So when I had the chance to sit down for a chat with Robert Rose, I jumped at the opportunity.

As Content Marketing Institute’s Chief Strategy Advisor and founder of the Content Advisory, Robert Rose is uniquely positioned to share big-picture insights.

In a wide-ranging conversation, Robert explains how his early career in the arts segued into marketing. He speaks thoughtfully about content marketing’s roots, its growth as a practice–and its future.

Lorraine: Robert, can you share how you got into content marketing?

Robert: I grew up in Texas and immediately after graduating from college with an English Lit degree, I moved to Los Angeles. I was going to be either a rock star or a playwright.

It went about as well as you think it might. I got into writing and I ended up doing well, relatively speaking. I had a few plays go up in Los Angeles and one in New York.

I had worked a little bit on a script for Showtime networks. And I ended up, just to pay the rent, getting into their marketing department.

Robert Rose’s self-taught MBA

And as I tend to do when I’m trying to learn a new skill, I immersed myself. I read everything about the history of business and marketing. And I loved it. I loved all things about it.

My own little MBA in 1997-ish happened to coincide with the .com boom. I started working with .com companies and building websites.

My wife and I moved to DC and I ended up in website design. We grew that business and were building websites for some of the biggest companies on the planet. AOL. MCI.

We moved back to LA and I got a job at a big internet consulting firm building content-oriented websites, mostly in the entertainment business. Websites for NBC and the Oscars.

Then the.com boom went bust. So circa 2002, I ended up in the diaspora with some friends who formed a software company.

The VC basically plopped millions of dollars on my desk and said, “Marketing, go do that. We don’t know what it is. Go figure it out.”

Creating Value with Content circa 2002

Much to the consternation of my board and management, I said, “I’m going to build a media department, instead of a marketing department. And I want to hire journalists and writers and designers and communicators.”

So I built a group that basically put out content.

The Marketing Part is Easy.

My hypothesis was to hire people who can write—go a mile deep on thought leadership content—and teach them to do marketing. The marketing part is easy.

You can teach how to do an A/B test or an email or how to buy media. That’s tactical. But you can’t teach someone to be a great writer, a great communicator.

And it worked, weirdly enough. We grew—for six years I grew that company and everything was going great.

“This Guy was Calling it ‘Content Marketing’.”

Then I read this book, Get Content Get Customers, by Joe Pulizzi. This guy was calling it “content marketing”—this thing that I’d been doing for almost six years.

I was out on the speaking circuit and met Joe. We had dinner—and from Day One, we got on immediately. Just became fast friends.

And he called me a couple of weeks after that, and said, “Hey, listen, I’m going to start this thing. The Content Marketing Institute.”

He asked me to be on the advisory board in 2008. In 2009, I quit my job and went all in with Joe. He was coming at it from the media side of the business, the publishing side. And I was going to come at it from the practitioner side.

2007: The Blogging Sweat Equity Era

Lorraine: Around 2007-2008, content seemed to be sort of a grassroots marketing movement associated with blogging and bootstrapping small businesses. It was distinctly shaped by people like Gary Vaynerchuk and Brian Clark at Copyblogger. Can you comment on that?

Robert: I think it was a result of the popularity of inbound. You saw two things converge. The stuff that Brian Clark was doing with Copyblogger, which was amazing, right. He was teaching people how to blog.
And the blogging converged with the popularity of inbound. You had HubSpot driving a content marketing program. And there was a lot of VC money and people saying “be found, drive leads.”

And the way you’d be found is to create a lot of content. It was quantity, quantity, quantity. Push out stuff. Answer every question.

Content that Drives Results Instead of Settling Bar Bets

I always, from the very beginning, felt that was a flawed model because for me, it was always settling bar bets. I didn’t want to settle bar bets.

Because the way that I was taught by Theodore Levitt and Peter Drucker, quantity metrics don’t matter. It’s all about the action the customer takes.

For me, steeped in that model, it was always about driving results not vanity metrics. So it was about the quality of the writing.

VCs Enter the Content Marketing Landscape in 2011.

Lorraine: When did capital start to pour into content marketing, and when did automation and applications start exploding?

Robert: I would say it started in 2011. That’s when the East Coast VC firms began investing. Content start-ups were courted by the VC crowd mostly in Boston and New York.

That’s when we saw the big growth of the venture-backed capital-based company started to come to Content Marketing World.

Today’s Biggest Content Marketing Challenge: Silos

Lorraine: At Content Marketing World, each year I hear one or two repeated themes on content marketing’s biggest challenge. Some say distribution. Lack of C Suite buy-in. Or siloed departments. I wonder what your takeaway is this year. What’s the biggest challenge we face?

Robert: The biggest challenge that was noted in this year’s research was the silos. And I see it every single day. With every single client. These days, it is rare I’m creating content marketing strategy from scratch. What I’m doing now is fixing broken strategy.

Businesses say, “Oh, content, we need to do that. That’s an important thing. You and you—go figure it out.”

And they do. The content team goes to conferences. They read books. They figure it out. They say, we’re going to get a blog. Or we’re going to get a resource center. We’re going to make some assets. They start experimenting with it. And it works in varying degrees.

And then the business goes, “Yes. More please.”

So the first reaction is to go to a freelancer network and say, “More assets. We need to pour more assets into the organization.”

And then it works or it doesn’t work. Or it starts to fall down. It’s a marketing problem—not a content marketing problem. It’s marketing that’s siloed.

And I blame it mostly on the digital efforts of the early 2000s, when we started to stratify the buyer’s journey and create all these different teams. Agencies did the same.

So you had a social agency. You had a digital agency. You had a lead and an SEM and a PPC agency.

Now teams don’t talk to each other. Quite frankly, they don’t really like each other. And the original content team is trying to serve everyone. And they can’t. They won’t. Or they’ll serve all of them poorly.

Privacy and the Death of Social

Lorraine: One of the most intriguing points of Joe Pulizzi’s CM World presentation was his prediction of the “end of social.” Outside of marketing, there is growing concern about issues of privacy–as documented exhaustively in Shoshona Zuboff’s Surveillance Capitalism. Thoughts?

Robert: Content marketing done well, done right, is the answer to GDPR (Editor’s note: GDPR = General Data Protection Regulation) and privacy. I’ve been talking a lot about this with clients and at workshops.

People complain that the GDPR is vague. One of my colleagues, Tim Walters, who thinks a lot about the GDPR, notes it was meant to be vague. They didn’t want you to be able to check a box and basically engineer around it.

It wasn’t meant to be just complied with. It was meant to be in the spirit. So not figuring out: “Okay, I can work around this checkbox and this checkbox. If I just do the privacy statement the right way, I’ve complied.”

What content marketing does so well—when it’s done well—is deliver a content product of value to an audience. And if we treat those audiences with the same care and respect that we would our customers, then we’re not only in compliance, we’re in the spirit of those privacy issues.

We’ve actually decreased the size of the Web to Google, Facebook, Netflix, and a couple of others… There’s a research study that said we basically visit 12 websites.

The problem is we, as marketers, are getting conflated with that. We’re in a bad halo effect at the moment.

And so even if we do mean well and do have integrity in mind, it’s hard for us to get out of people conflating us with Facebook. And thinking we’re going to use data for evil purposes.

And I’d like to think we can keep the Web free and open and also lean in to data collection, as it makes sense to deliver better experiences for consumers. I believe that. I really do. I’m always optimistic.

Social’s Organic Reach is Done

Lorraine: Regarding the “death of social”: For companies relying on social and not an owned platform…

Robert: I think it’s the death of organic reach. Social is promotion and distribution. Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, these are the ABC, CBS and NBC of our time. They’re broadcast media.

We pay for the privilege of reaching audiences with some frequency. And so they’re paid distribution networks of content, where you can pay for an ad, you can pay for content to be promoted.

And hopefully we’re pulling those people into some owned experience and building an audience.

Where is Content Marketing Headed?

Lorraine: Any other thoughts on the future?
Robert: I’m hopeful for it. Somebody asked me the other day, “What’s the future of content marketing?” And I said, well, it’s just marketing. It’s part of an integrated marketing program. Content becomes part of what we do. I hope it just becomes smart marketing.

Robert Rose’s Mini MBA Reading List

Robert generously shared his list of favorite marketing books and articles.

• The Practice Of Management, Peter F. Drucker
• The Effective Executive, Peter F. Drucker
• The Marketing Imagination, Theodore M. Levitt
• Marketing Myopia, Theodore M. Levitt
• Kotler on Marketing, Philip Kotler
• Marketing Management, Philip Kotler and Kevin Lane Keller
• How To Win Friends & Influence People, Dale Carnegie
• The Innovator’s Dilemma, Clayton M. Christensen
• Crossing The Chasm, Geoffrey A. Moore
• The One to One Future, Don Peppers and Martha Rogers
• Different: Escaping the Competitive Herd, Youngme Moon
• The End of Competitive Advantage, Rita Gunther McGrath

What’s Your Biggest Content Marketing Challenge?

What’s the biggest hurdle you face in content marketing today? I’d love to hear your thoughts in comments.

If you write for the fashion industry or read fashion blogs or page through fashion magazines, you know “nude” is used to denote hues like peach, sand, taupe, beige and pale rose.

“Nude shoes were seen all over spring runways.”

But whose nude are we talking about?

The word references skin tone. Whose skin is peach, sand, taupe, beige or pale rose?

Ah.

As content marketers, we appreciate words’ power to tell stories, build community and drive positive action.

How often do we consider content’s flipside? Its potential to exclude, wound and “other” people?

If you’re me, the answer is “not often enough.”

Our Biased Conversational English

I had reason to think about the matter more deeply after attending “Inclusivity in Content,” a talk hosted last June at HUGE Agency in Brooklyn.

The evening brought together a fashion editor—Nancy Einhart, SVP of Content at POPSUGAR—and two information architects—Clair Rock and Sam Raddatz of Logic Department.

The event drove home two insights for me.

Everyday English is threaded with words that “other” people of color, LGBTQ+ people and people with disabilities.

Most of us are clueless about our part in perpetuating the problem.

How Inclusive is Your Content?

It’s a prickly issue. No copywriter or editor consciously chooses words that hurt, stigmatize or disrespect people.

The usage goes under our cognitive radar. So it made me think…could my own content inadvertently be othering people?

With a twinge of dread, I took a look.

In their talk at HUGE Agency, information architect Clair Rock made a strong case for neutralizing language as a way of normalizing the existence of people in your audience. For me, shifting into neutral — a seemingly simple, but far-reaching, concept — came to be a litmus test for rethinking usage.

In addition to manning the presses—oops! In addition to publishing content here at marketcopywriterblog.com—I also work as a Copy Director in fashion ecommerce.

Like other niches, fashion copywriting has its own lingo. My snobby kids Some high-minded people find chatter about trends, “It” bags and fall must-haves vacuous and annoying.

Rude. Though it may not be War and Peace, fashion content doesn’t other and disrespect people, does it?

I’m afraid sometimes it does.

As I sieved through my own copy, I found a surprising number of questionable words and phrases.

And I came up with a handful of suggestions to help steer me around iffy word choices. I’d be grateful if you’d help me add to the list with your own recommendations.

10 Tips for Making Content More Inclusive

When considering inclusivity for the myriad kinds of content we create—editorial, email, ads, social updates, product descriptions, website and microcontent, brand decks, internal documents and much more—ecommerce and fashion content creators might want to…

1. Consider eliminating gendered product categories like “Boys” and “Girls” clothes, toys and books. This rigid division supports a binary that often results in shame and trauma to gender non-conforming kids.
2. Create non-gendered brand personas. Does your brand deck or other internal content include a gendered personification of your brand? Do you define brand DNA with a “Your Brand Woman” or “Your Brand Man”? Think about retiring them for a Persona, Muse, Spirit or Person.
3. Use they, them and theirs instead of he/she, him/her, and his/hers. Or talk directly—and intimately—to the customer, using you, your and yours.
4. Drop gendered references in fashion editorial and product copy: the “Fashion Girl,” the “French-girl style,” “borrowing from the boys.” Think about using more neutral words like “stylesetter,” “French,” “classically tailored.”
5. Create non-gendered sizing charts and find new ways to translate traditional “men’s” and “women’s” sizes. And when drafting the microcontent around sizing, make your goal normalizing, rather than othering.
6. Use models that look like people in your brand community. “People need to literally see themselves,” says Rock. This means using models in a range of body sizes, colors, gender identifications, ages and abilities. POPSUGAR uses their own staff as models. The cover of Vogue UK’s September 2019 edition—edited by Meghan, Duchess of Sussex—is graced by activist Sinéad Burke.
7. Find alternatives for words and phrases with racist roots. Don’t use “nude” when you mean taupe, sand, beige or pink. Rethink your metaphorical use of “black” and “white”—“black hat,” “white knight,” “black sheep,” “white lie.” The light = good, darkness = bad concept dates back to Aristotle. But today it’s hard to ignore its alignment with European privileging of lighter skin. Are there alternative metaphors?
8. Consider the ableist ramification of language. Lame. Crazy. Blind. Find other words.
9. Make inclusivity ongoing, not just part of a campaign or annual Pride, Mental Health or Black History month.
10. Consult industry pros and influencers who identify as LGBTQ+, POC and people with disabilities. This is the most important takeaway for me. Don’t count on white, cis-gendered people without disabilities to make the call on inclusive content.

Helpful Resources

My understanding of content’s power to include, affirm and support has been broadened and deepened by the following resources and people:

Reading

Sissy: A Coming-of-Gender Story by Jacob Tobia
The Everyday Language of White Racism by Jane H. Hill
Linguistic Racism
Fostering LGBTQ+ Inclusivity in Digital Spaces, Logic Department
Femme in Public by Alok Vaid-Menon
Nude: is the hot fashion colour racist? The Guardian
Disability-related terms with negative connotations, Wikipedia

Social
Sinéad Burke @thesineadburke
Jacob Tobia @jacobtobia
Alok Vaid-Menon @alokvmenon
Jordan Roth @jordan_roth
Elisa Goodkind and Lily Mandelbaum @StyleLikeU
Johnny Weir @johnnygweir

And you?

As a content creator, have you considered inclusivity in your work? Please share your thoughts and suggestions in comments.

Image: The Birth of Venus by Alexandre Cabanel, courtesy of Wikimedia

Published in four volumes, the dense work includes a 1,000-page commentary, two appendices, a discussion of Russian prosody, an index and a facsimile reproduction of Pushkin’s 1837 novel.

Panned by critics and virtually unread since its publication, Nabokov’s translation offers a cautionary tale for translators—and content marketers.

In a recent She’s in Russia podcast interview, literary translator Isaac Wheeler shares fascinating insights on Nabokov, the pitfalls of literal translation and the “quantum” nature of words.

A fun listen for Russian lit lovers, Wheeler’s musings—on reader-first focus, UX and the nature of “undetonated” text—are also hugely useful to content marketers, copywriters and other professional word wielders.

Full disclosure: Wheeler, a poet and a translator of Russian and Ukrainian literature, is a family friend. She’s in Russia co-host Olivia Capozzalo is my daughter.

Vladimir Nabokov: Prodigy, Pornographer, Pedant?

One of the 20th century’s most gifted writers, Vladimir Nabokov was a complicated, chameleonic man.

A European elitist, he was obsessed with American pop culture and consumerism.

His 50+ works include both the memoir of idyllic 19th-century childhood and the fictionalized postwar travelogue of a pedophile.

Born into a loving, affectionate and aristocratic St. Petersburg family, Nabokov grew up speaking Russian, French and English with equal fluency.

He wrote acclaimed works in both Russian and English. With his mastery of both linguistics and prose, you’d imagine Nabokov’s translations would be sublime, right?

Da and nyet.

Nabokov’s Alice in Wonderland: a Joy to Read

As a young man, Nabokov translated Alice in Wonderland, playing freely with the story’s text and making liberal cultural adaptations to assure its relevance to Russian readers.

Louis Carroll’s original story, for example, includes a French mouse. Alice imagines he arrived in England “with William the Conqueror.”

The veddy English reference is lost on Russian readers. So Nabokov’s Alice deduces the French mouse arrived with Napoleon’s army and was left behind when the emperor marched his troops out of Russia.

Wheeler considers Nabokov’s Alice in Wonderland “arguably the best Russian translation of that text that anyone has ever produced. It’s just a joy to read.”

Two decades later, Nabokov attempted the translation of Pushkin’s Evgeni Onegin.

Nabokov’s Evgeni Onegin: A Diamond Compressed into Coal

Nabokov began the project in 1944. Within a year he realized he was in over his head. “I was…on the verge of a breakdown and not fit for company,” he wrote to Edmund Wilson, the writer, critic and a supporter of Nabokov’s early work.

In 1964—20 years later—Nabokov finally published his “monster.” It was his sixth version of the Evgeni Onegin text and notes.

Deemed a “disaster” by Wilson—now no longer a friend—Nabokov’s translation was slammed by critics.

The overwrought transcription, says Wheeler, transformed a “famously lucid, readable, accessible Pushkin into this impacted, impenetrable matrix of old English roots and odd grammatical constructions.”

“He’s taken a diamond and compressed it into coal somehow. He’s done something truly perverse.”

The two works, Wheeler observes, illustrate the difference between “free translation” and “literal translation.”

Wheeler favors free translation for a reason that will resonate with content marketers: free translation aims to serve the reader.

3 Content Marketing Takeaways from a Russian Lit Translator

I came away from Wheeler’s interview with three translational insights—and three related takeaways for content marketers:

#1 You Work for Your Reader.

In approaching a translation, Wheeler says, “I constantly remind myself that it’s the reader who I work for when I translate. Not the author. And not the publisher. And not myself. The person that I have to be most actively empathizing with is the reader.”

The best content marketers also work for their readers. An audience-first focus is what differentiates our discipline from outbound marketing and traditional advertising.

Content marketers live with the paradoxical truth that we sell product by not selling product.

Why? Because people hate being sold to. And they’ve developed exquisitely sensitive noses for sniffing out salespeak masquerading as content.

Do you make these mistakes in content marketing focus?
The most effective content homes in on customer needs, wants and pain points. You’ll know your work is off-target if instead it repeatedly focuses on:

• Your brand:Companies spend a lot of time and money creating “brand profiles,” “brand DNA” and “brand words.” But you can’t control brand perception by peppering copy with company-approved words. Enduring brands aren’t created by marketing teams or ad agencies. A brand is co-created by visionary leaders and customers. Over time. The process requires nurturance, maintenance and the understanding that brand language evolves.
• Your product: Businesses care deeply about their products, but your customer doesn’t share your passion. She has a long list of things that are more important to her. Herself. Her family. Her friends. Her dog. Her hopes, dreams, aspirations and goals. Her problems, worries, pain points and obstacles. Your product gets on her radar—and will be bought, used, shared, and evangelized—to the extent that it speaks to what matters to her.
• Your company: Sure, customers want to see the human side of business. People like to know companies are made up of real people. But a steady stream of company backstories—about your cool start-up culture, open-plan work space, Aspen snowboarding retreats and local-brew Happy Hours—gets old fast.

Consistent branding, delineation of products’ Value Propositions, and human-faced business are important. You strengthen them with customer-focused content that shows rather than tells customers about these attributes.

#2 Words are Undetonated Bombs.

Wheeler sees “text as sort of undetonated, unactivated or unused until the reader’s consciousness gets involved.” Literature’s power is unlocked when the words are activated, assigned meaning, interpreted, decoded, “detonated” by the reader.

Marketing content works the same way.

Customers detonate your content.
Marketers talk a lot about “driving” things. “Driving action.” “Driving traffic.” “Driving pageviews.” “Driving customers through the sales funnel.”

But unread content drives nothing.

It can’t drive, convert or be used at all until it’s activated by readers, viewers, listeners. Content gets “detonated” when the customer contextualizes your content, makes it their own and takes action.

Tips for detonatable content
How can you hook customers’ attention, pull them deeper into content and move them to “detonation”?

• Create content relevant to readers. In her book, The Transformational Consumer, Tara-Nicholle Nelson discusses the need to shift from “product-first” thinking to “problem-first thinking.” Relevant, engaging content speaks to and resolves customer pain points and “stuckness,” helping customers move forward.
• Speak like a person. People perk up when content speaks conversationally. Problem-solving content works best in a voice that mixes informed authority and chatty friendliness—and it helps if you aim to speak to one person, rather than an “audience” or demographic swath.
• Read your work out loud. The easiest way to spot corporate-speak and pompous, phony construction? Read what you write out loud. You’ll immediately know which words to cut, simplify or swap. How to punctuate. Where to change up sentence length and structure.

#3 Good Content Bakes in User Experience.

Good translators don’t just translate words. They transmit sense memory, emotion, wordplay—the encounter experienced by readers of the original text.

“A translator guides a reader through an experience or provides a context in which the reader can autonomously explore an experience,” says Wheeler.

He likens this process to User Experience (UX), a term borrowed from the design world. Good UX simply, elegantly and exactly meets the needs of users.

UX adds astonishing power to your content.
Content marketers benefit enormously from baking in UX when crafting content.

UX starts with a laser focus on the user, your customer. Unlike a literature reader, your customer doesn’t come to your site to savor the power of your prose.

She’s there to get something done. To accomplish a task. To move forward rather than meander. Google tells us searchers’ goals fall into four “micro-moments”:

• I want to know
• I want to go
• I want to do
• I want to buy

Make it easy for her to do all four.

Help your customer get things done.
To bake UX into your content:

• Identify your reader’s problem or pain point. How does your content speak to and resolve her pain?
• Know what you want to say. When I find myself fiddling endlessly with a paragraph or sentence, it often means I don’t know what I’m talking about. The great writing teacher William Zinsser says “Writers must constantly ask: What am I trying to say? Then they must look at what they have written and ask: Have I said it?” When you answer, “yes,” you’re ready to launch your words.
• Don’t bury the lede. In journalism, the first sentence or two of the story is called the “lede” or “lead.” Make sure you include the most important and usable information at the top of your post or webpage. Could be a succinct synopsis–what journalists call a “nut graph.” Or it might be a hook that grabs attention–followed quickly by the content’s Unique Value Proposition: that certain something that promises readers a reward if they stick around and read.
• Use subheds, bullets and lists to let readers scan quickly and decide whether or not to “invest” their precious time to take the next step: to read, bookmark, favorite.
• Start heds and subheds with power-packed words, benefit-focused and informational phrases.
• Bold the most important words.
• Use descriptive or informational words in links
  .

Discover More Content Marketing Gems: Listen to the Full Podcast

Want more translational insights that will strengthen your content marketing? Listen to Wheeler’s entire interview on the She’s in Russia podcast. His chat starts at 28:35.

You can learn more about Wheeler’s work by listening to his Black Box Poetry podcast. Please share your thoughts in comments!

———————————————————————————————————————
Photos courtesy of Wikimedia: Vladimir Nabokov, Alice in Wonderland by John Tenniel, Nabokov family, Yevgeny Onegin by Repin

The intervention starts with you rethinking what you sell.

Because if you market apparel, you probably think you sell clothes. If you’re a realtor, you think you sell homes. If you work in SaaS, you think you sell software.

But actually, you don’t sell products. You sell transformation.

That’s the premise of Nelson’s new book, The Transformational Consumer: Fuel a Lifelong Love Affair with Your Customers by Helping Them Get Healthier, Wealthier, and Wiser.

Huge, influential and lucrative—Transformational Consumers spend $4 trillion on life-improving products annually—this demographic is sure to have an impact on your business in 2018 and beyond.

You don’t sell products. You sell transformation.
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Nelson’s new book gives you an insider’s guide to this self-aware and self-actualizing consumer.

Packed with original research, deep consumer insight and change-management wisdom from a marketing superstar, the slim volume is essential reading for entrepreneurs, business leaders and content marketers of every stripe.

“Transformational Consumers see life as a never-ending series of projects to help themselves and their families become healthier, wealthier, and wiser.” ~ Tara-Nicholle Nelson

Meet The Transformational Consumer

Nelson defines Transformational Consumers as people who “see life as a never-ending series of projects to help themselves and their families become healthier, wealthier, and wiser.”

Could be weight loss. Financial solvency. Professional certification. Or maybe getting a grip on anxiety. Or “firing” a toxic boss.

The Transformational Consumer, observes Nelson, is defined less by what she buys and more by why she buys it. Her customer journey—and her life—is marked by a string of “personal disruption campaigns”—behavior-change projects aimed to shift her life for the better.

But wait. You already know this person.

Nelson’s book includes a comprehensive chapter that deep-briefs you on the Transformational Consumer.

Chances are, you already know this person.

She’s that coworker who’s into Crossfit. The one who takes a coding class Tuesday nights and knows all the best paleo cooking blogs.

He’s your cousin who’s addicted to Tim Ferris podcasts, uses the Simple app for banking, and has a side gig reviewing microbreweries.

She’s you, the content marketer. Always on the prowl for non-echo chamber blogs and books, conferences, courses and meetups that help you hone your craft, grok your customer, craft powerful content and imbue your work with meaning.

Five Surprising Facts about Transformational Consumers

Nelson partnered with research technology platform Qualtrics to survey 2000+ customers and uncovered a number of fascinating factoids.

Transformational Consumers…

1.  Make up 50% of all US consumers. A full half of all respondents to Nelson’s survey reported using digital or real-life products several times a week to achieve a range of health, finance, career or personal development aims. This is not a niche demographic.

2.  Are Early Adopters. Transformational Consumers continuously identify specific, positive change they want to make in their lives. They know it involves changing behavior and habits—which is doable, but hard. Transformational Consumers eagerly seek out and try new products, services and content that promise to make change easier.

3.  Experiment enthusiastically. Transformational Consumers embrace new ideas, technology and products. They’re ever on the lookout for products and services that make their journey to wellness, well-being and financial freedom more inspired, insightful and fun.

4.  Influence the buying behavior of others. Known for their change-quests and experimentation, Transformational Consumers are the go-to source for friends, family and coworkers. People follow Transformational Consumers for information, opinion, recommendations and products.

5.  Are loyal and evangelistic when they find a product, service or app that genuinely helps them move forward toward their goal, eases them past resistance, awakens consciousness, and unlocks new possibilities for their lives.

Teen Mom Turned Entrepreneur: Nelson’s Own Transformational Story

Nelson is uniquely qualified to explain the wiles and ways of Transformational Consumers. She’s been marketing to them—with insane success—for the last 20 years.

A serial entrepreneur, Nelson held key marketing positions with brands that include Trulia, MyFitnessPal and Under Armour.

As MyFitnessPal’s VP of Marketing, she helped the company grow from a scrappy startup with $18 million in Series A investments, to a company with a valuation of $475 million when sold to Under Armour.

During Nelson’s tenure, MyFitnessPal doubled its app user base to 100 million over an 18-month period. Her customer-centric content increased engagement by 22%.

Nelson shares an engaging, glass-half-full positivity in telling her personal and professional story. A mother at age 17, she finished college in three years, zipped through post-grad studies in psychology and went on to law school, while supporting herself as a personal trainer.

Early in her career as a lawyer, Nelson found herself defending bad-apple realtors. In an “ah-ha” moment, she realized she could do a better job selling homes than her crooked clients.

She promptly switched from law to real estate sales.

A House is not a Home: Uncovering Customers’ Hidden Motivations

While working with would-be homebuyers, Nelson noticed a repeat phenomenon.

Clients “didn’t want houses. They wanted lifestyle design,” observes Nelson. Buying a home was more than a transaction for many. It was a symbol of and means to positive change in their lives, careers, businesses, finances and relationships.

But as they navigated home buying, clients often made poor choices and took actions that led them in the wrong direction.

To help move clients over the home-buying humps and hurdles, Nelson began creating educational tools. She required all clients to walk through the materials with her before she’d show them a home.

Results were dramatic. Clients went from making six or seven offers before they’d get a home to making two or three.

Nelson expanded the curriculum into seminars and a book that led to consulting work at HGTV and an in-house position at online realtor, Trulia.

Engagement requires laser focus on customers’ and coworkers’ humanity.
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What Would Happen If You Stopped Shilling Product?

Nelson’s experience building blockbuster brands gives her unique insight into the secret sauce of successful enterprises.

She boils it down to a single ingredient: engagement.

Nelson believes “…any company of any size in any sector will be successful if it repeatedly engages two audiences: customers and employees.”

But hooking and holding the interest of your customers and workforce requires a shift in corporate mindset. A rethinking of who you sell to, what you sell, and why you sell it.

It means laser-focusing on your customers’ and coworkers’ humanity. And evolving from a product-first culture to a problem-first culture.

As Nelson explains it:

Product-first companies stake everything—their entire identity, R&D pipeline, offerings, marketing and internal cultural narratives—on their products, product features, benefits, pricing and function.

Problem-first companies fixate instead on solving a problem for a particular audience or segment. The company’s institutional knowledge is focused on knowing everything possible about the problem their customers seek to solve. These companies also dig deep to get inside the heads and hearts of their teams, the people uncovering customer problems.

Why Product-centric, Mad Man-era Marketing Fails Miserably Today

Back in the Don Draper heyday of advertising, product-first marketing made sense. When Sterling Cooper pitched “Pass the Heinz,” only two or three catsup brands existed.

Today thousands of catsups—branded, generic and local Brooklyn-sourced artisanal varieties—elbow for shelf space.

Your customer has near-infinite product choice. And she’s bombarded with ceaseless marketing messages touting every one.

Ironically, the same technology that supports this content deluge also empowers your customers to shut it down.

The Real Reason No one Engages with Your Product-focused Marketing

The Internet’s omnipotent search engines, mind-reading algorithms and vast, endless store of intelligence have created the most informed, opinionated and empowered shopper in the history of commerce.

Unfazed by product-focused marketing, she makes buying decisions in her own idiosyncratic way—with lots of content touchpoints along the way: Product comparisons and reviews. Forums. Free shipping options. Social communities. Bookmarking applications.

Independent-minded and possessed of a finely tuned BS meter, she turns a jaundiced eye to corporate-crafted brand stories. She writes her own narrative. With herself as the hero.

As with all Hero’s Journeys, the Transformational Consumer’s adventure includes twists, bumps and quicksand bogs. Your job is to find out what they are and how you can help her deal with them.

How will you help her sail past the obstacles? Empower her to get unstuck? Ease and enliven her journey?

Your answers define your content strategy.

3 Critical Reasons to Read The Transformational Consumer

Given the spate of bookmarked 2017 content marketing roundups, books and blog posts waiting for your eyeballs, why make The Transformational Consumer a New Year reading priority?

Three reasons:

1.  Shift happens. Faster than you think. The rise of Transformational Consumers coincides with technological innovation. Technology’s pace is not constant. Increasingly supported by AI and machine learning, tech is snowballing faster than we can comprehend. Wait But Why blogger Tim Urban notes “It’s most intuitive for us to think linearly, when we should be thinking exponentially…. In order to think about the future correctly, you need to imagine things moving at a much faster rate than they’re moving now.”

2.  The Transformational Consumer demographic is growing. As disruptive technology gallops apace, the number of Transformational Consumers will only increase. Currently comprised of more than half of all US consumers, these people are a marketing force to be reckoned with. If you’re not doing business with them now, you will be soon. Or you won’t be doing business.

3.  Nelson validates what you already know. The author and veteran marketer is clear that disengagement “is not a digital issue. Digital did not cause it…. This is a human issue. And the solutions? They will be human, too.” As a content marketer, you get this truism. It’s why you’ve chosen to craft useful content tools instead of 30-second spots. Nelson’s book validates what you already know and practice: customer-focused, human-centric marketing.

What’s on Your 2018 Reading List?

Will The Transformational Consumer be on your New Year Reading List? Where will it sit in the roster? What else do you plan on reading? Please share in comments.

Photos of The Transformational Consumer and Tara-Nicholle Nelson courtesy of Tara-Nicholle Nelson.
Supermarket shopper image courtesy of SammyDavisDog

Today we’ll get the back story on the blazing color. I caught up with Joe Pulizzi, Ann Handley and Robert Rose via email to get the lowdown on Pulizzi Orange’s power and influence.

Marketcopywriter: When did you start wearing “Pulizzi Orange”?

Ann Handley: You don’t just “wear” Pulizzi Orange, Lorraine. You embody it. You
become it. It’s not just a color: It’s a movement.

You can try and resist. But what’s the point? You will be assimilated. Resistance is futile, as the Star Trek Borgs have pointed out. Little known fact: Their words were originally about the P.O. movement. Look it up.

Joe Pulizzi: I wore orange for the opening keynote at our first Content Marketing World in 2011. I walked out on the stage in an orange NASA jumpsuit. So, the color was literally part of Content Marketing World from the first second.

Robert Rose: Well, as Joe will tell you I’m a bit of a rebel here. I think the Pulizzi Orange is a bit like the Cleveland Browns. If you get too involved—you’re just going to be disappointed. So, I tend to use the Pulizzi Orange sparingly on ties or socks as an accessory.

Marketcopyriter: What’s the back story on #CMWorld and the color orange?

JP: In 2005 I was swimming with my two boys on vacation in Florida. We were playing with an orange volleyball. It’s then when it hit me…if I ever launch a company someday, the brand would be this beautiful orange.  It was mesmerizing.

In 2007, what is now CMI was launched with the bright orange logo, and CMW followed in 2011.  People were drawn to the color, sometimes for no apparent reason. As I saw this “moth to the flame” behavior, I quickly rid myself of clothes that were without orange and replaced them with this majestic color.

Marketcopywriter: Does wearing the hazmat hue make you feel more confident and
powerful?

AH: Everything I wear makes me feel more confident, which is what most clothing is designed to do — isn’t it? Especially as a speaker. Because no one feels confident naked on stage. Except… oh, never mind.

RR: It’s kind of like wearing a country traffic light. You know it’s going to stop people and get their attention, but you’re not really sure it’s supposed to.

Marketcopywriter: Do you plan to wear orange every day at #CMWorld?

AH: Again with the “wear.”

RR: Yes, or I’ll get in trouble.

Marketcopywriter: Any truth to the rumor that orange is the “new hack”? That wearing orange at #CMWorld is a networking shortcut—providing entree to conference power circles?

AH: I can’t answer that question because I’ve taken an oath. Sorry.

I kid. No. The truth is that CMW is like a homecoming, no matter who you are or what you’re wearing.

JP: All the pros know. Wearing orange at #CMWorld is the way to get ahead.  People notice you—the more orange the better. People gather around attendees with the most orange.  Pictures are taken.

Marketcopywriter: How many Pulizzi Orange power pieces did you pack?

RR: I’ve got four ties, five pairs of socks, a pocket square, and an orange t-shirt that I’ll wear on the “team day.”

AH: P.O. is more of a mindset than an actual packing list. Your suitcase might be stuffed full of all the orange you can find at your local shopping mall…but the truth is it’s how Orange you are inside that counts.

Marketcopywriter: Do you have any “lucky orange” items?

JP: I can’t answer that.

AH: No, but this question makes me wish I did.

RR: Yes, in fact one of my favorite ties is orange, and was given to me by a client in Mexico City. I wear it each time I give a content marketing workshop for luck.

Marketcopywriter: Your best retail sources of orange “It” items?

JP: Amsterdam, the Cleveland Browns gift shop and various Ohio State prisons.

RR: Ebay. Or any sports memorabilia shops in Cleveland. They all feature orange teams.

Marketcopywriter: Fendi, Prada, Comme des Garcons and other fashion designers showed all-red looks for fall 2017. Rumor has it next season’s collections will show all-orange looks. Thoughts?

AH: P.O. defies seasons and moods and trends. Don’t concern yourself with collections; worry more about conversions.

JP: The red simply didn’t work. Now all these retailers want to make money in 2018…so the flight to orange is on.  Predictable, but I get it. I have a feeling that orange will be the color of 2019 as well.  Did you know Prince’s favorite color was orange?  True story.  Uncovers a lot.

RR: When Boss comes out with the orange line, or Ferragamo puts out orange shoes, I might come around.

Marketcopywriter: Anything else to say about “Pulizzi Orange”?

JP: It was a happy accident, but now I think we all can see the potential.  Greeting card lines, vodka, hummus…the possibilities are endless.

RR: The best thing about it, is how happy it makes Joe. He’s truly happier when he’s wearing orange. And, I think that’s kinda neat.

Do You Wear Orange at #CMWorld?

Do you sport “Pulizzi Orange” at Content Marketing World? What are your thoughts on the eye-catching color. Let us know in a comment.

Photo of Joe Pulizzi courtesy of Joe Pulizzi

The hot new color trend’s impact was palpable at Cleveland’s Content Marketing World (#CMWorld) 2017.

The globe’s largest and most influential gathering of content marketing professionals, #CMWorld opened on September 6, 2017.

As a fashion industry content marketer, I was struck by the florid color’s ubiquity—and social influence.

You don’t just “wear” Pulizzi Orange… You embody it. You become it. It’s not just a color: It’s a movement.
~ Ann Handley

The #CMWorld crowd was awash in a sea of orange apparel.

Tang-tinged shirts and shifts…

Orange hazmat-hued hose and hats…

All the pros know. Wearing orange at #CMWorld is the way to get ahead. ~ Joe Pulizzi
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Orange = “the New Hack”

“It’s weird,” said a Brooklyn-based content marketer with whom I spoke—and who insisted on anonymity. “It’s like the orange shiz is some kind of code. Seems to give you access to decision-makers and influencers here. Look at the orange shirts huddled around Ann Handley. The color’s like a shortcut to power.”

For #CMWorld networkers, orange is the new hack.

A source close to conference leadership tacitly agreed, hinting that the orange color’s intensity corresponds to wearer status.

For #CMWorld networkers, orange is the new hack.
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It seems the conference’s biggest power brokers sport an eye-blinding shade known as “Pulizzi Orange.”

Joe Pulizzi-inspired Color Trend

The traffic cone tone is named for #CMWorld founder and the “Godfather of Content Marketing,” Joe Pulizzi, who works the orange color trend head to toe.

Get the Look

Love Pulizzi Orange’s easy-chic, go-to-hell vibe? Find out how to get the look.

Check out the following style-setting influencers…

More outstanding orange spotted in the crowd…

The Godfather of Content Marketing steps into the next era of content marketing in his famous orange ostrich derbies…

See more orange?

See an an amazing orange piece I missed? Tell me about it in a comment.

And discover the back story on the “Pulizzi Orange” color trend in an exclusive interview with Joe Pulizzi, Ann Handley and Robert Rose.

Visit Marketcopywriter blog tomorrow for the full story.

Check out the following list of presents. Affordable, portable and pair-able, these little gifts pack huge power to help writers brainstorm, boost productivity and improve writing.

I’m talking pencil and notebook.

Unimpressed? Before you pooh-pooh the artlessly simple duo, let me tell you why I think it’s a peerless present for writer friends—and maybe even you.

Distraction: The Writer’s Digital-age Demon

Today professional writers are tasked to churn out a tsunami of content. At the same time, they face an epic enemy that deprives them of the mental focus needed to produce.

Distraction.

Blame it on email, Instagram, WhatsApp. But the biggest culprit is Google Search.

Quality Pencil and Notebook: Affordable Luxury

Pencil and notebook are antidote to Distraction.

But not just any pencil and notebook.

Your pencil and notebook need to be beautiful. Luxuriant to touch. Excellently crafted. And cheap enough to replace frequently—encouraging extravagant, uncensored scribbling.

The 10 gifts suggested below meet all these criteria. A curated roster of the darkest, sharpest pencils and quality notebooks, the list also includes essential kit that goes with them.

10 Perfect Holiday Presents for Content Marketers and Writers

1. Blackwing Pencils. An aura of graphite-scented glamor surrounds the Blackwing Palomino, an iconic pencil prized for its vintage aerodynamic design, ebony line and “buttery” writing action. John Steinbeck—one of many literary Blackwing devotees—crooned over the pencil’s ability to “really glide over the paper.” An early ad in The New Yorker claimed the Blackwing “reduces finger fatigue.” Introduced in the 1930s, the Blackwing Palomino is crafted with a hexagonal cedar barrel, flat gold ferrule and adjustable, replaceable erasers. The Palomino’s strength—its graphite core—is also the pencil’s weakness. Why? Because a dark lead is a soft lead. So you have to sharpen Blackwings. Like every five minutes. With a special two-hole sharpener made in Germany. But then, the pencil’s finickiness adds to its appeal. In an age when electronic “notepad,” keyboard “pencil” and delete-key “eraser” can be accessed with the swipe of a finger, there’s something satisfying about toting an artisanal pencil and all its trimmings. If you agree, you’ll love what’s up next: Palomino Blackwing erasers.
   Price: $2 each at independent stores below; $24 per dozen at Amazon
   Where to buy: CW Pencils, NYC; Amazon



2. Palomino Blackwing Erasers. They look like a lozenge. A Pez. Dentyne gum. These are some of the edible images that come to mind as you pinch a pink Palomino Blackwing eraser between pointer and thumb, poised for insertion into the Blacking pencil’s famous flat ferule. Remember what I said about finickiness? Your writer friend will adore the fun fussiness of customizing Blackwing Palominos with her choice of colored erasers. The erasers come in purist-preferred pink, black, and white. Rule-breaking, rebellious non-traditionalists can also choose from blue, orange or green. Supposedly the differently colored erasers have the same erasing action. I disagree. Meticulous testing in the Marketcopywriter Blog Lab reveals that the black and pink erasers are softer and less paper-tearing. But why not perform your own geeky testing? Buy an array of colors—they’re just $3 for a 10-pack—and let your friend choose her favorite.
   Price: $3 for 10-pack
   Where to buy: CW Pencils, NYC; Amazon



3. Kum Palomino Pencil Sharpener. If you buy into the Blackwing mystique, this pencil sharpener is a must-have. Made in Germany, the tool is crafted with two prism sharpening holes. The #1 hole pares the Palomino cedar tip into a conical point. The #2 hole precision shaves the lead into a lethal weapon. The sharpener also wins esthetic points. It’s designed with a midcentury-vibe, candy-colored transparent cover that looks a lot like Apple’s 1998 iMac. Plus the sharpener’s got the fussiness-is-fun factor. If you use a Blackwing Palomino you have to carry the sharpener at all times.
   Price: $8
   Where to buy:Amazon



4. Uni Kuru Toga Roulette Mechanical Pencil. Industrial-chic design meets graphite practicality in the Uni Kuru Toga. Quality crafted in Japan, this pencil is the gift of choice for writer friends who like a dark fine line, but aren’t into the the obsessive pencil sharpening that Blackwings require. Aside from its silver, knurled-grip, post-modern esthetic, the coolest thing about the Uni Kuro Toga is its unique lead rotation system. The pencil has a spring-loaded clutch that twists the lead every time you lift the pencil—leaving a precise, even-width line on the page every time. Fiddly-factor bonus points: The mechanical pencil uses tiny, pellet-like, adjustable erasers. You have to slide them into a clamp, insert the clamp into the top of the pencil and cover it with an itty-bitty cap-and-clip that’s easy to misplace and lose.
   Price: $8-$15
   Where to buy: Kinokuniyo Books, NYC; Amazon



5. Leuchtturm 1917 Notebooks. “Details make all the difference,” to Leuchtturm, the German bookbinders that craft these lovely notebooks. Volumes come hardbound or with durable, wipe-clean laminated soft covers. Book spines are stitched—not glued—so notebooks lie completely flat or bend backward. Made with high-quality cream colored paper, the book’s pages are numbered and include a table of contents—both features so incredibly handy you’ll wonder how you ever managed to live without them. Notebook aficionadas face a pleasurable dilemma in choosing a Leuchtturm 1917 notebook from the company’s full range of sizes, covers, colors and paper types—the latter which include plain, grid, dot, line and and scannable “white line” that comes with its own app. J’adore the softbound Jottbooks, pictured here.
   Price: $9-$20
   Where to buy: Paper Presentation, NYC; Amazon



6. Rohdia Notepads. Waterproof and recognizable at 20 yards, the bright orange Rhodia cover encases a compact notebook loaded with quality features. Let’s start with Rhodia’s famous paper. It’s crafted by Clairfontaine, the French papermaking company that sets the gold standard for fountain pen users—the world’s absolute pickiest hand writers. The paper is extolled as much for what it doesn’t do—“feather” and “ghost,” i.e., bleed through to opposite side of the paper—as for what it does do: slide your pen or pencil across the page as effortlessly as an Olympic figure skater on a freshly Zamboni-ed ice rink. For good-to-the-last-page durability, Rohdia notebooks are staple constructed, rather than glued. Other thoughtful features: A triple-groove cover that easily folds back and stays out of your way when writing. Scored pages that tear out cleanly. And paper choices that include plain, lined, grid or dot. Rohdia pads and notebooks come in a variety of unusual sizes—the N° 08 vertical 3 x 8” pad is perfect for to-do lists, the adorably tiny N° 08 2 X 3” #10 Rohdia (just $2.75!) fits in jeans pocket.
   Price: $3-$25
   Where to buy: Paper Presentation, NYC; Amazon



7. Shinola Paper Journals. I first heard about Shinola when I wrote copy for the company’s handmade watches. Like the timepieces, Shinola notebooks also have a retro-cool vibe—you can imagine Dashiell Hammett pulling out one of the olive green books to jot down detailed descriptions for his next sleuth story, “The detective’s six foot rangy figure still carried the triangulation of a 17 year-old high school quarterback, etc…..” Made in Motown, the notebooks use beautiful, heavy 90 gsm paper sourced from sustainably managed U.S. forests. Hand manufactured by American craftsmen and women, the notebooks let you look good while you do good by supporting skilled, well-paid Motor City workers.
   Price: $9-$16
   Where to buy: Shinola;



8. Bigso Box of Sweden Notebooks. For the Williamsburg Rustic on your gift list, these tactile, homespun notebooks tick all the boxes. The book covers are crafted of bonded canvas-cardstock with the appealingly tactile roughness of 40-grit sandpaper. Notebook spines are chain stitched in contrast waxed thread that let volumes lie flat or fold back. Pages of pure white, heavy paper beg to be filled with Tim Ferris quotes, classic cocktail recipes and mindfulness metaphors for your next blog post.
   Price: $8 for a 2-pack
   Where to buy: Bigso Box



9. Waxed Canvas Pencil Pouch. Now that you’ve bought into old-fashioned notation—and the flotsam and jetsam that goes with it—you need something to carry it all. This waxed canvas pencil pouch has that urban, throwaway-chic, I’m-vegan-but-collect-taxidermy feel. And yeah, it also carries your pencils. Crafted in Belgium, the small zip pouch is made of water-resistant canvas with a slightly stiff hand that protects your pencils, replacement erasers and sharpener. The pouch secures with an industrial brass zipper finished with a leather pull tab.
   Price: $32
   Where to buy: Tree Size Verse store at Etsy



10. Pencil-pusher’s Dream Package. Want a memorable splurge gift guaranteed to give your writer friend hours of pleasure—plus par excellence writing tools of their own choosing? Give a $50 gift certificate to Paper Presentation, the NYC Flat Iron District purveyors of ALL things paper, plus lunch for two at nearby ABC Kitchen. Paper Presentation carries a huge range of notebooks and full line of Palomino pencils and erasers. Walk a few blocks over to ABC Kitchen for lunch. Here’s my review of the Jean-Georges restaurant. Start your meal with a McKenzie Rye Manhattan and finish with ABC’s justly acclaimed Salted Caramel Ice Cream Sundae with Candied Peanuts and Popcorn. And a double espresso—if you intend to do any writing in the afternoon.

    Price: $150-$250 depending on how much you drink at lunch.
    Where to buy: Paper Presentation, NYC; ABC Kitchen

Got a favorite pencil or notebook? Please add it in comments!

---

The Dude photo courtesy of Robert Couse Baker
Uni Kuri Toga pencil photo courtesy of Amazon
Tree Size Verse pouch photo courtesy of Tree Size Verse
Dream photo courtesy of Wok and Apix
]]> https://marketcopywriterblog.com/writers-holiday-gift-guide-10-perfect-presents-for-content-marketers/feed/ 0 https://marketcopywriterblog.com/5-ways-maslows-pyramid-adds-explosive-power-to-your-content-marketing/ https://marketcopywriterblog.com/5-ways-maslows-pyramid-adds-explosive-power-to-your-content-marketing/#comments Tue, 02 Aug 2016 11:38:45 +0000 http://marketcopywriterblog.com/?p=9521 [Read More] [2 Comments. Please leave another.]]]> You know the drill.

Identify your customer’s needs. Find your user’s pain points. Uncover your audience’s core desires.

These imperatives form the foundation of great content marketing.

They support each step of your content research and strategy.

They illuminate every word of your copy, helping you create ridiculously good content that builds audience, supports brand, boosts leads and drives conversion.

But crucial as they are, audience’s needs are often ignored by marketers.

And when you think about it, it’s not so surprising.

Uncovering Audience Needs: You’re Entering a World of Pain.



Audience research is hard work. It takes time. Resources. Imagination. You have to connect facts and figures to feelings and behavior. Translate humdrum information into the drama that fuels your customer’s day.

But there’s good news. A simple, step-by-step psychological theory makes the work easier. And faster than you ever dreamed possible.

Maslow’s Memorable Pyramid

You may remember Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs pyramid from college Psych 101. It’s the only psychological theory that comes with its own color-block cartoon:



But the theory is more than a cute psychographic. It’s a powerful marketing prompt.

Examining your audience—your customer, your client, your donor, your site visitor—through Maslow’s lens lets you instantly reframe dry data.

Maslow’s Hierarchy transforms boring info into amazing, emotionally-resonant audience insights.

5 Easy, Actionable Ways to Power Your Content Marketing with Maslow’s Hierarchy

I’ll give you a quick refresh on Maslow’s Hierarchy and its stages in just a sec. But first, take a look at some of the ways this scientifically-proven theory takes your content marketing to the next level.

Maslow’s theory can help you…

1. Target the right customers for your product
2. Create compelling audience personas that support content creation
3. Develop pitch-perfect copy that speaks engagingly and persuasively to your audience
4. Customize action-driving content for each stage of the Sales Funnel/Customer Journey/Trust Continuum
5. Optimize content for usability, readability and conversion

Don’t be put off by the word “theory.” Maslow’s pyramid is eminently practical. It’s easy to grasp and it’s simple to put into action.

Required reading for training and development leaders, Maslow’s Hierarchy is also frequently used in management circles. But Maslow’s positive, humanistic psychology was not always so widely accepted.

Abraham Maslow = Dr. Glass Half-full

The world’s first psychoanalysts held a pessimistic view of humankind. Freud’s theories rested on the existence of the Unconscious. These buried feelings, thoughts and urges, according to Freud, fueled dark “instincts,” that essentially render people powerless over their lives.

Maslow’s psychology was sunnier.

Accentuate the Positive

While Freud explored neurosis and pathology, Maslow studied health and well-being.

The Brooklyn-born psychologist focused on human strength and resilience. Our ability to improve ourselves. Our yearning to reach our fullest potential and become our best selves.

Maslow believed our ultimate need is “self-actualization”, the ability to live productive lives, cultivating our innate capabilities and talents.

In studying the psychological nuts and bolts of human happiness, Maslow envisioned a hierarchy. He believed people move toward self-actualization in steps or stages.

And he saw that distinct needs must be met at each stage—before a person can progress to the next stage.

Maslow’s 5 Stages of Human Need

In 1943, Maslow published A Theory of Human Motivation, identifying the following five stages of need:

• Physiological and biological needs like food, water, air, shelter, sex and sleep;
• Safety, security, stability and the need for order;
• Love, belonging and friendship;
• Esteem, achievement and independence;
• Self-actualization, the desire to reach one’s fullest potential.

How do these needs relate to your work as a copywriter and content marketer?

Discover 5 Easy Ways to Transform Content from Blah to Brilliant

Including Maslow in your content marketing mix lets you…

1. Target the right customers for your product.

Today you face the most competitive, product-flooded marketplace in human history. Casting a wide net—indiscriminately marketing to anyone and everyone—pretty much assures you’ll catch no one.

To assure success, you need to home in tightly on exactly the customer most likely to buy your product. And create useful, relevant content for her alone.

But who is she? How can you find her? What connects the dots between her needs and your product value?

Maslow’s theory provides an easy-to-follow blueprint. Take a look at some brands that successfully align Unique Value Propositions (UVP) with fundamental human needs—and instantly target their most lucrative customers.

• • Tesla
    Carmaker Tesla aligns its car’s green UVP with people’s basic need for breathable air—among the first of Maslow’s needs.Tesla also taps into morality and problem-solving, aspects of self-actualization—Maslow’s fifth stage. Emission-free, electric cars speak powerfully to eco-conscious consumers who fervently believe an unpolluted biosphere—for themselves, the next generation, the planet—to be humanity’s most pressing issue.

    How successful is Tesla’s targeted? Check out this block-long line of customers who camped out overnight to put down a $1,000 for the promise of an automobile that doesn’t yet exist:

• Luxury fashion brands
  Brands like Givenchy, Saint Laurent and Hood by Air appeal to luxury fashion lovers who buy into subliminal messaging that clothing, like the Givenchy signature Rottweiler T-shirt priced at $685, confers membership in an exclusive tribe—Maslow’s third stage. Unique designer clothing also plays into people’s desire to express themselves creatively, a form of self-actualization—Maslow’s fifth stage.
• Nike
  Nike’s ongoing campaigns, all circling back to the brand’s “Just do it” self-empowerment theme, target people who see fitness as a form of self-respect and self-esteem—Maslow’s third stage.

#1 Takeaway: Nail down your UVP. Then study Maslow’s pyramid to identify the need—or needs—that aligns most pressingly with your UVP.

2. Create compelling, fully human audience personas.
Fully dimensional audience personas are one of the most powerful tools in your content marketing kit.

Personas represent key segments of your audience. When you humanize these models, you’ll find it much easier to identify content marketing goals, prioritize messaging, create customized content tools and more.

Maslow’s theory imbues personas with truth, humanity and nuance. By connecting demographics, analytics and factoids with Maslow’s needs, you’re free to think expansively and imaginatively about a persona’s inner lives and daily habits.

Among the questions you may ask and answer: “How do my persona’s needs align with my product’s solutions?” “Which of my persona’s needs are most pressing?” “Does the need drive action?” “How will my persona’s needs change?” “How can I create content that supports every stage of her journey?”

Here’s an audience persona that weaves in Maslow’s theory:



#2 Takeaway: You need more than demographic data to create useful audience personas. To humanize a persona, align quantitative info with Maslow’s qualitative needs.

3. Develop pitch-perfect, action-driving copy.
If you’ve crafted an emotionally resonant, human persona, 90% of your conversational copy creation is done.

Why?

Because now your copy speaks to one person, rather than a demographic pie slice.

Because you understand your customer. You know her pain points and vulnerabilities. Her hopes and dreams. Her yearnings and needs.

Because you’ve come to believe that copy is not a monologue. It’s a conversation. And the convo begins from a place of empathy.

Since you empathize with your customer, you don’t use words like “leveraging sticky content solutions.” Or “user-friendly engagement learnings.”

You talk like your customer talks.

And so does your copy.

BTW, effective conversational copy doesn’t always require long-form format.

Take a look at fashion brand Reformation’s email below. For this campaign, the brand used one of its signature short, cryptic subject lines, “Cool dress, Mom.”

Intrigued readers opened the email to find the image of a breastfeeding mom and a Mother’s Day greeting that perfectly targets their hipster, fashion-forward audience.

The image and simple copy went viral on Instagram, garnering almost 10,000 Likes and 500 comments.



#3 Takeaway: Great copy speaks to one person, not a crowd. Maslow’s hierarchy helps you pinpoint needs that make audience personas human—and imbue copy with a warm, empathetic, conversational tone.

4. Customize content for each stage of the Sales Funnel/Customer Journey/Trust Continuum
Top-of-funnel, relationship-building content is a different animal from end-of-funnel copy optimized for UX and conversion.

To most effectively achieve business goals, tailor content for each step of the Sales Funnel/Customer Journey/Trust Continuum.

Start by using Maslow’s Hierarchy to identify your customer’s most pressing need. Then dig deeper.

Ask yourself, “Does my customer’s most urgent need require her to take action now?” If yes, she’s likely moving toward the end of the sales funnel.

If immediate action is secondary or optional, she’s probably further up the sales funnel.

Say you’re a hotel brand, targeting business travelers with cancelled flights.

If you weave Maslow’s Hierarchy into content planning, you understand human beings’ deep-seated physical and emotional need for shelter. It sits on the very first stage of Maslow’s pyramid.

A cancelled connecting flight, and being stranded in a strange airport, magnifies anxiety.

In this instance, the pressing need requires the customer to take immediate action. This knowledge helps copywriters draft pitch-perfect banner copy that drives action.

Look at performance marketers’ iProspect’s highly effective campaign:

#4 Takeaway: The urgency of your customer’s most pressing need helps identify her place in the sales funnel. This knowledge makes it stupid easy to create content that’s relevant and useful to her.

5. Optimize content for usability and conversion.
Want an easy-to-use checklist that helps you optimize copy format? A simple way to tick off mandates of usability and persuasive copy structure?

Copywriter Will Hoekenga provides it with a copywriting frame based on Maslow’s pyramid.

Will’s first stages focus on technical basics, Maslow’s first stage: Your copy must be readable. It must be written in the language your audiences speaks. It should be typo-free.

One step up in the hierarchy, Will focuses on formatting. He shares tried-and-true rules of text organization that optimize your content for scanning, readability, flow and conversion. Will suggests you…

• Craft attention-grabbing headlines and subheads—and format them in bold font.
• Make copy easy-to-read, using short sentences and lots of white space.
• Use bullets and numbered lists to draw and direct the reader’s eye and mind.
• Add variation to stand out in a textual “sea of sameness”: add italics, use numerals instead of written numbers, vary sentence length.

With copy’s basic font and formatting issues addressed, Will goes on to tackle copy’s “higher needs.” Read Will’s whole Copywriting Hierarchy of Needs post.

#5 Takeaway: Highly effective content requires attention to the medium—formatting, copy structure optimized for usability—as well as the message. When drafting copy, take advantage of Maslow’s “first things first” needs hierarchy to assure you’ve covered crucial copy basics.

How Will You Use Maslow’s Hierarchy?

What about you? Can you apply Maslow’s Hierarchy to your content marketing and copywriting? Would love to hear from you in comments.

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Image of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs Pyramid courtesy of Wikimedia.
Image of Walter in the Big Lebowski, courtesy of Chris Lexow.
Image of Miranda Marketer, courtesy of Pixabay.

]]> https://marketcopywriterblog.com/5-ways-maslows-pyramid-adds-explosive-power-to-your-content-marketing/feed/ 2 https://marketcopywriterblog.com/marketcopywriter-4th-of-july-playlist/ https://marketcopywriterblog.com/marketcopywriter-4th-of-july-playlist/#comments Mon, 04 Jul 2016 16:11:44 +0000 http://marketcopywriterblog.com/?p=9475 [Read More] [1 Comment. Please leave another.]]]> Hope you’re enjoying the long 4th of July weekend with its parades, picnics, fireworks and dolce far niente downtime with friends and family.

While trawling Spotify, I found these traditional patriotic anthems and American folk songs, each given fresh voice by a contemporary musician.

Who knew The Battle Hymn of the Republic had been styled by Judy Garland, Judy Collins and Joan Baez? That Elvis produced a version of America the Beautiful? Or that Old Crow Medicine Show sang This Land is Your Land?

I strung a few of the songs together and added marches to create this Independence Day playlist…

Marketcopywriter’s 4th of July Playlist

Parade Music
Get your body moving and blood pumping with these classic parade marches:
Stars and Stripes Forever – John Phillip Sousa
The Liberty Bell – John Phillip Sousa
Semper Fidelis – John Phillip Sousa
The Thunderer – John Phillip Sousa
Colonel Bogey March – Kenneth J. Alford, John Williams
On the Mall – Edwin Franko Goldman
You’re a Grand Old Flag – George M. Cohan

Patriotic and Military Songs
Old songs with a new twist…
Battle Hymn of the Republic sung by Joan Baez
America the Beautiful sung by Elvis Presley
My Country Tis of Thee recorded by Pure Evidence
Star Spangled Banner sung by Whitney Houston

Folk & Rock Songs about America
Sung by American musical legends…
This Land is Your Land performed by Old Crow Medicine Show
If I had a Hammer sung by Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash
Born in the USA sung by Bruce Springsteen
America sung by Simon & Garfunkel





Did I overlook one of your favorites? Please share in comments.

Childe Hassam flag paintings courtesy of Wikimedia.

]]> https://marketcopywriterblog.com/marketcopywriter-4th-of-july-playlist/feed/ 1 https://marketcopywriterblog.com/what-fashion-legend-rick-owens-can-teach-you-about-content-marketing/ https://marketcopywriterblog.com/what-fashion-legend-rick-owens-can-teach-you-about-content-marketing/#respond Mon, 10 Feb 2014 17:19:35 +0000 http:marketcopywriterblog.com/dev/?p=9303 [Read More] [Leave a comment]]]> Rick Owens: Fashion’s Dark Prince. Creator of “It” look moto jackets and men’s skirts. God of Gothic grunge.

What does this edgy, cerebral designer have in common with you and me, the average Gap-clad content marketer?

More than you think.

Rick Owens is not just a craftsman, artist, provocateur and purveyor of beautifully made, high-end, avant garde clothing.

He’s also a savvy entrepreneur who, with his fashion-muse wife, Michèle Lamy, runs a well-oiled marketing machine.

Owens understands the people most likely to buy his clothes—and how to invite these lucrative prospects into his brand story.

Part of Owens’ success lies in his own appealing persona. Owens’ mix of Goth body-builder, classics-referencing intellectual and friendly surfer dude proves irresistible to the media editors and fashion insiders who influence merchandising buys.

But Owens builds broader appeal to a much larger audience—with content.

Rick Owens intuitively understands the “art of communicating with your customers and prospects without selling,” i.e., content marketing as defined by The Content Marketing Institute.

As a content marketer, you can learn a lot from him.

Video: a powerful content marketing tool

Today content marketers use any and all content tools to “communicate without selling”—blogs, social media, contests, games, images, video, podcasts, email, apps, infographics, music, books, print, performance art and more.

In my niche—luxury ecommerce copywriting—runway videos are a valuable content marketing tool. And not just for the drama and entertainment they give our customers. The shows also let us share emotion-laden themes, inspirations and stories that help us differentiate and position products in our customers’ minds.

After watching scores of runway videos each season, my copywriting team and I have a gut instinct about which designers do these events right.

By “doing it right,” I don’t mean just creating entertaining spectacle. I mean positioning clothes to the customers most likely to buy them.

Rick Owens does it right.

Fashion marketer’s reality check

The average American woman is 5’ 4” tall, weighs 166 pounds and wears a size 14 dress. With 35% of us identifying as African American, Hispanic or Asian, many American customers have dark hair and skin.

Yet 83% of all models slouching down the catwalk are fair skinned and almost all are very tall and extremely thin.

The vast majority of designers represent their products with narrowly defined, one-note beauty. A rarefied—and some feel, racist—form of womanliness.

Not Owens.

Rick Owens: Designer. Hero. Content Marketer.

For his Spring 2014 collection, Owens chose real women—athletic, honestly-sized, mostly African American—for his runway show.

It was a courageous, ground-breaking step.

And a fantastic content marketing move.

Take a look.




3 content marketing takeaways from Rick Owens


Here’s what you can learn from Rick Owens:

1. Do what scares you. Instead of hiring models, Owens worked with four American sororities and stepping teams. And rather than training them to traipse down the catwalk in a neurasthenic trance, he let them do what they do best: these warrior women stomped, marched, thumped their chests and stared down the status quo with their don’t-tread-on-me “grit faces”—the visage steppers use to intimidate competition. Take a lesson. “Do things that scare you, ” as content marketing veteran Ann Handley advises. Break out of your same old, safe old content mold.
2. Make the customer the hero of your brand story. All too often marketers focus myopically on their product and its features, benefits and brand story. In fashion this traditionally means “aspirational” marketing, glorifying the slender sylphs whom stylists imagine we want to look like. But Owens proves that the best marketing is always customer-centric, an exciting narrative that pulls the customer into the story and lets her see herself as the hero.
3. Align your product with your customer’s values. As a marketer you know the wisdom of turning product features into customer benefits. But today you need to take benefits a step further, aligning them with your customer’s values. Rick Owens did this big time. And not just through his choice of models—but also through the product itself. In contrast to the corseted, caged and sky-high heeled “looks” presented by most designers, Owens put his steppers in comfortable high-top trainers that helped them march, stomp and dance with complete freedom. Because “these women needed to move,” as Style.com’s Tim Blanks notes, the designer’s “clothes were adjusted accordingly…it was a revelation to see Owens’ clothes so transformed…” In transforming his product, Owens flipped fashion’s exclusive and dictatorial values upside down. The clothes not only demonstrate practical benefits: comfort, ease, longevity, but also more subtle, psychosocial benefits: freedom, strength, independence and creativity—the emotional benefits that drive buying decisions.

Give us the skinny

What do you think of Rick Owens’ Spring 2014 runway show? Can you see yourself using Owens’ rule-breaking precepts in your own marketing? What’s the upside—or downside—for your brand? Please share your opinions in Comments.

Rick Owens image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

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