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.

Distractions are pretty tasty too.

So, no matter how wonderful the reward is that you have to offer, it doesn’t count if the distraction is better.  I’m thinking it’s the same with content.  Our writing is good, it’s gotten our audience’s attention, but how can we keep that attention when an attractive distraction comes along?

Teach them how to make better choices.

The next step in Sawyer’s training is to teach him to make better choices when confronted with triggers.  Some trainers rely on desensitization techniques, I’m working with calming exercises that will teach him how to relax and think before reacting.

Maybe we can train our audience to pause, take a moment, and check in. And remember that our content often makes them feel good, gives them a laugh or lightens up their day, helps them solve a problem or just gives them something interesting to think about, and sometimes even contains an amazing insight that could change their day.  Or life.

 It was fun but…

I got home after tramping through the woods for a few hours a got a call from the person who lives in the house where Sawyer chose to land.  He gave him “real” cookies while they waited for me to come pick him up, but as soon as I drove up Sawyer hopped into the car with a “what took you so long” look and curled up in his crate.  He’d had a great run, but I know he was scared and lost when he ended up in a place where he’d never been without me. Maybe he’ll pause to think next time?

Recently I wrote the content for a community family healthcare center’s funding appeal package.   We incorporated four stories into a two-page appeal letter, and  I witnessed first hand how an individual’s story or experience will always “trump the facts.”

The stories of two patients and two staff literally “put a face” to the problem, and the solution.  The perspectives they offered created an emotional depth to the appeal that could never have been achieved by mere facts. They humanized the work of the center, and shed light on those taking action.

Stories work by initially engaging the audience emotionally, and then they get them ready to act.  I completed the project feeling honored and humbled by the opportunity to tell the stories of people who are having such an impact.  And, then,  found myself wanting to do more.

Stories can be used by non-profits not only in direct mail fundraising, but also for employee/volunteer orientations, grant proposals, newsletters, annual reports, PSA’s, press releases, speeches, videos, and the organization’s website.

 Every marketer believes they are doing “content marketing”,

but are they driving or retaining business with their content?

We’ve invited elite B2B, B2C and Small Business/Non-Profit marketers,

thought leaders and storytellers to help guide you through

the wilderness that is content marketing.

They list an impressive lineup of over 70 content marketing experts, including marketing professionals from SAP, Intel, Dell, Google, IBM, MasterControl, Kelly Services, University of Phoenix, Kraft, Ohio State University, Sybase, and Ricoh.

Then there’s a video where Arnie Kuenn, president of Vertical Measures, tells us that this might be the year that content marketing finally explodes.  And that Google has shown us that “it’s all about content. Not gimmicks, just great content.”

Content marketers get more good news when Kuenn interviews Joe Pulizzi, known as the “Godfather of Content Marketing”.  Pulizzi talks about the reasons why content marketing is exploding right now.  Businesses are beginning to get that if they want to be found, have their content shared, and earn attention rather than interrupting prospects, clients and customers; they need to create really valuable, compelling, and relevant information on a consistent basis.

Pulizzi,  co author of Get Content Get Customers and founder of the Content Marketing Institute and this event, continues by saying that content isn’t just nice to have anymore.  It’s essential. But, not to put traditional away, content marketing will make it better. I like that.  I work with companies who are experts at combining the two.  And finally, in order for people to share your content, it’s got to be pretty darn good.  You need to create the best stuff in your industry, even on par with top industry print publications.

So take a look at what’s on the agenda for today:

“Transforming Your Small Business into a Content Powerhouse”
with C.C. Chapman, Co author of Content Rules

“Applying Company Positioning to Power Storytelling in B2B” with Ardath Albee, CEO, Marketing Interactions

“Customer Stories: How to Unlock an Abundance of New Content”
Deana Goldasich, CEO, Well Planned Web

“Get Video LIVE: Everything a Content Marketer Needs to Know About Succeeding with Video”
Todd Wheatland, Vice President of Thought Leadership, Kelly Services

Pretty amazing?  If you agree, check back because these are the topics I intend to explore in this blog.

He began by stating the obvious; the world we live in is changing. With hundreds of messages coming at us from everywhere in a day, we’re quickly lost in the quagmire. The result is that most of us suffer from attention deficit syndrome. His long list of the symptoms, from not listening when spoken to, to acting as if we’re always on the go, probably contains at least one or two that we all can recognize.

His answer to breaking through the din is one of what he referred to as Levinson’s Principles: You must put AMAZEMENT in your marketing!

Well, okay. He might have lost me there as I wasn’t too clear about what he was talking about.  I got it when he stood on a table to make his point and shouted the principle several more times.

Then a slacker kind of guy appeared up on the screen with a bubble pointing at bare belly hanging out over his ratty jeans containing the message: A brand is a person’s gut feel about a product, service, or organization, or a project, program, or person!

It’s a PERSON’S gut feeling because brands are defined by individuals, not companies.

It’s a GUT feeling because PEOPLE are emotional, intuitive beings.

Prediction: Brand will become the most powerful strategic business tool since the spreadsheet.

So, on our way to bringing AMAZING to our marketing, we can build our brand with the following platform:

Write your “story”
What’s your simple truth (defined by slogan or tag line)?
What’s your “personality”?
What’s your positioning?
What’s your visual identity?

From there we go on to Positioning and Differentiation:

Our organization is the only ____________that___________.

What: The only motorcycle manufacturer
How: that makes big, loud motorcycles
Who: for macho guys (and macho wannabees)
Where: mostly in the US
Why: who want to join a gang of cowboys
When: in an era of decreasing personal freedom.

Got it.

At the end of Scot’s talk I went up to him and asked how he’d become such a good speaker, since he’d said that it was once the thing that, as a writer, he’d dreaded the most. He told me he learned by teaching himself to tell stories.

Thanks Scot.