I’m a content writer which means very few pieces of content catch my eye. I’m able to see through marketing efforts like a mother can see through her child lying about eating all of their Halloween candy in one night.
Once you know what to look for, you realize just how similar most marketing campaigns are. Businesses are all vying for your attention so they do what everyone else is doing that is garnering it. But, the reality is—that’s not how it works anymore.
You need stand out content to make people care about your business, your clients business, or your content (depending on if you’re a business owner, freelance content writer, and/or writer building their personal brand).
And let me tell you. I found stand out content.
I found content so good that I don’t even want to buy the product because I don’t want to be taken out of their email funnel. That’s how good it is.
When was the last time you heard someone say, “Another email from a company that’s trying to get me to buy something. I’M SO EXCITED TO READ IT!”
Yeah, I’ve never, ever, heard anyone say that either.
But now, I’ve become that person.
The company is called Trends and their product is a weekly newsletter of reports and breakdowns of trends in the business world. I’ll let them explain who they are:
This was the first email I received from Trends, after giving them my email address on their landing page. Regular email funnel content, right?
I thought so too. I figured, “I’ll buy the newsletter subscription later…I’m not totally convinced yet.”
The next day, another email came in. “Classic email funnel,” I thought to myself.
I looked it over and my interest was peaked by the third paragraph.
“The other day, a member asked the community how he could prepare his business for the best possible exit. (Screenshot below.)
His company is 5 years old and in the natural pain-relief market. He expects income to grow by 200% this year. About 95% of the company’s revenue comes from wholesale from one online retailer.
The Trends community offered 2 major strategies:
Hire a GM to focus on the most important attribute of the business’s growth
Diversify across multiple channels
The community also shared three resources for collecting more info on exit (which you can see after you sign up).”
It’s pretty cool that for $300/year I could have access to these conversations. But again, as your average consumer, I figured that since I don’t have a company I plan on selling anytime soon maybe I’d be better off waiting to sign up.
The next day, I got my third email in the funnel. This one was the email that made me think…wait, what’s going on here?
People were actually creating viable businesses off of this newsletter? This is something I would have assumed based off of the content of the newsletter, but it’s hard to know how motivated subscribers really are. Turns out, the Trends’ subscribers are making actual money moves.
At this point, I’m watching for my next email from this company—something we could say is unheard of in 2019. People don’t look out for email funnel emails to hit their inbox. Yet, here I was waiting for Sam.
And once again, Sam delivered.
I have four more emails from Sam (and hopefully more coming). All of them packed with information I actually care about. Sam is doing a lot of things really right when it comes to content writing and marketing.
1) He’s writing to his target audience.
This is something all content writers do. You have to write for the person reading the content. This means that when I write my articles for DigitalMarketer, I’m writing to digital marketers. These are agency owners, business owners, or professional marketers who need to know something that I’m going to tell them in my article.
What do all of these people have in common?
They’re busy.
This means that it’s my job to write an article that is a one-stop-shop for their need. For example, if they need a holiday marketing strategy, here’s an article talking about figuring out what holidays your customers care about most, using an urgency strategy, turning best performing ads into holiday centered ads, and creating holiday specific content. Each point has examples of other companies running paid traffic campaigns that they can use for inspiration.
Sam is doing this incredibly well. His target audience, ‘people interested in business trends so they can capitalize off of them’ wants to hear about: other people capitalizing of off business trends.
Not only does Sam show this, but he links it to his product. This makes it so Sam is just the storyteller—he’s not the hero of the story. He’s just there to deliver the information. The information that shows his product is legit.
2) He’s getting straight to the point.
In the world of telemarketers and promotional emails that you never signed up for finding their way to your voicemail and inbox (seriously—how?), I👏don’t👏have👏time👏to👏read👏your👏terribly👏formatted👏email.
Here’s where Sam is really winning. If Sam’s content was riddled with photos, I’d have hopped off the bandwagon six emails ago.
But, it’s not. I can skim Sam’s email and see things like "He sold his company to Proctor & Gamble for $100m.” and “As beer sales continue to go flat, non-alcoholic beer is on the rise."
Both of these sentences make me stop scrolling and start reading.
And both of these emails are less than 600 words, which means I get my content fix without thinking, “Do I actually have time to read this email right now?”
As a content writer, it’s your job to make people want to read the content. This means that you can’t play around with people’s time. You can’t tell an irrelevant story for the first four sentences of your article. You’ve got to get to the point and show people why they want to keep reading.
Think of the last Youtube video you click on, only to find the person was rambling for the first 10 seconds. Did you keep watching or did you X out of the video and never go back to that person’s profile again?
If you did the latter, you’re like me. A tired-of-bad-content-content-writer who just wants you to tell me what I came to your content to learn.
Good content writers get to the point, as quickly as possible.
3) He’s associating himself with learning something new.
Every email I open from Sam teaches me something. I finish reading the article and can have a brand new conversation that I’ve never had before. For example, look at this content in the eighth email in his funnel:
Gold. Content gold.
Sam is making me associate him with learning something new. As the customer avatar for the Trends newsletter, I love learning new things ESPECIALLY when they pertain to business trends.
This is really powerful because it means that my mind is automatically putting Sam on a pedestal. If another business trend newsletter targets me through a Facebook ad…I don’t have any interest. If I’m going to buy a newsletter, it’s going to be Trends because they’ve already proven to me how valuable their content is.
If this is what they’re giving away for free, what’s behind the pay wall?
That’s damn good content marketing.
Let’s all be like Sam. Here’s how:
1) Know your target audience. Write for the person that is going to read your article. If you don't know who this person is, figure it out. As a content writer, you can ask your client for the information they have on their target customer. They should send you a decent amount of information and in particular you’re looking for:
Their age
Their occupation
Their pain points (i.e. why do they need your clients product?)
Their goals (i.e. what are their goals pertaining and NOT pertaining to your clients product?)
Where and what content they are consuming (i.e. What blogs and books do they read? What podcasts do they listen to? What videos do they watch?)
Who do they look up to? (i.e. Are they head-over-heels for Tony Robbins and ready to walk across fire? Do they think Elon Musk was sent from heaven to save Planet Earth?)
2) Get to the point. My general content template goes as follows:
First sentence: Fact or opinion calling out the article’s topic
Example: “I’m a content writer which means very few pieces of content catch my eye.”
Second sentence to third sentence: Why you can state this fact or have this opinion and people should listen to what you think about it
Example: “I’m able to see through marketing efforts like a mother can see through her child lying about eating all of their Halloween candy in one night.”
Fourth sentence to seventh-tenth sentence: Warm intro into more about what your articles topic
“Once you know what to look for, you realize just how similar most marketing campaigns are. Businesses are all vying for your attention so they do what everyone else is doing that is garnering it. But, the reality is—that’s not how it works anymore. … Yeah, I’ve never, ever, heard anyone say that either. But now, I’ve become that person.”
Eighth-Eleventh sentence: Explain what you’re about to talk about
Example, “The company is called Trends and their product is a weekly newsletter of reports and breakdowns of trends in the business world.”
Eleventh sentence and on: Write your content’s body
Example, “This was the first email I received from Trends, after giving them my email address on their landing page. … If this is what they’re giving away for free, what’s behind the pay wall?”
1-4 sentence conclusion: Reiterate your opinion or the fact you’re presenting
Example, “That’s damn good content marketing.”
3) Associate yourself with your customer’s pain point.
In the case of Trends, my pain point is that I want to know more about business trends. Sam has officially associated himself with teaching me more about business trends, which means that I have a far greater affinity for him than any other business trend newsletter that tries to retarget me.
He’s already given me value and lifted the veil on business news I was totally unaware of. Without paying a single dollar, he’s already shown his value to me.
Be the person that does that and you’ll be the most sought after content writer in your niche.
Happy writing,
Eva Gutierrez
If you want to get an article like this on the 15th of every month, I’ll send it straight to your inbox—sign up below.