Today's post is from Ian Brodie. Ian Brodie works with consultants, coaches and other professionals to help them get more clients. He's known for his expertise in online marketing and was recently named as one of the "Top 50 Global Thought Leaders in Marketing and Sales" by Top Sales World magazine, and one of the "Top 25 Global Influencers in Sales and Sales and Sales Management" by OpenView Labs.

His #1 Amazon bestselling book, Email Persuasion, teaches business owners and professionals how to captivate and engage their audience, build authority and generate more sales with email marketing. For a free copy of his "21 Word Email That Can Get You More Clients" click here.

 As a consultant, you know that your clients hire you for one primary reason. You get the job if and only if they're confident that you'll be able to help them get the results they're looking for.

But behind that simple phrase lies a complex decision. You may tell them how good you are at what you do and promise to hit their deadlines and deliver the benefits: but you would say that, wouldn't you?

You might have a raft of testimonials from happy clients. But so does every other consultant they speak to. How can they be sure this will work for them?

You might even throw in a guarantee. But getting their money back isn't much consolation when a mission-critical project goes down the pan.

At the end of the day, the critical factor in whether a potential client hires you or someone else is their level of confidence in whether you'll get the job done and get them the results they need. And that's where content marketing can be so powerful.

We all know the power of content marketing for lead generation: attracting potential clients in the first place. Share great content that provides valuable information in the areas where your potential clients have pressing problems, big goals or burning ambitions and you'll get their attention.

But content can be even more powerful when it comes to nurturing relationships.

• Share your experiences, your knowledge, your insights and your ideas on a regular basis by email, blog posts, podcasts or whatever media works for you, and you'll build credibility and trust that you know what you're talking about.
• Share ideas that they can implement and get results from before they're even thinking about hiring someone and your reputation will be rock solid when that time comes around.
• Give valuable insights in the form of case studies and client stories and they'll get the message that you do great work for people just like them without you having to ram a sales pitch down their throats.
• Share content that changes their thinking and gets them to look at their problems in a different way and you'll be the only person "on their wavelength" when it comes to hiring time.

So great content isn't just about lead generation - it's also your key to building credibility and trust and getting yourself into pole position to win a client. It's all about building the confidence they need to be ready to hire you.

Do you know what your ideal clients need to "know and feel" to be ready to hire you? Do you have a plan in place to "prove" those factors through content marketing?

If not, it's time to get your thinking caps on because content marketing is so much more than just lead generation.