Every (yes, every) Saturday morning since we opened the doors to Harpeth Marketing, I have gone to a local coffee shop (in fact, I’m here now as I write this) to work on things not necessarily related to taking care of clients. One of those tasks is writing… for my blog, my monthly article for Quirk’s or developing an eBook.
But this week… I hit the wall. After 60+ weeks of crankin’ it out… I didn’t know what to write about. I went to my editorial calendar… but I hadn’t looked this far forward so no topics were listed. What am I going to write about… what do I want to write about?
And then it hit me… that is not the question to be asking. Then question is (and should always be)… what do my clients (and prospective clients) want to read about? What’s important to them? What do they care about?
So I flipped my thinking 180 degrees… and the ideas began to flow.
How about you? Do you develop content for your firm? Do you blog, write articles, develop presentations etc.? Where do your ideas come from?
If you’re stuck on coming up with topics, do these two things to knock down that writers block:
1) Imagine who you’re writing for. Pick one person and imagine them sitting across the desk from you. What’s their job? Their title? Their responsibilities? Keep them in mind the entire time you’re writing.
2) Then ask him or her these questions (as they relate to your business and what you can write about):
- What’s important to you?
- What do you care about?
- What keeps you up at night?
- What do you need to be successful at work?
- What problems do you have that we can help solve?
- How do you evaluate new vendors?
- How can we make you look good to your boss?
The answers to these questions and others like them will provide an inventory of content development ideas that should never run out. And if they do, imagine someone entirely different sitting across from you and ask them those same questions. Different persona… different answers.
In all of your communications – content marketing, website text, sales collateral, elevator pitches, capabilities presentations and proposals – keep your client front and center. Write through their eyes. Write from their perspective.
Do that and your writing will resonate with clients and prospects like it never has before… and give you a competitive advantage over all of your internally-focused competitors.