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Helping Prospects Deal With the Stranger Come to Town

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Offering advice to writers, in a Writer’s Digest article Sharon Short suggests a “trope” or model to consider called “a stranger comes to town”. The protagonist of your novel, Short tells novelists, are doing quite nicely where they are – until a different, perhaps threatening, fish plops into their pond.

The “stranger” might be a shark (think “Jaws”), a tornado or other weather event, a detective, or a space alien (think E.T.). That “stranger” can be shooed away or cause the local fish (or ‘townspeople”) to learn from the stranger and embrace new ideas.

“Unique blog ideas not only help carve a niche for yourself but also engage your readers in a way that generic, overused topics often fail to do,” is the advice offered by Webstart Ventures. Unique content does more than merely rehash existing topics, but offers a fresh perspective, a novel approach, or explores uncharted territory, the author explains. Where do these “stranger” ideas come from?  “These ideas often stem from personal experiences, insights, and creative brainstorming, fueling content that is not only informative but also captivating and engaging”. 

When it comes to content marketing for businesses or professional practices, we know at Say It For You, positioning our clients as Subject Matter Experts is a worthy goal. We might be able to go one better, though, moving them to a position of  thought leader. Mere semantics?  Years ago, I read an article in Speaker Magazine in which Neen James presented the following definition: A Subject Matter Expert or SME (pronounced “smee”) knows something; a thought leader, in contrast, is known for something. They are the “strangers in town who “shift conventional wisdom.”

Do we then, in our content marketing efforts, position our owners and practitioners as the “strangers in town” bringing new ideas and a fresh outlook? Perhaps not. After all, readers were guided to the content because what they needed corresponded with what those practitioners and owners sell, what they know, and what they know how to do. Those owners and practitioners inspire trust by demonstrating that they are keeping up with the latest developments, helping their readers filter the new ideas the “stranger” is bringing to town.

While the focus of a business blog will always be on the trusted “local leaders” along with the services, advice, and products they offer, the content can reflect current happenings in the world, and “threats” posed by “strangers come to town”.

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Stepping Out of Character in Your Content

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When the characters in a story seem to act against their own nature, Tiffany Yates Martin advises fiction writes in Writers’ Digest, that can feel jarring to readers, but it can also create interest. The author needs to lay the groundwork so that the character’s later actions will seem plausible, perhaps describing external forces that compel unusual action later on. The concept, as Martin goes on to clarify, is that, properly handled, unexpected and complex twists to a narrative can surprise and delight readers.

While, as content writers for business owners and practitioners marketing their products and services, we deal in fact rather than fiction, I believe that the Writer’s Digest “stepping-out-of-character” model can prove highly effective in capturing blog readers’ interest.

There are a number of companies that exemplify the unexpected by having two totally unrelated business lines, such as:

  • Chemed (hospice care) and Roto Rooter (plumbing)
  • Elxsi (sewer equipment and family restaurants)
  • Guiness (beer and recordkeeping)
  • Yamaha (musical instruments and motorcycles)

Diversification like that can be used as a defense, the Corporate Finance Institute explains. “In the case of a cash cow in a slow-growing market, diversification allows the company to make use of surplus cash flows.”

More to my original point, though, as Julie Thompson explains in business.com, business and professional practice owners often have a variety of hobbies, and interests, and interests. Building content around those interests (perhaps unrelated to the business or practice itself can make for refreshingly unexpected reading for searchers who land on the blog.

Another kind of “unexpected”‘ content focus can be charitable causes favored by the owner’s favorite charitable and community activities. But “the way you go about marketing your charitable efforts can either boost or tarnish your company’s public relations,” Thompson cautions, because there needs to be real commitment, not just lip service on the part of the business owner or practitioner. Still, the more unrelated to the type of business or practice the charitable “cause” appears to be, the more that “unexpecteness” factor will come into play…

Just as some of the most successful businesses represent new twists on old ideas and products, as content writers, we sometimes need to step out of character. surprising and delighting readers with a “twist”!

 

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The Best Way To Make It Personal

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“All the time I’m preparing my outlines,” John Maxwell teaches public speakers in his book, The 16 Undeniable Laws of Communication, “I’m asking myself three questions:

  1. How can I make it special?
  2. How can I make it personal?
  3. How can I make it practical?

The best way to “make it personal,” Maxwell advises, is “to pair what they do know with what they don’t know.” The first part involves “know-your-audience” preparation, the author cautions: the organizational culture of the group, their personal experiences, even their national origin..The “what they don’t know” part describes the insights you’re communicating about that already acquired knowledge.

Maxwell’s advising speakers, but in creating marketing content, the very same principles apply. The secret is knowing what your particular target audience already knows and how they (not the average person, but specifically “they*) will be likely to react or feel about your approach to the subject at hand.

For example, while you may point out that your product or service can do something your competitors can’t, that particular “advantage” may or may not be what your target readers are likely to value. For example, even if your readers are money-motivated, are they cost-conscious or might they prize luxury and exclusivity?  Yes, while building content, it’s important to consider not only age, gender, and nationality, but where those target readers “hang out”, what they read and watch, and what they’re saying on social media.

“Chunking refers to the strategy of breaking down information into bite-sized pieces so the brain can more easily digest new information,” explains e-learning coach Connie Malamed. “The reason the brain needs this assistance is because working memory, which is where we manipulate information, holds a limited amount of information at one time.”  Again, pairing information with which your audience is already familiar, then adding a different “spin” or new way to consider – and make use of – that information, offers a “pathway” for communication between the content creator and the consumers of that content.

 

Part of content marketing’s inherent challenge is that the information offered needs to be highly relevant to readers’ search queries.  How can we sustain content writing over long periods of time, yet avoid dishing up same-old, same-old? Maxwell’s two-part “make it personal” secret is the operative one:

  • Establish common ground, confirming to readers they’ve come to the right place to find the products, services, and information they need, and that the people in this company or practice are knowledgeable and passionate.
  • Offer lesser-known information, adding a layer of “new” to themes you covered in former posts, or perhaps a new insight you’ve gained about that existing information.

 

 

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Capturing Conflict in Your Content

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“Every great story depends on conflict to propel it forward, Jane Cleland writes in Writer’s Digest. The conflict can be one of four types:

  • actual or threatened physical attack
  • emotional
  • spiritual (loss of faith or shaken beliefs)
  • mental (a puzzle or intellectual challenge)

However, Cleland cautions, “if someone doesn’t care about a situation, you don’t have a conflict.” That means, she says, “We need to understand what makes people care“.

When it comes to content marketing, “conflict is a problem that the customer is motivated enough to resolve,” Truss Creative adds. In brand marketing, though, it’s not about the business owner’s origin story or their “disruption story”, but about the customer’s story. Writing effective content, therefore, means identifying the customer’s:

  • everyday annoyance
  • burning desire
  • quiet wish
  • tower foe
  • existential threat

In other words, what does your audience notice, value, want to protect, and want to project to others?

Years ago, my friend and admired sales training expert Tim Roberts told me that, while salespeople try to develop good problem solving skills, he challenges them to  first find, then solve. Finding a problem that the prospect hadn’t considered is what makes a salesperson valuable.

In blog posts, we teach at Say It For You, the opening paragraph is there to make clear not only what need, issue, or problem is to be discussed, but also what “slant” the business or practice owner has on the issue. Then, it’s crucial not to end in a “fizzle”,  leaving web visitors trailing off in a disappointed move. The ending has to resolve the central conflict, issue, or problem you’ve raised, leaving readers with a path to action and positive expectations.

Capturing conflict in your content might be the secret to success.

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Writing About WIne and Other Difficult Content Tasks

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“Using words to describe wine is fraught with peril and leaves wine writers exposed to ridicule,” Gus Clemens writes in an article  I found reprinted in my Indianapolis Star the other day. “Writing about wine is like dancing about architecture,” he complains. Although many familiar terms about wine tastes and smells are delicious to imagine and easy to understand because we know them from the fruit we eat, other terms, such as “leather”, “granite” or “green bell pepper” sometimes make us ask, “Are they just making stuff up to appear superior?”

Interesting. Just a couple of months ago, I posted a piece on introducing “insider terminology” to blog readers. The point I was making is that, in content marketing, once you’ve established common ground, adding new vocabulary  or “in-words” actually adds value to readers’ visit, giving them a sense of being “in the know”.

Offering online readers more than a description, but an “experience” is, in fact, one of our biggest challenges as content writers. Our goal is, through what they see on the page, to give visitors a “taste” of the benefits and satisfactions they stand to enjoy when using your products or services. 

“Consumers are used to telling stories to themselves and telling stories to each other, and it’s just natural to buy stuff from someone who’s telling us a story,” observes Seth Godin in his book All Marketers Tell Stories. While effective stories have authenticity and an implied promise of satisfaction, they must also, he stresses, appeal to the senses rather than to logic

With readability being a critical yet often-overlooked aspect of writing (as StraightNorth.com explains, content  must be matched to the education and sophistication level of your intended audience. In the case of a wine vendor, is the content targeted towards experienced wine consumers or is it intended to draw in “newbie” enthusiasts?

Humanizing your marketing content is a way of bringing readers “backstage”, keeping the company or professional practice relatable. Building a story around the “leather” or “granite” element in the services and products you have to offer can mean turning information-gathering into an experience!

 

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