The Importance of Intention in Content Marketing

How is your intention important in your content marketing and copywriting campaigns? Incredibly. And there's plenty to consider.

People want to buy. People don't want to be sold. And it's your job to make them buy without selling.

It's not your typical way of looking at things, right?

The truth is, it all comes down to your intention.

People want to be informed or entertained.

They're not interested in being persuaded.

But in marketing, your job is to persuade.

And since everyone is an 'influencer' nowadays, there are not many people who are being willingly 'influenced.'

Perception is a reality. And our perception is always the most 'real.' That's so true that often we confuse our beliefs with universal truth.

We are one hundred times more interested in ourselves than we are in others.

Back to your intention...

It matters.

Remember when you've read something and saw through the words? You saw the sales message.

What did you do?

You immediately scrolled past it. It's "an ad."

They say we have developed a tendency for 'ad blindness' in the industry. Click-through rates for adverts on many platforms are tremendously low - less than 0.1%.

How is that? Have we developed some form of 'superpower' - where we are no longer able to be influenced by advertisements?

Have we seen enough ads that we've grown a natural resistance?

There's only one hero in this story...

... copy.

Your ad copy sucks.

It's simple... people don't click your ad because you've not said the right thing.

In today's data-driven environment, you can reach the right people if you know your target audience well enough. Getting the message to the right audience is not the problem. Not anymore. We are no longer in the broadcast medium, where you must send your message to thousands or millions of people and hope that some of them might be interested. Every traditional marketing method was like that, until direct marketing.

Direct marketing changed the game. Not the internet.

Don't think this is a technological revolution.

It is, but it started with direct ads.

These are the advertisements you see in catalogs - somewhere around 15th Century, in England.

It's not the advent of the computer. It's the natural evolution of advertisement.

What's the whole point of this blog, what about intention?

The change has come not because of a change of marketing principles, or human behaviour.

It's accessibility.

The simple fact is, the consumer is in charge.

If there is a villain in this story, let's say the villain is... the internet.

Not the internet, but the ability for the consumer to become the publisher at any time they want.

In today's age, everyone is a publisher. It costs about ￡3.00 a month to host a WordPress website. There are plenty of free themes that make you look like a plausible expert, go ahead.

So the villain - let's call him 'CP' - this stands for 'consumer power.'

Consumer power is a way of stating the power the customer now has, with access to all the information in the world at his fingertips.

CP comes walking along, spoiling your advertising campaigns.... all of a sudden, out of nowhere.

Here comes copy

The game has changed.

Suddenly, intent meets copy.

When this happens, something magical happens.

CP (consumer power) becomes less effective.

With CP weakened, you have gained authority in the eyes of your customer.

They no longer see the competition.

They start to trust that you are the authority they need - and they slowly gravitate towards you and your business.

They have a need, they're slowly building the confidence to make that next purchase.

They don't want to be sold.

They want to choose where to buy.

And your intent should not be to sell.

You intent should be to give them a great reason to make the right decision.

The decision to buy from you.

What is the lesson?

Your intention needs to change. And copywriting skills are still the hero in this story.

Now you have to not only convince people to buy your products with advertisements.

You have to enrich their lives with fulfilling stories, concepts, ideas on subjects that matter to them.

Building trust over the long-term requires great writing. Writing that keeps people engaged in a story while simultaneously educating and persuading them.

It requires an information hub on a variety of topics that your customers may want to know about.

It requires engaging blogs that showcase your authority.

It requires a lot of information, all packed in nicely-conceived stories that will keep your customers engaged at every step of the way.

Each piece of information will address different personas - all at different stages of the buying cycle.

All of these blogs have different intentions.

Intentions are important when it comes to writing content.

Extremely important.

These intentions will be seen right through unless you are skillful when deploying tactics to influence people into making a buying decision.

In today's market, people want to buy.

They don't want to be sold.

Giving them the right amount of information they need to make this decision is the only option you have.

How can I conceive my intention?

This requires some serious thought.

I wanted to introduce something I learned from reading 'Made To Stick' - something called the Commander's Intent.

The commander’s intent is a description and definition of what the successful mission will look like.

It’s how the commander envisions the battlefield looking when the missions complete.

Why does it help?

In their book, Made to Stick, Dan and Chip Heath help us understand this with an analogy and great description.

At high levels of the Army, the [Commander’s Intent] may be relatively abstract: ‘Break the will of the enemy in the Southeast region’. At the tactical level, for colonels and captains, it is much more concrete: ‘My intent is to have Third Battalion on Hill 4305, to have the hill cleared of enemy, with only ineffective remnants, so we can protect the flank of Third Brigade as they pass through the lines’. [1]

Imagine you’re a chess player, and you send a friend to play a game with someone.

You know all the rules to chess. You even know the two people very well.

You can’t give a step-by-step instruction on how to play that game. It would be impossible.

It’s the same in war. And in marketing.

We are in chaotic environments that we often have little control over.

We need intent – an intent that helps us make decisions in hard-pressed situations.

South West Airlines – a quick lesson

This idea then stems into a marketing concept. In the book, they explain about South West Airlines.

South West Airlines had one intent: be the cheapest low-flight airline. The CEO says once you know that – you can run the company.

Giving the example of ‘Tracy from marketing’ asking you if you ‘want to add a caesar salad to the flights for customers’ – you simply reply “will that make us THE low-fair airline of choice?”

The answer is no.

Why? Because it makes them more expensive.

It’s quite simple, yet very powerful, influencing decisions and behaviours down to all members of staff.

The commander’s intent can be applied to your life – if you choose to adhere to a set of key principles that drive your behaviour towards the desired goal.

For me, my commander’s intent is to become one of the best copywriters in the world.

That conveys to me 'write as much as a can every day, and read all the material you can get your hands on.’

What is your commander’s intent, and how does it drive you towards your goals?