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The Pareto Principle states that 20% of content online gets 80% of the views.
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That’s what they taught me in business school. And it’s dead wrong.
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It’s more like 5% of content gets 95% of views.
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You know why?
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Because most content is BOOOOOOOOOOORING.
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Repetitive. Cliche. Dry as your tongue when you wake up with an epic hangover.
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So here’s what you do to get your content into that epic 5% instead of being in the forgotten 95%.
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The secret to creating content that SELLS (without being annoying and sleazy and salesy)
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First step is simple. We need to stop writing like a wet noodle. Inject some dynamite in our copy.
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Best way to do it?
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Write like you're having a conversation with a good friend. Keep it casual, keep it real. Like I'm doing right here.
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Write like you’re sitting at a bar, shooting the breeze, talking to another human being.
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That means a lot of short punchy sentences. Every once in a while a sentence can go on for longer, like this one, but most will be pithy and quick and to the point.
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Break up those endless Tolkien sized paragraphs. Ain’t nobody got time fo dat!
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We need to make it EASY to read, easy to skim through.
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Using Razor Sharp Hooks That Grab Your Reader And Don’t Let Go
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There’s no two ways about it, you’ve got to hook your reader AND keep him in that position.
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Make it impossible to put your stuff down. Get him to read that first sentence and then the next… and the next… and the next… until he gets to the end, gasping for air.
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So let’s not do any of this
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"We’re really good at what we do and the competition is bad and we’ve been in business for 20 years and we really care about you as a customer.”
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That stuff is weaker than a vegan bodybuilder. It’s what your competitors are saying. It’s predictable. But worst of all?
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It’s boring. And boring doesn’t pay the bills in contentland.
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When people first land on your article they’re not ready to commit yet. They're just browsing the menu, seeing if anything catches their eye.
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It’s up to you to use your headlines and subheads and paragraphs to SELL them on the idea of sticking around and reading more.
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Again, it’s the exact thing I'm doing here. Subheads that reveal parts of the story and that hit the key points. But here's the real secret sauce:
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You Need To Make It All About THEM.
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The reader. Make THEM the star of the show.
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Not trying to hurt your feelings but nobody gives a rat's behind about us. Everyone cares about themselves.
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Only when they believe and understand that you’re trying to actually help them are they ready to hear your story.
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So keep it laser focused on how reading your stuff will help THEM out.
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Skip The Bullshit While Writing
Last thing I want to cover.
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Don't dance around their skepticism and objections like some blue haired first year college student afraid to offend anyone by not including every single pronoun on the planet in his social media bio.
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Address possible objections and issues head on.
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Remember this quote by the OG of advertising:
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“The consumer is not a moron. She’s your wife.”
David Ogilvy
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Call out what they're probably thinking and then defuse it with logic, empathy and cold hard facts. Just be real with people.
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I wanted to talk about Call to Actions as well but that really deserves it’s own article. So we’ll cover that in a future installment.
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For now - let’s get to WORK!
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Talk soon,
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Aamir
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P.S. If you’d like me to help you out with this, or write your stuff, or help you write better stuff… that’s possible!
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Get in touch with our agency today. If we’re a good fit I will personally take a look at your company and your marketing, come up with a strategy of what I’d do differently and discuss it with you in depth on a call.
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