Just because you are a master of getting people on your site doesn’t mean they will want to buy from you or hire you. Customers (either B2C or B2B) want (and expect) more than just a “sales pitch” and One-way conversation of you telling them how great you are.

The post “One-way” Conversations With Your Customer Never Work…“Two-way” Give You Market Dominance first appeared on WOM10.

I would encourage you to think a bit broader and deeper when it comes to a discussion about Content Marketing. We have to remind ourselves that “Content Marketing” is actually just a “TOOL” with a Bigger Purpose if used correctly. Like many of the other traditional, digital, and social media “tools” already being used, this one can fit into the same category…unless you THINK DIFFERENTLY.

Start with the concept that generally, “Marketing ruins everything.” OK, I know this will get some people’s feathers ruffled and for others of you, you will say Amen, it is completely accurate. The point I want to make is that when marketing gets a hold of “a new thing (tool)” they tend to do two things to it…over use it and use it incorrectly. Content Marketing probably won’t be any different so it will follow the same path at some point in the future…unless you treat it differently.

If you think of Content Marketing as a “tool” you are missing the point and its value.

There are two concepts in marketing…“PUSH” and “PULL” marketing. All traditional marketing was designed as “Push”…shoving out lots of ads and other information to the audience. This worked amazingly well in the Industrial Revolution when there weren’t any other options for the consumer to hear about products and services. Ad agencies were born and raked in millions of dollars on the backs of this approach. It has essentially died when we left the Industrial Revolution behind and entered into the Internet/Digital Revolution.

Unfortunately, many people in marketing didn’t get this was happening right under their nose. Instead, they saw a whole bunch of new “tools” called Social Media show up that they thought were simply a new and improved way to “push” their information to the customer. They were wrong. The customer initially thought this was pretty cool and welcomed the new way of getting information…then marketing ruined it. They started shoving everything they could…faster and in more volume…than they ever had before. They thought this would work…it didn’t. It was still “push marketing” only using a different tool called Social Media instead of direct mail, TV, radio, magazines, billboards, and a host of other traditional media tools.

The audience grew up and learned how they wanted to receive information and it wasn’t by having billions of pieces thrown at them through every channel they were on…they learned where the “off switch” was and turned off this barrage of messaging. The numbers have been declining steadily and marketing is wondering why their audience doesn’t want to see their valuable ads and self-promotional information. They really never did…

Enter Content Marketing as a new way to “push” more information to the customer. It is new because it actually involves content…something of substance (written, video, podcast, etc.). The consumer is asking for this…they want to learn more but invest less time in consuming the information. Once again we are seeing most marketing groups seeing the next “Promised Land” and as such are shoving more and more “content” to their audience. The right concept…wrong execution.

The content isn’t RELEVANT, HELPFUL, or TIMELY for their audience…it is just once again voluminous amounts of information…much of what we can already get by doing a search. This is where marketing stands to “ruin content marketing” as they have done for so many other forms of media.

But there is a solution…“PULL MARKETING.”

Pull Marketing is all about the “customer WANTING the information you have because it is relevant, helpful, and timely and so they PULL it to them…when they want and how they want.” This is an entirely different way to think about marketing. It is marketing the customer actually wants in their life because it is VALUABLE to them.

CONTENT MARKETING is an absolutely amazing way to create an effective PULL MARKETING strategy and execute it in a way the customer will love. Now companies have the opportunity to truly understand their customers wants and needs and anticipate what will be helpful and relevant in their lives and then give this to them in a timely manner. When marketing adopts this mindset, they have crossed over from the old traditional “push” process and adopted a completely different strategy of “pull” into their strategy.

THIS WORKS…AND THE CUSTOMER IS BEGGING YOU FOR IT.

Content Marketing can be the next PROMISED LAND for your marketing and company efforts…if you adopt a “PULL MARKETING” strategy and erase the “PUSH” strategy from your brain. Content marketing is absolutely something that your audience will love and reward you for when developed with a PULL MARKETING STRATEGY. It is what they want…marketing just has to understand this and not screw it up again.

What will you do as the leader of your company…the business owner and CEO? Will you allow your marketing to be done the old traditional way and lose the immense value in front of you that you could benefit from by using a “PULL CONTENT MARKETING STRATEGY?” I believe the leadership team needs to direct the marketing function to be more OBSESSED with their CUSTOMERS and give them the ability to create a powerful PULL MARKETING strategy…using CONTENT as the core. Today leadership teams need to be more involved in marketing than ever before.

Today it can help to significantly solidify your brand, create true differentiation, and endear your customers to you in ways your competition can’t…this is where marketing and customer obsession can become your true competitive advantage. When this happens, Content Marketing can become the new PROMISED LAND for your company…and your customers will reward you both with business and much more WORD-OF-MOUTH…and we all know this is the ultimate success for marketing and the organization  overall.

Will you adopt and drive a PUSH or PULL strategy as a leader of your company? This is an excellent time and opportunity to put your company in front of the pack of competitors.

The post Is “Content Marketing” the new “Promised Land”? first appeared on WOM10.

Around the turn of the Century we left the Industrial Revolution behind us…some are sad and many are happy. We welcomed in the Internet Revolution with open arms and were anxious to see how the Internet could change our lives for the better. It has in many ways…but it has also brought its own set of issues with it.

The Industrial Revolution was awesome for what it stood for…mass production, innovation in technology relating to computing, new companies entering markets to give us more choices and a whole host of other really great aspects. It also, unfortunately, gave us marketing agencies and firms that adopted the concept of “broadcast messaging, campaigns, mass media, radio advertising, TV advertising, and lots of printed materials.”

These agencies were firmly in control of marketing and tight control over what we were “allowed” to hear/see and what we weren’t. We also had news sources that told us what they felt was important for us to know and we had to go along with it since there wasn’t any other means to validate it unless you were physically there. We, the consumer, were at the mercy of these giants and the messages they wanted us to receive.

Fortunately, the Industrial Revolution has died and this kind of “spray and pray” media that made ad agency executives incredibly rich has died (or is rapidly dying) with it. Social Media, a key component of the Internet Revolution, has essentially taken control away from these dominant groups and given it back to you and me…the customer.

The customer is now firmly in control today and there is no sign we are ever going to give it back. This is a good thing…and a bad thing for companies today.

The good part is we now have “vocal and engaged” customers who have the microphone in their hand and can tell anyone they want what they think. They can share insights to help others learn about your product/service and their experience working with you. This is information we were never exposed to when the agency behemoths had control. We have been “information liberated” with the birth of the Internet Revolution.

The other good part is now we can find anything we ever wanted to know about with just a few clicks on our computers or mobile phones. We have more knowledge at our fingertips than we could ever possibly use in 10 lifetimes. And if we want to purchase something, we can find 50 places (or more) that sell whatever it is we are looking for and even deliver it to us with the same few clicks…no more need to get in the car and drive all over town looking for something. We, as consumers, are empowered and we love it.

The bad part is the noise. Unfortunately, now that we are now in control, have access to all kinds of information and products, and can make choices from hundreds of options, companies are still behaving like they are still living in the Industrial Revolution. Now, more than ever, they continue to blast us with their information (pushing to us). We don’t just see the advertisement in the Sunday paper, we get 50 e-mails telling us to buy it from them because we happened to search on the item and now everyone wants to sell it to us. “Spray and Pray” is still alive and a key strategy for far too many companies today. For them, it didn’t die with the death of the Industrial Revolution.

Companies who still behave (including marketing) as if we are still in the Industrial Revolution are getting no benefit from Social Media. By using the same old techniques the agencies used decades ago…blasting us with enough ads and propaganda in hopes that you will remember them and buy their product or service…they are actually doing the opposite of turning off their audience. They must not have gotten the memo that the Industrial Revolution is over…the customer is in control and can tell us what they want and don’t want. We don’t want to be told what to buy…we can figure this out nicely for ourselves in the Internet Revolution.

The really sad part of this story is that companies use Social Media as simply another “delivery vehicle” for their Industrial Revolution approach. They believe that blasting us with their messages far more frequently and on more channels than they could have ever afforded to do when they paid their agency geeks millions of dollars is still working…it’s NOT. Social Media is FREE…all channels and frequency of messaging is without cost…just the personnel needed to send the blasts. The same “broadcasting, campaigns, advertisements, and propaganda” are still being sent out…only through Social Media channels instead of the radio, TV, newspaper, direct mail, and other traditional sources. It’s not working…

Companies that choose to still live in the Industrial Revolution are finding FAILURE in their use of Social Media. It’s failing because Social Media doesn’t work for companies who are acting the way they did when they were in the Industrial Revolution. It is a tool designed for the Internet Revolution.

When companies use Social Media to HELP THEIR CUSTOMERS improve their lives or business, the content is valued. When they share stories that benefit their customers and customers offer additional comments to add further insight, this is of value…and how Social Media can be a powerful tool for a company. Finding ways to help your customers save more time by interacting with your Social Media and digital channels is of great value. These are the OPPORTUNITIES for companies that live in the Internet Revolution and have left the Industrial Revolution behind.

Which Revolution is your company participating in today? When you analyze your marketing activities, are you communicating like you still live in the Industrial Revolution by “spraying and praying” or are you “helping” your customers improve their lives? Do the analysis…see which Revolution you are actually living in today and you might have just solved the mystery as to why Social Media isn’t working as well as you were hoping. It works when you help…not when you sell.

The post Social Media doesn’t work in the Industrial Revolution first appeared on WOM10.

Information is FREE…it’s available everywhere…there is a massive amount of it on every topic in the world available at your fingertips. So why do you need me…or why do I need you?

Much of the business world today still doesn’t really believe the above statements…even though they say they do…they don’t. If they truly believed it, why would they continue to produce more of it? Eric Schmidt of Google did a study several years ago where he showed the amount of information we now produced in 48 hours is equal to all the information produced (written, video, etc.) from the beginning time up to the year 2003…every 48 hours this amount of information is created!! With this amount of “content” flooding the markets, why do companies (and individuals) still think we need to produce more than this incredible amount of information we already have? We don’t…but there is something we need more of…YOU!

In reality, we do need new information created because there are new technologies and new innovations coming out every day…this is not the information I am talking about. I am talking about the “re-packaging” of existing information and publishing it again, and again, and again. Do we really need to see more information about the same products and services…they haven’t changed, only the marketers have dressed up the information to make it look like it is new information…it’s not. The product is the product as the service is the service. We get it…and we don’t need it repeated 50 times.

But what we do need more of is YOU…your INSIGHTS…your PERSPECTIVE…your PERSONALITY…your EXPERIENCE with the products and services that will help us make better use of these and help all of us SAVE MORE TIME. This is what we need more of…but for some reason it is hard to get…it’s just easier for marketing to “spin the information” in different ways and tell us it’s different.

I am an active blogger…averaging 5 days per week…plus posting on places like LinkedIn, Medium, and other sources…including writing articles and of course giving lots of speeches. With that volume of content going out, do you think for a minute I could take basic information and spin it 30 different ways every month…365 days of the year? Not a chance…everyone would not only stop reading but they would disconnect from everything I ever published if I trashed them this frequently with the same information over and over and over again. This is NOT what your audience wants from you…

What they get from me are my INSIGHTS…my PERSPECTIVES…my EXPERIENCES…my VIEWPOINTS on the information. It’s what they constantly tell me they APPRECIATE hearing…different ways to look at something that they can identify and connect with.

THIS IS WHAT YOU HAVE…ARE YOU WILLING TO SHARE IT?

When I help build a “content and communication strategy” for a CEO, it is never about how can we get more information to dump on their trusted audience. If we did, they would all call up the CEO and ask them what the heck they were wasting their time with all this information. But when we take this information and the CEO puts their experiences and insights behind it…IT BECOMES INCREDIBLY VALUABLE. Now everyone wants to read it and learn from it and use it…this is the gold.

And this works the same way for your company as well as the CEO…your company is full of amazing insights and perspectives on a plethora of information available in the market today. You have more information than your audience could ever absorb. You have built your company on this kind of information and you know it better than anyone…but how do we know that? How do we know how incredibly bright and awesome you and your people are unless you share it with us? If you don’t, you’re just another commodity with the same information all your competitors have as well.

WE DON’T NEED MORE INFORMATION…WE NEED MORE INSIGHTS THAT CAN HELP US BE BETTER AT WHAT WE DO AND IMPROVE OUR LIVES!

This is something not everyone can get or has…only you! This is why we don’t need more of the same information spun around 50 different ways…WE NEED YOU! You are the “secret sauce” that gives us value and helps change the way we do business or how we can improve our lives. YOU are the one that can bridge the gap between the mass of information. YOU are the one that can help us get on a straight path instead of wandering around trying to figure it out.

YOU ARE THE ONE THAT CAN SAVE ME TIME AND GIVE ME SOME TIME BACK TO DO WHAT I DO BEST!!

Are YOU up for the challenge? Your customers and potential customers are begging companies for this every day…but they keep spinning the same old marketing hype in 50 different ways and shoving it out to them and calling it good. But for those that see how powerful this is…you will stand apart…stand above all the noise being put out from your competitors. This is your OPPORTUNITY at DIFFERENTIATION. This is your chance to show your CUSTOMERS how much you OBSESS over them. Are you up for the challenge? The market is wide open for you if you are…because most others won’t ever take the chance and capture the opportunity. Will you???

The post There’s NOTHING you can’t get…EXCEPT ME first appeared on WOM10.

With the advent of the Digital (or Internet or whatever you want to call it) Revolution we are now fully immersed in, people have become ravenous consumers of content (information, how-to’s, self-help, ways to improve my business, and a ton of other things). We. Can’t. Get. Enough!

But we have also become very discretionary about this content…if it’s crap, it’s crap and we throw it away in seconds. We don’t invest any time in it and we have so much to choose from we move on. Think of it like the buffet line you are looking down at one of the casinos in Las Vegas. There is more food variety of food than you could ever consume. You skip what you know you don’t care about…maybe take a sample of something you don’t know about (if it’s good you go back for more, if it’s bad you didn’t waste a lot of space on your plate)…and there’s the food you really want a lot of because you know you like it.

THIS IS YOUR AUDIENCE (CUSTOMERS) TODAY…constantly going through the buffet line looking for things that they can “consume” relating to content with one primary purpose…HOW CAN THIS HELP ME IN MY LIFE.

Let’s define this “to help them in life” a bit more. This can be personal improvement, recreational activities, humor, analytics, research, business ideas, branding, and anything else that will help them in their life. Our lives aren’t one channel…they are personal, friends, work, improvement, and of course entertainment.

Here’s the SECRET TO SUCCESS with your current and future audience…IF YOU DON’T STRETCH THEM, THEY DON’T NEED YOU!!

Think about it in your own world. With a constant stream of new and innovative ideas, thinking, ways to do things, ways to solve problems, how to make your life easier, more fun, more rewarding (financially and personally), better work environment, and many others…why would you want old, stale information. Worse yet…why would you ever want an advertisement…you can find anything you want with a few clicks.

Your audience (employees, customers, partners, etc.) are all going through the buffet line…constantly. The question to ask yourself as a leader is this…”Are they picking me/us when they go through the line as a main helping, or taking a sample, or skipping us entirely?” With so many options coming on the buffet line daily, how can you remain the “food of choice” for your audience?

The answer is actually much more straightforward and simple than you think…HELP THEM MAKE THEIR LIFE BETTER WITH EVERYTHING YOU DO. Let me repeat this just in case you missed it…HELP THEM ABSOLUTELY, POSITIVELY HAVE A BETTER LIFE EVERY TIME THEY INTERACT WITH YOU!

My only CAUTION…you can’t help everyone…pick the ones you know (and want) to help and go all out on helping them. Let the ones you can’t (or don’t want to) help get their help from someone else. In terms of customers, find the segment(s) (and personas) you want to have a relationship with and help them. Design your helping for them. Learn what would help them…then build it into your business. If you don’t know, ask…they are dying to tell you.

Here’s an example…I love seafood. If I was the target audience, I would seek out all the buffet’s that had lost of great fresh seafood (nothing deep fried…ever). When I found the best buffet with my favorite seafood items, I would go back…again and again and again. And I would bring my friends…who also happen to love seafood…and they would bring their friends…and they would bring their friends. This is the goal of any business…getting your customers to do the marketing for you…bringing you more of the right audience. And your seafood buffet won’t attract those that don’t like seafood…that’s OK, someone else’s buffet will attract them (go wild over the customers you want and serve them exactly what they need…content…and they tell others). With social media, this translates to thousands of the ideal customers.

Translated…DESIRABLE CUSTOMERS SEND MORE DESIRABLE CUSTOMERS TO YOU!

Once you know what they want…go nuts…give them more of it than anyone else…CROWD YOUR COMPETITORS OUT OF THE BUFFET LINE. When you do this, you stretch their thinking…and they will remember it…they will thank you for it…and they will TELL OTHERS about you. In fact, they will go out of their way to tell others because you have been so helpful to them…they want others to know as well. And the best part…people hang out with people like themselves…so they send more people like them to you. This is why it’s critically important to know what audience you want to help…they send others to the buffet line like themselves.

Load up your buffet line…figure out (create a strategy and plan) the selection of items (content) your most desirable audiences (your ideal customers) want to see more of…and give it to them…lots of it. This is what they are dying to see in the buffet line (from you and your business). Capture that space on the line and don’t give it up…because your competitors are trying to take it from you every day.

The post The “Buffet Line” will Make or Break You Today first appeared on WOM10.

I was in a meeting with a business owner the other day and she said, “We communicate with our customers on a regular basis through our social media networks but what frustrates me is that they aren’t responding to anything we talk about.” She’s not alone…this is, unfortunately, the situation with most organizations face today. They think they are “communicating” when in reality they are simply “messaging.”

Here’s a simple rule I personally use to help clients keep this straight.

Messaging is a one way street. Communication is a two way street.

If you can remember this simple differentiation it will help you realize which one is happening with your customers and at what point in time.

I get pretty passionate about this topic because I focus so heavily on helping others create word-of-mouth…which is pretty tough if you are primarily (or only) messaging and not communicating. It’s unrealistic to expect much word-of-mouth if all you do is message your audience…unless you are trying to be just a commodity and act as the cheap deal of the day and your value is price. Word of mouth takes communication…the two way street to work.

Think of the last party or group gathering you attended. There were small groups of people huddled around talking with each other. Some groups had one dominant talker…the one that dominates 80-90% of the conversation. This is MESSAGING. But other groups seem to have a robust conversation going where everyone is participating and sharing their thoughts, opinions, and perspectives. This is COMMUNICATION.

There is nothing wrong with messaging…in fact most communication starts with messaging to build some awareness. However, based on what you are messaging usually determines whether you create communication with your messages or you just keep messaging.

For example, a common practice in the market today is for promoting your company is to continually message your audience. Unfortunately, like the party you just attended, this means most of your audience won’t communicate back with you if you continually occupy the airwaves with your messages.

However, there is one sure fire way your messaging can work in your favor to create communication with your audience. If your messaging is always about helping them in some way they perceive will help them or their business, they will want to communicate back with feedback, questions, or comments and are much more likely to share this valuable content with others. This is where you move from the one-way street to the two-way street…you are now using messaging to communicate.

I suggest every organization do an audit and determine how much of what you are doing is messaging and how much is communication. You might actually find the answer to why no one is engaging with you and why there isn’t much word of mouth going on. It’s a helpful exercise and I usually find it significantly helps companies better understand why things aren’t happening the way they want in the area of communications.

And if you ever want some guidelines on how to go about figuring this out just shoot me an email and I would be happy to get you started in the right direction…my treat! Because selfishly…I really don’t need a bunch more messaging…I want more communication…just like you!

The post Are you “Messaging” or “Communicating”…they aren’t the same first appeared on WOM10.

Blogging is dead…a phrase that has been going around for as long as I can remember since I started my business over 8 years ago…and it’s still going around.

Lots of reasons people think blogging is dead…here are just a few…

• Takes too much time to read
• Little value in some of the “pimping” blogs (those selling products disguised as being helpful)
• Self-centered ranting with little value
• Extreme views trying to gain attention but again, no value
• Things move too fast to spend reading blogs
• Lots of other social channels to get information quickly

You might have some of your own or have heard others from your colleagues. And I don’t disagree with most of these items on the list above…

But three key questions keep coming back to haunt us…

1. Where does our audience go to get “the story” in more than 140 characters or short bursts?
2. How does our audience “get to know us” and what we are passionate about?
3. Where can our audience get our deepest insights and knowledge that can truly “help” them?

Content Marketing…the new phrase for today that is designed to help answer these three questions. It is hot and it is coming at us like a Tsunami from every direction. Why? Because all the other crap being thrown at us by companies on all the social channels isn’t working…it isn’t getting our attention…it isn’t causing us to take action…it isn’t helping and it isn’t working.

In reality…content marketing is “blogging reincarnated”…blogging with a different name associated with it…a new name on the same solution. The same problem exists today that has been around from the beginning time when it comes to marketing…companies trying to connect with their audience to sell them stuff. We thought social media would be the holy grail…it isn’t and won’t be for the way most companies use it. But it works famously well for those using it the way it was designed. What’s missing?

VALUABLE, HELPFUL, INSIGHTFUL, THOUGHT PROVOKING CONTENT…the stuff those who are connected to their audiences write in their blogs.

You don’t have to call it Blogging…you can call it Content Marketing if you feel better about it. But in the end, it is blogging reincarnated with a different name and different package attempting to do the same thing blogging was originally designed to do…HELP YOU DO BETTER AT WHAT YOU DO BEST!

The post Blogging “Reincarnated” first appeared on WOM10.

We have lost sight of what blogging was really about and its true purpose. We have drifted into a space, like just about all the other social channels, where it is more about “selling” than anything else. We do it because it is our chance to reach an audience that is ignoring us on our other channels or ignoring our marketing materials. Marketers have once again found a very worthwhile channel and ruined it by turning it into some kind of promotion or advertisement.

When you use a tool strictly for promotion, it is like pushing a rock up a hill. It is drudgery. It is a lot of work. It is painful. It generally has a short lifespan before you quit. This happens to most blogs as well.

But there is massive hope in this area…a way to see sunshine and make this not a dreaded activity but one you actually look forward to…a way to make your blog incredibly successful. It is a way your readers will be anxious to see your latest writing and something they will talk about, engage, and share. This is where blogging should live and how it can be not only successful but fun and enjoyable.

The word to make this all happen…HELPING!!

If you write with the intent of how can you HELP your audience every time your fingers hit the keyboard, you will find far more enjoyment out of the activity. And your audience will find much more value and enjoyment out of reading what you choose to share. Think of yourself as a “thought leader” and want to share all your learnings and experiences with others that are interested in your area. You have insights to share that others can learn from or enjoy.

This is where blogging thrives and becomes a labor of love, not simply labor. When you know you are helping your audience learn, grow, improve, or simply have a better outlook after reading your blog, you win…you will be a successful blogger. You become that “other blogger” that is actually read and enjoyed instead of the one that is avoided and deleted. In simple marketing terms, you have turned into a “Pull Marketer” instead of a “Push Marketer” and your audience will reward you by reading, connecting, engaging, sharing, and spreading word-of-mouth about you.

This is a much better place to live and your blog will live on for a very long time…because it is helping your audience grow. Wouldn’t it be a great if every blog was like this instead of trying to market to you or sell you stuff? I know I would read a lot more if this was the case. Now I spend more time deleting blog posts than reading them. I select the ones that help…delete the ones that market…and unsubscribe from those trying to sell stuff. I don’t believe you are any different…

The post How to SUCCEED at Blogging…One Word first appeared on WOM10.

If you do a lot of reading on the internet you have definitely come across these types of phrases more than once…and definitely more today than before. The common way to try and coerce you into reading their supposedly awesome content is to demand something from you…

• Please Login to continue reading
• Please sign up to read the rest
• Please subscribe to read more
• And a host of other such demands…

Information today is free. You can find it somewhere on the internet. And your audience knows it.

Why not start by giving them the information instead of making them sign up for the information. Then, and only then, if the information is truly incredible, valuable, helpful, they will reward you by signing up so they can get more of it.

There’s the problem…most of the information isn’t incredible, valuable, or helpful…most of it is designed around trying to still sell you something. It was designed to sell, not help. If it was designed to completely help your audience you wouldn’t have to ask for them to subscribe…they would be asking you how to subscribe so they can get more of this great content.

But marketers are afraid of this…because they know the content is designed to sell, not help. It is designed to meet the “number of subscriber” metrics.

What if there was a new metric in marketing…“number of people begging you for more valuable content” metric? Wouldn’t that be a better indicator of both the quality of your content and the interest of your audience in your content?

Reverse engineer the subscription issue…let your customers be the driver based on the exceptional and unparalleled content you are providing them that helps them in whatever they are doing. Be THAT person or company. Then watch your subscription numbers increase…and increase with the right people who are passionately interested in how you can help, not those that give you an email address (most have multiple emails today) they can just use to see if your content is worth reading…they will unsubscribe anyway.

Start with AWESOME, HELPUL, INSIGHTFUL, THOUGHT PROVOKING, and STIMULATING content…then watch your audience ask for more…this is what’s truly valuable. Over and over it has been proven…if you give 100 people this type of content v. 1000 people content they don’t care about…you get talked about, shared, and word-of-mouth is generated. Give that formula a try…you will love the results and your audience will love to tell others. And you won’t be another annoying company asking to subscribe, login or sign up!

The post Please Login or Subscribe or Sign Up to Continue…NO.ONE.WANTS. first appeared on WOM10.

“Spend your time reading someone’s self-promotion material that tells you all the reasons you should work with, hire them, or follow them but doesn’t give you any secrets to how you personally can be successful.”

I don’t think I have ever seen that one listed on anyone’s Top 10 list.

Yet when I read a lot of people’s posts on their blog or LinkedIn or twitter that’s exactly what I get…self-promotion and no real value. I’m sure you get the same thing…it is pretty common.

If you want to stand out with your audience and be the FIRST ONE they want to read in the precious time they have to learn…Be Helpful…Be Relevant…don’t self-promote because if they like what you are talking about I’m pretty sure they can track you down and engage with you.

There are lots of ways you can make this work for you…but let’s start with just two critical ingredients.

1. Know your audience…not their demographic data, but their “helpful data.” This means, figure out how to segment your audience based on what type of content would be most helpful to them. For example, if you have expertise/knowledge in creating a culture of innovation, find those in your audience that might be struggling with this or have somehow said they could use this then put them in a group of “innovation cultures.” As I share with people in my speeches…“you have to get small to get big.” There is also a great quote from Seth Godin on this topic I blogged about a few years back that might be helpful.
2. Write to change their lives…if you what you are wanting them to read won’t have a positive impact on changing their lives after they read it…think twice about writing it. I know, it sounds a bit monumental but it doesn’t have to be if you think in small bites. As the saying goes, “the only way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time.” Think this way with regard to your content. You can’t help them change their business with one blog post, but you might with 25 or 50 or more. Give them something to ponder, to wonder about, or question…something that causes them to pause and think about. If you get there…they want to read more…because it’s helpful.

The bottom line…if you start thinking this way when you share all your wisdom, knowledge, and insights, you just might get to BE FIRST on their reading list during their most coveted time to learn. How would that change your business? I would venture to say a bit more than one more self-promotion post on how wonderful it is to work with you. Give it a shot…I would love to hear your feedback on how it helps change the conversation with your desired audience.

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