As hard as it may be for most guys, falling in love with a woman means…
- Listening first. Always listen first.
- You have to tell the same story in different ways to get and keep attention.
- Consistency is the true sign of love. Little notes. Opening the door for another. You need to remind her constantly that you love her.
- Shake things up. Every once in a while, you have to throw in a surprise to keep things fresh.
- The little things often turn out to be the biggest things.
- You never mention old girlfriends. There is no need to.
- You stop noticing other women (in that way!).
- You accept her faults as no big deal. You can definitely live with them. Actually, some of them are kind of cute.
- Whenever you have problems or need advice, you go to her.
- When you visualize your future, she’s always in the picture.
Now let’s relate this to content marketing…
- You must first understand your customer’s pain points before creating or distributing your content. Just like in love, you have two ears for listening and one mouth for talking. Take that advice…listen more.
- Communicating in just one way to your significant other can get boring. One story can and should be told in different ways. Tell your one story in a blog post, a podcast, a video, a few tweets, though Facebook. Can you take one story and reimagine it in 10 different ways?
- Content is a promise to your customers. Once you begin to communicate with them, stopping means you don’t love them and they aren’t important enough for you. That enewsletter needs to go out every week at the same time. If you are late, it shows you don’t love them, and gives them opportunity to ignore you.
- Sometimes, you need to throw something out there that is completely unexpected. How about a special online tool? What about an eBook that takes a unpopular stance that your customers need to hear about? These are the types of things that keep your customers asking for more.
- Like in love, it’s always the little things…putting the toilet seat down, doing the dishes, turning off Sportscenter on occasion…that’s true love. What are those little things for you and your content marketing? Could it be regularly visiting their blog page and leaving a comment? Could it be your helpful tweets throughout the day? Could it be that they wake up every morning wondering how you are going to help them with their lives or careers – an email, a blog post, even your print magazine, etc.?
And these things lead to your customer…
- Only thinking about you when they need the products and services you offer.
- They don’t even respond to marketing from your competitors, regardless of how sexy it might be.
- Yes, you have faults, but that’s okay. You try so darn hard and they love you for it.
- When they really have problems, they go to you first.
- When they think about the future, you are always in it.
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