{"id":265,"date":"2011-10-07T13:12:59","date_gmt":"2011-10-07T13:12:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.write-angle.com\/thewritestuff\/?p=265"},"modified":"2011-10-07T13:12:59","modified_gmt":"2011-10-07T13:12:59","slug":"an-insiders-guide-to-outside-in-writing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.write-angle.com\/thewritestuff\/an-insiders-guide-to-outside-in-writing\/","title":{"rendered":"An Insider’s Guide to Outside-In Writing"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Writer\"<\/a><\/div>\n

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.\u00a0 This “customer advocate” point of view is nothing new. It’s been around for as long as people have been buying and selling.<\/p>\n

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:\u00a0 you have to talk to<\/em> those people–not at<\/em> them. To do this, you have to look at your subject matter through their<\/em> eyes. From their POV.\u00a0 Then you have to speak their language in their terminology — and sound like one of them.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

You have to make a conscious, continuous effort to remain in their shoes.\u00a0 From the inception of your concept right through final editing and delivery.\u00a0 This requires fortitude and <\/em>attitude.<\/p>\n

Self-advocacy is an easy trap to fall into.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0 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<\/em> at that moment. This means their problem, their fears, ambitions, numbers, performance review and competitors.<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0 Take it from longstanding customer advocates.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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.\u00a0 This “customer advocate” point of view is nothing new. It’s been around for as long as people have been buying and selling. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,52,36,37,9,45,5,30,10,53,44],"tags":[14,210,26,38,11,6,41],"class_list":["post-265","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-case-studies","category-content-marketing","category-content-strategy","category-marketing","category-online-content","category-outside-writers","category-readers","category-rx-for-content","category-website-content","category-white-papers","category-writing-services","tag-branding-content","tag-case-studies","tag-content-creation","tag-content-strategy-2","tag-optimizing-content","tag-writing-case-studies","tag-writing-collaboration"],"yoast_head":"\nAn Insider's Guide to Outside-In Writing - The Write Stuff<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.write-angle.com\/thewritestuff\/an-insiders-guide-to-outside-in-writing\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"An Insider's Guide to Outside-In Writing - The Write Stuff\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"For many years we’ve flogged the notion of the outside-in perspective and its importance to successful marketing. 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