Writing Content is Not a Job for Sissies

Ken Rosen wrote a terrific guest post over on Mark Schaefer's blog, {grow} - Five questions to help you choose your target market. It's thought provoking in several ways. If you haven't read it, make sure to take a spin through. It's seriously good.

The gist of it is that building a foundation is important and not to be taken lightly.

There are two things Ken said that I'd like to expand upon here.

"You have to convert someone who needs your product into someone who buys your product."

Although he meant this in a target market kind of way, I immediately think about marketing content - what else? - and how this shift is the main job a B2B marketer's content needs to help facilitate.

We'll get to more of that later, but Ken's post also provides the answer to how this shift is accomplished when he's talking about why and how he can get decision makers to speak with him for an hour at a time.

"Because they got to talk about their world and what matters to them."

If you change the word "talk" to "think" - you'd be pretty close to defining the effect that good marketing content can create.

To get to great content, leave it as is and consider how to create content that actually inspires them to "talk" about it with their peers and colleagues because the ideas are so in tune with their world that they can't help themselves.

This is actually a two-part bang for your content buck. First they think about the ideas you're sharing with them, then they talk about them. And that's what sets things in motion to shift from need to buy.

So, how do you get this to happen?

Here's one way to think about it.

Write about your target audience - not to them.

Sounds counterintuitive, doesn't it?

Here's how this mindset will help. In order to write about someone, you have to:

• Know them really well.
• Learn what interests them and what they hope to achieve.
• Discover what obstacles are in the way.
• Find out what motivates them to take action.
• Gain common ground.

If, instead, you write to your audience, you're tempted to:

• Talk about you, your company and products.
• Try to convince them you're the best thing since sliced bread.
• Miss the mark by relying on assumptions.
• Slide in that sales pitch, no matter how much you think you're not doing that.

This is because you're being you and saying what you think is important without realizing that it's grounded in your world, not theirs. You've still got in the back of your mind what's important to you, not what matters to them.

Create a Cheat Sheet

When I create content for specific target audiences, I make myself a cheat sheet. It includes things like what matters to them in relation to the topic and what factors in their lives/companies impact the thing that matters, along with a few other things like what I want them to do next. If I have that next action in mind, I can tease it into the content so that when I get to the end, I'm not just tacking on a link to contact the company for a demo or some other action that comes out of left field.

I keep my cheat sheet open in the background on my computer and refer to it often while I'm writing to make sure I'm on track. Sometimes when I don't do this often enough, I find that I've veered off course and have to delete a bunch of work and restart. This usually happens when I start writing to them instead of about them.

To write great content requires a lot of attention, effort, stamina, creativity, research and tools - to mention just a few things. It's definitely not a job for sissies.

Comments

[Holly]

Let me start by saying, I think the core information in your article is great advice.

But: Sissies? I don't mean to be all semantic, but did you really mean that? There is the primary "effeminate male" definition, and then there is the secondary "coward" definition. Neither of these definitions are antonyms to the attributes that you describe as needed to create good content.

In writing a content-focused article, shouldn't you choose your words more carefully than an article on any other topic? I was genuinely surprised by the inaccuracy of your word choice (in the title even). I don't want to overemphasize this issue, but honestly, the odd word choice stole a bit of credibility from your article for me.

[Ian Goldsmid]

super article Ardath. Love your list of books - ugh I've just bought three more I didn't previously know about - I need 48 hour days or learn to live live by Micro-Script rules :-)

Ian

[Dianne White]

In short, study their demographics and psychographics to be able to turn them into real customers, and not just a group of target market. In every marketing plan there is always at least 2-3 target market, 'coz you really can't stick into one TM in the competition. Most of the times you need to have alternatives 'coz, these alternatives are sometimes the good patrons of your service or product.

[Ardath Albee]

Hi Holly,

I didn't mean "sissies" literally - it was a fun play on words - at least for me. I'd also considered using Wimps - but that probably would have offended you, as well. If the title detracts from the value you found in the article, I'm afraid I'll have to live with that. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

Hi Ian,

Thanks for stopping by. I'm with you on the 48-hour days! Micro-script Rules is a great book - you'll like it :)

Hi Dianne,

Thanks for your comment. I agree that there is usually more than one target market we need to pay attention to.

[Candyce Edelen]

Hi Ardath,
Great post. You're right - great content MUST be grounded in the reader's world. A lot of marketing content out there is based on a very vague understanding the the target market's business needs. Today's marketers need to get into the customer's world and really work to understand the customers' issues, pain points, and business process in order to stay relevant.

[Ardath Albee]

Hi Candyce -

Thanks for contributing to the discussion. As you know, I agree!

[Shakirah Dawud]

You know who uses this exact technique is http://dailycandy.com, which I love (and you've reminded me to check out). It's basically a review advertisement, and every single post is written in the audience's voice. And it works! Thanks for pointing out that distinction, Ardath.