#1 Choose Appropriate Language

Context and appropriateness matters. In addition to the philosophical concern, context and appropriateness shape how you choose the words to use in your content. If you opt to write a blog post describing the purchase of a new car, you will need to ensure that the words you use are appropriate to the topic at hand.

Consider – how would the owner describe himself or herself? Who else is in the family and how should you phrase this information? A different question to ask is what kind of mom, dad, child or sibling are they? Again, how would they describe themselves? Who else are in the family and how should you phrase this information?

Not only are these words exactly and appropriately shaped by the context, the vocabulary itself needs to be specific in order to fit the topic.

@JonesJonesFree says: “Your voice is how you describe your customers and you are ALWAYS speaking them as first-person. This, of course, includes the language you use.”

Be particularly careful about language regarding the purchase process of a new product or service as the purchase process is fluid and often ambiguous, yet still appropriate to describe in the right context. How else can you explain the purchase to the buyer?

Borrowed Great Content – will speak the language used to describe the transaction.

#2: Consider a Medium – Special Subjects Won’t Do the Job

Have you listened to the news lately? This endless drumbeat of horror stories about falling prices, rising supply, rising demand, and immigration by out-of-staters is one of the most popular topics in every public speaking presentation I see. More and more speakers are attempting to preach to the converted, but I strongly suspect many of them are doing a disservice to their audience by preaching to an empty house.

You can cite numbers, graphs and data in your presentations, but stick to facts and figures, not complicated stories and personal narratives.

Let your audience listen to the data and get some grasp of the issue.

Borrowed Great Content – will speak the language used to describe the transaction.

#3 – Borrow 2 Responses – Engage Multiple Layers

The greatest disconnect in our society is that people, especially baby boomers and the so-called generation to come, are reaching out for information on their own. They are more mobile, they are pursuing lifestyle changes and they are increasingly digital – never mind the issues of privacy and security that ensue when people willingly share all sorts of sensitive information in a very short period of time. Yet, many millennials and post-millennials are failing to engage with their parents.

One of the biggest problems with building marketing automation around the new form of marketing that we call marketing automation is that most of the content for this new distribution channel is old and doesn’t generate the traffic necessary to get more downloads and installation of campaigns.

In short, you are spreading the word and gaining registrations and lead generation into old decks with limited reach.

Borrowed Great Content – will speak the language used to describe the transaction.

#4 – Hook People – Provide a Journey

The marketing automation channels are extremely intelligent. They can use a value-add that would make people want to actively think about engaging with the medium and/or take an action (download, install) – but the best successful cases are the ones that make sense to build for the whole person. Think about it this way – is there an opportunity to engage people online and take them somewhere in an interesting online journey?

Be the one who fills the void with a meaningful story, that inspires the user to think about the future and think it possible. Or – do you set up the tool and let it do the job?

Ask the customer the moment the tool disappears what the user would prefer to do next – just for the sake of something more engaging to do with this platform.

Borrowed Great Content – will speak the language used to describe the transaction.

#5 – Remember That These Isalls ARE Your Customers