I was in Whole Foods the other day, browsing the gluten-free cookie aisle, and I heard this little voice pipe up.
“Hi!”
And there, parked in a stroller by the almond milk, was an adorable baby girl, waving emphatically at me.
“Hi! Hi!”
“Well hello there,” I said, delighted, walking over. “What’s your name?”
And then the baby fell silent. There was an awkward pause. Then she looked past me to someone else ambling up the aisle.
“Hi! Hi!”
I had reached the apex of her engagement skills. Granted, she was like two. But still. Once she had my attention, she was moving on. She simply didn’t have anything else to say.
I laughed, grabbed a box of something made with rice flour, and walked away.
Sure, she’s a child. She doesn’t have a vocabulary for engagement. But we do.
And it struck me that this is exactly—exactly—the problem with efforts we make to attract and engage people for our businesses and brands:
We love waving people in. We love getting them to pay attention. We love getting our stuff “out there” and “raising awareness.”
We invest tons of time and money, to GET people to notice, thinking once they notice and like us, they’re ours forever.
Nope.
If all we do is try to wave people in, we’re no better than that baby in the dairy aisle, waving hard and then turning our attention to the next person.
Because once you stop making that effort, to show relevance and value, they walk away. Sometimes even when you DO make the effort, they walk away!
Take this blog, for instance.
The minute that thing happened with the baby, I got excited, because I knew I wanted to tell you about it.
You might be entertained by this, but someone else just said to themselves, “What is this drivel,” and dealt the death blow to the “unsubscribe” button. It’s fine.
To keep the right people engaged and in conversation with you, you have to let everyone else move on down the aisle toward what they’re looking for.
So what is the magic that DOES keep people engaged? It’s not offers. It’s not discounts.
It’s content. But content is not a platform. It’s a conversation.
Email, wordpress, social—these are platforms.
The platform is the body; the content is the soul. And if marketing efforts feel empty to you, it’s because they’re dead inside.
I know you’re busy. Content feels “extra,” like another thing you have to do that you’re not getting paid to do.
But in fact you are getting paid to do it.
Every time someone engages with you, reads your stuff, understands who and what you represent and offer, you are paid handsomely in the one thing people are the most stingy about: Their attention.
Ready for the invite? Here it is.
I’m teaming up with my digital strategist and branding pro Cass McCrory to offer a two-part webinar, a free one, unlike anything I’ve done before online, actually.
This (free) 2-part master class is called “Rekindle Your Content: How to fire up your creativity and fuel your marketing efforts.”
>>You can get the replay here.
This (free) two-part virtual event is great for you (and/or a team member) if you:
- Want to generate more and better content, but are tired and bored of doing it
- Are paralyzed by a blank page and hate sitting down to “write copy”
- Want to refocus your content efforts, but aren’t sure where to start (or restart)
(Can’t make both, or either, times? Register anyway. We’ll send you the recording. But due to the very dynamic nature of this thing, you’ll get far more out of doing it live.)
Part I: Rekindle your content is about aligning those efforts with intention and purpose, rather than firing off posts with a t-shirt gun.
Part II: Reinspire your work is where we roll up our sleeves and DO the work, yes, right then and there.
This isn’t a pitch fest; it’s a master class. And I wouldn’t do two parts if I didn’t think it would be powerful and worthwhile.
P.S. You do NOT need to be a professional writer or have a blog to make this worthwhile. If you have ideas you want to share, a brand you want to build, this will help you focus that effort. Join us!