I can make a simple thing complicated with very little encouragement.
Mention Pickett’s Charge, for example, and my frustrated inner history major wants to explain why the name is wrong, the plan, what happened the day before, and several other things you didn’t ask about.
One simple reference becomes boom, boom, boom. It widens and widens until we’re having an entirely different conversation.
Steve Weissman calls this a talent.
We’ll go with that.
It’s one I’ve had for a long time.
We talked about the “complexity complex” in our latest Nattering Nabobs of Information episode. The tendency to take something simple and make it harder than it needs to be. We both raised our hands.
Which is slightly embarrassing for someone who operates under the name Simply Useful Marketing.
There’s a reason I chose that name, though. I think marketing should focus on doing good for your customers. Helping them understand something. Answering a question. Giving them information they can use.
That gives you a fairly straightforward place to begin.
Watch our latest Nattering Nabobs of Information episode for Steve’s side of this — including a story about what turned up on a city’s server that had absolutely no business being there.
What Are Your Customers Asking?
One of the questions people ask when dipping their toe into content marketing is, “What would I write?”
“I don’t have anything to say.”
“My industry is boring.”
In any industry, once you scratch the surface, there’s plenty to talk about. Usually more than you need for one email, newsletter, or blog post.
As for boring . . . maybe. BUT. People never are. There are always stories to be found — had an hilarious conversation with a copier repair tech who shared a story about the excuses a company made in the 90s that the platen glass had broken for some other reason than the obvious one; someone had photocopied their ass.
Anyways.
The simplest place to start is with the questions your customers are already asking.
Answer them.
Marcus Sheridan wrote a whole book around that idea: They Ask, You Answer. There’s the book in a nutshell. I’ve saved you a few hours, though you should read it. It’s really good.
Of course, someone like me can take “answer a customer question” and immediately start adding all the facts. The background. The exceptions. The interesting thing that happened 30 years ago.
Meanwhile, the person on the receiving end is thinking, as Steve put it, “Get to it already, would you? I got things to do.”
Having things to tell you doesn’t automatically mean those things are useful to you.
Sometimes I need another person to point that out.
Practical marketing advice to get you going without wasting your time.
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One Email Is a Start
When you want to get started, it can be as simple as one email. One newsletter. One blog post.
Just do something.
Answer the question. Get the piece out. Give yourself something to build on.
Steve sees the same thing in information governance. Companies have information scattered everywhere, plenty of reasons to deal with it, and a task that looks overwhelming (because practically it is).
His advice to clients often comes down to the same thing: Pick something and start.
As he put it, “You don’t have to boil the elephant all at once.”
Steve loves a mixed metaphor.
But his point applies equally to marketing:
“You don’t have to wait to figure it all out.”
Once you start, you’ll discover things you didn’t anticipate. You’ll have to adjust anyway.
That applies to figuring out what your customers want to read, too.
The Next Question Might Help
Say a customer wants to know how long your service takes.
Explain what affects the timing, what you need from them, and what usually slows things down. There’s your piece.
Someone reads it and asks:
“What do you need from me before you can start?”
“Can we do part of it sooner?”
“What happens if we miss that deadline?”
Now you have a better idea of what they’re trying to accomplish — and perhaps something else to write about.
One email won’t tell you everything about your audience. Neither will staring at your content plan.
But getting started gives something people can respond to and something you can improve.
What did a customer ask you recently?
Can you answer that question in an email?
Yes?
Great! Now you’ve got something to write about.
Try to resist giving them the entire history of the subject while you’re at it.
I’ll be working on that myself.
I’m much better at puncturing your overcomplications than my own. Newsletter-in-a-Box will put you in front of your customers on a regular basis. Let’s talk about your goals and challenges, no pitch slapping: Bryant@SimplyUsefulMarketing.co.
Thanks for reading. Comments, criticisms, and witticisms welcomed.