|
Who Cares What You Say?
Every day I see something about content- content is king, optimize your content, content management, what's your strategic content plan, and so on, and so on. What's all this chatter about content, and more importantly, does it matter to your business?
With the amount of information bombarding us daily through every possible communication channel, it is getting increasingly difficult to filter the messages and decide what is important to us, our lives, our families, our businesses. Some people would argue that it is not getting more difficult, it's actually easy. You delete and throw out extraneous information by making a very quick judgment call based on your first impression. That is why they say you have 5-7 seconds to hook someone before they move on to the next email/postcard/article/commercial/whatever.
It is a proven fact that people will read and listen to that in which they have interest, even if it is long. Whether you have 7 seconds to grab someones attention, 2 minutes to show them a video, or 30 minutes to capture their attention with an article, don't you want to do the best job you can in relaying information?
Content = relevance
The more aligned your message is to what your target market wants to know, the greater chance you have of actually communicating with them. Your content, whether words on your website, information in a brochure, details in an email, or stories in a newsletter, is judged continually and quickly as to its relevance. Discover what is relevant and valuable to your constituents and give it to them!
You can't be everything to everybody. Don't worry about those who are not interested in your message, they are not your ideal client. But do pay attention to those who are interested, and respect the decisions of those who spend their valuable time on you.
Content matters
Whether it is information about how to use your product better, news about your industry and how it affects your audience, new pricing or selection or availability, stories they can relate to and learn from, or helpful advice, it is prudent to invest the time and effort to provide high quality content. Do not make the mistake of pushing out "filler" to your valued target market. If your message does not have relevance to them, they will stop listening, and you will join the ranks of their other quickly discarded mail.
Who cares what you say? A lot of people care what you say. Your job is to find out the best way to say it and the most effective ways to deliver it. Need help? Contact us!
Next month: How to develop valuable content.
| 
