Last week, we talked about how to really understand who is in your audience.
This week, we’re shifting into what kind of message they want and need from you. Brian kicked off on Monday with a piece of classic marketing advice (exemplified by a classic American comic film):
It’s not enough to just know your audience. You also need to put their interests and desires ahead of your own.
That might sound impossibly idealistic — but in fact, it’s pure pragmatism.
On Tuesday, Beth Hayden gave some specific thoughts on how to do it, by creating extraordinarily generous content that can open all kinds of doors for your business.
The Copyblogger FM podcast this week talks about your customer’s path to purchase and how to make it a little more appealing (and effective). I talk about the right places to ask for a sale and how you can discover what kinds of content to create.
In Wednesday’s post, I continued that theme of the content marketing path — taking a winding road through a new persuasion “formula” I’m calling ECUBED. I’d love your thoughts on how you’d tweak or add to that formula — drop by and leave a comment?
Catch you next week!
Chief Content Officer, Rainmaker Digital
Catch up on this week’s content
![if what you’re saying is wrong, it doesn’t matter how well you say it]()
Content Marketing as Seduction
by Brian Clark
3 Ways to Become More Generous and Grow Your Audience
by Beth Hayden
![lots of sites are desperate for traffic. But traffic is just the start of the story]()
Don’t Get Flattened on the Attention Superhighway
by Sonia Simone
3 Content Marketing Strategy Fails (and How to Fix Them)
by Sonia Simone
Enhance Your Freelance, with Jennifer Bourn
by Brian Clark
How Screenwriter and ‘All Our Wrong Todays’ Author Elan Mastai Writes: Part One
by Kelton Reid
A Crash Course in Copyright for Creators
by Brian Clark
One Podcast, One Audience, or One Topic (Two Attempts)
by Jerod Morris & Jon Nastor
Reader Comments (6)
I just started blogging recently and I don’t know what to write and even my audience. Thanks for the profound knowledge. I how I will be enjoying my journey of blogging.
Thanks, Sonia. It’s interesting how you talk about putting the audience’s needs and wants ahead of your own. Because it seems like that’s the basic skill you need to develop to be a good copywriter. I think a lot of the challenge of the work comes with really internalizing that attitude and working with it. It seems like if you’ve mastered that part, the rest follows from that. At least that’s the way it seems to me. Am I way off base here?
I do think it’s one of the most important skills, and can be one of the hardest to master.
It’s been put a lot of ways. I rather like Stephen Covey’s “Seek first to understand, then to be understood.”
Hi there,
This is a great quote and I think it can replace many marketing books as it summarizes all you need to know and apply to be successful. If you don’t put your audience’s needs and desires ahead of your own, blogging (or whatever you are doing) is hard and you can barely make a living. Once you put their desires ahead of your own, it all becomes so easy and success becomes inevitable. The sooner we realize and accept that fact, the sooner we will be successful! That’s my insight!
Regards,
Olga
Thanks for the great reminder to put the reader first.
I know many times it can be easy to think from our own perspective instead of viewing our content from the perspective of our audience.
The who and what is important, you’re exactly right.
A simple, yet good read.
The hero, you are not. The hero, your customer is. Yoda, you are.
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