This Is What Turns 'Good' Content Into Content That Converts Premium Clients [ep. #17]

[00:00:00] So what this means is that content that converts a high-level premium buyer isn't content that convinces. It is content that activates a decision. The right content doesn't convince somebody that they need to decide to do something different. It speaks to them like they've already decided, and you're making the decision way clearer for them.

[00:00:25] Welcome to Rich Work, the podcast for established female entrepreneurs ready to turn their expertise into premium clients and consistent high-ticket revenue. I'm Rachel Pearson, global brand and business strategist, skincare obsessed, and always distracted by booking the next mini break. Here, you'll learn how to position like a luxury brand, attract premium clients who love to invest, and build wealth that actually lasts so you can create the business and life you want, not someone else's version of success.

Why 'Just Good' Content Isn't The Content That Converts Premium Clients

[00:00:56] This is where premium positioning and building wealth meet for women who are rewriting the rules. Let's get into it. Welcome back to Rich Work. Today's episode is all about content that converts. We are not going into posting strategies or content calendars or how many times a week you should show up. Even if I was to share that in this episode, it would likely have changed by the time this episode comes out.

[00:01:19] We are going instead into what sits underneath all of that, a shift in how you see what content is actually for. Once you see it this way, it will change how you approach every single post, every piece of copy, every time you sit down to create. We are going to cover the difference between content that keeps you creating and busy in creation and content that actually builds a brand longer term, why the standard content advice doesn't work for high-ticket clients, and what it looks like to create content that activates a decision rather than just generating awareness for your offer.

Why Posting More Won't Attract Premium Clients

[00:01:57] So let's get into it. What I see with people using content to sell their services is that they are posting consistently. They have good content. There is a lot of good content out there despite what we say about AI. There is also a lot of bad content. But there is a lot of good content out there, thoughtful, personal, well-written, and it will get saves and comments.

[00:02:22] When I have clients come to work with me who say, "Look, I am consistent with my content, and I am actually creating my own content. Maybe I'm using AI to make it more efficient, but I'm putting the reps in here, and I'm still not seeing the sales happen with the type of clients that I want to work with."

[00:02:40] They get people saying, "I love your content," or, "You're on my vision board to work with in the future." And they're thinking, "What is going on here? Why is it that my content is good but is not tipping them over the edge to say, 'I want to work with you right now'?" At this stage, because the content isn't converting, their instinct is to do more, to post more often, to try more formats, work on the hooks, tinker with the call to action, lean into what the algorithm is doing now. I've never seen the problem be about frequency.

[00:03:14] I always say to my clients, "If you want to show up and post 3 times a day, and you can do that within your capacity, amazing." Especially on platforms like Instagram, that will hands down get you more visibility. However, if you don't want to do that, this isn't really a topic about frequency and how often you should be posting, and it's not about format.

[00:03:33] Should I be doing Reels? Should I be doing carousels? It's something more fundamental than that. The content is not active. It is not potent. When your content is just checking the box, then it's not moving a decision forward, and that's what we want our content to be doing.

The Difference Between a Content Bank and Building a Brand Through Content

[00:03:53] When you have content that is just ticking the box, it is following whatever strategy you have put out there for your content. It is educating, it is doing story-led posts. You are selling. You found something which you can then repeat, and it's manageable within the capacity and the time that you have, and you might get engagement for that.

[00:04:16] It's often reactive as well, so you might be looking at what the algorithm is doing and shifting your content strategy to work with the algorithm. But what this is doing is creating a content bank. It's not creating a brand. I work with women who've built really successful businesses and have been doing content for a long time, and their content is really good.

[00:04:38] But I'll look at it, and I'll say, "What do you feel when you read this?" It's almost like they're desensitised to it because the content has become a process. They have the content pillars, or they have the bank of content that they can pull on, and it's become this way of efficiently showing up.

[00:04:56] They've lost their sense of who sits behind that, and this is becoming more and more important as we are in this age of more content from AI, more content that has a similar pattern to it. We need to disrupt the pattern of how people feel about our content, and our brand is being built through every piece of content.

How High Resonance Beats High Frequency

[00:05:17] What that means is that when you have activating, potent content that converts, it's different. Every piece of content has a job. It declares who you are and what your brand stands for, rather than explains it, and it also speaks to somebody who is becoming, what's happening next, rather than the problem that they are currently in.

[00:05:42] This is where this type of content really starts to speak to the mind of a premium buyer, somebody who is looking to build up that certainty piece by piece, that you are the right person for them to work with. They are not just dipping in and seeing one post and going, "Oh, my gosh, this is the person that I know I need to work with."

[00:06:06] That can happen from time to time, but the more common way this is going to happen is that they come and they scan and they look at your profile, they look at your LinkedIn, or they see different pieces of content, and there is a congruency, a coherence throughout every piece of content where they just feel like this piece of content has certainty, and then it compounds in the next piece, and then it compounds in the next piece.

[00:06:31] So what I say to my clients is, "You can absolutely have fewer posts. You can have lots of posts. It really doesn't matter in terms of frequency, but what I'm more interested in is how can we get higher resonance?" Higher resonance so that your clients are feeling that certainty with every piece of content that they're reading from you.

[00:06:54] Because high-ticket clients feel that difference before they can really name it. They might not even know what your offer is when they're reading the content, but they just feel that they're drawn into your way of thinking and the way that you work, and they might not be able to tell you why one person's content makes them feel like that, but they've already decided that that person is the person for them.

[00:07:18] You could look at the two types of content from somebody who is posting consistently versus somebody else who's posting just as consistently, and they're both showing up in the same way. But if one set of content leaves somebody feeling unmoved, leaves them feeling like they're not activated towards a decision, then it doesn't matter how many times that person shows up. The person who moves their client towards a decision is the one who is going to get hired.

Why the Traditional Marketing Funnel Fails With High-Ticket Clients

[00:07:48] That is what we are designing for with a content strategy. When I look at content strategy with my clients, I don't actually start from the traditional marketing funnel, which might sound strange because my background is in marketing. When I say marketing funnel, I mean top of funnel is where new people find you, middle of funnel is where you warm them up over weeks or months, and then bottom of funnel is where they're eventually going to buy.

[00:08:14] That logic absolutely has a place, and we do always need to be bringing new people into our audience, but that's a completely different episode to this one. The way that I look at content is that the top, middle, and bottom is assuming we need to convince somebody to buy from us, that they need to be convinced they have a problem, they need to be convinced you're the solution, they need to be convinced to part with their money.

[00:08:40] High-ticket clients don't move like that. The clients we are building towards at this level are the ones who already have a level of success. They're already investing in their business, in their life. They're already clear on what they want. They don't necessarily need months of nurturing.

[00:08:58] They are already problem aware. They need to have those problems called out, but they already know there is something sticky. There's a challenge that's happening for them, and they have an inkling of what they're looking for, even if they don't know the exact solution, or the way to name it.

[00:09:14] They make decisions quickly when something is right, and they will wait when it just doesn't feel right for them. They don't respond to urgency. They don't respond to high amounts of value stacking in the traditional "let me take you through how to know you can trust me" timeline.

The 3 Things That Move a Premium Client to a Yes

[00:09:34] They move when 3 things line up. One, they recognise your authority to solve the problem that they have. Two, they feel an energetic match to the level that you work with. Three, the timing is right for them. This is where urgency and value stacking can come in, in this timing piece, where it's "now is the time to do this," but they've already decided that they want to move.

[00:10:00] They've already decided that they want to invest by that point. What this means is that the content that converts a high-level premium buyer isn't content that convinces. It is content that activates a decision. The right content doesn't convince somebody that they need to decide to do something different.

[00:10:22] It speaks to them like they've already decided, and you're making the decision way clearer for them. If you think about the last time that you bought something at a high level, an investment that maybe either stretched you financially or stretched you in terms of comfort level, skill set, or time commitment. Usually those two things go together, the investment level and the commitment.

[00:10:41] Maybe a programme, or a coach, or a service. When you went to make that investment, you probably felt like, "I cannot not do this." The decision was almost inevitable, and you weren't at the end of a really well-designed funnel, but you had encountered something, maybe a piece of content or content that quickly compounded for you, a conversation, a recommendation.

[00:11:11] Something in you recognised that this was the right decision for you, and that is what our content needs to design for, content that converts by speaking directly to the person who is already looking, already at the point where the right thing will activate them into a yes.

What Your Content Needs to Do to Attract Premium Clients

[00:11:28] So what does that mean for your content? In this episode, I'm not going to go through a whole content strategy. I have a really specific way of teaching content, which is through the High Ticket Content Catalyst, one of my programmes that goes through all of the way that I look at content, from storytelling right through to how to create and plan your content, how to speak to this premium-level buyer.

[00:11:48] In this episode, I don't want to overcomplicate it, and I think this is so important because there are so many messaging and content programmes out there that we have got ourselves in a massive knot about what actually makes people decide to buy from our content. If there's anything I want you to take away from this episode, I want you to let it be simpler.

[00:12:11] I want you to let it be easier. Rather than giving you a list of content formats to rotate through, I want to give you something I feel is going to be more useful, which is a standard to hold every piece of content against. The question isn't really, what type of content should I be posting? It's, what is this piece of content doing?

[00:12:30] Are you attracting in, speaking to the level of client that you want, and are you moving them towards a decision? There are 4 things I want you to think about with your content, the roles that your content is playing. Not in every post, but across the content that you are putting out.

Role 1: Establish Authority Through Your Point of View

[00:12:53] The first is, are you establishing authority? Your content needs to consistently position you as the obvious discerning choice. That doesn't mean you're going to constantly share your credentials or case studies alone, but this is through the quality of your thinking, the perspective that you bring, the standards that you hold. A premium buyer needs to encounter your authority content and think, "She sees what I see. She's operating at the level that I need, through the lens that she sees things."

Role 2: Agitate by Calling Clients Out to Call Them Up

[00:13:17] The second is to agitate. I do not mean in a manipulative way, using fear-based tactics. That's not the way I look at content. What I mean is a good diagnosis of somebody's problem and where they want to be next will agitate them.

[00:13:40] It should have a level of discomfort for them. Your content needs to name something that the right client already senses but hasn't quite articulated. This is the gap between where they are and where they know they could be or should be. The cost of staying where they are, what they're tolerating by doing that.

[00:14:01] When this content is done well, it doesn't feel like it's coming from a place of pressure. I have this phrase where you call people out to call them up. You call out what the gap is that they're sitting in, and then you call them up as if to say, "This isn't the standard that you hold for yourself. This isn't what you see as next. This isn't the type of business. This isn't the type of life. This isn't the way that you look at your health." Reminding them of what they desire. We're calling them out to call them up.

Role 3: Demonstrate Your Leadership and Approach

[00:14:38] The third is demonstrating your leadership and your approach. Buyers at this level have often worked with really good people before. They are used to investing. What they're evaluating isn't whether you're competent. They already assume that. They wouldn't even be looking at your content if they didn't assume that. They're evaluating whether you think the way they need someone to think, whether your approach to their problem and to what they desire matches how they want to be led.

[00:15:00] Your content needs to show this, not just tell it. This is super important. Show it. This is where storytelling comes in. Show, not just tell.

Role 4: Show Social Proof That Speaks to Identity

[00:15:22] The fourth is social proof, but not in the way that most people do it. Not a screenshot with a name blurred out and taking people through the process that your clients went through. The most powerful social proof shows your client's transformation, or your own, in context. What changed, why it changed, what it meant for who they became, really speaking to that identity level. That's the kind of proof that makes a high-ticket buyer recognise themselves in someone else's story.

[00:15:44] If you hold up these 4 types of content, these 4 approaches, and you look at your content against them. I don't want you to do this as a checklist, but as a lens. Look at your content and think, "Am I consistently building authority? Is this creating the right kind of agitation? Is my content showing how I think and lead? Is this evidence of the transformation in a way that resonates at the level my client is building towards?"

How to Create Authority Content That Positions You Without Hedging

[00:16:08] Let's go deeper into two areas of content I just talked about that I see people get stuck on, and I want to simplify it and break it down for you. The first is authority content, because I think there's a lot of pressure. "I am the authority. I show up as an authority." It's like, what does that even mean?

[00:16:32] Authority content is not a case study. It's not a big balls credential post. It's not, "Here are my results, and this is what I'm doing next." Those things have a place, but when I talk about authority, that's not what I mean.

[00:16:52] Authority content, when it's really potent, is a declaration. It says something about how you see the world really clearly, specifically, and without hedging. You're not softening and saying, "I see this, but it can also look like this." You need to trust that your reader either recognises it or they don't.

[00:17:16] They either get it or they don't. The check I always have when I look and think, "Right, I really want this piece of content to really showcase authority or to have my embodied authority in it," is, am I overexplaining this? Because if I was to overexplain, I'm educating, I'm not trusting my reader, my potential client, to get this. The declaration is positioning.

[00:17:42] For example, let's do two very literal examples. An explanation post could be something like, "Here are 5 reasons your content isn't converting high-ticket clients and what to do about each one." It's very educational. It's probably going to get saves, and it will position me as competent and knowledgeable.

[00:18:02] A declaration post, which brings in my authority, might say, "Most content in the online space is designed for an audience that doesn't exist at a premium level. High-ticket clients don't need convincing. They need to recognise you." There's no list, there are no 5 steps. I'm giving my perspective that I don't think most of the content in the online space is actually speaking to a premium buyer mindset, and I'm going to take them through how I do it differently.

[00:18:30] I'm not going, "Most of the content in this space is designed for an audience that doesn't exist at a premium level, except for..." I don't then go in and soften it, whether it's in the hook, the headline, or the caption. I need to put my point of view really clearly forward. Obviously, there are opportunities to bring my credentials into it.

[00:18:51] Something like, "After 15 years building luxury brands, here's what I see content does to speak to a premium buyer that you're not doing yet." I can bring my credentials in that way, but you also don't need to do that. Your point of view is your authority backed up by your credentials, not your credentials first to then make the authority have a place.

[00:19:15] This is where I often see, particularly the women I work with who have come from a corporate background, get stuck. They feel like they need to lead with their credentials in order for their point of view to have a place. Your authority is your point of view, the way that you think, the lens that you see things, but you've got to stand true in it.

[00:19:34] You've got to stand both feet in it. I would challenge you to create a piece of authority content where you have none of your credentials in it at all, and you let that be enough.

Why Lived Content Resonates with Premium Clients

[00:19:34] The second piece of content is your leadership and approach. It's where you talk through how you've led in your spaces or in your services or how you work with clients.

[00:20:04] Where I see this trip up is it goes too much into becoming a methodology post, putting a client result in there to make it like a client story. But ultimately, it's just talking through the steps you take clients through, and that falls flat because it doesn't end up really sharing your leadership. It hasn't got the thing that only you can say, and this is the magic.

[00:20:31] What I want you to think about with these types of posts is to think about it as lived content. Lived content is where you share from experience that only you can talk about. Let's look at it in terms of how a high-ticket buyer buys. Here's how they actually make decisions. They move from two places.

[00:20:55] The first is logic. They're going to be looking for the authority I just spoke about, the [00:21:00] evidence, your track record, and that gives them rationale to justify a decision they're already considering. Is this person credible? Yes. Okay, I feel this. The second place they move from strongly is identity.

[00:21:14] That sense of whether you are the right person, the right room, this is the right moment, and that second place of identity is where most of the purchasing decisions happen at a premium level. Even if a buyer says they are more logical, they will tend to have logic come first, and then the identity alignment is what moves them.

[00:21:35] That content that speaks to that second place is what's going to really pull them forward, and that is what I call lived content. It's the type that a lot of people don't write because it can't be templated, it can't be researched, it can't be replicated. It starts from a perspective that only you have, in a moment that only you've experienced, and that specificity is exactly what makes it land.

The Post That Showed Me Where I Was Playing Small

[00:22:00] A few weeks ago, I posted a piece of content first on Instagram that said, "Last week I was quoted in the press on L'Oréal's £4 billion move into luxury whilst most of the coaching industry was arguing over Alex Hormozi." There'd been something going on with Alex Hormozi around a Tony Robbins interview. I just saw it flash up, but it was all kind of coming into my feed, and I was like, "No, I just don't want to even pay attention to that."

[00:22:20] It was a bit of a tongue-in-cheek post, but it also was me coming through. I know that an edge for me as a business coach and mentor is that I work and live and breathe premium luxury businesses, and I don't just mean that I love to learn about it or that I read about it or research about it.

[00:22:53] I advise these businesses, and I am also an expert when somebody wants to get a perspective on it. I am the one somebody comes to to ask for that commentary. I realised when I looked at my content how I was really playing it small, and I was holding it back. What had gotten into my head was, "Well, this is not what people want to buy."

[00:23:15] I'm sharing this just to say that we all get in our heads at points, and it's like, okay, Rachel, but honestly, is this really what people want to buy, or is it that you're not making it? You're not working your essential content in a way that makes somebody want to buy. Somebody's not going to come and work with me necessarily because I advised on L'Oréal's takeover of Balenciaga and Gucci fragrances.

[00:23:41] They're not going to buy from me for that reason, but they sure as heck will be interested in why I'm getting approached to even talk about that, and the leadership and the thinking that comes along with that. So I was like, "Come on, Rachel, check yourself for a minute about where you are just being a little bit entitled about how you're not putting the work into your content right now."

Small Lived Moments That Call In Premium Clients

[00:24:00] This is an example, though, of where it doesn't need to be something like that. I've used examples from when I had a taxi driver who helped me when I was on the way to my event last November and helped me with all of the boxes. I'm so stubborn, and I always will be like, "I'm going to do it myself. I'm going to not get any help."

[00:24:21] But that was a really big deal for me to get all these people to help me with all the boxes, and I did a piece of content around how that was actually something I'm not used to doing and has been a way that I've softened into running my business, because I need to ask for help, and I need to be the person that's able to delegate with a team effectively.

[00:24:41] It doesn't need to be these really big authority-driven moments. The L'Oréal one is something very authority-driven for me, but it's also these moments of how am I with my children? What are my standards behind the scenes? How am I structuring my business to take time off? What am I like when I'm going to a big event and I'm running on empty and I need some help?

[00:25:02] What kind of leader am I in that situation? Or when clients leave or when they're going through a hard time. These are lived moments. They're lived experiences, and it's not about the hook or the explanation. It's not about a framework. It's about what this does. It places you in a specific moment that nobody else in your space can claim, and it draws a contrast without it being a performance that immediately signals what level you operate at, what your thinking's like. That is what I mean by lived content.

[00:25:35] It doesn't need to be convincing. It positions you, and it speaks to a premium buyer who reads it and thinks, "She is thinking in a way that I want to think. She's in rooms that I want to be in. She sees what I want to see." That recognition is a huge identity piece that moves people, and you cannot manufacture it.

[00:25:54] AI cannot manufacture it. You can only create the conditions for it by being willing to write from your life, from your lived experience, and not from a content strategy document. That's brave, and that's bold, and that's why most people don't write in this way, and it's not because they don't have interesting lives or perspectives.

[00:26:13] It's because they are still in that space where they want their content to be useful and relatable and broadly accessible. This is why lived content is so powerful when you are selling premium offers. When you're selling at a premium, you don't want to be any of those things. You don't want to be relatable to everybody.

[00:26:33] It's about being specific. It's about being grounded in a particular experience that will resonate deeply with exactly the right people and will repel the people that aren't right for you.

3 Questions to Ask Before You Post Any Piece of Content

[00:26:33] What I want to leave you with is something practical you can take from today's episode. Before you go and share any new content, post anything new, or share an email, I want you to ask yourself 3 questions which are going to reinforce the role of what your content is doing.

[00:27:05] Are you actually making somebody feel something? Are you building a brand through your content, not just creating a content bank? The first is, does this reinforce that I am the obvious choice for the client I actually want? Question number one. You have these in the show notes as well, so make sure that you go to the show notes to download these questions, so you don't need to worry about writing them down.

[00:27:28] Second, does this speak to the standard of the person I'm building this business for? Thirdly, does this content move someone closer to a decision, not by convincing them, but by activating something that was already there? If the answer to any of those is no, or even maybe, then just sit with the content before it goes out, because one piece of activating, decision-moving content is going to do more work than 10 checklist pieces of content.

[00:28:03] You are not trying to be seen by everyone. You are trying to be recognised by the right clients for you, and that recognition doesn't happen necessarily through volume. It happens through clarity. Yes, through consistency, but also through courage to say the specific thing that only you can say. That's the type of content that attract premium clients who already trust you before they've had a conversation with you.

[00:28:26] If this episode has sparked something for you, I would love you to subscribe to the podcast. This is how we're going to reach more women exactly like you who are building premium businesses, who want out-of-the-box thinking around their strategy and the identity and leadership that they are leading these businesses with.

[00:28:44] Come and check me out on socials. You have my links in the show notes. I always love to say hello. It's always me inside the DMs as well, and you can also find out about ways to work together in the show notes below. For now, this has been Rich Work. I'm Rachel Pearson, and I will see you in the next episode.

[00:28:59] Thanks for tuning in to Rich Work. I'd love it if you left a review. It helps other women to find us. In the meantime, follow me on Instagram, @rachelpearson.co, for a different take on premium positioning, one that's not about fitting a box. See you next week.