Tell Them How You Ship the Diamonds

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In Tuesday’s blog post I used the “Hear your happy holidays” headline of an AudioNova ad in the Indianapolis Star to illustrate the importance of results-driven marketing, suggesting that content marketers need to focus on results of using the product or service rather than on its features…

There’s more to it than that, however. As Seth Godin points out in his book This Is Marketing, as content marketers we need to differentiate the path our business owner or practitioner clients choose to take in helping their customers achieve those results. Diamonds, for example, can be transported in an armored car or put in a package and sent by mail. What is more likely to be valued by your customer – speed of delivery or safety? Dedicate effort to empathize with your audience, comprehend their obstacles, and reflect on how your offerings can assist them in reaching their objectives, Godin urges content creators.

“To put it as succinctly as possible, a key differentiator is a brand’s distinct and unique value that sets itself apart from its competitors within the market,” brandmasteracademy.com explains. Also known as the USP (Unique Selling Proposition) the differentiator answers the question: “Why should I choose this brand over its competitors?”

Interestingly, as Elizabeth Harr and Lee Frederiksen, PH.D point out in hingemarketing.com, many so-called differentiators make a company sound more like their competitors! To be effective, the authors explain, a differentiator must meet three criteria:

  • It must be true.
  • It must be relevant to potential clients.
  • It must be provable.

In Get Different: Marketing That Can’t Be Ignored, Mike Michalowicz remarks that, to customers, “better” might not actually be better. Different is better.The author tells business owners to discover their best “est” – Are you the oddest? Hokiest? Sharpest? Fastest? Safest?

In all your content marketing, tell them just how AudioNova will help them hear the holidays. What about your diamonds? Will you be shipping them via the U.S. Postal Service or using armored cars?

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Hearing-Your-Happy Results-Driven Content

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As I worked my way through the news stories in my Indianapolis Star newspaper (yes, I still enjoy the print version), my eye was caught by an AudioNova hearing aid ad on page 6. The headline read: “Hear your happy holidays”.

At Say It For You, we understand that the focus in both the headline and the body of content written to market a product or service needs to be on the results of using the product or service rather than on its features. While online visitors may lack experience with the latest processes or the technology in your field of expertise, they know what their own needs are. The creators of the AudioNova ad know exactly what their buyers want – they want to hear! What outcomes are going to mean the most to members of your target audience? Lead with those.

“The psychology of advertising focuses on building empathy towards a product or service to help you become more inclined to buy or use it,” Psych Central explains. “Think of amusement park commercials that show people having fun, riding roller coasters, and enjoying an activity-filled day. This creates excitement around the park and lets you believe that you can recreate this excitement if you visit.” As shown in the AudioNova ad, the concept is to have prospects envision themselves enjoying the results a purchase might bring to them.

Ad executive David Ogilvy said that, on the average, five times as many people read the headline as read the body copy. When you have written your headline, you have spent eighty cents out of your dollar, he would say. In other words, to create a successful piece, spend 80% of your time nailing the headline. storychief.io agrees: “Direct headlines clearly state the purpose of the ad or key offer upfront. They summarize the core benefit or product in a concise, often single-sentence headline and ought to be:

  • attention-stealing
  • informative
  • relevant to the target audience.

Of course, it’s not only the headline of a content marketing piece that must be relevant; the content of the article or post itself must deliver on its purpose, Story Chief stresses, “going to the heart of the reader’s problem – their confusion, their doubt, their ambition…” What content creation is all about is “handing readers tools with which to reach their goals.”

Results-driven content helps readers “hear their happy”!

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How Do You Want Your Content to Make Them Feel?

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Hobbies present an escape, helping you get out of your head and calm down, associate professor of health psychology Matthew Zawadzki explains, but it’s important, in choosing an activity, so ask yourself how you want it to make you feel. Should the hobby result in your feeling:

  • mentally engaged?
  • distracted?
  • socially connected?

“Marketers aim to understand the needs, wants, and behaviors of their target audience in order to effectively promote and sell their products or services, Official Insights remarks on Reddit.com.  “This often involves researching and analyzing data on consumer demographics, psychographics, and buying habits.”

One study conducted by professors at Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania found that content inspiring awe, surprise, or humor is much more likely to be shared. But audiences differ, and, as content marketers, we need to know our target audience’s pain points, desires, and frustrations, in order to understand what emotional context we should include in our content, contentwriters.com cautions. Going even further, emotional context actually includes phrase and word choices, even terms, and acronyms with which your readers are familiar.” BrainyGirl Kim Garnett points out.

The best way to “make it personal,” Maxwell advises in  his book, The 16 Undeniable Laws of Communication, is “to pair what they do know with what they don’t know.”  Learn the organizational culture of the group, their personal experiences, even their national origin, then communicate the insights about you have about that already acquired knowledge.

Our Say It For You content writers have come to understanding that our purpose is not to  admonish, warn, frighten, or even inspire online readers, who have arrived at our site on a fact-finding mission, looking specifically for information The tone of the content should assume that with information presented in a way that mentally engages them and forges a connection, they will move forward with action.

As we plan our content, while we aren’t aiming at presenting an readers with an escape, we do want to make them feel both mentally engaged and socially connected – with our business owner and professional practitioner clients, that is!

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Reminding Readers of Things They Already Know

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To appreciate a story’s narrative, readers must be constantly updating their sense of where they are in the tale, Amor Towles points out in Poets & Writers. Of course, Towles concedes, as we begin to read a novel, we already know something of what it contains (we’ve read the dust jacket, heard about the book from a friend, or have read other books by that author).

The same is true, of course, for content we post online. Readers will not have found their way to our content unless they have an interest in learning more about that very topic or need help related to our area of expertise. The delicate task facing us in “bringing readers up to speed” before moving on to the new information involves knowing just how much of an update is needed. Too little might cause puzzlement as we offer new information. Too much “review”, conversely, might be seen as repetitive or – worse – disrespectful of our readers’ sophistication level.

Like novelists, in creating regular blog and newsletter content, we attempt to create a cumulative effect. Some articles review the basics; others offer news of recent developments – new products or services, new changes in the law affecting our customers, new community involvements. The option of linking back to former content can be helpful to readers.

But, whether or not you decide to use linkbacks in your message, because blog content remains permanently on the website, with formerly posted content moving “down” a spot to make room, the cumulative repetition of key words and phrases increases the chances for the content to “get found”.

Public speakers should ask themselves how they can “make it personal”, John Maxwell teaches public speakers in his book, The 16 Undeniable Laws of Communication, and the best way to do that, he advises, is “to pair what they do know with what they don’t know.”The first part involves learning about the organizational culture of the group, their personal experiences, even their national origin. Then, the “what they don’t know” part describes the insights you’re communicating today about that already acquired knowledge.

For us online content creators, then, the challenge is finding ways to respect readers’ intelligence and knowledge while reminding them of things they already know, setting the stage to offer exciting new insights.

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Test Their Content Reading Smarts

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“Test Your Hearing Smarts” is the title of a page in the Winter Wellness issue of Prevention Magazine. What helps with tinnitus (ringing in the ears)? Is it earplugs, mindfulness, or surgery – or does nothing help (you’re stuck with the problem)? The answer: There’s no known cure, but mindfulness training (using a white noise machine) can actually help in many cases. Which of these foods are good for your hearing? Coconuts, walnuts, and wild rice all contain nutrients that support good hearing.

At Say It For You, we’ve found, quizzes like this are a very good a content marketing tactic. Online readers tend to be curious creatures and “self-tests” tend to engage and help them relate in a more personal way to the information being presented. What’s more, since one of the biggest challenges in writing to promote a business or practice over long periods of time is keeping the content fresh, quizzes help “vary the menu”.

Other positive aspects of quizzes and tests include:

  • “Self-tests” tend to engage readers and help them relate in a more personal way to the information presented.
  • Quiz questions and answers can offer a different perspective on fact sets readers have forgotten.
  • When readers strain to remember something and then find the answer, they tend to repeat that fact set in their conversations with others (perhaps driving those others to check out the website).
  • Our curiosity is most intense when we’re testing our own knowledge, making tests, games, and quizzes hard to resist.

Research done about ads is relevant to quizzes and tests, I believe. A study done at the University of Bath in conjunction with the Nielson company came up with two ways to score ads.

  1. Information Power Score – measures what the consumer perceives as the value of the message
  2. Emotive Power Score – measures if the emotion is going to change feelings about the brand

In a sense, quizzes like the Test Your Hearing Smarts are powerful on both counts – important, actionable information is being conveyed to readers, and that information is very personal in nature.

“All bloggers would like to get more interaction and participation from their readers and visitors,” says vandelaydesign.com.  Tests and surveys engage readers,  we’ve found at Say It For You, making them feel they are part of a conversation with my business and practice owner clients.

 

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