What is the Kingdom Law of Sowing and Reaping?
The Kingdom Law of Sowing and Reaping is at the core of every successful Content Marketing strategy.
I like this definition provided by a favorite instructor:
The governing principles with our vertical relationship with God are grace and faith [our rest in God].
The governing principles of our horizontal relationship with the world is Sowing and Reaping [our work in the world].
– Rick McFarland, Charis Bible College
What are you sowing into the lives of your audience?
Now He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness;
2 Corinthians 9:10 NASB
The passage in Corinthians is often taught in the context of finances, but in the context of Content Marketing, I suggest that we are primarily sowing into relationships. We are sowing into the lives of our readers, our customers, our financial partners.
Many blessings will not come until you sow. We know how this works in gardening, but have you applied this principle to your ministry or business?
When Isaac planted his crops that year, he harvested a hundred times more grain than he planted, for the LORD blessed him.
Genesis 26:12 NLT
How do we do this? Monica Ramos at Online Business Success Academy provides the following acronym to define the types of content we can create: F.R.E.E.
- Fun
- Relevant
- Entertaining
- Educational
All content that we post to our website and our social channels should fit into one of those categories.
What is the harvest we hope to reap by sowing into the lives of our readers?
Trust. Authority. Influence.
One way to build trust when your business is virtual is to publish consistently useful content on a reliable schedule. In other words, show up and be helpful, week after week.
– Pamela Wilson
As believers, it is our responsibility to expand the Kingdom of God. Greg Mohr says it this way, “The finished work of Christ on the cross does not exempt us from the unfinished work of the church in the world.”
Reaching people online is one of the most effective ways to expand your ministry or business today. But in order for people to listen to what you have to say, you need to have authority and influence.
You’ll begin to earn those through effective content marketing.
What is content marketing?
Content marketing can be defined many ways and I’ll provide a few of them here.
The first definition comes from Copyblogger.com:
Content marketing means creating and sharing valuable content to attract and convert prospects into customers, and customers into repeat buyers. The type of content you share is closely related to what you sell; in other words, you’re educating people so that they know, like, and trust you enough to do business with you.
– Copyblogger.com
I also like Pamela Wilson’s definition from her book, Master Content Marketing:
Instead of pushing messages out at unsuspecting people, content marketing offers valuable information that people are actively searching for.
We learn another key factor from Mark W. Schaefer in his book, The Content Code:
Business results on the web don’t come from content; they come from content that moves.
In other words, the content must be shareable!
Let’s focus on these three characteristics of effective Content Marketing:
- consistent
- searchable
- shareable
1. Consistent publication
For someone just getting started, it can be very overwhelming to think about publishing consistently. Do you think this means 2 Facebook posts, 4 Twitter posts, a daily blog, and a weekly YouTube video? For most of you, the answer is a resounding “NO!”.
If you are just getting started and don’t have a marketing team to help you out, start with the basics. Set a goal of one blog post per week and one email per week. That’s it.
Once you can do that consistently, you will start to re-purpose your content onto social media channels – one at a time.
It is critical that you create blog posts using SEO techniques so your readers can find you via search engines.
2. Searchable content
The topic of writing SEO-friendly blog posts is enormous, but again, let’s just start with the basics.
- Write your blog posts using vocabulary that your reader uses.
- Provide solutions to problems he experiences.
- Always picture your reader as you write. Your goal is to serve him, not try to show how smart you are.
But what if you love creating videos and/or podcasts and don’t like to write? You will create hybrid posts.
Stand-alone videos are not searchable. Neither are podcasts.
But you can easily use a video as the core content for a blog post. You can either include the transcribed text, a summary, or a timestamped outline for your video to provide text that is searchable.
Types of searchable content
- Blog post articles on topics relevant to your audience
- Videos with accompanying article, summary or outline [Vimeo has a great video blog]
- Podcast with accompanying article, summary or show notes [SocialMediaExaminer does this very well]
3. Make it shareable – i.e. Re-purpose your content
Once you have your blog post written, you will re-purpose your content to be consumed on various social media channels. Each channel has unique specifications for optimal sharing.
You will create images formatted for the desired channel(s) and write the corresponding posts. YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter each recommend different image sizes for their platform.
Please note: if you are just getting started, pick ONE social media channel to start. Do not try to publish everywhere at once!
If you have a YouTube channel, terrific! Keep posting videos to YouTube.
If you have an active Facebook page, keep posting to Facebook.
But don’t forget to publish your best content on a blog on your website also!
Your primary goals for social media posts are to create awareness for your brand and to attract visitors to your website.
If you provide useful interesting information to your reader, you can then invite them to subscribe to your blog. This is your key to Google-proofing your website.
Google-proof your website
Once a reader trusts you enough to subscribe to your blog via email, the social media giants cannot prevent you from communicating with him.
This must become the primary method for growing your ministry or business if you are not able to use Google retargeting.
Read that again. This is crucial for anyone whose web presence is focused on the Bible or Christianity.
We know that the rules and search algorithms will be constantly changing. A strong website is your best defense against policies that are skewed against you.
By cultivating a loyal list of subscribers, you are building a foundation that cannot be shaken.
If you treat your subscribers with respect and honesty, they will help you grow your ministry or business.
Next week, I’ll provide you with some guidelines for good email practices.
What can you do today?
- Register for our upcoming free video workshop at ExpandYourReach.online.
Each segment of the workshop will demonstrate one of the three key principles of Kingdom Marketing. - Subscribe to this blog! Do it now so you don’t miss any future posts.
And finally – you are blessed to be a blessing. You can further the Kingdom by reaching people online. Stay tuned and we’ll show you how.
