The Reason Why You Should Generate Content

What’s the Point of Content Generation?

You all know how important it is to produce a continual stream of content.

But under no circumstances is that content to be a blatant sales pitch.

What? I can’t sell? Then what’s the point?

If you generate content that is just all about selling, no one is going to read it and people will be turned off your company because of it.

But, if you generate content that is full of cracking information that people love, you’ll draw them to you. Mind you, just because you can’t directly sell through your content doesn’t mean you can’t use it to gently persuade them to take a specific action.

What I’m talking about here is to get your reader to do something you want them to do (other than put pounds in your till), such as signing up for your newsletter, downloading your latest report or white paper, following you on a social media platform (e.g. Twitter, Facebook, Google+) or subscribe to your blog RSS feed.

By giving them information in exchange for a relatively minor thing (well, minor in their minds), you can enhance and build your relationship with them.

How to get them to do what you want them to do

There are 2 ways to achieve your goal:

• Through your readers’ fear
• Through your readers’ desires

What do I mean?

Well, everyone is motivated either by having a problem they need to solve, or wanting something that’s going to improve their life, income or general well-being.

In either case, the method to go about convincing them you’re the company they need is to use the following format:

First, convince them they have either a serious problem (this will be particularly relevant if you are a company that helps solve problems) or that they will greatly benefit from you. For many companies, they will fall into both categories, i.e. being a problem solver and a benefits giver.

Secondly, you must counter any potential objections the reader may have, such as price etc.

Thirdly, once you’ve established the fear or desire the reader is feeling, you can offer your product/service as the life line they’ve been looking for.

So, there you go.

Every piece of content you produce must convince your reader to do something, but without overtly selling to them.

Next time you write a blog post, create some web copy or post on a social media platform, think about what you want to achieve from your writing and make sure it has a purpose.

Over to you

Does your content always have a purpose?

Have you found any great methods that work for you?

Leave a comment below and share your successes.

Sally Ormond, Copywriter