Last month, we were fortunate enough to be sponsors of Digital Summit Philadelphia 2019, and Seth Godin was on the docket to deliver the keynote presentation. Though this wasn’t our first time meeting up with the savant, his sessions are always unique thanks to his openness to audience Q&As.
At this year’s event, Seth explored common roadblocks marketers experience as we strive to create valuable content for our audiences. Here’s what he wants marketers to remember.
Play to the Smallest Viable Audience
You want to be aligned with those who share your values, and that might be a surprisingly small portion of the market. However, when you create content for that specific, viable audience, you can skip over a lot of pointless throat clearing. You’re already speaking to those who want to hear what you have to say, no boiler-plate persuasion necessary.
If you send out something that others don’t respond well to, it’s simply because it wasn’t made for them. Those who support you will be thrilled by your content because you’re helping to build the community they were looking for. You’re fulfilling their need.
It’s easy to get caught up in crafting a large target audience because we want as much visibility for our brand as possible. However, you have the most to gain by being the voice for your like-minded customers. It’s well documented that brand loyalists bring in more lifetime value than single one-offs from random consumers trying to be trendy.
Find your people, and give them what they want.
Write with Empathy
You are different from me. We may have some things in common, but we definitely have several differences as well. Whether they’re differences in opinion or integral differences in problem solving, you and I will not always be on the same side.
Empathy is what helps us, as humans, navigate our differences. When we write with grace for another’s opinion, we aren’t setting things up to be black or white. Instead, we allow ourselves to communicate.
Know that Writer’s Block Is Not Real
As Seth puts it, “There’s no plumber’s block or farmer’s block.”
You’re fighting a monster that doesn’t exist. If you’ve ever sat watching the cursor blink on your monitor as you wait for the perfect words to come, you’re not battling writer’s block. Instead, you are losing the war to perfection.
If you give yourself the liberty to write a few awful lines for the sake of knocking loose valuable messaging, you’ll find that you’re never truly at a loss for words. Since there’s nothing holding you back from editing later, there’s no sense in being afraid of writing something bad.
If you take anything away from listening to Seth Godin, let it be to produce content that you can be proud of and stands to help make a change in the lives of your key audience. There is already so much noise out there competing to be the loudest.
Be the empathetic voice in the crowd that represents the passion of like-minded individuals, and never be afraid of writing something wrong for the sake of uncovering something great.