How do you write engaging content? How do you unlock the minds of your readers?
- What makes your blog writing effective?
- How do you create quality content that pulls in interested readers?
- How can you reach, attract, and make an impact?
For that matter, how can anything you write or say actually work to market your business and bring in potential customers? Let’s face it, you’ve probably been saying some of the same things for a while now, and … so have your competitors!
How can you be engaging to your clients if your competitors are all talking about the same thing?
I wrote about this important $64,000 question last week, and I’m immersed in research about what makes content engaging right now. One of the books I’m reading is Simon Sinek’s Start with Why. He says we should start our messages with the big WHY… why we’re in business, why do we do what we do. In other words, make it clear what your higher purpose is.
“Your higher purpose is where your talents and the needs of the world meet.” ~ Aristotle
Don’t you love it when a good quote for today’s busy world comes from a 2,400-year-old guy? Here’s the content marketing version from Joe Pulizzi, Content Marketing Institute and Junta42:
“Your higher purpose is where your expertise and the needs of your customers meet.” ~ Joe Pulizzi
If you’re not talking about the real reason you do what you do, then you’re missing a key to engaging the brains of your readers.
This principle isn’t based upon ancient philosophy or the latest content marketing fad. It’s based in biology and brain science.
It’s because when readers are scanning your blog post, they are thinking about other things, and filtering everything you say through the limbic brain (the emotional parts of the brain). It’s what marketers refer to the WIIFM center: readers are continually asking “what’s in this for me?”
Our five senses are processing 11 million pieces of info per second. Of these only 40 enter our conscious awareness.
We are hard-wired to pay attention to personal stories from the heart. If you’re not sharing your higher purpose, and the real reason you care about your clients, your readers aren’t going to sit up pay attention or care about what you’re selling.
As Simon Sinek says, start with why: “People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it.”
This is Imperative #2 in VelocityPartner’s B2B Manifesto. If you haven’t downloaded this free and easy-to-read ebook yet, don’t miss it. This principle is expressed as “Expose Your Beliefs.”
What do you and your company believe? When we speak from the heart, we make an impact. People start to trust us, and if their beliefs are similar, they will want to become loyal fans and customers.
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