I was reading a classic post the other day by Sonia Simone, Co-founder and CMO of Copyblogger Media, about “How to Create Better Content: Treat Your Readers Like Dogs.” The post is a delight, especially for a positive reinforcement “dog trainer” like me. My reactive dog, Sawyer, demands nothing less.
Sonia’s post made me think about all the things that this training and content marketing have in common. As she so insightfully points out, excellent writing is like a cookie. When the content is good and the writing excellent, it, in itself, is the reader’s reward for their time and attention.
Hello? Is anybody home in there?
The key with training Sawyer is in getting his attention. We’ve been spending a lot of time in Tahoe lately and we’re both learning a lot about distractions. The woods behind the house is full of them in the form of people, dogs, coyotes, bears, and bobcats. Sawyer is a lab with a great nose and can smell them all, so good luck getting his attention out there.
We were walking deep in the woods last week and Sawyer was off leash when he smelled/saw/heard something. And then he was gone. He’d taken off in a dead run and I could neither see nor hear him. It was suddenly as though he’d never been there with me. I had no idea which trail he’d chosen, and even if I did I wasn’t fast enough to catch up with him. He has a perfect “come” in the house, in the woods calling him was like spitting in the wind. Read more »
