Writing Relevant Content Converts, and it has nothing to do with Attention spans.

byTheCatherine

14K followers

Updated 2 months ago

The "no one will read this" objection arises often when I suggest a daily newsletter to business owners. But it's deeply misguided. Disinterested readers tune out at 5, 50 words, or 500 words. When I first started sending out emails daily I did get a lot of subscribers unsubscribing. Some of them emailed me that I wrote too much. This was before the days of surveying your list.

I was devastated until I spoke to a friend of mine a British entrepreneur, Rob Cornish. He was my first business mentor when I started list building. He said to me that I was better off having rabid fans rather than insipid readers who couldn't care less. Back then I didn't prune my list, I was grabbing at every subscriber I could get.

Now I know better, Rob introduced me to a lady who was in the embroidery list, and her list was about 120 people, I don't remember the exact figure now, but it was about that. She emailed her list every day and made so many sales that she had a full time living from her list.

R ob made me realize that the embroidery lady had high value customers and mine were low rent customers.

Many people will tell you that your readers are used to instant gratification and they have short attention spans. And that is true of some readers, for sure. Again these are low value customers. THis is true whether you are building a list or blogging.

The legendary marketer Dan Kennedy once said that if you made an info commercial about a self cleaning cat litter tray for half an hour, most people will turn it off. However the lady with ten cats will watch it twice.

It's not about being boring, or attention spans, but relevance. Write for your real audience, the once that can't get enough of your content. Take a deep dive and talk to the ones that really want to hear your message, and hang on every word you say.

Granted it does take longer to craft something that every word counts, but if you achieve it you will have customers for life, even if you do email them every day.

it's not about marketing in an obvious way. Hyper-relevant content that answers subscribers' questions and shares helpful information is more likely to move them closer to a purchase decision. Relevancy not length fuels conversion rates.

The essence of engaging your audience, whether through blogging or email marketing, lies in the profound understanding of the psychology behind relevant content. It's a passionate dance like the tango, but executed with the dreaminess of a waltz, between the writer's intent and the reader's expectations. underpinning this is the deep-seated human desire to be understood and to find information that resonates on a personal level. This understanding pivots on the recognition that not every word written is for every reader, but for those who find in those words the echo of their thoughts, needs, or experiences.

It’s about peering into the lives of your readers with empathy, to uncover the unique challenges they face, the questions burning in their minds, and the dreams they dare to dream. By aligning your content with these insights, you can transform your writings from mere words on a screen to a mirror reflecting back at the reader their own quest for knowledge, entertainment, understanding, or solace.

This approach fosters a community of readers who are not just passive recipients of information but active participants in a shared journey of discovery. They become not just readers, but rabid followers, advocates, and, most importantly, engaged members of a conversation that extends beyond the confines of a blog post or email.

Crafting content with an eye for relevance demands an ongoing dialogue with your audience. It requires listening as much as it does speaking, gathering feedback, and observing behaviors to continually refine and adapt your message. This dynamic interaction is the lifeblood of a successful content strategy, fueling a virtuous cycle of engagement, loyalty, and growth.

It's not just about what you say, but how deeply it resonates with those who hear it. It's about building bridges between your knowledge and their needs, creating content that doesn’t just occupy space, but occupies a meaningful place in the lives of your readers. When you achieve this, you do more than capture attention—you capture hearts and minds, creating a lasting impact that transcends the ephemeral nature of most digital content.