Don't be boring

3 seconds to decide between Read or Delete

That's the most your prospects will give you before deciding to hit delete and move on.

An eye ?? catching headline

Whatever your marketing piece is: email, LinkedIn post, letter. flyer, social media post, blog post etc.

It needs an attention-grabbing headline.

This month's newsletter just doesn't hack it. It never has.

Your headline or opening line of your post needs to entice the prospect to read more.

You’ll never guess what they did next….

This is the opening line of the post I sent to publicise this newsletter.

There is plenty of help online with headline suggestions.

Or you could read the tabloid newspapers - they're great at grabbing readers attention

(I or U) + R - what is that?

The challenges don't stop once you've grabbed the prospect's attention.

You've woken the beast and now you have to feed it.

To keep your prospect engaged, your content needs to be Interesting and/or Useful (I or U) to them.

It also has to be Relevant in the context of your relationship within.

If it doesn't meet those criteria you'll lose them.

And that will make getting them to read past your next headline all the more difficult.

This requires an in-depth knowledge of who your target market is.

?That’s why edition two of my newsletter was all about understanding your target market. Take a look once you've finished reading this edition.

Stuff is interesting or useful to your readers when it’s all about them.?

It needs to talk about the problems they have or the desires they are looking to fulfill.

And, if you can offer advice or guidance so much the better. But avoid launching into a sales pitch. Readers don’t want to be pitched at.

The Scan Reader

Most people won't read the detail of your post, article, email etc. without scanning it first.

They are looking for signs that it will be interesting or useful, and relevant.

So they look for headings, bullet points, photos. Anything that can help them make a quick assessment of the value of the piece.

Only if the evidence is forthcoming will they then read the detail.

This pattern of headlines, bullets, images etc is called the secondary reading path. It's critical to increasing dwell time on your content.

Easy to Read

The final step to getting people to read your stuff is ease of consumption.

Your prospects don't want to work too hard, so make it easy for them. Use:

• Short words
• Short sentences
• Short paragraphs
• Plenty of spacing

Coupled with your secondary reading path this makes your content easy to read. Look at how this Newsletter has been laid out.

If you follow these guidelines you are unlikely to bore your prospects.

AIDA

Good marketing follows the AIDA principles

A - Attention This is your headline and sub-headline. Back it up with appropriate imagery

I - Interest Stimulate interest in the piece with the secondary reading path. Make sure the content is easy to consume

D - Desire You want to stimulate your prospects. You want them to need what you offer. This is down to the (I or U) + R

A - Action What is your call to action? What do you want your prospects to do as a result of reading your piece?

Time for Action

I'm running a free 5-Day LinkedIn Challenge this week. It started today but there is still time to get involved.

Just message me on LinkedIn and I can send you today's task. It's pretty simple.

Tomorrow's task is going to include writing an Interesting or Useful, and Relevant post to appear in the Newsfeeds of your connections. In the daily Q&A call, I'll be critiquing some of these posts. So if you'd like a FREE post review, join in the Challenge now.