I was doing a bit of channel flipping last weekend, and [unsurprisingly] ran across one of my favorite old movies, Back to the Future. I landed there just in time to hear Huey Lewis's classic, "The Power of Love." The tune was still stuck in my head when later I was contemplating the potential of content marketing. It occurred to me that when marketers produce purely and exclusively self-promotional content they completely miss the vastly more effective and rewarding approach; the approach that can transform a business... it’s the power of love.
Mark Schaefer, in his latest book, The Content Code (excellent book, by the way), says:
“Anybody can figure out ways to generate short-term web traffic. But that’s simply a battle for attention you can never win. Let your competitors knock each other out over that. Place your focus in just one place—nurturing a truly loyal audience by running your business in a way that demonstrates mutual respect, gratitude, enduring trust, and … dare I say it? Love. Love is not a word usually embraced by businesses, but how can you create unyielding loyalty without it? Maybe love is the ultimate killer app. How would your business be transformed if your focus was demonstrating respect, gratitude, and love instead of “traffic?” This is the digital crossroad, a genuine point of business differentiation today. You can pay people to create great content and then pay people to promote it. Huge companies will escalate and automate their content arms race with breathtaking, epic videos. Eventually computers will be creating excellent content for you with a push of a button. But traffic alone will never, ever create an Alpha Audience.”
If we accept that notion (and I certainly do)—and understanding that the Alpha Audience is that group of passionate customers who are your most loyal evangelists and fans—then the challenge is going from believing to doing, because love isn’t a feeling—it’s something you do. So how do we as marketers invoke the “ultimate killer app?” I think that Mark laid that out with the statement that we have to demonstrate respect, gratitude, and love. The good news is that most solid business people do have that for their customers, even if they don’t always show it. Now, granted there are those whose only focus is on “winning” at all cost, and who will never embrace this notion of love in the context of business. However, I prefer to believe that those idiots are in the minority. And frankly, if you don’t have that respect, gratitude, and love for your customers, you are in the wrong line of business, you have the wrong customers, or both!
Within the context of content marketing, when creating content for your customers’ consumption it’s easy to become self-absorbed and want to constantly talk about yourself. But the truth is your customers don’t (at least initially) care a lick about you or your products and services—they really only care about themselves. And when two parties are both absorbed in their own self-interests to the exclusion of the other’s… well, business is either non-existent, or bloody painful. When you genuinely care about, respect, and express gratitude to your customers, and demonstrate that (in part) by selflessly sharing your knowledge, insights, and passions about things THEY care about, LOVE is the natural outcome.
Now, please don’t misinterpret… there is a time and place to “sell.” But these days, the best way to sell is to not always be selling. When you have earned the love and respect of your customers by demonstrating that you genuinely care about them and what they care about, selling is a lot less burdensome, and in fact, it can be downright fun! Folks, giving selflessly is the very best way to gain their trust. And trust, especially in business, is an absolute prerequisite to ever experiencing reciprocated love. And that kind of love is exactly what that Alpha Audience reflects when they accept (and share) your content with complete faith.
If you’d like to discuss with us how to demonstrate the love you have for your customers and prospects in meaningful and effective ways, we’d love to do so. We’re always happy to sit down with anyone who has that desire... no strings attached.
