Who needs customers? I need an AUDIENCE!

byapowers

741 followers

11 years ago

Hello all!

Since beginning my training here at WA I've read time and time again that you should write content to help people. Quality content that solves a problem for people is the only way to drive traffic to a level that can generate a solid income.

It's easy to read statements like that and say, "Oh yeah, no problem." Meanwhile, did those words truly register for you?

I know for me they really didn’t. I thought they did, so it wasn’t an easy realization to come by. Once I looked back objectively and really analyzed some of my actions I came to realize that there was the underlying tone of sales in a lot of my content.

A big part of that is that I've worked in sales in one way or another my entire life. The verbiage is second nature for me.

Up-selling is like breathing; it just happens.

I'm not saying it shouldn't be there, but it should ONLY be there if it is a part of helping your audience.

I underlined that because I'm making a conscious effort to change my perception of who reads my content. Previously, I had viewed them as customers.

It was unintentional. It's just how I've been conditioned to this point in my life.

By viewing them as my audience instead of my customers I allow myself to shift the focus of my content. It's a slight shift, but I believe it's an important one.

Look at it this way. When you go to the store to buy something, you expect to be sold in some way. It's the way any commercial society has functioned in the past.

But when you go to a website, you’re looking for information. If someone tries to sell you something, you go somewhere else.

Somewhere you can be safe from a sales pitch.

That is, until you enter into a buying cycle and become ready to purchase. That’s when the guard goes down and you cease to be a member of the audience. Then, you’re a customer.

The beauty here is that customers won’t respond badly to content written for the audience. As long as there is some clear way for this person to find the product through your content you will be able to make sales.

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This shift in consciousness has been occurring for me over the last couple of weeks but was really capped off by this blog post. That’s one of my favorite things about writing; it really allows me to explore my thoughts and feelings. It’s like having a conversation with myself, except I’m allowed to go back and revise my thoughts.

That brings up another thought I’d like to express. Even though we are all here to make money, we are doing so with a creative endeavor.

If we want to be as successful as possible, we need to make sure we flex our creative muscles.

By that, I mean that if all you write about is your niche your creativity will lag. A simple solution is to write something for you every day. It doesn’t have to be long, or well researched.

Or even coherent. Sometimes I like to write stream of consciousness. I don’t generally do it on a computer... it’s too easy to become critical that way. I use good ol’ pen and paper and just write whatever comes to mind.

But this type of content won’t make you any money, right?

I’ll answer that with another question.

Do athletes make money in the weight room?

Of course they don’t. But they ALL spend time there, regardless of the sport.

We need to do the same. Write, every single day. Write website content. Write blog posts. Write comments. Street Articles. Squidoo. Poetry and songs. Short stories. Ebooks. Scripts. A journal. A novel. News stories. etc.etc.etc.

Just keep writing!