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As writers of marketing content, we at Write Angle think different. For example, we believe that content, and the professionals  who produce it, can influence product strategy to a much greater degree than most people assume.  Can’t think of a better way to honor the memory of our former colleague, Steve Jobs, who “thought different” and shared this belief.

Here’s what we mean. Lost in last week’s deluge of Jobs’ tributes was broader recognition of what really separated him from the pack for so long: his uncanny instinct for making it easier for people to do what they already enjoy doing. Jobs had an innate ability to immediately recognize what users actually wanted from products and services. Then he worked ferociously to deliver easier, better ways for them to get it.  Long before anybody touted the so-called  “product experience”, Apple was pumping out the best experiences imaginable.  The wild popularity of these products proved it.  Apple (Jobs) did not invent the personal computer, the graphical user interface, the mouse, the music player, the cell phone or the tablet computer.  But they sure as hell made each one drastically easier and more fun to use –not to mention irresistible.   Apple products are consistently cool.  How many technology offerings can claim this?

So what does all this have to do with what marketing-content creators and writers can do? Plenty. Most engineers and product marketers, especially in B2B land, are justifiably proud of what they invent and take to market.  Problem is, being so close to the device or service can create blind spots when it comes to buyers, customers and users of these inventions.  So, when the time comes to describe the offerings and differentiate them in marketing and selling efforts, it’s up to content creator — namely, the writer — to ask the penetrating questions and extract the comprehensive answers that inform this all-important differentiation.

1. What job are we are trying to make it easier for the user to get done?  What’s our stuff actually going to do for them to make their lives easier and/or more productive?

2. What core positioning statement do we want to weave throughout the content?

3. What are the distinguishing technologies/approaches that we need to cite to clearly establish competitive differentiation?

4. What tangible metrics or documented verification substantiates our claims?

5. What are the three most essential messages — the takeways — we want readers to understand?

Don’t forget that it’s never enough just to ask the right questions.  You have to know if and when you’re getting a complete answer and keep pushing until you’re there. The writer must come away with the content of a comprehensive, no-doubt-about-it answer — and then articulate it in a way that resonates with the reader.  Not simply regurgitate what was shared in the sourcing session.  In the process, the technical team — the product jocks — will have to do their own diligence and homework.  This forces the issue.  Steve Jobs knew it wasn’t so much about “knowing” his customers as much as knowing what they wanted to do — and then make it easier and less hassle for them to do it.  It’s no different in the B2B world.

So what does your team do to understand what your users are trying to accomplish with products in your category?  Equally important, does your marketing content communicate this understanding? What more can you do to ensure that it does?

Understanding your audience/readership is central to the success of any commercial publication.  Ever hear of a thriving news organization oblivious to what its audience of readers or viewers want?  In the same vein, marketers tone-deaf to the proclivities of their own market, the content that customers will pay attention to, are short-lived.  In marketing today, more than ever, quality content is defined as the kind of material to which your buyer relates and identifies with:

1.  It’s about them, not you.

2.  It describes their situations, not yours.

3.  It makes them, not your brand, most prominent in the story.

4.  It’s eminently readable and compelling: the terminology is theirs, the style is engaging, the language vivid.

5.  It informs, educates, provokes thought–and it inspires sharing.

The above, by the way, could describe the best and most shared content on the web, on any given day.  Which is exactly what we mean by the term market-alism.

What are you doing to instill these practices in your own content: web copy, white papers, case studies, etc.?   How does your team ensure that your “out-bound” efforts maximize “in-bound” inquiries and high conversions?

For many years we’ve flogged the notion of the outside-in perspective and its importance to successful marketing. Essentially, putting yourself in the shoes of your customer, or the people you want as customers.  This “customer advocate” point of view is nothing new. It’s been around for as long as people have been buying and selling.

When it comes to creating the kind of content that gets people to do the things you want them to do, the point is this:  you have to talk to those people–not at them. To do this, you have to look at your subject matter through their eyes. From their POV.  Then you have to speak their language in their terminology — and sound like one of them.

This is where so much internally-produced marketing material falls short and how it devolves into fluff, assuming that people will resonate to what you think they should. It inevitably slips into company advocacy when it should be advocating on behalf of the reader.

You have to make a conscious, continuous effort to remain in their shoes.  From the inception of your concept right through final editing and delivery.  This requires fortitude and attitude.

Self-advocacy is an easy trap to fall into.  No matter how astute your marketing team may be, and we work for some of the best, when you’ve spent so much time and energy focused on your product, technology, competitors and company issues, it’s natural for your perspective to become distorted and biased towards what you’re selling. Unfortunately, this bias shows up in the way you describe it: in your terms, not the buyer’s.

Just remember: people have no intrinsic interest in what you sell. No knock on them, but the fact is that they are self-absorbed and self-interested when they’re in the discovery phase of the purchasing decision. As they should be.  So, your appeal will resonate with them only to the extent they instantly recognize–and feel–your awareness of whatever it is that interests them at that moment. This means their problem, their fears, ambitions, numbers, performance review and competitors.

If this sounds like it should be the template of your next piece of content and the platform of your message strategy, it’s because it should.  Take it from longstanding customer advocates.

At first blush, this may seem like a given.  After all, clients hire a writing service for domain expertise, proven methodologies and a track record, right?  In theory, perhaps, but in practical reality it’s always more complicated.

Constructive criticism isn’t for the thin-skinned on either side of the table.  Especially when you think you’re dead right about what the words should say.   But time and again, the clients who encourage writers to candidly engage in the work are more likely to benefit.  This is especially true at key junctures in a project when course corrections can determine success or failure. A writer’s willingness to play a vigorous devil’s advocate is indispensible. And even more so if a company finds itself mired in a stale or failing campaign, losing market share or suffering from being elbowed out of leadership.

Not all companies possess the DNA for thick skin.   Here are the warning signs and the antidotes:

1.  “We’ve re-invented our segment and don’t have any direct competitors.”  Really?  If so, chances are you don’t have much of a market, either. Better revisit the business plan.  Or do some market research right way.

Rx: Make your content reflect a rigorous understanding of your prospects and users. Choose writers who know the territory and express your competitive differentiation in the language users actually use.

2.  “Our value proposition is time-tested and we haven’t had to update our web site in more than a year.”  Ouch.  Keeping content fresh, provocative and current is a given in the Web 2.0 world of social marketing.  Not to mention that competitive environments in this mercurial world have a way of changing suddenly, regularly and disruptively.  Overnight.

Rx:  Do regular site checkups.  Get customers to give you feedback on your content and compare you to your competitors.  Engage your writing service to do a content audit and make recommendations.

3.  “We have more customers than we can service.” You might think of this as the lulled-into-complacency syndrome.  Getting comfortable is an open invitation to competitors looking to feast on your early gains.  Never forget the sage words of Intel’s Andy Grove: only the paranoid survive.

Rx: Lively, engaging content that spotlights the way users apply your technology can form the basis of much more than garden-variety application stories.  Dive deeply into unconventional applications as a way to showcase more features and benefits.

4.  “We’ve got a three year technology lead on our closest competitor.”  No you don’t.  Cling to this misguided notion and you’ll spend more time playing defense than you will on offense successfully marketing your differentiation and advantages that address your customers’ needs.

Rx: Concentrate on practical market education tools that explain your distinction in the market from a rational, pragmatic and credible point-of view.  No reader wants to be told how great your technology is.  They want to know how your technology is best suited to their requirements to determine if you’re worthy of making the short list.

5.  “Our carbon sequestering technology advances make us a lock for a feature article in The New Yorker.” Right.  The editors there are aching for a tutorial on multi-pollutant removal strategies because the readership is chock full of energy czars, sustainability directors and energy policy wonks.  Not.

Rx: Ask your writers to weigh-in on if and how your written pieces can be best placed or re-purposed.  Don’t ‘spray and pray’ your content.

Bringing new ideas to the table is the engine room of business.  But before adopting those great ideas as gospel, put them through a messaging stress test.   Unless, of course, you subscribe to the irony of David Brinkley’s collection of closing commentaries entitled, “Everyone is Entitled to My Opinion.”

What other signs of “thin skin” can you think of?  What does your team do to encourage outsourced content creators to “push back” on directives they believe are misguided?