Core Content Question: Sez Who?

Earlier this week, in her guest post on our Say It For You blog, Erin Jernigan stressed the importance of choosing one’s niche audience before creating content. “Niching, she stressed, allows refining your message and rendering it much more powerful, creating a deeper connection.”

I thought about “niching” the other day, when, at one of my online networking groups, the discussion leader posed the following question: If you were to start a podcast today, what would you name it? My answer: “Sez Who?”. That’s because those “deeper connections” to which Erin alluded run in both directions.

When online readers find your content, not only is it important for you to have understood them and their needs and preferences, they need to know “who lives here” and be helped to understand you. That means that, in marketing a business, practice, or organization, we content creators absolutely must make clear “who lives here”, using opinion to clarify not only what differentiates that entity from its peers, but also what guiding principles are “held dear’ over there.

It’s true that, at Say It For You, I’ve been fond of saying that the “what” needs to come before the “who”, meaning that the first order of business in content marketing is writing about the audience and their needs. In other words, I have often advised, only after you’ve told them what’s in it for them if they continue reading, should you be writing about what you do, what you know, and what you know how to do.

Michelle Noel calls it “brand value”, saying that it’s no longer enough to offer great products and services, To build strong relationships, you must communicate:

• Your purpose: Why do you exist?
• Your vision: What do you aspire to do?
• Your values: Who are you? What do you believe in?

Those “deeper connections” of which Erin Jernigan speaks? They run both ways. That’s why, were I to start a podcast, I’d name it “Sez Who?”.