Web Content and the ‘Hard Sell’
Our information is no longer ‘manufactured’ for us in behemoth news factories, then filtered by the government’s opinion and played out in full colour HD dramatisations for us all to passively feed on. We are becoming blind to advertising and keenly astute at detecting agendas. We are numbing to high-gloss news and current affairs and turning to ‘reality’ for entertainment.
This is reflected in our penchant for reality TV and flash-in-the-pan celebrities like Clare Werbeloff, the Chk Chk BOOM girl. We are more engaged in the lives and (mis)fortunes of ordinary people because they seem more believable than manufactured and scripted celebrities.
This trend is no more prevalent than on the web. Suddenly the world has a vehicle that allows anyone with a computer and a web connection to publish their writing, images, and video. The realm of film making and publishing is no longer confined to multi-million dollar studios. It can be done with huge success for under $100.
This doesn’t make the content more believable, quite the opposite in fact, but at least we feel like there isn’t a huge sales agenda behind it.
As people search for alternative ways to find news and entertainment, they are turning to mediums that they can to control to some level – I.e. the web, TiVo, Foxtel IQ and downloading torrents of TV shows so they can watch them when it suits them and with no annoying ads or big brother censorship.
For this reason the conversations on blogs and social networking sites have become a preferred source of news and events and often a source for the commercial news channels. This makes the web an increasingly powerful tool from which to make yourself heard and in turn, makes the web a richer place.
So, if you know something about something, blog about it, because someone will want to know what you know. It will help to build your name, drive traffic to your site and promote you as an expert in your field. It’s much cheaper and far more effective that advertising and I say this from experience.
This is partly why social media has boomed in the past few years. It allows people to share a little (or a lot) of their social lives with people outside their social circle and this definitely helps grease the wheels of business. It creates a deeper level of familiarity and trust much earlier in the business relationship because we feel we know each other outside the boardroom.
‘Reality-based’content also adds another dimension to the old marketing adage – “Be seen, be heard, be read”. When you are out in the market selling your wares, relax on the hard sell. This includes your web content, your blog, PR, marketing or even in your advertising. It’s not that people won’t like it, they just won’t see it. Your content will hit their ‘hard-sell’ filter and they will simply tune it out.
Promoting your business has never been easier. There are so many new and inexpensive avenues on the web to tell people about what you do and how you do it. Just be conscious that consumers (that is, all of us) are tuned into the hard sell and will tune it out without even knowing.
So, if there are any golden rules for marketing content, start with these …
- Keep it short
- Make it a bit personal
- It’s not about you; it’s about the reader and what is in it for them