office Nomads
"Cat is the go-to when it comes to content strategy for the shared workspace industry. Not only is she an expert but she is immersed in coworking. She really gets it. Her newsletter is one of the few in my inbox that gets opened every week."
Jamie Russo
Everything Coworking Podcast, GWA
"Cat is a unique and powerful voice in the coworking movement. She’s dedicated to learning about what’s happening from every possible angle, analyzing what she finds, and sharing everything so we can all benefit. Coworking is better because Cat is part of it."
Tony Bacigalupo
Founder, New Work Cities

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COWORKING · CONTENT · COMMUNITY

Each week I send content tips, info and curated articles to 2,342 coworking space operators. Want in?